ELISE KNUDSON is a New York City based dance artist. Elise teaches Contact Improvisation through Movement Research in NYC and teaches/facilitates CI at festivals and studios such as Touch Festival (China), Leviathan Studio (Canada) WCCI Jam (Berkeley, USA) and BKSD (Brooklyn). She created NEXToNow, modeled after The Impermanent Society of Philadelphia to provided a platform for the practice of performing interdisciplinary improvisation. (see http://nextonow.org)

Elise has also enjoyed performing choreography with various Artists in New York and beyond including Jenni Hong, Kiori Kawai/Purring Tiger, Risa Jaroslow, Noemie LaFrance, Luke Gutgsell, Jody Oberfelder and Koosil-ja/DANCE KUMIKO.

A dancer-choreographer from NYC, Jody Sperling is the Founder/Artistic Director of Time Lapse Dance. She has created 40+ works including many furthering the legacy of modern dance pioneer Loie Fuller (1862-1928). Considered the preeminent Fuller stylist, Sperling has expanded the genre into the 21st century, deploying it in the context of contemporary performance forms. She was nominated for a 2017 World Choreography Award for her work on the French feature film “The Dancer” (premiere 2016 Cannes Film Festival) inspired by Fuller’s life. Years of working in Fuller’s idiom, which involves kinesphere-expanding costumes, has influenced Sperling’s awareness of the body’s relationship with the larger environment. In 2014, she participated in a polar science mission to the Arctic as the first, and to date only, choreographer-in-residence aboard a US Coast Guard icebreaker. During the expedition, she danced on Arctic sea ice and made the short dance film “Ice Floe,” winner of a Creative Climate Award. Following that experience, Sperling developed programs transporting the icescape to the stage and incorporating climate literacy outreach. Current projects focus on using visual-kinetic narratives to connect choreography and climate science.

Born & raised in Lake Tahoe, Jack Blackmon is a performer and choreographer based in NYC. Jack performs for Sean Curran Company, Schoen Movement Company, Punchdrunk NYC’s “Sleep No More”, and presents his collaborative work with Charlotte Settle. Since their shared time at NYU, Jack and Charlotte work to investigate movement and choreography, in turn creating worlds where humor, levity, and surreality permeate the space.