I am thrilled to announce the Performing Artists for 2012. It's going to be a wonderful event, with lots of cake, as promised....

Now celebrating its FIFTH YEAR, Chop Shop: Bodies of Work is an annual contemporary dance festival held in Bellevue, WA. Recognized as one of the most important dance events of the year, Chop Shop serves up a unique and rare sampling of contemporary dance from leading national and international award-winning dance makers from the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The Festival also features master classes and lectures by the Artistic Directors and Choreographers from the Festival. This event sells out! Get your tickets now! More info at www.chopshopdance.org.

Performing Artists:

Spectrum Dance Theater (Seattle) Artistic Director, Donald Byrd
Northwest Dance Project (Portland, OR) Artistic Director, Sarah Slipper
Ellie Sandstrom (Seattle)
The Stone Dance Collective (Eastside) Artistic Director, Eva Stone
Adam Barruch (New York)
MOVE: the company (Vancouver, B.C) Artistic Director, Josh Beamish
Penny Hutchinson (Bellingham)
Jason Ohlberg (Seattle)
Bellingham Repertory Dance (Bellingham)
Khambatta Dance Company (Seattle) Artistic Director, Cyrus Khambatta
BodyVox (Portland, OR) Dance For Film. Artistic Directors, Jamey Hampton and Ashley Roland

Master classes offered by the Artistic Directors to be held on stage at the Theater at Meydenbauer on 2/11/12 and 2/12/12. Please see website or call 206.799.6004 for more information.

The List....

The curating is done and the eleven artists presenting this year will soon be announced. I am excited and nervous as four of the participants are out of state. I am so honored to be presenting them and have a big road ahead of me to get the word out.

The fifth year of Chop Shop is a big deal for me...seeing as how I never imagined myself in this producer/curatorial role. But I think bringing people together has always been a strong point of mine and it's nice to know that I have the support of many wonderful people who keep encouraging me to keep this event going. It's a ridiculous amount of work for one person, more than I realized when I started this whole thing.

Anyway, as promised at last year's Festival, I am serving cake in the lobby after both shows. This is a milestone year (no pun intended) and guaranteed to be a great event.

More soon!