2018 Princess Grace Statue Award Recipient, 2017-18 Joyce Creative Residency Artist, 2016 Doris Duke Award Recipient and 2015 City Center Choreographer in Residence, Kyle Abrham (he/him) is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow who began his dance training at the Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
I’m committed to favor the things I get excited by.
I now learn to get excited by things that I originally didn’t find exciting.
I try to believe in discipline yet learn about yielding.
Starting at age 15, Chris Andrews began dancing in his high school’s dance company and attended a studio for more training, during his senior year. After graduating high school, he became a battle dancer with Deadly Venom Crew(DVC)/ Kombine Stylez Crew(KSC) and also started to teach at studios along the east coast.
Sidra Bell’s career has spanned for close to 20 years, and she is currently a Master Lecturer at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and a recent artist-in-residence at Harvard University. She has also held Adjunct Professor and Lecturer positions at Ball State University in Indiana, Marymount Manhattan College, Georgian Court University in New Jersey, and Barnard College in New York City.
Ronald K. Brown, raised in Brooklyn, NY, founded EVIDENCE, A Dance Company in 1985. He has worked with Mary Anthony Dance Theater, Jennifer Muller/The Works, as well as other choreographers and artists.
Arcell Cabuag is a first-generation Filipino-American from San Jose, CA. He moved to New York City to attend the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, where he was introduced to Ronald K. Brown.
Matthew Cumbie (he/him/his) is a collaborative dancemaker, writer, and artist educator. His artistic research cultivates processes and experiences that are participatory and intergenerational, moving through known and unknown, and bring a poetic lens to a specifically queer experience.
Amansu Eason began performing at age 4 with the Morning Bishop Theatre Playhouse, and at age 10, began studying ballet, jazz, tap, and modern at the Emerson School for the Visual and Performing Arts in his hometown of Gary, Indiana.
Marjani Forté-Saunders toured for five years with Urban Bush Women. Forté-Saunders’ artistic practice is informed by years of anti-racist organizer training and her experience as a lead facilitator with UBW Builders, Organizers and Leaders through Dance.
Brian Gerke is an award-winning choreographer, performer, and educator who was born and raised in Missoula, MT. However, he spent the majority of his professional career living, performing, and teaching in Europe, where he was a soloist in Iceland’s National Dance Company.
Kate Harpootlian is a professional dancer, choreographer and contemporary teacher. She started her training at the Columbia City Jazz Dance Company under the direction of Dale Lam. Having performed in numerouas countries with CCJC, Harpootlian graduated and moved to New York City.
Iyun Ashani Harrison is a dance maker, educator, and executive director of Ballet Ashani. Born in Saint Andrew, Jamaica, Harrison first trained in acting, classical ballet, modern technique, and Jamaican folk dance. He is a graduate of both the Juilliard School (BFA) and Hollins University (MFA).
Madison Hicks holds a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School and an MFA in Choreography from California Institute of the Arts. Hicks is a freelance creator, performer, and educator. In 2022, she received the Orsolina28 “Call for Creation” residency for her project, “Corrupt(ed)”.
Kevin Iega Jeff is an accomplished dancer, award-winning choreographer, acclaimed artistic director, respected dance educator, and innovative executive leader. He creates transcendent works while inspiring those around him to foster extraordinary lives, onstage and off, through dance/art-making.
Catherine Kirk is a performing artist from Dallas, Texas. She cultivated her passion for dance at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts before graduating from New York University Tisch School of the Arts with a B.F.A. Kirk has completed programs with Springboard Danse Montreal, Movement Invention Project, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and the Gaga Intensive in Tel Aviv where she performed works by Fernando Melo, Sharon Eyal, Ohad Naharin, Andrea Miller, and Robert Battle.
Tracy Ray Kofford (Director of Dance/Artistic Director of SBCC Dance Company) is originally from Southern California where his dancing began with tap at the age of 9, and his theatre work began at the age of 13.
Peter Pattengill is an alternative movement artist from San Diego California. After training with the Houston Ballet, Pattengill shifted focus to training in several modern and contemporary techniques while at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University as a member of their inaugural BFA in Dance Performance class.
For over 25 years, Alvin Rangel has enjoyed an international career as a performer, choreographer and educator. He began his professional career performing ballet and jazz in his native Puerto Rico.
Yoshito Sakuraba is the founding artistic director of Abarukas and an award-winning choreographer. Originally from Japan, Sakuraba began his career in New York City and has expanded to presenting work in Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, Israel, Mexico, and nationally across the U.S. including Joyce Theater, BAM, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow, Kaatsbaan, and McCallum Theater (Palm Desert Choreography Festival).
jhon r. stronks is a queer identifying dancer/ singer / choreographer, engaged in a practice that generates a genderqueer expression informed by an internal transgender dialogue. Through this practice stronks examines their internal feminine nature and acknowledges how in response to subtle and not so subtle societal requests they have framed and contained the femininity that is their birthright.
Pat Taylor grew up in a household where jazz served as the musical backdrop to daily life. Yet it was while she was living, teaching, and choreographing throughout Europe for seven years, experiencing first hand the world’s love and respect for our jazz tradition, that she made her personal commitment to a rooted exploration of jazz language through movement.
Sorah Yang is a choreographer, teacher, and entrepreneur who was born and raised in the Bay Area, and received her B.S. in Business Administration from USC. Her work has led to digital creative partnerships with brands like Hyundai and Adobe, as well as commercial work with Google and Nike.
The founder and artistic director of YY Dance Company (YYDC), Yin Yue is an internationally recognized performer and choreographer. Yin studied at the prestigious Shanghai Dance Academy and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she received her MFA in 2008.
Stephanie Zaletel (she/they) is a choreographer, dance artist, movement facilitator, dream-tender, environmentalist, plant-based eater and cook, and mental health advocate currently based on the West Coast of the US.