Our Staff

Ankita is an experimental performance artist and writer invested in storytelling where content dictates genre and betrays expectation. They hold degrees in Dance and Anthropology and are regularly presenting performance and film work (inter)nationally. They have also published short stories on the intersection of race & outdoor recreation in the book Blood, Sweat, Tears and academic work on primates and wildlife rehabilitation. Throughout different mediums, Ankita’s work unpacks systems and symptoms of power from a queer, punk solidarity-based lens that rehearses freedom in body and mind. In aesthetic, their work is grungy, confrontational, and cheeky with physical practices rooted in Contemporary dance, Dance-Theater, and forms from both the South Asian and the African diaspora.

Ankita holds degrees in Dance and Anthropology and currently lives in New York. They have had live work performed throughout the US, including at: Denver Art Museum, Abrons Art Center, Dixon Place, The Tank, BASE, JACK, Ormao, Brockus Dance Project, and University Settlement. They have received funding and support from Performance Project, GALLIM, NYSCA, Brooklyn Arts Council, Base Experimental Arts + Space, The Barn, ECS, LEIMAY, Crown-Goodman, and more. In their spare time, they have managed several award-winning dance-theater companies, including Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, which rounds out their knowledge and understanding of the arts industry.

I, desire amaiya suarez (she/they), work as a writer, poet, dancer, choreographer, and actress who molds strangeness with emotion, and social justice along with groovy, gooey, athletic, contemporary movement to create poetry in motion. I intentionally do not use capitalization as an ode to bell hooks, hoping to offer intention through meaning and eliminating that form of scholarly confinement from my writing. i am a recent graduate of muhlenberg college with a b.a in theatre arts and english/creative writing with a minor in dance. originally from south jersey, at the moment i call philly home, and ive studied and performed in works abroad in italy, withacademmia del’arte in arezzo, as well as work in the states with choreographers like melanie george, earl mosley, heidi cruz-austin, daniel padierna, david dorfman and elizabeth bergman. The work i am interested in is a melding of mediums, a heart on full display. Deep love and connection is what i hope to extend to others through my work and collaborations, i cherish an unconditional love and open space for self authenticity, self work, self care, and connection. I am enamored with the concept of love in all different shapes and forms, from the love of oneself to the love of another, and in all and any capacities. love of movement that extends beyond a place of conventional visual aesthetic, and encapsulates an appreciation and wonder for the human body and tender heart. I am drawn to the organic human experience and connecting through our flaws. I hope to continue my work in bringing all bodies who have felt forced from the form back into the adventure of creation, with no constriction to tradition, stereotype, or the self confinement of unworthiness due to a restriction by a colonized, and commercialized world.

Nikolai is a multidisciplinary dance theater artist, writer, storyteller, and amateur genealogist, whose work is fed by their identity as a queer, multiracial, interclass, intercaste immigrant from Jamaica. nikolai’s Philly performance highlights include the works of Jumatatu m. Poe and Jermone Donte Beacham, Gunnar Montana, Vince Johnson, Kingsley Ibeneche, Wally Cain Carbonell, Bryan Koulman, and Kun-Yang Lin alongside their own works. nikolai is a firm believer in the liberation of black and brown bodies and minds through movement, inviting softness, vulnerability, weirdness, uncool, and tender surrender into their movement practice. Juxtaposing vehement Caribbean patriotism with innate, vibrant queerness, nikolai aims to cultivate community upswell through storytelling, confronting trauma, mutual support and truth-telling through performance. nikolai seeks to address the notion that the body is not an apology; that memory, history, protest, pain, pleasure, and joy are all means of resistance in the face of ignorance. nikolai holds a BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University and their works have been presented at BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance in New York City, the in-hale series at KYLD in Philly, and in Washington, D.C., Richmond, and Norfolk, Virginia.

Lauren Berlin is a dance artist, educator, and writer based in Pennsylvania. Originally from South Florida, she trained at Boca Ballet Theatre and performed lead roles in The Nutcracker and Coppélia. She also competed in ballroom dance with the Maloney brothers. Lauren studied Dance at Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, holds a B.A. in English from Florida Atlantic University, and earned two Master’s degrees in Education from the University of Florida. She is certified in ballet pedagogy through ABT and completed further training with Alvin Ailey.

