Dana Tai Soon Burgess

Dana Tai Soon Burgess is a leading American choreographer and cultural figure. The Washington Post Pulitzer Prize winning dance critic Sarah Kaufman writes of Burgess, “Not only a Washington prize, but a national dance treasure.” The Smithsonian named Burgess its first ever choreographer-in-residence in 2016. He is based at the National Portrait Gallery where he explores the confluence of dance and portraiture. Burgess has performed, taught, and choreographed around the world. He founded the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company (DTSBDC.org) in 1992. It is the preeminent modern dance company in the Washington, D.C. region. He is the host of slantpodcast.com which explores the lives and creative processes of prominent Asian American artists. Three portraits of Burgess reside in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian.

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Leslie Plummer

Leslie Plummer, a native New Mexican, learned classical ballet from Patricia Dickinson-Wells and performed with New Mexico Ballet Company. She furthered her education at summer intensives with ABT and the Ailey School, and went on to receive her B.A. in Dance from the University of New Mexico. Leslie later performed with Oui Danse under Artistic Director Brice Mousset. Currently, Leslie is a freelance dancer working in film and live performance. She also assists Jon Ole Olstad for various creative projects. Leslie is a certified GYROKINESIS® trainer and certified GYROTONIC® level 1 pre-trainer, who has taught in New York City at Kinespirit Riverside, Steps on Broadway, Chelsea Movements, and Union Square GYROTONIC®. Currently, she teaches at The Movement Lab in Albuquerque, NM.

Shannon Flynn

Shannon Flynn is an MFA Candidate in the Dramatic Writing program at the University of New Mexico. Flynn is a playwright, actor, and lighting designer, whose research and creative work focuses on immersive theatre and site-specific work. He is a creator of Albuquerque’s annual immersive horror show, Quarantine, and spends each summer creating a new story for the next big show.

Before joining the MFA program in 2018, he worked with Blackout Theatre Company for nearly a decade devising performances with an ensemble in found spaces. He works as the technical director of both the Adobe Theater and VSA North 4th Theatre, and designs lights for theatre and dance when he is not writing or onstage.

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The Bat

Aniello Fontano

Aniello Fontano is an award winning playwright and screenwriter from Little Italy, Chicago. After receiving his BA in Directing and Design from the University of Illinois at Chicago, he attended New Mexico’s flagship university, UNM, and earned his MFA in Dramatic Writing. In addition to his work as a writer, he is the Writer’s Assistant on HBOMax’ South Side, a board member of Prop Theater (celebrating its 40 year anniversary this year), once Associate Board Events Chairman and now volunteer with BUILD Chicago (a nationally respected gang intervention, violence prevention, and youth development organization based on Chicago’s West Side) and a Journeyman in the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees 476 serving as an Art Department Lead on HBO’s South Side, FOX’s The Big Leap, and other productions. He continues to be mentored by playwright christopher oscar peña, actress Caroline Neff, and playwright Erik Ehn.

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24HourPlays – Aniello Fontano and Mallory Jansen – “before i rip my fucking heart out | or some babies are ugly”

24HourPlays – Aniello Fontano and Miles G. Jackson – “a start.”

24HourPlays – Aniello Fontano and Bobby Moreno – “i wanna go wild | or fucking cake eaters”

An excerpt from “summertime | an interlude” – UNM Spring 2020 – Directed by Erik Ehn

A second excerpt from “summertime | an interlude” – UNM Spring 2020 – Directed by Erik Ehn

Trailer for “summertime | a virtual production” – Kennedy Center 2021 – Directed by Erik Ehn –

Small Hours Festival – Aniello Fontano and Richard Juarez – “sons or | tu papi te ama”

Small Hours Festival – Aniello Fontano and Max Thomas – “that’s funny”

Ileana Gomez

Illeana is a flamenco dancer from the Unites States residing in Madrid, Spain. Illeana received her MFA from the University of NM in 2010 in performance and choreography while also pursuing vigorous study at the Conservatory of Flamenco (Joaquin Encinias).

Since that time, she has worked with various US. and Spanish performance companies and has been on several national tours performing in such theaters as the Joyce in NY, as well participating in dance festivals in the US and Spain such as the Festival at Jacob’s Pillow, as well as Suma Flamenca (Madrid), and has shared the stage with an array of artists in the flamenco world such as Juana La del Pipa, Carmen Ledesma,  Alejandro Granados, Pastora Galván among others.

Currently, Illeana teaches dance,  and works in the tablaos or “flamenco theaters” of Madrid. In 2018 she was prized in the “Concurso Nacional de Baile por Alegrías”. More recently,  she has participated as a soloist in shows such  “Bailaoras” along side well known artists, Carmen “la Talegona,” and Monica Fernandez; “Prendidos” by Alfonso Losa (USA), “La Vida Misma” Noe Barroso company; and most recently “La Tarara si, el alma del Flamenco,” along side Lucky losada, Ivan Losada, and Monica Fernandez, amongst others.

Justice Miles

Justice Miles is a biracial independent choreographer, dance artist, and scholar. Miles received her MFA in Choreography/Dance from the University of New Mexico and her BA in Dance from Colorado College. Miles has also had the opportunity for additional summer study at Festival Flamenco Albuquerque and Ballet Hispánico’s Choreolab summer program in New York City.

Miles’ choreography includes: Floral Tea, a floral dance film created for the Art Gym Denver Create Award Residency which was also selected to be virtually streamed in ModArts Dance Collective’s Move to Change Festival, Ink on Cotton, which was a dream-like exploration of African American history incorporating elements of contemporary dance and flamenco (excerpts performed at the Fashion Institute in NYC for Meira Goldberg’s conference The Body Questions Celebrating Flamenco’s Tangled Roots, and Aceite en Agua, excerpt selected with thirteen other pieces for the North West regional gala at the American College Dance Festival in Laramie, Wyoming.

