the artists John Pennington is Artistic Director of the Pennington Dance Group. His choreographies have been presented by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., Santa Barbara Museum of Art, City University New York, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Tanzwoche Dresden, SOLA Festival, UCLA's Composers Concert, LA SOLO Festival, the world premiere of the new play "The Hearing Trumpet", Santa Barbara's FIESTA and the soon to be released children's television series SUNNYTOWN. Mr. Pennington enjoyed a 14-year career with the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company as a performer and teacher, and continues his association with the Lewtizky Dance Foundation. He is a frequent guest artist at workshops in the states and internationally, both for his work in dance reconstruction and contemporary technique classes. He was guest artist for First Nights at Disney Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and with Jazz Tap Ensemble during their NYC engagement at the JOYCE NYC. He is honored to be the recipient of three Lester Horton Awards in achievement as individual performer of the year, choreography and dance reconstruction. Presently Mr. Pennington, who was educated at Northwestern University and California Institute of the Arts, serves on faculty at Pomona College. His educational outreach includes creating and teaching Family Movement Workshops in conjunction with exhibitions at the Fowler Museum, The Armand Hammer Museum, MOCA, along with teacher and curriculum development for community school districts. He is the recipient of several grants and awards including two Princess Grace Grants, California Community Foundation Grant, Goethe Studies Grant, Durfee ARC Grant and he served as the Annenberg Dance Scholar for Inner City Arts-LA. Ann Jeannette Walters began her dance training with the Wenta Ballet of Los Angeles. She then received her B.A. in Dance from Cal State Long Beach and, shortly after, began teaching dance and fitness classes. AnnJeannette has danced with various LA-based choreographers. Most recently she has performed with the Rudy Perez Dance Ensemble and the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra. Denesa Chan's movement background includes experimental physical theatre, modern, West African, ballet and aerial dance, contact improvisation, chi gung, and meditation. She studied Experimental Physical Theatre at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (1992-1995), Dance and Environmental Studies at UC Santa Barbara (1998-2001), Traditional Ghanaian Dance and Drumming at the University of Ghana (2000-2001) and participated in the American Dance Festival on full scholarship (2002-2004). She has performed with the BlueHill Performance Ensemble (1995-1996), Miranda Company (2002-2003), The Dr. Schaffer Mr. Stern Dance Ensemble (2002-2003), Mapi Cravo (of Brazil, 2002), Tatiana Baganova (of Russia, 2003), Toru Shimazaki (of Japan, 2004) and toured India performing and teaching with New York based Thresh (2003-2004). It has been Denesa's distinct pleasure to dance with the Pennington Dance Group since their 2004 presentation of Hearing Change, and she is currently pursuing a Master's in Traditional Chinese Medicine at Yo San University. continued >>>