Digby Dance - About Us

Toby Billowitz is over the moon to be working once again with the delightful Kate Digby. He is also fortunate to be part of Artichoke Dance Company and for his decade-long association with Jordan Fuchs. He also teaches dance, plays ultimate frisbee and is a personal trainer.

Tanya Birl is thrilled to be performing with Digby Dance again! She is a native of Toronto, Canada and received her training from Cawthra Park school of the Arts and The Ailey School in NYC. Credits include: Finian's Rainbow (City Center Encores!),On The Town (City Center Encores!),The Lion King (1st national tour), West Side Story: 50th Anniversary World Tour (West End, London), The Evolution of Jazz, Helix Dance Project, Nathan Trice/Rituals. Tanya is also a guest teacher/choreographer both here in the U.S. and in Canada.

Summer Brown: Originally from California’s Napa Valley, Summer graduated with high honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a B.F.A. in Dance and a B.A. in History. While attending UCSB, she toured California for two years with the UCSB Dance Company and, among other acknowledgments, was honored with the Alice Condodina Performance Award. Since moving to the New York City area, Summer has worked with Richard Daniels, Sue Hogan, Katherine Howard, and RedWall Dance Theatre. She has performed site specific works for Larry Keigwin and Natalie Desch, has presented her own choreography in California and New York, and has been a member of Digby Dance since February 2007. Summer has recently been accepted to the M.F.A. Dance Program at California State University Long Beach and will relocate to the west coast with her husband Adam this spring.

Erin Gottwald is originally from Boston. She has lived and danced in London, Maine, Massachusetts, California & New York with companies and choreographers including Paufve Dance, Heidi Schweiker, Prometheus Dance, Fearghus O'Conchuir, Vanessa Paige Swanson & Digby Dance. Her choreography has been presented in Brooklyn, New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts. A graduate of Bates College, she spent 2 terms at the London Contemporary Dance School and received her formative training for 11 years at the Boston Ballet School. Some of her favorite performance venues have been a barn in Warren, Vermont (The Phantom Theatre), a nightclub in Oakland, Caifornia (The Stork Club), a beautiful black box in London, England (The Place Theatre) and a square of sidewalk in Davis Square in Somerville, Massachusetts. Erin teaches dance at Spoke the Hub Dancing in Brooklyn, is the webmistress for Monkey Business Camp in Berkeley, California and is undertaking the Italian language. This is Erin's 4th season with Digby Dance.

Gary Lai, born and raised in the boogie-down bronx, has a varied movement background in gymnastics, martial arts, rock climbing, and now dance.He was the owner/operator of physical arts center, an incestuous breeding ground for all forms of movement arts located in williamsburg, brooklyn. Gary's life experiences range from getting live body piercings onstage, to getting his ass kicked in really bad movies, to pouting on a runway in milano, to teaching funny little kids gymnastics. He has danced for noemie lafrance on the side of a frank gehry building, in a sling for airelise (elise knudson), and on the floor for luis lara malvacias / full fat dance, wendy osserman dance company, and most recently digby dance, among others. Gary is attempting to work off of the corporate grid - teaching gymnastics and martial arts, and finding the oddest jobs from craigslist.org. all so that he can support his dance habit.

Marissa Palley recently graduated with honors in English and Dance from Barnard College, where she performed in works choreographed by Mark Morris, Sean Curran, Jeanine Durning, Gerald Casel, Heather McArdle, and Twyla Tharp. While participating in Summer Stages Dance in Concord, MA, she had the privilege of dancing in Stephan Koplowitz ‘s site-specific piece entitled (iseea) and Sara Rudner’s Dancing on View: The ICA Variations. Now she enjoys spending her time dancing and teaching dance to energetic little kids. In addition to her work with Kate, Marissa also has the pleasure of performing work by David Parker, Anneke Hansen, and Lori Yuill. She loves her mom, dad, and brother

Megan Schenk, a native of Dayton, OH, began her training at Stivers School for the Arts where she was invited to join the Dayton Contemporary Dance Second Company. She went on to receive her BFA from the North Carolina School of the Arts where she was able to dance in works by renowned choreographers including, Doug Varone, Mark Morris, Kevin Wynn, and B.J. Sullivan. Through NCSA, she was also able to present her own choreography in two student shows as well as a solo at the Lincoln Center. In Boston, she has presented her work at the Dance Complex, the ICA as part of the annual Ten’s the Limit, and most recently as an emerging artist at Green Street Studios. She has been lucky to work with wonderful artists while in Boston including: Lorraine Chapman, Prometheus Dance, David Parker and the Bang Group, and Michael Jahoda. Megan is now living in New York City continuing to develop her own artistic voice as a performer and choreographer.

Juliana Tillbury
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