ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Geri Vanore - Director / Choreographer Chorus of Dreams (ADHK)

Geri Vanore has been dancing since a very young age.  She attended the Creative & Performing Arts High School in Philadelphia (CAPA) and received a scholarship to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia where she studied all forms of dance. Geri has danced with PhilaDanco II, the Philadelphia Wings Dance Team and Identity Dance Company. She has been with ADHK January 2006.

Eric "E O" Oberthaler -(Music Director, Composer of Chorus of Dreams)

E O was the musical director and main composer of Gamelan X.  In 1993 he earned a B.M. from Oberlin Conservatory and in 1996 an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied composition with Mel Powell and Stephen Mosko, trumpet and improvisation with Wadada Leo Smith, and classical Indian music with Sarod master Rajeev Taranath. 

Equally well-versed in digital audio production and traditional composition, Eric has produced a diverse body of work that includes the score for the upcoming Lotus and Lightning (a documentary about Vietnamese virtuoso musician Nguyen Ngoc Khanh), commissions for the New York-based Jamie Bishton Dance Company, non-linear music for the interactive web-based comic strips of YiMagination Studios, three large-scale operatic rituals for the Burning Man festival involving hundreds of performers, and the techno-rock opera Joe Messiah, as well as dozens of songs and new works for Gamelan X, including their recent CD release, SATU. 

Eric's chamber orchestra compositions have been performed by the Atlantic Brass Quintet, the CalArts New Century Players, Indiana University New Music Ensemble, and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble.  A naturally dynamic performer, E O specializes in trumpet, keyboards, and voice.  He is the lead trumpeter with Brass Menazeri, the Bay Area's premier balkan brass band, and has appeared on numerous recordings including the Residents' recent Animal Lover.

Glenn Weikert – Co-Founder / Executive Director (ADHK)

Glenn Weikert is an award winning multimedia designer, DJ, dancer and electronic music producer from Mechanicsburg PA.  Between 1994-1999, Glenn served two years in the Navy, earned an Associates of Communications from Harrisburg Area Community College and a German language certificate from Schiller International University in Heidelberg, Germany.  He then worked and traveled abroad before returning to the United States to graduate with honors from the Art Institute of Philadelphia in May of 2001. Glenn was awarded best portfolio of his graduating class and directed his full attention to ArcheDream upon completion of his studies.

Glenn met Alan at the Miami Winter Music conference in March of 2000 and ArcheDream was born.  Glenn was the lead dancer in the Poet’s Dream from 2000-2005; he has written, directed & performed in the nationally touring shows OneDream, a highly-inspired collaboration with the live world fusion ensemble ONE and BALANCE, a rite of passage performance loosely based on his own struggles of trying to match his artistic emotional endeavors with his rational desires for a family and stability.

From 2002-2005, Glenn worked with dually-diagnosed homeless men at the RHD Ridge Avenue Shelter and helped establish an arts & music program that Alan Bell continues to the present day.  In addition to his Executive Director & board duties, Glenn performs in current ADHK touring productions.  He has also served as technical director, tour manager, booking agent, web designer, graphic designer, grants manager, accountant and chairman of the board for ADHK and has brought in over $200,000 in grants and bookings for the company.

In addition to his personal & professional travels to Europe, Iceland, Ibiza, South America, Cuba, Mexico and Taiwan, Glenn & Alan traveled to South Africa in 2004 to lay the foundation for “The Great HUMANKIND HIV/AIDS Roadshow” in the Gauteng Province of Johannesburg.  In the six-month pilot program, an international crew will train for two months and then travel with a big-top tent to ten locations over a four-month period.  During the day, the tent will be utilized by grassroots partnering organizations to run workshops, clinics and seminars.  At the main event in the evening, a celebration of life will occur featuring comedy, music, dance and theatre addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Visit www.GlennWeikert.com for a full artistic resume including DJ mixes, original music, performance clips and design references.

Alan Bell - Co-Founder / Art Director (ADHK)

South African born Alan Bell, is the artist behind ArcheDream.  Growing up in the Age of Apartheid, he resolved to find an art form that would unify the racially divided audience in an ecstasy of wonder.  While dedicating himself to the medium of blacklight for over two decades, Alan discovered a way to bridge his African roots with his European inheritance. 

Originally performing as Dream Theatre, the first production debuted in Naples, Italy 1996.  Alan lived in Amsterdam, Holland for 18 years and is a graduate of the Johannesburg College of Art.  He is committed to the enrichment of culture through delightful, profound and unforgettable art.  Alan writes children’s plays for the Princeton Montessori School and he writes children’s music for a CD series called Kaleidoscope Songs with Alex Mitnick (www.kaleidoscopesongs.com). 

Alan helped Emily Nussdorfer establish Girl’s of Promise, a Philadelphia art and enrichment program for adjudicated inner city teen girls, and he is also artist in residence at the RHD Ridge Avenue Homeless Shelter for men in Center City Philadelphia.