About the Company :: Bios
Artistic Director
"Superior performer in definition, clarity of gesture and presence. . . One of Austin's most sophisticated performers"Michael Barnes, Austin-American Statesman
"Ariel has a gift for expressing character."
Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle
"Ariel has established herself as one of Austin's leading
modern-dance choreographers."
Sondra Lomax, Austin-American Statesman
Andrea Ariel, Artistic Director of Ariel Dance Theatre is originally from the Chicago area, where she polka danced at age two and staged her first show in her family's garage at age ten. Since her early inspirations, Ms. Ariel has choreographed in many forms, from original, multi-disciplinary contemporary dance works to cabaret, theater, musicals, TV and film. She is an 18-year funded artist by the City of Austin, Cultural Arts Program and a recipient of numerous other project support grants and commissions. Her work has been showcased in Texas, California, Illinois, Arizona, New Mexico, and New York. Four times voted Best Choreographer /Best Fine Arts Dancer by The Austin Chronicle readers poll, Andrea and her collaborators have been honored with two awards and seven nominations from the Austin Critics Table, and two B. Iden Payne Award nominations. She also performs in NYC with Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble and The Walter Thompson Orchestra, with whom she is an Associate Choreographer and Dancer, and is trained as a conductor and educator in Soundpainting.
Recent performances and training with other companies include with Strike Anywhere (NYC) John Lennon, A Soundpainting (September, 2007-Network of Ensemble Theaters Annual Gathering - Fayette, ME and at the Zipper Theater in NYC - Work-in-Progress Showings); Sojourn Theatre’s Summer Institute 2007, Devising Civic Theatre: Performance, Social Practice & Dialogue held at North American Cultural Laboratory in Highland Lake, NY; as a collaborator and performer in American Value, directed by Michael Rohd (Sojourn Theatre) with five ensemble theater companies at NaCL (2006); SITI Company’s annual three-week intensive Viewpoints and the Suzuki Method of Actor Training in NYC (2006), Lecoq training with Dody DiSanto (2005), Physical Theatre with Ping Chong (2005), and NaCL’s Summer Intensive, a training that draws from a continuum of experimental techniques that includes the ensemble work of Denmark’s Odin Teatret, Canada’s Primus Theatre, and the research of Jerzy Grotowski (2005 & 2006). Andrea has been invited by NaCL several times to perform and/or choreograph for their Catskill Festival of New Theater. Other training includes an ongoing study of Klein/Mahler technique with Barbara Mahler and Susan Klein in NYC.
Andrea has also created choreography for film, television and numerous stage productions including Waiting for Guffman (film) directed by Christopher Guest, Infamous (film) with Sigorney Weaver and Toby Jones, Wild Texas Wind (TV film) starring Dolly Parton, As the Bell Rings (TV Episode for the Disney Channel), and TV commericials for TimeWarner and HEB (with Emmitt Smith). In 2001, she made her choreographic Broadway debut with the Flaming Idiots, What Goes Up. Other selected choreographic credits include Speeding Motorcycle, Evita and The World Goes Round (Zachary Scott Theater), Cesar & Ruben (2006) directed by Ed Begley, Jr. at St. Edward’s University, PEXO with The Walter Thompson Orchestra (NYC), The Little Prince (State Theater), Andrea Chénier, Candide, Aïda, Madama Butterfly and Carmen (Austin Lyric Opera), Tintypes (Unity Theater), The Gondoliers, Pirates of Penzance, and The Yeoman of the Guard (Gilbert & Sullivan Society), Bambi, a life in the woods (Austin Theater for Youth). Her work has also been performed at The Brecht Forum (NYC) and Austin’s FronteraFest.
Andrea is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Texas and Austin Community College. She is also a Teaching Artist on the Texas Commission on the Arts, Artist-in-Education Roster and a Certified Personal Trainer. Other selected teaching credits include Austin Lyric Opera (Pre-professional Young Artists Program and Chorus), University of Illinois, Texas State University, Creative Arts Studio, (Brooklyn, NY). She holds a BA in Dance from the University of California, Santa Cruz and an MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois where she was the recipient of the 1986 Creative and Performing Arts Fellowship Award.
