Darren Chase(I)
- Actor
Darren Chase is an American actor and dancer. He
was born and raised on Cape Cod. After a year, majoring in
psychology, at Boston College, Darren enrolled full time at Actor's
Workshop in Boston. Here he studied all aspects of acting for one year.
He performed in several plays at the school including 'The Love Course'
and 'Critique of the School fro Wives.' In the summer of 1981, Darren
performed a dual role in a new play, 'Adventure in Manhattan,' for the
Playwrights' Platform in Boston. This was his first paying acting job.
In the fall of 1981, Darren moved to New York City. Here he studied
acting and movement as HB Studios. After a while, the ballet teacher,
June Eve Story, suggested that Darren study ballet in a more advanced
way. This lead to Darren becoming more involved in the dance community.
In the fall of 1985, he joined the Kennedy Dancers, based in Jersey
City, New Jersey. For the year contact included many performances of
their repertoire around the New York City area and even a performance
on the South Lawn of the White House. After the year was up, Darren
enrolled in City College of New York, graduating magna cum laude with a
BFA in Dance in 1989. During this time he performed with the school's
dance company, Citidance, directed by former Paul Taylor dancer Carolyn
Adams. Also, while at the school, Darren danced with the Astoria Dance
Theater, the Lee Ballet and, for two seasons, was in 'Santa Claus and
the Unicorn' for the Harlem Dance Foundation. 1990-1995: After
graduating from CCNY, Darren joined an aerial dance company, The
Multi-Gravitational Aerodance Group. Here he learned to performed on
different apparatus such as stilts, web, ankle loop and various
airborne creations. The company performed several places around the
country. He also performed again with the Kennedy Dancers for two
seasons during this period, and worked with choreographer Catherine
Samardza. 1996-2004: In 1996, while living in the Bronx, Darren met
another Bronx resident, Arthur Aviles, who was a former dancer with
Bill T. Jones. Arthur had recently started his own dance company called
Arthur Aviles' Typical Theater. Darren started working with Arthur and
performed on and off with the company until 2004. When not working with
Typical Theater, Darren performed with Catherine Samardza's company,
the Itineran Dance Theater, which was based in Delaware. 2004 to
present: In 2004, Darren met another Bronx resident, Claire Barrett.
She had started a movement style called Motion Sculpture. Darren
started working with Claired and performed with her and her company at
many venues around New York City from 2004 through 2009. Darren then
decided to do some performing outside of dance again. He worked doing
print ads and looking back into acting. He got one of the lead roles in
'Chubby and Bones,' and more recently was an extra in the movie 'Fair
Game.'