PROVIDING A PLATFORM FOR CHOREOGRAPHERS TO PRESENT THEIR WORK ON THE MAJESTIC DETROIT FILM THEATRE STAGE, DCF-Detroit’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 DCF AUDIENCES ALIKE. FROM AMONG THE DIVERSE BODY OF WORKS SUBMITTED BY OUR APPLICANTS, PIECES HAVE BEEN THOUGHTFULLY SELECTED TO SHOWCASE AN INCLUSIVE REPRESENTATION OF LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL TALENT.

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Friday 7:00pm

  1. Andi Salazar

  2. Barbara Selinger

  3. Thayer Jonutz

  4. Sarah Zehnder

  5. Lila Hodgin

  6. Carolyn Pampalone Rabbers

  7. Laura Blaufuss

  8. Kara Brems and Jasmine Mejia

  9. Kaley Pruitt

  10. Persi Mey

  11. Kayla Wiese

  12. Stephen Hill

Saturday 5:00pm

  1. Mike Esperanza

  2. Katie Hazard

  3. Ashley L. Tate

  4. Malaak Aburahmeh

  5. Lachan Niedbala

  6. Andi Salazar

Read more about our DCF DETROIT Choreographers Showcase 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.

Kaley Pruitt Dance

Kaley Pruitt is a performer, choreographer, and professor at SUNY Brockport. She earned her MFA from UW Milwaukee and BFA from Florida State University, and founded Kaley Pruitt Dance in New York City in 2014, creating more than 35 works.

Her choreography has been commissioned by Repertory Dance Theatre, Wasatch Contemporary Dance, Fem Dance, Idaho Dance Theatre, Society for New Music, Simantikos Dance Chicago, and Illinois State University, among others. Her work has been presented at festivals and venues across the country, including ACDA Nationals, Rochester Fringe Festival, Austin Dance Festival, MADCO Dare to Dance Festival, Dixon Place, and Movement Research. In 2026, she received a Community Arts Grant supporting a community workshop series in partnership with the Henrietta Public Library.

CPR Dance: Inhale Movement

CPR Dance: Inhale Movement is a nonprofit dance company based in Southwest Michigan focused on access to professional contemporary dance while fostering community connection through performance, teaching, and collaboration. Founded on the principle of movement as essential as breath, the company blends dance, wellness, mindfulness and justice that press into reflective evaluative works.

Carolyn Pampalone Rabbers is an Instructional Assistant Professor in Dance at Texas A&M and the Executive Artistic Director of CPR Dance: Inhale Movement. She holds an MFA from the University of the Arts and a BFA as a Presidential Scholar from Western Michigan University. Carolyn has performed nationally and internationally with multiple companies and Celebrity Cruises. Her choreography has been featured at Small Plates Dance Festival, RAD Fest, Dance City Festival, Grand Rapids Ballet, Art Prize, and as a Maggie Allesee Choreography Competition Finalist. She choreographed Chase Your Dreams for Texas A&M’s Virtual Production Institute with Academy Award-nominated director Brandon Oldenburg and Limbert Fabian, as well as THAW with Lynn Vartan, Stewart Ziff, and Michael Bruner. Carolyn is certified in ABT NTC Level VII, Graham Technique, PBT, PCT, Pilates, Reiki, Yoga.

Lila Hodgin

Originally from Metro-Detroit, Michigan, Lila Hodgin (she/her) is a Senior at Indiana University, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance, Bachelor of Arts in Biology, and a minor in Chemistry. Her dedication and excellence in dance have been recognized with various scholarships and awards. Through programs such as Eisenhower Dance Detroit, Doug Varone and Dancers, Carmel Dance Festival, Dance Italia, and Dance City Festival, she has had the opportunity to perform works by acclaimed choreographers. She has choreographed for the Junior Choreographic Performance Project (2024), the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra (2026), collaborated with IU Jacobs Doctoral student Xinyuan Deng for Whispers in Motion (2024, 2025), and directed & choreographed “Not Now, Not Never”: An Independent Project (2026). Ms. Hodgin is a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher and has taught classes in Yoga, as well as Contemporary, Ballet, and partnering at Interlochen Arts Camp and dance studios throughout the Metro-Detroit area.  

