About the Artists
Asanga Domask (She/Her)
Asanga Domask is an educator, performer, a choreographer, an arts administrator, and the founder and artistic director of SerendibDance, a Sri Lankan Traditional & Folk dance company based in the Washington, DC area. The mission of SerendibDance is to serve a fundamental role in preserving the sacred and endangered art of traditional Sri Lankan dance through training, education, and performance. Growing up in Sri Lanka, Domask devoted her childhood to studying the art of traditional Sri Lankan dance, Kandyan and Low Country, under prominent dance masters, including Nandana Balasuriya, Chitrasena and Vajira Dias, and Gyana Magammana. After coming to the U.S., Domask received her B.A. in Economics, worked at the World Wildlife Fund, and later earned her M.A. in Dance from the American University with a thesis focused on Sri Lankan traditional dance preservation. Domask started working for CityDance in 2005 and currently serves as the Director of Student Advancement for the Conservatory. Domask has choreographed and performed extensively in local and international venues, including at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Wolf Trap Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, IlluminAsia Festival at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Sri Lankan Embassy events, U.S. State Department, The Music Center at Strathmore, Astana Ballet in Kazakhstan, VelocityDC Dance Festival at Sydney Harman Hall, Dance Place, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Intersections, and the American Performing Arts Presenters in NYC, among others.
In 2010, Domask established the Sri Lankan Traditional and Folk Dance Program at CityDance at Strathmore and has directed and choreographed concerts since then to help preserve the heritage of Sri Lanka. In 2013, she was invited to the national ballet of Kazakhstan, Astana Ballet, to choreograph and teach master classes. Her work with Astana Ballet was premiered at the Presidents Day Gala in June 2013 at the Pyramid Opera House and was presented as part of the Company’s international tour. Domask is a 2022-23 Ignite Artist at CityDance and is a recipient of the prestigious 2013 and 2016 Individual Artist & Scholars Award from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County and 2014 Individual Artist Award in Dance: Choreography from the Maryland State Arts Council.
Sarah J. Ewing (She/Her)
Sarah J. Ewing is an Australian born choreographer, a CityDance Ignite Artist, and the Director of S. J. Ewing & Dancers. She builds art at the intersection of dance and technology through long-term collaborations with Dylan Uremovich and Jonathan Hsu. Their work has been created and presented for theaters, site-specific and pedestrian locations, and virtual reality platforms. Ewing has received extensive support from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and alongside Uremovich, was one of the first artists commissioned by the Kennedy Center for the new REACH campus. In 2020, she made her choreographic debut for a main-stage opera for Maryland Lyric Opera’s Thais. Ewing has also been commissioned by the Kennedy Center, CityDance, CulturalDC, Georgetown University, and Dance Metro DC. She has presented throughout the District, including Dance Place, Source Theatre, and Dupont Underground, and toured her work to New York, Detroit, Houston, Boston, France and New Zealand.
Her company, S. J. Ewing & Dancers leverage technology’s power to augment, amplify, and deliver contemporary dance experiences. They have received extensive support from CityDance, Dance Place, and CulturalDC to create and present new works throughout the District. In DC, they have presented at the Kennedy Center, Dance Place, Source Theatre, Dupont Underground, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Bread for the City, 2M, Flash Nightclub, and The Warehouse. S. J. Ewing & Dancers has toured across the US to Green Space (NYC), Boston Contemporary Dance Festival (MA), White Wave Dance Festival (NYC), Ailey Citigroup Theater (NYC), Your Move JC (NJ), Dance Gallery Festival (TX), CityDance Studio Theater at Strathmore (MD), and Detroit City Dance Festival (MI), as well as the Mona Bismarck American Center for art & culture (Paris, France) and New Zealand’s premier alternative arts festival, The Arcade (Wellington, NZ).
Robert J. Priore (He/Him/His)
Robert J. Priore founded his company PrioreDance in the fall of 2016. He is also very proud to be a founding member of Company | E. Robert also serves as the Choreographer-In-Residence for the CityDance Conservatory as well as an Ignite Artist. Robert studied dance at Point Park University. Since 2016 Robert has been named an outstanding fellow in the arts in the District of Columbia. Additionally he has been awarded a Projects, Events and Festivals Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities since 2018 to create original evening length works. Robert was commissioned to create a work for the Mark Twain Prize Award Ceremony, which was nationally televised on PBS mid-November 2018. Robert was awarded the Pola Nirenska Memorial Award in 2019 for outstanding contribution to art in the District of Columbia. In Fall of 2021, Robert will become the Director of Dance at The Madeira School, as well as adjunct faculty at George Mason University.
