Biographies

Amanda Abrams is a modern dancer based in Washington, DC. Originally from North Carolina, she has danced with several DC-based groups and her choreography has been shown at Dance Place and Joy of Motion. Amanda is an avid improviser, helps facilitate a weekly contact improvisation jam, and is the former organizer of the DC Improvisation Festival. When not dancing, she's feverishly at work trying to succeed as a freelance writer.

Florencia Lopez Boo is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she received a BA in Contemporary  Dance and Choreography from the Teatro General San Martin. Since then, she has danced with several groups in Buenos Aires (Argentina), London and  Oxford (UK), and Brussels (Belgium) as a free-lance dancer. Her choreography has been shown at festivals in The  Place in London and many festivals in Buenos Aires and Oxford. More recently, she received a certificate as Pilate instructor at the Pilates institute in London in 2006. Florencia is also a very committed economist working on development issues in Latin-America.

Alexander Short has been dancing in the Washington area for a long time. He has worked with many local choreographers including Paul Emerson, Tyrone Murray, Tara Tai Pierson, Michelle Ava, Lou Antonini, Nancy Newell, Miya Hisaka, Karen Studd, Kitty Clark, Barbara Belzer, Jane Franklin and, most recently, Malcolm Shute.  He has studied modern, tap and ballroom dancing.  He received his certificate in Laban Movement Analysis from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in 2000.

Malcolm Shute is a dance artist.  His performing career began in Washington DC with Nancy Havlik's Dance Performance Group and Jane Franklin Dance. In 2006, he completed his Master of Fine Arts in Dance with a concentration in choreography from the University of Maryland. He went on to found Human Landscape Dance, http://www.hldance.org, to showcase his own artistic vision. Shute is fascinated by relationships between people and the environments we inhabit. The performers of Human Landscape Dance appear on a variety of alternative spaces, lawns, stairwells, and walls, as well as the stage. Shute extends his understanding of movement craft by teaching. He is an adjunct professor in the Towson University BFA Dance Program. Shute is also a Certified Movement Analyst.