Ashley Hensel-Brown is the founder of Avant Vermont Dance (AVD). AVD uses movement to re-imagine community and engage the public in meaningful art-making. Our events are staged at our community’s doorstep, with admission by optional donation, making them accessible to those who may otherwise face barriers to attending live performances. We welcome our audience to become part of the experience through our incorporation of interactive art-making opportunities. We encourage our community to think about spaces in different ways as we imbue them with vibrancy. By cultivating live dance in Southern Vermont, we forge opportunities for regional dancers, choreographers, artists, and musicians to showcase their work; create partnerships with local organizations and organizations; and draw positive attention and art-focused visitors to our region.
Zackery Betty (He/Him) has served as a dancer, choreographer, Executive Director, and Artistic Director of NSquared Dance. He holds his MFA in Choreography from Wilson College and BFA in Dance from Marymount Manhattan College. He has collaborated with The Palace Theatre, Currier Museum of Art, and New Hampshire Dance Collaborative, among others. His choreography has been featured at Lindenwood University, Ballet Hartford, University of New Hampshire, Endicott College & Boston Arts Academy. He’s served as an artist in residence at Berwick Academy, Goffstown High School, and Andy’s Summer Playhouse. Zackery is currently an adjunct Professor of Dance at Plymouth State University.
Matt LaRocca and Jessie Owens have been working together since 2015. Their collaboration has led them to explore all of the possible ways that music and movement can be in relationship. In their experiments, they create worlds full of mystery and wonder in order to explore what it means to be alive. All with a serious amount of magical realism.
Millie Heckler is an interdisciplinary artist who merges movement, voice and original music to tell stories of rage, sensuality and forgiveness. Her practice lies in unlocking voices of the body. Through a practice of (re)opening embodied instruments—such as movement, vocalization, storytelling and imagination—she leans into self-remembrance: What am I capable of creating? Her work has been supported by Vermont Arts Council, Cultural Arts Funding Program in Texas, New York Live Arts and Vermont Dance Alliance, among others.
Alexandra Bilodeau is a dance artist and educator originally from Massachusetts, now living in Yonkers, New York. She holds Bachelors of Arts degrees in Dance and History from Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS) where she was also awarded the Janet Seeley Award and she holds an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College. Alexandra’s choreographic interests include nostalgia, spectacle, humor and memory. She has presented her work at WAXworks, the Somatic Dance Conference at HWS, and the Small Plates Festival.
Calvin Walker is a Vermont based dancer and writer. He is a founding member of the Rhythm Riderz Crew, Vermont’s oldest active breaking crew. He also dances with the PH Dance modern dance company and teaches at Contemporary Dance and Fitness in Montpelier.
Chloe A. Schafer (she/her) is a dance artist, scholar, teacher, and arts administrator based in New York, with lasting ties to Vermont. She researches, teaches, and creates dance with the hope of softening the edges of our collective imagination and proposing alternative realities full of whimsy, focus, humor, and care. Chloe was one of the 2023 ChoreoLab TJDF residents and is excited to return and help organize this year’s festival. Chloe received her M.F.A.in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College and holds a B.A. in Dance and B.S. in Anthropology from the University of Vermont.
Erin McNulty is a New Hampshire-based contemporary dancer, choreographer, and somatic researcher. Her work investigates movement as a bridge between internal and external landscapes, past and present mythologies, the knowable and unknowable. She is joining the faculty of Kimball Union Academy as Director of Dance this fall, after holding teaching positions at Boston University, Colby Sawyer College, Lebanon Ballet School, Wilmington Dance Academy, and Boston Ballet School. Her site-specific, film, and stage works have received support from NEFA, the City of Boston, The Junction Dance Festival, the Byrne Foundation, and the Shawna Shea Women in Film Fellowship.
Caitlin Morgan is a Burlington-based full-time creative: choreographer, dance and yoga teacher, and book editor, with roots in Brooklyn, NY and Southwest Michigan. Her choreography has been featured at various venues and festivals across New England and the Midwest, and is commonly inspired by her interests in communication theories, ecosomatics, and literature, as well as the many artists (from LA to Chicago to NYC and in between) she has had the privilege of learning with over the years. More at www.cmmovement.com
Taylor Barnes is a writer, dancer and visual artist based in Pomfret, VT, where she lives with her husband and two-year-old son. An autistic and synesthetic artist, Taylor roots her work in movement, language and form, building creative frameworks that affirm reparative ecology. Taylor graduated from Williams College in 2013 with a BA in English and Philosophy. She is a 2019 alumna of EMERGE-NYC, a Brooklyn, NY-based incubator for emerging artists working for social justice. Taylor performed a solo “Echo” at the Junction Dance Festival in 2023 and looks forward to returning to JDF this summer through the Choreo Lab artist residency.