The Company
Jennifer Hilman has been dancing for 18 years, studying various forms including ballet, jazz, tap and modern dance. She graduated from the University of North Texas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in dance. She has been studying with Andrea since April 2008 and is excited about performing for the first time with Ariel Dance Theatre. Jennifer would like to thank her grandmother for introducing her to dance as a toddler and her entire family for their loving support of her creative endeavors since then.
Steve Ochoa has made Austin his home for over a year now. Broadway credits include Jerome Robbins' Broadway (Original Cast), Cats (Mistoffelees), Carousel (Lincoln Center), Twelfth Night (Lincoln Center) and Sweet Smell of Success. Off-Broadway: The Wild Party (Manhattan Theater Club). B’way Tours: Fosse, Chess and JRB. Featured With: Dendy Dance and Theatre, Feld Ballet, Nixon In China (Emmy Honoree). Film: Object of My Affection. And in Austin with Ariel Dance Theatre and Ballet East.
Adriene Mishler is a local Austin actor who loves to move. Adriene’s credits include Speeding Motorcycle (Zach Theatre), A Thought in Three Parts (Rubber Repertory), The Assumption (Refraction Arts), Rainbow Family (St Idiot Collective), Pale Idiot (Rude Mechanicals), Tooth & Nail (Tongue & Groove), Vaudeville Vanya (St Idiot Collective) and The Philomel Project (Refraction Arts) in the NYC Fringe Festival 2005. Adriene has also performed in New York and throughout the wild streets of L.A. while studying with The SITI Company. In Austin, Adriene teaches yoga for all ages and high school theatre arts. She is a company member with Refraction Arts Project and a founding member of St Idiot Collective.
Teresa Tipping has been dancing with Andrea for 6 years and other artists including Sharir-Bustamante Dance Company and Sally Jacques. A former acrobat with Cirque du Soliel, she now teaches circus acts and is a personal trainer, both of which she loves.
Christine Wong has been studying modern dance for over 13 years in San Antonio, Austin and Dallas, building on ballet foundations she received as a child. She is proud to have worked with Austin's own Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company, Ellen Bartel of Spank Dance Co., Ellen Stader's original cast Brocken Clock Cabaret, Wicked Cricket Dance Theatre, and most recently Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre. She hopes to expand her dance training to encompass broader elements - such as Qi'Gong meditation and other movement studies. She is very pleased to have had the opportunity of performing with ADT in a third consecutive season.
Resident Composers
GRAHAM REYNOLDS
The Texas Observer explains that Reynolds?s? musical personality is one of
manic explorations. Graham has written one opera, three major orchestral works,
countless chamber music, released two CDs with his band the Golden Arm Trio
(in addition to the Golden Hornet set), toured internationally, as well as
working in film, dance and theater with such collaborators as Salvage Vanguard
Theater, Rude Mechs, Slacker director Richard Linklater, and Ariel Dance Theatre.
The diversity of Graham's endeavors and output is a defining artistic element.
He most often gets put into the category of eclecticism, a category where
a wide range is the most solid foundation. Reynolds, as a composer and with
his band, has won many awards including: The Lowe Music Theater Award; Best
Music Director, Austin Critic's Table; Best Live Band, Austin American-Statesman's
Amp Awards; Best Jazz Band, City Search; Best Orchestral Album, Kansas City
Pitch Weekly; Best Classical Musician, Austin Chronicle. Current projects
include a third Golden Arm Trio album and a new opera, Genghis Khan.
PETER STOPSCHINSKI
Peter Stopschinski is a cofounder of both the Golden Hornet Project and the
Austin band Brown Whornet. Over the last ten years, Brown Whornet has released
several CDs and toured nationally. Brown Wh?rnet is a band that prolifically
encapsulates all that is good about not spending too much time on a single
idea. The collective hopscotch?s their way across musical boundaries like
a barefoot kid on hot pavement. Whether they're riffing on punk, metal, funk,
jazz, film scores, or even klezmer music, Brown Wh?rnet attacks each passage
with a vociferous intensity that seldom fails to keep an audience at attention."
(Austin Chronicle). As a composer Peter has been incredibly prolific. Since
1999 he has completed two symphonies, a viola concerto, countless chamber
music, string quartets and more. His scores include work for theater, film,
dance, and puppetry, with collaborators from choreographers Andrea Ariel and
Ellen Bartel to Rude Mechanicals Theater Company.
