ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Geri Vanore - Director / Choreographer Chorus of Dreams (ADHK)

Geri Vanore is a Philadelphia native who bargained her training at her neighborhood studio at the age of ten. She later attended the High School for the Creative And Performing Arts (CAPA). She also trained at Philadanco, where she became a member of Danco II.  Developing a passion for teaching in 1995, Geri now specializes in teaching modern, ballet, technique and turn, lyrical, hip hop, bellydance and mask acting.  She attended the University of the Arts in Philadelphia where she worked with Ruth Andrian, Molly Misgalla, Pat Thomas, Andrew Pap, Roni Koresh, and Manfred Fishbach . In 2001 Geri was offered a scholarship to train at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. There she studied under Kazuko Hirabayashi, Denise Vale, Elana Comendador, Marguerite Wesley, Max Luna III, and many more. 

In 2003 Geri co-founded and directed Identity Dance Company, a dance group designed for adolescents and young adults who sought to escape potentially harmful environments and explore their potential through dance arts.  In 2005 Geri became a member of the Philadelphia Wings Dance Team with whom she performed for three seasons. She has also recently danced as a featured performer at the Garden State Dance Festival in 2007.  Since 2005 Geri has been working with Archedream for Humankind, a blacklight archetypal dance theatre, with whom she tours nationally and internationally giving performances and workshops at schools festivals and theaters.  

With ADHK Geri is a performer, choreographer, and instructor for various workshops.  Her most rewarding experience with ADHK was a month long residency at the Dream Community in Taiwan. And her most recent accomplishment was taking on the role of Director of the newest addition to the company’s repertoire, Chorus of Dreams.  In addition to teaching and ADHK, Geri is enjoying working with gifted choreographer and friend, Tina Heuges.  Now and perpetually, Geri remains passionate about dance, choreography, improvisation, chance, sharing and all else swirling around this art form!!!

Eric "E O" Oberthaler -(Music Director, Composer of Chorus of Dreams)

E O is the musical director and main composer of Gamelan X.  In 1993 he earned a B.M. from Oberlin Conservatory and in 1996 an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied composition with Mel Powell and Stephen Mosko, trumpet and improvisation with Wadada Leo Smith, and classical Indian music with Sarod master Rajeev Taranath. 

Equally well-versed in digital audio production and traditional composition, Eric has produced a diverse body of work that includes the score for the upcoming Lotus and Lightning (a documentary about Vietnamese virtuoso musician Nguyen Ngoc Khanh), commissions for the New York-based Jamie Bishton Dance Company, non-linear music for the interactive web-based comic strips of YiMagination Studios, three large-scale operatic rituals for the Burning Man festival involving hundreds of performers, and the techno-rock opera Joe Messiah, as well as dozens of songs and new works for Gamelan X, including their recent CD release, SATU. 

Eric's chamber orchestra compositions have been performed by the Atlantic Brass Quintet, the CalArts New Century Players, Indiana University New Music Ensemble, and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble.  A naturally dynamic performer, E O specializes in trumpet, keyboards, and voice.  He is the lead trumpeter with Brass Menazeri, the Bay Area's premier balkan brass band, and has appeared on numerous recordings including the Residents' recent Animal Lover.

Alan Bell - Co-Founder / Art Director (ADHK)

South African born Alan Bell, is the artist behind ArcheDream.  Growing up in the Age of Apartheid, he resolved to find an art form that would unify the racially divided audience in an ecstasy of wonder.  While dedicating himself to the medium of blacklight for over two decades, Alan discovered a way to bridge his African roots with his European inheritance. 

Originally performing as Dream Theatre, the first production debuted in Naples, Italy 1996.  Alan lived in Amsterdam, Holland for 18 years and is a graduate of the Johannesburg College of Art.  He is committed to the enrichment of culture through delightful, profound and unforgettable art.  Alan writes children’s plays for the Princeton Montessori School and he writes children’s music for a CD series called Kaleidoscope Songs with Alex Mitnick (www.kaleidoscopesongs.com). 

Alan helped Emily Nussdorfer establish Girl’s of Promise, a Philadelphia art and enrichment program for adjudicated inner city teen girls, and he is also artist in residence at the RHD Ridge Avenue Homeless Shelter for men in Center City Philadelphia.