Artist Biographies

Laura Schandelmeier & Stephen Clapp
Co-Artistic Directors

Co-Artistic Directors Laura Schandelmeier & Stephen Clapp are renowned for their daring virtuosity, visual elegance and social consciousness. This innovative duet company creates works that reflect their individual and combined experience of contemporary culture. Highly energized choreography includes ruminations on action and re-action, conflict, empathy, and transformation – creating motion narrative with a sensual luster and dynamic variety. A commitment to the intersection of art and social justice fused with an edgy exploration of dance and theater, Laura Schandelmeier & Stephen Clapp have forged a unique blend of artistry, cultural synthesis, community engagement and contemporary commentary.

Schandelmeier & Clapp have had works presented by Dance Place (DC), the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (MD), Joe's Movement Emporium (MD), the H Street Playhouse (DC), Alternate ROOTS (GA), the GooseRoute Dance Festival (WV), DanceNOW Festival (NYC), The North Carolina Museum of Art (NC), and P.S. 122 (NYC). They were recently commissioned by the IN Series to create and perform the roles of Monteverdi’s doomed lovers in Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, a mini opera featuring a soprano, tenor, baritone and string quartet. The work premiered at the ATLAS Performing Arts Center in Washington, DC January 2008.

They are currently working on Haunted, their 4th full-evening work that draws from acts of possession, ghost stories, and rituals. Haunted unearths local lore and ghost stories of the diverse community in which they live and work – Mount Rainer, Maryland, where some say the story behind “The Exorcist” took place. Created in collaboration with musicians Chloe and Leah Smith of Appalachia Rising, percussionist/performer Kofi Dennis, and members of the Mount Rainier community, Haunted will unfold through Open Door studio sessions where community participants are invited to engage in the creative process. Haunted will premiere on May 31 & June 1, 2008 at Dance Place in Washington, DC.

They were invited to perform their 3rd full-evening duet work, Portals at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland on March 4, 2008 as part of the Take 5 Series. Originally commissioned by The Creative Communities Fund, Portals features an original score by Clapp and examines the transformative process of evolution and five major rites of passage. As part of the 2006 commission, granted in partnership with Joe’s Movement Emporium (JME), Schandelmeier & Clapp facilitated two free community workshops: a ten-week session for 6th grade students focusing on the transition from elementary to middle school; and monthly open studios in which community members were invited into the studio to view the work of Portals, offer feedback, and participate in arts-based experiences. Portals premiered at Dance Place in Washington, DC in June, 2007.

Their second full-evening work, The Dragons Project: Power Play was presented by Dance Place in May 2006, on the John F. Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in January 2007 and excerpted for performances at numerous venues throughout the region. Dragons features an original music score by Clapp and text by playwright Christopher Greybill. In December 2004, Dance Place presented Rappaccini’s Daughter, the duo's first full-evening work. Rappaccini’s Daughter was inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story and performed to Toby Twining’s Chrysalid Requiem.

Artists on the Alternate ROOTS 2008 tour roster and the National Boutique Roster of Jodi Kaplan & Associates, Schandelmeier & Clapp have toured throughout the East Coast. They are facilitators for the Resources for Social Change Program (RSC) of Alternate ROOTS where they develop and implement learning exchanges and community partnerhips in collaboration with other RSC facilitators. Schandelmeier is a Master Teaching Artist for Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts, and teaches at and schools and universities throughout the region. Clapp currently teaches youth in Mount Rainier, serves as Ex Officio on the Executive Committee of Alternate ROOTS and is a Grants Manager for Dance Place. Schandelmeier & Clapp are adjudicators for the annual Dance Place New Releases Choreographers Showcase and have each received awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Prince George’s County Arts Council for their individual artistry. Schandelmeier and Clapp are in residence at Joe’s Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier, Maryland where they rehearse and teach classes for adults and children. They live in the Mount Rainier Artists Lofts with 12 year old Holly Rae.

Laura Schandelmeier
Co-Artistic Director

Laura Schandelmeier is a Dance Artist who works as a choreographer, performer, teaching artist, and Director of The Field/DC. She was the Artistic Director of Schandelmeier & Company in New York City from 1988-1994 and a solo performer in the DC area from 1995-2004 when she began collaborating with Stephen Clapp. Her work has been commissioned and produced by Dance Theater Workshop and Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church in NYC. In DC, her work has been produced by The Kennedy Center, Dance Place, The IN Series, and by Washington Performing Arts Society in Martha @ Dance Place, curated by Richard Move. Regionally, festivals such as the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Dancenow/NYC and, Yes, Virginia Dance have presented her work. She has received several awards for her choreography including grants from the Harkness Foundations for Dance, support for international projects from the Suitcase Fund, and Individual Artist Awards from Maryland State Arts Council and Prince George’s Arts Council. She was one of ten American choreographers selected to participate in American Dance Festival’s 1989 Franco-American Bilateral Exchange Program and was invited to perform at the Kennedy Center in 2000 for the opening event of the Dancing in the Millennium conference. The Kennedy Center has presented two full evenings of her solo performance work as well as The Dragons Project: Power Play, created in collaboration with Clapp. Most recently she, in partnership with Joe’s Movement Emporium, received a Commissioning Circle Grant from the Community Foundation to support her third full-evening collaboration with Clapp. Portals/The Open Door Project premiered at Dance Place in June 2007.

