Green Street Studios

Green Street Studios is a 501(c)3 non-profit

Mission

Green Street Studios is a center for movement and dance that enables artists, students, and audiences to explore the boundless potential of physical movement and the expressive capacity of the human body. Through its support of both established and emerging professionals, Green Street Studios provides students of all levels, and the wider public, the opportunity to explore and establish connections of their own to the traditions and commitments of disciplined movement.

Green Street Studios is a dance and movement arts center that serves all ages and skill levels. GSS will develop dance audiences and serve its diverse community by expanding opportunities to experience the magic and wonder of dance and movement. We will be recognized for our artistic integrity, the quality of our dance education and our progressive programming. GSS will strive to identify and fill voids in the dance and movement community that are in harmony with our mission. The best professionals will be working for GSS. They will be experienced, dedicated to continually improving their teaching technique, recognized by the dance and movement community for their work, and committed to fostering and developing the Green Street Studios community.

As a center for developing emerging dance and movement artists, GSS will provide an environment where they can experiment, take artistic risks, perform and grow. GSS will collaborate with the Boston dance community and will bring artists, dancers and Boston’s audiences together to share the best and most challenging ideas, practices and practitioners by providing master classes and workshops with guest artists, offering artist residencies, and presenting performances of current and evolving trends.

GSS will transition from a cooperatively-run space to a dance and movement arts center managed by an active board of trustees, a professional staff and volunteers committed to implementing and sustaining the vision through a supportive atmosphere, sound organization and fiscal responsibility. Green Street Studios will provide affordable facilities for rehearsals, performances, and training that meet the specific needs of dancers and are affordable.

Green Street Studios (GSS) is a laboratory for dance in the Boston area. Founded in 1991 by five artists as a workspace, GSS now supports the performing, rehearsing and teaching needs of a diverse group of individuals and companies. With two studios and 125-seat black box studio/theatre, GSS is a purpose-built dance facility in a dynamic urban setting, one that offers dancers what they need to be successful.

Initially, the founders taught Modern Dance and Ballet to pay rent; their success made GSS a vital node in the Boston movement arts community. Over time, teachers of other dance forms joined them. GSS is now home to hundreds of dancers who rehearse and study, and over 20 teachers in a range of disciplines.

In 2001 the initial 10-year lease on the space expired. By that time, Central Square, Cambridge, had become a recognized destination, and rent for 2002 represented a 42% increase over the previous year. Renewing the lease and recognizing a new financial landscape pushed the organization to explore its potential and clarify its mission. GSS began evolving from an artist-run cooperative into a fully staffed center for the education and performance of dance and movement arts.

Much of the work of the past three years has focused on clarifying daily administration. The organization increased its budget 50% in the last 2 fiscal years through increased fundraising, improved financial management and growth in clientele served. Since 2005, programming revenues have increased by 38% and we employed our first full time Executive Director. GSS now serves a diverse community of over 5,500 from the Boston metropolitan area and beyond.

Jimena Bermejo-Black
Jimena Bermejo-Black was born in Mexico City. She holds a BFA in Dance from The Boston Conservatory and will be graduating with an MFA from The Massachusetts College of Art and Design in May 2009. Jimena has performed with Spencer/Colton, Marcus Schulkind, Kate Digby, Ego Art Inc., Kelli Edwards, Lorraine Chapman The Company, Caitlin Corbett Dance Company and as a guest dancer with David Parker and The Bang Group. Along with performing Jimena continues to teach, choreograph and create video/performance pieces. She serves on the dance faculty of The College of The Holy Cross and has been awarded with the Performance Works Project (2005) and the Emerging Artists (2008) grants for her choreography.

Abbie H. Katz was Associate Producer for the Boston Early Music Festival from 2002-07; previous to that she was General Manager of The Market Theater in Cambridge. Ms. Katz was also Associate Producer for the Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven and General Manager for Anna Deveare Smith's Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at Harvard University. She toured extensively throughout the US, Europe and Asia, and has worked with the Lucinda Childs Dance Company, Meredith Monk (The House), Robert Wilson and Yoshiko Chuma. She currently teaches stage management and arts administration at Suffolk University.

