PIMA Group, co-founded by dancer and choreographer Melisa Putz and musicians Michael Barker and Thomas Clark, is interested in developing new processes and approaches to the integration of dance, music and visual art. The works range from improvisational performance art work to more formal choreographed and composed pieces.
PIMA Group has performed at venues nationally and internationally including the Painted Bride Art Center, Nexus Gallery, The Powel House Museum, Mobius, The Construction Company, Joyce SOHO, 92nd St. Y, Williamsburg Art Nexus, The Red Room and Bucharest National Dance Center, among others. PIMA Group has also performed at dance festivals including the Sibiu Dans Festival 2007 in Sibiu, Romania, Improvised and Otherwise Festival in Brooklyn, NY, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival at the Table Space Gallery, the Dance On Earth Festival at University Settlement’s Beacon, NY campus and the Goose Route Dance Festival in Shepherdstown, WV. PIMA Group is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and is supported in part by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and project support from the Puffin Foundation.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, CHOREOGRAPHER
Melisa Putz is a dancer, choreographer and educator based in Philadelphia, PA. She is co-founder and artistic director of PIMA Group, a music and dance performance company founded in 2001. She received her dance training through the Professional Training Program at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio in New York City and received a full dance scholarship to attend the Strictly Seattle Dance Intensive in Seattle, WA. Melisa has studied with Lisa Kraus, former dancer with the Trisha Brown Dance Company, and performed in her work entitled The Partita Project. Melisa also studied with choreographers Anouk Van Dijk (Amsterdam) and Jeanine Durning (NYC) through Professional Development Grants from Dance Advance .
Melisa offers dance classes and workshops to beginners through professionals. She currently teaches dance full-time at the Chester Upland School of the Arts. Her dance teaching experience includes director of the pre-professional Modern Company and co-director of Ballet Concerto, a pre-professional ballet company at the Pennsylvania Performing Arts Academy. Melisa continues to teach dance, yoga and composition workshops locally, nationally and internationally. In November 2005, Melisa taught a 3-day yoga workshop at the National Dance Center in Bucharest, Romania made possible through support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding and Dance Advance. She retuned to Romania in August 2007 through support from Dance Theater Workshop Suitcase Fund and Project DCM Foundation to teach a 7-day dance workshop and perform a site-specific work as part of the 2007 Sibiu Dans Festival.
Melisa has been awarded a Leeway Foundation Grant Award (2002), a Rocky Dance Award (2002), Temple University Space Grants (2002 & 2004), Professional Development Grant Awards from Dance Advance (2004 and 2007), and selection for the Susan Hess Choreographer’s Project (2004-2005). She has been Dance Artist-In-Residence at the Community Education Center in Philadelphia during the 2006-2007 performance season. During 2007-2008 she was Artist-In-Residence through the Philadelphia Society for Preservation of Landmarks at the Historic Powel House in Philadelphia and a co-op member at Mascher Space in Philadelphia. She is currently involved in Team Office, a cooperative management support system with funding support from Dance Advance, an initiative of the Pew Center for Arts and heritage.
