NANCY KARP (Artistic Director/Choreographer) has been making work in San Francisco for over two decades.  She has created more than 70 dance works for her San Francisco-based company Nancy Karp + Dancers founded in 1980. Karp and the company have toured throughout the U.S. and abroad, including extended artist residencies in Germany, the former Yugoslavia, India, and Japan. She has been awarded commissions by the Für Augen und Ohren and the Sprachen der Künste Festivals in Berlin, the Cabrillo Music Festival, and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco, among others. As an artist-in-residence at the Kyoto College of Art in Japan in 1990, she choreographed Terrace Canon, a site-specific work for 32 performers as part of the Kyoto International Contemporary Music Forum.  Site-specific performance work has been an important part of Nancy Karp + Dancers’ programming.  Performances have included site pieces commissioned for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Oakland Museum, and most recently, a commission for the Choreographers’ Festival at Yerba Buena Gardens for the work, La Processione with music performed by the Green Street Mortuary Band.

Nancy has received numerous grants and awards for her work, including the Bay Area Dance Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2005, a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship (1995-96) to India, where she worked for five months with dancers and actors from the Kerala Kalamandalam, choreography fellowships and dance company grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, and the Rockefeller Foundation/MAP Fund. An active member of the San Francisco Bay Area arts community she served as a trustee of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, chairing its Arts Committee and from 1993-2000 and was a mentor in CHIME Program, Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange, in 2004-05.

In 1993, Karp’s evening-length work, Kristallnacht, Night of Broken Glass, created in collaboration with composer Alvin Curran and designers Jack Carpenter and Sandra Woodall, was premiered before sold-out houses at San Francisco’s Theater Artaud. Kristallnacht was Karp's first work with a historical context, and received widespread critical acclaim. Subsequently, in 1995, Ms. Karp was invited to return with the Company to Theater Artaud for a second two-week sold-out run of the work.  Other major works which have toured internationally include Prima Materia (1987), with music by Ingram Marshall and visual decor by Carol Law, First Light (1985) with a sound score by Bill Fontana and visual decor by Berlin-based artist Wolfram Erber, and Dot Bunch (1984) with music by Charles Amirkhanian and visual decor by Carol Law. 

MICHAEL ARMSTRONG, (dancer) began his training at UC Berkeley, and danced with their resident company, Bay Area Repertory Dance.  Since then, he has performed with several companies including LAZARUS/Dance and Dance Current with Robin Greenberg. As an actor, his most recent roles were with the New Conservatory Theatre of SF and with the Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival. He performed and directed with the Educational Theatre Programs of Kaiser Permanente for 10 years, and currently works in health education. He has been dancing with Nancy Karp + Dancers since 1990.

DAMARA GANLEY (dancer) began dancing in her living room with her mom and dad in Mendocinco County. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with degrees in Anthropology, Women's Studies and Theater Arts, Damara had the honor of dancing with The Mel Wong Dance Company. She has performed with Bibliodance, dance ceres, Mark Franko, Carol Kueffer, Nina Haft, and RAW dance. She is currently performing with Emspace Dance, Kate Mitchell, Jo Kreiter/Fly Away Productions, Lisa Townsend and Shift Physical Theatre. This is her second opportunity to enjoy performing with Nancy Karp + Dancers.

DIANE MCKALLIP (dancer) received her early dance training in Philadelphia and New York. In 1977, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she co-founded the Choreographer's Performance Alliance. Over the past two decades, Diane has danced in the works of many San Francisco choreographers and currently performs with Nancy Karp + Dancers, Randee Paufve, and Nina Haft. She is also a fitness consultant and Pilates instructor, specializing in work with older adults. This year marks Diane’s 24th season with the company.

SHANNON PRETO (dancer) holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Shannon has most recently been seen in the Smith/Wymor’s’ Disappearing Acts performance at Counterpulse (May 2004).  Having just found a quaint cottage with his wife, Shannon plans on staying in the area. He is truly thankful for this opportunity to perform in his first season with Nancy Karp + Dancers and hopes for many returns.

WENDY REIN (dancer) began her choreographic career at age five with an ambitious piece to "Muppet Fever". She has been performing ever since, having the privilege of dancing in works by Alvin Ailey, Colin Connor, Donna Jewell, and Donald McKayle, among others. Dancing/choreographing with RCJ Dance in college, she obtained her BA from Brown University, and worked with Misnomer Dance Theater in NYC before finally settling in SF. Wendy is very happy to have had the chance to work with local choreographers Alma Esperanza Cunningham, Emma Huckabay, and Mary Carbonara, and in 2004, she co-founded RAWdance with longtime collaborator Ryan T. Smith. She works in the larger dance community for Bay Area Celebrates National Dance Week. This is Wendy’s first season with Nancy Karp + Dancers.