DEKE WEAVER
project director/writer/video/performer

Deke Weaver is a writer, performer, video and graphic artist. Experimental theater, film/video, dance, and solo performance venues have presented Weaver’s interdisciplinary performances and videos in Russia, Brazil, Australia, Europe and the United States.  A resident at Yaddo and Ucross, a four-time fellow at the MacDowell Colony, a three-time recipient of NEA regional film/video grants and a 2009 Creative Capital grantee, his work, described as “explosive” (San Francisco Weekly) and “brilliant” (The Village Voice) has “handcuffed a secure storytelling knack to a performance style that pushes the energy envelope toward hyperventilating madness” (Sidewalk.com). He also contributes film and video to dance and theater works in the U.S. and abroad. From 1999-2005 he was the Senior Animator for the Showtime Networks’ Broadcast Design Group. He is currently an associate professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

JENNIFER ALLEN
codirector/choreographer/performer  (Monkey, Elephant, Wolf)

Jennifer Allen is a choreographer/performer recently transplanted to Champaign, IL. She has created several original evening-length works, the most recent (Open) was performed at The Kitchen (NYC) in April 2007. Her work has been shown at numerous locations in NYC including Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church and The Brooklyn Museum and in Chicago at Links Hall and Millenium Park. Allen was a 2005 MacDowell Colony Fellow and has received support from the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Oregon Regional Arts and Culture Council, Movement Research Artists in Residence and a residency through PICA. As a performer she has worked with such influential artists as Yvonne Meier, John Jasperse, Donna Uchizono, DD Dorvillier and Jennifer Monson among others.

DAMON LOREN BAKER
programmer/video systems design  (Elephant, Wolf)

Damon Loren Baker is the Assistant Professor of Interactive Entertainment at CUNY CityTech in Brooklyn, where he teaches in the Emerging Media and Entertainment Technology programs. He conducts research as a member of StudioBlue and the City Tech Psychology Research Lab on the creation of tools for human computer interaction with virtual worlds for the humanities, arts, and social sciences that are based on current research in cognitive science and implemented using current techniques in high performance computing and visualization. He is a member of ManifestAR,an augmented reality artists group featured in the New York Times, Wired, etc and exhibited in MoMA, ICA, The Venice Biennale, etc sometimes even with their permission. Previously he was the Associate Curator of Art, Design, and Technology at the Krannert Art Museum at UIUC where he curated the Intermedia Gallery and the CANVAS immersive virtual reality system for the public exhibition of virtual art objects with the Illinois Simulator Laboratory of the Beckman Institute, conducted research as member of the Creative Computing lab at the Siebel Center for Computer Science and the Cultural Informatics lab at NCSA, and performed as a member of the UIUC Digital Collective. He came to UIUC from Brown University where he studied and worked at the Center for Computation and Visualization on spatial hypertext systems for the Department of Literary Arts. He has also been a R+D Fellow at Wolfram Research, Music Director for a public radio station, and an archaeologist.

VALERIE OLIVEIRO
stage manager/lighting design   (Monkey, Elephant, Wolf)

Valerie Oliveiro is an artist, photographer, image-maker and all round arts worker. She is the resident photographer at Krannert Center and Assistant to the Senior Associate Director. Valerie’s personal work often addresses relationships with place/space. She recently won an award at the International Photography Awards for her piece “9-0” where she photographed Merce Cunningham and John Cage’s empty New York apartment. She also stage manages and collaborates nationally as well as internationally. Most recently, she has been fortunate enough to work at the Ingenuity Festival (Cleveland), Lyon Dance Biennial (Lyon), Luminato Festival (Toronto), Roma Europa Festival (Rome). She owns two surfboards and (in the months between August and October) tracks the Lake Michigan swell via the NOAA website religiously.

CHRIS PECK
sound/composer (Elephant, Wolf)

Chris Peck is a Michigan-born composer whose dancing has been described as "awkwardly beautiful" by The New York Times. Peck investigates the peculiarities of listening and perception through a diverse practice that includes works for large untrained groups, interdisciplinary performance collaborations, and improvisation with the computer. His frequent work with dance has included scores for RoseAnne Spradlin, Eleanor Bauer, John Jasperse, David Dorfman, Jeanine Durning, Ming Yang/Dance Forum Taipei, Abby Yager, and others. Ongoing projects include Listening Music for the Age of Crystal Moon Cone, a series of ambient electroacoustic performances and recordings with Stephen Rush and Jon Moniaci, Brooklyn Adult Recorder Choir (directed with choreographer Beth Gill), the Live Sh-- performance series curated with Chase Granoff, Manpack Variant, an electronics duo with Jaime Fennelly, and collaborations with interdisciplinary video/performance artist and storyteller Deke Weaver. He holds degrees from Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan and is currently a PhD student in the Composition and Computer Technologies program at the University of Virginia. 

SUSAN SUMMERS
lighting design  (Monkey)

Susan has been designing lighting for dance, opera and theatre performances for over thirty years. Her work has given her the opportunity to collaborate with performers, designers and students from around the country and around the world. She has recently toured internationally with the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company.  In the past, Susan taught lighting design in the Theatre Department and production for dance in the Dance Department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

ANDY WARFEL
production design  (Monkey, Elephant)

Andy Warfel has been creating award-winning theatrical environments for over 20 years, with credits ranging from regional and off-off Broadway (including 2004’s NYC Fringe Festival hit musical, Mimi le Duck), to Off-Broadway (New York Premiere of Clive Barker's Subtle Bodies), on Broadway (Associate Designer for Dream, the Johnny Mercer musical), on national tours (Footloose The Musical), and on film, in the feature-length adaptation of Mark Roberts’ hit play, Welcome To Tolono.   His concert designs include the 2004 Rock The Vote/MTV Choose Or Lose Tour, Mariah Carey's Butterfly and Rainbow tours, and numerous private concerts featuring acts such as The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, and kd lang, while his television credits include work for CBS, ESPN, Fox, Time Warner, and Viacom.  Andy has also created press events, product launches, and experiential environments for hundreds of corporations, which have been seen worldwide in virtually every form of media. After a decade in New York City, during which he served as visiting faculty at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and Chief Aesthetic Officer of his own firm, cpr-group, Andy relocated to central Illinois, from where he continues to provide creative direction and environment design for an ever-expanding client base. www.andywarfel.com/