Sonja Brodt

Sonja Brodt founded Ecokinesis Dance Company in 2000 with an inaugural performance in the waters of Cache Creek at the Hoes Down Harvest Festival in Guinda, CA. She blends science with art by drawing inspiration from her career in the environmental and agricultural sciences and extension at the University of California and from the multiple dance traditions she has studied in the U.S. and around the Asia/Pacific region.

Ms. Brodt’s early grounding in classical ballet was enriched with extensive training in the modern dance styles of Doris Humphrey, Jose Limon, Martha Graham, as well as more contemporary styles. While studying for a degree in biology, she also pursued a minor concentration in dance at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Virginia, and performed with several modern dance companies, including the Bonnie McNeely Dance Company (Davis, CA), Dances We Dance (Honolulu, HI), and the award-winning butoh-modern dance fusion company Iona Pear Dance Theatre (Honolulu, HI). Along her journey she also studied Hawaiian hula and Indian folk dance, both of which have enriched her choreography.

Ms. Brodt’s dancing and choreography have been seen by audiences throughout the greater Sacramento area, including in the Redding Spring Dance Concert, Pamela Trokanski’s Davis Dance Project, Dance As Is, the Whole Earth Festival in Davis, the Hoes Down Harvest Festival in Guinda, and the American River Salmon Festival in Rancho Cordova. Ecokinesis choreography is also performed frequently in the annual concerts of Applegate Dance Company in Davis. Ms. Brodt occasionally teaches as a guest ballet instructor at Applegate Dance Studio in Davis, has taught butoh workshops at the UC Davis Experimental College, and has also taught a semester course in Environmental Dance Composition at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Virginia.

Meri Superak

Meri Superak plays a stunning Native Flute that transforms listeners and moves souls. Meri’s records at Fox Tail Sound, Recording Center. And her first CD Hlysnan. In the Mountains of Montana and the meditation rooms at yoga retreats individuals experience life stories through the voice of the flutes that Meri plays. She joins with the various Flutes and together creates and shares the vibrations of the Earth. Through travel Meri has been gifted the opportunity to create with various Native Flutists and percussionists: Gary Stroutsos, Hovia Edwards, Ann Licater, John Sarantos, Gera Clark, Will Clipman, Paul Thompson and Jeff Miller. These experiences have formed a deeper connection to the essential being of music and the voice of each flute that lives with Meri.