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Click here to view the 2020-21 artists.
Click here to view the 2022 artists.
January 5th, 2023
Lucia Gagliardone (she/her/hers) is a Vermont-born choreographer and dance artist whose movement origins are found in intergenerational, community-centered dance making directly amongst the trees, on the land, and in the waters. Lucia has premiered eleven original live and film dance works, which have been presented by The Living Room, Bowdoin College, Taffety Punk, The Hopkins Center for the Arts, Atlas Performing Arts Center, and has performed in works by Reggie Wilson with the Fist and Heel Performance Group, Katy Pyle with Ballez, Aretha Aoki, Gwyneth Jones, Olga Aru, and as a principal dancer for Flock Dance Troupe under the artistic direction of Carol Langstaff.
Rush Johnston (they/them) is a Bronx-based artist who creates at the intersection of visual and performing art, often exploring modes of artistic expression beyond the binary. Their work often plays with perception and identity, often encompassing themes of political turmoil, queerness, Indigeneity, and mental health.
Misaki Hayama (she/her/hers) was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She moved to New York in 2015 as a scholarship student at the Alvin Ailey Dance School. After graduating from Alvin Ailey School, she presented her work “Touryanse” at Ailey Citigroup Theater, Tank Theater and The Works Studio. In 2019, she performed a 30-minute solo dance “Warabe Uta” at the TADA! Theater. In 2021, She performed the same piece in Green Space as a Take Roots 2021 artist.
February 2nd, 2023
Third generation Korean-American, Ari LaMora (they/them/theirs), graduated from the University of Oregon in June of 2021 where they received degrees in both Dance and Cultural Anthropology. They were awarded the Dougherty Hearn Dance Scholarship and Outstanding Performer Award, had the pleasure of collaborating on and performing in works by Brad Garner, Rita Honka, Margo VanUmmersen, and were given opportunities to showcase two of their own works. Now based in New York, they have performed in an evening-length show by Chaesong Kim and a solo excerpt by Willow Green. September of 2022, they began their residency as a part of the Leimay Incubator Program. In their work, they are aware of the pathways our bodies create to efficiently complete a task. By surrendering to or rejecting said pathways, they explore the different ways in which we, too, can surrender to or reject things in our own lives.
Claudia Lavista (she/her) is a choreographer, performer, professor and interdisciplinary project creator with 30 years of experience, for her artistic work she has received multiple national and international awards. Degree in Dance Pedagogy. Co-founder of Delfos contemporary dance and the Professional School of Dance of Mazatlan/EPDM considered two pilar projects of the Mexican dance scene. Claudia has created more than 55 works that have been presented in 27 countries from Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. She teaches continuously in dance faculties from Mexico and abroad. The University of Chicago awarded her with the prestigious Mellon Fellow. She is a member of the National System of Art Creators 2020-23; in 2021 she is distinguished with the Jerusalem International Fellows Award. She has collaborated on opera, theater and multimedia projects and created dance pieces for theater, site-specific, video dance and digital platforms. Claudia is interested in interdisciplinary collaborative projects that generate works created from an artistic/human dialogue.
March 2nd, 2023
Teresa Fellion (she/they), New York City-based, founded BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance in 2011, after choreographing independently since 2004. Fellion’s work has been positively reviewed by several publications, performed in a diverse range of proscenium and site-specific venues, and has received a diverse range of grants. Teresa completed a Dance MFA from Sarah Lawrence under Scholarship, a Certificate from the Ailey School on scholarship, and a BA in French & English Literature with a dance minor from NYU as a Merit Scholar. She received Choreographic Fellowships from SummerStages Dance Festival, ICA Boston, and an American Dance Guild Fellowship for Jacob’s Pillow’s Choreographers’ Lab.
Sloka Iyengar (she/her) is a New York City-based neuroscientist and Bharatanatyam dancer passionate about using the arts and the sciences for public impact. She has created works to explore the many points of convergence between dance and neuroscience, and is also creating the foundation for using Bharatanatyam in creative aging.”Dancing as a scientist has made me realize how fortunate I am to experience both of these two very different, yet connected disciplines – science and art. Whereas science is the theoretical study of reality, dance to me is the practical study of reality. Together, science and dance help me to appreciate more fully the world we live in and feed into my interest in the nature of reality.”
Originally from Argentina, Anabella Lenzu (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based dancer, choreographer, writer, and teacher with over 30 years of experience working in Argentina, Chile, Italy, and the U.S. She has produced and directed several award-winning short dance films and screened her work in over 200 festivals both nationally and internationally. Lenzu directs her own company, Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama (ALDD), which since 2006 has presented 400 performances, created 15 choreographic works and performed at 100 venues, presenting thought provoking and historically conscious dance-theater in New York City. New York State Dance Education Association awarded Lenzu the 2022 Innovative Dance Educator Award.
Kiran Rajagopalan (he/him) is an award-winning dancer, choreographer, writer, and educator based in New Jersey. Trained extensively in Bharatanatyam (Indian classical dance) for over 25 years, Kiran has performed in India, Indonesia, Germany, Spain, France, and the U.S. He is the co-founder and artistic director of Daya Arts, which aims to bridge diasporic communities through original, high-quality artistic productions. Daya Arts actively participates in initiatives that engage with other Communities of Color. Rajagopalan graduated with a BA (magna cum laude) in Behavioral Neuroscience and Spanish from Boston University, an MA (honors) in Bharatanatyam from University of Madras, and an MA in Performance Studies from NYU.
May 4th, 2023
Marianna Koytsan is originally from Murmansk, Russia. In 2012 she moved to New York City to continue her pursuit of dance in House/Hip Hop and Freestyle/Improvisation.
Emilee Lord is a visual and performing artist based in Brooklyn. Her visual art, dances, lectures, and reflections investigate the multiple ways through which a drawing can be made, performed, and defined. Her work has been performed and exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Toronto, Reggio Emilia, and Reykjavik. She earned a BA from Bennington College and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Kathy Luo currently serves as Visiting Lecturer at the University of Kentucky. She earned a MFA in Dance and a Dance Artist Teaching Certificate from Arizona State University. Kathy’s dance research focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration in the immersive dance production, site-specific dance, contemporary issues around the world, as well as Asian Diasporic dance studies.
sarAika is a movement collective based in New York since 2021, founded by Aika Takeshima and Sara Pizzi. Their art is a form of activism based on contemporary dance, partnering, floorwork, improvisation skills, story telling, conceptual art and street style influences.