Directed by: Ephrat Asherie
Choreography: Ephrat Asherie in collaboration with the company and club legends
Music: Various Artists
Original Compositions: Steve Jennings and Robert Stein (Check Yours Ambient)
Original Text: Richie Perez (Unduplicated and Untouched)
Lighting Design: Kathy Kaufmann
Lighting Supervisor: Carly D. Shiner
Music Arrangements: Ephrat Asherie
Sound Supervisor: James Garver
Projection Design: Cornelius Henke III
Costume Design: David Dalrymple
Additional Styling: Archie Burnett, Brahms “Bravo” LaFortune and Michele Saunders
Production Manager: James Garver
Company Manager: Taylor Craft

UNDERSCORED is performed by the company
featuring club legends Archie Burnett, Bravo “Brahms” LaFortune, Michele Saunders

The Company
Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie
Manon Bal
Ron “Stealth-1” Chunn
Teena Marie Custer
Valerie “Ms. Vee” Ho
Matthew “Megawatt” West

UNDERSCORED is commissioned by and premiered at Works & Process at the Guggenheim in Fall 2022.

Music samples and recordings by: Nyaruach, Inner Life, Martin Disco, Bakongo, Cymande,

BIOGRAPHIES

EPHRAT ASHERIE DANCE (EAD) is a dance company rooted in African American and Latine street and club dances. Dedicated to exploring the inherent complexities of these dances, EAD investigates the expansive narrative qualities of various vernacular forms including breaking, hip hop, house and vogue, as a means to tell stories, develop innovative imagery, and find new modes of expression. EAD’s first evening-length work, A Single Ride, earned two Bessie nominations in 2013 for Outstanding EmergingChoreographer and Outstanding Sound Design by Marty Beller. The company has presented work at Art Power! at UC San Diego, The Apollo Theater, Columbia College, Dixon Place, FiraTarrega, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, Jacob’s Pillow DanceFestival, the Joyce Theater, La MaMa, New York Live Arts, River to River Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, Summerstage NYC, and The Yard, among others. For more information please visit www.ephratasheriedance.com IG: @ephratasheriedance

Archie Burnett (club legend/featured artist)
Archie Burnett is a highly and widely respected underground club legend from New York City. One of New York City’s prime dancers during the late 1970s and 1980s, Archie became know for his singular freestyle of Whacking/Waacking and Vogue. He was a close friend and assistant to the grandfather of Vogue, the legend Willi Ninja, and was the first Father and now the overall Grandfather of the legendary House of Ninja. Archie tours the world, judging battles, teaching workshop and sharing his knowledge and was the catalyst for birthing the vogue scene that is now thriving throughout Europe. Archie is featured in Dr. Sally Sommer’s seminal documentary film about NYC’s underground club scene, “Check Your Body at the Door” and has appeared in numerous videos and print publications including the New York Times, the Village Voice and Dance Ink, among others. He was recently awarded the European Legacy Award by the House of St. Laurent in Berlin, Germany acknowledging his invaluable contributions to the European dance community. Archie continues to be a magnanimous and magnetic dance griot inspiring dancers and artists throughout the globe.

Bravo “Brahams” LaFortune (club legend/featured artist)
Brahms “Bravo” LaFortune is a NYC club dance legend, illustrious DJ and iconic party starter and has graced dance floors and turntables world over since 1977. If he's at a party you want to be there. Bravo is known for his lightening fast footwork style (what he names as freestyle jazz) and his flourishes of floor dives and spins. He is inspired by the older style of bebop (scat) dancing and everyday movements of people walking down the streets. A self-taught dancer, Bravo’s big inspirations include James Brown, the Nicholas Brothers, Eleanor Powell, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Sammy Davis Jr. and TV shows like Soul train and PBS/Dance in America. He is one one of the six featured dancers in the seminal dance documentary Check Your Body at the Door created by Dr. Sally Sommer, a leading dance historian in the United States. Bravo continues to perform with critically acclaimed musician/songwriter/producer Strafe, and next year he will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Strafe’s number one hit “Set it Off,” rated top 200 dance songs of all times by Rolling Stone Magazine. Bravo is committed to teaching the next generation of dancers how to get free and teaches workshops all over the world. His classes are singular and life-affirming, lifting each students energy and self-confidence to the utmost heights.

