“Fusion doesn’t begin to describe what’s going on here; Elam is annealing his influences, creating a taut, intense movement language.” - Zimmer, The Village Voice 

Founded in 1998 by Artistic Director Chris Elam, Misnomer has been hailed as one of the most original and dynamic modern dance companies in the performing arts today.  Whether moving people through art or building transformative platforms for engagement, we create experimental, unexpected, and powerful ways for artists and audiences to create and find meaning together.

Misnomer’s works have been recognized as “one of the top ten dance performances” of the year by The New York Times and have earned the company a position as one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine. Misnomer has performed in over 300 theaters in fourteen countries, and has presented eight NYC seasons with support from frequent residencies, most notably at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYC’s Skirball Center, and The Joyce Theater Foundation.  The company has conducted large-scale, cross-medium collaborations, ranging from choreographing for Bjork’s “Wanderlust” video to creating an 8,000 square foot labyrinth with the Danish Dance Theater.

MISSION
Misnomer's work includes the creation, research and presentation of original dance and the development of boundary-crossing innovations in audience engagement.

GoSeeDo
An innovator in connecting people with the arts, Misnomer has created GoSeeDo, a web platform and community to give audiences ways to directly interact with artists and their art. GoSeeDo has received wide recognition and support in the business, technology, and arts communities. These efforts both complement and advance the company’s core artistic vision, which is, broadly, to engage its dancers and audiences in the experience and understanding of human interaction and intimacy. More can be learned about GoSeeDo (formerly AEP) at www.GoSeeDo.org.

MISNOMER’S LEAD SUPPORTERS
Misnomer has been selected to take part in a groundbreaking new arts initiative, “Leading for the Future: Innovative Support for Artistic Excellence” created by Nonprofit Finance Fund and funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Misnomer is by far the youngest of the ten organizations (including Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Cunningham Dance Foundation, Jacob’s Pillow Dance, and The Wooster Group) to receive this funding for innovative projects that address challenges facing the arts. Misnomer has also received essential support from the Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Dance/USA’s Emerging Dance Audiences initiative.

Chris Elam, Founding Artistic Director and Choreographer

Brynne Billingsley received her BFA in dance from the University of Southern Mississippi. Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, she moved to New York City in 2003 and began collaborating with other artists making dance, photography, and other creative projects in and around the city. Brynne currently teaches Pilates and continues to pursue her interests in learning, teaching, and making dance.

 Jennifer C. Harmer is a founding member of Misnomer Dance Theater. Since graduating from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, she has worked with Sara Pearson/Patrik Widrig & Co., Mark Dendy, Tina Croll, Axis of Eve, Dance Anonymous, the Kinesis Project, and was a senior company member with Murray Spalding Movement Arts for four years. Jennifer is a certified Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis instructor, as well as a Bagua practitioner and enthusiast.

Coco Karol grew up in Boston where she studied at The Boston Ballet and under friend and mentor Marcu Schulkind. Karol graduated with a BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She has had the pleasure of getting to work closely with many interesting artists such as the singer Bjork and film collective Encyclopedia Pictura, composer Inhyun Kim, designer Jennifer Gonzales, director Steven Cook and magazine Beautiful Decay. Karol has been a member of Chris Elam's Misnomer Dance Theater since 2005, where she enjoys being a part of Elam's creative process. Karol built and ran an experiemental performance space in Brooklyn called the Petri space- a small petri dish concept, dedicated to experimentation, education, community and roof top gardening. Her artistic collaborations have been shown at D.U.M.B.O. Under the Bridge Festival, New York Studio Gallery, Galapagos, Brooklyn Ballet, Symphony Space, Death By Audio, and Aunts collective. She has had the privilege of dancing for Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, Christopher Williams, Luke Gutgsell, Jose Navas and Steven Petronio.

