Founded in 2011, Jessica Lang Dance (JLD) is a New York City-based dance company under the direction and vision of choreographer Jessica Lang. JLD thrills audiences with repertoire ranging from minimal and simplistic to rich and complex with visual ideas including remarkable sets and costumes. Hailed as "a master of visual composition" by Dance Magazine, Lang transforms classical ballet language and rigor into artfully crafted, emotionally engaging contemporary works. Lang's interest in creative and artistic partnerships has resulted in frequent collaborations with artists including composer Jakub Ciupinski, visual artist Shinichi Maruyama, design studio molo and lighting designer Nicole Pearce.

Lang's receipt of a Joyce Theater Residency supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation marked the inception of JLD, which made its full company debut at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival's 80th Anniversary Season in July 2012. The company has been presented at major venues in New York City and beyond, and strives to educate, cultivate and widen public appreciation of the performing arts through performances, residencies, educational workshops, community outreach, mixed media/film collaborations and public art installations. JLD has received numerous grants and funding from organizations including the Jerome Robbins Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Japan Foundation New York and the O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation.

JLD will perform a world premiere at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in August 2013, co-commissioned by Jacob's Pillow with support from the O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation. The company will make its Joyce Theater debut on August 16 and 17, 2013.

Clifton Brown (Rehearsal Director) has danced with Earl Mosley's Diversity of Dance, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He has also restaged the work of Earl Mosley and Alvin Ailey. Clifton has performed as a guest with companies such as Nevada Ballet, Miami City Ballet and the Rome Opera Ballet. He has been nominated for a Critics Circle National Dance Award (UK) for best male dancer, and received a Black Theater Arts Award and a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award. In addition to teaching master classes in dance, Clifton is licensed to teach GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS®. He assisted Lang in her creation for Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2012 and is a founding member of JLD.

Todd Burnsed is a native of the Atlanta area and received a B.F.A. from The Juilliard School. He has toured extensively with Moses Pendleton's MOMIX and Twyla Tharp's Movin' Out. Todd was in the original Broadway cast of Tharp's Come Fly Away and her Las Vegas production, Sinatra Dance With Me. He has also worked with and performed works by Paul Taylor, Hans Van Manen, Igal Perry, Kevin Wynn, Daniel Ezralow, Sonya Tayeh, Doug Varone, The Next Stage Project, Mark Stuart Dance Theater and at The Metropolitan Opera in their productions of Parsifal and Les Troyens. Todd joined JLD in 2012.

Julie Fiorenza was born in South Korea and grew up in Massachusetts where she trained at the Academy of Dance Arts and the Boston Ballet School. She earned a B.F.A. in Dance from The Ailey School/Fordham University, graduating with honors, and has performed throughout the country as a member of Ailey II, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company and Adams Company Dance. Julie has appeared on stage at the Metropolitan Opera in Turandot and Mark Morris' Orfeo ed Euridice. She has also performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group in Romeo & Juliet: On Motifs of Shakespeare, The Hard Nut, and L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato. Julie is a founding member of JLD.

Sarah Beth Haarmann grew up in Macungie, Pennsylvania. She graduated in May 2012 with a B.F.A. in Dance (magna cum laude) from Marymount Manhattan College under the direction of Katie Langan. While at Marymount, she had the honor of performing works by Benoit-Swan Pouffer, Jessica Lang, Lar Lubovitch, Larry Keigwin, Shen Wei and Pam Tanowitz, with whom she also currently dances. Upon graduation, Sarah was selected to participate in the Cunningham repertory workshops sponsored by the Merce Cunningham Trust. Sarah began working with JLD in 2012 and joined the company in 2013.

Kirk Henning began his training with Watmora Casey and Avnun Yakubov. He was a member of Dayton Ballet, Richmond Ballet and currently dances with Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Kirk has performed a variety of works both contemporary and classical including Jessica Lang's Lines Squared and To Familiar Spaces in Dream, as well as the lead roles in Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Hamlet, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Romeo and Juliet and Apollo. His many awards include the Josie Award for most outstanding performer and the Movado Future Legend's Award. Kirk is a founding member of JLD.

Kana Kimura was born in Hiroshima, Japan, where she began her ballet training at the age of four. She continued her contemporary dance training with Takako Asakawa until the age of 18 when she entered The Juilliard School. Kana began working with Wally Cardona Quartet after graduating from The Juilliard School. With WC4 she performed at Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, Dance Theater Workshop and International Festival of Arts and Ideas at Yale University. She appeared in Nixon in China at The Metropolitan Opera, choreographed by Mark Morris and worked on a dance video performance for Shanghai Expo. Recently she performed with Japanese Arts Organization J-Collabo in NYC. Kana is a founding member of JLD.

