PROVIDING A PLATFORM FOR CHOREOGRAPHERS TO PRESENT THEIR WORK ON THE HISTORIC RUTH PAGE THEATER STAGE, DCF-CHICAGO’S CHOREOGRAPHERS SHOWCASE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO BRING TOGETHER ARTISTS AND DANCERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD TO SHARE THEIR CURRENT PROJECTS WITH EACH OTHER, AND WITH DCFC AUDIENCES ALIKE. FROM AMONG THE DIVERSE BODY OF WORKS SUBMITTED BY OUR APPLICANTS, PIECES HAVE BEEN THOUGHTFULLY SELECTED TO SHOWCASE AN INCLUSIVE REPRESENTATION OF CHICAGO LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL TALENT.
READ ABOUT OUR 2026 ARTISTS
Well Seasoned Works
Mike Esperanza is a multifaceted choreographer, dancer, and artistic director known for merging contemporary aesthetics with authentic storytelling. Originally from Los Angeles and now based in New York City, he has choreographed for companies including Whim W’Him, LACDC, Urbanity, and Dark Circles Contemporary Dance. His work has been praised for its bold, athletic movement and theatricality.
James Morrow and Megan Thompson are co-directors of Well Seasoned Works and dance professors at Old Dominion University. The company creates performance opportunities for experienced dancers, celebrating the depth and vitality that come with time in the field. Their collaboration Mapping, choreographed by Mike Esperanza, reflects on connection, memory, and how shared experience shapes the spaces between us.
Carmel Catholic Orchesis Dance Company
Kacey Valentine O’Keeffe holds a B.S. in Dance Education with an endorsement in Physical Education for 6th-12th grade curriculum from Illinois State University (2012) and most recently graduated summa cum laude with a M.A. in Dance Education from the University of Northern Colorado. Her thirty years of dance training consisting of jazz, contemporary, lyrical, modern, ballet, hip hop, and acrobatics have all been acquired from Bataille Academie of the Danse, American Dance Festival, Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop, Visceral Dance Center, and Beyond Words Dance Center. Kacey has choreographed and taught jazz, modern, contemporary, hip hop, and lyrical styles at a variety of dance studios, universities, and dance intensives all throughout Illinois. Currently, Kacey stands as the founding Director and sole Dance Instructor for the Dance Program at Carmel Catholic High School since 2013. Carmel’s Dance Program consists of Beginning through Advanced Dance Honors courses, plus Tap, Dance Leadership and the after school repertory class, Orchesis Dance Company Honors.
Over the past ten years, Kacey’s professional performance credits include dancing for Rodriguez Dance Theatre, Meraki Dance Company, Outlet Dance Company, Interweave Dance Theatre (of Boulder, Colorado), and, most recently, the Kate Jablonski Statement. In July of 2022, Kacey performed with The Kate Jablonski Statement in Šibenik, Croatia at the Šibenik Dance Festival.
Andrew Solomon
Andrew Solomon Connecticut College ‘27 started dancing as a freshman at Conn College. Andrew’s work “burning to desire…” was previously chosen by the department to be shown at ACDA (American College Dance Association) New England Conference 2025. This work was then chosen as an alternative for the ACDA national conference. Andrew intends to join a dance company after graduation and pursue graduate studies after gaining a few years of experience.
Madeline Douglas
Madeline Douglas is a Chicago-based dancer and choreographer originally from North Carolina. She graduated summa cum laude from East Carolina University with a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography and a Certificate of Entrepreneurship, where she created and presented award-recognized work including As It Goes On, a finalist at the Washington International Dance Festival. Her training includes Nova Linea, Visceral Dance, Staib Dance Root Theory, and UNCSA’s choreographic residency. She has choreographed and taught professionally in North Carolina, performed with Nova Linea at Dance City Festival Detroit and Midwest Arts Expo, and appeared in Cashavelly Morrison’s music video Meditation Through Gunfire. She is currently an apprentice with Trifecta Dance Collective and is the founder of Alinement Dancewear, a grant-supported dancewear brand.
Movement Reservoir Company
Movement Reservoir is a creative platform dedicated to supporting dance artists, strengthening community, and expanding access to diverse choreographic voices in the Kalamazoo area and beyond. Founded in 2022 by Lachan Niedbala, a Kalamazoo-based dancer, choreographer, and educator, the organization grew from her vision to continue her choreographic work while fostering a collaborative local dance scene. A Hope College graduate, Niedbala has performed and choreographed with companies including CPR Dance: Inhale Movement, Wellspring, and Chamberlain Dance, with work recognized as a 2024 Maggie Allesee Competition finalist and presented nationally and internationally. Alongside her creative work, she is deeply invested in dance education and community-building, having directed Wellspring’s Youth Performance Ensemble, taught masterclasses, co-founded the West Michigan Dance Festival, served on the Dance Playhouse board, and is currently pursuing her MFA in Dance at Jacksonville University.
