BIOGRAPHIES

EQUILIBRIUM ~ DANCE & PERCUSSION THEATER is celebrating its twenty-sixth year of residency touring, presenting concerts incorporating diverse elements such as concepts drawn from global music traditions and MIDI technology. We strive to present enjoyable, informative and thought provoking workshops focusing on inter-arts collaborations with an emphasis on workshops to help improve the development of inner-pulse and coordination. Our workshops are geared for audiences of diverse disciplines and of varying age groups within community and university settings. An Equilibrium performance is appropriate for audiences of all ages. As is stated in our workshops: A sixth grade student doesn't need to know Melville's intricate development of symbolism to appreciate Moby Dick. The same holds true of an Equilibrium Concert, which is co-composed with the intent of creating an event highly appropriate for family audiences as well as for master musicians and dancers.

MICHAEL UDOW is principal percussionist with The Santa Fe Opera (1968-present) and has headed the percussion program at The University of Michigan since 1982. Aside from his work with Equilibrium, Michael is a performing member of Summit Brass and Keiko Abe & Michigan C.P. and he has been a featured soloist at The Banff Centre the past two years. Michael can be heard on Advance, Opus One, Koch, Columbia/Denon, Columbia, CRI, Orion, SM/EQ and TRR, Gemini, GunMar, Non-Sequitor, Xebec of Japan, Einstein, EQ and New World labels. As an educator, Dr. Udow draws upon his diversified background and as former percussionist with the historic Blackearth Percussion Group, the New Orleans Philharmonic, the Tone Road Ramblers and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Michael has received acclaim for his compositional work including a Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship to Poland, 1st Prize awarded by the Percussive Arts Society for his Bog Music, and grants including: Office of the Vice President for Research at The University of Michigan for the composition of his first opera, The Shattered Mirror, the Arts Foundation of Michigan and the Michigan Council for the Arts for the composition of his second opera, Twelve Years A Slave, and most recently a 1996 grant from The Institute for Study in the Arts at Arizona State University collaborating with visual artist, Murial Magenta in the 3-D Animated Video and Gallery Installation, Token City. Michael's Shattered Mirror Suite was premiered in September 1996 by George Manahan and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra.

NANCY UDOW is a dancer-choreographer whose compositions explore detailed rhythms and gestural subtleties in movement with a resulting style that is exacting yet lyrical. Nancy has performed in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and has taught dance and movement for actors at the University of Michigan/Theatre Department, the University of Rochester, and Dartington College of Arts, England. She currently teaches children's dance at the Creative Arts Institute, Crested Butte, Colorado and yoga in Ann Arbor, Michigan.