Amanda List is a dancer/choreographer out of Green Bay Wisconsin. With a BA degree in Dance from UW-Stevens Point coupled with other studies around movement, spirituality, and psychology, she believes in the power of healing through movement: movement as medicine. Her classes and choreography strive to create confidence and empowerment for beginner and intermediate level dancers. She approaches movement with great playfulness and heart. You may have seen her choreography in: LEAP-The Human Kindness Project, Unhinged 2018 & 2022, Death's Door Dance Festival 2022.
Amanda Timm grew up in Minneapolis where she began studying dance at Perpich Center for Arts Education: Arts High School. Moving to Chicago to attend Columbia College Chicago in 2006, Amanda earned her BFA in dance making. There she started We Stand Sideways, a project-based dance company, creating audience interactive works produced in non-traditional spaces. Amanda also danced in works for The Moving Architects, Khecari, Synapse Arts, Striding Lion, Kelly Anderson Dance Theatre, and The Fly Honeys. In 2015, Amanda created what she considers her own therapeutic work called Truth Be Told; a dark comedy exploring guilt and liberation performed as a funeral. From there, Amanda went on a soul-searching journey, traveling domestically and internationally. During that time, she volunteered in India at Kolkata Sanved; an NGO that uses DMT to treat women who have experienced sex trafficking, giving them a pathway out of poverty by training them as DMTs themselves. Amanda traveled for five amazing years only to end up back in her hometown during a pandemic. During that time, she began studying clinical mental health counseling and DMT remotely at Antioch Seattle. She is currently a clinical intern at the Family Enhancement Center in Minneapolis and looks forward to sharing what she's learned. Please note that Amanda is not currently a licensed therapist.
Andria Nikoupolis Weliky, "The Cosmic-tologist," brings a lifetime of dance with over 35 years of instruction as well as 20 years as a cosmetologist to her work as a movement and holistic beauty practitioner. She is a student of the stars, mythos, psyche and cosmology, a practicing astrologer and sacred astronomer, and budding herbalist. She is continually inspired by nature and celebrates in all, connection, balance and oneness we can all strive to practice and incorporate everyday. Working with and co-creating with these elements is something Andria celebrates with her client work and artistry, holding in high regard, honor and respect for those she works with, for herself and for our precious planet.
Charlique C. Rolle is an arts administrator, interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, director, producer, playwright, actor, writer, curator, and Executive Director of Congo Square Theatre. Rolle holds a BA in Dance (Summa Cum Laude) from Missouri Valley College with minors in Theatre and Business, an MA in Ministry Leadership from Moody Theological Seminary, and an MBA from Concordia University Chicago. A Bahamas native, Rolle’s passions are telling Black stories, creating works that catalyze healing, freedom, and transformation, and providing resources and structures for communities to breed creative freedom, sustainability, and longevity. Rolle is the President of the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago, Treasurer of the League of Chicago Theatres, a member of the Arts Alliance Illinois Arts Leadership Council, Chicago Women in Philanthropy, Chicago African Americans in Philanthropy, the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, was named as one of Newcity’s Players 2022: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago, and is 2023 IMPACT Fellow with the Chicago Urban League and University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Additionally, Rolle serves as the Associate Director of the August Wilson New Voices national and Chicago competitions in partnership with Derrick Sanders (Associate Director of Drama at Juilliard) and the Goodman Theatre. Rolle is also an Adjunct Professor at The Theatre School at DePaul University.
Enid Smith is a graduate of the contemporary dance program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She has been teaching ballet and modern at Dance Center Evanston since 2007. She has also taught for Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, Wisconsin Dance Masters, Dovetail Studios, and as a guest at New Trier High School, Arlington Dance Academy, and the inaugural season of the Death’s Door Dance Festival. As a performer, she has appeared with Ivy Baldwin Dance, The Merce Cunningham Repertory Understudy Group, MAC cosmetics, Khecari, Same Planet Performance Project, and Lucky Plush Productions. She has completed her Cecchetti teacher exams through Grade IV and is trying to learn the Texas Two-Step.
Janet Lilly, a former principal dancer and teacher with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, is the Director of Dance at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG). Lilly joined UNCG after over 15 years at the Peck School of Arts Department of Dance at the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin, where she was instrumental in creating a low-residency MFA program for returning dance professionals. Awarded a 2008-09 Fulbright Lecturer Fellowship, Lilly has choreographed and taught as a guest artist and teacher on college campuses in the United States and abroad.