Claudia MacPherson received her B.F.A. from The Ailey School/Fordham University. She has worked with Eva Dean Dance, Kevin Wynn Collection, Tattooed Ballerinas and SuriCo. Claudia has collaborated with soprano, Noemi Lugo, for concerts in Kentucky, Vermont and Brazil. She has performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group in The Hard Nut, Romeo & Juliet: On Motifs of Shakespeare, and L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, as well as in Mr. Morris' production of Orfeo ed Euridice at the Metropolitan Opera. Claudia has restaged Lang's work on Marymount Manhattan College, SUNY Purchase and Point Park University and is a founding member of JLD.

Laura Mead grew up in Austin, TX and Berkeley, CA. She received a B.F.A. in Dance from The Juilliard School, where she performed works by Jessica Lang, Ronald K. Brown, Eliot Feld and Paul Taylor, among others. Laura originated the principal role of Betsy in Twyla Tharp's Broadway musical Come Fly Away, for which she received an Astaire Award nomination. Laura served as Dance Captain on a national tour of Tharp's Movin' Out. She has also performed with American Repertory Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera and Morphoses. Laura has been a member of JLD since the full company's debut in 2012.

Milan Misko was raised in Missouri where he began his dance training with Jo Noth's White Oak Dance Academy and the Kansas City Ballet School. He holds a B.F.A. from the Purchase College Conservatory of Dance. Milan has had the pleasure to work with numerous companies including Kansas City Ballet, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Merce Cunningham Dance Company RUG, Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater, Adams Company Dance, and Setsuko Kawaguchi Ballet, Japan. He has created dances for Take Dance, Bucknell University, and directed his first short dance film, Transportation, which was selected for Lincoln Center's Dance on Camera Festival 2013. Milan has been a member of JLD since the full company's debut in 2012.

Jakub Ciupinski (Composer) is a Polish composer living in New York City. His concert music has been commissioned by various institutions and ensembles including Metropolis Ensemble, The New Juilliard Ensemble, The New York City Ballet's Choreographic Institute, as well as the world-famous violinists Anne Akiko-Meyers and Philippe Quint. His works have been performed around the world, including prestigious venues such as Tonhalle in Zurich and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York. Ciupinski studied composition with Christopher Rouse at The Juilliard School, Zbigniew Bujarski and Krzysztof Penderecki at the Cracow Academy of Music, and with Edwin Roxbrough and Joe Cutler at the Birmingham Conservatoire. www.ciupinski.pl

Elena Comendador (Costume Designer), formerly a dancer, has designed for Lang's works on Birmingham Royal Ballet, Ailey II, Colorado Ballet, ABT II and Morphoses, among others. She has designed for companies including Complexions, Connecticut Ballet, Montgomery Ballet, Philadanco and The Limón Dance Company and collaborated with choreographers including Troy Powell, Francesca Harper, Kevin Wynn, Sean Curran, Elie Lazar and Darrell Moultrie. Comendador received her BA in Women's Studies at Columbia University and her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College. She is on faculty at The Ailey School and Assistant Professor of Dance at Marymount Manhattan College. www.treehouseproductionsnyc.com

Shinichi Maruyama (Artist) was born in 1968 in Nagano, Japan. He studied at Chiba University and worked as member of Hakuhodo Photo Creative as well as a freelance photographer from 1992-98. While in Japan the artist traveled frequently to Tibet to complete two photography books about the Spiti Valley. In 2003 Shinichi Maruyama moved to New York City and began working on what would become his Kusho series which was exhibited at Bruce Silverstein Gallery in 2009. The artist also had a show for his most recent series, Gardens, at the same gallery in Spring 2011. The Peabody Essex Museum in Boston displayed the artist's work from 2011 to 2012. www.shinichimaruyama.com

Nicole Pearce (Lighting Designer) has worked with Jessica Lang for Lyric Pieces (Birmingham Royal Ballet), i.n.k. and Mendelssohn (JLD), and Crossed (The Joffrey Ballet). In the dance field, she has worked with choreographers Mark Morris, Aszure Barton, Robert Battle, Larry Keigwin, Andrea Miller, and Alexander Ekman, and with companies including The Joffrey Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Boston Ballet, Introdans, Mark Morris Dance Group, Hubbard Street Dance Company, Philadanco, and Nederlands Dans Theater. In theater, Pearce has worked with Cherry Lane Theatre, LAByrinth, 37Arts, and Williamstown Theatre Festival, collaborating with directors including Edward Albee, Trip Cullman, Leigh Silverman, Maria Mileaf, and BJ Jones. www.nicolepearcedesign.com

molo (Design Studio), based in Vancouver, Canada, is a design studio led by Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen. Dedicated to an exploration of sensory experience in space making combined with experiments in manufacturing, materials and structure, molo works within the overlapping realms of art, architecture and design. molo products grow from the designers' architectural work, inspired by the idea that smaller tactile objects have a real potency in physical experience of space and place. Recognized for poetic beauty and pragmatic innovation, Forsythe + MacAllen's products and buildings have received numerous international awards and have been acquired into museum collections worldwide including MoMA, New York. www.molodesign.com