Lauren currently teaches English and serves as dean at The Baldwin School. Her work explores the connection between dance, literacy, and storytelling, and she contributes performance reviews and essays as a staff writer and dance archivist. Among her proudest personal accomplishments: teaching her dog Gidget to surf, hiking El Camino de Santiago in flip-flops, and becoming a mother.

Ashayla Byrd (she/they) is a blossoming dance writer, artist, and administrator living, breathing, writing, dancing, metro-ing, and be-bopping in Washington, DC. She supports dance communities by creating brave spaces for queer, Black, and/or Brown bodies to witness and be in fellowship with one another and amplifying their voices. Ashayla’s dancing and writing both serve as modalities that make the intangible eternal, to make the stories that both she and others have experienced last forever.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Ashayla’s upbringing was inundated with arts of all kinds. They were born to parents that sang with the birds–true to the family name–and never shied away from kitchen dance parties. Ashayla studied vocal music and dance throughout their primary school years, cultivating a love of the written word simultaneously. They received their BA in Dance and English from Shenandoah University in May of 2021. Ashayla has always done entirely too much at once. Two days after graduating, they crash-landed in Washington, DC to begin their career as the multi-hyphenate storyteller they always dreamed of becoming.

Ashayla currently serves as the Conference Production Associate for the Association of Performing Arts Professionals following her time as the Manager of Executive Affairs. Throughout her time in DC, Ashayla has served her first and only dance home–Dance Place–in numerous capacities, as a volunteer, intern, multi-project manager, and staff member. She is a dance journalist with publications in Dancing in the District, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet. She has danced with professional artists including dani tirrell, Mark Caserta, Tiffanie Carson, Yoshito Sakuraba, Gesel Mason, and Anna María Alvarez.

Ashayla is eager to build her profile, expand their abilities as a journalist, and continue to mine the depths of her artistry. They will continue to explore the richness of dance and writing communities everywhere! When Ashayla is not scouring the Earth for her next story, she is reveling in the comforts of home: plush blankets, assorted teas and coffees, snacks, countless blush- and earth-toned items, and her two tuxedo cats–Jamal and Mila. www.ashaylabyrd.com

E. Wallis Cain Carbonell is an independent creator and Dance Artist based in Philadelphia. She received her early training at the National Ballet School in MD and went on to earn her BFA in Dance from Florida State University. Upon graduation, she danced for six seasons as a principal artist with Roxey Ballet Company. In 2012, Evalina joined Kun-Yang Lin Dancers (KYL/D) where she spent the last twelve years as a dance artist, and in recent years took on the roles of an in-house choreographer and curator of the Inhale Performance Series. As a creator, she has produced 8 shows of her own work for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, received the Ellen Forman Award for choreography in 2017, funding from Small but Mighty Arts in 2018, and funding from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2022 for her choreography on KYL/D. The summer of 2024 marked her first overseas production of her work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In addition to choreographing nationally and locally, Evalina is a teacher of dance, GYROKINESIS® and GYROTONIC ® and the mother of two young children. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Dance at Bennington College’s Low-Residency program and is pleased to be a member of the tD team of writers.

Xander is an emerging choreographer, performer, teacher and organizer. Their pathway to performance entwines competitive ski racing, studies of earth science, a passion for community organizing and a fascination with alchemizing grief. They’ve collaborated with and performed in works by Millie Heckler, Laurel Jenkins and Julian Barnett. Their work has been shown at Burlington City Arts, The Off Center for the Dramatic arts and The Flynn. Describing Xander, Barnett speaks of “their sheer expansive and rigorous thinking, virtuosic writing skills, and powerful, poetic dancing.” Their work collages narrative, discordant dance forms, gender defiance, and unapologetically on the nose sentiments. They rigorously develop improvisation that magnifies the presence of performance. Their current passions and inquiries include House Dance and Culture, asexual aromantic love stories, and applying improvisational dance practices to political organizing strategy. They dream of creating a performance art collective of culture workers, dancers, musicians, poets, sculptors, film makers and designers who collaborate on experimental and accessible works in public spaces. They long for a culture where dancing and singing in public are totally celebrated and everyday parts of life.