Kerensa DeMars is a choreographer, performer and educator working in Flamenco. Her work explores the ‘Flamenca’ archetype, the diverse roots of Flamenco and the poetry at the heart of the form. Elements of digital collage, poetry and cross disciplinary musical collaborations feature prominently in her productions. Kerensa has performed internationally at venues like the Royal Festival Hall in London, the Tivoli in Barcelona, Madrid's Teatro Calderón and the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. The founding director of the San Francisco Flamenco Dance Company, Kerensa lived in Spain from 1997-2004 where she trained intensively in Flamenco dance with Spain’s foremost artists. Kerensa is the recipient of major choreography commissions from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Theatre Bay Area/Dancer's Group, the Azahar Dance Foundation and the Teatro Pradillo of Madrid. Her recent work Volver paired the poetry of Cecilia Woloch, Federico Garcia Lorca and Leonard Cohen with traditional Flamenco and interpretations by Palestinian musicians.Kerensa is currently the director of Studio K Flamenco, Milwaukee’s home for the Flamenco arts. With programs like the annual Flamenco Nutcracker, the Compás Youth Project and the FlamencoMKE performance series, Studio K is committed to furthering the art of Flamenco in Milwaukee and beyond.
Kristen Harker started swing dancing in 2011 while living in New York City and has been hooked ever since. She has traveled around the country and abroad attending dance workshops and is a former member of a vintage dance troupe in Pennsylvania. She moved to Door County in December 2022 and is looking forward to fostering a local swing dancing community. She lives in Ellison Bay with her two dogs.
Mae Daniels has been active in dance and musical theatre since she was five years old. Always having been drawn to teaching, she started choreographing and directing children's musicals as a sophomore in high school. Working with people of all ages, teaching dance has always been a passion of hers. Attending private dance lessons, college classes in dance, and learning choreography from professionals throughout the Chicagoland area- focusing on ballet, jazz, tap and musical theatre styles of dancing. After moving to Door County six years ago, she has been actively teaching yoga to all ages and is currently running the youth dance program at the Northern Door YMCA in Fish Creek. In her free time you'll see her hiking with her pup, paddle boarding and enjoying the beauty of Door County.
Melinda Jean Myers is a multidisciplinary artist who creates in the areas of dance and choreography, theater and storytelling, and music composition. Her research includes solo choreography and performance, and collaborations with theater artists, filmmakers, writers, music composers, media designers and dance artists. At University of Iowa, she is an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Dance and Choreography. In the last few years, Myers has made collaborative choreographic works with Donika Kelly, Kurt Chiang, Ramin Roshandel, Heidi Wiren, Mathanki Kalapathy, Lex Leto, Laila Franklin, Kate Vincek, and University of Iowa dance students. Her interdisciplinary works have been presented in South Korea, Germany, New York and throughout the Midwest. Myers earned her MFA from University of Iowa and BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She was honored to perform internationally with the Trisha Brown Dance Company for four years, and has been privileged to re-stage repertory works. As a member of The Cambrians, her collaborative work Clover was named one of Chicago Tribune's Top 10 Dances of 2015. She also created three new works as a devising ensemble member of Lucky Plush Productions and toured nationally with the company for ten years. In fall 2022, Myers presented her collaborative dance-theater work, Unfinished Business, created and performed with Kurt Chiang, at Links Hall in Chicago, IL. This work was supported by an Embodied Research Grant, awarded by Lucky Plush Productions.
Owen Alabado is an experienced choreographer and dance captain within the Musical Theater realm. He has been a dance captain/choreographer for several theaters, cabarets, and theme parks. During his 17 years in Los Angeles, he worked as a dancer on numerous commercials, live shows, and reality shows. His passion for Musical Theater and Dance has brought him back to the world of live theater.
