photo: Jay Daniel
photo: Andy Mogg
Cynthia Adams’ (Co-Director/FTPG, Choreographer/Performer) goal is to create solo and group dance theater pieces which reach beyond the day to day Existence in our lives using personal histories to touch on the universality of being human. This unique physical form of storytelling incorporates movement and text with props and other media becoming at times surreal in nature stretching beyond the truth to absurdity Ms. Adams has been performing her solo and group work since 1981. Her choreographic, film and video/dance works have been seen across the country, Canada and Germany. In 2006 Li Chiao-Ping commissioned Ms. Adams to set a solo piece on her for her ‘Women Dancing’ Series. In May 2003 Ms. Adams performed in the FTPG production of ‘Tales of a Woman’, a one woman multimedia, dance/theater evening. She was selected for two Djerassi Artist in Residences, one in 2003 the other 2001 where she choreographed and performed the final event of the Djerassi season in a site specific, audience participatory trio. Ms. Adams was then awardedthe 2001 California Artist Honorary Fellowship. In 2000 Ms. Adams was selected to perform in ‘2000 Women’, a festival of solo women artists in Vancouver, BC. Cynthia has performed with Kei Takei, Marijoh Danztheater, Dziga Vertov Performance Group, Heidi Duckler's Collage Dance Theater, Sten Rudstrom, Li Chiao-Ping Dance, Shotgun Theater Players amoung others. From 1988-90 Cynthia performed and toured with Kei Takei's Moving Earth, also assisting Ms. Takei in rehearsals and workshops and participating in the epic '24 Hours of LIGHT' in Minneapolis, MN. She holds a MA in Choreography/ Performance from UCLA, and is certified to teach in both Pilates and Iyengar Style Yoga. Ms. Adams teaches ongoing classes and workshops in dance and somatic practices.
Ken James has taught and shown his work across the United States and Canada, most recently at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he was guest artist. He has been awarded multiple residencies at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, as well as residencies at the Farm, Art Farm, and ODC Theater. As an Artistic Director of Fellow Travelers Performance Group along with Cynthia Adams, his work has been performed nationally and internationally including in festivals such as the Dancing on the Edge Festival, Vancouver, Canada; Yerba Buena Gardens Choreographers Festival; House Special (2002); Oakland Arts Festival, and others. FTPG has been featured multiple times in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, The East Bay Express and Digitalcity.com as a Critic’s Choice.
Ken has produced a series of site specific works he calls ‘Body Installations.’ These deceptively simple acts offer beautiful thought-provoking visions of labor. Body Installations are designed to challenge the viewer’s preconceptions of everyday actions.