OUR ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE
23/24 SEASON
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23/24 SEASON
Dance Project and the NC Dance Festival are pleased to announce the 2023-24 Artists in Residence!
This initiative nurtures North Carolina choreographers and supports the development of high-quality dance work. This program provides space, peer support, and professional development for both the seasoned choreographer and those newly emerging who are looking to create new work, explore new territory, develop an artistic practice, and/or gain additional experience developing their craft.
This year we are partnering with Barriskill Dance Theatre School to provide studio space to choreographers in Durham.
A brand new 18+ drop-in only intermediate/advanced contemporary dance class intended for dance professionals and collegiate level dancers. This class is based in Safety Release Technique yet also integrates various other release-based contemporary techniques and supportive methodologies through a somatic approach. Previous dance experience is highly suggested. Offered as part of the Dance Project Spring 2023 Semester January 9-June 3.
Ashlee Dance received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Dance/Choreography from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and has recently received her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Candidate in Choreography at the California Institute of the Arts. In her early years of vigorous training, she established a strong foundation in various dance styles. Ashlee earned numerous top soloist awards and titles throughout her competitive dance years. Dance studios retained her for her instruction and choreography. Ashlee expanded her contemporary and modern training by studying: Graham, Cunningham, Horton, and Safety Release techniques. She worked with artists such as Janet Lily, Clarice Young, Justin Tornow, Robin Gee, B.J Sullivan, and Marsha Maddux. In 2017, Ashlee performed as an ensemble dancer for the Martha Graham tribute in the Prelude to Action piece at the Joyce Theater. While in New York City, Ashlee continued her teaching and dance training while working as a freelance choreographer. She also worked closely with some New York arts non-profit organizations, bringing arts programs into public schools. During her time in California, she has continued learning, choreographing, and working commercially with LA-based artists. Ashlee began to establish herself as an interdisciplinary artist by integrating multi-media structures into her dance practice and process. She was nominated for the 2022-2023 AICAD Teaching Fellowship. In 2021, she was retained as a guest choreographer by Still Inspired Dance Company in Chicago, IL. She has also worked as a choreography assistant for Rashaun Mitchell & Silas Reniers Dance Company. Currently, she works as the Artistic Director for Edge Performing Arts. Ashlee identifies as a freelance artist, performer, filmmaker, and educator.
Ayan Felix (they/them; Durham) is a Gulf Coast-bred movement artist, shapeshifting storyteller, and cultural organizer. They perform and film Southern Black American cultures of excess, slowness, and dirt indoors and under dusky skies. Independently, they have performed for Barnstorm Dance Festival (Houston; 2018, 2019, 2022), Kuumba Dance Fest (Houston; 2021), and Houston Fringe Festival (2021). Their screen dances have been shown at the Collegium for African Diasporic Dance (2022), freeskewl (NYC), and the Black Endurance Community Series at The Movement Lab ATL (2021). Their MFA thesis production How to avoid gas stations and other shit I want to do at night (2021) is also documented in a paper we, present in space: Queer Performance Cultures of Transience and Care Based in Black Feminisms as the culmination of the MFA experience through the Duke Dance Program. Ayan lives in the dance legacies of SUCHU Dance/Jennifer Wood, Pilot Dance Project, Andrea E Woods-Valdez, and Dance Afrikana. Collaborations ongoing and past include time with SLIPPAGE performance lab, jhon r. Stronks, Brittany J. Green, and Ivy Nicole-Jonet. They also co-host queer burlesque experiences with Les Bimbos in Raleigh, NC. Most of their mornings are spent recalling nighttime dreams, reading, and building bandwidth for a neurodiverse world.
Christine Kiernan Fisher, 2020 National Dance Education Teacher of the Year, holds a BFA in ballet from Columbia College and an MFA in performance and choreography from UNC Greensboro. She is currently a doctoral student and research assistant in teacher education at the School of Education at UNCG. Christine has performed with various dance companies including Van Dyke Dance Group and John Gamble Dance Theater. She has served on the faculties of Columbia College (SC), UNC-Greensboro, Weaver Academy for Performing and Visual Arts, and Durham School of the Arts. She has served as a lead dance teacher for both Durham Public Schools and Guilford County Schools. Christine was selected for both the Governor’s Teacher Network and as a North Carolina Teacher Voice Network Fellow and was a long-time board member and past president of the North Carolina Dance Alliance. Currently, Christine is working as a graduate research assistant in the School of Education and teaching in the School of Dance at UNCG, while pursuing a Ph.D.
