Who We Are?

_Meet the artists_

Myriam Gadri

founder / artistic director/
Dancer / choreographer

Myriam Gadri, is an independent artist, dancer, actor, choreographer and curator operating between the US and the UK.

Myriam is of French- Ivorian-Tunisian-Spanish-Italian descent and was born in Switzerland. She also grew up in Togo, West Africa and London, England.

Her portfolio consists of company work, musical theatre, tv, film and commercial dance.

Credits include: The Brit Awards (Tom Jones), Top of the Pops, Blue Peter, No Time to Die (movie-UK). Latin Billboard Awards, NY KNicks Halftime show, Saturday Night Live with Amy Adams, In the Heights, On Your Feet, AIDA:The musical, Llamada-Rally Cry, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (US)

The company’s worldview has been shaped by direct exposure to various cultures, countries, perspectives, and languages. Jarem-Roots has hands on experience in Tunisia, Spain, New York, France, India, Malaysia, Dubai, and Taiwan.

@nimamyri

myriamgadri.com

Collaborators
Musicians &
Principal dancers

Arielle Rosales

Principal Dancer - original cast
Flamenco collaborator - (NYC)

Arielle Rosales is a Bessie Award nominated Social Engagement Performance Artist specializing in Flamenco, Percussion, Theater, and Improvisation. She has graced the stages of Carnegie Hall and The Joyce, featured in “The Today Show” (NBC) and “Good Morning America” (NBC), commercials for Nokia and Target, and her choreography has been featured in Man of La Mancha (Shakespeare Theater Company, Washington DC) and The Latin Quarter Show (REVEL Casino & Resort, Atlantic City).

She is the Flamenco Consultant for Mrs. Doubtfire on Broadway and the Spring 2020 Artist in Residence for Gibney’s New Voices: Spotlight Series along with her all-female multicultural percussive dance trio @SolesofDuende. She is a Spring 2020 Artist in Residence with Flamenco Vivo’s Center for Flamenco Arts for her project “Becoming Mother Duende: #PermissionToBe”, which premiered in July 2019 for Gibney’s dance-mobile series with support from ChaShaMa’s Space to Create Grant. The piece is a percussive dance based performance art piece that looks at concepts and experiences of duende through the lens of the feminine divine. An adaptation was returned to Gibney Dance and Sanctuary for Families’ event “Cracks of Light” in observance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Rosales is a teaching artist with Flamenco Vivo, NY City Center, and the NY Flamenco Festival, and a faculty member of Broadway Dance Center, STEPS on Broadway, and Alvin Ailey. She is an MFA Candidate in Performance & Performance Studies at Pratt Institute and holds a BFA in Musical Theater with a Minor in Playwriting and Certificate in Creative Arts Therapy from The New School of Public Engagement. She is a repique player with the all-women Afro Brazilian Samba Reggae band @BatalaNewYork.

@ariellerosales – WWW.ARIELLEROSALES.COM

Adriana Olivares

Principal Dancer - original cast
flamenco collaborator - (NYC/Venezuela)

Born in Caracas Venezuela, Adriana began her dance studies in ballet, jazz, and Venezuela folkloric music, where she specialized in the tambora with Diego Alvarez, an internationally known percussionist. At the age of 19 she immersed herself in the world of flamenco, where she studied with artists such as, Siudy Garrido, María Juncal, Alfonso Losa, Sonia Olla, Patricia Guerrero, and Emilio Ochando. She belonged to the professional flamenco Siudy Flamenco Company for more than 15 years, where she performed in prestigious theaters worldwide (Hollywood Bowl, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Adrienne Arsht Center, New World Stages). She has shared the stage with Juan Manuel Montoya, “El Farruquito”, Antonio Canales, Manuel Gutierrez, George Akram, Jose Luis de la Paz, and Argentina among others.

Now as a flamenco dancer based in New York she is looking to develop more as a soloist dancer. In 2018 she won The Grand prize of Tablao Level at The National Certamen of Flamenco of Vivo Carlota Santana at Lincoln Center and this afforded her the opportunity to study in Spain at Amor de Dios and The Corrala de la Danza.