H2 Dance Company

Kara Madden Brems, Assistant Professor of Dance at Hope College, has danced professionally with Ohio Contemporary Ballet in Cleveland, Ohio; SLATE Contemporary Dance Company in Shanghai, China; and Dance In The Annex in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Kara performed work by Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Alwin Nikolais, Shapiro and Smith, Nacho Duato, and Darrell Grand Moultrie, among others. Kara’s choreography has been featured on concert and competition stages and in international film festivals. She believes in the power of dance to build community, engender empathy, and advocate for social justice.

Jasmine Mejia is an NYC native, choreographer, and teaching artist. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance and Co-Director of H2 Dance Company at Hope College. Jasmine is a recipient of ACDA’s ALVA Award for Choreographic Excellence (2024) and a Towsley Research Scholars Fellow (2024-2028). Her choreography has been featured off-Broadway and in festivals, residencies, and venues nationwide. Her dance films have also been screened in various film festivals. Jasmine performed internationally as a company member of Von Howard Project, MADArt Creative, LMproject, and Jamal Jackson Dance Company. Jasmine received her MFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a BFA in Dance and Choreography from VCU.

Vitality [The Company]

Vitality [The Company] is a Colorado-based contemporary fusion dance company directed by Katie Hazard. Since its founding in 2023, the company has produced four original evening-length and repertory works VITALIZE, VITALIZED, VIM, and VIM VOL. 2 featuring physically driven movement and emotionally resonant storytelling.

The company has presented work at regional and national festivals including the DUMBO Dance Festival, Austin Dance Festival, Versatility Dance Festival, and International Women's Day Festival, and has received recognition at the Red Rocks Dance Festival. Beyond performance, Vitality emphasizes collaboration and dancer development through its Co-Labs, providing opportunities for artists to expand their technique, artistry, and creative voice.

Zehnder Dance

Sarah Zehnder is a contemporary dance artist based in Massachusetts. Through Zehnder Dance, her choreographic research is rooted in feminism, exploring power dynamics, socio-political systems, gender stereotypes, and the amplification of women's stories. For over 15 years, her work has been presented nationally and internationally at venues including Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Ailey Citigroup Theatre, Dixon Place, 92nd Y, Triskelion Arts, and the Center for Performance Research.

Zehnder received a Research Fellowship through the Jacob's Pillow College Partnership Program (2023–2024) and has been a guest teaching artist at Jacob's Pillow, Gibney Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, and Dance New Amsterdam. She has also taught and choreographed at colleges and universities across the United States.

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 in the Department of Africana Studies, and the founder and artistic director of Ashleyliane Dance Company (ADC). She is also the founder of the UNC Charlotte To The Beat Y’all Hip Hop Symposium and serves as Vice-President of Communications for the North Carolina chapter of the National Dance Education Organization. 

Her work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Mecklenburg County Arts and Sciences Council, Trillium Arts, UNC Charlotte, and the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission. She has taught as an adjunct professor of dance at Saint Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis, Webster University, and Southeast Missouri State University, and previously chaired the dance department at Grand Center Arts Academy. Tate’s current research centers on how African diasporic dance education, practice, and performance function as pathways for social justice, and she has presented this work at national and international conferences.

Thayer Jonutz

Jonutz performed as a fulltime company member with Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) before moving to Michigan, immersing himself in both historical and contemporary works. He worked with notable choreographers, Douglass Dunn, Zvi Gotheiner, Daniel Nagrin, Bill Evans, Scott Rink, and Susan Hadley.   Thayer has guest performed and collaborated with many companies during his time in Michigan, and has co-founded three professional dance companies which have served as building blocks to his current ventures. 

