SALLY ROUSSE

With her husband, James Sewell, Sally is a co-founder of the James Sewell Ballet, a company known for its inspired blend of classical and contemporary sensibilities. Prior to JSB, Sally held principal positions with Ballet Chicago and the Royal Ballet of Flanders where she starred in both classical repertoires and works made expressly for her by noted choreographers such as Maurice Bejart, Jiri Kylian and James Sewell.              

Sally's choreography has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome and McKnight Foundations, Nickolodeon (for which she made “Tutu the Superina”), and others. Her work mixes classical ballet with new idioms, often in collaboration with musicians, artists, actors, aerial performers and directors. One of her most successful collaborations has been with aerial virtuoso, Chelsea Bacon, with whom she's created "Trickpony." The duo is now creating new work for the Fall 2007 season.

Sally has created this evening’s work expressly for PUSH. She is joined by aerialist Jim Dominic.

DESDAMONA

Desdamona is a spoken word artist who has distinguished herself with her potent poetry and Hip-Hop delivery. She first took the stage in 1997, and has since rocked some of the most prestigious mics for poetry in the country including the legendary Green Mill in Chicago, the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York, and the National Poetry slam Competition. She has opened for a number of national artists, including Faith Hill and Wyclef Jean, was featured on the Jenny Jones Show, and is the winner of Honolulu's 2004 Slam Championship. Desdamona is a 5-time winner of the Minnesota Music Award for Best Spoken Word Artist and was nominated for Best Hip Hop Artist/Group for her collaboration as ‘Ill Chemistry’ with beatboxer Carnage the Executioner.

Using hip-hop to help the young and disaffected find their voice, Desdamona conducts poetry workshops in schools and prisons, curates and hosts poetry slams, and is co-founder and producer of the Women in Hip Hop Summit ‘B Girl Be’. Desdamona is the recipient of 2 MSAB Grants, a Verve Grant, and is celebrating the release of her second full-length CD, “The Source,” in June, 2007.

CARNAGE THE EXECUTIONER

I am called Carnage The Executioner. If I were to describe my rhyme style in one sentence, it would read, “Immorally hand-woven catastrophe tapestry orally attached to beats”. I run a LABEL called HECATOMB with a CREW of the same name. I’ve appeared on over 20 releases since 1996.

​

POWERTRAIN / A Shifting World Order

PUSH 2007: SuperPower, Session 1

STUART BROWN

Trained in general and internal medicine, psychiatry and clinical research, Stuart Brown first recognized the importance of play by discovering its absence in the life stories of murderers and felony drunken drivers.  Further research revealed that successful individuals, on the other hand, experience play in many areas of their lives. Brown’s years of independent scholarship and exploration of the evolution of human and animal play led to the establishment of the National Institute for Play (NIFP), the mission of which is to bring the unrealized knowledge, practices and benefits of play into public life. To that end, Dr. Brown has worked with the National Geographic Society and Jane Goodall, was the Executive Producer of a three-part PBS series, “The Promise of Play,” participated in several productions on Joseph Campbell, Cosmology, and Animal Play, and has made significant contributions to the literature and study of play. Through NIFP, Dr. Brown hopes to develop and disseminate training and practices that bring the benefits of play to all segments of society.

GRZEGORZ KOLODKO

A key architect of post-Communist reforms in Poland, Grzegorz W. Kolodko is a renowned economist and a world expert on transition and development policy. While Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance (1994-97) he led Poland to the OECD. Holding the same positions again in 2002-03 he played an important role in Poland's integration with the European Union, and shaped an economic policy that has grown Poland's per capita GDP by one third. In 1989 he was a part of the Polish Round Table, which led to the first post-communist government in East Central Europe

Kolodko is currently Director of TIGER (Transformation, Integration and Globalization Economic Research) at the Warsaw School of Economics. He is also professor at the Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the United Nations, IMF and the World Bank, a visiting professor at universities throughout the world (Yale, UCLA and many others), and is the author of 35 books and more than 300 articles and research papers published in 23 languages. 

CLYDE PRESTOWITZ

Clyde Prestowitz is founder and President of the Economic Strategy Institute. His leadership has propelled ESI into an important role in the public policy process, influencing and often defining the terms of the debate in the areas of international trade policy, economic competitiveness, and the effects of globalization. Mr. Prestowitz has played key roles in achieving congressional passage of NAFTA and in shaping the final content of the Uruguay Round, as well as providing the intellectual basis for current U.S. trade policies toward Japan, China, and Korea.

Prior to founding ESI, Mr. Prestowitz served as counselor to the Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan Administration. There, he led many U.S. trade and investment negotiations with Japan, China, Latin America, and Europe.  He was a foreign policy advisor to Howard Dean in 2004. Prestowitz is frequently quoted by leading columnists, and is a familiar face on television and in Congressional hearings. He is the author of Rogue Nation: American Unitlateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions and, most recently, Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East.

JUDITH KIPPER

Judith Kipper is an internationally recognized Middle East expert. She is the adviser for Middle East Programs and director of the Energy Security Group at the Council on Foreign Relations and a longtime consultant on international affairs for ABC News. Her extensive expertise includes U.S.-Middle East policy, Arab-Israeli conflict, Gulf security and regional issues, Arab development, reform, democratization, and culture. Ms. Kipper has extraordinary access in all the countries of the Middle East—Israel, the Arab states, and Iran. She visits the area frequently to meet with monarchs, presidents, and ministers as well as other officials, academics, business leaders, clerics, opposition, and the press.

Ms. Kipper has testified before U.S. Senate and House committees on Middle East issues. She speaks frequently in the United States and abroad. Ms. Kipper was an assistant to Walter Cronkite at CBS News and was an adviser on Sadat's Ancient Egypt, a CBS documentary with Mr. Cronkite. Ms. Kipper was a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a consultant to the RAND Corporation. 

​