Lisa Berman & Joseph Trần (BRKFST)
2026 Choreography FELLOWs
Photo credit: Adam Adolphus
LISA “MONALISA” BERMAN and JOSEPH “MN JOE” TRẦN are St. Paul-based choreographers and Co-Founders / Co-Artistic Directors of BRKFST Dance Company. BRKFST combines breaking and non-codified dance vernacular to produce works that are emotionally resonant and physically rigorous. As collaborators, they have premiered original works at local venues including the Walker Art Center, Southern Theater, and Orchestra Hall with the Minnesota Orchestra; nationally and internationally with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony, Bates College (ME), John Michael Kohler Arts Center (WI), Dance2Connect Festival (Ireland) and Vancouver International Dance Festival (Canada). Together, they have set repertoire at the University of MN - Twin Cities, Carleton College, St. Olaf College, Winona State University, Bates College, and Dance2Connect Festival.
Berman is a respected breaker with a choreographic approach grounded in collaboration, storytelling and experimentation. She is the recipient of the 2016 McKnight Dancer Fellowship, 2008 Jerome Travel Grant and multiple Minnesota grants. She has performed as a solo artist in productions touring to Art Basel - Miami, Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC, Salon 94 in New York, NY, Amsterdam Museum in the Netherlands and D2C Festival in Ireland. Trần is a world-renowned breaker and former member of Knuckleheads Cali—a breaking crew respected for their avant-garde style of movement. He is the recipient of the 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship and 2019 McKnight Dancer Fellowship. He is known for his signature moves which have earned him multiple first-place victories in breaking competitions across the U.S., Europe, and South America.
Helen Hatch
2026 Choreography FELLOW
Photo credit: Brianne Bland
Helen Hatch is a Minneapolis-based choreographer, performer, director, and educator. Named one of Minnesota Monthly’s 10 Artists to Watch in 2012, she began her professional career with Minnesota Dance Theatre, where she performed a wide range of repertory and created her own choreographic works.
In 2018, she formed Hatch Dance to house her choreographic work. Under her direction, the company has cultivated innovative collaborative processes that have resulted in critically acclaimed performances combining dance, music, and theater.
Alongside her work with Hatch Dance, Helen has maintained an extensive freelance career, performing with The Moving Company, Minnesota Opera, and HoneyWorks, among others.
Helen holds a BFA in Dance from the Ailey/Fordham University BFA Program, graduating with Departmental Honors in 2011. Her choreography has been presented at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Festival, The Southern Theater, and The Cowles Center, as well as throughout Mexico and Guatemala through the Juntos Collective. She has been commissioned by Minnesota Dance Theatre, Saint Paul Ballet, Aveda, Mareck Dance, and MODERN REP. In 2022, Helen was selected for the Choreographic Institute Residency at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. The following year, she served as an Artist in Residence at Moulin/Belle in Mareuil-en-Périgord, France.
Since 2013, she has taught ballet throughout the Twin Cities and currently serves as a teaching artist with Saint Paul Ballet and Minnesota Dance Theatre. www.hatchdance.com
Marciano Silva dos Santos
2026 Choreography FELLOw
Photo credit: V. Paul Virtucio
Marciano Silva dos Santos is a Brazilian choreographer and the Artistic Director of Contempo Physical Dance. Since immigrating from Brazil to the Twin Cities, he has garnered acclaim for shaping a distinctive movement aesthetic that fuses Afro-Brazilian rhythm with the nuanced physicality of contemporary dance. His artistic drive to explore emotional, cultural, and spiritual forces through physicality continues to fuel his choreographic work.
Marciano was recognized by the American Folkloric Society as a “Brazilian artist of unique and exceptional ability and merit.” Upon moving to Minnesota, he developed a mission to create work that is artistically exceptional, riveting to watch, and deeply rooted in the cultural dynamics of his Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous ancestry. His work is driven by a deep interest in contemporary movement and the ways it intersects with traditional forms and diverse perspectives.
Founding Contempo Physical Dance in 2011, he has since dedicated himself to creating dynamic, highly physical work. He was named “Best Dancer” by City Pages, hailed as “one of the most graceful movers on any Twin Cities stage” by the Star Tribune, and called “one of the hottest choreographers in town” by Minnesota Monthly Magazine.
