92: Lisa Starry

92: Lisa Starry When we saw Lisa Starry's dancers shaking what their mamas gave them like nobody's business at the New Times 40th Anniversary Party last month, we knew we had to get her into our 100 Creatives list -- and soon. This season will mark 11 years for Starry's...

By Amy Silverman

June 3, 2010

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92: Lisa Starry

When we saw Lisa Starry's dancers shaking what their mamas gave them like nobody's business at the New Times 40th Anniversary Party last month, we knew we had to get her into our 100 Creatives list -- and soon.

This season will mark 11 years for Starry's annual fall production of "A Vampire Tale," and her Scorpius Dance Theatre is known (and not just by us) as the best modern company in town. Her choreography has been commissioned by other prominent arts groups, such as Phoenix Metropolitan Opera, Nearly Naked Theatre, and Teatro Bravo, and she recently choreographed for the short film, WEEKEND (which premiered at the Sedona FIlm Festival and will make its Phoenix debut at the Phoenix Film Festival next month), as well as a music video for the artist Miss Krystle.

As if that's not enough, she's won a pile of awards, and Starry's in the process of writing and producing a film based on "A Vampire Tale."

List five things on your Inspiration Wall (real or imagined).
1. Vampire Films
2. BMWs
3. So You Think You Can Dance
4. Cold Places
5. My Husband and Children

What's your last big project?
CATWALK premiered April 29, 2010 -- The original contemporary dance production fused funky, local fashions, sexy athleticism and the choreography of Lisa Starry. Staged on a runway, it featured 15 dancers, 8 choreographic works, 4 independent designers, and 1 hot urban boutique.

What's your next big project?
Returning our cult classic, A Vampire Tale, this October; developing Prodigy (February 2011), a new project for young AZ choreographers; and bringing CATWALK back May 2011.

How much do you hate being asked what your next big project is?
I don't hate it at all...LOVE to talk about my upcoming projects!

What's something you want Phoenix to know about you?
I love animals!!! and hope one day to have my own horse again.

And what's something you really don't want Phoenix to know about you?

I have an active membership to Bag Borrow and Steal!!

The Creatives, so far:

100. Fausto Fernandez
99. Brian Boner
98. Carol Panaro-Smith
97. Jane Reddin
96. Adam Dumper
95. Mayme Kratz
94. Daniel Tantalean
93. Yuri Artibise

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Amy Silverman is the former managing editor of Phoenix New Times. She is a two-time winner of the Arizona Press Club’s Journalist of the Year award. Her work has appeared on the radio show This American Life and in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Lenny Letter, and Brain, Child.