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While we all work to perfect our respective disciplines, performing is ultimately not about how the dancers dance or the musicians play, but about how we communicate together.
My vision for my company is for it to be like a jazz band, where the collective energy and creativity fuels the work and all members have opportunity for individual expression.
- Michele Brangwen
One of the top ten choreographers working in Houston - Houston Press, 2014
Panelist/Presenter Interdisciplinary Collaboration - Chamber Music American Annual Conference, NYC
Guest Lecturer Long Island University, Hutten House
Dance Critics Association Gary Parks Scholar
Dance USA Emerging Leader 2009
Michele Brangwen is a dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, whose performing ensemble specializes in dance to live music, the commissioning of new music for dance, and the incorporation of musicians into the visual stage imagery. Her company's 2017 performance at the Mark Morris Dance Center was a Village Voice choice in both the online and print editions. Her most recent dance and music films created during the pandemic have been featured in Broadway World Magazine and as the video of the day on the All About Jazz Website. Ms. Brangwen’s work has been presented in New York City at the Mark Morris Dance Center, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Village Zendo Arts, Shapeshifter Lab & Diego Salazar Artist Studios; in Stony Brook, NY at The Jazz Loft; in Chicago at Lutkin Hall by the International Society of Improvised Music; and in venues throughout Texas, including the Cullen Theater, Wortham Center, Stude Concert Hall, Moores Opera House, DiverseWorks Artspace, MATCH and Barnevelder Theater. Career highlights include Get Outside, a two-part, two year commission created in collaboration with composer Tim Hagans, filmmaker Yunuen Perez Vertti, and the Norrbotten Big Band, that toured cities in Sweden, and five collaborations with FOTOFEST International, including curating a program for their 10th Anniversary Biennial dedicated to the themes of The Earth and Artists Responding to Violence.
In 2011, she began filming and editing content herself, as well as producing. She created, curated and produced three seasons of ARTCAST, an Internet TV Series on YouTube that features new dance, music and film from multiple cities. ARTCAST was designed to put non-commercial artistic content on the web and to link both audiences and artists in multiple cities. Her dance films have been shown in Naples and Rome as part of Il Coreografo Elettronico; Long Island Film Festival; Amelia Earhart Birthday Centennial Celebration; Regional Arts Center; and on KUHT, Houston's PBS affiliate. She has been commissioned by International Women's History Month in New York and awarded grants for her choreography from the Cultural Arts Council of Houston. She hosts FLY OVER THE GROOVE, the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble's podcast.
A native of New York, Ms. Brangwen trained at The Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance and with noted ballet teacher Nancy Bielski at the David Howard School. Her choreography blends classical, modern, and avant-garde dance elements in innovative contexts. Ms. Brangwen’s artistic vision is centered on exploring the physical and emotional connectedness of dancers and musicians in performance. Her most recent film project was a hour long documentary about the NDR Bigband (Hamburg Radio Jazz Orchestra) performing and rehearsing Tim Hganas' innovative "A Conversation" in the Fall of 2021.
Grammy-nominated Composer and Trumpeter Tim Hagans is one of the most unique and influential modern voices in jazz. Tim Hagans performs and records with the Tim Hagans Quartet. His most recent CD, A Conversation (Waiting Moon Records 2021) was a DOWNBEAT Critic's pick, and his Faces Under The Influence: A Jazz Tribute To John Cassavetes (Waiting Moon Records 2017) was described by JazzTimes as "defined by moments of sheer chaos and unsullied delicacy, a fitting tribute indeed." The Moon Is Waiting (Palmetto Records, 2011), features his quartet performing all original compositions by Hagans. The Moon Is Waiting has been heralded by JazzTimes as “scrumptious madness,” and Downbeat as “an artistic success,” and described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “free jazz with constant drive and passion.” The Moon Is Waiting contains 3 tracks originally commissioned by the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble. He was nominated for Grammy awards for Best Instrumental Composition for “Box of Cannoli” from The Avatar Sessions (2010 Fuzzy Music); Best Contemporary Jazz CD for Re: Animation (2000 Blue Note) and Animation*Imagination (1999 Blue Note). In 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Tim Hagans has performed and recorded with Thad Jones, Ernie Wilkins and Dexter Gordon. Tim Hagans is the featured soloist on the soundtrack by Howard Shore for the movie The Score, starring Robert DeNiro and Marlon Brando. Tim Hagans began collaborating with the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble as a composer and performer in 2007. He wrote music for the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble's Get Outside a short film made with the Norrbotten Big Band in Sweden in 2008. He then created an evening-length score of the same title for an evening-length performance work that incorporated the film for the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble and the Norrbotten Big Band. This project toured Sweden in 2009. He has served as the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble's music director since 2009.