Asha Rowland
2026 DANCER FELLOW
Photo credit: Stephanie Jensen
Asha Rowland is a dancer, choreographer, storyteller, and dreamer based in Minneapolis, Mni Sota Makoce and originally from Chicago, Illinois. Her practice and research centers the questioning of environments and mentalities that perpetuates anti-blackness, environmental racism, and classist structures from an African and South Asian diasporic lens. These questions often activate dreams of future-scapes, ancestry, belonging, and moral and psychological excavation.
Driven by curiosity and cultural intersections, Asha’s research is often derivative of historical investigation and uncovering stories that are lost and forgotten.
Aesthetically, her work is narrative-driven, ethereal, world-building, and straddles dualities of chaos and meditation. She often blends visual art into performance settings. Her experimental movement methodology is based on her 20 years practice in dance specializing in Bharatanatyam, Raq Sharqi, and Black American Street Dance. Her latest evening-length production, The Alchemist’s Soul, debuted at Red Eye Theater in February 2025. Asha collaborates with Lakshmi Ramgopal’s, Lykanthea, as a dancer, choreographer, and vocalist. She has participated in numerous residencies around the United States and has performed nationally and internationally as a soloist, with Lykanthea, and as a company dancer with Natya Dance Theatre. Some residencies she has participated in include the Black Ensemble Productions' IFE Lab Fellowship, the Center for Performing Arts Residency, Unrehearsed Residency, The Chrysalis Milkweed Residency, and the MCA Chicago Performs Series with Lykanthea. She is a 2026 recipient of the MN State Arts Board Creative Individuals Grant.
DAVENTE GILREATH
2026 DANCER FELLOW
Photo credit: Kameron Herndon
Davente Gilreath was born and raised in Minneapolis. His dance training began at Perpich Center for Arts Education where he was exposed to styles of dance including modern, ballet, jazz, African, and contact improvisation. Gilreath furthered his dance training at the University of Minnesota where he worked with professors such as Ananya Chatterjea, Erin Thompson, and Toni Pierce‐Sands. During this time he was also able to perform and create work with Minnesota‐based companies such as Threads Dance Project and Contempo Physical Dance.
Gilreath Joined Garth Fagan Dance in 2014 and during his 8 years with the company performed numerous key works from the Fagan cannon around the country including new works choreographed by PJ Pennewell, the company director. He was promoted to senior company member and appointed the Director of the Garth Fagan Dance Student
Ensemble. He also taught Intermediate/Advanced Fagan Technique for the Garth Fagan Dance School and for the Garth Fagan Summer Movement Institute.
Gilreath is now a dance instructor at the University of Minnesota where he teaches Contemporary, African Diasporic Movement and Jazz. In the last 4 years, since returning to Minneapolis, he has danced for choreographers Joe Chvala, Darrius Strong, and is in his second
season with Ananya Dance Theatre. He has set choreography for senior students at TU
Dance, Perpich Center for Arts Education, Saint Paul Conservatory, PiM Arts and in his
own solo work Rumination, which premiered in Choreographers' Evening, Walker Art
Center, in November 2024.
Gemma Isaacson
2026 DANCER FELLOW
Photo credit: Bill Cameron
Gemma Isaacson is a Minneapolis-based dance artist originally from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. She began her professional career at the age of 15 with Minnesota Ballet before attending the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (BFA Dance, summa cum laude).
Throughout the course of her freelance career, Gemma has originated roles in works by notable stage directors/choreographers across genres, including Patrick Acogny (Contempo Physical Dance), Berit Ahlgren (HoneyWorks), Hannah Benditt (Lakes Area Music Festival), Dimitri Chamblas, Karen L. Charles (Threads Dance Project), Non Edwards, Daniel Ellis (Minnesota Opera and Utah Opera), Eric Sean Fogel (Minnesota Opera and Portland Opera), Nildinha Fonsêca (Contempo Physical Dance), Zhauna Franks (Strange Loop Projects), Jennifer Glaws (Jagged Moves), Helen Hatch (Hatch Dance), Jennifer Ilse (Off-Leash Area), Nic Lincoln, Hannah MacKenzie-Margulies (Little Tanz Theater), Alanna Morris (I A.M. Arts), Valerie Oliveiro, Kerry Parker, Sophia Pimsler, Stuart Pimsler and Suzanne Costello (Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater), Ashwini Ramaswamy (Ragamala Dance Company), Marciano Silva dos Santos (Contempo Physical Dance), Heidi Spesard-Noble (Minnesota Opera), and Yuki Tokuda.