@adrianaolivares14 – www.amographicdesign.com

Brinda Guha

Principal Dancer - original cast
Indian contemporary - kathak collaborator - (NYC)

Brinda Guha has been learning North Indian Classical Kathak dance for over 20 years under the tutelage of her mother, Smt. Malabika Guha. She also studied classical Manipuri dance with Kalavati Devi in Kolkata, India; Flamenco with Dionisia Garcia in NYC; and Contemporary dance under renowned choreographers at Broadway Dance Center. Performing professionally for over a decade, artistic and teaching collaborations include work with Malabika Guha, Phil Orsano, Justin Conte, Derek Mitchell, Neil Schwartz, Ashlé Dawson, Kumari Suraj, Lauren Cox, Carlos Neto, Omari Mizrahi, Myriam Gadri and Subhasis Das. Brinda began choreographing when she attended college at NYU and has choreographed pieces presented at Brooklyn Dance Festival, NYCDA Dance Festival, Young Choreographer’s Festival, Gowanus Arts Center, Secret Theater, Dixon Place, Grounds for Sculpture, George St. Playhouse, The Knockdown Center, Hammerstein Ballroom, Madison Square Garden, and many more.

www.brindaguha.com – @brindaguha – @solesofduende – @kalamandirdance

Swapnil Dagliya

Indian contemporary - kathak collaborator - (Belgium/India)

  Born and raised in India, Swapnil Dagliya is a professional choreographer, dance educator and performer. Having graduated from the prestigious Broadway Dance Centre in New York City & Opus Ballet in Italy, he has been teaching, performing and choreographing professionally since 2008. In India, he started SPACE (Swapnil’s Performing Arts & Contemporary Ensemble), a dance studio with a house ensemble and was the artistic director of AVAYAVA – Contemporary Dance Festival.   He moved to Belgium in 2015 and is currently the artistic director of the Shoonya Dance Centre in Ghent, Belgium where he teaches regular classes and workshops in Bollywood Dance, Bhangra & Indian Contemporary Dance and is the choreographer for his ABC a bollywood company. Swapnil has developed his own movement vocabulary that seamlessly combines the structure of Indian classical dances, the expression and playfulness of Indian film dances with the technique, organic nature & fluidity of Contemporary Dance.   His teaching experience includes training the classical Bharatanatyam & Kathak dancers in contemporary dance at the Lalit Kala Kendra, University of Pune and has been a guest faculty at Flame University, Pune for 2 years.
 FB: swapkebolly  – @swapkebolly  – Youtube: swapnildagliya

Ann-sylvia clarke

Principal Dancer - original cast
Hip-hop/ urban street dance collaborator - (NYC/ Norway)

ANN-SYLVIA CLARK was born and raised in Norway. At an early age, she began training in gymnastics, ultimately traveling across Norway and Europe with the gymnastics team. Over time, she became interested in dance, attending the Flow Dance Academy (CPH, DK) She performed with Snoop Dogg and Pharrell Williams at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA’s). Since moving to New York, Ann-Sylvia’s career has flourished, with tours in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. She has performed on a variety of television shows including, “Good Day New York” on Fox 5, CBS, Telemundo and “Fake Off” on TruTV. She has also performed at the Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, and danced in music videos for artists such as Alicia Keys, Styles P, Ben L’Oncle Soul and Laila Biali. TV viewers can find her in commercials for Samsung, Reebok, Digicel.

@annsyclark

Janete Silva

Principal Dancer
Afro-Brazilian collaborator - (NYC/Brazil)

Janete Silva has studied dance since childhood and has performed with various acclaimed local and international companies such as Dance Brazil (NY), Bale Folclórico da Bahia (Brazil), Bahia Brazil (Los Angeles), Orquestra Popular da Bahia (Brasil), Freddiek Bratcher and Company (Miami) to name a few. Her professional training includes Afro-Brazilian Dance, Ballet, Modern Dance and Silvestre Technique. Janete has appeared as a dancer on star singer Ivete Sangalo’s recent DVD who recently performed at Madison Square Garden in NYC.

Currently, Janete is a master dance teacher in New York City. She also travels regularly for bookings and has most recently participated in the Lowell Folk Festival (Lowell), National Black Arts Festival (Atl, GA), the Brazilian Independence Day Celebration, Target’s Super Sabado! at El Museo del Barrio, and the Houston Brazilian Festival.

@janeteaide – www.cadny.org

jenny efremova

Principal Dancer - original cast
Afro-cuban / west african collaborator - (NYC/sweden/russia)

Jenny Efremova is originally from Siberia, Russia. For the past 20 years she has taught, performed and choregraphed in Europe, West Africa, Caribbean and North America. Jenny has graduated from Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts, Kingston, Jamaica, completing her studies at University of Ghana. Jenny has studied and researched the various traditional dances in Brazil, Jamaica, Cuba, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria. Jenny Efremova is the founder and Artistic Director of Expressions Dance Company which has been selected to perform at prestigious venues in New York City, such as: The Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theatre, Broadway Dance Center, Dance New Amsterdam, 60×60 at The Annual Dance Parade and Brookfield Place, PMT Studios, Dixon Place, University Settlement, with Jarem Roots at Teatro LATEA and Movement Research at Historical Judson Church. At festivals throughout the 5 boroughs and the tri-state area including: Annual Suite Summer Arts Festival in Queens, The Bronx River Sounds Festival in the Bronx, in Brooklyn at CollabFest and NBNA at Triskelion Arts, Spark Dance Forum and Im’migration at Actors Fund Arts Center, Winter Follies at The Old First Reformed Church through Spoke The Hub. At Boundless – in Philadelphia, Silk City Summer Arts Festival in NJ, Hudson Valley Dance Festival in Warwick, NY. National Festivals including:DanceBarn Festival 2016 in Minnesota and Awakenings&Beginnings Dance Festival 2014 in L.A.