Carla Kimball has had more than 40 years of training as a dancer, and she began working with photography and film 15 years ago. She is currently most intrigued by creating dance films projected onto a set of layered fabric panels. She has exhibited her photos and films in multiple venues throughout the Upper Valley. Her documentaries and dance films can be seen on her website https://revealedpresence.com/portfolios/films/.
Sekhmet was lucky as a resident of Washington, D.C. to find a wealth of teachers with backgrounds in Turkish, Classical Persian, Georgian, Kurdish and Egyptian dance. She has performed as a troupe member (Silk Road Dance Company) and as a soloist in several venues. Her main influence came from dance scholar and performer Artemis Mourat, and she has continued to the present to perform Danse Oryantal (Turkish style Belly Dance) as well as Raqs Sharqi (Egyptian style Belly Dance). Belly dance has been a medium for her to demonstrate her core belief that strength and beauty need not be opposites on stage.
Nithya Ramesh is a trained dancer in the Indian classical dance style of Bharatanatyam which she has studied for over 2 decades. She has completed the highest level of examinations offered by the Karnataka State Secondary Education Board in India earning her the title “vidushi” or scholar in Bharatanatyam. Nithya has been teaching dance through her organization Natyaroha since 2013 and has worked with individuals of all ages and backgrounds.
MC DeBelina believes life is a dance and everyone a dancer. MC finds beauty in the mundane, awkward, and broken equal to the majestic, sacred, and whole. MC has been dancing her whole life, even before birth, and has been teaching dance for over 20 years. Currently she teaches a parent-tot class, creative dance for kids, teen dance classes, adult dance classes and senior dance classes. She particularly loves teaching Movement for Parkinsons’.
Kristina Desjardins studied Dance Theater at American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC. Since, she’s joined NYC based companies ELSCO Dance, Metaphors&similiesDance, GIG, VIVOBallet and SANDSILK. She’s danced with Dublin Worldwide Spirit Productions in USA & Canada. She’s work as a Dancer/ Choreographer in Music Videos shot in L.A., New York, Reno, and London. In 2021, Kristina commissioned a piece for Reno’s Art Festival at Reno Little Theater. Recently Kristina founded a Vermont based collective ENTITY Dance with performances in Vermont & New York.
Catherine Messina has danced for Yoshito Sakuraba, Anna Paterson, Emmy Wildermuth, and One Day Dance. Her company, rogue wave, has performed across the United States. She has been commissioned for original works by Suttle Dance, One Day Dance, and Open Dance Ensemble, is a recipient of grant support and artist-in-residences including Everwood Artist Retreat and Hambidge Cross Pollination Lab, and has experience in arts administration, university teaching, and technical production. Community work is important to her and seen through her creation of dance festivals – Fall for Fall, Spring for Spring, the unKEMpT Dance Festival and running affordable class series.
Julia Bair is a Computer Science and Dance double major and has grown up dancing with competition dance, attending many masterclasses and camps to expand her dance vocabulary. She has danced all throughout her college career and has been choreographing more independent works. She is grateful for all of the classes and guidance she has had over the years which have contributed to how she works and choreographs today.
Alewife Dance Collective
Katie Henry is from Concord, NH, and Sarah Wasserman is from Westwood, MA. While they’ve both danced most of their lives, their paths did not cross until they became involved in the University of Vermont’s Dance program in 2019. They spent many hours dancing with and learning from one another, while performing in faculty and student pieces, including each other’s. After graduating, they decided that collaboration was a natural next step in their artistic relationship and formed Alewife Dance Collective.
Michelle Erard is a dance artist trained in non-western dance. The traditions underpin her work – collages of movement, sound, and language that explore memories, identity, and place through rhythm. Her work has been presented at Providence Fringe Festival, School of Contemporary Dance and Thought, Boston Conservatory’s Moment’s Notice, Smith College, and other venues. Michelle received training at the Conservatory of Flamenco Arts, her BA from University of New Mexico, and her MFA from Smith College.
Ann Bosse began her dance training at age 15 in Philadelphia, PA with the esteemed Pat Thomas at The University of the Arts summer program. After earning her B.S. in Dance Performance and Choreography from Skidmore College Ann went on to dance professionally with many groups including the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, Saba Dance Theater, TAKE Dance, RIOULT, Trainor Dance, and Mazzini Dance. She also studied extensively with the Paul Taylor Dance Company and former Lar Lubovitch Dance Company dancer Christine Wright. Ann has lived in Montpelier, VT since 2022.