Current Collaborators

Emma Judkins (she/her/hers) is Brooklyn based dancer with roots in Portland, Maine. She is the daughter of two performing artists, raised among juggling balls, unicycles and studio mirrors. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Connecticut College with a BA in Dance and French in 2011. Described by The New York Times as "terrific," and having "a natural, winning clarity," she is currently performing with Tere O'Connor, Anna Sperber, and Pavel Zustiak/Palissimo Company.  Past artistic and performing collaborations include Laurel Snyder & Adam Schatz, The Space We Make, Kendra Portier/BAND, Amber Sloan, Derrick Belcham & Emily Terndrup, Cortney Andrews, and Kyle Abraham/AIM.  Emma collaborates with Asli Bulbul, Eleanor Hullihan and Jimmy Jolliff on an improvisational performance project called DEBORAH.  In February of 2019 she founded an improvisation lab for dancers which ran monthly until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. She occasionally teaches dance class and improvisation at Gibney Dance and FreeSkewl. Emma is also a freelance administrator and bookkeeper. www.emmajudkins.com

Angie Pittman is a New York-based dancer-choreographer. Angie’s work resides in a space that investigates how the body moves through ballad, groove, sparkle, spirit, spirituals, ancestry, vulnerability, and power. Her work has been performed at The Kitchen, Gibney Dance, BAAD!, Movement Research at Judson Church, Triskelion Arts, STooPS, The Domestic Performance Agency, The KnockDown Center, The Invisible Dog(Catch 73), The Chocolate Factory, Danspace Project, and Roulette. Angie has had the pleasure of being able to create collaboratively with A Sef, Jasmine Hearn, Jonathan Gonzalez, Athena Kokoronis, and Anita Mullin. She holds a MFA in Dance and Choreography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a graduate minor in African American Studies and is a certified Professional teacher of the Umfundalai technique. Her choreographic work has been supported by Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant and residencies through Tofte Lake Center, Movement Research, New Dance Alliance Black Artists Space to Create, and Djerassi. As a dancer, she has danced in work by Larissa Valez-Jackson, MBDance, Ralph Lemon, Tere O’Connor, Cynthia Oliver, Anna Sperber, Donna Uchizono Company, Jennifer Monson, Kim Brandt, Tess Dworman, Antonio Ramos, C Kemal Nance and many others. As an educator, she has taught at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Movement Research, MoMA, Sarah Lawrence College, Marymount Manhattan College, and is currently an Assistant Arts Professor of Dance at NYU: Tisch School of the Arts.

Myssi Robinson is a Bessie award winning performer and maker from Richmond, VA.  She has interpreted dances by Anna Sperber, Big Dance Theater, David Dorfman Dance, Kyle Marshall Choreography, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Baye and Asa, Alex and Xan Burley, Dishman + Co Choreography, Nimbus Dance Works and more. She has designed for Laurie Berg, Marion Spencer, the Dragon Sisters, Davalois Fearon Dance and Kayla Farrish. Myssi's authorship centers creative archiving and mixed-media marking beside experiments in listening and spatial design.  Intuition and empathy play with maximalist instinct to give life to the art that she makes.  It whispers: may we all heal.  Gratitude to Carolyn Johnson and Darrin Robinson for her life and abilities to create freely within it.

Ariana Speight (she/her/hers) is a contemporary dance artist invested in researching the curiosities of life through various mediums. Originally from Los Angeles and currently based in Brooklyn, she has had the opportunity to work with a number of artists including Kayla Farrish, Joanna Kotze, Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Kyle Marshall, Anna Sperber, and Jessie Young. Her freelance journey has led her to perform at Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), Chelsea Factory, Coffey Street, Dancewave, Irondale, Lincoln Center Hearst Plaza, Pageant, The Shed, among others. She is a BFA graduate from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and is a certified Yoga and Pilates instructor where she continues to nurture her teaching practice. 

Nate Wooley (b.1974) was born in Clatskanie, Oregon and began playing trumpet professionally with his father, a big band saxophonist, at the age of 13. He made his debut as soloist with the New York Philharmonic at the opening series of their 2019 season. Considered one of the leading lights of the American movement to redefine the physical boundaries of the horn, Wooley has been gathering international acclaim for his idiosyncratic trumpet language, and has become one of the most in-demand trumpet players in the burgeoning Brooklyn jazz, improv, noise, and new music scenes. He has performed regularly with John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Eliane Radigue, Annea Lockwood, Ken Vandermark, Evan Parker, and Yoshi Wada. He has premiered works for trumpet by Christian Wolff, Michael Pisaro, Annea Lockwood, Ash Fure, Wadada Leo Smith, Sarah Hennies and Eva-Maria Houben.