Coach, Choreographer, Teacher, Student, and Life Enthusiast – all words used to describe Rob Myers. Rob added published author to his list of accolades when he completed his thesis titled “No Boys Allowed”. Rob examined the factors that deter young men from pursuing traditional dance training during their pre-adolescent years. Rob understands that his voice as a dance scholar is pertinent and necessary in ensuring that dancers of all sizes, creed, colors and genders have the platform to dance freely and explore all the goodness that dance has to offer. Rob’s own unconventional and late introduction to dance encouraged him to work to provide avenues for young men to explore and navigate dance spaces before their teenage years.
He is known in Kappa Land as “The Kurator”, a Fall 2022 initiate of the Winston Salem (NC) Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. Rob’s credits include Super Bowl XXXIII (33), the African-American Dance Review, Stage Ready Productions, Georgia Tech, Spelman College, the Taliah Waajid World Health and Beauty Show, and the Miss Black Georgia Organization, along with extensive competitive dance studio work in the areas of Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Hip-Hop, African, and Musical Theatre, and taught as Adjunct Dance Faculty in the Theatre Department at Greensboro College. He is the author of “Rob Myers is the Kitchen Sink Cook”, a cookbook self-published in 2020, which is the basis of his cooking show, The Kitchen Sink Cook. Professionally, he serves as the Assistant Director for Recruitment & Dance Liaison for Admissions at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem.
Londs Reuter makes dances to examine her material—its inheritances, its possibilities, and its eventualities.
As a choreographer, Londs has received support from New York Live Arts (Fresh Tracks), Danspace Project, the Knockdown Center, and Abrons Arts Center. She has been an artist in residence with the Ucross Foundation, the Ellis Beauregard Foundation, the Maggie Allesee Center for Choreography, and the Center for Performance Research.
As a dancer, she has performed in museums for Simone Forti, Cecilia Vicuña, and Joanna Kotze, in galleries for Abigail Levine, on screens for Sarah A.O. Rosner and Diana Crum, and on the many illustrious downtown stages of New York for Ursula Eagly, Will Rawls, Perel, Jillian Sweeney, and Katy Pyle/the Ballez.
Londs is the author of Private Inventory: One Way to Be Accountable to Your Material, is a co-editor of the Movement Research journal Critical Correspondence, and is currently developing an evening-length performance called Good Effort.
kt williams (she/her) is a contemporary dancer, educator, choreographer, and dance filmmaker based in Greensboro, NC. kt’s pedagogical and creative processes are somatically-informed and rooted in post-modern and contemporary release techniques. She is curious about how history, space, and emotion influence the body, and her embodied practice encourages an exploration of self, boundaries, and relationship to surrounding environment. kt is interested in work that dynamically blends concert dance, experiential performance, and interdisciplinary collaboration, and she is fascinated by social practice and its ability to create immersive dance spaces that not only blur traditional codes of contemporary dance performance but cultivate a sense of collective transformation for viewer and performer. Her pedagogical and artistic practices are deeply collaborative, as she genuinely believes working in community fosters the wellbeing and sustainability of the artist-citizen. Originally from Chicago, IL, kt has performed with various Chicago-based dance projects and her work has been presented at Hamlin Park Fieldhouse, Links Hall, and Elastic Arts. Most recently, she co-founded DanSeries Collective with creative collaborator Caitlyn Schrader, and together they make work that explores and pushes how dance functions with other disciplines through immersive platforms and social engagement. kt received her MFA in Dance/Choreography from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received the Donald Carducci Memorial Scholarship Award for overall excellence in dance performance.
Chania Wilson is a dance artist and educator located in Raleigh, NC. She received her BFA in Dance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a concentration in Performance and Choreography. The past couple of years, she has been Dance Director at Enloe High School where she taught honors Modern and Jazz. While there, she has guest taught and choreographed for local companies in the area and started a county wide dance intensive in 2022. She will be starting at Duke to pursue her MFA in Dance with the 2025 cohort.
Jonah Carrel graduated with his BFA in Dance Choreography and Performance from UNC-Greensboro. He is a student interested in dance notation and has completed certification courses from the Language of Dance Center in July of 2022. Carrel is proficient in styles such as contemporary, jazz, ballet, tap and clogging and has choreographed pieces for concerts at UNCG, including a self-produced concert, “Selections”, February of 2023.
