PROVIDING A PLATFORM FOR CHOREOGRAPHERS TO PRESENT THEIR WORK ON THE DIXON PLACE STAGE, DCF-NEW YORK’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 DCFNY AUDIENCES ALIKE. FROM AMONG THE DIVERSE BODY OF WORKS SUBMITTED BY OUR APPLICANTS, PIECES HAVE BEEN THOUGHTFULLY SELECTED TO SHOWCASE AN INCLUSIVE REPRESENTATION OF NEW YORK LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL TALENT.
READ ABOUT OUR 2026 ARTISTS
Mike Esperanza is a multifaceted creative force, celebrated for his transformative contributions to the world of dance and choreography. With an innate ability to merge contemporary aesthetics with authentic storytelling, Mike has captivated audiences worldwide. His journey began in Los Angeles and is currently in New York City, where he honed his craft, drawing inspiration from urban culture and the human experience. As an accomplished dancer, choreographer and artistic director, Mike has choreographed for renowned educational programs and companies such as WhimW’him, LACDC, Urbanity, Dark Circles Contemporary Dance, leaving an indelible mark on the dance landscape. His work transcends boundaries, evoking emotion, and pushing artistic boundaries. Mike’s work has been described as “bold, athletic movement and theatricality – the latter clearly the coming together of Esperanza’s many talents – the company epitomizes the dance of the new millennium: shape-shifting, vernacular-blending with a prescient focus on the brave new world in which we live.” ~ Jessica Abrams, Explore Dance.
James Morrow and Megan Thompson are co-directors of Well Seasoned Works and dance professors at Old Dominion University. Well Seasoned Works creates performance opportunities for experienced dancers and celebrates the depth and vitality that come with time in the field. Morrow, a Chicago native, is founder and artistic director of James Morrow/The Movement. Thompson is co-founder and artistic director of the Jen Stone & Megan Thompson Dance Project. Their collaboration in Mapping, choreographed by Mike Esperanza, reflects on connection, memory, and how shared experience shapes the spaces between us.
Will Brighton is a dancer, choreographer, and writer based in St. Louis, MO. He grew up in Ann Arbor, MI and graduated summa cum laude from Western Michigan University with a B.F.A. in Dance and a B.A. in English. While at WMU, Will performed works by Yin Yue, Christian Denice, BAIRA, George Balanchine, Paul Taylor, Antony Tudor, and others, and performed alongside Peridance Contemporary Dance Company. Will is currently in his sixth season with Saint Louis Dance Theatre, where he has performed repertory by Jiří Kylián, Johan Inger, Sidra Bell, Omar Román de Jesús, Norbert de la Cruz III, Joshua Peugh, and more. He has also performed as a guest artist with Saint Louis Ballet and MADCO, as well as in collaborations with Jazz St. Louis, the Pulitzer Arts Museum, and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Will was named an Emerging Choreographer by Young Dancers Initiative in 2020 and by Eisenhower Dance Detroit’s NewDANCEfest in 2021. His work has been commissioned by Resilience Dance Company and Space Station Dance Residency, and presented at festivals including the Saint Louis Contemporary Dance Festival, MADCO’s Dare to Dance Festival, Modern Night at the Gem, and RADFest. His writing credits include contributions for Saint Louis Dance HQ and short plays commissioned by Queer Theatre Kalamazoo and the Kalamazoo Short Play Festival.
Vitality [The Company] is a Colorado-based contemporary fusion dance company under the direction of Katie Hazard, dedicated to dynamic performance, collaboration, and dancer development. Since its founding in 2023, the company has produced four original evening-length and repertory stage works—VITALIZE, VITALIZED, VIM, and VIM VOL. 2—showcasing physically driven movement and emotionally resonant storytelling.
The company’s work has been presented at numerous regional and national festivals, including the DUMBO Dance Festival, Austin Dance Festival, Versatility Dance Festival, and the International Women’s Day Festival, and has received recognition at the Red Rocks Dance Festival.
In addition to performance, Vitality [The Company] prioritizes community engagement and professional growth through its Co-Labs, which provide collaborative training opportunities for dancers to expand their technique, artistry, and creative voice.
Scription is a contemporary dance company directed by Matt Haskett that aims to script narrative into motion. We strive to create opportunities for dancers to tap into their theatrical instincts in work that always seeks to tell a story. Scription values world building, character development, and dramatic tension all told through a contemporary blend of movement. With our first season in the works, we would love for you to be a part of it!