Michele Saunders (club legend/featured artist)
Born and raised in Paris, France, Michele Saunders has always been a trailblazing rebel who followed where the music has led her. Throughout her childhood, she was inspired by American music, from jazz, to R&B to Motown. She was also passionate about skiing, but after recuperating from a ski accident when she was 18, her interests in music eventually brought to America where she studied at Mt Holyoke before finding her place in the world of art and style in New York, where she became an energetic force at the renowned nightclub, the Paradise Garage. The Garage had a profound impact on her life, furthering her love of dance and dance music. It became her second home, a place where she forged lifelong relationships with dancers, artists and house music DJ’s (David DePino, Louie Vega, David Morales, Joey Llanos and more). During her time in New York, Michele also began representing fashion photographers and illustrators, and made a name for herself in the music industry as a music manager for acts like Serious Intention, and as a stylist/producer for photoshoots and videos for Elton John, Diana Ross, LL Cool J, Luther Vandross and many others.  Her life and work has been featured in publications such as Document (in conversation with Honey Dijon and Frankie Knuckles), Vice, and Love Injection, and she can be seen in the new BBC documentary, Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution, talking about the influence of Paradise Garage and house music. Michele is now a realtor and location scout in Catskill, NY and, at the age of 80, continues to produce events, connect artists and creative thinkers, and most importantly, dance.

THE COMPANY

Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie (artistic director, choreographer, performer)
Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie is a NYC-based director, choreographer, performer and b-girl and a 2016 Bessie Award Winner for Innovative Achievement in Dance. Asherie has received numerous awards to support her work including Dance Magazine's Inaugural Harkness Promise Award and two National Dance Project Awards. In 2019 she was the recipient of a NYFA Fellowship and is currently a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. As Artistic Director of Ephrat Asherie Dance (EAD), Asherie's work has been presented on stages nationally and internationally with commissions from companies including Malpaso, Philadanco! and Parsons Contemporary Dance and additional commissions from Vail Dance Festival, Fall for Dance, River to River Festival, Firatatrrega, Works & Process at the Guggenheim and the Kennedy Center.  Additional directorial work includes UNDERSCORED: On Screen at Lincoln Center, FLOORISH,  Solo Chini: Un Dia en Nueva York and In the MOment: A Drawing Dance, which will have its New York premiere at Lincoln Center’s Dance on Camera Festival in early February.  Asherie is honored to have been mentored by Richard Santiago (aka Break Easy) and to have worked and collaborated with Michelle Dorrance, Doug Elkins, Rennie Harris, Bill Irwin, Gus Solomons jr, and Buddha Stretch, among others. Asherie earned her BA from Barnard College, Columbia University in Italian and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee where she researched the vernacular jazz dance roots of contemporary street and club dances. She is a co-founding member of the all-female house dance collective MAWU and is forever grateful to NYC’s underground dance community for inspiring her to pursue a life as an artist.  

Manon Bal (performer)
Manon is a versatile professional dancer from Marseille, France. She has trained at the IFPRO Rick Odums in Paris and at the prestigious Ailey School in New York City. She has been a member of Ephrat Asherie Dance since 2016. She has worked for respected choreographers such as Ronald K Brown, Rick Odums, Tweet Boogie, Michele Byrd McPhee, Jon Rua, and Miki Tuesday. As a choreographer, Manon is the co founder of Mozaik Dance in collaboration with Janine "J9" Micheletti and Sun Kim. The company has presented their work "Sad Hope" at Jacob's Pillow, San Francisco Hip Hop Dance Fest, and New Victory Dance.

