OUR ENSEMBLE
Dharmesh Bhagat - Juggler
Exploring The Art of Possibility
Dharmesh Bhagat has been juggling nonstop since he was 19 years old.
"A friend invited me to a juggling club he started with 6 other people. I was probably the slowest to learn of the group, but when I finally understood the concepts and succeeded in juggling, I felt amazing! And from that moment on, I was hooked."
Dharmesh started with juggling beanbags, like most people, and eventually moved on to clubs and rings. 'I also started picking up various other props and tricks that are not directly related to conventional toss juggling like: hat tricks, shaker cups, boxes, poi, and diabolo.' Dharmesh says the reason he feels compelled to continue to building on his skills over the past 9 years is because 'I still get the same feelings of amazement when I learn a new trick- a feeling of elation in that what was once impossible for me is now possible.'
Dharmesh has taught juggling for Circ Esteem and the Actors Gymnasium. He is also proud to have been part of Millennium Park's summer entertainment, continues to juggle at Chicago Bull's games, for the Arts Alliance, and for the Chicago Sky. Even though Dharmesh is at heart a performer, he is never too busy to teach those who want to learn to juggle and improve their juggling prowess, or to build confidence and relieve stress."
Lance Brett Hall - Actor, Director, Writer
Improving Performance to Sculpt Reality
Lance Brett Hall is a theater director and acting coach originally from Bureau County, Illinois. Lance came to theater after making the unexpected discovery that math and science weren’t where all of the smart people were up to in the world at large, and turned away from a career as a high energy physicist. Lance specializes in creative ensemble presentations, helping individuals uncover deeper and more specific ways to present information, group movement patterns, and is an expert in eighteenth century German acting technique.
Lance comes from a long line of rural Illinois craftsmen, and is apprenticed to his father, a student of nineteenth century woodwright techniques. Growing up, he learned from his father that making something both beautiful and functional takes genuine craft, which is composed of equal parts technique, talent, passion, and time. Lance is a graduate of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, Illinois, and attended the Tulla-Gymnasium in Rastatt, Germany on a U.S. Congress-German Parliament Scholarship. He continued hisstudy of a different kind craft of at Cornell University under the mentorship of the Pulitzer Prize nominee David Feldshuh. He holds an honors degree from Cornell in Theater Direction and Acting History.
The professional theaters with which Lance has been associated in Chicago include Lookingglass Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Theatre, and Chicago Dramatists. His favorite work in Chicago has focused on interdisciplinary performance, and he is a founding member of Tip Your Waiter Productions, which focuses on Chicago based, upcoming theater artists, and performances blending theater, music, poetry, and the visual arts.
The arts have always fascinated Lance as a group of disciplines able to produce more than simply art for art’s sake. To this end he has used theater as a tool to teach social interaction and awareness of personal behavior and has studied the interface between the sciences and theater. Continuing these lines of thought, Lance is working with Bite Size Ensemble members to develop tools for personal and professional growth.
Lisa Canning - Clarinetist
Creating the World You See
Artistic Director, Clarinetist and Serial Artistic Entrepreneur Lisa Canning, developed the concept for The Bite-Size Arts Ensemble based on this belief: “The 21st century is the creative economy and creativity is being valued like never before-- to grow Fortune 100 companies, skyrocket start-up profits and because today people want to create more interesting lives. Who better to help in the evolution of economic empowerment and creative development, then the masters of the creative process themselves- but artists?
"In a world that, up until now, has not necessarily realized the value of the artist as a potent economic engine or as a tool for individual creative development, and simultaneously, where often the artist has not been taught how to use their skills to be either, I created the Bite-Size Arts Ensemble™ to join hands between these two worlds.”
Lisa Canning is Chicago born and raised by a family of entrepreneurs. Her father, Theodore C. Argiris, a Harvard graduate and criminal trial attorney, was, as Lisa’s says “ after a number of years sick of winning his clients a –get-out-of –jail free card for great money- he simply didn’t feel good about it, eventually.” So Lisa watched her father buy and rebuild a bankrupt foundry business in Wisconsin, something he knew nothing about but interested him, into an entrepreneurial success. Yet another uncle, Van C Argiris, excelled in developing a Chicago based commercial real estate business, while yet another ran the now closed Ham-n- Egger Restaurant on LaSalle Street. Yet another was, and still is, in the food and nut business, Anton-Argires Nuts. Lisa grew up surrounded by the thought that your ideas can get you far in life if only you will risk with them by giving them a try.??A high school graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, Traverse City, MI and a college graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Music, Evanston, IL, Lisa studied with the late Robert Marcellus, former principal clarinet of the Cleveland Orchestra, and Greg Smith, current principal second clarinet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her other teachers include, Clark Brody, former principal of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Russ Dagon, former principal clarinet of The Milwaukee Symphony, Frank Kowalsky, Florida State University and Robert Essock, a student of Leon Russianoff.