Dibble Dance
Liz Dibble is a native of San Francisco, CA, where she began her dance training as a scholarship student at the San Francisco Ballet School. She graduated cum laude from Brigham Young University with a BA in Composite Dance: Ballet and Modern emphasis. Liz then continued her studies at the Purchase College Conservatory of Dance, where she received an MFA. Liz continued to perform works by many renowned choreographers. As well as present her choreography at various festivals. Liz is fascinated by abstract narrative, the power of dance to elicit emotion, and the way art connects us to our better selves.
Ashley L. Tate
Ashley L. Tate is a director, choreographer, educator, and performer from Saint Louis, Missouri. She is an assistant professor of dance at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, an affiliate faculty member with the UNC Charlotte Department of Africana Studies, and founder and artistic director of Ashleyliane Dance Company (ADC). Tate received her MFA in Dance from Washington University in St. Louis. In addition to various cities in the state of Missouri, her work has been featured in concerts in New York City, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Chicago, Boulder, Greensboro, and Santa Monica. She has been invited to present her research at several conferences and conventions, including the European Hip Hop Studies Network 2024 Conference in Cork, Ireland. She is a key participant in the nationally recognized No Tears Project, a multidisciplinary festival designed to honor Civil Rights history.
Lily Bella Hammons
Lily Bella Hammons is a dance artist, educator, and emerging choreographer. Originally from Salt Lake City, she earned her BFA in Modern Dance and BS in Business Marketing from the University of Utah, where collaborations with distinguished choreographers in workshop settings deepened her commitment to both performing and creating.
After graduation, Lily began performing as a company member with Whirlwind Dance. She also teaches as a dance prevention specialist with Directions for Youth and Families, crafting an accessible movement space where kids experience dance as support, emotional safety, and self-expression.
Now, Lily explores movement as a means of cultivating connection and creating community. Striving for arts sustainability, she advocates for the arts as a vital part of society. Inspired by time spent outdoors, and a love of reading, she brings a sense of curiosity and wonder to her artistic practice—finding magic in movement and in everyday life.
Jana Bennett
Jana Bennett grew up in Skokie, Illinois, training pre-professionally in ballet, modern, jazz, and musical theater across Chicagoland. A neurodivergent artist with dyslexia, she found dance as a creative refuge and expressive outlet. She earned her BFA in Dance from Texas Christian University as Senior Scholar and a John V. Roach Honors Laureate, then spent eight years performing professionally as a founding member of Cocodaco Dance Project and later served as Interim Artistic Director at Foster Dance Studios. She went on to direct Skunkworks Dance for seven years and has had choreography presented by DanceWorks Chicago, Thodos Dance Chicago, Cocodaco Dance Project, and Ardent Dance Company’s Women in Dance Festival. Her teaching and improvisational methodology has trained dancers who now perform with companies like Gibney, Batsheva, and Hubbard Street, and attend institutions such as Juilliard.
The Initiative
Isaac Knuteson (Perm, Russia) was adopted from Perm and began training at a local competition studio before focusing on ballet and modern. He trained with Madison Ballet and Central Midwest Ballet, and went on to attend intensives with companies including Nashville Ballet, Miami City Ballet (becoming a pre-professional), Oklahoma City Ballet (later a postgraduate student), Milwaukee Ballet, Kanopy Dance, Des Moines Ballet, Point Park, Visceral Dance Chicago, and others. Professionally, he has danced with Water Street Dance Milwaukee, Regenerative Beings, Nova Linea Contemporary Dance, and as a guest artist with Madison Contemporary Dance and New Brese Dance Company, while also performing at events such as APAP, Trifecta Dance Festival, World of Dance Chicago, and Midwest Arts Expo, and recently performing for Coldplay at Camp Randall Stadium. Alongside performing, he works as an assistant for Showstoppers Dance Convention, judges for Fly Dance Competition, and has assisted multiple industry choreographers. His choreography has been recognized by the Industry Dance Awards, presented nationally and internationally, and continues to be commissioned and showcased across the U.S. and abroad.
