mvworks:the company

mvworks:biographies

Megan V Sprenger (Artistic Director)
Megan V. Sprenger was born in Minneapolis, MN, and grew up in the tri-state area. She received a BFA in dance with a focus in composition from the State University of New York at Purchase College. As a performer Megan has had the pleasure of working with Annie Kloppenberg, Tina Croll & Dancers, and Catherine Tharin. Megan is the Director of Marketing at Dance Theater Workshop, and a board member of SYREN Modern Dance. In 2005 Megan founded mvworks, a contemporary dance company based in New York City.

current collaborators

Michael Ingle (Performer)
Michael Ingle likes making stuff, moving his bod, the feel of the sun on his face, challenges, contradictions, wide-open spaces and also trees. Born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, Michael was a shy tike who loved drawing, collecting things and playing soccer. He began dancing while at the University of Kansas where he earned a BFA in Art History. Since moving to New York City in 2007, he has had the good fortune of working with delightful artists like Ellie Goudie-Averill, Emily Pope-Blackman, Paul Singh and Sarah Young as well as creating and performing his own work. Presently, Michael has the glorious privilege of working with these awesome folks: Tyler Ashley, Daniel Clifton, Hilary Easton, Dawn Poirier and, of course, the lovely Megan Spenger. This is his first project with mvworks. (thanks to my peeps for standing by me/putting up with me. it is all for you, my loves)

Brad Kisicki (Scenic Design)
Brad is a Scenic Designer, Technical Director, and Production Manager working with many terrific companies in various places... primarily nice places. In addition to his New York design work Brad is currently the Production Manager for the Aspen Music Festival and is a graduate student studying architecture at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). He has logged a good deal of commuter miles this year.

Joe Levasseur (Lighting Designer)
Joe has worked closely on lighting and production with many contemporary dance artists, including John Jasperse, RoseAnne Spradlin, Sarah Michelson, David Dorfman, Beth Gill, Maria Hassabi, Ashleigh Leite, Jennifer Monson, LeeSaar the Company, Anna Sperber, Megan Sprenger, Christopher Williams, Pavel Zustiak, and Big Dance Theater. Levasseur is a recipient of a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award for his body of work for the 2007–08 season. When not in the theater, Levasseur is in the studio, pursing another calling as a visual artist. For more information visit joelevasseur.com.

Mary McKenzie (Costume Desinger)
Mary is a Brooklyn-based fiber artist who is fascinated with all things tactile and textile. She is the resident costume designer for Red Metal Mailbox, and has costumed many other dancer-type people through out New York City which you can check out at www.marymck.com.

Tara O’Con (Performer)
Tara is happy and thankful to be an artist. Her own work has been shown around NYC since 2005. Some of it has ended up at The Chocolate Factory Theater, Dance Theater Workshop as part of the Fresh Tracks Performance and Residency Series, and most recently, commissioned by Danspace Project (Jan, 2009). She truly enjoys being a part of the great work done by mvworks/Megan Sprenger, Cora Dance, and Third Rail Projects Inc.

Kendra Portier (Performer)
Kendra Portier, direct from Ohio, trained and performed with BalletMet and received a BFA in dance from OSU. Since relocating to NYC, she has had the fortune of working with brilliant beings such as Lisa Race/Scott Cohen, Jennifer Nugent, White Road Dance Media, 5’4”, Hoi Polloi, Nicole Wolcott Dance, and apprenticed with David Dorfman Dance. Currently, Kendra is making her own works and studies with Launch Movement Experiment, while running community movement project dancepantsnyc. In addition, she is dancing with Vanessa Justice Dance, Annie Kloppenberg, and on faculty at Monroe Dance Academy and Hunter College.

Yarden Raz (Performer)
Yarden Raz was born and raised in Rishon Le'-zion, Israel. She danced for The Boomer Dance Company as a teen. After serving in the Israeli Army she began to study and explore Gaga - a dance technique conceived by Ohad Naharin, the artistic director of The Batsheva Dance Company. She was very lucky to work in a couple of projects with The Batsheva Ensemble. Since moving to NYC, Yarden has danced in the works of Stefanie Nelson Dance Group, Oliver Steele, and presented her own work at Triskelion Arts. She is thrilled to work with Megan and with this lovely, inspiring group of dancers.

Alli Ruszkowski (Performer)
Alli Ruszkowski, originally from Connecticut, graduated with a BFA in dance performance from the Ohio State University in 2003. She has had the pleasure of working with mvworks, Vanessa Justice Dance, Julian Barnett, Fivefour, and Annie Kloppenberg.

Jason Sebastian(Sound Designer)
Jason graduated from the College Conservatory of Music in 2001 and moved to New York soon after. He has been working freelance in film, theater and music, mostly sound related including location recording, live mixing, and design. Most recently as an audio assist and backstage for Big Dance Theater's The Other Here, Lou Reed's Berlin and The Gate Theatre's Woyzeck at St. Ann's Warehouse. He won the National Film Challenge Best Sound Design Award in 2005 for Hashslingers. He has also worked with director Aaron Rosenblum on his New York is Here as part of the downtown Sitelines Festival last summer, and is working on the upcoming Weird Sisters film The Launch. He currently lives with his wife way out in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

past collaborators

Sara Grundel (Mathematician)
Sara was born in 1981 in Munich and raised in the Black Forest in southwestern Germany. She studied Mathematics and Physics at the University of Karlsruhe after her High School Graduation in 2000. After she graduated with a Pre-Diploma, she transferred to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich were she graduated with a Diploma (comparable with a Master’s degree) in Mathematics in April 2005. She worked as a mathematical research assistant during the Summer 2005. September 2005 she started the PhD program at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU in New York City.

Maria Parshina (Performer)
Maria Parshina is originally from Moscow, Russia. In 2003 she received a BFA in Dance Performance from Purchase College. Maria has had the pleasure of performing with mvworks, Sally Gross and Dancers, and Oliver and Teri Steele. (www.mariaparshina.com)

The Peculiar Gentlemen (Direction Lost Composers)
"Sweet" Willy Jive (gtr, vx) and "E" Beats (keys, vx) have been writing music together for a little over 4 years. They met each other in upstate New York, where Sweet Willy was working at a small private airport (he has a pilots license) and E was driving chicken trucks. One thing led to another, and they decided to quit their jobs and move to NYC to write music. In 2005 they released their first official album, entitled Full Paw Special, which spanned just about every musical genre that existed at the time. In fact, the album predicted several musical trends now occuring here in 2006! The album is available on itunes and at every Peculiar Gentlemen show. Recently, the band has been playing with several different guest artists ,like the famous blues harp and steel guitar player Seth the Bartender aka. Sam House, the singer SheKeepsBees, bassist Nate Mars, and drummer "Lucky" Shuck von Kavendisch. As we speak, the boys are in the studio, hard at work on an E.P., which should be finished in a month or two, and recording their second full length,which will be finished in 2007.

Richert Schnorr (Performer)
Richert Schnorr is a video maker, blogger, dancer, and choreographer. His work uses the Internet, video, writing, design, and the body to create personas, celebrity, and popular culture. GRAPHIC.GLORY, his first full-length DVD/Album, was released in December 2008. Watch GRAPHIC.GLORY and more at regularmotion.net. He has performed with Milka Djordjevich, Jennifer Monson, Max Steele, and others.