This is the room that begets our freedom to govern and control our needs, our desires, our voices to be acknowledged. This is the space that liberates our spirit to unify with our differences. This is the time to be present and allow the molding of the ground with our souls. Being autonomous is to be immune to shame and susceptible to vulnerability.

Become emancipated.

PROGRAM

🔘 grace's illusion // psykle. ii (excerpt) 🔘
Choreographed by Kar'mel Antonyo Wade Small
Performed by Hannah Dolen

Music:
Psychic Attack by Rod Modell // One Beer by MF DOOM // The Trees Are Starting To Have Personality by Nate Mercereau


🔘 floaters 🔘
Choreographed + Performed by Tulia Joy Marshall & Mateo Vidals

Music:
Palo Volador by Slow Meadow // Fireflies by Son Lux // The Middle of the World by Nicholas Britell


🔘 this sharp image cuts through 🔘
Choreographed + Performed by Beatriz Castro
Music:
La Luna y el Toro by El Matador


🔘 Passing 🔘
Choreographed by Terre Dance Collective
Performed by Alyssa Myers & Marina Vianello

Music:
New Life by Yom // Na by Sylvain Rifflet


🔘 until it feels real. 🔘
Choreographed + Performed by Kerime Konur

Music:
7038634357 by Afterall // Madagascar (Remix) by Ferry Corsten // The Strays Dont Sleep by For Blue Skies


🔘 Colors of the Supreme King 🔘
Choreographed
+ Performed by Caleb Patterson & Ragin Smith
Music:
Pienso En Ti by Caser Mejia // Recited poem written by Caleb Patterson


🔘 or•chard 🔘
Choreographed by Kamryn Vaulx
Performed by Alondra Balbuena, Armani D
anielle Moore, Maïa Eugene,
Skye Jackson-Williams, Lamb, Minh Nguyen, Kamryn Vaulx, & Jailyn Phillips-Wiley
Music:
Hound Dog by Big Mama Thorton // Is It Insane and Illusion of Bliss by Alicia Keys
Recited Poem:
To Whom it May Concern by Big Tim (Memphis, TN)

CHOREOGRAPHERS' NOTES

"'At times, our experience with skin, flesh, and bone hinder our comprehension of the spirit...'
Creativity and freedom are synonymous to me. Creativity allows one to become lost through focus and found within experimentation. Freedom allows one to become found within wonderment and lost in expression. grace's illusion // psykle. ii (an excerpt from project:MEMORABILIA) plays on the experience of both as it is a world conceived by the XVIII trump of the Tarot deck, The Moon, with Hannah's connection through this dimension rift. The question of control forms confusion within. The third eye is blocked by the deception of reality."

  • Kar'mel Antonyo Wade Small


"We are exploring the idea of what it is to be on the brink of loss and how that dynamic affects our relationship and ourselves. This work was inspired by our conjoined feelings of drowning in our current environment and seeking solace in one another for peace and comfort."

  • Tulia Joy Marshall & Mateo Vidals


"I'm interested in the idea of speed as a space of decisiveness, particularly, how fast and/or slow can we "reach" something because we believe it will still be there, or how we move because we believe it'll be gone. Interested in the illusion of trying and the illusion of permanence. Some inspiration material is the actual definition of optical illusions. Optical illusions are produced by the refraction (bending) of light as it passes through one substance to another in which the speed of light is significantly different."

  • Beatriz Castro


"Energy exchanges."

  • Robert Rubama of Terre Dance Collective


"It’s never easy to say goodbye to someone...especially when you’ve known them nearly all your life, almost as long as you’ve known yourself. There was a war going on inside of you since the day your heart was broken. A sickness that engulfed your heart, slowly drowning the pain away. I wish we knew then how to help you put the pieces back together. I’ve been learning that losing someone to addiction is so complex- the pain is palpable. Navigating this experience only pains my heart deeper for you, Kayla, for we’ve been given a glimpse into how you were really feeling. Although we are without the mask of trauma that guards the mind within individual experience, I finally understand the magnitude of emotions you endured. People cope with loss and grief in so many different ways, but no one ever tells you it feels a lot like fear. This piece is dedicated to my late best friend Mickayla Davis and to anyone who has ever lost someone they loved to addiction...."

  • Kerime Konur


"Make me the damn villain, I’m already all curled up inside. It’s the weight I carry; The weight that makes me strong. The gray in me is so fogged I can’t tell the hurt from indifference. This is my crisis; I’m squeezed and dripped out of a bottle for your goddamn hamster...I’m probably too young or just too easy to lead astray to have the wisdom to connect the dots that they and me are the same. I mean I must be dumb because being them literally kills me. But yeah, I'd do anything to feel that, dude; I’ve jumped into rivers, I’ve woken up on sidewalks, I’ve let my apartment flood while I was in it because they can swim in air, and I just wanted to feel them again."

