ABOUT US

MacArthur “Genius” Award-winner, Elizabeth Streb has dived through glass, allowed a ton of dirt to fall on her head, walked down (the outside of) London’s City Hall, and set herself on fire, among other feats of extreme action. Her popular book, STREB: How to Become an Extreme Action Hero, was made into a hit documentary, Born to Fly directed by Catherine Gund (Aubin Pictures), which premiered at SXSW and received an extended run at The Film Forum in New York City in 2014. Streb founded the STREB Extreme Action Company in 1979. In 2003, she established SLAM, the STREB Lab for Action Mechanics, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. SLAM’s garage doors are always open: anyone and everyone can come in, watch rehearsals, take classes, and learn to fly.

Elizabeth Streb was invited to present a TED Talk (‘My Quest To Defy Gravity and Fly’) at TED 2018: THE AGE OF AMAZEMENT. She has been a featured speaker presenting her keynote lectures at such places as the Rubin Museum of Art (in conversation with Dr. John W. Krakauer), TEDxMET, the Institute for Technology and Education (ISTE), POPTECH, the Institute of Contemporary Art (in conversation with physicist, Brain Greene), The Brooklyn Museum of Art (in conversation with author A.M. Homes), the National Performing Arts Convention, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), the Penny Stamps Speaker Series at the University of Michigan, Chorus America, the University of Utah, and as a Caroline Werner Gannett Project speaker in Rochester NY, among others.

Rough and Tumble Alec Wilkinson’s profile of Elizabeth Streb, appeared in The New Yorker magazine in June, 2015.

Streb received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius’ Award in 1997. She holds a Master of Arts in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University, a Bachelor of Science in Modern Dance from SUNY Brockport, and honorary doctorates from SUNY Brockport, Rhode Island College and Otis College of Art and Design.  Streb has received numerous other awards and fellowships including the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1987; a Brandeis Creative Arts Award in 1991; two New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessie Awards), in 1988 and 1999 for her “sustained investigation of movement;” a Doris Duke Artist Award in 2013; and over 30 years of on-going support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).  In 2009, Streb was the Danspace Project Honoree. She served on Mayor Bloomberg’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission and is a member of the board of the Jerome Foundation.

Major commissions for choreography include: Lincoln Center Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, MOCA, LA Temporary Contemporary, the Whitney Museum of Art, Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, the Park Avenue Armory, London 2012, the Cultural Olympiad for the Summer Games, CityLab Paris 2018, the opening of Bloomberg’s new headquarters in London, Musée D’Orsay, the re-opening of the Théâtre du Châtelet, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Born to Fly aired on PBS on May 11, 2014 and is currently available on iTunes. OXD, directed by Craig Lowy, which follows STREB at the 2012 London Olympics, premiered at the IFC theater in New York City on February 2, 2016. Streb and her company have also been featured in PopAction by Michael Blackwood, on PBS’s In The Life and Great Performances, The David Letterman Show, BBC World News, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS This Morning, Business Insider, CNN’s Weekend Today, MTV, on the National Public Radio shows Studio 360 and Science Friday, and on Larry King Live.

Cassandre Joseph was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Her investigation in movement  began at the age of four with the sport of gymnastics. Over a span of twenty years as a competitive gymnast, she earned several state and regional titles. She graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in English Literature and studied journalism at Temple University’s graduate communications program. She joined Streb in 2007 as an instructor and company member and when she is not seen in a rehearsal or teaching classes at SLAM she has been seen ziplining across the Park Avenue Armory, scaling the walls of the Bergdorf building and dancing on the spokes of the London Eye. In addition to her performance work with the company Cassandre is the Creative Director of the STREB Kid Company since 2010. For the STREB Kid Company, she has choreographed and self-produced three evening length works: Heroes (2015), Momentum (2016) and Navigation (2017). For the past 6 years she has acted as STREB’s education liaison.  In September 2017, Cassandre Joseph was appointed Associate Artistic Director of STREB Extreme Action and is now in charge of overseeing SLAM’s education program. She is a strong believer in the transformative power of movement and is passionate about empowering young people to push boundaries and expand their notions of what is possible. Cassandre is grateful to do what she loves everyday and to work for a real life genius! When she is not creating action events at STREB, she can be found training her daughter Nia to be a mini-action hero.

Ellen Salpeter brings three decades of leadership experience advancing the missions of a wide range of arts organizations. She brings her unique blend of nonprofit strategic business acumen to artist centered institutions, often during start up phases or pivotal transitions.

Salpeter was most recently a consultant to the Chairman and CEO of Pace, a multisite international art gallery and assisted in a management restructuring and re-prioritization.  She also served as the first President/CEO of Westbeth, a residential artists housing complex located in the West Village of NYC. During her tenure, she directed a rigorous assessment encompassing fundraising, programmatic visioning, property management, capital needs, partnership development, and resident relationships. Prior to Westbeth, Salpeter was the Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami where she led the construction and opening of its new 37,500 sf permanent home and drove its long-term vision, expanded the Board, and helped achieve an initial $75MM campaign goal.