Since 2020, Gemma has created and performed her own work at the Off-Leash Art Box
(Minneapolis), The Shed (St. Paul), Tofte Lake Center (Ely), the Minneapolis Club (Minneapolis),
and DIY spaces around the Twin Cities. In 2021, she was a National Emerging Artist resident at
Tofte Lake Center in Ely, Minnesota.
During the 2024-25 season, Gemma was delighted to be engaged as a guest faculty member at
Minnesota Opera, devising and leading a movement workshop series for the Resident Artist
cohort. (gemmaisaacson.com)
Vladimir ''7Starr'' Laurore
2027 McKnight International Choreographer
Vladimir “7Starr” Laurore is a pioneering multidisciplinary artist, dancer, choreographer, emcee, and cultural ambassador born in Montreal, Quebec (of Haitian descent). Renowned as one of Canada's foremost figures in krump—a powerful, expressive street dance style originating in Los Angeles—he has dedicated nearly two decades to building and democratizing the krump community in Quebec and beyond, while seamlessly blending it with his roots in hip-hop, music, and stage performance.
His artistic journey began in hip-hop. At age 11, during summer visits to the United States, 7Starr discovered hip-hop culture and started writing raps, performing at school talent shows as an amateur. Previously known as Snaxx, he made his first professional studio recording at 14 with acclaimed artist and video director PeeZee. His lyrical talent and stage presence led to a spot on the PeeZee - Star Status Tour under the YFB/Universal Canada label at just 18. Alongside rapping, he honed his skills as an emcee and explored street dance forms.
A transformative moment came in 2005 when he watched the documentary RIZE, igniting a deep passion for krump. That same year, he connected with Canada's first krumper, Otis “Pez” Hopson, and in 2006, they co-founded Bzerk Squad, the country's inaugural krump crew. Committed to growing krump in Canada, 7Starr organized the nation's first krump event, Gutta Zone, in 2008. In 2014, alongside Valérie “Taminator” Chartier, he established the Montreal Krump Alliance (MKA), a nonprofit dedicated to advancing krump through workshops, sessions, events and stage performance creations. By 2018, this evolved into Gutta Zone Fest, a multi-day international krump festival that draws dancers worldwide and remains a cornerstone of the scene.
Today, 7Starr is celebrated as a Canadian krump pioneer and ambassador. Since 2005, he has taught, lectured, choreographed, and mentored at over 160 schools, community centers, and events across Canada. He has competed, judged, performed and served as a guest instructor at elite global krump gatherings, including International Illest Battle (Paris), European Buck Session (Germany), The Krumpire (Russia), Buckyard (Czech Republic), Momentum showcase, (Minnesota) Royal Rumble (Switzerland), Dance Immersion (Toronto), Osaka Expo (Japan), His versatility extends to collaborations with major companies like Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Éloize, and Moment Factory, along with TV appearances and guest teaching/lecturing roles at institutions such as Concordia University and UQAM.
His accolades reflect his impact: the 2017 Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award from the Canada Council for the Arts for outstanding achievement; the 2018 Gloria Mitchell-Aleong Award from Black Theatre Workshop for emerging excellence in performing arts; a 2020 nomination for International Male Krumper of the Year by the FCD Krump Awards; and the Prix coup de Coeur at Gala Dunamis. His groundbreaking one-hour solo performance ”Anima/Darkroom, co-choreographed with contemporary dancer/choreographer Lucy M. May, premiered at prestigious venues including Fluid Fest (Calgary), Théâtre La Chapelle (Montreal), and Festival TransAmérique. This project earned him the Prix découverte from Les prix de la danse de Montréal. He has also been given a two-year residency at Usine C performing arts theater for the 2025-2026 season where he presented his work SKLTR choregraphed alongside Charles “Broken” Brecard and a revamped version of his solo performance Retraced, now performed by Jason ‘’Freee" Luce.