Composer and bassist Thomas Helton has received ten commissions from the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble and has worked with us as a performer and composer since 2003, performing with us in Houston, New York, Chicago and cities in Sweden. He composed the music for "Orchid People" in collaboration with Tim Hagans and Anders Mogensen, and Asa Nisi Masa in collaboration with Danielle Reich and Tim Hagans. Movement 1 of "Dancing The Blue Hour," his most recent commission from the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble for the stage, premiered at the MATCH in July 2019, and received its New York City Premiere at the Diego Salazar Artist Studios in NYC and the Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, NY in Fall of 2019. His "What Will You Do When You feel Their Absence" was performed at the Mark Morris Dance Center, NYC; the MATCH in Houston and the Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, NY. We commissioned legendary bassist Rufus Reid to compose a work for dancers and two bassists to perform with Mr. Helton; this work premiered at the MATCH in 2016. Desesperados (Commissioned by Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble in 2005), a suite of tangos, is featured on Houston Public Radio’s CD The Best of the Front Row and Black Rain (2005), a work for saxophone, guitar, string bass, percussion and dancers, was performed as part of FotoFest’s 2006 Anniversary Biennial.
Thomas Helton performs with his own ensemble, The Core Trio, as well as with many celebrated jazz artists including Tim Hagans, Milt Jackson, Daniel Carter, Monty Alexander, Frank Gratowski and Ernie Watts. He has performed and recorded with Matthew Shipp, Steve Swell and Jamie Branch, appearing in venues throughout Houston and New York, most recently at the Stone in the work of bassist/composer Mark Dresser. Mr. Helton was awarded a Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Fellowship Grant in 2007 for the commission and performance of works for improvising chamber orchestra. He received a DiverseWorks artist residency and was a Takt Artist Resident in Berlin. He is the Artistic Director of the Houston Composers Salon. Mr. Helton also leads the Boomtown Brass Band, a performing ensemble specializing in music performing in the style of Hot New Orleans Jazz from the 1920's.
Dancer Robin Gilbert Campos joined the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble in 201. She has performed in the premieres of Dancing The Blue Hour, What Will You Do When You Feel Their Absence?, Skamato, Groove-Fish, In And Out Of The Shadows, Unending, and Rain Girl, a work created by the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble as a feature for her and trumpeter Tim Hagans. Rain Girl was also filmed and made into an episode of ARTCAST. She has performed with us at the Mark Morris Dance Center, ShapeShifter Lab, Diego Salazar Artist Studios, Village Zendo and Dance Theatre of Harlem in NYC; MATCH and Studio 101 Theatre in Houston; and The Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, NY. She is also a featured dancer in the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble's short films: "Orchid People," "To Your Constant Embrace, The Cloud Stream Sways," "Asa Nisi Masa" and "What I'll Tell Her Later Tonight." A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Ms. Gilbert is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts. Her credits include Connecticut Ballet Theatre, Ballet Verite, Atlantic Contemporary Dance Theatre, Dallas Ballet, Ballet Santa Barbara, Peter Pucci Plus Dancers, Felice Lesser Dance Theatre, Christopher Caines Dance, Collective Body Dance Lab, and BALAM Dance Theatre with whom she has toured nationally as well as to Bali, Indonesia. Mr. Gilbert is also a professional drummer with the band The Generators.
Dancer Cristian Laverde König has been working with the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble since 2012 and has performed in the premieres of In And Out Of The Shadows, What Will You Do When You feel Their Absence? and Unending at the Mark Morris Dance Center and The Jazz Loft. He is also a featured dancer in our short films: "Orchid People," "Asa Nisi Masa," "What I'll Tell Her Later Tonight," and "To Your Constant Embrace, The Cloud Stream Sways," the latter of which he also contributed film. He is also the voice of The River in Rain Girl. Mr. König was born in Cali, Colombia and received his professional training at The Instituto Colombiano de Ballet (Incolballet) and The Escuela Nacional de Ballet de Cuba under a full scholarship. He has been a soloist for The Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Ballet de Cali, Hartford Ballet and Ballet Internationale, and has served as principal dancer for the Maximum Dance Company, the Milwaukee Ballet and the Slovak National Ballet. Mr. König's repertoire includes principal roles in classical ballets such as Basilio in Don Quixote, Franz in Coppélia, Siegfried in Swan Lake, and the Grand Pas de Deux from Corsaire among others. He has also performed works by world-renowned choreographers such as George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp and Martha Graham. Mr. König has been the recipient of various prestigious national and international awards.