  • Caleb Patterson


"This work is a note to self. A journal entry that is written through movement and lived experiences. Exploring what could be said, screamed, or not said at all and just simply felt in the body. How can one get it all of their system? To be present, to meditate on the uncertain? Here's what I'm feeling lately..."

  • Kamryn Vaulx

ARTISTS

KAR'MEL ANTONYO WADE SMALL

Kar’mel Antonyo Wade Small (he/him) is an interdisciplinary and choreographic artist from the South Bronx who has performed works by the likes of Kyle Abraham, Damani Pompey, Sidra Bell, Kevin Wynn, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Kayla Farrish, and Ohad Naharin. After graduating from SUNY Purchase, Kar’mel has been featured in TELFAR TV and HBO’s Random Act of Flyness. He is currently on tour with A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham.

Visit here for more on Kar'mel.

ALONDRA BALBUENA

Alondra Balbuena (she/her) born in New York City raised in Miami, Florida is a freelance dance artist working to deepen her understanding of human connection through performance based movement. She holds a BFA degree from the New World School of the Arts College where she performed works by Robert Battle, Ohad Naharin and Peter London. After receiving her degree, Alondra has performed with the Peter London Global dance company, National water dance projects, and with artist/curator Geovanna Gonzales on her solo exhibition “HOW TO: Oh, look at me” commissioned by Locust projects. Currently she is based in New York City and performs with Adele Myers and Dancers.

BEATRIZ CASTRO

Beatriz Castro (she/they/ella) is a movement artist, born and raised in Costa Rica, currently based in New York City. She received a BFA in Dance and a BA in Business from Marymount Manhattan College where she performed in works by Earl Mosley, Anthony Morigerato, Chase Brock, Tami Stronach, and Sidra Bell. Currently, she is a member of Spark Movement Collective and Verbal Animal. Internationally, she has performed self-choreographed work at the Graciela Moreno Choreographers Festival, the longest-running contemporary dance event in Costa Rica. She has also presented work at Arts On Site, Bridge for Dance, Green Space, Triskelion Arts and Dixon Place. Beatriz has been awarded residencies for the exploration and development of new work through the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, MOtiVE Brooklyn, and Pepatián: Bronx Arts ColLABorative.

HANNAH DOLEN

Hannah Dolen (she/her) is a New York City-based dancer and choreographer from Columbus, Ohio. She studied at Columbus Dance Theatre and received her BS in Dance from Drexel University. Hannah worked with Sidra Bell Dance New York as a fellow and has been fortunate to study with Brendan Fernandez, Miriam Giguere, Blanca Huertas-Agnew, Dara Meredith, Jennifer Morley, Sandra Parks, Olive Prince, and Meredith Rainey, among others. She attended the Bates Dance Festival and the Gibney Summer Study Program and has performed at venues in Philadelphia, Beijing, and San Juan. Hannah is also a certified Pilates instructor.

MAÏA EUGENE

Maïa Eugene (she/her) is a New York City based dancer, teacher, and choreographer. She began her dance training in Westchester, NY at a local competition studio. Maïa received a Bachelors of Arts in Teaching Dance from Marymount Manhattan College, and focused in on her hip-hop training under Deshawn Da Prince as a member of his company Royal Thieves. Maïa has danced and choreographed for artists like Teyana Taylor, and NYC based rapper Princess Nokia. She has worked on ad campaigns for brands like Anthropologie, L'Oréal, NYX Cosmetics, WhatsApp, and Google. Maïa continues to work as a freelance dancer and choreographer throughout NY, and is repped by MSA Agency.

Kerime Konur (she/her) is a performing artist, creative director, collaborator, freelance photographer of dance + dance film maker. She is a serendipitous artist with vigor, an intentional mover, and a creative that strives to embody human experiences in her work and motion. Her movement has impetus, elegance, empowerment, and force that is demonstrated through optimistic, primitive, physical and diverse storytelling, all of which she utilizes in her artistic approach as a creative collaborator and dance documenter. She has performed the works of Jessica Castro, KatieRose McLaughlin, Sidra Bell, Cindy Salgado, Bryan Arias, Charissa Barton, Maleek Washington, Jesse Zaritt, Kevan Allen, Jinah Parker, and KatieRose McLaughlin, to name a few, and has performed and appeared on GMA: Live, the off-Broadway production of SHE: a Choreoplay, BERENIK NYFW, Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Nike, Revlon, BOSE, The Marvelous Mrs.Maisel, The Duece, HBO’s Westworld and Amazon Prime. She has had the privilege to be creative director for artists such as Sidra Bell Dance New York and Stuffed Arts for Judson Church, and film + photograph Loni Landon Dance Projects, The Yale Club NYC, and Cesar Brodermann Photography. She was a performer and collaborator in the New York Times Best of 2021 performance “Roster” choreographed by Kayla Farrish in collaboration with a cast of 5 dancers and live musician Melanie Charles presented by Four/Four and is still working with Kayla Farrish/Descent Structures Arts as a dancer, producer, director and collaborator.