Beyond performance, 7Starr advocates for krump's accessibility and recognition through institutional roles, serving on boards such as the Regroupement québécois de la danse (RQD) and Prix de la danse de Montréal, while contributing to the development of arts and culture in the City of Laval. Through relentless teaching, organizing, and innovation, he has helped build a vibrant, authentic krump ecosystem in Canada, inspiring generations while evolving the art form across dance, music, and culture.
Andrew Lester
2025 DANCER FELLOW
Photo credit: Roosevelt Mansfield
Andrew Lester is an award-winning artist who has been a staple in Twin Cities dance since 2003.
A passionate performer, educator, and arts advocate, his body of work bridges ballet and contemporary dance. A BFA graduate of the University of Minnesota, Andrew’s background includes training with American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Adriatico of Italy, and an esteemed roster of master instructors.
Since 2009, Andrew has proudly called Shapiro & Smith Dance his artistic home, where his performance in their work Family was recognized with a MN SAGE Award for Outstanding Performance in 2012. He has also been a company member with Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater, Twin Cities Ballet of Minnesota, and James Sewell Ballet, while guesting with Metropolitan Ballet, Ethnic Dance Theatre, Eclectic Edge Ensemble, The Minnesota Opera, and many other celebrated companies. His work extends beyond Minnesota, with performances in New York City and internationally at the Toronto International Film Festival and Festival de Danse in Cannes, France.
A dynamic collaborator, he has worked with renowned choreographers such as Joanie Smith, Joseph Morrisey, Yuki Tokuda, Gabrielle Lamb, Myron Johnson, and Darrius Strong. Also a dedicated educator, he has taught throughout the Twin Cities and beyond, helping to expand access to dance in rural and underserved communities.
In 2023, Andrew co-founded Alchemy Arts. That same year, he choreographed and starred in When You Hear the Chime, the company’s world premiere at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. This multi-genre production marked a new chapter in his expansive career, reflecting his commitment to innovative storytelling through movement.
Eva Mohn
2025 DANCER FELLOW
Photo credit: Roosevelt Mansfield
Eva Mohn works as a dancer, choreographer, composer, and bodyworker. Eva has her BA in Dance from the University of Minnesota. Starting in 2001, she began working locally with various companies and artists including TU Dance, Morgan Thorson, Carl Flink, Robin Stiem, Sarah Baumert, and Maggie
Bergeron.
In 2008, Eva went to Martha’s Vineyard, NYC and subsequently moved to Kassel, Germany, to work with German choreographer Johannes Wieland. In 2012, Eva relocated to Stockholm, Sweden, to begin her work with the Cullberg Ballet. In 2018, Eva became a Swedish Citizen, and in 2021, she received her MFA in New Performative Practices from Stockholm University for the Arts. Shortly thereafter, she gave birth to her first child and returned to Minnesota. Her second child was born in 2023. Eva has worked as a baker, barista, house painter, musician, song-writer, farm manager, farmers market vendor, mother, dancer, choreographer and teacher, and sees the choreographic nature in all these various types of work and labor.
Cecil Neal
2025 DANCER FELLOW
Photo credit: Roosevelt Mansfield
Cecil Neal, professionally known as Virgo: The Final Warning, is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and mentor specializing in krump.
Based in the Twin Cities, his dance journey began with a passion for performing, which he first experienced at his mom’s fundraising event in 2010. By 12, he was performing at venues like Stepping Stone Theater and Intermedia Arts, setting the stage for his artistic growth.
Cecil refined his craft at the St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, completing four years of intensive training. There, he discovered his passion for choreography, debuting his creative vision in a standout senior piece.
Since then, he has performed with esteemed companies such as Breakfast Dance Company and Meridian Movement Company, gracing stages like the Michael Kohler Arts Center and the Red Eye Theater. In 2024, he won House of Dance’s 10th Anniversary All-Styles Battle at The Fillmore.
