SEPTEMBER 11 - 13TH FACULTY:
*Faculty subject to change*
BRUCE MCCORMICK
Bruce McCormick is an educator, choreographer, performer and scholar. He earned his BFA from The Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy and his MFA from the University of Washington, where he also worked as Assistant Professor of Dance. He joined the faculty at the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance in 2018 where he serves as Associate Professor of Practice.
Originally from New Jersey, he trained with the Vineland Regional Dance Company and the Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet, spending summers at the School of American Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Boston Ballet and as a private student of Maestro Héctor Zaraspe in Argentina and Ecuador. He performed in 12 countries on four continents as a member of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Bavarian State Ballet and the Bern Ballet, where he was a soloist and ballet master. He also served as Assistant Artistic Director of North Netherlands Dance and Guest Rehearsal Director with Ballet BC.
Throughout his career, he danced works by many choreographers including George Balanchine, Stijn Celis, John Cranko, Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Jacopo Godani, Jiří Kylián, José Limón, Susan Marshall, Cathy Marston, Ohad Naharin, Marius Petipa, Crystal Pite, Twyla Tharp, Anthony Tudor and Doug Varone. In addition, he assisted choreographers Karole Armitage, Roy Assaf, Stijn Celis, Itzik Galili, Emanuel Gat, Emily Molnar, Andrea Miller, Matthew Neenan, Stephen Shropshire and Medhi Walerski, among others.
McCormick has presented his own choreographic work in various venues throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia, and has taught master classes for several companies including BalletX, Gibney Company, Malpaso Dance Company, National Dance Company of Wales, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and Whim W’Him. He choreographed the opera Eugene Onegin for the Stadttheater Bern, as well as The Merry Widow and William Tell for the Korea National Opera. His most recent festival credits include Against the Grain/Men in Dance, Dance Deck, the Seattle International Dance Festival, the International Festival of Contemporary Dance of Mexico City and the ITS Festival in Amsterdam. He has presented for the National Dance Education Organization and CORPS de Ballet International, and his scholarship has been published by The International Journal of Arts Theory and History.
JENNIIFER LOTT
Jennifer McQuiston Lott joined the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance as an Assistant Professor in 2016. She is the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of the Traverse City Dance Project, a seasonal company based in Traverse City, Mich. In 2018, she became the eighth teacher in the United States of Countertechnique, a revolutionary contemporary practice developed by Dutch choreographer Anouk Van Dijk.
Lott has danced with Gibney Dance Company, Groundworks Dancetheater, Armitage Gone! Dance, Inlet Dance Theatre, Collective Body Dance Lab, Eglevsky Ballet and others. Her choreographic works and short dance films have been performed across the US and internationally. She has choreographed and directed work for numerous festivals and institutions, and for music artists Son Lux and My Brightest Diamond. She assisted choreographer Jodie Gates with the creation of new works for Tulsa Ballet and Kansas City Ballet, and has staged Gates’ ballets at Sacramento Ballet and Princeton University.
As a choreographer, Lott’s many musical collaborators include composer Ryan Lott, Andrew Norman, Jonny Rodgers, Darren Solomon and the chamber ensembles yMusic, Clocks in Motion and Tenth Intervention. She was a featured performer in the official Son Lux videos Undone (dir. David Terry Fine) and You Don’t Know Me (dir. Nathan Johnson/The Made Shop). Her passion for collaboration has led her to devise and direct to two unique USC Visions and Voices events alongside colleagues from the USC Kaufman and USC Thornton Schools: Caught in the Chamber (Spring 2018) and Activated Chambers (Fall 2019). With the onset of the global pandemic in 2020, she developed and curated the Traverse City Dance Project’s No-Distance Festival, a five-month series of virtual collaborations and online events involving and raising funds to support an international array of over 35 music, video and dance artists. She currently directs the Traverse City Dance Project’s NewVo Fellowship, which supports the creation of new works by emerging professional choreographers and composers.
Lott earned her BFA in Ballet Performance from Indiana University, and her MFA in Dance from the University of California, Irvine, where she was awarded a Graduate Fellowship and numerous scholarships. She is certified in GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® and is an ABT® Certified Teacher in Primary through Level 3 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. She has served on the faculty of Interlochen Summer Arts Camp and taught master classes and workshops nationally and internationally.
BRET EASTERLING
Bret Easterling has been surrounded by dance ever since he was born in Palo Alto, CA. After growing up in his mother’s dance studio, his career began at the age of seven, dancing in commercial work including a duet with Angela Lansbury in Mrs. Santa Claus, and in Fiona Apple’s music video for Paper Bag. At the age of 11, he was a founding member of Teen Dance Company of the Bay Area, an original cast member of New York Stage Original’s Tap Kids, and an annual performer in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
After high school, Bret moved to New York City to study at The Juilliard School, where he received his BFA and the Hector Zaraspe Prize for Choreography in 2010. While in school, he was a formative member of Andrea Miller’s Gallim Dance, and a guest performer with Buglisi Dance Theatre.
Upon graduation, Bret was invited by Ohad Naharin to join the Ensemble Batsheva in Tel Aviv, Israel. He was ultimately promoted to the acclaimed Batsheva Dance Company, which gave him the opportunity to tour internationally, and participate in creative processes with Naharin, Sharon Eyal, and Roy Assaf.