A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Simone Ferro is a choreographer, movement practitioner, somatic researcher, and Fulbright scholar. She joined the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Department of Dance in 2001 and retired in 2022 after decades serving as MFA program director and department chair. After a professional career as soloist with dance companies in Brazil and Switzerland, she completed her graduate work at the University of Iowa, a Laban Movement Analysis Certification by the Columbia College of Chicago and a Certificate as Fascia Trainer. Simone collaborates extensively with the local dance, theater and opera community, as well as visual artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers. Her project Milwaukee Through Embodied Research has engaged research students addressing social and environmental justice and community resilience through oral histories in the central city community of Milwaukee. Simone works with movement for mindfulness, as well as classical dance technique with an applied somatic vision in which she uses concepts of movement analysis, kinesiology, anatomy, biomechanics, fascia studies and the body as a home for empathy. Since 2007, she has traveled to Brazil to research popular culture in Maranhão with her research partner and life companion Meredith W. Watts.
Sixto Franco is a multifaceted musician whose activities range from performance, composition, improvisation, teaching, lecturing and curating artistic events. He is an avid performer and is continuously on stage as soloist, chamber and orchestra musician as well as part of interdisciplinary projects. His most recent and future collaborations include an improvised score for "Project Jane,” a 2022 Tulane University Theater production; curator of a concert series at Mu Art Gallery of Chicago, 2022; curating a concert for NienteForte Music Festival 2023 featuring LGTBQIA/ BIPOC composers, and two world premieres of his brand new works by the Alluvium Ensemble and the LPO. Sixto enjoys creating collaborations such as "Perfect Storm", a symbiotic work that combines an existing staple for solo viola with original choreography by Rachel Slater. "Perfect Storm" intends to highlight the work of female artists using the viola as the intermediary. As a new music enthusiast, Sixto has commissioned and helped premier more than 60 new works, including many those written for the Quijote Duo, an ensemble based in Chicago, to which he is a founding member. Now a resident of New Orleans, Sixto is thrilled to immerse himself in the unmatched and exciting cultural scene of New Orleans.
Susan Firer’s most recent book is The Transit of Venus. She is the author of five previous books of poetry, including Milwaukee Does Strange Things to People: New & Selected Poems 1979-2007 and The Lives of the Saints and Everything. Her books have been awarded the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize, the Posner Award, and the Backwaters Prize. She has also been the recipient of a Milwaukee County Artist Fellowship, a Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship, and the Lorine Niedecker Award. In 2015, Firer was a National Endowment for the Arts fellow. Her poems have appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Chicago Review, Ms. (Magazine), Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, New American Writing, Conduit, The New Yorker and other journals and anthologies. Firer’s poem “Call Me Pier” is included in the Poetry Foundation’s Poetry Everywhere series. From 2008-2010, she was Poet Laureate of the City of Milwaukee. The University of Nebraska Press reissued her fourth book, The Laugh We Make When We Fall, in fall 2021. More information at www.susanfirer.com
Tim Russell lives at the confluence of the aural and the visual. He currently serves as Music Director for the University of Wisconsin’s Dance Department. In 2019, Tim was selected as one of the Cowles Visiting Artists at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, a first for a Musician in the field of Dance. He has a vast catalogue of works specifically for choreography, most of which exist live, in collaboration with movement. His commitment to the nowness in performance led him to co-create/curate, along with choreographer Maria Gillespie, Hyperlocal MKE, a Music and Dance improvisation series that exists to this day in Milwaukee. His current curatorial project: Common Sage Arts, promotes multidisciplinary artists through carefully curated performances. Along with Tim’s long time collaboration with the Gerald Casel Dance Company, his audio shares the stage with a vast array of choreographic artists bringing Tim and his music across the world from Dock 11 in Berlin to YBCA in San Francisco. He holds an MFA in Music Improvisation from Mills College in Oakland, California, where he studied improvisation, electronic music and composition with the likes of Fred Frith, Roscoe Mitchell and Zeena Parkins. www.avoidancepolicy.com
Photo Credits: Allison Evans with Wild Nest Photography (Amanda List) // Greg Gardner (Amanda Timm) // Mary Breuer Photos (Andria Nikoupolis Weliky) // John R. Boehm (Charlique C. Rolle) // Mark Liney (Enid Smith) // Hannah Long (Janet Lilly) // Arthur Wilinski (Kerensa DeMars) // Mae Daniels // Benjamin Wardell (Melinda Jean Myers) // Meredith W. Watts (Simone Ferro) // Karjaka Studios (Sixto Franco) // Josh Modell (Susan Firer) // Tim Russell
Header Design: Charlie Stephens
Header: Allison Evans at Wild Nest Photography
Header: Allison Evans at Wild Nest Photography