Emily “Lady Em” Culbreath (MFA) is an accomplished street and club dance practitioner, educator, and choreographer. She has been known for her role as a core member and rehearsal director for the world-renowned Hip Hop theater company Rennie Harris Puremovement and as co-founder and director of her street dance theater and education outreach organization Snack Break Movement Arts alongside her husband, Joshua “Supa-Josh” Culbreath. Their company won the Theater Forever duo competition at Summer Dance Forever in 2022. They have since shown original work in San Francisco, CA; Boulder, CO; Kalamazoo, MI; Philadelphia, PA; and Amsterdam, NL. Emily has showcased her work in various contexts, including as a guest artist at Franklin & Marshall College, Georgian Court University, and Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Emily has taught and been an assistant facilitator at prestigious institutions, including the University of Colorado, The New School, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Juilliard, The Ailey School, and Princeton University’s outreach programs. Her work, “Plan A: Stories of Embodied Frontiers,” was selected to represent the University of Iowa at both the Central Regional Conference in Norman, OK, and at the National Conference in Washington, D.C,. in May 2025.

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Through Ladybird, Anna embarks on international projects in organizational development, mutual understanding and research–most often in dance. Along with artists who make honest, ambitious work she remains curious about like-minds in far-flung places who are interested in the individual and the body. Anna is a facilitator with Artists U, manages the Christ Church Neighborhood House and collaboratively curates spectacles with the fledgling birdbirdbird. She has written critically on Headlong/Tere O’Connor, Dada von Bzdulow and the Royal Danish Ballet as well as through Critical Correspondence, the Philadelphia Weekly and the Bournonville Daily. Anna has shown tiny choreographies at Movement Research, InFlux the CEC New Edge series and the Rocky Awards; and lectured at universities in Europe/The Americas as well as with the PA Commonwealth Speaker Series. She is a fellow of the Fulbright Program and NEA Arts Journalism Program; her creative research has been supported by the Chicago Seminar on Dance & Performance; The Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst and the Pew Charitable Trusts through Dance Advance. Anna holds a Master’s in Performance Studies from NYU and enjoys cross-stitching obscenities. Learn more.

Zoe Farnsworth is a Brooklyn-raised, Jewish, trans, multi-disciplinary dance maker and educator based in Philadelphia, PA. Their roots are in dance improvisation, post-modern dance, contemporary dance, and release technique. They are dabbling in different dances of the African diaspora.

Zoe explores the boundaries of dance inside and outside the studio, currently revolving around the question, “what does it mean to practice compostable dance?” They explore themes of
ecology, environment, identity, mythology, humor and social justice. Their current process is a dance/theater mixture that seeks to evoke sensorial, body-centered experiences. Their most recent work was performed as a part of Cannonball at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, titled “The Meaning of Where I’m From”, a piece about their relationship to their Bubby, Judaism and transness. They performed with Movement of the People Dance Company in “What’s Left of Spring”, Fall 2022 at Wesleyan University. Zoe has studied with Joya Powell, Susan Lourie, Katja Kolcio, and Hari Krishnan. They have interned with Forklift Danceworks and Netta Yerushalmy through the Dance Link Fellowship at Wesleyan University. They performed with Hilary Easton at Dancspace in 2014.

Anito Gavino (formerly known as Annielille ANI Gavino) is a Filipinx movement artist, choreographer, teaching artist, and cultural worker whose life work centers on decolonial art activism through a research-to-movement performance practice. A native to the island of Panay, Philippines, Anito immigrated to the United States in 2000, and danced professionally with Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Kun Yang- Lin/ Dancers, Ananya Dance Theater. Currently residing in Lenape lands, Gavino directs her project-based company Ani/MalayaWorks, a project-based dance theater company founded in 2014. She started the company as a way to teach her daughter, Malaya, about her native Philippine Islands and its many beautiful traditions. These processes are now shared with kapwa (community), an important element in Anito’s work. She utilizes dance, yoga, film, and literature as vessels for inscription, dialogue, and spiritual journeys with the Asian-American community at large. Her work has been generously supported by the MAPfund, National Performance Network, Leeway Foundation Art for Social Change (2019, 2020), Leeway Transformation Award (2021), Velocity Fund, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and supported by Swarthmore College, Painted Bride, Barnes Foundation, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Movement Research at the Judson Theater, Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival and more. Annielille writes for a dance publication, thINKingDANCE, an MFA in Dance graduate from Hollins University, and an adjunct professor at Rowan University. She also finished her 200 hour yoga certification from Studio 34 in West Philadelphia where you can find her teaching “Everyone is a dancer” yoga. Learn more.