LAMB

Soul music, contemporary dance, and ecofuturism comprise Lamb's artistic vision: where the visceral meets the cerebral; where the natural enacts the synthetic.

The musician, composer, choreographer, and director explores Blackness as the break that might rupture our attachments to Worlds, territories, and Man.

Steeped in the aesthetic, conceptual, and political tradition of modern Black thinkers before her, Lamb's thesis is this: in a world wrought through violence, to salvage some beauty from it is to seek truth within it.

TULIA JOY MARSHALL

Tulia Joy Marshall (she/her) is a Vietnamese dancer and choreographer from New Paltz, New York and seeks to use her choreography as a means of expression and storytelling. She received her training from LaGuardia High School, Manhattan Youth Ballet, and the Hubbard Street Professional Program under the direction of Alexandra Wells. Tulia is a fourth year student at the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase with a double major in Dance (Concentration in Choreography) and Arts Management. Tulia has worked with notable choreographers such as: Rena Butler, Peter Chu, Gregory Lau and has performed works by Norbert De La Cruz, William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Earl Mosley, and Crystal Pite. Her choreography has been presented at Earl Mosley’s Dancing Beyond, Dance Against Cancer, Purchase College, Fort Hamilton High School, Uptown Rising, and was a finalist at New Century Dance Project in Santa Fe, NM. Tulia co-created Ambition Collective in 2021 with Ava Jacobs, a New York based cohort of emerging artists as a creative platform for artists to challenge their ideas and artistry.

ALYSSA MYERS

Alyssa Myers (she/her) graduated from the University of Southern California with her BFA in Dance. She has performed the works of some of the world’s most renowned choreographers such as Crystal Pite, William Forsythe, and Azsure Barton. Her pursuit as a choreographer has led to opportunities creating contemporary work for Utah Metropolitan Ballet as well as multiple pieces for pre-professional schools. She both choreographed and danced for Traverse City Dance Project’s summer season in 2021 and now dances with Terre Dance Collective in NYC. She continues to investigate the social impact that dance initiates by researching hybridity within different dance forms and their relationship to musicality and artistic expression.

MINH NGUYEN

Minh Nguyen (she/her) is a human hailing from Hanoi, Vietnam and transplant of New York looking to connect with other people via movement and visual arts. While training in multi disciplines in various street styles with hope to expand both her physical and creative muscles, she has been drawing a lot of inspirations from modern and contemporary work. She strongly believes in spiritual and healing properties of movement and constantly strives to bring dance closer to the community that she’s surrounded by. She hopes to inspire people to come as they are and uplift others to be fully engaged within themselves in a supportive exchange environment.

CALEB PATTERSON

Caleb Patterson (he/him) began professional training in 2014 at The Joffrey Ballet School where he performed works for notable choreographers such as Nathan Trice, Rena Butler, and Patrick O'Brien. After school, Caleb went on to generate works with Emily Greenwell, Javi Padilla, and Dolly Sfeir, all before the age of 22. In 2019, Caleb also performed in his first evening length with Khensani Mathebula’s MATHETA dance, premiered at Judson Church. Caleb made his professional writing debut with Javi Padilla, writing passages for Pressure Of Water and in the quiet of the wood, both of which he danced in as well. Caleb’s writing would become vital to his work, using it to develop Mariposa and Whistle, his original choreographed works. Caleb became a frequent collaborator with Michelle Thompson Ulerich and saxophonist Johnny Butler, first creating “Sleepwalkers” for The Visionary in Mt. Vision, NY and numerous dances to this day. He has most recently performed Swerve at Battery Dance Festival with LaneCoArts. Caleb is currently working with Kayla Farrish, MATHETA Dance, Michelle Thompson Ulerich, and LaneCoArts.

JAILYN PHILLIPS-WILEY

Jailyn Phillips-Wiley (she/her) is a Brooklyn based dance and movement artist who stands on the fact that dance is not only an artistic outlet, but a physical, mental and spiritual release that is vital to the human experience. A born and bred product of New Jersey, Jailyn has been privileged enough to train in an array of styles from ballet to west African dance since the tender age of four years old, honing in on that knowledge to inform her creative expression today. While attending Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, Jailyn’s been blessed enough to work with her peers, Shannon Gillen/Vim Vigor Dance, Dawn Marie Bazemore, and Chein-Ying Wang/Paul O’Campo. In her senior year, she received the Majorie J. Turner award for outstanding choreography for her senior thesis “Chip Skylark”. Another opportunity that was received while in school was studying at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in Israel/Palestine, submersed into the gaga movement language, and learning through past and present members of Bathsheva Dance Company and Vertigo Dance Company. Outside of dancing, Jailyn finds fulfillment in making collage art pieces, nerding out on music and music history, fashion styling, swimming, and enjoying the company of her loved ones. Jailyn strives to elevate as well as strengthen her artistic voice through an afro-surrealist lens. She has every intention to collaborate with any and every dance and interdisciplinary artist she feels connected to in this life. Eventually becoming a noted interdisciplinary artist in her own right with gems to share for the next generation of artists to come.

