Yulia Arakelyan
is a Portland based performance artist and co-founder of Wobbly – a multidisciplinary performance project. She has trained with CandoCo Dance Company in London (’04-’05) and has a BA in Dance from the University of Washington (’07). However, some of her most influential, life/body altering moments came from outside of the institutions through rigorous training by national and international artists such as Diego Pinon, Jurg Koch, Sheri Brown, Mizu Diesierto, Miguel Gutierrez and Yukio Suzuki. Along with partner Erik Ferguson, Yulia founded Wobbly in 2006. Since then, they have created many original short works, a full length group dance theatre production, performed in Seattle, Portland, Chicago and Barcelona, were part of a 6 month residency at Studio 2@Zoomtopia, and are currently working on an art film with filmmaker Ian Lucero to be premiered in May 2015 at The Headwaters Theatre. Wobbly’s work is in part supported by grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Project. Yulia also works as an independent choreographer and has created original works for Polaris Dance Company as well as several solo works. In 2013, Yulia received an award from the Lilla Jewel Fund for Women Artist to create a new dance work for the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation’s annual social justice fundraiser. As an educator, Yulia has taught classes and workshops to people of all ages and abilities. She was a regular guest teacher at the annual Integrated Dance Summer Intensive at the University of Washington in Seattle. She has also taught at Lynch View Elementary School, Polaris Dance Center, and Beaumont College (England). In 2009, Yulia was invited to present about her work at the National Summit on Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities in Washington DC.
Erik Ferguson
is an anti-virtuoso movement artist living in Portland, Oregon, and co-founder of Wobbly Dance. He got his start studying improvisation with Alito Alessi in Trier, Germany in 2003 and has performed and taught DanceAbility and contact improvisation throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as the UK, Oaxaca, and British Columbia. He has most recently studied improvisation with Deborah Hay and Barbara Dilly. He is a perpetual student of Butoh who has studied with various teachers including Akira Kasai, Koichi and Hiroko Tamano, Mizu Desierto and many others. His performances range from storytelling to dance theatre exploring themes of embodiment, gender identity, and extremes of human emotion.