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Search for Simurgh April 8, 2023

Artist Bios

Kate Digby is associate professor and Associate Director for Dance in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Kansas State University. A choreographer, director, and performer who has created over 50 original works that have been performed across the U.S., in Canada and India, she is also a certified instructor of Moving for Life DanceExercise for Health®, BodyMind Dancing™, Batdorf Technique, and Yoga, and is training to become a Movement Analyst and Dance Therapist. katedigby.art

Roya Movafegh (1971-2015) was a multi-media artist and writer. Her work explores the dynamics of assimilation, the multiple facets of cultural identity, and freedom. She initiated Search for Simurgh with Kate Digby as a multi-disciplinary sequel to her novel The People With No Camel, and, at the time of her passing, was co-writing its adaptation to film with Myriam Rafla. www.royamovafegh.com

Erika Batdorf is an international artist that lives north of Toronto and has been creating award-winning performance work for over 30 years shared in 14 countries and 14 US states. Though known as a solo performer and theatre director/devisor, lately she has been developing large site specific immersive projects. She also created the performance training technique called The Batdorf Technique.  www.batdorf.org

Mark-David Hosale is a computational artist, composer. and Associate Professor / Chair of Computational Arts in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance, and Design, at York University, Toronto. His solo and collaborative work has been exhibited internationally at such venues as the SIGGRAPH Art GalleryInternational Symposium on Electronic ArtBlikOpener Festival, the Dutch Electronic Art Festival, Biennale of SidneyToronto’s Nuit Blanche, Art Souterrain, and a Collateral event at the Venice Biennale, and Currents New Media. He is co-editor of the anthology Worldmaking as Techné: Participatory Art, Music, and Architecturewww.mdhosale.com

Alan Macy is currently the Research and Development Director, past President and a founder of BIOPAC Systems, Inc. He designs data collection and analysis systems, used by researchers in the life sciences, that help identify meaningful interpretations from signals produced by life processes. His recent research and artistic efforts explore ideas of human nervous system extension and the associate impacts upon perception. As an applied science artist, he specializes in the creation of cybernated art, interactive sculpture and environments. https://alanmacy.com

Neoshia Shockley is from Eureka, Kansas with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography, printmaking and a minor in dance. Her artwork addresses dance from a first-person experience as a dancer herself. From losing her passion over the years and finding it once again with the help of fellow dancers in the dance department at Kansas State University and from the friends she has met along the way who inspire her to keep dancing. neoshock_artworks

Sabrina Rodriguez is a Drama Therapy Graduate student at Kansas State University and considers it an honor to contribute to this performance. She would like to thank her daughter for challenging her to do her best every day. 

The K-State Dance Program is dedicated to nurturing strong, well-rounded, and versatile dance artists. While honoring the importance of a broad, liberal arts curriculum, the Dance program provides quality training in technique, choreography, pedagogy, and production. Central to the Dance program is the performance of well-danced, quality choreography, collaboration across disciplines, and the vitality of human diversity. We offer a unique interdisciplinary secondary major, a dance certificate, and dance minor with extensive performance opportunities through faculty and student concerts, as well as touring ensembles. www.k-state.edu/dance

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