History & Mission
Artistic Directors, Stephanie Maher (Ponderosa/Stolzenhagen, Germany) and Kathleen Hermesdorf (ALTERNATIVA/San Francisco, California), launched P.O.R.C.H. and Alternative Conservatory in their respective home bases in 2010, inspired by over 15 years of artistic collaboration in dance, improvisation and art-making, and inspiring each other to cross-pollinate over continents and between the city and the land. Both P.O.R.C.H. and Alternative Conservatory aim to provide ongoing, modular and immersive training and research systems in the fields of dance and related forms that offer a curated experience of different modalities, perspectives, places and cultures, and create new collaboration and exchange. The dream expands yearly, with connections already established with international centers of creativity, research and training in Berlin, Poznan (Poland), Israel, Copenhagen (Denmark), Budapest (Hungary), Panama and Mexico.
P.O.R.C.H. is committed to mutual exchange between creative professionals and ongoing engagement in the fields of dance and related forms. Our goal is to facilitate a multi-disciplinary artistic international meeting ground, discourse and platform by cultivating and facilitating an ongoing, growing network of practitioners, creators and educators for future collaborative projects and programs. P.O.R.C.H. honors the wisdom and experience of our inter-generational mentor program and inspires participants to learn communally and independently. The interactivity at the heart of P.O.R.C.H. offers opportunities for friendship, mentorship, collaboration, and assisted access into the contemporary art scene of Berlin.
Stephanie Maher and Kathleen Hermesdorf met in San Francisco in 1992, where they engaged via Contact Improvisation, were members of Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, trained and created work with members of Contraband, started their own teaching, and presented performance work as Collusion. Since 2000, they have been collaborating cross-continentally through Ponderosa and ALTERNATIVA, co-teaching, co-creating, co-curating and cultivating a network of facilitators and practitioners inter-active in the field and the academy.
Stephanie Maher has been creating art and contexts for art in dance and related forms in the community-based settings she established at K77 Studios in Berlin and Ponderosa Tanz/Land Festival in Stolzenhagen, Germany since 1999. She launched P.O.R.C.H in 2012, setting the stage for deeper investigations and inhabitations, while a manifesting a space where she can continue to play, dream and devise a never-ending building site for art making and community building. www.smaher.de
Kathleen Hermesdorf has been a part of Ponderosa and P.O.R.C.H. since their inceptions. Alternative Conservatory is a training and meeting ground in dance and related forms based in San Francisco that has its roots in Ponderosa, and is the educational aspect of ALTERNATIVA, an apparatus for deeply integrated contemporary dance and music, directed by Hermesdorf with Albert Mathias. www.la-alternativa.us
