Composer Charlie Barnett composed the score for Moffett Smith's Within (2004) at the piano in the dance studio; the dance and the music were created together. (This score earned the 2004 Metro DC Dance Award for Original Composition). Barnett's music also is featured in Interior Lining (2003), and he has worked with the company on other collaborative projects.

Painter Helene O'Neil Cobb joined the dancers in the studio for hours sketching them as they danced. The resulting series of sketches formed the basis for her two abstract panels that form an integral part of The Gift (2003). She also painted three abstract panels in irregular geometric shapes that fly above the dancers in Divertimento (2004).

Charlie Barnett

Charlie Barnett, composer, has collaborated with DanceSmith since its inception. His commissioned score for DanceSmith's Within (2004) was awarded the 2004 Metro DC Dance Award for original composition. DanceSmith's Interior Lining (2003) is also set to one of Barnett's compositions, and he and Natalie Moffett Smith has worked together on two other experimental collaborations.

As a film composer, Barnett's scores have appeared in more than three hundred television and theatrical films. His work in documentary film has garnered many awards including the 2000 Cine Golden Eagle for his work on National Geographic's Tibet's Hidden Kingdom, and a Peer Award for The Discovery Channel's Raising the Mammoth. Mr. Barnett's feature films include Certain Guys, which premiered in 2001 on HBO, Break a Leg and Paperclips.

He has also written music for Saturday Night Live, The Cosby Show and Third Rock from the Sun.

Barnett's concert debut was Knitting a Building, which premiered at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. His concert production entitled: 35 Millimeter Music: An Orchestral Road Trip debuted in 2002 at Washington DC's historic Lincoln Theatre. This concert, conducted by Mr. Barnett, featured his violin concerto, Concerto in Fourths and premiered his newest work, The Blue Chevrolet.

Barnett's full length musical, The Last Days of Cleopatra, premiered in the New York Fringe Festival in 2005.

Barnett's other projects include: producing jazz albums -- A La Carte Brass' Boogeyin', Salsa, Satchmo and Trane; and arranging -- Jason Falkner's pop- rock classic, Author Unknown, for Elektra Records.

Barnett graduated from Cornell University where he studied with William Austin and Karel Husa. His further studies included piano with Julio Esteban at Peabody Conservatory and jazz theory with James Amadie in Philadelphia.

www.charliebarnett.com

Helene O'Neil Cobb

"The Gift" - by Helene O'Neil Cobb

Helene O'Neil Cobb, painter, was born in Washington, DC and received her BA and JD from Georgetown University. She studied art at Georgetown University, George Washington University and the Corcoran College of Art & Design. Prior to focusing more exclusively on her painting, Helene was an attorney with Hogan & Hartson. Helene's paintings and drawings have been exhibited in galleries in Washington, DC and are in many private collections. The ongoing collaboration with DanceSmith is a natural extension of her work exploring the beautiful rhythms inherent in the human figure.

Maryland Youth Ballet

DanceSmith currently rehearses at the dance studios of Maryland Youth Ballet in Silver Spring, Maryland (a suburb of Washington, DC). The mission of the Maryland Youth Ballet is to provide the highest caliber of dance to the community: through training, performance, and outreach.

www.marylandyouthballet.org

Atlas Performing Arts Center

DanceSmith is proud to be the Resident Performing Dance Company of the new Atlas Performing Arts Center, a community-based arts center in North East Washington, DC.

www.atlasarts.org