Cindy Bernier trained principally at Boston Conservatory, the London Dance Center and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. She studied extensively with Gabriel Taub-Darvash and the late Joyce Trisler and subsequently joined her company Danscompany in 1975. There she performed many works by Joyce Trisler and Doris Humphrey. Ms. Bernier formed Kinetikos, a modern dance company as a vehicle for showcasing her own work and was awarded a fellowship grant by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts for choreography. In 1999 she founded Bernier Dance and has since collaborated with her dancers in the creation of 22 new works. The original repertory has earned them the support of foundation and corporate grants. Cindy Bernier teaches and rehearses her company at their headquarters, ‘Performance Dance’. In New York, her work has been produced at The Theater at Riverside Church Dance Festival, Dancers Responding to Aids, Williamsburgh Arts Nexus, The D.U.M.B.O. Festival, The Bridge, Hatch and Dance Space. In Connecticut, Bernier Dance has been presented at the Kweskin Theater, The Quick Center for the Performing Arts at Fairfield University, The Rich Forum, The Levitt Pavilion, Sono Arts Festival, Crystal Theater, the Darien Arts Council and Yale University.

Nancy Schwartz, Associate Director

Nancy Schwartz graduated magna cum laude from Skidmore College, and has performed with numerous ballet, modern dance and mime companies throughout North America, performing both original works and the classics. She studied and performed with Finis Jhung, David Howard and Jennifer Muller, and studied with Melissa Hayden, Elizabeth Carroll, Robert Denvers, Bobby Blankshine, and Dieter Riesle among others. Co-founder of Hudson Repertory Theater, and Attitudes-In-Motion, she is an original founding member of Bernier Dance. She has taught dance extensively in New York City and throughout Connecticut and has modeled for runway, European clothing catalogues and card lines. Nancy performed at the Fringe Festival in Metro Clown’s Another Cat and Another Moon, and worked with choreographers Stephanie Tack, Pascal Rekoert and Yo-el Cassell. In 2003, she founded Performance Dance, Norwalk’s performing arts rental facility, headquarters of Bernier Dance and home to the FUSE the bi-monthly studio showcase for original works by writers, choreographers and composers.

Osamu Uehara has an AB from Cornell University and an MFA in Dance from New York University. He began dancing while studying music theory/composition and astronomy/astrophysics at Cornell. He has danced for numerous classical and contemporary companies in New York, California and Indiana, including those of Andrew Jannetti, Mark DeGarmo, Wendy Osserman, Barry Martin’s Deja Vu Dance Theater, Mark Franko’s Novantiqua, and John Ollom’s Prismatic Productions. He has appeared in the works of Kurt Joos, Ohad Naharin, Robert North, Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow, Sophie Maslow, and Isadora Duncan and has created such diverse character roles as Dr. Coppelius, Carabosse, Captain Hook, the Tinman in Wizard of Oz and the Blue Genie in Alladin. A member of New York Theatre Ballet for 10 years, he also served as company associate for Chen & Dancers. He is currently affiliated with Huntington Ballet Theatre, Performing Arts Ensemble (of Red Bank, NJ) and New York based Folk Dance Theatre and Rockolage. A teacher of ballet and modern dance, he frequently stages classical, romantic and traditional repertoire as well as contemporary works.