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.
MoJo Co.Lab is a Cleveland-based contemporary-theatre movement project, founded in 2021 and directed by awarded and nationally recognized choreographer and inclusivity advocate, Morgan Joanne Grube. Meaning magic charm, magic power, or spell, “MoJo” represents the vision, purpose, and commitment to recognizing that movement is created by the individual and that every artist has a profoundly unique and important voice to share. Meaning a community collecting to connect, collaborate, and share conversations as a company, “Co.” represents the vision, purpose, and commitment to featuring and honoring all artists within the creative space as part of the creative process. Together, with the belief that inclusion leads to creation and innovation, MoJo Co.Lab’s mission is to create space for all creators and those who wish to explore and share their stories by providing collaborative choreographic spaces, performances, creative workshops, and classes reflective of the unique identities of the community within it. MoJo Co.Lab’s focus of contemporary dance is intended to expand and breathe through various art forms anywhere that creativity and community happens.
SARAH ZEHNDER (she/her) is a contemporary dance artist based in Massachusetts. Her choreographic research with her company, Zehnder Dance, is rooted in feminism. Zehnder Dance’s choreographic themes often address and challenge power dynamics, socio-political systems and structures, and gender stereotypes, with a focus on the amplification of women's stories. For over 15 years, Zehnder’s choreographic work has been presented nationally and internationally. Her work has been presented at Dixon Place, Ailey Citigroup Theatre, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, Gowanus Arts, Triskelion Arts, 92nd Y, Greenspace, the Center for Performance Research (CPR), and Florence (Italy) Summer Dance. Zehnder has received numerous grants and awards, including a Research Fellowship through the Jacob's Pillow College Partnership Program from 2023-2024. Furthermore, she has been a Guest Teaching Artist at Dance New Amsterdam, Gibney Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, and Jacob’s Pillow, as well as taught and set choreographic works at numerous colleges and universities from New York to California.
A dancer and choreographer based out of Miami,FL. Angelina graduated from Miami Dance collective in 2020 where she was trained both commercially and classically. After focusing on composition and choreographic opportunities at her studio she was awarded the prestigious National YoungArts Foundation Merit Award in Choreography. She then pursued her training career at SUNY Purchase. She was soon invited to tour with conventions Adrenaline and Revive dance. She has worked with choreographers Jenn Freeman, Peter Chu, and Matt Luck to name a few. She has recently showcased her work Open Doors North America 2024, was named DDCF 2024 Rising Choreographer, and a finalist for The 2025 Dance Educators Collective in Nashville.
A mover, maker, researcher and educator, Gina Laurenzi graduated from the University of WI - Milwaukee where she earned her MFA in dance. With roots in jazz dance and contemporary ballet, Laurenzi’s professional dance career began in Chicago. In Milwaukee, Laurenzi’s performance career expanded as a contemporary company dancer with Danceworks Performance MKE, Hyperlocal and Wild Space Dance Company. In 2015, Gina created the Gina Laurenzi Dance Project to present and develop her own choreographic ideas alongside a collective of artist collaborators. Originally from Southeast Wisconsin, Gina was previously a Co-artistic Director at Danceworks and dance lecturer at the University of WI - Milwaukee. Gina aims to craft curious and dynamic interdisciplinary works of dance that spark wonder, and invite reflection. A passion for scuba diving and a lover of nature, Gina’s recent choreographic work explores awe and the human impact on the planet through the medium of dance. Currently residing in Texas, Laurenzi continues her research as an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Kaley Pruitt is a performer, choreographer, and Professor at SUNY Brockport. She received her MFA from UW Milwaukee and BFA from Florida State. Pruitt founded her company in 2014 in NYC and has created over 35 works. Commissions: Repertory Dance Theatre, Wasatch Contemporary Dance, Fem Dance, Idaho Dance Theatre, Steffi Nossen Dance, Society for New Music, Simantikos Dance Chicago, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and Illinois State University. Select presentations: NYS DanceForce, Terpsichore Collective, St. Lois Contemporary Dance Festival /Resilience Dance, Green Space, MADCO Dare to Dance, Rochester Fringe, Austin Dance Festival, ACDA Nationals, Mark DeGarmo, Milwaukee Fringel, UW Milwaukee, Dixon Place, Manhattan Movement & Arts, Triskelion, Chez Bushwick CPR, Built on Stilts, Secret Theater, Ketchum Arts Commission, and Movement Research. Pruitt received the Community Arts Grant from Genesee Valley Council on the Arts to implement a community building workshop series in partnership with the Henreitta Public Library in 2026. Pruitt has presented her research in interactive performance at the NDEO annual conference in 2024. Pruitt’s work was showcased at the ACDA’s National Conference in Long Beach, California in 2023, and she is a past winner of Repertory Dance Theatre’s national choreographic competition Regalia in 2021.