Thayer is a comprehensively trained McEntire Pilates instructor and has worked with a fascinating range of clients.  Thayer earned his BA in Modern Dance from BYU in 2003, and went on to accomplish an MFA in Performance and Choreography from the University of Michigan in 2009. Wanting to become better equipped for lifelong caregiving for his Autistic twin boys, Thayer graduated with an Oakland University Accelerated Nursing Degree December of 2022.  

His current creative process on the solo concert Hammer and Nail has pushed Thayer outside the typical modern dance aesthetic and has merged acting, vocalization, sound engineering and integrative props. He was selected by Oakland University to be the first SMTD President’s Colloquium recipient, where Jonutz performed his research in December 2023.  

APulso Dance Project

Andi is a Chilean choreographer, dance educator, performer, and sociologist with a multifaceted career. She received her BA in Sociology at the Catholic University of Chile, then continued to earn an MFA in Dance and Choreography from Mills College in Oakland, CA, and most recently graduated with a Master’s degree in dance education from NYU: Teaching Dance in the Professions: ABT Pedagogy.

Since moving to the US, she has performed for choreographers such as Joe Landini and Molissa Fenley, while showcasing her work with “APulso DP" at many festivals and venues around the country. She has also taught at Alonzo King Lines Ballet and American Ballet Theater as a teaching artist. Since relocating to the Midwest from NYC, she has taught at the UofM Dance Department, WMU Dance,  Alma College, Grand Rapids Ballet, EMU, and GVSU Dance. 

Kayla Wise (MRDC)

Kayla Wiese is a current student at Western Michigan University, pursuing a BFA in Dance. During her time at WMU thus far, she has had opportunities to train with various artists, while outside of her training at school, she has trained with companies such as, BODYTRAFFIC, Eisenhower Dance Detroit, Cincinnati Ballet, and Carolina Ballet. Kayla is also in her second season with Movement Reservoir Dance Company, a contemporary dance company based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she is dancing and choreographing for the company. Kayla is also the Director of Marketing and Outreach for Movement Reservoir Dance Company. Kayla is also a dance teacher, where she teaches children and adults all styles of dance.

Riddles Three

Persi Mey is a choreographer, wearable art designer, and a performer with an interdisciplinary style focused on grounded, athletic movement. They grew up in the metro Detroit area, finished high school at the Brockus Conservatory in California, studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and got their BFA in Contemporary Dance from Indiana University. They performed with City in Motion Dance Theater and Tristian Griffin Dance Company, then moved to Houston where they became an ensemble member of Urban Souls Dance Company. Persi has also performed in productions with Houston Grand Opera, Meow Wolf, Sonkissd Dance Concepts, Rococo Productions, Rivkah French Choreography, and Jordan Fuchs and Melissa Sanderson.

Persi is in their third season as a resident artist at the Houston Metropolitan Dance Center. It was through this residency that they were able to found their company, Riddles Three, in 2024. The company has since performed Persi’s work in festivals and showcases such as Dance Source Houston's Barnstorm, Social Movement's Dance Hunger Action, Brazos at Texas A&M, Artists For People, and Artists For Hope.

Malaak Aburahmeh

I’m Malaak Aburahmeh, from Dearborn Heights, MI, I’m a fourth year BFA dance major and English Minor at Wayne State University with a full ride talent scholarship. I have worked with professors Dr. Ras Mikey Courtney, Lisa Wilmot, Hannah Anderson, Jessica Thomas, Karen Prall, and Biba Bell. I have had the opportunity to perform in guest artist works Ascending by Crystal Frazier, Chroma by Kylie Vinitski, and At The End by Baye & Asa. With my peer, Nina, we created a duet titled, Peace Within Each Other which was selected to perform at the 2024 American College Dance Festival and also received a “Copperfoot” Choreography Award from the Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance. My new work “Reality of this World” created 2025-26 and was performed at ACDA in Washington DC and given a WOW choreography award. 