Si Anito ay isang katutubo ng Panay, at isinilang sa Maynila at lumaki sa kanyang probinsya, Iloilo. Siya ay nagtungo at nakipagsapalaran sa Estados Unidos taong dalawang libo (2000). Nakalipas ang panahon at nagtungo sa taong dalawang libo at labing apat (2014) kung saan siya’y napanatili sa Estados Unidos at sumayaw sa mga kumpanya katulad ng Rod Rodgers Dance Company, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Dallas Black Dance Theater, Latin Ballet of Virgina, KYL/D at Ananya Dance Theatre. Siya ay lumilikha ng mga sayaw upang mailabas ang kanyang saloobin sa pamamagitan ng pagsasadula. Siya rin ay gumawa ng isang grupo ng mga mananayaw na Pilipino at Asiano at ipinagalan itong, Ani/MalayaWorks. Sila ay nagtatanghal sa pamamagitan ng iba’t ibang estilo na may malalim na kahulugan at kwento tungkol sa pamilya, kultura, komunidad, buhay imigrante at reklamasyon. Sila ay nag tatanghal sa iba’t ibang lugar katulad ng entablado, kalsada o museo kasama ang kanyang anak na si Malaya Ulan. Ginawaran siya ng Leeway Transformation Award noon 2021, Leeway Social Change Grant 2019 at 2020, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Scribe Video Center Planning and Finishing Grant, Independent Philadelphia Media Fund, MAPfund 2020 at MAPfund 2022 para sa kanyang bagong proyektong, Sinawali at Primx. Siya ay sinoportahan ng Painted Bride, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Barnes Foundation at marami pa. Siya rin ay isang profesora sa Muhlenberg College at Manunulat sa thINKingDANCE.

Caitlin is a Philadelphia-based freelance dance artist with a Master’s degree in Dance/Movement Therapy from Drexel University (2019). In her work, she tends to concentrate on the body’s role in wellness, individuality, and expressions of personal and collective narratives. As a freelance dance artist, Caitlin has choreographed and co-created works featured in Philly Fringe Festival, RAW Artist showcase (Baltimore), EMERGE Earthdance multidisciplinary artist residency, and the Painted Bride Art Center’s artist residency, Building Bridges. Caitlin is a teaching artist with arts organizations such as Dancing Classrooms, and BuildaBridge. She enjoys working collaboratively and with youth, as well as choreographing works that start conversation and inspire self-reflection.

Shayla-Vie Jenkins is a Philadelphia based dance artist and educator. Her research explores race, place, presence and liberation. Recent choreography includes On Buried Ground: remember them, an ongoing site-specific project for the Christ Church Burial Ground. Jenkins was a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company (2005-2016) and has performed in projects with Yaa Samar! Dance Theater, Yanira Castro, Yara Travieso, Ni’Ja Whitson, Merce Cunningham Trust’s “Night of 100 Solos”, Yvonne Rainer, Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, David Gordon, Moriah Evans, and Faye Driscoll. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of the Arts.

Current Philadelphia Artist, Sophiann Mahalia moved from Hartford, Connecticut to receive her BFA in Dance Choreography and Performance from Temple University. Sophiann graduated Summa Cum Laude and had the honor of being the recipient of the Rose Vernick Most Promising Performers Award.

Sophiann’s dance credentials include Equilibrium Dance Theatre, D2D: Dare To Dance, and Kariamu and Company: Traditions. She has trained under Lee Aca Thompson, who has influenced artists such as Michael Peters choreographer for Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and Dr. Kariamu Welsh, creator of the Umfundalai technique. She has studied West African, Modern, Ballet, Hip hop, Waacking, and Umfundalai with AQiida Gilbert, Dara Stevens-Meredith, Dr. Kariamu Welsh, Jillian Harris, Jolet Creary, Kun Yang Lin, Laura Katz Rizzo, Lee Aca Thompson, and Stephen Hankey.

Her recent works include Gilead’s commercial campaign “Press Play ‘, Black & Mild commercial shoot, and music video Clarity for singing artist Saleka Night Shyamalan directed by Ishani Shyamalan and M. Night Shyamalan. Alongside this, she was one of the featured dancers for Ari Lennox’s Shea Butter Baby music video featuring J Cole. In the commercial world, Sophiann has had the opportunity to do work for companies such as BOMBAS, gone on tour with the Clothesline Muse starring six time nominated jazz singer Nnenna Freelon and performed in New Freedom Theatre’s Black Nativity directed by Rajendra Maroon Maharaj.

