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January 6th, 2022
Paramita Bhattacharyya is an internationally acclaimed Los Angeles-based Kathak exponent recognized by the World Book of Records, London and recipient of numerous dance awards, including Nritya Bhushan.
Aviva Geismar is a choreographer, dancer, dance educator and artistic director of Drastic Action, a NYC-based contemporary dance company. Since 1989, she has been creating a body of thought-provoking works, grounded in a full-bodied physicality.
Barbara Mahler is an active member of the NYC dance community for 35 years, and works as choreographer, performer, movement educator, and practitioner of Klein Technique and the healing modality of Zero Balancing.
Makayla Peterson is the Brooklyn-based artistic director of her dance collective Monét Movement productions: The Collective, founded in 2020. Her 9-person work-in-progress celebrates the love and unity ingrained in Caribbean culture.
February 3rd, 2022
Kashia Kancey, BFA Dance, New World School of the Arts is a Miami-born choreographer and performer. Kashia has performed in the Ailey Citigroup Theater and South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center and performs with Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre, and Adele Myers and Dancers.
Originally from Argentina, Anabella Lenzu is a dancer, choreographer, writer, and teacher with over 30 years of experience working in Argentina, Chile, Italy, and the US. Lenzu directs Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama (ALDD), which since 2006 has presented 390 performances, created 14 choreographic works, and performed at 100 venues, presenting thought-provoking and historically conscious dance-theater in NYC.
Archana Patkar is a Kathak dancer and choreographer based in the Bay Area, California. She trained with, and taught for, Chitresh Das. She has choreographed and performed in the U.S. and India. Her choreographic works range from Kathak adaptations of stories in the great epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, to dances from the Nutcracker.
Sneha Patkar is a San Francisco-based Kathak dancer who performed her first traditional Kathak solo concert in 2015. She trained with the late Kathak teacher Pandit Chitresh Das and now studies in the Benares Gharana tradition with Kathak dancer Smt. Shambhavi Dandekar.
March 3rd, 2022
Mita Ghosal’s choreographic work is a cross-disciplinary study of contemporary movement and how it intersects with spoken language to tell a story. Her work has been presented by New York City venues including The Asian American Writer’s Workshop, Mulberry Street Theatre, New York Film Institute, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, and New York International Fringe Festival.
Reid
Winifred Haun is founder, choreographer and artistic director of Winifred Haun & Dancers. Wini has created over 60 dance works, including one full-length dance. The numerous awards and accolades for her choreography include a 2016 MacArthur Foundation Award.
Kyoto-born Maya Ichikawa studied ballet as a child before devoting herself to contemporary dance. She studied performing arts at Osaka University of Arts. After gaining experience as an actress at Ishinha theater company, she worked with Kyoto Dance Exchange and currently acts as its representative.
Garima Yadav is a classically trained dancer who practices, performs, and teaches traditional Kathak, which she has practiced for over a decade. She loves to bring the ancient art of storytelling into a contemporary setting.
April 7th, 2022
Nauris Mikelis Goba is a Latvian dancer and Choreographer. He graduated from Latvia Academy of Culture with his BA in contemporary dance art. Nauris has participated in international dance projects such as SHARE festival in Slovakia and Macedonia, COLINE dance education program in France, and others.
Sloka Iyengar is a neuroscientist and Bharatanatyam dancer passionate about using her dance and science training for public impact. She is the founder of “SamyuktaNYC” (Samyukta in Sanskrit means “to come together”) to explore the many points of convergence between dance and neuroscience.
Marija Krtolica (PhD in dance, Temple University; MA PS NYU; MFA choreography UC Davis) has been making dance-theater since the early 1990s. In her recent works, she aims to join an experimental artistic practice with a critical analysis of the shifting meanings of the expressive embodiment in society.
Aigars Larionovs is a Latvian-born movement artist and choreographer. He graduated with an MFA degree from Florida State University School of Dance in May 2020. He has taught capoeira and dance workshops in the US, Latvia, Italy, and Greece. He has performed works by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Guy Nader and Maria Campos, Ilze Zirina, and Josephine Garibaldi.
Dustin Maxwell is a movement based performer, performance maker, visual artist, yogasana instructor, thai bodyworker, and death doula in training. He holds a BA in Dance from the University of Minnesota. He is a 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow and was nominated for a 2015 Sage Award for Outstanding Performer.
Debbie Mausner is a dance artist and educator from Brooklyn, NY. In addition to choreographing and performing, she is also a co-founder and producer of the emerging artist series Current Showcase.
May 12th, 2022
Alfonso Cervera holds an MFA in Experimental Choreography from the University of California, Riverside. He is a Queer first generational Mexicano/a/x choreographer, performer, educator, curator, and activist. His research and specialization as an independent artist, focuses on the conversation between queerness, Ballet Folklorico and Afro-LatinX social dances in a contemporary auto-biographical embodied experience that he calls Poc-Chuc.
Aishwarya Madhav is a performer and educator. She began her solo performance debut at nine and was trained from the age of six under renowned gurus in India in Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. Since then, she has widely performed across India and the US at prestigious venues like Lincoln Center, Yale University, 92StY, and Drive East, Battery Dance, and other dance festivals.
Iranian musician Peter Pirhosseinlou and Swiss dancer Angela Stoecklin met through a desire for dialogue on eye-level and for playfully being challenged by the unknown of real-time composition. Feeling a responsibility to make a difference through their actions and attitude the two artists are keeping hold of their collaboration and international exchange even in these difficult times.
Kaley Pruitt Dance investigates the nuances of the human experience and explores the intrinsic communication between bodies in space. Pruitt’s choreography has been presented by numerous organizations including Repertory Dance Theatre, Simantikos Dance Chicago, Austin Dance Festival, WIM Dance Festival, ACDA, Dixon Place, Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, Triskelion Arts, Chez Bushwick, CPR, Ketchum Arts Commission, and Movement Research.
June 2nd, 2022
Ying-Hsuan Chien received a postgraduate degree in contemporary dance from London Contemporary Dance School (2018) and a BFA in dance from Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan (2017). She attended Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival as an Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellow (2018). She will attend Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2022 with an individual mentorship with Taiwanese movie director Huang Hsin-yao.
Keivonte Newbell, hails from Nashville,TN and currently lives in Jersey City, NJ. He has been a tri-state resident since September 2019 after accepting a Muniz & Makers dance company contract. He dances with Muniz & Makers but also Vashti Dance & Theatre & Siren.
Erin Carlisle Norton leads The Moving Architects, an all-female dance company that focuses on connecting people intimately to dance through community-based and collaborative projects and programming in the areas of performance, education, and public discourse. The NJ and NYC-based company has taught and performed regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Karen Veloso (aka Kamalaksi Rupini) is a Belo Horizonte-based Brazilian dancer, teacher, scholar, researcher, choreographer, and actress. She earned a masters degree in performing arts. Dedicated to Indian classical dance, her work explores tradition and innovation.