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Meredith Fages joined the Michele Brangwen Dance & Music Ensemble in 2022 and has performed with us in Faces Of Sun And Wind, Unending, and Asa Nisi Masa in NYC at the James & Martha Duffy Performance Space at the Mark Morris Dance Center and on the rooftop of Diego Salazar Artist Studios, in Stony Brook, NY at the Jazz Loft, and in Houston at the MATCH. She has performed with Armitage Gone! Dance, Alexandra Beller, Monica Bill Barnes/Waterwell, Wally Cardona, David Hallberg/Francesco Vezzoli, Deborah Hay, Mana Kawamura, Heidi Latsky Dance, Motley Dance, Jimena Paz, Laura Peterson, Becky Radway, Sarah Skaggs, Steeledance, Palissimo, Mitzi Adams, Verlezza Dance, Kim Whittam, Eidolon Ballet, Helen Heineman, Todd Rosenlieb Dance, and Virginia Ballet Theatre, featured in Ashton, Balanchine, Christensen, and Tudor ballets. Recent projects include performing the work of Doug Elkins at Joe's Pub as part of DANCENOW! Described by Deborah Jowitt as a “remarkable dancer...adept in some society of the future, [a] primal, near-aquatic creature slipping around in a watery world...", she graduated from Columbia University with a Pre-Medical Concentration in English. Her writing has appeared in Dance Magazine, Dance Teacher and Well + Good.
Yuritzi Govea joined the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble in January 2017. She has performed with us in the premieres of Dancing The Blue Hour, What Will You Do When You Feel Their Absence?, In And Out Of The Shadows and in Unending. She has danced with us at the Mark Morris Dance Center and Diego Salazar Artist Studios in NYC; The Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, NY and the MATCH in Houston, TX. She is a featured dancer in our films: "Orchid People," and "To Your Constant Embrace, The Cloud Steam Sways," and for the latter she also contributed film for the project. Originally from Mexico, she graduated on a scholarship from Colegio Nacional de Danza Contemporanea in Queretaro City, and began her career dancing with jazz companies in Mexico. She moved to New York City to continue her studies at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance. She has danced with Epicentro Ensemble, Nijinzki Jazz Company, Millenium Dance Ensemble, Edgar Cortes Dance Theater, MB II and performed in works by diverse choreographers such as Mauricio Nava, Alejandro Chavez, Yasmin Hernandez, Luis Resendiz, Miguel Braganza, Whitney Hunter, Richard Pierlon, and Kristy Sutton. She is currently working with Calpulli Mexican Dance Company for their upcoming season. In addition to her dance education, Ms. Govea also holds a medical massage therapy degree from the Swedish Institute, and specializes in lymphedema therapy based on the philosophies of the Vodder School.
The winner of the 2008 Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition, Jon Irabagon has since topped both the Rising Star Alto Saxophone and the Rising Star Tenor Saxophone categories in the DownBeat Magazine Critics’ Poll and been named one of Time Out New York’s 25 New York City Jazz Icons. He has performed with the Michele Brangwen Dance & Music Ensemble in the New York premieres of Faces Of Sun And Wind, In And Out Of The Shadows and Unending at the Mark Morris Dance Center in NYC, the Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, NY and at the MATCH in Houston. He is featured in the Michele Brangwen dance Ensemble's fillm "Asa Nisi Masa." Jon was named 2012 Musician of the Year in The New York City Jazz Record and is an integral member of such high-profile ensembles as the Mary Halvorson Quintet, the Dave Douglas Quintet and Barry Altschul’s 3Dom Factor, as well as an established bandleader in his own right. In addition, Jon has received a 2012 Mabuhay Award by the National Association of Filipino-Americans and a 2014 Philippine Presidential Award. Jon’s own record label, Irabbagast Records, has currently released five of his efforts, including last year's Jazz quartet album Behind the Sky as well as Jon’s first solo saxophone recording, Inaction is an Action. Faces Of Sun And Wind is his first commission from the Michele Brangwen Dance & Music Ensemble.
