Travel Highlights
Performance Highlights
Directing and Teaching Highlights
Summary of Education/Training
Additional Highlights

Performer, choreographer, teacher of Middle Eastern/Central Asian dance for over fifteen years, with a specialty in Uzbek dance

Solo repertoire of over two dozen traditional dances of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Iran (Persia), Azerbaijan, Armenia, Egypt, Afghanistan and Turkey

Travel Highlights

Dance study tour of Turkey and Greece (1988)

Dance study tour of the Soviet Union: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine (1989)

Awarded two NEA-approved Collaborative Grants from ArtsLink, a program of CEC International Partners, for performance studies and documentation in the Independent Republic of Uzbekistan (1993, 1996)

Intensive training with People's Artist of Uzbekistan, Vilayat Akilova, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, under ArtsLink grants (1994, 1997)

Performances in Uzbekistan with Tashkent Yulduzlara, including the Tashkent Mayor's Mansion (1997)

First foreign professional dancer to perform in Tashkent's official Navroz (New Year) Festival held each year on March 21st (1997)

Showcased in 30-minute television program produced in Uzbekistan for Tashkent Television documenting work with Mme. Akilova and featuring six solos (1997)
 

Curated soloist, 1993 Los Angeles Festival, on concert shared with Shashmaqam Bukharan Jewish Ensemble of New York

Lester Horton Dance Award nominations for Outstanding Achievement in Individual Performance and Staging Traditional Dance (1993, 1994)

Gulistan concert at UCLA honoring Erkin Vahidov, beloved Uzbek writer and poet, Committee Chairman of the Uzbek Parliament, and Member of the Supreme Council to the President of Uzbekistan (1995)

Guest soloist with master drummer Siamak Pouian and UC Santa Barbara's Middle East Ensemble in concert featuring Persian singing star Sattar (aired on Persian Television) (1996)

Guest soloist for ten performances of Po Na Na Dance Theater's "Layla and Majnun," Los Angeles (1997/1999)

Co-produced and performed Mystic Rhythms concert with Persian singer and poet Mitra, Los Angeles (1998)

Gulistan concert of Turkish music and dance at Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Bing Theater in conjunction with Letters in Gold exhibit of Ottoman Calligraphy from Istanbul, Turkey (1999)

Gulistan concert at UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum celebrating the acclaimed Royal Persian Paintings exhibit (1999)

Gulistan invited to perform in World Music and Dance Celebration, Riverside Community College, California (1999)

Gulistan invited to perform as featured guest artist in Faculty Dance Concert, Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, California (1999)

Guest Soloist in Eastern Arts' WorlDance Concert featuring additional guest artists Anwar Yusuf, Uighur master instrumentalist and singer, and Tolkin Isakov, Uzbek master percussionist, Kingsbury Hall, Salt Lake City, Utah (2000)

Premiere of Gulistan's full-length concert of Uzbek and Tajik Dance, "Rhythms of the Steppe," Ocean View Ballroom, Belmont Shore (2001)

Gulistan gave four concerts of Central Asian dance at the 24th annual MountainFilm Festival in Telluride, Colorado.  This event takes place each year over the Memorial Day weekend and is America's premier festival of mountain, adventure, enironmental and cultural film and video.  Gulistan was featured at this year's symposium which was entitled "The Mountains of Islam."  The symposium brought together leaders in the field of Central Asian culture, history, anthropology and ethnomusicology.  Performances were held in the Victorian-era Sheridan Opera House, the Ah Haa School Art Gallery, and Elks Park.  (2002)

Gulistan and its Chashma Music Ensemble performed in the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre's 2003 Big!World!Fun! Family Series. A cast of 20 performers wove a tapestry of traditional dance, live music and tales from Uzbekistan to Tunisia, featuring the exploits of Nasreddin--the wise fool of Central Asia and the Middle East. Special guests were Zahra Zuhair and the Eshta Dance Company, storyteller and maskmaker Marie Silva-Alexander, master percussionist from Uzbekistan Tolkin Isakov, and Eli Danker as Nasreddin. (2003)