24/25 SEASON
Born and raised in Kannapolis, NC, Lilly Beaver is a May 2024 graduating senior at Elon University obtaining degrees in Dance Performance & Choreography and Psychology with a minor in Teaching and Learning. Lilly began her dance training at age 2 and danced competitively for 14 years. She has trained in various techniques, including ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, West African, hip-hop, lyrical, modern, and contemporary. Lilly has performed works by numerous local and guest artists, including dancing in American Dance Festival’s Footprints Showcase, where she also trained at their summer intensive. She is an apprentice for Joyemovement Dance Company in Greensboro, NC, and has enjoyed dancing for several artists’ dance films, shows, and residencies affiliated with the North Carolina Dance Festival. Lilly has presented choreography in Elon’s Fall and Dancing in the Landscape Concerts, Little Pink Houses of Hope Gala, Alamance Children’s Theatre Productions, as well as at dance festivals in Chicago and Washington. Lilly teaches dance at Miss Kim’s in Burlington, NC where she also works with children with special needs. Lilly was awarded the Outstanding Senior Award for Elon’s Dance Performance and Choreography major.
bio
Teresa Heiland, PhD, is a Professor at UNC Greensboro School of Dance, where she pioneers leadership in various aspects of the performing arts, teacher education, somatics, creative practice, and dance wellness. With a focus on inspiring personal growth and leadership potential in dancers, she cultivates pedagogical, creative, and research initiatives. At UNCG, Teresa collaborates with students on impactful research and challenges them to innovate in choreography, artistry, social and environmental justice, and culturally relevant lesson planning. She also fosters a safe and empowering environment for students through mentoring, encouraging them to deepen their understanding of their potential as artists, educators, and lifelong learners and leaders. Teresa’s leadership extends beyond the classroom. She organizes events like Community Dance Day, which fosters collaboration among high school students, teachers, and university educators and students. Additionally, she plays a pivotal role in curriculum development at UNCG, ensuring its relevance and currency. Notably, she introduced a Language of Dance Foundations certification at the graduate level. Before arriving at UNCG, Teresa taught at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles for 15 years. During her time there, she orchestrated a collaborative dance performance about clean water and environmental concerns, involving her university dancers and a local community college. Teresa’s mentorship transcends academia, as she supports teachers worldwide and unites diverse choreographic and teaching approaches in her publications. She has choreographed over 40 dances and authored a book titled “Leaping into Dance Literacy through the Language of Dance,” along with over 15 articles and book chapters on dance, approaches to dance training, and dance pedagogy. Her extensive training includes certification in Cortical Field Re-education, Franklin Method, Language of Dance teacher training, Labanotation certification, Pilates, and Gyrotonic. Teresa’s expertise also spans various dance techniques, from Wigman, Holm, Limon, Hawkins to Javanese dance, which she studied intensively as a darmasiswa scholar at Institute Seni Indonesia and nDalem Pujokusuman in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia.
Kristin Taylor Duncan is a native of Durham, NC. She is a BFA graduate of the UNC
School of the Arts. Mrs. Duncan has trained at Jacob’s Pillow, and on scholarship at the
Lou Conte Dance Studios in Chicago. In her early childhood years she danced with
Collage African Dance Company and at Dance Arts Unlimited. In New York, she
apprenticed with Urban Bush Women, and worked with choreographers Nathan Trice,
Bridget Moore, Christal Brown, Shani Collins, Ayo Jackson and Sidra Bell. Kristin has
performed with Dr. Kariamu Welsh and Nnenna Freelon in the Clothesline Muse, cellist
and vocalist Shana Tucker, Dr. Andrea E. Woods Valdez, Mexico City-based Tania
Perez-Salas Compania de Danza, Juel Lane, Gaspard Louis, nosi DANCE theatre, as
well as created and performed works with Yuxtadanza Compania de Danza of
Venezuela.
Kristin performed with Helen Simoneau for the DANCE X Tour traveling to Montreal,
Tokyo and Busan, South Korea. She has taught for the UNCSA’s preparatory program,
the Festival of North Carolina Dance, Slippery Rock and also as a guest teacher at
Durham School of the Arts and Tri-Cities Performing Arts School in Atlanta, GA.
For two seasons Kristin joined the Community Choral Project at UNC Chapel Hill as the
High School choreographer. She has also worked with the Glenwood Elementary award
winning 5TH grade Show Choir. Kristin has choreographed works for the elementary
students participating in Evening to Shine presented by Durham Public Schools
performed at the Durham Performing Arts Center.
Kristin has worked with choreographer Jasmine Powell performing in Approximation of a
Woman and in the “Problem PSA” music video by music vocalist Kwanza Jones. She
has participated in the “Feedback: The Institution for Performance” program hosted and
directed by Carolina Performing Arts. Through Carolina Performing Arts she has
performed with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company as a community performer in the
work, “What Problem”.