In recent years, he has built a reputation as a composer of music epic in scope and social in design. His series of solo works based on the International Phonetic Alphabet, The Complete Syllables Music, was compared to the literary work of Georges Perec and hailed as “revolutionary solo repertoire” by All About Jazz. At the other end of the spectrum, his decade-long Seven Storey Mountain cycle has encompassed almost 50 different performers, the most recent version consisting of a 32-person ensemble. This iteration, Seven Storey Mountain VI (SSMVI), “expresses communality, with all of its potential for the profound and the spiritual,” according to Pitchfork. SSMVI appeared on many year-end lists, including as record of the year in El Intruso’s International Critics List and critic Peter Margasak’s personal list.

Wooley received the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award in 2016. He was the recipient of the Instant Award for Improvised Music and the Spencer Glendon First Principles Award in 2020.

Madeline Best is a Lighting Designer, Performer, and Arts Administrator living in Long Island City, NY. Her deeply collaborative artistic practice comes from an intense interest in the articulation of emotional time and space. Madeline’s designs have appeared at many theaters in NYC including PS122, The Kitchen, Performance Space New York, danspace project, Gibney Dance, Abrons Arts Center, NYU Skirball Center and The Chocolate Factory Theater. Nationally and internationally at: The Fusebox Festival in Austin TX; On The Boards in Seattle WA; LAX Festival and Show Box in Los Angles;  Lokomotion Festival, Skopje, Macedonia, Kondenz Festival at BITEF, Belgrade, Serbia; Impultanz, Vienna Austria; HALLO: Festspiele in Hamburg, Germany and more. Madeline has worked with Brian Rogers co-creating three projects over the last 10 years. Madeline performed in as well as co-created Selective Memory (2010), a solo real time video performance about nostalgia for relationships and events that never took place. Hotbox (2012) was a loud and messy follow-up to the prior work. Screamers (2015-2017) is a full length movie written and Directed by Brian Rogers and Produced by Madeline. Madeline is the Director of Operations at The Chocolate Factory Theater in Long Island City, NY where she has worked for over 10 years. At The Chocolate Factory Theater her role as an arts administrator is heavily influenced by her artistic practice and she is able to bring the perspective of an artist to her work. 

Past Collaborators

Anna Witenberg went to Bard College where she trained with Sarah Michelson as a part of her four year residency at Bard, performing in her works such as tournamento at the Walker Art Center, September 2017 /| at Bard College, and October 2017 /\ at The Kitchen.  At the American Dance Festival Anna was selected to perform in the work of Anna Sperber and Beth Gill. She then performed with the Stephen Petronio Company in a restaging of Trisha Brown’s Glacial Decoy at the Durham Performing Arts Center, performing Trisha Brown’s role. She again danced a Trisha Brown solo in Cutbacks and Set and Reset restaged by the Trisha Brown Company at Bard College. Since moving to New York, she has performed in Nick Mauss’ exhibition Transmissions  at The Whitney Museum of American Art, Douglas Dunn's Portal at the  Queensbridge Park, Anna Sperber's Again The Wolves(working title)at The Yard and the 92nd Street Y, Doug Le Cours’ Fraying Tether at Weis Acres, and Maya Lee- Parritz’s Tribute to Angels at The Shed. She currently freelances for Katie Workum and Anna Sperber. Her own choreographic work has been presented in New York at the Brooklyn Ballet and the Performance Mix Festival 33. 

Gelsey Bell (vocalist/ composer) is a New York City-based singer, songwriter, and scholar. Described by the New York Times as an “imaginative” “winning soprano” whose performance of her own music is “virtuosic” and “glorious noise,” Her performance creations have been presented internationally. She has released multiple albums, including most recently Ciphony with John King, and Toyland, with Joseph White.  She was a 2017 recipient of the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Arts Music/Sound grant and she is currently the EtM Ridgewood Bushwick Composer-in-Residence. Her works include Bathroom Songs, Scaling, Our Defensive Measurements, This Takes Place Close By (with thingNY), Prisoner’s Song (with Erik Ruin), and the acclaimed adaptation of Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives (with Varispeed). She is a core member of thingNY, Varispeed, and the Chutneys (with Chris Cochrane and Fast Forward). Her work has been commissioned by the Jerome Foundation/Roulette, Ne(x)tworks, Avant Media, and the Lumen Festival. She also wrote and performed music for Compagnie CNDC-Angers’s performance of Merce Cunningham’s EVENT, directed by Robert Swinston, and Kimberly Bartosik’s You are my heat & glare. Other performance highlights include Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 (on Broadway) and Ghost Quartet, Robert Ashley’s Crash, Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler’s River of Fundament, John King’s Micro-Operas, Kate Soper’s Here Be Sirens, and Gregory Whitehead’s On the Shore Dimly Seen, for which she offered original vocal improvisations. She has a PhD in performance studies and is the Critical Acts Co-editor for TDR/The Drama Review and the Reviews Editor for The Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies. www.gelseybell.com