In 2011, Bret began teaching Gaga, and has since had the privilege of sharing this movement language to dancers and people in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Singapore, Russia, Australia, Canada, and the US.
Bret has always had a strong passion for choreography, and has received numerous honors for his works. He is also a certified Ilan Lev Method practitioner, a rehearsal director for Gallim Dance, and the Artistic Director of BEMOVING.
HOLLEY FARMER
Holley Farmer, MFA, University of Washington, was a member of The Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1997-2009, receiving the New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for Sustained Achievement. Her performances with MCDC include a repertory of over fifty dances, and thirteen original roles created for her by Cunningham, with multiple seasons at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Paris Opera, Théâtre de la Ville, the Barbican, and venues in 23 countries. With Twyla Tharp, she danced on Broadway originating the principal role of Babe in “Come Fly Away,” for which she received an Astaire Award Nomination. In 2011, she began staging the work of Cunningham, and creating her own choreographies. Her solo work has appeared at New York Live Arts, the Museum of Arts and Design, LaMama, the Joyce Theater, and Jacob’s Pillow. For the last twelve years, in higher education, she has taught theory and practice courses, and has served on the faculty at Mills College, Hunter College, Sarah Lawrence College, Nassau Community College, CSU Long Beach, and CalArts, among national guest teaching and lecture engagements including Stanford University, and Southern California Institute of Architecture. Her early career was inspired by training with Hae Shik Kim, leading to positions in Theatre Ballet of Canada, Phantom of the Opera (785 performances), and The Oakland Ballet.
ALICA HEAD
Alicia Head is a ballet teacher, movement professional, and rehabilitation specialist.In 2012, Alicia began an 8 year career of teaching at the summer intensive programs for both American Ballet Theatre (Orange County) and LINES Ballet. Her classes at the ABT summer intensives included Anatomy for Dancers, Injury Prevention, and Body Conditioning. In 2014, Alicia became an inaugural faculty member of the ABT Gillespie School, where she taught Body Conditioning to advanced and pre-professional dancers until 2024.
At the LINES ballet summer intensives, Alicia was the supervising master trainer for instructors of the GYROTONIC® Method, and taught classes in the GYROKINESIS® and GYROTONIC® Methods, Therapeutic Assessment, Injury Prevention, and Pointe Workshops. In addition to providing guidance for the summer intensive students on how to use the GYROTONIC® Method to aid in injury risk reduction, Alicia also offered faculty development in-services for instructors at San Francisco GYROTONIC®.
Alicia is based in Los Angeles, CA and sees private clientele, coaches ballet dancers, teaches courses in the GYROKINESIS® and GYROTONIC® Methods, leads Pilates workshops and courses, and continues to develop The Inner Life of Ballet™.
FIONA LUMMIS EDDY
Fiona Lummis was a dancer for twenty years with Netherlands Dance Theater (1981-2001). Fiona created roles in 15 of Jiří Kylián’s ballets, and in numerous works by Hans Van Manen, Nacho Duato, Ohad Naharin and Mats Ek among others. She danced featured roles in the repertoire of William Forsythe, Jerome Robbins, Lar Lubovitch and Glen Tetley. She graduated from the Elmhurst School of Dance and The Rambert School in England, and also has a comprehensive Pilates teaching certificate from B.A.S.I. (Body Arts and Science International). In 1992 she received the Gouden Theaterdans Prijs for her performances in William Forsythe’s “Steptext” and in 2000 was awarded the “Oeuvre Prize” in recognition of her career in The Netherlands.
Fiona can be seen on many of the Arthaus films of Kylián’s ballets, including the “Black and White Ballets” and “Kaguyahime.” She is also featured in 8 recordings of Hans Van Manen’s ballets in his “Master of Movement” DVD collection, and is recognized as one of his Muses. Fiona works closely with the Kylián and Van Manen foundations, teaching their repertoire in colleges, schools, and companies in the US and Europe.
PATRICK CORBIN
Patrick Corbin danced professionally with The Washington Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, ABT II, the Joffrey Ballet, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Lar Lubovitch, and Martha Clarke. He was featured in five PBS Great Performances and in the 1998 Academy Award-nominated documentary, Dancemaker. He is a recipient of the New York Performance Award (Bessie) for Sustained Achievement with the Paul Taylor Dance Company.
He received an MFA in dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. At USC, Professor Corbin laid the foundation for Dance and Health as an area of study, research, and practice resulting in his interdisciplinary course, DANC 140 Dance and Health.
PAIGE BOROWSKI
Paige Borowski received her BFA degree from The Juilliard School in 2018. There she studied under world renowned instructors and choreographers, including: Jiri Kylian, Crystal Pite, Aszure Barton, Ohad Naharin, Pam Tanowitz, and Bobbi Jene Smith. She continued on to dance in Switzerland for the Ballett Theater Basel where she performed and toured works by Bryan Arias, Johan Inger, Jiri Porkorny, Alexander Ekman, and Sharon Eyal.
In addition, Paige was on faculty for the Ballettschule Theater Basel, where she assisted in developing their Modern and youth programs. Paige is on faculty at Orange County High School of the Arts and is now the founder and director of the first collegiate arts preparation agency and program, Collegiate Arts Prep. Paige currently continues to live and work in Orange County, CA.
