Lizz Roman, artistic director of LIZZ ROMAN & DANCERS has been dancing and choreographing in San Francisco since 1984. Romans most recent works, “BLUE FLOOR REFLECTIONS”( 2006) and “CELLGROUND”(2005) both played to sold out audiences and received critical acclaim for being ”Eloquent”, Breathtaking” “Provocative” “Engrossing work ” “Captivating” “One can be grateful that Roman arrives at the task without agendas, simply to fashion eloquent steps within an unconventional setting.” “Artaud became what felt like an underwater playground.” In 2004, Roman was commissioned by the SF Butoh Festival and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival to create a site specific dance which premiered in 2004 and was remounted again in 2005. In 2005, the company was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Award for company pevrformance for “CELLGROUND”. In 1998, Roman received a Black Box Award for Cross Genre Performance for “IN HER DREAMS” a site specific collaboration with local filmmaker Kevin Cunningham, commissioned by ODC Theater.
Aside from creating site dances for local dance spaces, Roman also teaches modern dance and performance workshops in and around the Bay Area. From 2006 to 2007, Roman taught modern dance at the University of California, Berkeley and from 1999 to 2003, Roman worked with large groups of dancers each year as a part of the wo
rkshop Performance Series at Rhythm & Motion Dance Studio in SF. Trained in modern, ballet and contact improvisation, Roman currently teaches modern dance and contact improvisation at ODC Dance Commons in SF. Before moving to SF in 1984, Roman lived in Chicago where she studied theater at the Goodman School of Drama. She attributes much of her choreographic style to her years as a student and performer of improvisational theater and dance in Chicago and St. Louis. Roman is also a certified Pilates instructor and currently is co-owner of PARKSIDE PILATES in SF.
Her dances have been seen at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Theater Artaud, ODC Theater, CellSpace, DanzHaus, Dancers’ Group, Brady St. Theater, and Counterpulse in SF. Additional teaching credits include, SF Dance Center, Shawl Anderson Dance Center, The School of the Arts in SF, Berkeley High and Rhythm and Motion Dance Center. Roman is also a member of Divisadero Dance Research, an improvisational dance group founded by contact improv maverick Nita Little. For more info, go to www.lizzromananddancers.com