Lisa Canning has won numerous solo competitions including the Rose Fay Thomas Award sponsored by the Chicago Symphony Orchesta, the Union Civic League and Arts Foundation and the prestigious Farwell Award. You can contact Lisa if you are interested in booking the ensemble for corporate training, conference, workshop or a creative gathering at Lisa@Bite-SizeArtsEnsemble.org.
Lenny Zieben - Composer, Performing Artist
Breaking Down Barriers
A graduate of DePaul University, Chicago, IL., Lenny Zieben has been creating original material designed to "cross on over to the audience" for years. A blend of comedy, serious commentary and performance art, Lenny offers his audiences an opportunity to break down barriers in their belief systems and learn through musical performance, creativity and fun.??In 2003 Lenny created Voluptuous Tusk to address these issues all at once! Through original song, impromptu dances with various animals (inflatable and stuffed), everyone is given space to perform in their own way (not picked on) as part of the show. Part of what Lenny does best is help his audiences get in touch with their own discomfort and break down the barriers of knowing who we are and what we are capable of.??Lenny is also an educator, arts event coordinator and loves long walks in the mud.
Shawn Bowers - Writer, Actor, Improviser, Producer
Developing the Character Within
Shawn Bowers is a writer, producer, director and improviser hailing from Overland Park, KS. Shawn graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelors in Film Studies and moved to Chicago to further pursue his artistic conquests. A graduate of the Second City Conservatory and iO Training Centers, Shawn can currently be seen performing on the iO Harold Team Dream Cannon, as well as local sketch comedy troupe Saddle Dads and doing two-man improv with Scuba Mission. As a prose writer, Shawn has been published by McSweeney's and many local literary magazines. As a playwright and sketch comedy writer, he has written and produced a variety of original works over the last two years, including Time Traveling Mom-Dad and CRAIGSHOW: Tales From Craigslist at the Gorilla Tango Theatre; Timeless Is More at Studio BE, Seeking Your Approval at Donny's Skybox and Winner Funniest Show at the De Maat Theatre. By day, he is a freelance copywriter, graphic designer and event planner.
Dharmesh Bhagat - Juggler
Exploring The Art of Possibility
Dharmesh Bhagat has been juggling nonstop since he was 19 years old.
"A friend invited me to a juggling club he started with 6 other people. I was probably the slowest to learn of the group, but when I finally understood the concepts and succeeded in juggling, I felt amazing! And from that moment on, I was hooked."
Dharmesh started with juggling beanbags, like most people, and eventually moved on to clubs and rings. 'I also started picking up various other props and tricks that are not directly related to conventional toss juggling like: hat tricks, shaker cups, boxes, poi, and diabolo.' Dharmesh says the reason he feels compelled to continue to building on his skills over the past 9 years is because 'I still get the same feelings of amazement when I learn a new trick- a feeling of elation in that what was once impossible for me is now possible.'
Dharmesh has taught juggling for Circ Esteem and the Actors Gymnasium. He is also proud to have been part of Millennium Park's summer entertainment, continues to juggle at Chicago Bull's games, for the Arts Alliance, and for the Chicago Sky. Even though Dharmesh is at heart a performer, he is never too busy to teach those who want to learn to juggle and improve their juggling prowess, or to build confidence and relieve stress."
Lance Brett Hall - Actor, Director, Writer
Improving Performance to Sculpt Reality
Lance Brett Hall is a theater director and acting coach originally from Bureau County, Illinois. Lance came to theater after making the unexpected discovery that math and science weren’t where all of the smart people were up to in the world at large, and turned away from a career as a high energy physicist. Lance specializes in creative ensemble presentations, helping individuals uncover deeper and more specific ways to present information, group movement patterns, and is an expert in eighteenth century German acting technique.
Lance comes from a long line of rural Illinois craftsmen, and is apprenticed to his father, a student of nineteenth century woodwright techniques. Growing up, he learned from his father that making something both beautiful and functional takes genuine craft, which is composed of equal parts technique, talent, passion, and time. Lance is a graduate of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, Illinois, and attended the Tulla-Gymnasium in Rastatt, Germany on a U.S. Congress-German Parliament Scholarship. He continued hisstudy of a different kind craft of at Cornell University under the mentorship of the Pulitzer Prize nominee David Feldshuh. He holds an honors degree from Cornell in Theater Direction and Acting History.