Gulistan and its Chashma Music Ensemble performed the full-length concert, "Postcards from the Silk Road," at the Wray Theater at Rio Hondo College.  This program, which included traditional dnce and music of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, East Turkestan, Azerbaijan and Turkey, was part of Rio Hondo College's Arts & Cultural Program Series.  (2003)

Carolyn was invited to perform Uzbek dances for Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize for Peace, at a private dinner/reception held at UCLA's Sunset Village.  (2004)

Gulistan performed Central Asian dances in the gala awards ceremony "Celebrating Excellence--Los Angeles" produced by Wilda Spaulding, founder/president of the International Human Rights Consortium and senior United Nations/NGO head of international delegations who has been responsible for numerous UN Resolutions.  (2004)

Directing and Teaching Highlights

Associate Artistic Director, Education Director, principal dancer of AVAZ International Dance Theatre from 1990 to 1994 (member from 1984); staged 10 new works from Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan; created/directed in-school programs; directed existing company repertoire; trained company members in regional styles

Creator, director, performer for variety of educational programs presented by Performing Tree, Los Angeles; Los Angeles Unified School District's Intergroup Cultural Awareness Program (ICAP); From the Center, Orange County; Children's Creative Arts Project Catalogue, Santa Barbara (1990-present)

Founded Gulistan Dance Theater (1994)

Artist-in-Residence, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, under California Arts Council Grant (1994-1995)

Choreographer-in-Residence, Orange Coast College, under Coast College District Grant, Costa Mesa, California (1999)

Traveling Dance Teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District's Arts Prototype Program (2001-present)

Visiting Lecturer at University of California, Santa Barbara, in Uzbek and Persian Dance (2001)

Summary of Education/Training

Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance Performance, UC Irvine

Master of Arts degree in Choreography, UCLA

25 years of training/performances in non-Western dance (Balkan, Middle Eastern, Central Asian) with masters and noted specialists including: Vilayat Akilova, Adam Basma, Dick Crum, Ixchel Dimetral-Maerker, Anna Djanbazian, Farida Fahmy, Reza Farnoush, Bora Gajicki, Directors of the Soviet Georgian State Dance Company, Denise Hagopian, Ann Litvin, Mohammadrasul Mamadaminzoda, Dick Oakes, Aidyn Outecheva, Mahmoud Reda, Nikos Savvidis, Anthony Shay, Donna Tripp, Nikos Varvisiotis, Zahra Zuhair, Sherifa Zuhur

25 years of training/performances in Western dance (ballet, modern, jazz) with noted and master teachers and choreographers including: Gloria Bowen, Ronald Brown, Lynn Dally, Mary Jane Eisenberg, Pat Finot, El Gabriel, Kai Ganado, Eddie Glickman, Dinah Goodes, Billis Goodson, Nicholas Gunn, Martha Kalman, Richard Kimble, Bella Lewitzky Company members, Eugene Loring, Phoebe Neville, Janice Plastino, Kathryn Posin, Eva Ralf, Louise Reichlin, Marcia Sakamoto, Marion Scott, Paul Shipton, Valerie Silver, Holly Small, Kei Takei, Clay Taliaferro, Antony Tudor, Glenn White
 

Additional Highlights

Project Coordinator for An Introduction to Islamic History - A Teacher's Resource Book (Grades 7-12), published by the Islamic Center of Southern California (1990)

Featured writer of travel and cultural articles and copy/style editor for The Minaret Magazine, published by the Islamic Center of Southern California (1990-1991)

Hosted visiting Uzbek artists including Aidyn Outecheva (Senior Instructor, State Choreographic Institute), Mahbuba Ergasheva (Bukharan gold embroidery), Elizabeta Kim (Merited Dance Artist), and People's Artist of Uzbekistan, Vilayat Akilova (1994, 1998, 2001)

  Featured dance artist in ArtsLink booklet An Assessment of ArtsLink (1998)

Listed in Asia Experts, the Asia Society's new on-line database found at AsiaSource.org

Advisory Committee member to the Vocational Education Dance Certificate Programs, Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, California