Chip

Chip has served many roles in Santa Cruz, with a diverse background in the arts, small business, community development, Non profit administration and marketing. A long time dance enthusiast, Chip has worked with a number of Dance Companies and artists locally and around the Bay Area, as Technical Director, Production Manager, Stage Manager, Tour Manager, Lighting Designer and once or twice as a walk on. Chip is excited to serve on the SCD advisory committee and is dedicated to raising the level of presentation of Dance as an art form in Santa Cruz.

David King

David King is a dancer, choreographer, durational installation artist and movement educator. Since 1992 he has been a principle dancer and choreographic collaborator with Cid Pearlman/Performance Projects (San Francisco/Los Angeles/Santa Cruz/Estonia). Their work has been presented by numerous venues including the Joyce SoHo (NYC), Theater Artaud (SF), and The Getty Center (LA). In addition to his work with CP/PP, he has performed with choreographers Eric Stern, Liam Clancy and Carmela Hermann, among others. In 1991 he earned a BA in Theater Arts/Dance from UC Santa Cruz and completed a four-year Feldenkrais practitioner training. In 2001 he received an MA in Dance from UCLA. King is co-founder of max10 Performance Laboratory, a monthly performance salon at the Electric Lodge in Venice, CA.

Julia Chiapella

Julia Chiapella is a writer, educator, and supporter of the arts with a BA in theater and an MA in education. As a columnist for the Santa Cruz Sentinel and a freelance writer for the Monterey Bay region she has written extensively about the arts. She has also worked collaboratively on a variety of performances with local artists including Sara Wilbourne, Bruce Lee, and Nancy LeVan. A writing instructor for Vine Hill Elementary, she lives in Santa Cruz with her husband and daughter.

Cid Pearlman

With a movement vocabulary that shifts between a rough-and-tumble physicality, intricate partnering and moments of delicate touch, Cid Pearlman’s choreography subtly disrupts traditional notions of desire, gender, and friendship. Her work has been presented by numerous venues including Joyce SoHo (New York City), Kanuti Gildi SAAL (Tallinn, Estonia), the Getty Center (Los Angeles), Theater Artaud (San Francisco) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (San Diego). From 1991-1999 Cid was the artistic director of San Francisco’s critically acclaimed Nesting Dolls. In 1999 she relocated to Los Angeles, establishing herself as an independent choreographer and producer. Her most recent collaborations have been with composers Joan Jeanrenaud, formerly of Kronos Quartet, and Jonathan Segel of Camper Van Beethoven. In addition to her own works, Cid has choreographed for film, opera and theater. Her evening length dance, “High Fall,” won the 2002 Lester Horton Award for Visual Design, and 2006’s “small variations” was nominated for two Horton Awards.

During the 2009-10 academic year Cid was a Fulbright Scholar in Estonia, teaching at Tallinn University and collaborating with Estonian dance artists. She co-coordinated “Imagining Bodies,” an academic symposium at Tallinn University, exploring how dance and body based practices intersect with dialectics of nation and identity across shifting global terrains and economies. At the end of her year in Estonia Cid's choreography, featuring Estonian, American and French dancers, was presented by KorFest at Kanuti Gildi SAAL in Tallinn, and by NoTaFe in Viljandi.

Cid received her BA in World Arts and Cultures and her MFA in Dance from the University of California, Los Angeles. After completing her graduate studies in 2006, she moved to Santa Cruz, California, and teaches in the Dance Department at Cabrillo College. Her work has received support from the Fulbright Program of the U.S. Department of State, the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the San Francisco Art Commission, the Zellerbach Family Fund, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, the American Composers Forum and the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County.

Virginia Wright

Virginia Wright is currently Development Director at the Carmel Bach Festival. She has held management positions at KUSP Radio, The Santa Cruz County Symphony, the Arts Council Silicon Valley and The Global Fund for Women. Her firm Wright & Associates offers strategic thinking, organizational development and fundraising consulting services to arts organizations primarily in Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties. She received her BA in International Relations from San Francisco State University and her MBA from Santa Clara University. She lives in Felton with her husband, also an arts fundraiser, and daughter, a ballet dancer. She believes in the power of the arts to transform the individual and society.