Jenny Campbell grew up in Chicago, IL and was a competitive          rhythmic gymnast until the age of 17.  She received her BFA in dance performance from Ohio State University in 2006 and joined Misnomer Dance Theater in 2009.   Jenny currently works with Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance and has had the pleasure of working with Karl Anderson, Jane Franklin, and Amanda Selwyn.  She is a certified yoga teacher and teaches privately throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Val Loukiano is from the Ukraine where he graduated with honors from the Zhitomir Dance Academy and was named Ukrainian National Ballroom Champion. After a two-year stint in the Army, where he was a leading performer in its Military Dance Ensemble, he graduated from the Moscow University of Art with advanced degrees in Performance and Choreography. Val has toured Europe and Asia with folk troupes, variety revues, and musicals.

 “Chris Elam has fashioned a distinctive, engagingly bizarre choreographic style.  His skill and clarity of vision delight the soul.” - Jowitt, The Village Voice

“Wonderfully strange and unpredictable choreography.” - Seibert, The New Yorker

Misnomer Dance Theater finds tenderness, humor, and absurdity in peoples’ efforts to relate to one another. Whether between adolescent sisters, estranged lovers, business partners, or animalistic creatures, Artistic Director Chris Elam invents characters that work hard to form meaningful exchanges, sometimes producing poignant and awkward tenderness, at other moments yielding fiercely dismal misunderstandings.

Elam uses physical illusions as a tool to investigate personal and group transformation. An arm sprouts out of an ear, a person becomes an ostrich, five dancers appear to share a single head and dance a maudlin jig. Assertive contact partnering in which dancers climb upon each other to form improbable human architectures serves to fuse performers into unusual entities.

Drawing from his extensive training in both traditional Balinese and Modern Dance, Elam establishes the human body as a site for cultural exchange. This is achieved by creating wildly kinetic movement that integrates the tense and sculptural quick-action style of Balinese dance with Chris’ own broken-flow modern movement.
 

Board of Directors

Samir Bitar, Treasurer
Chief of Visitor Services, Smithsonian Institute, National Museum of Natural History
Former Executive Director, Sens Productions Noemie Lafrance Dance
Bio

Stephen Chen
Emerging Markets Investment Professional, Oppenheimer Investments
Former Vice President, Bear Stearns
Cofounder, GreenSoul Shoes
Bio

Chris Elam
Artistic Director & CEO, Misnomer Dance Theater
Bio

Oussama El-Hilali
Vice President, NetBackup Engineering, Symantec Corporation
Bio

Marc Mathieu
Senior Vice President, Global Marketing, Unilever
Former Vice President, Global Brand Marketing, Coca-Cola
Founder, BeDo.com
Bio

Betsy Poirier, Secretary
Director, Digital Channel Marketing, Toys R Us
Bio

Bill Pulleyblank, Chair
Professor of Operations Research, United States Millitary Academy
Former Vice President, Business Analytics and Optimization, Global Business Services, IBM
Bio

Advisory Board

Bio

David Berkowitz
Senior Director of Emerging Media & Innovation, 360i
Bio

Sean Curran
Artistic Director, Sean Curran Dance
Bio

Peter Clare
Former Director at Oracle
CEO/CTO at Apacheta Corporation
Bio

Sasha Dees
International Producer and Programmer
Bio

David Dorfman
Artistic Director, David Dorfman Dance
Bio

Saryn Goldberg
Assistant Professor in Engineering, Hofstra University

Måns Hultman
former Chairman of the Board and CEO, QlikTech
Bio

Joy Kellman
Choreographer
Bio

Brendan Kramp
Former Head of Fundraising, English National Opera
Bio

Alison Lindland
Senior Manager, Business Development, American Express
Bio

Marie-Claire Meisels
Marketing Consultant
Former Director of Marketing & Communications, PopTech
Bio

Martha Myers
Dean Emeritus, American Dance Festival
Bio

Kit Sharma

Product Manager, Cisco

Bio

Co-Founder of Imaginatik
Founder and CEO of Orcasci

Bio

Chris Elam
Artistic Director & CEO

Larry Henry 
Director of Partnerships and Development

Rob Capili
GoSeeDo Product Manager

Jeremy Williams
Community Manager

Janet Tharp
Financial Manager & Bookkeeping