Company Biographies

DIANA CARDIFF

A Seattle native, Diana Cardiff joined the Pat Graney Company in spring of 2002. She has worked with many choreographers as a founding member of d9 Dance Collective ('92-03'), and has been with Wade Madsen and Dancers since 1992. Diana graduated with a B.F.A. in dance from Cornish College of the Arts where she originally studied with Pat and was in her first modern dance piece ever-coincidentally choreographed by Pat.

ALISON COCKRILL

Alison was born in Yakima, Washington, in 1967. She started studying ballet at age 4 with the St. Clairs, an old vaudeville couple. She attended Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle on a Krielesheimer Scholarship and there began exploring other movement opportunities. She gave up jazz dance after her infamous appearance on “Star Search”, in 1995. Alison has danced with Pat Graney since 1989, participating in the creation of Pagan Love Song, The Letter, Vivaldi, Sleep, and Tattoo. In addition to her work with the Pat Graney Company, Alison is a featured dancer with Wade Madsen Dancers. She has also worked as a dancer and choreographer with the lindy hop performance troupe SWING THIS!. Ms. Cockrill’s other dance love is salsa, which she has been teaching since 1999.

SAIKO KOBAYASHI

Originally from Japan, Saiko graduated from Cornish College of the Arts with B.F.A. in Dance and joined the company in 1993. She was in the original cast of Vivaldi, Sleep, and Tattoo. From 1993 through 1996 she performed madly for several choreographers in Seattle including Wade Madsen, Jeff Bickford, and Pat Graney, as well as choreographing her own works. In 1996 she became ill and spent a long, meaningful year in Japan treating her serious illness and then returned to the U.S. Saiko started performing again slowly, but surely. She loves movement-focused theater. The Oyoyo Sisters (Japanese Neo-Vaudeville performance) was her own group with Haruno Takemori. They performed throughout the Northwest from 1994 - 2003. Saiko is also the Program Coordinator for the Pat Graney Company’s Keeping the Faith – the Prison Project.

SARA JINKS

Sara received a BA in Dance from the University of Washington in 1995. Sara joined forces with the Pat Graney Company two winters ago for Live at the Moore – A Dance Retrospective. She has been a member of d9 Dance Collective since 1996, and has also performed with Crispin Spaeth Dance Group and BetterBiscuitDance. Sara is a licensed massage therapist, and works at the Brian Utting School of Massage. Her pride and joy is a 3 1/2 month old baby named Lola! Thanks to Laurel, Lola, friends and family for making it possible to be a dancer as well as a mom.

CATHY SUTHERLAND

Cathy has been performing in the Northwest for over 15 years.
She has acted in the area with the Flying Karamazov Brothers, Theatre
Schmeatre, the UMO ensemble, Printers Devil Theatre and the Royalle Famille
DuCaniveaux. She has worked with local film makers Greg Lachow and Rob DeVor. She is so happy to be working with these women and performing dance with Pat again in the ' Vivian Girls'. She was last seen at the Moore Theatre in Ms. Graney’s killer bar piece (and I do mean it almost killed her) '5 Uneven' in 2002.
Cathy has taught elite – level gymnastics in the Northwest for over 25 years.

LORI DILLION

Lori has trained and performed with contemporary dance makers including June Finch, Pat Catterson, Lorry May, Gloria McLean, Ed Groff, Jin-Wen Yu, Li Chiao-Ping, Pablo Cornejo, Wade Madsen, Cheronne Wong and Molissa Fenley. Lori is a former company member of Li Chiao-Ping Dance and Jin-Wen Yu Dance, both based in Madison, Wisconsin. During her tenure with these companies, she performed in over two-dozen different dances and toured to Taiwan, South Korea and several major cities in the U.S. Lori has been noted for her dynamic, intense performance style by Dance Magazine (July 2001) and Jack Anderson of the New York Times (10/17/00), among others. She holds a BA in art history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and when she is not dancing, she works as a development professional for ArtsWest, a multi-disciplinary arts organization in West Seattle. Lori began working with the Pat Graney Company in fall 2003.