The professional theaters with which Lance has been associated in Chicago include Lookingglass Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Theatre, and Chicago Dramatists. His favorite work in Chicago has focused on interdisciplinary performance, and he is a founding member of Tip Your Waiter Productions, which focuses on Chicago based, upcoming theater artists, and performances blending theater, music, poetry, and the visual arts.
The arts have always fascinated Lance as a group of disciplines able to produce more than simply art for art’s sake. To this end he has used theater as a tool to teach social interaction and awareness of personal behavior and has studied the interface between the sciences and theater. Continuing these lines of thought, Lance is working with Bite Size Ensemble members to develop tools for personal and professional growth.
Lisa Canning - Clarinetist
Creating the World You See
Artistic Director, Clarinetist and Serial Artistic Entrepreneur Lisa Canning, developed the concept for The Bite-Size Arts Ensemble based on this belief: “The 21st century is the creative economy and creativity is being valued like never before-- to grow Fortune 100 companies, skyrocket start-up profits and because today people want to create more interesting lives. Who better to help in the evolution of economic empowerment and creative development, then the masters of the creative process themselves- but artists?
"In a world that, up until now, has not necessarily realized the value of the artist as a potent economic engine or as a tool for individual creative development, and simultaneously, where often the artist has not been taught how to use their skills to be either, I created the Bite-Size Arts Ensemble™ to join hands between these two worlds.”
Lisa Canning is Chicago born and raised by a family of entrepreneurs. Her father, Theodore C. Argiris, a Harvard graduate and criminal trial attorney, was, as Lisa’s says “ after a number of years sick of winning his clients a –get-out-of –jail free card for great money- he simply didn’t feel good about it, eventually.” So Lisa watched her father buy and rebuild a bankrupt foundry business in Wisconsin, something he knew nothing about but interested him, into an entrepreneurial success. Yet another uncle, Van C Argiris, excelled in developing a Chicago based commercial real estate business, while yet another ran the now closed Ham-n- Egger Restaurant on LaSalle Street. Yet another was, and still is, in the food and nut business, Anton-Argires Nuts. Lisa grew up surrounded by the thought that your ideas can get you far in life if only you will risk with them by giving them a try.??A high school graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, Traverse City, MI and a college graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Music, Evanston, IL, Lisa studied with the late Robert Marcellus, former principal clarinet of the Cleveland Orchestra, and Greg Smith, current principal second clarinet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her other teachers include, Clark Brody, former principal of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Russ Dagon, former principal clarinet of The Milwaukee Symphony, Frank Kowalsky, Florida State University and Robert Essock, a student of Leon Russianoff.
Lisa Canning has won numerous solo competitions including the Rose Fay Thomas Award sponsored by the Chicago Symphony Orchesta, the Union Civic League and Arts Foundation and the prestigious Farwell Award. You can contact Lisa if you are interested in booking the ensemble for corporate training, conference, workshop or a creative gathering at Lisa@Bite-SizeArtsEnsemble.org.
Lenny Zieben - Composer, Performing Artist
Breaking Down Barriers
A graduate of DePaul University, Chicago, IL., Lenny Zieben has been creating original material designed to "cross on over to the audience" for years. A blend of comedy, serious commentary and performance art, Lenny offers his audiences an opportunity to break down barriers in their belief systems and learn through musical performance, creativity and fun.??In 2003 Lenny created Voluptuous Tusk to address these issues all at once! Through original song, impromptu dances with various animals (inflatable and stuffed), everyone is given space to perform in their own way (not picked on) as part of the show. Part of what Lenny does best is help his audiences get in touch with their own discomfort and break down the barriers of knowing who we are and what we are capable of.??Lenny is also an educator, arts event coordinator and loves long walks in the mud.
Shawn Bowers - Writer, Actor, Improviser, Producer
Developing the Character Within
Shawn Bowers is a writer, producer, director and improviser hailing from Overland Park, KS. Shawn graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelors in Film Studies and moved to Chicago to further pursue his artistic conquests. A graduate of the Second City Conservatory and iO Training Centers, Shawn can currently be seen performing on the iO Harold Team Dream Cannon, as well as local sketch comedy troupe Saddle Dads and doing two-man improv with Scuba Mission. As a prose writer, Shawn has been published by McSweeney's and many local literary magazines. As a playwright and sketch comedy writer, he has written and produced a variety of original works over the last two years, including Time Traveling Mom-Dad and CRAIGSHOW: Tales From Craigslist at the Gorilla Tango Theatre; Timeless Is More at Studio BE, Seeking Your Approval at Donny's Skybox and Winner Funniest Show at the De Maat Theatre. By day, he is a freelance copywriter, graphic designer and event planner.