Get to know local San Antonio artists! The May artists of the month are Jayne King and Amber Ortega-Perez of Modern Dancers’ Co-Laboratory.   Jayne King directs the dance program at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio. She is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, where she was Artistic Director of Janlyn Dance Company, creating more than twenty original works for the ensemble from 1997-2004. Since moving to San Antonio Jayne has especially enjoyed making dances with the San Antonio Modern Dancers Co-Lab. She has a Masters degree in dance from Mills College and is a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner. Jayne also serves on the board of the San Antonio Dance Umbrella.  Her most recent choreographic projects include Floodgate, a dance film shot on location at the Flood Control Tunnel Outlet Building on the San Antonio River, and Work it On Out: Dance Narratives and Fantasies, an intergenerational community performance project   Amber Ortega-Perez is a founding member of the Modern Dancers’ Co-Laboratory, a cooperative of San Antonio modern dancers and also a co-founder of SpareWorks dance company. She is currently an instructor at Ballet Conservatory of South Texas and St. Phillip’s Fine Arts Academy. She holds a BFA in Modern Dance from Ohio State University. Amber recently collaborated with SOLI chamber ensemble member, Stephanie Key and guitarist/composer, Joe Reyes on a unique performance entitled, “(Re)Action”, a performance piece concerning global warming. Amber has also recently received a grant from the San Antonio Artist Foundation to create a new work for her company SpareWorks.    See Jayne King and Amber Ortega-Perez in action when Modern Dancers’ Co-Laboratory collaborates with StoneMetal Press for PrintDance, May 18 – 25 at the Cody Branch Library, 11441 Vance Jackson.   The event is part of both Printmaking Month and Dance Month in San Antonio. The bodies of modern dancers become the presses printing large scale prints from giant woodcuts on stage. Artist Regina Sanders cuts dynamic images of dancers in relief onto four 4 ft by 8 ft pieces of plywood. For more information visit the website at www.stonemetal-press.com.

Read more about San Antonio artists in the Artist of the Month archive here.