Jay Ruby / director, founder
Jay Ruby invokes theater to animate social space and invigorate collective reflection with the intent to address psychic wounds of history, calibrate open access to resources for all and reclaim the vitality of life in the face of monotone industrialism, technological alienation and environmental catastrophe.
As founder and director of The Carpetbag Brigade (TCB) he stewarded the company since its inception in Prescott, Arizona in 1997. The company, host and founder of the free all-ages festival Tsunami on the Square transitioned to become an international touring company based in San Francisco, California. Known for its innovative and pioneering use of acrobatic stilting outside of non-traditional venues Jay Ruby has nurtured TCB’s unique style of performance by integrating the traditions of acrobatic stilts, butoh dance, contact improvisation and physical theater.
As artistic and executive director of TCB he facilitated the direction of the touring performances Mudfire and The Vanishing Point which were performed in North and South America and Europe in a diverse array of festivals.
Jay Ruby has lead collaborations and conducted workshops with diverse performance company’s including Flamchen, NaCl, Hand2Mouth Theatre, Sojourner Theater, Wise Fool, Bright Night International, Crimson Coast Dance Society, and Pandoum Theater. He organized and presided over TCB’s 4 month residency at UNESCO’s Universal Forum of the Cultures in Monterrey, Mexico in 2007. He regularly organizes intensive seminars to share the seeds of TCB’s work.
Jay Ruby has a B.A. in Psychology from Antioch College and studied theater in Berlin, Germany at Theater Zerbrochene Fenster and later with Roberta Carreri of the Odin Teatret in Holstebro, Denmark. He supplemented his theatrical training through learning experiences with David Clarkson of Stalker Theater, Diego Pinon Ritual Butoh Mexicano, Contact Improvisation practitioners Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith as well as travel to examine ritual and performance in Bali and Mexico. Jay practices Ashtanga Yoga and Vipassana.
Isabelle Kirouac
Born and raised in the countryside of Quebec, Canada, Isabelle Kirouac has spent much time on the road, developing dances and installations exploring the concept of home, travel, and its reflection on our ways of seeing. To satisfy her interest in creating collaborative performances Isabelle has been an ensemble member of the Carpetbag Brigade since 2006. As a movement artist and multi-instrumentalist, she has performed and contributed to the creation of “You don’t know Jack” and “Callings”, as well as toured internationally in the acrobatic stilt spectacle “The Vanishing Point”. Isabelle also works as a teacher within the company and manages and designs the website.
Isabelle has both studied and taught Contact Improvisation for many years internationally, and trained in acrobatic stilts, somatics, butoh, physical theater, performance art, West African dance and music. Under the name Three little red dots, Isabelle has been conducting stilt and dance based workshops to artists and community members, as well as presenting original performance work at international festivals, such as the Israeli Contact Improvisation Festival (Israel), the Symposium Imagining Bodies (Estonia), the Festival de Jazz de Montréal, the Still Moon Performance Arts Festival, the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Junior Olympics (Canada), etc. Her performance work has been inspired by studies with Karl Frost/Body Research, 2boys.tv, Theater Replacement, BBB Johannes Deimling and many others. Additionally, she has traveled to Palestine (West Bank), where she taught dance classes to groups of woman, and to West Africa, where she conducted research on the coexistence of contemporary and traditional dance performances with local artists, thinkers, dancers and choreographers. Isabelle’s work have been supported by Canada Arts Council and Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec.
Over the years, Isabelle also performed in Lucy Lost her heart (Theater Junction, Canada), Big 3rd Episode Happy/End (Superamas, France/Austria), Axolotl & Proximity (Body Research, USA), Rituals of the inner circle (Felix Ruckert, Germany), Penny Farthing’s or the Fantasy of Flight (Flam Chen, USA), and collaborated with experimental film artists Daïchi Saito and Karl Lemieux (Double Negative Collective, Québec) and performance artist Eman Haram (Geography of Elsewhere, Québec). Isabelle completed a B.A. in Literature at Université du Québec À Montréal and a College Diploma in Music and Humanities. She plays classical guitar, diatonic accordion and other unclassified sound devices.
Christopher Mankowski
Born and raised in California, Christopher Mankowski has been immersed in worlds of creativity and the arts since a child. His creative path has evolved through spontaneous skits, drawing, painting, sculpture, creative writing and music… But not until he unexpectedly discovered dance, theatre and butoh studying at Prescott College, did he find his calling. Performing was never an ambition, but a gift stumbled upon, a path of healing and giving everything. Dance has become a way to come back home to the voice of the body and attempt to express something otherwise inexpressible.
He participated in the Art-Quest program in High School and continued to received a BA in the Interdisciplinary Arts (emphasis in performance) and Transpersonal Psychology from Prescott College. Butoh, a Japanese dance-theatre form, has become the foundation of his artistry—grappling with the mystery of the body, the paradox of form and formlessness. He has studied with many butoh teachers, but has delved most deeply into the work and lineage of Diego Pinon.
Whether performing under bridges, along creeks, or in the theatre, his work attempts to cross physical and social boundaries of the spaces he works in, drawing from the subconscious and the deeply personal. He strives to unearth an energetic intimacy that transcends the form—the concept of audience and stage—and bare the collective soul. He is also trained in physical theatre, contact improvisation, and acrobatic stilts, and draws significantly from his studies of music and poetry.
He has performed professionally with Mizu Desierto Butoh Theatre, Syzygy Butoh, and has been touring with the Carpetbag Brigade since 2009. He recently co-directed a physical theatre performance for the 10 year anniversary of the performing arts festival, Tsunami on the Square, and performed in the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Junior Olympics. He just completed three months of creative research in Japan, deepening his studies in butoh and creating material for his new solo project. While in Japan, he worked extensively with butoh masters Yoshito Ohno and Natsu Nakajima, created and performed a duet with butoh artist Masahiro Nakanishi, and performed in the 2010 Kazuo Ohno festival.