Photo by John Wang
Vocalist and composer Danielle Reich has been commissioned by the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble to write the Masa movement for our film and live performance work "Asa Nisi Masa." She was also commissioned to arrange her composition "Come, Come" for our new film "To Your Constant Embrace, The Cloud Steam Sways," in which she also performs. Ms. Reich has performed with the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble in the premieres of Dancing The Blue Hour, Closeness and What Will You Do When You Feel Their Absence? at the Mark Morris Dance Center in New York City, the MATCH in Houston, and at The Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, NY. She has also performed with the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble in Checkpoint, a site specific work created for Trinity Church, and with the Tim Hagans Quartet. She is a classically trained jazz vocalist having studied classical vocal performance at Stetson University and the University of Florida. She performed with the Houston Grand Opera Chorus for two seasons before shifting her musical attentions to jazz. She has been performing jazz, gypsy jazz, and her own brand of eclectijazzpop in the Houston areas for the past ten years; her most recent Houston project is gypsy jazz quintet Swing Rendezvous. In 2011 she expanded her repertoire to include French chanson and later co-founded a Western Swing band (Lady Be Good) with Austin/NYC composer/pianist Peggy Stern. She has released two jazz-focused studio albums, and will be soon be appearing on a Western Swing/pop album by Peggy Stern, as well as a jazz-influenced rock album by Austin guitarist/composer Russell Scanlon.
For more than two decades, drummer Anders Mogensen has been one of the most sought after musicians on the Danish as well as the International Jazz scenes. He has been a member of ground-breaking bands such as When Granny Sleeps, Jakob Anderskov Trio, Doky Brothers, Kasper Tranberg Yakuza Zhuffle, Lovedale and the Copenhagen Art Ensemble. He has toured and recorded with jazz greats such as Bob Berg, David Liebman, Steve Swallow, Marc Johnson, Brecker Brothers, Gary Thomas, Django Bates, Tim Hagans, Cuong Vu, Lew Soloff and Ray Anderson. Recent CD releases include The Seven Rays and Dog Star with Jerry Bergonzi on Savant Records, and Eternal Forge with the Tim Hagans Quartet. Mr. Mogensen holds a position as Associated Professor and head of the jazz department at Carl Nielsen Academy of Music, Odense, and he has presented clinics and workshops throughout Europe, USA, Japan and Brazil. Anders Mogensen joined the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble in 2019. he has performed with them in "Dancing The Blue Hour," and in their two films: "Orchid People" and "To Your Constant Embrace, The Cloud Stream Sways." He is also composed the music for "Orchid People" in collaboration with Tim Hagans and Thomas Helton.
Robin Verheyen has performed with the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble in the New York premieres of What Will You Do When You Feel Their Absence? No Standing Any Time and Closeness at the Mark Morris Dance Center, the Jazz Loft and the ShapeShifter Lab. He is also featured in the dance and music film Asa Nisi Masa. Born in Belgium, Mr. Verheyen performs regularly in both the US and Europe. He has worked with Gary Peacock, Marc Copland, Ralph Alessi, Bill Carrothers, Joey Baron and many others. 'A Look Beyond', released with his NY quartet, received critical acclaim and he was awarded a New Jazz Works grant by Chamber Music America in 2013 to write new music for this group. For this piece he traveled to Senegal to immerse himself in the local music scene and brought together West African rhythm with the modernistic harmonies of French composer Olivier Messiaen. This is rather representative of Verheyen’s cross-genre approach to music, something that has become a mainstay in his oeuvre. In January 2018 Verheyen released a new album 'When The Birds Leave' on Universal Music as a quartet withMarc Copland, Drew Gress and Billy Hart. Since 2017 Verheyen has been an Artist in Residence for the KMSKA (Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp). This residency runs for 5 years and the first piece premiered in fall 2018 at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Michael Eaton is a Brooklyn, NY based saxophonist, composer, and educator active in contemporary jazz and free improvisation. He embraces a progressive and holistic vision of jazz, cognizant of the music's rich history, while he reaches for a personal outlook with an eye towards future possibilities. He has releases available on Steeplechase, Ropeadope, Dialogical, Mother Brain, and Destiny. Eaton leads Individuation, a jazz ensemble that combines modern jazz with postminimalism, world rhythms, and open improvisation. Their latest album is Dialogical on Destiny Records. JazzTimes writes: "'Serious play' may be a cliché by now, but it exemplifies the spirit that dances through this set.” Eaton’s next recording is due out in 2023 and features guest artists Tim Hagans and Dave Scott (trumpets) as well as Judi Silvano (voice).
