FIELD NOTES

Meg Fry

Meg Fry began her dance career in NYC with the Richard Bull Dance Theatre and subsequently co-founded De Facto Dance. De Facto created dozens of original works over 15 years with casts ranging from four to 14 performers. Meg has designed site-specific pieces in public parks, where the improvised choreography playfully responded to the surrounding activities. Her work explores how dance and everyday movement inform each other and cultivates the richness in simple human activities like walking and stillness. She is particularly interested in crafting dances which combine structured improvisation with the formal building blocks of choreography. Meg was inspired to spearhead Field Notes, in collaboration with this collective of veteran dance-makers, and is thrilled to see it come to fruition. Thanks to Mike Novak for music. Thanks also to Raw Dance, whose 2025 CONCEPT series presented my solo, There Were Three of Us, which explored similar choreographic and thematic terrain.
Photo by Hudson Valley Visuals.

Ashley Hartka

Ashley Hartka is a dancer and teaching artist who believes most problems can be solved by dancing, and the rest by improvising. With a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from CU Boulder, she has taught everyone from university students to NYC middle schoolers and teaches Modern and Ballet technique and movement exploration classes locally. She has performed in many choreographic works and loves the art of performance, with improvisation remaining her greatest love, shared with her CDP friends. When she isn't dancing, Ashley is raising two boys, assisting in a Waldorf kindergarten, and co-owning a farm distillery, where she wrangles the business side. She plans to keep dancing until she can no longer move a toe.

Amii LeGendre

Amii LeGendre works from feminist practices of creating agency in performers and audience members, creating new vocabularies for the field, questioning how dance can be of use for non-performers, and how veteran dancers can orient their work towards activism. With her LeGendre Performance Group, she made contemporary dances for 15 years, collaborating with musicians, composers, & designers in Seattle, WA. She taught at Cornish College of the Arts and Bard College and worked with incarcerated students through Bard Prison Initiative, Rehabilitation Through the Arts, and Pat Graney's Keeping the Faith. She continues to make opportunities to work with non-traditional dancers. She is currently a clinical social worker in Hudson, NY and is influenced by the evolution of bodies while sitting down. Weekly Contemplative Dance Practice with this obstreperous dance family is a crucial ingredient in researching and being.

Sondra Loring

Sondra Loring is a queer movement artist, educator, and steward of a small botanical, bird, and fox sanctuary near Hudson, New York. Drawn to the unruly, mystical, and poetic, she explores dirt, rewilding, and the daily practice of listening through the body. Loring danced with New York City companies including those of Laura Dean, Neil Greenberg, and David Rousseve, and received a Bessie Award for her work as a dancer, writer, and improviser. Her choreography has been presented at BAM, Danspace Project, DIA, and PS122, and internationally in Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela. She co-founded the Improvisation Festival/NY and underground dance journal JUICE. Her recent project, Witness, was born from teaching dance to men in prison; the documentary film will premiere this Thursday, Nov 12th at the Crandell theater in Chatham. Tix available on their website. Loring directs Sadhana Center for Yoga and MovingPotential, bringing yoga, meditation, movement, and creative practice into jails, prisons, and recovery centers.
movingpotential.org
Photo by Kelly Kamm.

Stephen Petronio

Stephen Petronio is known for his boundary-pushing innovation in American dance. His unmistakable language challenges traditional notions of movement and explores themes of sexuality, gender, and identity. A graduate of Hampshire College, he founded Stephen Petronio Company in 1985, touring and performing throughout the world, and famed for its bold and visually stunning performances in collaboration with some of the most innovative composers, visual artists and fashion designers of our time. These collaborators include Cindy Sherman, Anish Kapoor, Lou Reed Laurie Anderson and Narciso Rodriquez, to name a few.

Jack Magai

Jack Magai has written, choreographed and directed performances intended to increase audiences’ awareness of their surroundings. Recently his day job as an arborist has led him to study the evolution of attitudes about nature and has steered his artistic work towards settings in post-industrial sites. He studied dance and literature at Bennington College. Debra Wanner and Jack Magai would like to thank Joan Finkelstein, Alan Kifferstein and The Wheelhouse Studio, Joe Lowery, Thomas McManus, Jimmy Garver, and members of the Hudson Contemplative Dance Practice.
artistjackmagai.com
Photo by Jason Starkie.

Jill Ann Schwartz

Jill Ann Schwartz MA, dance improviser, choreographer, and teaching artist delights in the dance of everyday tasks, work rhythms and children’s play. Her foundation in Laban Movement Studies and training with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange continues to frame her investigations into Why dance matters? Who dances? Where do we dance? When do we dance? Opportunities to travel, perform and teach provide direct contact with other cultural contexts of dance. Engaging with traditional ritual dances in Bulgaria, authentic Rumba in Cuba, and folk dances of Rajasthan each deeply broaden her framework of understanding and enrich her personal choreographic constructs. Jill Ann’s graduate work explored Laban’s Movement Choir to reveal “the festive nature in man”. This led to development of community-based dance celebrations and site-specific choreography. Interacting with place, natural and the built environment fosters her creative expression, wellness and contemplative practices. She is truly bolstered by this family of artistic colleagues. This dance is dedicated to the memory of my beloved friend Patricia Jane Mitchell. Forever my sister, cousin, auntie, confidante, and cultural playmate who always reminded me "where I come from".
jillannschwartz.com
Photo by Kelly Sinclair.

Teresa Smith

Teresa Smith is a choreographer, performer, dance researcher and teacher. Through her company ‘Earthbody’ she presents performance, artwork and workshops emerging from an intimate conversation with the body, psyche and natural environment. Teresa graduated from Bennington College and the European Dance Development Center, has presented her own work in Europe and North America, and danced in the companies of choreographers Ellen Webb, Stephanie Skura, Yvonne Meier, Lance Gries, David Hurwith, Joan Laage, and La Fura dels Baus. Teresa is an Arts Society of Kingston anchor artist and offers dance classes through ASK and Movement Research. I am grateful to this body, with all its aging challenges and wisdom, and to a love of dancing that continues to surprise me; to my mentors and colleagues, and to you, the audience, for being here in this moment. It is a joy to co-produce these Field Notes performances with my esteemed colleagues and dancing friends.
EarthbodyEvents.com
Photo by Dylan McKenzie.

Debra Wanner

Debra Wanner creates interdisciplinary, inquisitive, imagistic works about notions of being. Her work has been presented in New York City and abroad. Debra has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, and New York State Council on the Arts as a member of Interaction Arts. She has danced with numerous New York choreographers and was a founding and longtime member of Stephanie Skura and Company. She has taught dance, improvisation, and The Feldenkrais Method® at colleges, schools, and movement centers. Debra has a BFA from Tish School of the Arts and an MFA from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. An audience member once said of Debra’s work, “I felt nauseous, sad, exhilarated, comforted, and impassioned. I believed everything you told me-even your lies.” Debra Wanner and Jack Magai would like to thank Joan Finkelstein, Alan Kifferstein and The Wheelhouse Studio, Joe Lowery, Thomas McManus, Jimmy Garver, and members of the Hudson Contemplative Dance Practice.
Debrawannerdance.com, Feldenkraisinsights.com.
Photo by Ian Douglas.