Previous roles included: Deputy Director, External Affairs, Jewish Museum NY; Founding Director, Heart of Brooklyn and Director, Thread Waxing Space. Salpeter is currently Co-Chair of the Judd Foundation Board of Directors and a member of the board of Participant, Inc. She holds a BSBA from Georgetown University and has completed certificate programs from Fashion Institute of Technology and New York’s nonprofit Support Center.

Matthew McAdon has been collaborating with the STREB Company for fifteen years and is entering his ninth year as STREB’s Technical Director.  Most recently, Mr. McAdon designed the Gunk Machine prototype used in Elizabeth Streb’s and Anne Bogart’s collaborative production Falling And Loving.  With a background in mechanical and scenic design, prototype design, live performance technology, stunt rigging and technical direction, Mr. McAdon has collaborated with organizations such as Bang On A Can, American Repertory Theater, The Barclays Center, Lincoln Center, City Center, the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the Natural History Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hammerstein Ballroom, Bloomberg, the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Unusual Rigging, Sapsis Rigging, Mountain Productions and Hudson Scenic.  Previously he was the Technical Director at The New School College of Performing Arts.  MFA Scenic Design, California Institute of the Arts.

Henry Liles received a B.A. and M.A in Russian from Middlebury College in Vermont. After teaching on the secondary level for five years, he started working in the dance world as an interpreter for the Paul Taylor Dance Company’s tour to the Soviet Union in 1978 and later became Taylor’s company manager and general manager. He subsequently worked in various capacities with Peter Pucci Plus Dancers and David Dorfman Dance, among others. Liles has served as STREB’s Finance Manager since 2003. He also does finance and bookkeeping work for Urban Bush Women and Pick-Up Performance Co(s).

Mary Schindler, a New Orleans native, currently resides in New York City where she is the Director of Programming for STREB EXTREME ACTION. She has been with STREB since 2013 and can also be found teaching acrobatics or flying trapeze classes at SLAM. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance Performance and choreography from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Dance Performance and Choreography from Florida State University.  Mary’s choreography was selected twice to represent FSU at the American College Dance Festival Southeastern Conference and was selected to perform in the ACDF gala. Recently Mary’s work was seen at the White Wave DUMBO Dance Festival and in the GO! Emerging Artists Commissioning Program. Mary attended the American Dance Festival on scholarship as the assistant for the dean, Gerri Houlihan and has had the privilege of performing works by Loren Davidson, Meredith Early, Gerri Houlihan, Kelly Ferris Lester, Rick McCullough, Shellie Nielsen, Stacy Reischman Fletcher, and Lauren Slone. Her students can be seen in major dance programs across the country, performing in professional companies, on Broadway, and teaching around the country.

Bobby Hedglin Taylor’s career spans four decades and multiple disciplines including circus, clowning, theater, dance, ballet, film and television. Bobby joined STREB as the Director of the España-STREB Trapeze Academy 16 years ago and his role has grown to encompass the organization’s party, rental and corporate training events. He is a sought after aerial coach who has trained cast members and replacements for the hit Broadway revival of Pippin, including Patina Miller and Andrea Martin for their Tony award-winning roles. He also trained Tony award-nominee, Rob McClure, on tightrope for the 2012 Broadway musical Chaplin. Off-Broadway, he brought circus aerial to the fairies in A Midsummer Nights Dream at Classic Stage Company starring Bebe Neuwirth and Christina Ricci, and his aerial choreography has been featured in Broadway Bares, Broadway Cares’ annual AIDS fundraiser, and he’s the cirque choreographer on the Holland America Cruise Lines. As an aerial sequence designer Bobby has designed 29 productions of the musical Barnum, as well as training and sequencing for shows including Aida, Disney’s Tarzan, Carnival, Thomas the Tank Engine Live, Madagascar Live and Annie Get Your Gun. As a performer, Bobby has appeared with the rock band PHISH in their surprise New Years eve performances in 2012 and 2018 as well as on the small screen in reality shows including Marriage Ref, Wife Swap, Fashion Emergency, Matched in Manhattan, What Not to Wear and on Inside Edition, NY1, WNBC News, WPIX News and more. Prior to his work in circus, Bobby was a staple in musical theater in shows like A Wonderful Life, Cabaret, 42nd Street, Singing in the Rain, Kiss of the Spider Woman and A Chorus Line. His former students have performed all over the world in shows including the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, Cirque Du Soleil, Disney Parks, Sea World, Hershey Park, Busch Gardens, Disney on Ice, The Pickle Family Circus and the Big Apple Circus.

Loganne Bond is a dance artist, administrator, and multimedia communications specialist. She is a graduate of Ohio State University (BA, comm/BFA, dance), where her choreography/performance was twice selected to represent OSU at the American College Dance Festival. Loganne joined STREB in 2013 through the Action Opportunity Program and has since been a desk administrator, teacher, Elizabeth Streb’s assistant, Action Hero (2015-2018), and social media coordinator. Loganne was the recipient of Go! An Emerging Artists Commissioning Program residency from STREB and the Jerome Foundation. Other notable projects include: lead researcher/editor for “1001 Broadway Fun Facts” with Theater Advisor, LLC.; production assistant with the Aluminum Show, traveling to both Russia and Canada; project coordinator of DLNY’s Female Choreographers of Color Lab; curriculum development, fundraising, video editing for various schools and organizations.