Movement Reservoir Dance Company

Movement Reservoir exists to provide a creative outlet for dance artists, to help build a dance community that supports artists in their endeavors, and to increase opportunities for the Kalamazoo community and beyond to experience dance from multiple voices.

Lachan Niedbala is a dancer, choreographer, and educator based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Since achieving her Bachelor of Arts from Hope College, she has worked with many companies, and has had her work selected as a Maggie Allesee Competition finalist in 2024. She founded MRDC in 2022 in order to continue her choreographic work and help build community in the Michigan dance scene. She directed the Youth Performance Ensemble at Wellspring for almost five years, has taught at various masterclasses, serves as the Director of Operations for West Michigan Dance Festival which she Co-Founded in 2024, is a board member for Dance Playhouse, and is a graduate student at Jacksonville University to achieve her MFA in dance. 

The ChoreoJoey Project

Founded in 2014, the ChoreoJoey Project is an arts collective from New York City committed to the preservation and use of jazz and West African dance in harmony with poetry and storytelling. Their ballets have been presented at dance festivals in Detroit, Miami and across the U.S.

Stephen Hill is the founding artistic director from Harlem. He earned a Dance B.A. from Lehman College and trained at Peridance, Cumbe, & Ailey. He’s previously danced for ModArts Dance Collective, Forces Of Nature Dance Theater, Sesame Carnival Flyers, and Earl Mosley Diversity of Dance. 

Detroit Dance Collective

Abraham Texidor and Norberto Collazo, co-founders of NA2 Dance Theater Corp., are visionary choreographers and artists dedicated to pushing boundaries in movement and performance. Based in Puerto Rico, they bring a multidisciplinary approach to their work, drawing from backgrounds in dance, theater, psychology, and film. Both Texidor and Collazo hold MFAs from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and serve as professors, offering composition, contemporary dance, classical technique, and movement for actors at the college level. Their commitment to using the body as a tool for communication and expression extends to their teaching, embodying NA2 Dance Theater's ethos of innovation and collaboration within the vibrant cultural landscape of Puerto Rico.

CHOREOGRAPHERS SHOWCASE MEMORIES

DCF FESTIVAL EXCHANGE PROGRAM

This unique initiative provides all presenters in DCF’s annual Choreographers Showcase the opportunity to be considered for an invitation to perform again at participating partner festivals.

CHOREOGRAPHERS SHOWCASE FESTIVAL EXCHANGE OPPORTUNITIES:

  • Dance City Festival New York Best Choreographer Award: One choreographer who presents their work at the 2026 Dance City Festival New York Choreographers Showcase will be selected to return and perform at the DCF Detroit 2027 Dance and Celebration program.

  • Dance City Festival Chicago Best Choreographer Award: One choreographer who presents their work at the 2026 Dance City Festival Chicago Choreographers Showcase will be selected to return and perform at the DCF Detroit 2027 Dance and Celebration program.

  • Dance City Festival Detroit Best Choreographer Award: One choreographer who presents their work at the 2026 Dance City Festival Detroit Choreographers Showcase will be selected to return and perform at the DCF Detroit 2027 Dance and Celebration program.

  • National Exchange Award: DCF and ATLAS Contemporary Dance Congress have kick-started a new partnership to expand our exchange efforts. One choreographer who presents their work at the 2026 Dance City Festival Detroit Choreographers Showcase will be selected for the opportunity to perform at the 2027 ATLAS in Puerto Rico.

  • International Exchange Standout Choreographer Award: DCF and ArtsinTank Dance Festival have kick-started a new partnership to expand our exchange efforts. One choreographer who presents their work at the 2026 Dance City Festival Detroit Choreographers Showcase will be selected for the opportunity to perform at the 2027 ArtsinTank Dance Festival in Korea.

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