As an educator, Cecil has taught at the University of Minnesota and Macalester College, fostering the next generation of dancers. His mentorship extends beyond movement—he is passionate about using dance as a tool for self-discovery, resilience, and connection. Whether in the classroom, on stage, or in battle, Cecil’s mission is to inspire others to embrace their potential and tell their unique stories through movement.
Pamela Gleason
2025 Choreography FELLOW
Photo credit: Roosevelt Mansfield
Pam Gleason has been creating, teaching and performing modern dance for over 40 years. From the mid-1980s to 2011, she was involved with the Nancy Hauser Dance Company/Hauser Dance as an apprentice, company member, teacher and choreographer. She has taught, performed and/or presented her work in many Twin Cities venues, several US cities, in Taiwan, Japan, Russia and Ireland. She has choreographed over 50 pieces, 8 theater productions, and has received support from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Commission. Her body of work includes solos, group pieces, several evening-length dance concerts and films.
Pam is the director of MotionArt (co-founded in 2013 with Diane Moncrieff ), an organization dedicated to making dance and the joy of movement accessible to people of all ages and abilities. MotionArt ‘s evening-length shows, Space Encounters (2017), Games People Play (2018) and Collabulous (2019) were staged at the Conn Theater in Minneapolis, and Reel Imaginings (2024), a showcase of four short dance films, was presented at Center for Performing Arts and Parkway Theater in Minneapolis.
Originally from St. Paul, Pam taught in the University of Minnesota Dance Department for 15 years and continues to teach modern dance and host monthly improv gatherings through MotionArt. She is committed to enhancing the mental and physical well-being of others through her classes, choreography, and film work.
Emily Michaels King
2025 Choreography FELLOW
Photo credit: Roosevelt Mansfield
Emily Michaels King is an interdisciplinary performing artist based in St. Paul, Minnesota, exploring authentic expression and human depth through movement, multimedia, and visual compositions for the stage. Emily is known for her fearless personal work, provocative style, and collaged evening-length solo performances, including: her award winning show MAGIC GIRL, multimedia online work DIGITAL; IN PERSON, a companion to DIGITAL; the raucous CHICKEN WING, which was featured in Red Eye Theater’s 2023 New Works 4 Weeks Festival, and STAR KEEPER. An in-progress version of her piece, ELECTRIC, was performed at Arena Dance’s 2022 CandyBox Festival. Additionally, her work has been presented at the Walker Art Center, the Guthrie Theater, and Movement Research, among others.
Pairing minimalism and subtlety with cacophony and bared irreverence, Emily’s works employ the lush landscape of the inner world and the power of unapologetic vulnerability. They combine movement with text, graphics, sound, and technology to focus on themes of self discovery and reclamation, womanhood, and old expressions of personal truth.
www.emilymichaelsking.com
Kayla Schiltgen
2025 Choreography FELLOW
Photo credit: Roosevelt Mansfield
Kayla Schiltgen is an interdisciplinary artist based in rural Two Harbors, Minnesota, blending dance, film, and improvisation to cope with and communicate her experience of time and place as a rural, neurodivergent person. Distinguished by her intimacy, honesty, and intentionality, she creates screendance, installation, and performance—often combining forms—that resonate outward, affirming both artist and audience. Her mostly solo practice is rooted in the Rural, where Kayla works across choreography, performance, cinematography, editing, and sound design with place as collaborator.
Kayla is an Upstream Artist Fellow, a recipient of multiple Minnesota State Arts Board and Arrowhead Regional Arts Council awards, and recognized as a creative rural leader in the Upper Midwest by Springboard for the Arts. Her work has been presented at the Walker Art Center; the International Meeting on Video-Dance and Video-Performance (Spain & France); North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival; InShadow Screendance Festival (Portugal); Duluth Superior Film Festival; DanceBARN Screendance Festival; Wolf Tree Film Festival (MI); Arena Dance’s CandyBox Festival; RAD Fest; The Lab at NorShor Theatre; and the Minnesota Fringe Festival, among others. She recently completed a seven-stop rural and Greater Minnesota tour of her work is this magic?.
www.kaylaschiltgen.com
Alhassane "Sana" Bangoura
2024 DANCER FELLOW
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Alhassane "Sana" Bangoura comes from a family of traditional drummers and dancers
from Guinea, West Africa. As current and former members of the world-renowned Les
Ballets Africains and Ballet Merveilles, the Bangoura brothers' talents have brought
them all over the world and led them to make their homes in Italy, France, the US and
Iceland. Inspired by his brothers, Sana began his drum and dance training in 1999 as a
member of the company Wassasso, based in the capital city Conakry. In this company,
under the direction of Ballet Africains dancer, Sorel Conte, Sana rose to the position of
Principal Dancer, and in 2001 became Assistant Director.
