GUEST CHOREOGRAPHERS AND PERFORMERS

Poet Laureate, Providence, RI

Christopher Johnson is an artist and educator based in Providence, RI. His passion for performance art began with winning numerous awards as a Slam Poet. Christopher’s spoken word poetry has been influenced by artists such as Yusuf Komunyakaa, Amiri Baraka, Sonya Sanchez, Nikki Geovanni, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, and Charles Bukowski. Over the years, his performances have grown to included storytelling, music, and dance. They have become theatrical experiences exploring issues such as race, incarceration, and mental illness. Most recently, Christopher was a collaborator in the creation and performance of Freedom Project, a devised performance focusing on the affects of mass incarceration. His current project, New and Dangerous Ideas, tackles race and police, with the goal to put everyone on the level of human. In other words, Christopher seeks to decriminalize race and humanize the police. Community building and education are at the center of all of Christopher’s work. Expression is his activism.

Choreographer and Dancer

Deb Meunier first met dance at five years old when her Dad began teaching her ballroom dance and also put her in ballet classes. She opened her own school, Fusionworks Dance Academy, in 1978 and taught there and throughout New England until just this past August, when she retired from teaching. She also founded and directed the professional modern dance Company, Fusionworks, and ran that company for thirty years until 2018. Her choreography has been produced at Jacob’s Pillow, Dance Services Network, ECA, The Mayfair Festival in PA, Artspace of New Haven, the Gowanis Outback Series, and The Field. She has presented her work two times at the prestigious 92nd Street Y in NYC and has been commissioned by the dance companies of RI College, Brown University, Providence College, Works Contemporary Dance of Hartford, and Bridgewater State University.
Deb is known for her spirit of collaboration and has worked with painters, musicians, sculptors, filmmakers, other choreographers and amazing dancers throughout the years.

Choreographer and  Dancer

Jose FaCce Maldonado is a natural talent due to his family's extended cultural  background. He is a performer of performers, dancing everything from Salsa, Jazz, Funk, and Mambo to House, Breakdance and Acro. From the four elements and principles of Love Peace (and having fun!) to having an extended background in urban studies and performing arts, he is an in-depth scholar of the Culture and Lifestyle of Hip Hop. He also has received many awards through Project 401 , an organization he founded in 2010 that specializes in Art, Culture, Education and Entertainment!