Baran Dance
Audrey Baran (she/her) is a Filipina-American dance maker, performer, and educator based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and founder/artistic director of Baran Dance. She holds an MFA in Dance from Hollins University and a BA in Dance with a Graduate Certificate in Anti-Racism in Urban Education from UNC Charlotte. Her work focuses on expanding access to contemporary dance through collaborative, multimedia performance and mentorship, and has been described as “a fully human place with honesty, courage and creativity percolating simultaneously.” Baran’s choreography has been presented through programs and festivals including Joffrey Ballet Academy’s Winning Works, Charlotte Ballet’s Innovative: Direct from the LAB, Small Plates Dance Festival, and the North Carolina Dance Festival, among many others. She has received recognition from the Gold Standard Foundation, Mobile Dance Film Festival, and Movies by Movers, and was named a UNC Charlotte Distinguished Alum and a Creative Renewal Fellowship recipient. Alongside her choreographic work, she is a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher and MUNZ FLOOR® coach, integrating movement research, mindfulness, and embodied practice into her artistic work.
Scription Dance Project
Scription Dance Project is a contemporary dance company directed by Matt Haskett that seeks to script narrative into motion. The company creates opportunities for dancers to explore theatrical storytelling through contemporary movement, emphasizing character development, world building, and dramatic tension. As Scription prepares for its inaugural season, the company continues developing original work that blends dance and theater into compelling narrative experiences.
TanzBlack Theatre
Tsiambwom "T" Akuchu is a hip-hop and theatre artist based in Los Angeles, CA. He works as a choreographer and movement director, creating works for concert dance that stage hip-hop and street dance fused with physical theater. His work focuses on the body, creating meaning through character and movement, often focusing on themes such as identity, self, and race. It is often socio-politically driven, exploring narratives that make up the lived experiences of marginalized communities, expressed through cultural products from those communities He has choreographed and performed in shows and festivals across the United States, such as DANCE NOW NYC, SoloDuo, Dumbo Dance Festival, Austin Dance Festival, (de) Color-es Festival and more.
TanzBlack is the collective name for movement based theatrical works conceived, directed, or choreographed by Tsiambwom M. Akuchu. Borrowing it’s name from the German Tanztheater (“dance theatre”) which grew out of German Expressionist dance in Weimar Germany and 1920s Vienna, TanzBlack Theatre or TanzBlack, creates work in that lineage of theater/dance making while focusing on representing movement forms rooted in Black culture. Especially Hip-Hop and Street Dances. TanzBalck aims to reshape contemporary concert dance by introducing new movement forms and choreographic strategies rooted in non-western dance practices to generate profoundly new theatrical experiences.
Deanna Stanton
Deanna Stanton is in her 13th season with Ballet Arkansas. Originally from Clarksville, Maryland, she trained at the Baltimore School for the Arts and earned her BFA in Ballet from the University of Cincinnati – College Conservatory of Music, also dancing as a Trainee with Ballet West. With Ballet Arkansas, she has performed principal and featured roles in works by Balanchine, Arpino, MacMillan, Caniparoli, and more, including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo & Juliet, and The Nutcracker. Alongside performing, she is also a choreographer whose work has been presented nationally at festivals and with companies across the U.S., including two full-length ballets, The Little Mermaid and Cinderella.
Haley Tarling
Haley Tarling is a Chicago-based choreographer, dancer, teacher, and licensed clinician. She holds a BFA in Dance and Psychology from Point Park University and a master’s in Counseling Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Her choreographic work has been presented at Dance Chance, Brighton Dance Festival, Common Ground, Trifecta Dance Festival, and Dance City Festival in Chicago and Detroit, with commissions from companies including Hot Crowd and Simantikos Dance Chicago. She has trained at Orsolina 28 with Humanhood and currently dances with Hot Crowd, collaborating with artists such as Jessica Miller Tomlinson, Jackie Nowicki, and Mark Gonzalez. Her work centers on movement rooted in expansion, authenticity, grit, and storytelling that reflects the complexity of human experience.
Prokop_ Theory Dance
Travis Prokop is an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Houston, holding a B.F.A. from West Texas A&M University and an M.F.A. from Sam Houston State University. With over a decade in higher education, he focuses on jazz, contemporary/modern-based dance, composition, and dance history, encouraging dancers to develop their own movement identity and personal artistic brand. Originally from New Mexico, he has over 30 years of training spanning the U.S. and Italy, and a performance career that includes work with Lone Star Ballet, TEXAS: The Outdoor Musical, and various Houston-based companies, as well as appearances in television, commercials, and music videos. He presents choreography under Prokop_Theory Dance, a collective exploring LGBTQI+ experiences through concert dance, theater, and drag, integrating themes of communication, symbolism, and identity.
DCF Chicago Memories
