Biographies
Susana Weingarten
Born and raised in Mexico City. She started her Ballet training at the age of four in The Mexico City School Academy of Dance under the direction of Ms. Cristina Perez Escamilla. She studied modern techniques at the school of Ballet Nacional de Mexico and later in the school of Ballet Independiente de Mexico were she danced professionally and toured the Mexican Republic and Central America. Susana worked extensivelly in Experimental and Living Theater productions with several well known directors such as Juan Carlos Uviedo from Argentina among other professors of this performing art....Alejandro Jodorowsky was Susana's first encounter with surrealism at an aearly age, as well as her magnificent visual artist aunt Rosa Rosemberg.
She moved to New York City to continue her dance training with Masters: Takako Azakawa, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Louis Falco, The Alvin Ailey Dance School, and Carol Rioux among many great masters of dance. She appeared with Linda Diamond and Dancers at the Symphony Space and Lincoln Center Annex in New York City.
She moved to Cleveland , Ohio with husband and son Max Evert, and co-founded "The Tom Evert Dance Company", were she served as the artistic associate, principal dancer and choreographer for ten years. During those years with The Tom Evert Dance Company she traveled extensively nationally and internationally, participated in many collaborations with many prestigious organizations such as The Great Lakes Theatre Festival, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Cleveland Museum of Art, and the list goes on. Susana continued with her husband/partner working extensivelly with arts in education, outreach programs , universities nationally, locally and internationally. Currently Susana is the co-Director of DANCEVERT. She continues to oversee the whole artistic, marketing/publicity and general aspects of the company, as well as choreographing her own works for solos, duets, and large group works individually and in collaboration with Tom and other musicians.
Her vast love and experience teaching children and adults has given her and her students an inmense satisfaction as a teacher , developing through the years a unique style of class and workshops that consist of a blend of modern dance techniques, QiGong ( Chee gong....the ancient self healing art form that teaches us to take responsibility of our own health and focuses on deep breathing, correct posture and alignment of the body/mind), and she also mixes in a fun and witty way, her Latin roots by inserting many Afro-Latin and Caribbean dance styles. Susana has won many awards of excellence in choreography and performance from several organizations such as The Ohio Arts Council, Northern Ohio Live magazine, etc. SusanaWdeE@aol.com
Tom Evert
A native of Ohio, holds degrees in both painting and dance from Ohio University. Upon graduation Tom moved to New York City to apprentice with The Murray Louis and Alwin Nikolais Dance Companies.From 1975-77 toured as a dancer and arts-in-education teacher with the Phyllis Lamhut Dance Company. His critical acclaim and maturity as a performing artist, however, developed while performing and touring nationally and internationally with "The Paul Taylor Dance Company" for eight years (1977-1985). In 1986 he founded the "Tom Evert Dance Company" for which he has created a major body of work for which he has received Six Fellowships for Excellence in Choreography from the Ohio Arts Council. The company ( currently DANCEVERT) presents a home season and has toured extensively and is dedicated to outreach and collaborative community projects. He has been commissioned to create works by professional and pre-professional dance companies, university ensembles, and art institutions and commercial enterprises including: Cleveland San Jose Ballet, Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Cleveland Museum Of Art, the Darius Milhaud Society, the Leonard Bernstein Festival, the Kurt Weill Festival, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra Fashion shows, civic celebrations, and the list goes on. He has been on numerous dance faculties including The Hong Kong Academy of the Arts, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, University of Hawaii, Lake Erie College, Cleveland State University, the University of Akron, The Paul Taylor Dance Studio in New York City, Cleveland Ballet, The Beck Center for the Arts, Ohio Northern University, Dennison University among many others. Mr. Evert is regularly engaged to give master classes in tandem with company performances. After being involved in arts education programming in the schools for 31 years Mr. Evert has emerged as a prominent teaching artist in Ohio with Young Audiences Inc., The Ohio Arts Council and a Statewide Arts Talent Assessment Initiative (START-ID). Through the sponsorship of the Kennedy Center, Ohio-State-Based Partnership, Tom has been actively presenting workshops for teachers on the integration of arts activities into the teaching of the core curriculum. He is presently writing arts integrated language arts curriculum for the Cleveland Municipal School District. Tom, who began his college career in the visual arts, designs and constructs many of the sets for his dances and has been doing figurative sculpture for 6 years for which he has won international commissions and prizes in invitational shows. TomEvert@aol.com