In regards to research, Miles presented her dissertation research at the international bilingual conference Indígenas, africanos, roma y europeos: Ritmos transátlanicos en música, canto y baile in Veracruz, Mexico. This resulted in the publication of Miles’ first academic article “The Modern Synthesis of Josephine Baker and Carmen Amaya” with the journal Música Oral de Sur, edited by Raquel Paraíso, Meira Goldberg, Jessica Gotffried and Antoni Pizá. Miles has had the opportunity to present this research for the International Association of Blacks in Dance Virtual Front Row for Member Appreciation week and the 8th Biennial New Perspectives in Flamenco History and Research Symposium. Miles seeks to create spaces of inclusivity and acceptance to honor and uplift historically marginalized voices.

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Sarah Williams Gonzales

Sarah Williams Gonzales is a “dancing historian,” a dance scholar, and a dance educator. In 2012, Sarah graduated with distinction from the University of New Mexico with a Master of Arts in Theatre and Dance with a concentration in Dance History and Criticism. Her Master’s thesis, “Noisy Feet: The Forgotten Click of American Toe-Tap, 1925 – 1935,” drew extensively from primary source materials to explore early 20th century American ballet and Vaudevillian novelty dance.

Since graduation from UNM, Sarah has worked to advance the field of dance through the daily teaching of technique classes, developing dance curricula, and pursuing dance history research. Sarah is currently the Pre-Professional Education Director of Keshet Dance and Center for the Arts, in charge of the Keshet’s Pre-Professional Program (KP3), the Grant Administrator for the National Institute of Flamenco, and an adjunct faculty member within the UNM Dance Program. Sarah has been awarded two Project Plié scholarships from the American Ballet Theatre and gained certification in ABT® National Training Curriculum from Pre-Primary through Level 5. She is certified in Elementary Labanotation from the Dance Notation Bureau and has completed the Ballet For All Kids: Schlachte Method training. Sarah has presented research at both Dance Studies Association and National Dance Education Organization conferences.

Allie Hankins

Allie Hankins is a dancer, performer, and multidisciplinary artist currently residing on the unceded lands of Cowlitz, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Clackamas, and many other tribes, also known as Portland, Oregon, who makes works that toy with the destabilization of persona through uncanny physicality, layered imagery, and a biting wit all while trying to suppress her contentious eagerness to please.

She is an inaugural resident artist and current steward of FLOCK Dance Center, a studio and creative home to Portland’s experimental dance artists, which was founded by Tahni Holt in 2013. In 2014, she co-founded Physical Education, a queer performance research cooperative, with Lu Yim, keyon gaskin, and Takahiro Yamamoto. Physical Education hosts reading groups and lectures, curates festivals, and teaches workshops nationally. Allie has danced for choreographers nationally and internationally, including Milka Djordjevich (LA), Morgan Thorson (Minneapolis), Ruairi Donovan (Cork, Ireland), Julien Previeux (Paris), and Linda Austin (Portland).

She has been an Artist in Residence at Headlands Center for the Arts, the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, the Robert Rauschenberg Residency, Caldera, the Wassaic Project, and Ucross. She’s currently reading Zany, Cute, Interesting by Sianne Ngai, Calamities and the Ravika Trilogy by Renee Gladman, and all the Ali Smith she can get her hands on. She loves book recommendations. You can learn more about Allie and her work at alliehankins.com.

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Now Then: A Prologue, 2016 https://vimeo.com/177416486

Excerpts from When We, 2017 https://vimeo.com/273133619

Excerpts from scorpio 33/33, a dance film, 2017 https://vimeo.com/259921592

Excepts from /ə ˈsɪŋgəl pɪŋk klaʊd/ , 2019 https://vimeo.com/349469665

Vimeo page: https://vimeo.com/user4752333

Kelsey Paschich

Kelsey Paschich is a dancer, choreographer, educator, interdisciplinary artist. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Western Michigan University. Paschich holds an MFA in Dance from the University of New Mexico and she holds a BFA in Dance from Point Park University. She is 1 of 36 Countertechnique® Certified Teachers globally and also teaches ballet, pointe, modern, jazz, improvisation, choreography, and theory.

Her international performance career spans 20 years and multiple genres. Paschich has performed extensively with: The Moscow State Classical Ballet, DCDC2, Thodos Dance Chicago, River North Chicago Dance Company, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Interdansa Dance Festival, Keshet Dance Company, ARCOS Dance, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the Hannibal Project in Solden, Austria.

She is the Founder and Artistic Director of project whitewall where she experiments and creates live + digital work that explores humanness, the moving body, and its relationship to technology. She views dance as a language that can be shared across many mediums. Her work often utilizes multi-media elements inspired by surrealism as the theoretical and conceptual framework. Her current digital work has been screened in Germany, Portugal, Turkey, and throughout the United States.

Paschich is the recipient of Distant Digital Dance Maker commission for Tanz mit dem Tiger 2021(Ulm, Germany), Creative Living for Dancers Award 2021 (Brussels, Belgium), the Dancing Lab Residency at the National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron (NCCAkron) 2021, she was also an invited presenter at the Society of Korean Dance Studies International Symposium 2021 (Seoul, Korea), and was the recipient of the National Dizzy Feet Foundation Gene Kelly Legacy Scholarship in 2016. Paschich’s choreographic and performative experience continues to inform her pedagogical methodology in providing a progressive and holistic education that cultivates the next generation of artists.

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Recode (Trailer) https://vimeo.com/177416486

Prototype (Full) https://vimeo.com/273133619