She promotes body positivity and strongly uses dance to tell the story that can’t be understood with just words, but movement. Sophiann Mahalia explores dance through her own experiences of the Black dancing body through her fusion of African, Hip Hop, and Waacking to promote the limitless qualities of womanhood. She aspires to inspire other artists to take their artistry to the next level as she does the same.

Brendan McCall (he/him/his) is a multifaceted performance artist, teacher, and writer. Born in California, he lived in Turkey, Australia, Norway, and France between 2008-2021. He has worked in over 40 countries on 5 continents in contemporary dance, ballet, physical theater, experimental opera, performance art, fashion, and independent film. Over his career, he has worked with Alexandra Beller, Maureen Fleming, David Gordon, Sin Cha Hong, Moises Kaufman, Paul Langland, Stephen Petronio, Aki Sato, Keith Thompson, among others. He acted in Svanhild, the Ibsen Award-winning production directed by Lars Øyno, at numberous venues in Norway, Russia, and Japan; performed and co-produced Brain to Brain by his long-time mentor Mary Overlie at the Danspace Project; and performed in Keith Thompson´s Love Alone Anthology Project, inspired by the writings of AIDS activist Paul Monette, at La MaMa.

He has 30+ years of international experience at numerous conservatory and university (BA, BFA, MFA) programs, including the Yale School of Drama, the New School for Drama, the Actors Studio Drama School, New York University, Pace University, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Bilkent University (Turkey), Danshögskolan & Ballettakademien (Sweden), Kirkenær Ballettskole (Norway), and The International Theater Academy Norway in Oslo, where he served as Dean from 2008-10. He co-founded the Allan Wayne Work Alliance with Paul Langland and Brenna Palughi, and works as a screenwriter and director for Interzone Films.

His award-winning articles on the performing arts have been translated into French, Norwegian, Russian, and Belarusian since 1995. He has also published award-winning fiction under a pseudonym. He is currently based in New York City.

BFA with Honors in Acting, New York University. MFA in Dance, Bennington College. MPhil in Ibsen Studies (ABT), University of Oslo.

Rhonda Moore is a dancer, performance artist, educator and a founding member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Moore has danced with Jamie Cunningham’s ACME Dance Company and began her dance career with intensive training in Dunham technique, performing with the Akosua Afro-Haitian Dance & Drum Troupe. Currently a teaching artist for the award winning Pierre Dulaine’s Dancing Classrooms Program, Moore previously served as Choral Director for the Singing City-in-the-Schools Program. Moore’s extensive international and domestic portfolios include conducting professional sound and movement workshops; creating site-specific interdisciplinary installations that integrate sound, movement and visual art through shared experience collaborative elaboration; teacher-specific professional development laboratories geared to generate curriculum development with a focused, integral inclusion of visual art, design, movement; and music and vocal concerts as jazz soloist in small combos as well as with chamber and full orchestral formations. She holds a BFA from SUNY Purchase, a diploma in classical piano performance from Hoff-Barthelson Music School in Scarsdale, NY, and full, permanent certification in Italian as a second language, conferred by the Foreign University of at Sienna, Italy. Ms. Moore serves as adjunct professor, dance faculty at Boyer College of Music and Dance, teaching a variety of courses spanning from dance composition to the study of the development of jazz music and dance in the United States.

My name is Noel Price-Bracey. I am foremost a student. I am an artist, advocate, and educator as well. Born and raised in Detroit, MI, I am proud to have lived and learned in the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest and–as of the fall of 2024– the East Coast. I have collaborated, and performed across the U.S., including Kalamazoo, MI, Detroit, MI, Chicago, IL, Seattle, WA, Spokane, WA, Bellingham, WA, Missoula, MT, and Portland, OR as well as internationally, Canada and Italy. Expression: physical, written and oral are the primary mediums I use to engage others, investigate phenomena, and illuminate public discourse.