Alison Cook Beatty Dance, founded in 2012 by choreographer Alison Cook-Beatty, is a New York City–based modern dance company dedicated to creating emotionally resonant, human-centered work. Cook-Beatty is a graduate of The Boston Conservatory of Music, where she trained in classical and contemporary modern dance traditions that continue to shape her artistic voice. Her choreography blends expressive lyricism, theatricality, and physical intensity, exploring themes of memory, resilience, connection, and the human condition.
Cook-Beatty has been commissioned by The Joffrey Ballet School, The Ailey School, Marymount Manhattan College, The Boston Conservatory, BalletNext, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, and others. The company has toured nationally, performing at The Buckman Performing Arts Center in Tennessee and throughout MA, VT, CT, NJ, Washington D.C., RI, and CA. ACBD has also been presented at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, Windhover Performing Arts Center, the Hudson Valley Dance Festival, and DUMBO Dance Festival. The company is known for cross-disciplinary collaborations and a strong commitment to community engagement and educational outreach.
Thryn Saxon is the Artistic Director of SAXYN Dance Works, a dance-theater company based in NYC dedicated to multi-disciplinary collaborations centering women and their stories. Her work has been supported by residencies at The Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Croft, The Dragon’s Egg, Windhover Performing Arts Center, Peaceable Barn, Homeport Art House and The Moss Center in Miami, FL. Thryn’s work has been performed at venues such as The Moss Center, Triskelion Arts, 92Y, Arts on Site, RADFest, The Perez Art Museum, Windhover Performing Art Center, Abron’s Arts Center, and Kingsland Wild Flowers. Commissions of her work include senior solos at Ailey and Skidmore college as well as group pieces at Marymount Manhattan and Miami Arts Charter High School. Thryn has professional performance credits with Kate Weare Company, Sleep No More, Helene Simoneau Danse and Doug Varone and Dancers. She also acts as co-director with her mother Dale Andree of Homeport Art House, a rural dance residency in mid-coast Maine dedicated to art, community, and the environment. She also has extensive teaching experience at studios and universities including SUNY Purchase College, NYU, George Mason University, Gibney Dance Center, Peridance Capezio Center, Connecticut College, and Miami Arts
Charter High School.
Jack earned his BFA in Dance from the University of Michigan, where his capstone project, Rhapsody, was selected for presentation at the 2023 American College Dance Association (ACDA) National Festival at CSU Long Beach. He has performed in works by artists including Shannon Gillen, Jessica Fogel, Jillian Hopper, Matty Mahoski, Nicole Reehorst, Leah O’Donnell, and J’Sun Howard. Jack is currently a company member with Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre, BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance, and Matthew Westerby Company. He actively freelances in both concert dance and theater. His stage work includes regional performances with The Encore Musical Theatre Company in Dexter, Michigan, and other theaters across the Midwest.
Shaun Boyle D’Arcy is a Washington, D.C.-based dance artist and tenured Associate Professor in the School of Dance at George Mason University. Her work integrates choreography, performance, and pedagogy, with a research focus at the intersection of ballet and modern/postmodern practices. D’Arcy holds an MFA in Dance from George Mason University, an MA with Distinction in Choreography from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance (London), and a BFA in Dance with Honors (summa cum laude) from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
As a performer, D’Arcy danced full-time with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (NYC), performing works by Benoit-Swan Pouffer, Jodie Gates, Edwaard Liang, Nicolo Fonte, and Emily Molnar. She also performed principal, soloist, and corps roles with BalletMet in classical and contemporary repertoire. Additional performance credits include David Dorfman Dance, Dancenow/NYC, Bard SummerScape, and projects with Tino Sehgal at Tate Modern and the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay.
