RODERICK GEORGE + KNONAME ARTISTS

Roderick George was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He has trained at Ben Stevenson’s Houston Ballet Academy, The Alvin Ailey School, and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA). George was a bronze winner of the Youth American Grand Prix in 2005 and a YoungArts Winner and Presidential Scholar of the Arts in 2003. He has danced for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Basel Ballet/Theater Basel, Göteborgs Operans Danskompani, and The Forsythe Company. In addition, he has performed the work of choreographers such as Marie Chouinard, Peeping Tom, Jorma Elo, Jacopo Godani, William Forsythe, Johan Inger, Jiří Kylian, Sharon Eyal, Ohan Naharin, Benoit Swan-Pouffer, and Richard Wherlock. In 2012, George. was a part of the Emerging Choreographer Series for the Youth American Grand Prix and an Emerging Choreographer for Springboard Danse Montréal in 2013. In addition, he has been commissioned by dance companies, institutions, and festivals, including Bodytraffic, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, Festival Quartiers Danses, Suzanne Dellal, Zurich Tanzhaus, Pavillon Noir| Ballet Prejlocaj, Ballett Basel, L.A. Contemporary Dance Company, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre and Fall for Dance North/ NIGHTSHIFT. Most recently, George was a YoungArts Fellow Winner Awardee for the 2021-2022 season. In Jan 2024 he created Venom, a piece commissioned by Gibney as part of the organization’s DoublePlus program in collaboration with New York Live Arts. In August 2024 Roderick was recipient of two major US awards: The Princess Grace Aware – Choreography and the inaugural Jacob’s Pillow Men Dancers Award.

kNoname Artist is a Berlin-founded, now New York City-based company created in 2015 by Roderick George. kNoname Artist is a collective that strives to use art as a form of protest and healing method to find agency. The company invests in reflecting the times, both past and current events, and using the culture of origins as a vessel for creative expression. The knowledge of division created by colorism, class, and social-economic differences provoked the mind of George, yet also with joy and hope to motivate the growth of kNoname Artist. The mission of this multidisciplinary company is to gift its spectators’ evocative stories told through raw, percussive, and fluid movement interspersed with dialogue and humor. The iterative and evolving vision for the company melds dynamic movement, music, and scenic landscapes into experiential works exploring themes of queerness, blackness, and human rights. kNoname Artist has performed at festivals such as Festival Quartiers Danses, Suzanne Dellal, Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, Zurich Tanzhaus, Hollins University, New York Live Arts, Pavillon Noir| Ballet Prejlocaj, Sophiensæle Festspiele, Pocantico Art Center, and Fall for Dance North/NIGHTSHIFT.

Nazear Brown, signed to Clear Talent Group New York, is an emerging dance artist from New Bern, North Carolina. He was a part of the inaugural class of the CLI Conservatory and subsequently joined their company for the 2022-23 season working with; Teddy Forance, Mike Tyus, Micaela Taylor, Spenser Theberg, Ethan Colangelo, Jermaine Spivey and more. Nazear is now based in New York, and having met choreographer Roderick George through DanceLab NYC, recently performed his new work “Venom” at Gibney DOUBLEPLUS curated by Kyle Abraham.

Nat Wilson (they/he) is a Brooklyn-based dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Their formative training was in ballet and in 2016, they joined Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, where they had the opportunity to perform and teach around the world, including China, Peru, South Korea, and India. In January of 2020 they moved to New York City to pursue a freelance career. Since then, they’ve worked in both New York and Los Angeles, performing with YYDC, kNoname Artist/Roderick George, More Fish Dance, and ate9 dANCE cOMPANY, as well as creating their own work. They are currently becoming certified in Yue Yin’s FoCo technique and are always happy to connect with audiences via Instagram through the handle @natattax.

Composer, sound designer, musician and instrument maker John Gzowski worked on over 200 theatre, dance and film productions for which he has done composition, sound design, live foley, live music and as musical director. He has played banjo for opera in Banff, studied Carnatic classical music in India and played oud and guitar in jazz and folk festivals across Canada and Europe. His theatre work has won him 6 Dora’s, from 18 nominations for companies like Stratford, Shaw Festival, Luminato, National Arts Centre, the Mirvishes, MTC, the Arts Club, Canstage, Soulpepper, Dancemakers, Red Sky, Tarragon, Factory Theatre and YPT. Gzowski has played on numerous CD’s, with recent releases with Patricia O’Callghan, Tasa, and Autorickshaw as well as a Juno nomination with Maza Meze. He has run Canada’s first microtonal group, touring Canada playing the works of Harry Partch, composed and performed with several new music groups and worked as co-artistic director of the Music Gallery.