Teena Marie Custer (performer)
Teena Marie is a movement artist, street/club dance practitioner, and healer based in Pittsburgh,PA. For the past 25 years, she has studied, researched, battled and performed nationally and internationally in various street/club dance communities, and is also a member of Venus Fly and Get Down Gang street dance crews. Her solo street dance theater work has been presented at various universities, Sadler’s Wells Theater in London, The American Dance Festival, Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, Ford Amphitheater in LA, The August Wilson Center, and the American College Dance Association Gala Concerts. She has also created street/club dance theater works and been a guest artist at for over 35 university dance departments around the U.S. Teena Marie earned a BA in Dance from Slippery Rock University and an MFA in Dance Performance from The Ohio State University. She was on faculty for 15 years at Slippery Rock University in the Department of Dance all while touring with Dance Alloy, Erika Randall, Bill “Crutchmaster” Shannon, and Ursula Payne. She is grateful to be part of the Ephrat Asherie Dance family since 2012.

Valerie "Ms.Vee" Ho (performer) 
*she/they  Ms Vee has proudly been with EAD since 2012. Vee's career started at 5 dancing and performing in their mom's Chinese Dance Company in Vancouver, Canada. In 1988, Vee found Hip Hop and that was it, they were hooked.  B-girling, popping, and locking their way through the mid 90s into the early 2000s, the glittering lights of New York beckoned in 2003, leading to collaborations with Buddha Stretch, Rennie Harries, Luam, Maria Torres, and Bradley Rapier.  Claims to fame: Kiesza's "Hideaway" video and "Step Up 3D". Ms Vee is also a master teacher and is on faculty at Broadway Dance Center, Pace University's Commercial Dance BFA program, and is the first ever Hip Hop teacher at The Juilliard School.

Matthew West (performer) started dancing at the age of sixteen in Queens. Megawatt is an active part of NYC’s underground dance community and teaches youth classes throughout the five boroughs. Megawatt is a regular guest artist with Dorrance Dance and can be seen in Baz Lurhman’s Netflix series The Get Down and battling with his crew, the Mellow Animals.

Ron “Stealth-1” Chunn (performer)
Ron “Stealth-1” Chunn Jr. is a b-boy and DJ originally from Columbus, Ohio. “Stealth “ is a member of Get Down Gang from Pittsburgh, which has opened for KRS-1, Talib Kweli, Rakim, and Pete Rock. GDG was also featured on Public Enemy’s video “Though Shall Not Be Moved.” Stealth has held DJ residencies at Cobra, Trace Brewing, New Amsterdam, and Ava Lounge in Pittsburgh, and has DJ’d street dance jams such as “Get Rooted” in Nashville and “Battlezone” in Pittsburgh. He holds bachelor degrees in five different fields of study, and two Master’s degrees, the last of which was a master’s in Philosophy obtained at University of Western Ontario in 2019.

Steve Jennings (composer)
With nearly twenty years of experience as a producer, composer and synthesis guru, Steve Jennings has worked in multiple capacities on dozens of TV, Film, Videogame and Creative Services projects. Some of his areas of expertise include synthesis and experimental sound design as well as scene analysis and breakdown for scoring to picture. Steve has worked with Nile Rodgers and Organized Noise, and some of his past clients include MTV, ESPN, CBS, Ubisoft, Sony PlayStation, and Miramax.

Robert Stein (composer)
Bob Stein is an accomplished New York City based Audio Engineer and Producer who has engineered sound for some of the biggest names in popular music. He has worked with Paul Mc- Cartney, John Zorn, Billy Joel, Vanessa Williams, Norah Jones, James Taylor, Jimmy Buffet, Carl Palmer, and Roberta Flack. As a drummer for the past 20 plus years, Stein has toured nationally and recorded with several bands. More recently, he has been working out of a newly created studio with partner Steve Jennings producing and composing original works and collaborating with other artists.

James Garver (sound supervisor/production manager)
Jimmy Garver is a sound designer and composer based in upstate New York. His work has been heard at and/or commissioned by Ballet Hispanico, Lincoln Center’s Dance On Camera festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the Smithsonian Institute (Hirshhorn, American History, Natural History museums) Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre (DC), Studio Theatre Company (DC), A Contemporary Theatre, PS-122, Joyce SoHo, 92nd St. Y, Atlantic Theatre Company. Jimmy has also consulted on large, AI-powered, synthetic voice projects. (clients include Microsoft Research and Descript). The Brayver Concern - Jimmy's sound art collaboration with his partner Rebecca Bray - creates audio-based interactive art installations. Their work has been shown throughout the Northeast U.S. They also convene a monthly audio salon from their home in the Catskills. He performs regularly with the Conduction Series (broadcast monthly on WGXC FM) and Music for Furniture.