ROBERT RUBAMA // TERRE DANCE COLLECTIVE

Robert Rubama (he/they) graduated from George Mason University with a BFA in Dance. They have been able to work with companies such as Agora Dance, Haus of Bambi, Groundworks Dance Theater, PrioreDance, Carolyn Dorfman Dance, LaneCo Arts, Orange Grove Dance, & Peridance Contemporary Dance Company. Robert has also danced for choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo in "It Starts Now" at The Joyce Theater in NYC & The Harris Theater in Chicago. They are the Founder/Artistic Director of Terre Dance Collective, a dog walker/sitter, and a freelance dancer/choreographer.

Terre Dance Collective is a group of movement artists working to create emotionally engaging and physically compelling contemporary dance. Terre was established in July 2017. Since its inception, we have been able to develop and present choreographic works as well as perform site-specific improvisational works in Washington D.C, New York City, and Cleveland, Ohio.

RAGIN SMITH

Ragin Smith (she/her) is a dance artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She works to develop deconstructed narratives by stringing together contexts of movement, poetry, fashion, and music. Ragin received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance from Marymount Manhattan College in 2020. Alongside her freelance projects, she is now a member of Hivewild, the Wet Hairy Women Collective, MORISATO, and Alison Chase Performance Group. Ragin has presented work at The Tank, Fabled Narcissism, ESTIA Day Fest, and as an artist in residence at Chez Bushwick. She also directs and produces the Fabled Narcissism arts events with Haley Morgan Miller.

KAMRYN VAULX

Kamryn Vaulx (she/her) is a multifaceted dancer currently living in NYC, by way of Memphis, TN. She is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College where she earned a BFA in Dance with a concentration in Choreography. In Memphis, TN, Kamryn began her dance training at 3 years old. She has trained for years in styles such as jazz, contemporary, hip hop, tap, ballet, modern, West African, and Flamenco. She is currently dancing with Project Tag New York, a contemporary company under the direction of Iraq native, Hussein Smko. She is also a part of many other companies in NY such as SHINSA under Bo Park, and LA based dance company, The Motus Company, under Diana Matos. Kamryn has worked with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. Kamryn has also had the opportunity to work with other choreographers such as Ronald K. Brown, Anthony Burrell, and Fredrick Earl Mosley. With her versatile dance background, she aspires to share the intersections that are within dance styles and cultures while also connecting to her roots as she experiences the present and future.

MARINA VIANELLO

Marina Vianello (she/her), a dance artist based in New York City, began her training at City in Motion Dance Theater’s School of Dance in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Global Systems from George Mason University, where she was awarded an annual Dance Talent Scholarship. Throughout college, she was cast in pieces by Alejandro Cerrudo, Robert Battle, Lar Lubovitch, Susan Shields, Christopher d’Amboise, and David Grenke, and choreographed three pieces for the Mason Dance Company. Additionally, she has trained with Rioult Dance NY, DanceWorks Chicago, and the Mark Morris Dance Group on full scholarship. Other performance credits include the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the b12 dance festival in Berlin, Yoo & Dancers, JKing Dance Company, and As Arts NY Dance. She has taught dance at City in Motion, Empire Dance Academy, and Dancewave, and has been an assistant choreographer with Music Theater Kansas City. She currently serves as the Administrative Assistant for Moulin/Belle, a new artist residency center in Dordogne, France, and dances with Mari Meade Dance Collective, Arsenal Movement Dance Project and Terre Dance Collective.

MATEO VIDALS

Mateo Vidals (he/him) grew up in Red Hook, Brooklyn and began dancing at the age of 6 under the direction of Shannon Hummel, Artistic Director of Cora Dance. After years of enjoying dance recreationally, Mateo decided to invest in dance more seriously, attending Fort Hamilton High School as a Dance Major and later enrolling at SUNY Purchase as a Dance Major in 2020. Mateo has worked alongside widely recognized choreographers such as Gregory Dolbashian, Greg Lau, Earl Mosley, Darrell Moultrie, Roderick George, Doug Varone, Jesse Obremski and Antonio Brown. He has trained at several institutions such as Cora Dance, Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, and The Joffrey Ballet Academy. Currently, Mateo resides in Red Hook, Brooklyn where he is working on several artistic collaborations while continuing his training both in-person and virtually. Vidals is a NY native contemporary dancer with an unmatched passion for movement and creativity.