Kanopy Leadership Team
Artistic Directors
Robert E. Cleary
Lisa Thurrell
Associate Director
Susanne Voeltz
Videographer
Mats Rudels
Photographer
Shawn Harper
Board of Directors
Charles Rentmeesters
Mats Rudels
David Dexheimer
Tyler Fritz
Robert Cleary
Carolyn Shadrach
Gail Grigg
Lisa Thurrell
Lisa Thurrell, artistic director, Kanopy Dance Company since 1995, trained and danced with Martha Graham Dance Company from 1987-1995. Honored to be among those who reconstructed some of Martha’s early works, she performed in Graham’s NYC City Center Gala Season, and at the Spoleto Festival Italy and USA from 1991-1994. Embracing modern founders’ philosophies, Thurrell’s choreography has been described by critics as “…a Hieronymus Bosch painting, spilling onto the floor of the theater . . .stresses fragility of the human body and self-reflection.” As a performer, critics call her “…pure power and vulnerability at once”.
Her choreographic works have been presented in New York City at Jazz at Lincoln Center (2013-2016), Next@Graham (2018), NUVU Festival (2018), and Modern Rebels (2018). Thurrell choreographed for Kanopy as part of the Lamentation Variations Project, and the Martha Graham Center (2013) Her commissions for the opera include Madison Opera’s “Florencia de la Amazonas” (2018), “Seven Deadly Sins” (2023), and “María de Buenos Aires” (2025), and for the Des Moines Metro Opera Festival (DMMO). “Wozzeck” (2019) and “Bluebeard’s Castle” (2023). In the summer of 2025, she also created the choreography for “The Cunning Little Vixen” for DMMO, which was critically acclaimed in Opera News and The New York Times.
Ms. Thurrell received her 3-year full time certification from the Professional Trainee Program, Martha Graham School, NYC and her Master of Fine Arts in Dance and Asian Theater from the University of Wisconsin. She served as Chair of Dance at Idrætshøjskole, Oure, Denmark (1997), faculty at University of Nebraska (1991, 1994), among others. In addition, Thurrell regularly guest teaches as at the Martha Graham School in NYC and is guest faculty at the University of Wisconsin.
Robert E. Cleary
Robert E. Cleary, joined his partner, Lisa Thurrell, as artistic director of Kanopy Dance in 1995. Cleary has toured, performed, choreographed, and taught throughout the United States and Denmark. Mr. Cleary received his Bachelor of Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography and a Bachelor of Arts in History, 19th Century Europe, from the University of Minnesota. He trained intensively at American Ballet Theatre and with Susan Klein in Klein Release Technique in New York. Influenced by ballet, modernists as well as post- modernists, Cleary is in constant exploration of relevant dance expression. An exceptional movement artist, the medium of physical theater suits him like a second skin.
Critics hail Cleary as “fiery and riveting, inspired, wicked dancing…astonishing…”. As a choreographer, his work has been widely praised as “classic, gut centered 20th century modern dance”, and “riotously pleasurable, intense, richly satisfying”. Cleary’s choreography has been featured by numerous presenters including at several Arhus and Copenhagen Dance Festivals and in Chicago at the Ruth Page Center. His most recent commission was for the choreographic work, “This is Not America”, performed in March 2019, by the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble in New York City.
He was soloist in Nini Theilade’s “Ballet Schubert” (1997) Copenhagen, Denmark which was created originally for Léonide Massine in Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. He annually performs as guest soloist for Ballet Minnesota in “Nutcracker” (1994 to date), as well as High Brahmin in “La Bayadere” (2008), and most notably, the lead role created on him for “Beethoven’s 9th Symphony” (2008, 2018).
Cleary has served on the guest faculty in dance at Idrætshøjskole, Oure, Denmark (1997). Illinois State University, Normal, IL; Mankato Ballet, Ballet Minnesota, Southwest Texas State, Texas (1998), among others.
Susanne Voeltz
Susanne C. Voeltz, Kanopy’s associate director, is the principal of a boutique PR firm specializing in urban re-development and the arts, with clients that have ranged from global consumer giant Kimberly-Clark and celebrated hotel innovator Sage Hospitality Group; to creative non-for-profits such as the Detroit Public Library, UW’s Madison Early Music Festival, and Peggy Choy Dance.
Prior to her PR consulting launch, Voeltz was president of Downtown Madison, Inc. (DMI), and helped to guide a successful community campaign for the Monona Terrace, collaborated on establishing a downtown daycare center with the State of Wisconsin, and was a founder of, and orchestrated the iconic Frostiball – a major fundraising gala for DMI, attracting over 1200 people that was staged in the Wisconsin State Capitol.
Voeltz has also held senior public relations positions at the Alexander Company and the Milwaukee Museum, (MAM). In addition, she served as an assistant curator for “Center Stage: The Artist”, a blockbuster traveling exhibition organized by MAM, focusing on the circus as at theme in art. The late noted art critic and author, Dean Jensen, was the curator.
Voeltz has served as chair of the Civic Center Commission (now Overture Center), president of CTM, and guided PR for the iconic Madison Festival of the Lakes, ballet legend Edward Villella, Artistic Director and Pamela Gardiner, executive director.
Among recent commissions, Voeltz orchestrated a comprehensive PR campaign for UW-Madison Theatre’s acclaimed production of August Wilson’s (Wilson) “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”, the second play in a multi-phased collaborative project conceived & directed by Baron Kelly, (UW’s Marilynn R. Baxter Professor of Theatre and Drama and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor) —designed to showcase more revealing and diverse voices in the theatre. She served in the same role for a staging of Wilson’s chronicle, “Fences” which launched the series.
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