I began teaching at various institutions in 2015 after relocating to Seattle, WA | Cornish College of the Arts (2019-2021), eXitSPACE School of Dance (2015 – 2021), and Washington School of Dance (2015-2020) are among the list. I wrote and performed a one-woman play Death and Other Rude Things at the once vibrant and beloved Pocket Theater in Greenwood a Seattle neighborhood. I performed live at McCaw Hall for TEDxSeattle 2019 in collaboration with cellist Gretchen Yanover, presented at Dance Educators Associations of Washington conference as well as Vashon Center for the Arts Shaping Movement – Body Image Conferences all in the same year. In service of my Alma mater, I briefly acted as chair for the Black Alumni Advisory Council (BAAC).

My passions for justice led me to arts education and caused me to establish PRICEarts LLC in 2015. As the Executive Director and founding member of the Seattle-based PRICEarts Never Ending Work dance project, I continue to engage in the overall company mission to empower communities to find freedom through art. Honored for my commitment to advocacy through dance I received a Seattle Dances – Dance Crush. I was commissioned to set work for Gonzaga in Florence; Black Lives Matter – A Global Pandemic, law conference held in 2021. The creation titled Pay the Price explored the past and present narrative of racial and systemic injustice through the lens of the oppressor. PRICEarts and the community-based work we have done has acted as stable grounds for my ongoing exploration of art for and from the people as well as the transformative power of an individual’s involvement in the micro community. As an Assistant Professor of Dance at Muhlenberg college I work hard to create open and informed opportunities of growth for each student. We often explore the dynamic tension between western learning modalities and communal pedagogical practices. I am proud of my graduate education from the University of Washington where I received my Masters of Fine arts in dance, 2024. I profess that my body is a source of knowledge, my praxis is my protest.

Charly Santagado is a dancer, choreographer, director, writer, and curator dedicated to forging interdisciplinary connections across diverse artistic mediums and practices. Originally from Orlando, Florida, and currently based in the tristate area, she graduated with highest honors from Rutgers University in 2017 with a major in philosophy and minors in dance, music, and creative writing. The following summer, she founded a contemporary dance company called mignolo dance (mignolo.dance) with her sister Eriel. She has completed Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company’s five month training program, Sidra Bell’s MODULE, RUBBERBANDance Group’s Winter Intensive, Axis Connect Summer Intensive, Hofesh Shechter Company Intensive, SHARE Intensive Paris, HAVEN Choreography Mentorship, and Kalakeli Movement Arts Residency among other training programs. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Dance at University of the Arts where she is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor.

Charly has danced with Heidi Latsky Dance, VALLETO Dance, ReFrame Dance Theatre, Yu.S.Artistry, TK Dance Lab, Bailey Benoot, Monteleone Dance Collective, Katelyn Halpern and Dancers, Haven Movement Company, Olivia Dwyer Dance Projects, Maiya Redding, Daniel Rose Projects, and Arts By The People. She also regularly performs in her own work, which has been presented at numerous venues around the tristate area including Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, GK Arts Center, CityCenter Studios, Ailey Citigroup Theater, Paul Taylor Studios, Peridance, Triskelion Arts, Suzanne Roberts Theater, and Baruch Performing Arts Center.

Choreographic highlights include selection for coLAB Arts’ new choreography commission, Dance Canvas Choreographic Initiative, Urbanity Dance NEXT Residency, Making Moves Dance Festival, Norte Maar’s CounterPointe, Ramapo College’s Leaning into the Unknown, Rider Dances, Palm Springs International Dance Festival, KoDaFe in NYC, FAKI Festival in Zagreb, Croatia, Kulturfactory’s residency program in Domicella, Italy, and Altofest in Naples, Italy. Her work has been produced by HERE Arts Center, Jersey City Theater Center, Gardenship Art, The Berrie Center, Dixon Place, Arts On Site, and the Metuchen Arts Council. She has won screendance awards at several international film festivals and is also a freelance dance critic and journalist. Charly was awarded a 2023 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Learn more.

Caedra Scott-Flaherty is a writer and journalist based in the Lower Hudson Valley. She writes about dance for Observer, Pointe Magazine, Dance Teacher, The Brooklyn Rail, and thINKingDANCE. Her poems, stories, and essays have appeared in The Rumpus, One Story, New England Review, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships and grants from Millay Arts, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and Murphy Writing at Stockton University.

Cory Seals is an interdisciplinary artist and community curator born in Atlanta, GA and based in Philadelphia, PA. Seals’ motivation is to use movement and sound to create a landscape of improvisational practices, promiscuous futuring, and emergent strategy towards collective action, radical care, and illuminating the diversely interconnected experiences of black and queer people.