Kathy Kaufmann (lighting designer)
A New York City native, Ms. Kaufmann is a two time Bessie recipient. She was nominated for a 2015 Bessie for Rebecca Davis’s Bloowst Windku. She has been a resident designer at the Danspace Project at St. Marks Church for over 15 years and has toured extensively throughout the world. She was honored to be included in Curtain Call: Celebrating 100 Years of Women in Design at the New York Performing Arts Library and currently teaches lighting design at Sarah Lawrence College. She works regularly with many companies including Michelle Dorrance (Dorrance Dance), Joanna Kotze, David Parker (The Bang Group) Eiko & Koma, Rebecca Stenn, Moriah Evans and Mina Nishamura. Recent projects include designs for Jonathan Gonzalez, Morgan Bassichis, Mariana Valencia, Jasmine Heard and Tatyana Tenenbaum.

Carly D. Shiner (lighting supervisor)
Carly is a lighting and technical supervisor based in New York City. She has worked with companies including: Jessica Lang Dance, Dorrance Dance, Saturday Night Live, The Juilliard School, Music from the Sole, Minutia Lane Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, and Jacob’s Pillow. In her free time, Carly is an avid runner and marathoner, having run the New York City Marathon twice and will be running the London Marathon in April.

Cornelius Henke III (projection design)
Cornelius Henke III, is a writer, VJ, and creative technologist. Versed in areas of video production and performance art; he has explored the visual medium through music videos, motion graphics, live events, and interactive installations. He is a former fellow and artist in residence at the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. And in the past a contributing writer for Projection-Mapping.org before its discontinuation. In other life, Cornelius is an activist and partner at Merging Media, a boutique digital media production company based in Pittsburgh, PA and a team member of VIDVOX, the makers of VDMX. You can see his tutorials and blog posts in the forums or at VIDVOX.net. In 2021 ProjectileObjects was formed into an LLC. that offers a wide range of services including: Concept design, development, engineering, fabrication, and installation.

Mark Eric (costume designer) is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and now resides in New York City, where he designs and constructs costumes. He trained as a fashion designer at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where he was recognized as the Critics’ Choice among his graduating class. After interning with Marchesa, he started designing eveningwear for several brands including Monique Lhuillier and Adrianna Papell before discovering his passion for costume design. Mark Eric has designed costumes for a diverse roster of choreographers including: Robert Battle, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Rennie Harris, Stefanie Batten Bland, Andrew McNicol, and Marguerite Donlon among others. He has costumed works for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, BalletX, TU Dance, and Nimbus Dance Works to name a few and is currently working on new works with Gregory Dawson for BalletX and Ephrat Asherie Dance. Instagram: @MEMarkEric #CostumesbyMarkEric

Taylor Craft (company manager)
Taylor is a New York City based dancer, choreographer, photographer, and arts administrator. Originally from Waterford, Michigan, Craft received her BFA in Dance from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. She has photographed for Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Wayne State, and Madonna University and has published work in Dance Magazine and the New York Times. In 2022, Craft independently produced and premiered her first dance theatre work ‘the semi truck that blocks my view is still beautiful.’ She has previously worked for Complexions Contemporary Ballet as the Associate Company Manager and Creative Coordinator and is now working with Dorrance Dance, Ephrat Asherie Dance, and Music From The Sole as Company Manager.

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UNDERSCORED has received lead commissioning and development support by Works & Process, for world premiere at the Guggenheim. UNDERSCORED was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable foundation and Mellon Foundation. This project is made possible in part by a grant from the Association of Performing Arts Professionals for a residency at The Jay and Linda Grunin Center, made possible through support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. UNDERSCORED is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Works & Process in partnership with ArtPower at UC San Diego, The Momentary and The Yard. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information, visit www.npnweb.org.