Sara Walsh (scenographer) is a New York based artist, designer and teacher.   Her work investigates boundaries and rules, transformation and surprise, and the shifting expectations of audience and performer.  She is a member of wolf 359 in NY and Resident Designer at Wellfleet’s Harbor Stage Theatre on Cape Cod.  Her work has been presented in New York at Lincoln Center, St Ann’s Warehouse, PS122, the Ontological-Hysteria Theatre, The Kitchen, New York Live Arts, Women’s Project, and Classic Stage Company; as well as across the country including A.R.T., The Wexner Center, The San Diego Museum of Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston.  She was Head of Design on the immersive nightclub experience Queen of the Night, "New York's hottest nightlife event" (New York Magazine).  Sara’s designs have been presented in Germany, Ireland, Scotland and France, and she recently designed and co-directed the North American tour of Emily's D+Evolution for the Grammy Award winning musician Esperanza Spalding.  She has worked with comedians Jerry Seinfeld, Colin Quinn, and Hasan Minaj, and was  Associate Designer on a new ballet with Basil Twist, "Dorothy and the Prince of Oz". Sara designed sets and puppets for the new musical The Kioskers written by Scott Adkins directed by Mia Rovegno that was developed in part through her residency at St Ann's Puppet Lab.  She received a Bessie Award for Faye Driscoll's 837 Venice Blvd. Her designs have been presented at the Prague Quadrennial and she has designed books, bookstores, and zoo exhibits. B.A. Loyola University Chicago.  M.F.A.  New York University

Lizzie Feidelson (performer) is a performer and writer based in New York. She has recently performed in works by Meg Weeks and Moriah Evans.

Opal Ingle (performer) is an artist and performer based in New York City. His work has been presented at numerous venues in New York and nationally. As a performer, Michael has worked with Hilary Easton + Company, Tere O’Connor Dance, Laura Peterson Choreography, Deganit Shemy & Company, Anna Sperber|Dance Projects, Megan Sprenger/mvworks, Makiko Tamura/small apple co., Bill Young/Colleen Thomas & Co., Christopher Williams Dances and Miriam Wolf, among others.

Jasmine Jawato (performer) was born and raised in El Segundo, CA. She studied dance at The Studio Art of Dance in her hometown before receiving her undergraduate degree from the department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA. Following her undergraduate studies, Jasmine continued to teach and choreograph at The Studio Art of Dance. In 2014 she toured nationally as a member of David Roussève's Stardust Company, performing at the Clarice Smith Center, Krannert Center, and Jacob's Pillow. She has also performed at several Los Angeles venues including CalArt's REDCAT Theater with David Roussève/REALITY, Kevin Williamson, and Maria Gillespie/Oni Dance and internationally with Michel Kouakou’s Daara Dance Company in Germany and Côte d'Ivoire. Since 2012, Jasmine has co-organized two annual contemporary dance workshops alongside Michel Kouakou in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, where she has had the opportunity to teach and collaborate with international artists.

Elliot Jenetopulos (lighting designer) has designed lights for Anna Sperber, Enrico Wey, Jen Rosenblit, Mariana Valencia, Marissa Perel, The Builders Association, luciana achugar, Lorene Bouboushian, niv Acosta,Tess Dworman, Ursula Eagly, and others. Elliott is currently co-curating the Movement Research Spring Festival along with Aretha Aoki, Eleanor Smith, and Tara Aisha Willis.

Christian Joy (costume designer) is a costume designer and textile artist residing in Brooklyn, NY. She has created stage looks for such performers as Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Brittany Howard of the Alabama Shakes. She has also collaborated with choreographers Anna Sperber, Mariangela Lopez and Jillian Peńa and principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre, Isabella Boylston. Christian’s costume and textile work has been exhibited at galleries in Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Ryan Sawyer (composer/musician) (b.1976, San Antonio, TX) started playing drums at the age of 11. Initially learning his craft through academic orchestra and marching band he was quick to find the colloquial conjunto, zydeco, and punk rock musics of his home town equally inspiring and freeing. This started a lifelong interest in music as a communicative and healing language.  At 19, he recorded the influential first At The Drive-In record "Acrobatic Tenement". Ryan moved to New York in 1997 to pursue his interest in improvised music. Ryan plays and records with an ever-growing group of improvisers and bands; Oso Blanco (Colin Stetson, Nate Wooley, C. Spencer Yeh), Boredoms, Meshell Ndegeocello, Cass McCombs, Thurston Moore, Trevor Dunn's Proofreaders, Matana Roberts, IIII (Hisham Bharoocha, Ben Vida, Brian Chase), Man Forever, Rhys Chatham, Susan Alcorn amongst many more. Most recently he has been touring his solo project record One Day Your Heart Will Be Your Skin

Rebecca Warner (performer) loves dance. Most recently she has worked with Anna Sperber, Stacy Grossfield, Jennifer Lacey and Wally Cardona.

Tara Willis (performer) - also currently performs for Kim Brandt and has recently danced for Megan Byrne and Sarah A.O. Rosner. Her choreography has been shown at Movement Research at Judson Church, BAX, Roulette, THROW, Dixon Place, The Painting Center, and AUNTS; her writing appears in theMovement Research Performance Journal, The Brooklyn Rail, and Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory. She edits for academic journals TDR/The Drama Review and Women & Performance, is the Coordinator of Diversity Initiatives for Movement Research, and is a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at NYU.