Mrs. Duncan is a proud recipient of the Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artist Grant and
the Artists Support Grant. Since the founding days of her company KT COLLECTIVE
Dance Company, she has been commissioned to create works by Helen Simoneau,
American Dance Festival, NC Museum of Art, the Nasher Museum, NC Museum of
History, Myra Weiss of Proxemic Media and North Carolina Central University. KT
COLLECTIVE has performed at the Dumbo Dance Festival, the Richmond Dance
Festival and most recently had the honor of performing at the Carolina Theatre for the
Confronting Change celebration.
Kristin is the Dance Director at Riverside High School as well as the liaison for the
CAPS program. In addition, Mrs. Duncan teaches at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill and
in the Duke Dance Program.
Aubrey Ludlow is a dancer, choreographer, and creative originally from Visalia, CA. During her time in Fresno, CA, her student-choreography and performance represented Fresno City College at the American College Dance Association in 2019 and was a company dancer for Fresno Dance Collective for their 2017-2018 season. She graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts from San Jose State University in 2022 where she worked under Heather Cooper, Raphael Boumaila, Camille A. Brown, Doug Varone, and Mike Esperanza. In 2022, she was on the Emerging Choreograghers Forum with Mark Foehringer Dance Project, where she performed a solo-work at Dancing In The Park in San Franscico, CA. Her most recent work was an evening length fundraiser, Hollowed Ground, for her Phase Two School with the Cageless Birds in April of 2023. After being Dance Project’s School of Operations Intern in 2023, she now looks with eager anticipation at the opportunity to return but this time under the gift of choreography and collaboration on the Embark Track as an Artist in Residence in the 2024 cohort.
Christina McKinney is an interdisciplinary artist who combines her passion for movement with media. She creates a kinesthetic connection between art forms by exploring dance through mediums such as film and photography. Her work is inspired by the question: How can one experience dance?
Christina was raised in Memphis, TN, but currently resides in Durham, NC, where she works as the Graphic Designer and Marketing Associate for the American Dance Festival. She received a BFA from the University of Memphis—along with the Creative Achievement Award for her research in dance and photography—and an MFA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University. At TWU, Christina served as the Digital Media Coordinator and a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Division of Dance while researching choreographies of dance, filmmaking, and multimedia performance.
Christina’s choreography and media work has been featured in performances on both stage and screen at COCO Dance Festival (Trinidad and Tobago), DancingStrong Movement Lab (UK), the American College Dance Association (MS & TN), Texas Dance Improvisation Festival, the University of Memphis, Texas Woman’s University, and Julien Baker’s “Appointments” music video (2017).
Alyssa Noble is a Dance Artist, Community Builder and Marketing Consultant in Durham, NC. She earned degrees in dance and journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, then moved to NC in late 2011. As an NC resident, Alyssa has had the pleasure of working collaboratively with many local artists including Anna Barker, Monet Noelle Marshall, Allie Pfeffer, Meg Stein, Chris Strauss, and Leah Wilks, and has performed in local restagings of works by Joanna Kotze and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. As co-director of A+A Dance Company, Alyssa produced two evening-length shows (What You Want in 2017 & Don’t Get Any Ideas, Little Lady in 2019), and, as an organizing member of Durham Independent Dance Artists (DIDA) from 2016-2020, Alyssa provided administrative & marketing support to many more! In 2023, she founded A. Noble Creative Solutions, which proudly provides marketing support to small businesses and artists in the Triangle. Alyssa also co-directs and produces RECITAL (@Recital_Durham), a joy-centered variety show series for working artists, held annually in Durham, NC (Upcoming shows on May 24 & 25)!
Jess Shell is originally from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and has called Hillsborough home for over 25 years. She is a choreographer, dancer, teacher, and producer. Her work has recently been described as a “celestial narrative.” She holds an MFA in Choreography from UNCG, and a BA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College. Jess’s performance career has included national and international stages, indoor and outdoor sites, and the occasional circle of sand. Planetary phenomena and somatic experience inform her choreographic process. Her work has been performed in North Carolina, New York, and Italy. Jess teaches choreography, dance composition, technique, improvisation, and somatics/self-care. For over 20 years, Jess has been producing new works for NC choreographers in both proscenium and site-specific settings, and she is the co-director of Tobacco Road Dance Productions. Jess is also a Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist and brings her extensive anatomical knowledge to her choreographic process.
Dance Project is a non-profit resident organization of the Greensboro Cultural Center, made possible by a significant in-kind contribution from Creative Greensboro, the City of Greensboro’s office for arts & culture.
Dance Project is a non-profit resident organization of the Greensboro Cultural Center, made possible by a significant in-kind contribution from Creative Greensboro, the City of Greensboro’s office for arts & culture.
