Staff.
Eva Stone (Founder, Co-Producer)
Eva Stone is a choreographer, curator, teaching artist, founder of CHOP SHOP: Bodies of Work, and director of StoneDance Productions. She received her BFA in Performance & Choreography from Arizona State University, and later earned an MA in Choreography & Choreological Studies from Trinity Laban, UK. She has created work for Pacific Northwest Ballet, Spectrum Dance Theater, Eugene Ballet, Seattle International Dance Festival and for regional companies and universities around the US. For the past 30 years her project based dance company, The Stone Dance Collective, has performed both nationally and internationally with a focus on accessibility, audience engagement and education. Her work in concert dance, film, site specific projects, and choreographic residencies has fueled a life-long focus on dance making and sharing insights on the creative process. In September 2018 she launched a nationally recognized choreography program “New Voices: Choreography and Process for Young Women in Dance” at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, where she has been on faculty for 20 years.
Emily Schoen Branch (Managing Director, Co-Producer)
Emily Schoen Branch is a choreographer, performer, and teacher based in the Pacific Northwest. Since 2011 she has led ESB Dance Projects, producing work across unconventional and international contexts, including a two-year collaboration with Tunisian dancers supported by Baryshnikov Arts Center and the US Embassy in Tunisia. Through her work for both stage and camera, she has fulfilled twenty commissions for companies and universities nationwide. She holds an MFA from the University of Washington and is a Princess Grace Fellowship nominee. Her research, “Financial Trends in American Concert Dance Festivals” has been published by the American Journal of Arts Management. Through her organization Inlet Arts, she builds infrastructure to enable more connection points between dance and society, thus feeding the future of the art form and providing opportunities for its artists.
Banner Photo: Courtney Mazeika and Marlie Couto performing their duet eventually at CHOP SHOP 2018, photo by Bret Doss.