 Asimina Chremos
Asimina Chremosis a solo dance artist. She also engages in projects with others such as Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape, vocalist Carol
Genetti, Khecari Dance Theatre, Lucky Plush Productions and cellist Fred
Lonberg-Holm.
Originally trained in classical ballet at the School of the Richmond Ballet
(Virginia) and the Pennsylvania Ballet School (Philadephia), she began her
professional career with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater under the artistic
direction of Patricia Wilde. There she danced corps and soloist roles in
full-length classics and Balanchine Ballets during the early 1980’s. Seeking
avenues into creative process and contemporary technique, she entered
the BFA Dance program at Temple University, graduating summa cum
laude in 1991. During this period she also encountered significant
teachers Simone Forti, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Gloria McLean, Nancy
Stark Smith and members of Contraband dance company.
Post graduation, Chremos was an active member of the Philadelphia, PA
creative community and participated in projects with the Big Mess
Cabaret, Karen Bamonte, Community Education Center, Headlong Dance
Theater, Susan Hess Studio, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadephia Alliance
for Performance Alternatives, Elizabeth Smullens, Leah Stein, Eric
Schoefer and others. She won a Fellowship in Choreography from the
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In 1995, she was part of a Movement
Research Exchange (MRX) program between NYC and Philadelphia along
with Eduardo Alegria, Kent Despain, Leslie Dworkin and Jennifer Lacey.
Her work, Bridle, is described in Sally Banes’s book Dancing Women:
Female Bodies on Stage, published by Routledge.
Chremos relocated to Chicago in 1997 where she quickly became active
as a choreographer, dancer, teacher and collaborator. In addition to
continuing her own creative development and delving more deeply into
dance improvisation studies, yoga, and Klein-Mahler Technique, she began
to take on administrative roles within the larger dance community, taking
the role of artistic director of alternative venue Links Hall from 2000 to
2004; and since 2005 editing the Dance listings for Time Out Chicago, a
weekly magazine.
A frequent collaborator with free jazz and experimental musicians,
Chremos was invited to perform at the High Zero Festival of Experimental
Music in Baltimore, MD in September 2007. Her performance was
described in Signal to Noise magazine as “nearly ecstatic in her virtuosic
athleticism.” Chremos has also explored her Greek cultural heritage
through dance: Zeibekika (January 2006) is an evening-length ensemble
work funded by the Chicago Dancemakers Forum. She has collaborated on
duets with Greek-American oud player Mavrothi Kontanis, and the two
appeared in New York City in January 2008 at the Vision Collaboration
Festival at Symphony Space and the Greek-American Performing Arts
Festival in Queens.
Significant recent works also include CutUp (December 2006, an abstract
exploration of continuity and discontinuity with a cameo by the band
Mucca Pazza) and Red Swan Red Swan (December 2007, delving into the
psyche of a ballet dancer, music by Carol Genetti and guitarist Jeff
Parker) were both presented at Links Hall in Chicago. Seven Stillnesses, a
study of movement in the space of silence, premiered at the Durham Arts
Council PSI Theater in North Carolina in June 2008.
Visit Asimina's website asiminachremos.com
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