Croatian Dance Instructors-Choreographers Pam Kelley and Melissa Obenauf

We are educators, dancers, musicians, folklorists, and choreographers, and we absolutely love what we do!
We are the Co-Founders and Co-Directors of ZIVILI, a 34-year old professional dance company that has as its mission the
preservation and performance of dances and music of Croatia.
With ZIVILI, we have toured and performed throughout the United States and in Europe,
where we have earned a reputation for excellence.

We have both received many fellowships for choreography from the Ohio Arts Council,
as well as from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1994, internationally-acclaimed choreographer Mark Morris was commissioned by us to create a work for ZIVILI---The Office---
which received accolades in major newspapers throughout the country.

In 1997, after the conclusion of the war in former Yugoslavia, we undertook the project that we are most proud of.
Believing deeply in the ability of the arts to heal, we took our company of 25 performers, and headed to the Balkans where
we presented performances in refugee camps for people who had been displaced by this war, as well as in orphanages and at centers for the ¿abandoned elderly.¿
In addition, our musicians played for dancing by refugees following each and every performance.
This "Refugee Camp Tour," as we refer to it, changed our lives'..so much so that we have taken the company several times since
to perform and participate in Balkan Reconciliation Seminars in Plovdiv, Bulgaria; in Budapest, Hungary, and throughout Croatia.

Our dance repertoire includes choreographies from the Croatian regions of Medjimurje, Slavonija, Posavina, Prigorje, Zagorje, Bratina, Podravina,
as well as from Split, Dubrovnik, and Vojvodina.

We have traveled to Croatia many times to study folklore with leading ethnomusicologists, dance ethnologists, and folklorists,
and we are graduates of the Ljetna Skola Folkora, Zagreb (Summer Folklore School), where we were under the direct tutelage of the renowned Dr. Ivan Ivan¿an.
We maintain a special mentorship with LADO, the state folk ensemble of Croatia, and with Markovac Dance Ensemble of Zagreb, Croatia.

We recently concluded a 6-year commitment as instructors for the University of Rio Grande's Masters of Education Program,
where our goals were to encourage classroom teachers to use dance, music and other art forms as springboards for creative and challenging teaching.
We also served on the Dance Faculty at Denison University in 2008.

In late 2010, we created a choreography/theater piece from the area of Dalmatia, Croatia, for a folkloric dance ensemble.
During the summers of 2008-11, we have conducted "Cultural Immersion" tours to Croatia for individuals from all over the country.
This tour brings to life the rich music and dance heritages of the region and have been so successful that we intend to continue to offer these folkloric tours every summer.
Both of us not only have degrees in education, but also extensive training and credentials in the areas of Croatian dance and music.
We have been active artists in the Ohio Arts Council's Arts Learning Program and in the Greater Columbus Artist-in-Schools Program for over 30 years.
We are interested in conducting school and community residencies, workshops, dance classes, as well as choreographies from regions of Croatia.

Please contact us at mobenauf@windstream.net for more information.

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