D’Arcy’s choreography has been widely presented nationally and internationally, including American College Dance Association regional and national conferences, with gala and National Festival selections. Commissions and presentations include George Mason University, University of South Carolina, University of California, Irvine, Northern Ballet School (UK), Dance City (UK), The Place (London), ARENA Festival (Germany), GIFT Festival (UK), Italy’s Body Songs Festival and Moving Frames, Harvest Chicago Dance Festival, Breaking Ground Contemporary Dance and Film Festival, and The Dance Gallery Festival among others. She was also selected by Wayne McGregor for Dancelines at the Royal Opera House, a mentorship and creative development initiative.
Motherhood has become a defining lens in D’Arcy’s work, as first realized with her choreography 'War Children' (2022). With collaborator Satu Hummasti, she also presented ‘It Takes a Village: Establishing Dance Ecosystems that Support Working Mothers’ at an international conference in Leeds (2024), exploring equity, leadership, and embodied motherhood in dance.
Her teaching and mentorship span higher education, professional companies, and community contexts. She has taught at George Mason University since 2018, receiving tenure in 2025, and previously held appointments at UC Irvine and the University of Utah. She has been a guest teacher and lecturer at institutions, companies, and festivals across the U.S., U.K., and Europe, including the José Limón Dance Company, Dance Ireland, and Northern School of Contemporary Dance. D’Arcy also leads the Dance for Parkinson’s Disease® program at Mason, integrating community classes, student internships, and interdisciplinary research. Her honors include the Bessie Schönberg Memorial Fellowship, NYU’s J.S. Seidman Award for Excellence in Dance, and multiple institutional grants for creative research, and recognition for academic advancement and service.
Olivia Chesla is a contemporary dance artist and junior at George Mason University where she is pursuing her BFA in dance. Originally from Harleysville PA, Olivia grew up training in ballet and contemporary at Philadelphia Dance Theatre under the direction of Joy Delaney Capponi, where she had many opportunities to work with notable artists including Kiley Dolaway and Gary Jeter -- as well as the opportunity to create work on her peers. More recently, Olivia has supplemented her dance training with intensives such as BigKid Dance, Vim Vigor, and DOVA. In her time at GMU she has had the privilege of performing new works by esteemed choreographers such as Christina Robson, Christopher d’Amboise, and Robert Kleinendorst. Olivia is not only passionate about performing but also exploring movement through improvisation and choreography. She premiered her first fully produced choreographic work, "Disconcerted," this Fall, and is excited to keep creating.
Found Movement Group is a diverse ensemble of movers integrated to form a creative whole. We are the overlooked because of shape, size, race, gender, education (or lack there of), having too much of one style but wanting to train in another, not having enough training, and the list goes on. We are the lost who have found each other.
Found was established in 2006 to fill the absence of hardhitting dance in Nashville. The company's mission is to establish an open community by addressing real life issues through the lens of dance and movement theatre. The company explores the unspoken trials which we all seem to face but no one wants to admit. Our vision is to expose Nashville to choreography that maintains responsibility to social consciousness.
Stacie M. Flood-Popp, in collaboration with the company, creates athletic movement which is an amalgamation of all genres. With a background in visual art, Flood-Popp’s work is constantly presented in a visually stimulating aesthetic. Found provides their spectators an opportunity to dive into a world which is set in nontraditional performance settings, innovative lighting design and intricate costumes all topped off with acrobatic choreography and physical acting.
Bre Covais is a dancer based in Tampa, FL. She is currently pursuing her associate's degree on the dance pathway at Hillsborough College. Pursing dance in college lead to her focus on modern and contemporary dance with maintenance technique in ballet. In 2024 and 2025, she had the opportunity to choreograph two works for the HC Student Choreography Showcase. She has been included in dance films such as the CurArt Agency Dance Film and the Dance Rising Film. Bre has previously been in projects with ATLAS Modern Ballet Company founded and directed by Sarah Walston Phillips. Currently she is a company member with MB Creative Company to continue her dance exploration. Bre admires the process of creation and exploration as she continues to enhance her art.