During his sixteen years with Wasasso, Sana's duties were manifold. He managed
rehearsals for longtime company members as well as for youth who aspired to join the
group. He provided lessons for students from a myriad of countries to include Chile,
Argentina, France, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden and Portugal. He performed in the
national competition Stars Vacance when the company took 1st place. Sana also
choreographed Wassasso performances that appeared on Guinea National Television
and won his group a 3rd place finish in the nation in 2012.
After moving to Minnesota in 2015, Sana performs with his brother, master
drummer Fode Seydou Bangoura, in their group Duniya Drum and Dance, and teaches
community classes for adults. Performance highlights include Duniya’s many Fakoly
shows and appearances at The Cowles Center, The Cedar Cultural Center and
Orchestra Hall.
duniyadrumanddance.org
Kealoha Ferreira
2024 DANCER FELLOW
Photo By Canaan Mattson
Kealoha Ferreira is a Kanaka Maoli, Filipino, Chinese dance artist from Nuʻuanu, Oʻahu, now residing in Mni Sóta Makoce on the unceded lands of the Dakhóta Oyáte. She is the Artistic Associate of Ananya Dance Theatre and a Co-leader of the company's Saint Paul space, the Shawngrām Institute for Performance & Social Justice. A practitioner of Yorchhā and an emerging student of Oli and Hula, Kealoha's artistry activates at the intersection of these transnational feminist and aloha ʻāina embodied practices.
As a leader, teacher, performer, and maker her work investigates the tensile and expansive nature of relationality while remaining rooted in cultural and kinesthetic rigor . She is a recent participant of Red Eye Theater’s Works in Progress cohort (2020), Hālau ʻŌhiʻa- a land and water stewardship program (2021), BIPOC Leadership Circle (2022), and Chawrchā NextGen ChoreoLab (2023). Kealoha teaches Yoga at the University of Minnesota as an associate faculty member in the Theater Arts and Dance Department.
Tumelo Khupe
2024 DANCER FELLOW
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Tumelo Khupe (alias Melo) is a performing artist, krumper, and emerging choreographer
based in the Twin Cities and from Botswana. Her artistry investigates and explores how the
body manifests lived experiences through movement. Krump is foundational in her work as it offers endless possibilities for storytelling through its technique and language. She makes use of some elements of theater to reveal these moments through freestyle or improvisation. The four pillars of her artistry are rawness, discovery, individuality, and spirituality.
She graduated with a BA in Music Theater with a minor in Dance. Some awards received are the David Wick Leadership Award, the David Wick Best Choreography Award, and The Mabel Meta Frey Outstanding Theater Artist Award. She is a Naked Stages Fellow, Generating Room Fellow, Next Step Fund grantee, and most recently, a Chawrchā, a next-generation choreographic lab Fellow and has performed with Emmy award-winning company, Hip Hop Nutcracker.
Vie Boheme
2024 Choreography FELLOW
Photo by: Canaan Mattson
Vie Boheme is a Motown native, blossomed creatively in Pittsburgh and refined in Minneapolis. She’s a multimodal artist; a choreographer, a dancer, actress, and poet. Her work brings athletic agility to her vocal performance by singing and dancing in unison, eliminating the boundary between the visual and audio experience. She designs theatrical dance experiences that weave sentiment and storytelling through poetry and monologues
using dance as the site of embodiment for the story being told. As a choreographer, her
work's intentionality produces a pathway and an environment for viewers to connect to
their own visceral human experience.
