Mentor Bios
Barbara Bryan
Barbara Bryan is the Executive Director of Movement Research and is an independent performing arts producer, manager and curator currently working with Sarah Michelson, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life Residency Program and Pentacle’s ART program. From 2000-12, she was the Managing Director of John Jasperse/Thin Man Dance, Inc., Producing Director with Wally Cardona, and Project Director with Jennifer Monson/iLand, Inc. She was guest curator of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival’s Inside/Out Series (Becket, MA) from 2002-12. She was the Associate Director of Danspace Project from 1997-99. She has served as a faculty member, mentor, guest speaker and panelist at various events and convenings in NYC, nationally and abroad. She participated in Race Forward’s New York City Racial Equity in the Arts Innovation Lab in 2017-18. While serving as its Executive Director, Movement Research received a 2015 Bessie Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance. Barbara received her MFA in Dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Boo Froebel
Boo Froebel, independent curator and producer of live performance, consults for the DeVos Institute of Arts Management and the Pentacle ART Mentor program, among others, produces for David Neumann/ Advanced Beginner Group, and most recently produced ContraBanned: #MusicUnites at SXSW 2017, a showcase of artists/bands from the 7 Banned Countries. Previously, Froebel served as Producer of Lincoln Center Festival; Co Executive Producer of the Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues & Ideas (OBIE Award); Curator/Producer of live art at The Whitney Museum; and Artistic Director of Galapagos Art Space (OBIE award). A performance generalist, Froebel has nominated, evaluated, and sat on panels for numerous foundations such as Creative Capital, the CalArts Alpert Award, US Artists International, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Lambent Foundation, the MAP Fund and more. She currently sits on the Board of The Poetry Project, and is a past board member of Movement Research. A Minnesota native, Froebel graduated from Sarah Lawrence College.
Brian Rogers
Brian Rogers is a director, video and sound artist, co-founder and artistic director of The Chocolate Factory Theater, which supports the creation of theater, dance, music and multimedia performances at its 5,000 sq ft facility in LIC, Queens. Since 1997, Brian has conceived and/or directed numerous large scale performances at The Chocolate Factory and elsewhere including Hot Box (September 2012, co-presented with FIAF’s Crossing The Line Festival / January 2013, PS122’s COIL Festival / February 2013, EMPAC Center, Troy NY – supported by a MAP Fund grant), the Bessie-nominated Selective Memory (July 2010, Mount Tremper Arts / September 2011, The Chocolate Factory / January 2011, PS122’s COIL Festival), redevelop (death valley) (2009), 2 Husbands (2007), Gun Play (2006), Audit (2004), and Fundamental (2002). His newest work, Screamers, will premiere in 2017.
In addition to his own work, Brian curates The Chocolate Factory’s Visiting Artist Program (now in its 11th year) which supports the work of more than 100 theater, dance, music and multimedia artists each year.
Cathy Zimmerman
Cathy Zimmerman is an independent producer, curator and creative consultant. She has a profound belief in artists as change agents and in the critical role arts and imagination play in creating just and democratic societies. With this core value at the forefront, she has worked for more than 25 years with U.S. and international performing artists and arts organizations in capacities including producing, curating, project development and management, artist representation, public relations and fundraising. Zimmerman was Executive Producer at MAPP International Productions, (1998-2016) –a producer of major performing arts projects that raise critical consciousness and spark social change –working with some of the major contemporary artists of our time, to bring their works and ideas to communities around the world. She is a recipient of the 2018 Fan Taylor Distinguished Service Award for her leadership at MAPP. Currently Zimmerman is a group leader for the Association of Performing Arts Professional’s Leadership Fellows Program and is on the dance and theater faculty at Sarah Lawrence College where she teaches an academic course designed to prepare graduate students with the global perspectives needed as they embark on their professional lives.
Fernando Maneca
Fernando Maneca is currently the Marketing & Communications Director at BAX | Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Board President of New Dance Alliance, and recently became a mentor in Pentacle’s Administrative Resource Team (ART) program. He is also a member of Artists Co-creating Real Equity (ACRE) an affinity group of the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, and of the Bessie’s Presenter League. He also co-curated the 8th annual Upstart Festival at BAX with Jillian Peña.
During his career as a performance maker, Maneca’s hybrid performance work was presented at numerous performing arts venues throughout NYC including BAX | Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Danspace Project, Dixon Place, Here Arts Center, The Ontological Theatre, and the 92nd Street Y among others. His work was supported by artist residencies at BAX and at Here Arts Center as well as monetary support from Meet the Composer, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and The Jerome Foundation.
Maneca’s history as a hybrid performance creator, choreographer, designer, arts administrator and art director has given him a unique perspective and expertise that has been sought out by artists and arts organizations. Fernando is regularly invited to sit on panels for the curation of festivals, the disbursement of grants and awarding of residencies, and he has consulted for numerous arts organizations and individual artists.
June Poster
June brings many years of extensive experience in all aspects of dance management to her role as a Mentor in the Pentacle A.R.T. Program. She is delighted to be working with two very talented choreographers. Her background has included the following positions: Booking Representative for Rena Shagan Associates; Managing Director of the Stephen Petronio Company; Managing Director of David Gordon/Pick Up Performance Company; Director of Finance and Domestic Booking for the Cunningham Dance Foundation; Director of Development for Meredith Monk/The House Foundation. She has also been a presenter as the Managing Director of BRIC Arts/Media/Brooklyn, a multi-disciplinary cultural organization that presents programs in the performing and visual arts.
Phil Chan
Phil Chan currently serves as the Art and Culture Director for IVY, connecting young professionals with leading American museums and performing arts institutions. As a writer, he served as the Executive Editor for FLATT Magazine and contributed to Dance Europe Magazine and the Huffington Post. He was the founding General Manager of the Buck Hill Skytop Music Festival, and was the General Manager for Armitage Gone! Dance and Youth America Grand Prix. He is a graduate of Carleton College and an alumnus of the Ailey School. He served on the National Endowment for the Arts dance panel and the Jadin Wong Award panel presented by the Asian American Arts Alliance, and is on the advisory committee for the Parsons Dance Company. He also serves on Americans for the Arts’ private sector council.
Sarah A.O. Rosner
Sarah A.O. Rosner hustles maximalism. She is a multimedia performance maker (the A.O. Movement Collective), arts businessperson (A.O. PRO(+ductions)), and postmodern pornographer (AORTA films) who makes work out of Brooklyn, NY. She currently serves as a Managing Consultant for Tere O’Connor Dance and Company SBB / Stefanie Batten Bland, and the Managing Director for Juliana May and Aynsley Vandenbroucke, as well as offering freelance arts business consulting for NYC’s makers. She has been featured as a speaker, educator, and panelist by Dance/NYC, Kickstarter, Adobe, Gibney Dance, Dance Theater Workshop/New York Live Arts, CLASS CLASS CLASS, and Dance New Amsterdam, as well as Marymount Manhattan, Sarah Lawrence, Bard and Purchase Colleges.
www.theAOMC.org // www.AORTAfilms.com