Kyle Motl is a bassist, composer, and improviser described as a “spectacularly adventurous and dynamic musician” whose playing is noted for both “iridescent delicacy as well as abrasive force” (The Wire). His solo music “promise[s] to change us by revealing things we could never have imagined” (Free Jazz Collective). Kyle’s work inhabits territories composed and improvised, including projects with Treesearch, Patrick Shiroishi, Clucas/Motl/Hubbard, a trio with Anthony Davis and Kjell Nordeson, and working with contemporary ensembles including the International Contemporary Ensemble and Ghost Ensemble. His recent album, Hydra Nightingale, features solo bass works by Caroline Louise Miller, Anqi Liu, Jessie Cox, and Asher Tobin Chodos.
Drummer Sam Knight joined the Michele Brangwen Dance & Music Ensemble in 2022. He has performed with us in Faces Of Sun And Wind, Asa Nisi Masa and Unending at the Mark Morris Dance Center in NYC, The Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, NY and the MATCH in Houston. He is a member of the Tim Hagans Quartet, performing with them in venues in New York, Texas and Virginia. He has performed with Reggie Workman, John Ellis, Chad Lekowitz-Brown, Gilad Hekselman, and Blue Note Recording artist Aaron Parks. He has also performed for the Romare Bearden Foundation, honoring the nationally renowned artist. Career highlights include a tour of Japan. He loves taking on new musical challenges, paying homage to the jazz masters who have laid the foundation, and developing his own unique musical voice. He can be heard performing throughout Houston with many different ensembles. He began his training at Houston’s famed High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. A native Houstonian, he then moved to New York City where he attended the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, graduating with a B.A. in Music Performance.
Dancer Lindsey McGill has been performing with the Michele Brangwen Dance & Music Ensemble since 2003. She has danced in the premieres of many works including Faces Of Sun And Wind, In And Out Of The Shadows, No Standing Any Time, Get Outside, Sanctuary Moon, Katsu, Checkpoint, Petrified, A Note From Guantanamo, Confusion of Angels, Sweet Land, and Talk to Me. She has performed with the ensemble in works such as Madrid and Desesperados in venues throughout Houston including the Cullen Theater, Wortham Center; Stude Concert Hall, Barnevelder Theater, and Miller Outdoor Theatre; in Chicago at Lutkin Hall; in New York City at the Mark Morris Dance Center and the Village Zendo; and in cities in Sweden. She has performed in the Michele Brangwen Dance & Music Ensemble's films Confusion of Angels, Sanctuary Moon, Get Outside, and In And Out Of The Shadows. Her choreography is featured in the Quantum Bass episodes of ARTCAST. Ms. McGill won the Buffy award for Houston’s Best Contemporary Dance Artist. She was a performer with Northwest Dance Project, with whom she has debuted at the Joyce Theater and Jacob's Pillow, and Dominic Walsh Dance Theatre. She also performs with Hope Stone and Group Acorde, an experimental collaborative dance group she leads with Roberta Paixao Cortes. Her choreography has been performed by Dominic Walsh Dance Theater at Zilkha Hall in the Hobby Center and at Miller Outdoor Theater, and by Group Acorde in venues throughout Houston.
Lighting Designer Kris Phelps has designed lights for the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble's In And Out Of The Shadows, No Standing Any Time, Skamato, Unending, Black Rain, Desesperados, Sweet Land, Talk to Me, Madrid, Louie's Key West, Cello Fishing at Antibes, and American Night among many others. Ms. Phelps has designed lights for the Dance Salad Festival and the Annual Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance, as well as for many dance companies in Houston, including the Sandra Organ Dance Company, The Met, and Ad Deum. She has designed for Several Dancers Core in Atlanta, Mexico and Houston, and Fly Dance Company's performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Also a designer for theater, Ms. Phelps has won three awards for best lighting design from the Ensemble Theater Company of Houston. She has also worked with the Houston Ballet and many independent choreographers including Becky Valls, Priscilla Nathan-Murphy and Leslie Skates.