Jenny has performed with Movement of The People Dance Company at venues such as BAM at the Bessie Awards, Lincoln Center, The York University in Canada, The Hammerstein Ballroom and The Irondale Theatre, with Oyu Oro Experimental Dance Emsemble at Hostos Community College and Riverside Church Theatre, presented student work at the Apollo Theatre, Jamaica Performing Arts Center and The Roulette Theatre and performed with Kotchegna Dance Company at The Jacob Pilliows Inside/Out Series. Jenny has had the honor to perform with Myriam Gadri for over 10 years and has had the pleasure to perform Jarem Roots at Teatro LaTea and Dixon Place in New York City.

@cameyah.jefremova

musicians

Okai

Musical director / percussionist /musician /vocalist
(nyc/haiti)

Okai is a vocalist/percussionist who embodies all the music of the African Diaspora. Brooklyn born with Haitian descent  young Okai was beating on anything that he could get his hands on to help his imagination grow. His ears became infected with the hard boom bap drum loops of Hip Hop, and roots music from the Caribbean. Those sounds  led him on a musical path to find rock, Jazz, samba, salsa, rumba and pretty much anything that involves percussion. Okai began his path of percussion on the trap set playing for various churches. He then played Congas for his High School band for several years. Once he was introduced to the west African Djembe he concentrated on that for more than 10yrs.

Aside from being an achived percussionist, Okai is also an achieved Emcee that has worked with various Artists and has a couple of Solo albums.

Okai‘s cultural background shaped him in to being the full round artist he is today. He is Currently the lead singer and percussionist of Brown Rice Family who won “The Battle of the Boroughs” in NYC in 2012 and he is part of an instrumental Horn band called Underground Horns. He is an active percussionist in New York always sharing his voice and energetic rhythms.

Locally Okai has performed in the Brooklyn Museum, the legendary African art auction exhibition at Sotheby’s, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall and venues throughout the States. Internationally Canada, Tanzania, Australia, Japan, Haiti and Brazil have been showered with his sounds and soon the rest of the world will.

www.okaimusik.com – @okaimusik – @stringsnskins

eric animan

composer / musician /collaborator
(uk /switzerland)

Born in 1986 in Monthey, Switzerland, Eric started playing saxophone at the age of 11. After graduating high school in 2006, he went on to study at the Haute Ecole de Musique of Lausanne where he studied saxophone with Robert Bonisolo.

After obtaining his degree in 2010, he moved to the England to study music production and composition in Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Music Institute for Performing Arts. In 2013, he graduated from LIPA and was awarded the Liverpool city Jazz price.

While still being based in the UK, he has since been recording, producing, composing and performing with different acts in many different countries.

Eric started his professional career in 2010, playing and recording with multiple jazz bands and working as a session player for Ady Suleiman, Maverick Sabre, the Highfields, The X-Factor, China Crisis, Esco Williams, Stress, Andy Williams, Gary Daly, la Gangband, Nolosé, The Swiss Army Bigband, Jack Gardiner, Ritchie Remo, Mic Lowry and many more, also working as an arranger for some of them.

Currently touring with one of Liverpool 80’s pop legends China Crisis, Eric still arranges and produces for acts based in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada and the USA.

@ericaniman

Christophe Cénac

Percussionist
(France)

Christophe CÉNAC is a musician since he can remember.

He has learnt and mastered several instruments such as the percussion, the recorder, the piano, and more recently the saxophone and the bass guitar. After graduating with a master degree in Physics and an MBA he has had quite an eclectic professional path. Indeed, from freelancing in the energy field and running as a head of business energy department for an engineering company, he has also been a professional poker player, a voice over artist as well as an artistic manager in New York City.

At 35 years old he decided to devote himself entirely to music in the little town of Tourliac in the south west of France. He creates computed assisted music for dance and advertisements. Often on the road for residencies, he’s also part of a band « Mas Familia ».

In 2019, he co-founded alongside his wife, the artist residency « EsThètes à KlaK ».