About Miranda Janeschild:

Artistic director, choreographer, teacher and dancer, Miranda Janeschild founded Mir & A Company in April 2002, in Santa Cruz, California.  Celebrating their fifth year, Miranda Janeschild has produced and directed five major theatrical dance performances A Crack in The Mask--2007, Place of No Escape--2005, Weaving One Peace at a Time—2004, Broken Wings Take Me Home—2003 and Caught in a Thread—2002. Mir & A Company has established a legacy that dramatically breaks the boundaries of conventional dance performances.  As a company that incorporates theatrical aerial, modern and fire dance, Miranda’s vision is to seduce audience members into an evocative story by the synthesis of live music and dancing not only on the floor, but in the air, and with fire.  Her stories evoke fear, defy the senses, and comfort you through hardship as the creative works acknowledges the power of human experience to draw humankind together.

Besides producing yearly events, Miranda teaches community classes in aerial dance, Axis Syllabus Dance and Feldenkrais.  She hosts international artists to teach and present their work and provides a means for emerging artists to present their art professionally.  Miranda has done extensive work in Santa Cruz County with the young, such as children with disabilities, incarcerated at risk youth, and teens who attend alternative high schools. Artistic projects for the youth have included: aerial, hip-hop amd acrobatic dance classes as well as performance arts classes culminating in informal showings for students and teachers. Miranda always provides sponsorship and discount programs for low income to attend classes, productions, and demonstrations.

Miranda’s study in aerial dance began with Jo Kreiter of Flyaway Productions (www.flyawayproductions.com) in 2001. She also studies with Frey Faust, the founder of Axix Syllabus in both Europe and North America and is certified to teach Axis Syllabus-ump™ fundamentals since 2001 (www.axissyllabuscom).  Since 1977 Miranda has studied contact improvisation dance extensively with Nita Little and Steve Paxton.  She has studied and is deeply rooted in performance ritual theater as created by Shekhinah Mountainwater from 1982 to 1991 (www.shekhinah.net).  Her training in the 70's & 80's included theater, gymnastic competition, circus skills, pantomime and conventional modern dance. 

Jenna Garcia Conners:

Jenna has dreamed of dancing since she was a child, when she would make up “routines” with the neighborhood girls and they would perform for their families.   With this love of dance came a deep interest in health and movement analysis.  In the past two years, Jenna has dived into the depths or aerial dance and Axis Syllabus.  She has traiined with Frey Faust and is a teacher candidate in the teachers training program for Axis Syllabus.  Jenna is an outdoor enthusiast, mountain climber, wind surfer, and gardener.  She is a local Watsu and Waterdance therapist whose 8 years of private practice here in Santa Cruz has contributed to her ongoing study of the body in motion.  A self taught yogini at the age of 16, Jenna was the first to bring yoga classes to Benicia, California.  At 17, she began a 13 year stretch of teaching aerobics as a way of sharing movement and dance.   Now, at the age of 33, Jenna performs in “A Crack in the Mask” as her debut  of a dream come true. true.

René Soulier