Seals’ interdisciplinary work seeks to identify restorative frameworks for self and community care through illuminating histories of black queer desire as embodied research and meditative/explorative/exhibitive performance. His practices include vocal activations through song and speech, sonic landscape, prose and poetic writing, movement, and improvisation with voice, text, and movement. With projects ranging from experimental live performance to archive design— Seals devises fantastical and functional tools for black queer futurity. Cory regularly works with other artists and community members in performance, design, archival, and administration, bridging artistic practice with practical world building.

His past works include “sea shanty for the cargo” 2022 Santa Reparata International School of Art (Florence, IT), “SOUNDS OF SPIRIT” 2022 Arthur Ross Gallery (Philadelphia,PA), “a forgotten elegy” 2024 University of the Arts ( Philadelphia, PA), and most recently “P(o/u)NK” 2024 Icebox Project Space (Philadelphia, PA). Cory is the recipient of several awards including the MAP Fund Microgrant and the UArts President’s Award for Interdisciplinary Excellence, among many others. Alongside his own projects, Seals is currently a touring member of Faye Driscoll’s Weathering which has toured extensively to internationally recognized institutions, venues, and festivals throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. Learn more.

Sofie Rose Seymour is an educator and movement maker interested in the choreographies of community. They grew up in the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet, and went on to study Forsythe, improvisation, gaga, and physical theater techniques. They have a Special Concentration in Social Change and the Arts from Harvard University, where they were awarded the Emerging Choreographer grant, and an M.Ed from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Their choreography has included musicals, evening length works, films, and site specific installations, and has been seen in Boston, Berlin, Vermont, and off-Broadway. Favorite performances have included playing Chana/Ingenue in Paula Vogel’s “Indecent” (Players Club of Swarthmore); world premieres by Dwight Rhoden, Jill Johnson, Franchesca Harper, and Pontus Lidberg; as a soloist in new works by Mario Zambrano and Jeremy McQueen; and solo site specific works created with film, sculpture, and interactive texts. Other experiences/interests that inform their approach to making and writing about movement include: teaching high school Social Studies, protests & parades, living & growing food off-grid, learning Yiddish, trying to become a tree, etymology dictionaries, queering gendered choreographies, working in humanitarian aid, the repetition of printmaking, teaching intergenerational writing workshops, skinny dipping, and getting lost in archival & internet research rabbit holes. They are especially interested in applying a dance framework to social movement(s), and what we can learn when we approach the stuff of our everyday lives as choreographic objects and movement scores.

Madeline Shuron (they/she) studied theater at Bryn Mawr College and is an MFA candidate and lecturer in dance at Temple University. As an artist and educator based in Philadelphia, she is interested in investigating embodied affect and interrogating the audience-performer relationship through an interdisciplinary approach of dance, theater, film, puppetry, and clowning. Their scholarship blends film, literature, educational pedagogy practices, and performance studies into a delicious mix of joy and play. Madeline’s work (both artistically and scholarly) has been witnessed at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Temple University, the Lawrence Art Center (KS), and Post45, and she has given lecture-demonstrations at University of North Carolina at Asheville as well as Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Nadia Ureña is an active Philly-based contemporary performer, choreographer, and researcher. She aims to intersect dance studies with black feminism, media theory, video games, existential philosophy, and memes.. As a performer, Nadia worked with professional artists such as Orion Duckstein, Charles Anderson, Cynthia Gutierrez, Garner, Xiang Xu, The Megan Flynn Dance Company, and Teresa VanDenend Sorge. She has performed at The Cincinnati Fringe Festival, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, 30/30/30 in NYC, KYLD’s Inhale Series, the American Dancers Guild 2024, and Wax Works in NYC. As a scholar, Nadia is interested in using multimedia to make dance theory and practice more accessible to dancers and non-dancers alike. Her thesis anti[thesis] advocated for process based movement generation and questioned how modern dance, choreography, and curriculum have evolved within both creative and educational contexts to predict the form’s future direction. She served as a panelist at the 2023 NDEO Conference about teaching students about labor rights. Nadia received her MFA in Dance at Temple University. During her studies, she was a Graduate Fellow and has received the Katherine Dunham Award for Creative Dance Research. She received a B.A. in Dance and Media & Communications from Muhlenberg College and spent a semester abroad at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. Learn more.