Toni Matsu
Dancer, Gardener, Manager, Reader, Textile Artist. Toni suffers the odd combination of a strong artistic sensibility and an organized, button-down intelligence. Over the years it has led her to the management of a variety of arts and non-profit groups.

Birute Regine
Birute Regine EdD, author of The Soul at Work and Paths of Iron Butterflies: How strong women are transforming themselves and the world, received her doctorate in developmental psychology from Harvard University, was a practicing psychotherapist for 25 years, and a visiting scholar at Wellesley College’s Research Center on Women. She is also a business consultant and public speaker. Married to Roger Lewin, she has a daughter Rasa, and a son Romas. Dance has been and continues to be her meditation, her passion, her sanity.

Marcus Schulkind
Marcus is a founding director of Green Street Studios and has been dancing, teaching, and performing for over thirty-three years. Originally trained in Graham Technique and Graham based variants (Norman Walker, May O’Donnell, Pearl Lang), he went on to study ballet with Antony Tudor and Maggie Black at Julliard, bodywork with Zena Rommett ( for whom he taught in New York), and Pilates Technique with Kathy Grant.
He has performed nationally and internationally with many major modern dance companies including Lar Lubovitch, Kathy Posin, and Batsheva Dance Company of Isreal. He has taught in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East. Mr. Schulkind is a nationally recognized dancer, teacher, and choreographer, having received grants from the N.E.A., N.Y.S.C.A., Affiliate Artists Inc., Bank Boston Celebrity Series, and First Night. He has choreographed for Dennis Wayne’s Company, Princeton Ballet, David Brown, Elisa Monte, 5 by 2 Plus, People Dancing, Pick of the Crop, Little Feet, Peanut Butter and Jelly Dance Company, and in Canada for Dance Partout and the National Ballet of Egypt. Since seriously injuring his knee twelve years ago, he has been integrating Physical therapies and his five year training of Pilates into his floor barre, modern, and ballet technique classes. Marcus is also a practicing acupuncturist.

Kathryn Dunkel received her BA in Dance from Hamilton College with a Minor in Anthropology. While at Hamilton, she studied with Elaine Heekin, Leslie Norton, and Bruce Walczyk. Kathryn is a graduate of the Trinity/La Mama program out of New York City, where she studied with Maureen Fleming, Tiffany Mills, and Lisa Race, among others. Since moving to Boston, she has had the pleasure of performing work by choreographers and companies including: Bryce Dance, Kee Chin, EgoArt, Inc., Cat Murcek, Cheri Opperman, Mariah Steele, Danny Swain Dance Company, and WeberDance. Kathryn has presented her own work in Cambridge at The Dance Complex and Green Street Studios, the Triskelion Arts Center in Brooklyn, and The Annex at La MaMa E.T.C. in New York City.

Kristin Hayes earned her BFA from Emerson College, receiving accolades and recognition for her designs of Undiscovered Country, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and the 25th Annual EVVY Awards. She currently works as a freelance designer and technician in Boston; recent design credits include A Christmas Carol for Fiddlehead Theatre Company, Hamlet for Shakespeare Now, and Simon Says for PSFilms.

From Boston
Cross the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge into Cambridge. Half a mile from the bridge turn left on Sidney Street (a wide street just before a fire station on the left) and immediately turn right into Green Street. Drive one block to Brookline Street. Cross Brookline Street. Green Street Studio will be the 2nd building on the right. For parking look for 2 hour meters (free after 6:00 PM and on Sundays) on Brookline Street before crossing it or continue on Green Street to the Municipal parking lot on the left after the stop sign. Meters also available on Massachusetts Avenue (2 and 1 hour meters).

From Mass Turnpike, Brookline
Take Cambridge/Allston exit on to River Street Bridge into Cambridge, continue straight on River Street less than half a mile and make a right turn on Franklin Street. Take the 3rd left turn onto Brookline Street and the next left onto Green Street.

Parking garage
A reasonably priced parking garage is located on Green Street, the next block after Green Street Studios, on the left side of the street.

By Public Transportation:

To Central Square
By bus take #'s 1, CT1, 47, 64, 70, 70A to Central Square, Cambridge; by subway take Red Line T to Central Square Station.

From S.E. corner of Massachusetts Ave and Prospect St. / Western Ave. / Magazine St. :

Green Street Studios are located in a two story brick building between Pearl St. and Brookline St.