Riverside County Office of Education
Home MenuSimeon Den
Simeon Den has been a dancer/choreographer/ photographer and educator for over 50 years. In 1970’s New York he was a student of Alvin Ailey, Joyce Trisler, and Martha Graham and performed and taught each of their Modern Dance styles—the Horton Technique and Graham Technique; and performed in four Broadway productions including the original Stephen Sondheim staging of Pacific Overtures, the Yul Bryner revival of The King and I, and Pal Joey with Lena Horne.
He owned and directed Danceworks Honolulu, a dance school and performing arts & dance company for nearly two decades before moving to Los Angeles in 2001 and establishing Palladino/Den Photography in Hollywood and downtown L.A. with his husband, Peter Palladino. Known for his large format b&w fine art photographs printed on heavy textured watercolor paper, he was represented by the Lia Skidmore Gallery.
In 2010, they purchased the historic Cathedral City house of Agnes Pelton, the posthumously celebrated, American desert plein aire Modernist painter and have become the self-appointed champions of her legacy. They established and administer the not-for-profit arts advocacy, Agnes Pelton Society, and safeguard her catalogue of paintings.
In his current incarnation, Den integrates his many years of art expertise and passion for the Agnes Pelton legacy by creating “transcendformances,” a word he coined and a style he devised-- a New Genre Art discipline that combines performance (dance, vocalise, poetry, music, Spoken Word, and the playing of crystal “singing” bowls) with Transcendental Art and Performance Art. Transcendformances are a result of visions, ideas, and concepts that emerge from meditations that are presented as contemporary rituals and demonstrations of the energetic healing arts. In the tradition of the Agnes Pelton spiritually inspired works of art, he regularly conducts sound bath meditation/improvisations at the Pelton House, integrating the live music and chakra balancing of the crystal “singing” bowls. He accepts commissions to create and conduct transcendformance rituals to mark and celebrate special and notable occasions (i.e., weddings, birthdays, grand openings, etc.).