Adrienne Chan is a contemporary ballet choreographer and dancer based in New York City. Blending the language of contemporary ballet with sociological themes and playful, earnest theatricality, her work investigates dance as a narrative medium. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Adrienne trained at Cleveland City Dance and performed with its pre-professional company, City Ballet of Cleveland. She continued her training at summer intensives with Pacific Northwest Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, and Kaatsbaan. In 2023, she was a summer trainee at Ohio Contemporary Ballet.
Her choreographic work spans concert and theatrical dance, musical theater, and interdisciplinary performance. Recent work includes Romeo & Juliet (2024), a contemporary dance-theater adaptation that she directed and co-choreographed at the Loeb Ex at the American Repertory Theater. Lauded for its emotional depth and formal ambition as the first evening-length narrative dance production at Harvard, the production was described as a “total artwork… blending choreography, storytelling, and design into a profoundly moving whole—like no Shakespeare we’ve seen before” (The Harvard Independent). Her work has also been performed by the Harvard Ballet Company, the Asian American Ballet Project, and the Columbia Ballet Collaborative.
In recognition of her choreographic and academic work, Adrienne has received the E. John Busser Scholarship, the Harvard Office for the Arts’ Radcliffe Doris Cohen Levi Prize for choreography and musical theater, and the Sociology Department’s Albert M. Fulton Prize for her honors thesis on labor, passion, and precarity in the dance industry. She graduated from Harvard University, where she studied Sociology and Theater, Dance, and Media.
Idy Vandepas is a choreographer and dance educator with roots in musical theatre, earning a BFA from New World School of the Arts. She began choreographing for Inside Out Theatre before expanding into dance education in 2014, teaching all levels and currently working at Dancing Plus in Pembroke Pines, FL. Her students have performed her choreography at countless competitions, earning numerous awards and recognitions. In 2021, Idy founded The Âme Project, a dance film company dedicated to movement-driven storytelling, allowing her to further explore her creative voice and merge her passions for choreography, performance, and film.
SFDC BIO: Soul Fusion Dance Company is led by Grenadian-American Dance educator, Dance artist and Temple University Phd candidate: Shaahida Samuel. Soul Fusion dance company members study a range of techniques and partake in rigorous classes in various genres of the African Diaspora at their home studio at Achievement First Brooklyn High Schoo in New York. Dancers have performed for Misty Copeland and will be featured in an upcoming documentary! Dancers have performed internationally in the Dance Grenada conference and have performed at a range of events across the tai-state area.
Follow & Connect with us: IG/Tik Tok @soulfusiondancecompany
First meeting at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, Meagan Ahern (class of 2019) and Georgia Taylor (class of 2020) found a shared passion for composition and dance theater. Together, they like to move and jest. They have presented choreographic works individually across many venues and festivals in NYC since 2019. What started off as collaborative hobby, led them to debut their first work “C*nt” in 2022. In 2025, they presented their second work “what do the weatherman do when you aren’t looking?” in NYC and Orlando, FL. They are working on their third work as a choreographic pair, titled “if only there was another…”.
Cara Marguerite (she/her) is originally from Los Angeles, CA. She holds a Bachelors in Dance from Cal State Fullerton. Most notably she has performed with Sokolow Dance Theatre Ensemble, as a trainee with Jose Limon Institute at the Joyce and 92nd Y, at Judson Church with Natalia Fernandez’s company, and Kanopy Dance in Madison, WI. She has also performed pieces by Dante Pulieo, Brad Beaks, Tadej Brdnk, Yoshito Sakuraba, Stephamie Liapis, and Joshua Estrada-Romero just to name a few.
While choreographing, Cara is interested in dwelling on the beauty of life, keeping childlike curiosities, investigating religious structures, and using dance for social justice.
Alexis Stus is a choreographer, performer, and interdisciplinary artist based in Dallas, TX. Her work lives at the intersection of movement, cognition, and identity, exploring how internal patterns, habits, and interactions shape the way we move through the world. Alexis studied at University of the Arts as a dance major before the school’s unexpected closure. She now attends Southern Methodist University with plans to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mathematics.
Inspired by everything from psychology and gesture to repetition and interruption, Alexis approaches choreography as both an expressive and investigative tool. Her work reflects an ongoing curiosity about the subconscious and how meaning forms through the human experience. She has been choreographing since the age of 15, with work featured in the Agora Artists SEEDS program, Dallas Indie Dance Fest and at the WHITE WAVE SoloDuo Festival in NYC.
DCF NEW YORK MEMORIES