Chitra Vairavan
2024 Choreography FELLOW
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Chitra Vairavan is a contemporary Indian dancer, choreographer and educator of South
Indian-American descent, with roots in Kandanur and Rayavaram. Vairavan is immersed in both Thamizh/Tamil culture and progressive brown politics in the U.S. Her embodied practice and experimental process is rooted in deep listening, spatial observation, freedoms, poetry, vulnerability and ancestral memory.
She chooses to gesture towards and embody within the practice of liberation
and decolonization in creative and collaborative choices. The aesthetic of her movement is through
both yoga and contemporary Indian dance forms – mainly a mixture of training in Bharatanatyam,
Odissi and Yorchha™. For more please visit: www.chitravairavan.com or https://linktr.ee/vair0002.
Vairavan has been a proud part of the Mni Sota Makoce dance community for 20 years. Her dance work has been featured transnationally as a founding member and company dancer with Ananya Dance Theatre for 14 seasons, and her choreographic works have been featured in spaces such as The Cowles Center, the Walker Art Center, The Southern Theater, Intermedia Arts, Red Eye Theater, Pillsbury House Theatre and Patrick's Cabaret over the years. Vairavan has been the recipient of the 2016 McKnight Dancer Fellowship, 2018 Naked Stages Fellowship with Pillsbury House Theatre, and the 2020-2021 Springboard for the Artsʼ 20/20 Fellowship among other honors.
Pramila Vasudevan
2024 Choreography FELLOW
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Pramila Vasudevan is a movement-centered artist, cultural worker, and maker of
community-rooted/routed transdisciplinary work. Vasudevan is the founder and artistic
director of Aniccha Arts (est. 2004), an arts collaborative producing site-specific
performances that examine agency, voice, and group dynamics within community
histories, institutions, and systems. She is an artist associate of Pillsbury House Theatre.
She has been honored with a Joyce Award (2022), and also United States Artists (2022),
Guggenheim (2017) and McKnight Choreography Fellowship (2016). Vasudevan has been
invested in cultivating art spaces and artist growth as the director of Naked Stages
(2016–21), a fellowship program for early-career performance artists at Pillsbury House
Theatre, and as a teaching artist with Upstream Arts (2015–19), which activates and
amplifies the voice and choice of individuals with disabilities at every stage of life.
Her current practice involves gardening, hosting conversations and community
gatherings, and developing improvisational movement sessions inspired by growing
practices in gardens and greenhouses and by plant cycles in the urban park systems.
Her work engages with physical sites, ranging from human-constructed locations (like a
suburban parking ramp) to natural environments (such as along the Mississippi River).
In this process, she learns about the site’s history and current uses, the people that
have come and gone, the embedded politics, and the materials that physically make it
what it is. In responding artistically, Vasudevan orients from the body while layering in
other media (sound, drawings, sculptural elements, and so on) that illuminate a
multiplicity of perspectives.
Meryl Zaytoun Murman
2024 McKnight International Choreographer
Photo credit: Hanna Hrabarsk
Meryl Zaytoun Murman is a Lebanese American choreographer and filmmaker and a permanent resident of Thessaloniki, Greece. Her art juxtaposes choreographic, cinematic and live art practices to create movement pieces that emphasize interactivity and intimacy and have been presented in Mexico, Turkey and throughout Europe. Her queer films and choreographies derived from experiments at the intersection of cinema and dance disrupt popular notions of spectacle, the body, virtuosity and gender, and her film le Pain was an official selection at international festivals receiving the Audience Choice award at East End Film Festival in London.
Murman has guest taught at ImpulsTanz International Dance Festival in Vienna, Companhia Instavel in Porto, Zelyonka International Dance Festival in Kyiv, and at Tulane University, CalState Long Beach University, and The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Thematically, her work is engaged with moving bodies, particularly between borders and across binaries, and human rights in transitional spaces. She has twice received international fellowships through the US Embassy to implement multi-faceted projects with female and LGBTQ+ refugee populations in Ukraine and Northern Greece exploring sexuality, gender, and the effects of assimilation and migration on the body. These projects integrate trauma informed pedagogy, a kinesthetic approach to media, ritual and public performance intervention. Her work has been supported by the National Performance Network, the Arab American Museum, and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. She is currently in development on her first feature film, ways of forgetting.
For more info, visit: merylmurman.me