In 1994, Schandelmeier founded The Field/DC (a project that provides performance and workshop opportunities to artists.) She has participated in and/or coordinated Field programs since The Field’s inception in New York City in 1986. Since then, The Field/DC has offered over 24 Fieldwork sessions, impacting hundreds of local artists and patrons. Co-Produced by Dance Place since 1996, Fieldwork is a ten-week workshop in which artists of all levels of development share their works-in-progress and receive feedback through a facilitated process, culminating in a public showing. The Field/DC has also presented two Fielday performance marathons in partnership with the Arlington County Cultural Affairs Division as part of Gunston Arts Center’s The Innovators Festival and one in partnership with Dance Place. Open to twenty-five performing artists on a first-come-first-served basis, the marathons provided performance opportunities for artists from DC, Virginia, Maryland, Philadelphia, New York City, and Paris. The Anacostia Trails Heritage Area awarded The Field/DC and Joe’s Movement Emporium a Celebration 2000 Millennium Grant to produce a new site-specific Fieldwork workshop at the historic Bladensburg Waterfront Port. Fieldwork at Bladensburg Port culminated in a free performance/art exhibit as part of the park’s grand opening event.

Since moving to Washington, DC, Schandelmeier has conducted site visits for The National Endowment for the Arts, been a panelist for the Arlington County Cultural Affairs Division, Maryland State Arts Council, Dance Place’s New Releases Choreographer’s showcase, and served as Chair to the Nirenska Committee (a fund created in honor of choreographer, Pola Nirenska, by her late husband, Jan Karski, to honor a local or Polish dance artist with a cash award of $5,000 annually). In 2001 Schandelmeier was awarded an Artist-in-Residence grant from P.G. Arts Council and continues to conduct residencies in local schools through Joe’s Movement Emporium’s Arts in Education program. She is a Master Teaching Artist for the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts and teaches dance to children, senior adults, and professionals at studios and schools throughout the region.

While in New York, Schandelmeier was Associate Producer at Dance Theater Workshop. During her tenure she coordinated and served on several Fresh Tracks panels, co-coordinated the New York Dance and Performance Awards (a.k.a. The Bessies), worked with the Executive Director and members of the Board of Directors to initiate the Family Matters series for young audiences, audited performances and reviewed proposals, as well as performing other administrative duties. She was co-curator for Rapp Arts Centers' May Dance Festival, in conjunction with the Bang on a Can Festival, in 1988 and '89.

Schandelmeier began her dance training with Wigman-based instructor Erica Thimey at the age of four and studied ballet at the Washington School of Ballet. She attended high school at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC and graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts. She received a B.F.A. in dance and choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University, and studied choreography with Bessie Schönberg in New York City.

Stephen Clapp
Co-Artistic Director

Stephen Clapp is a dance artist, choreographer, theater artist, composer, and writer. He has performed nationally and internationally with CatScratch Theatre, ClancyWorks Dance Company, The Other Theatre and as a collaborating artist with Laura Schandelmeier. Clapp has been nominated for four Metro DC Dance Awards: Excellence in Sound Design (2006 and 2007); Emerging Choreographer (2005); and Outstanding Individual Performance (2003). In 2006, he received an Individual Artist award from the Maryland State Arts Council for Solo Dance Performance. Clapp has had works presented by Dance Place (DC), the Goose Route Dance Festival (WV), The Other Theatre (MA) and the DC Improvisation Festival.

Clapp has collaborated with Laura Schandelmeier on full-evening duets including Rappaccini’s Daughter (2004), The Dragons Project: Power Play (2006), Portals (2007) and is currently creating Haunted with Schandelmeier and musical duo Chloe and Leah Smith of Rising Appalachia. Clapp has toured throughout the East Coast and has facilitated arts-based anti-racism workshops with partners from Alternate ROOTS (Atlanta, GA). Together with Schandelmeier, they have had works presented by Dance Place, Madcap Players (DC), the Goose Route Dance Festival, Joe's Movement Emporium (MD), Alternate ROOTS and the University of Maryland. Clapp served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Alternate ROOTS from 2005-2007 and is an active facilitator/trainer with the Resources for Social Change program. In partnership with Schandelmeier, Clapp has facilitated community workshops for adults and youth. He currently teaches youth at Joe’s Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier, Maryland.

With CatScratch Theatre, Clapp collaborated on projects including The Greenline Project (2006), a series of community workshops with Schandelmeier, offered free to residents of the Columbia Heights (DC) neighborhood in partnership with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities; Metro (2004) created in collaboration with Co-Directors Jeramy Zimmerman and Jessica Hirst; Redline: Revisited (2004) a re-“staging” of Redline (2000) performed on the DC Metro train’s Red line; The Cazals Project (2003) created and performed in a medieval Chateau in Southern France; and Project Y (2004) at Dance Place. Clapp composed the music for the re-staging of Project Y at the Goose Route Dance Festival in WV.

Clapp earned a BFA in Performing Arts from Emerson College. In 1996, he became a founding member of the Boston based performance ensemble, The Other Theatre. With The Other Theatre, Clapp created and collaborated on two original evening-length performance works: Timepiece (1997) and An Atlas of Change (1998); he performed in The Other Theatre's production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1998) and co-created a collaborative work entitled Common Ground (1996.) In New York City, Clapp performed in Richard Schechner’s production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet (1999) and became a company member and performer with the Maranoa and T’boli (Philippines) dance performance group, Kinding Sindaw.

Since moving to the DC area, Clapp has been a faculty member and education/community programs coordinator for the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange School and has been on faculty of the Studio of Ballet Arts (Olney, MD), Dance Place (Washington, DC), Joe’s Movement Emporium (Mount Rainier, MD) and as a performer and teaching artist with the ClancyWorks Dance Company. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Alternate ROOTS and is a Grants Manager with Dance Place.