We are a bi-coastal creative team of artists, movers, researchers, and educators.
Shadow Tender is generated through a continuous process of devising rooted in dialogue, design, improvisation, and choreography. Utilizing investigative techniques from both the arts and sciences, our fluid multidisciplinary approach is sustained by a vibrant creative team from diverse (and at times divergent) cultural and artistic backgrounds. Our fields of study include an assortment of movement styles (ballet, butoh, contemporary, folk, circus, & martial arts...to name a few) as well as neuroscience, experimental theater, biochemistry, psychology, somatics, puppetry, illustration, comics, and education theory.
CORE CREATIVE TEAM
NATALYA KOLOSOWSKY//Artistic Director & Founder
Natalya Kolosowsky is a Russian-American director, performer, and interdisciplinary artist based in Portland, OR.
She was born in Siberia but grew up in the Sonoran desert, which created a life-long interest in the bridging of seemingly opposing realities, histories, and perspectives. Natalya received her classical ballet training under Kee-Juan Han and went on to study and perform in circus arts, improvisation, butoh, and physical theater throughout the West coast. She was the founder and artistic director of the site-specific performance group Anatomia Dance Collective, and has worked on projects with Flam Chen Pyrotechnic Theater, the Salzburg State Theatre, Michael Curry Design, and Degenerate Art Ensemble, among others. Her work has been performed and exhibited at a variety of venues in the United States, Europe, and Asia, including the the Museum of American Illustration, the 2013 World Stage Design festival in Cardiff, the 2015 Prague Quadrennial, the A.A. Bakhrushin Theatre Museum in Moscow, and the Taipei National University for the Arts. She holds a BFA in Visual Communication and a BS in Psychology from the University of Arizona as well as an MFA in Costume Design from the University of Oregon.
http://www.natalyakolosowsky.com/
MARIA THOMAS//Movement Consultant & Performer
Maria is multidisciplinary artist, martial arts instructor, and stunt woman based in Portland, Oregon.
Her passion for martial arts and a lifetime of asthma and a chronically ill childhood have fueled a fascination with the way we use our bodies to communicate, navigate, and integrate with our surroundings. Visually, she’s interested in using creatures and characters from folklore and mythology to explore growth, decay, and transformation. Maria has 19 years of experience in multiple martial arts, and is a 3rd degree black belt in Tang Soo Do. She has choreographed and performed in internationally award-winning martial arts demonstrations. As a co-founder, costumer, and dancer for the Anatomia Dance Collective, she performed along the West coast and has had work exhibited at the 2013 World Stage Design festival in Cardiff and the A.A. Bakhrushin Theatre Museum in Moscow. She holds a BFA in Visual Communication from the University of Arizona.
MAGDA KACZMARSKA//Choreographer & Performer
Magda Kaczmarska is a dancer, choreographer and teaching artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Drawing on her experience as a Polish immigrant, Kaczmarska’s interdisciplinary work explores infrastructures of language and identity. Current project interests include applying and adapting the physical language and structures of traditional ballet, modern and folk dance to reflect the experience of queer identities in Eastern European cultures and multi-generational trauma and resiliency.
As a collaborating performer-choreographer Kaczmarska works in New York with Hilary Brown and Briana Brown-Tipley in their company S.A.S. and HB2. She also served as co-founder, choreographer and performer with Evolve Dance~West, a non-profit dance company which sought to expand accessibility to dance in southern Arizona. As a teaching artist, Kaczmarska has devoted her career to developing and expanding dance programs for seniors and marginalized youth. She received her Dance for PD training with Mark Morris Dance Group and developed a subsidiary program in Arizona. As a lead teacher and performer with Dances for a Variable Population, she leads seniors and intergenerational groups in the greater New York City area in exploring their creativity through movement. Kaczmarska’s work has been presented in Arizona, Oregon, New York, Switzerland, and Taiwan. She holds a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and an MFA in dance performance and choreography from the University of Arizona.
PROJECT COLLABORATORS
ADAM COOPER-TERÁN//Sound Designer
Adam Cooper-Terán (Chicanx / Yaqui / Russian) is an acclaimed performer, producer, and designer originally from Tucson, Arizona.
Adam’s work has appeared throughout the Americas, Europe, and the Middle-East in universities, museums, basements, and streets via mediated ceremony + spectacle. He has garnered praise and support from academic and cultural institutions like the MAP Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, National Performers Network, Belle Foundation for the Arts, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Arizona State University, International Sonoran Desert Alliance, NYU, and University of Rostock, Germany, among others. Adam is perhaps most known for his performances with the bi-national multimedia collective, Verbo•bala Spoken Video as well as the Tucson All Souls Procession. Current projects are focused on carrying out "Art War" against mainstream media and other systems of control, however possible.