Billy Blanken
Billy Blanken is a distinguished professional in dance and choreography. He is faculty at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, Peridance Center and is a certified GYROTONIC® instructor. In 2016, he founded Sheep Meadow Dance Theatre to provide accessible high quality dance performance for all, regardless of socio-economic background.
Website: https://sheepmeadowdanceth.wixsite.com/smdt

Brookti Berne
Brookti Berne was raised in New York City. She started training at Ellen Robbins Dance Studio and Alvin Ailey Dance Theater at the age of six. Subsequently, she studied at Mark Morris Dance Studio and Dancewave.  She went to Rutgers University for her BFA in dance. During her time at Rutgers, she had the opportunity to study abroad at Jerusalem Dance Academy for a semester.
Instagram:@itsbrookti

Joyce King
Joyce has enjoyed a multifaceted career as a performer, educator, choreographer & director. A recipient of 2025 NYSCA Artist Grant, 2024 Brooklyn Arts Fund, 2023 SU-CASA Grantee, 2022 Mertz-Gilmore Creative Stipend/UnionDance. JKingDanceCo. presented at 30+ venues and awarded multiple residencies. She’s happily married to Ray & a proud mom of their daughter Sydney.
Website: www.JoyceKingDance.com, Instagram: @JoyceKing.jkdcny
Photo by Jaqi Medlock

Kierstyn Edore
Opus//The Company (est.2024) is an explorative movement company studying human experiences through collaboration and interdisciplinary modalities. Opus takes an interest in the subtle interactions between personalities, bodies, and stories to discover a common language of humanity through dance/theater mediums.
Website: https://opusthecompany.wixsite.com/dance, Instagram:@opusthecompany
Photo by Rebecca Marcela Oviatt

Maia Sage
Through training with Ellen Robbins Maia had opportunities to perform her own choreography at Jacob’s Pillow, Chez Bushwick, St Mark’s Church, and more. Her piece, Passed, was selected for Dixon Place’s 2023 8 In Show. She joined the Martha Graham Youth Company performing at the Joyce Theater and Tavern on the Green and was highlighted in Noémie Lafrance’s site specific piece, Agora, in the McCarren Park Pool. Maia participated in Pierre Dulane’s Dancing Classrooms program. She was showcased at Irving Plaza’s Night of Swing, later joined Piel Canella’s junior Salsa company, but landed on Latin Ballroom. Maia attended the Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS), LaGuardia High School for drama and Maggie Flannigan Meisner conservatory.
Instagram: @maiasagedance

Nancy Brier
Nancy Brier is an Arizona-born, NY-based choreographer, filmmaker, teacher and director of Synergy Dance Collective NY who creates multidisciplinary works exploring social/environmental themes. Works performed/screened in NYC (Duke on 42^nd, Dixon Place, DUMBO Dance Festival, Ailey Citigroup Theater and more), Amsterdam, Berlin, Czech Republic, France, Italy, London, Vienna and on MetroArts13/MetroStories TV networks.
Website: www.nancybrierdance.com:
Instagram: @nancybrierdance; @synergydancecollectiveny
Photo by Sierra Berkeley Fisher

Shachi Phene
Shachi Phene is a choreographer, dance artist, and educator with over 25 years of experience in bharatanatyam and other Indian dance forms. As director of Noor Dance Academy, she enjoys creating works for stage and film and sharing her art through teaching.
Website: www.noordanceacademy.com, Instagram: @shachiphene
Photo by Himanshu Tolani

Stephanie Steme
Stephanie Steme, a Chicago native based in Brooklyn, is the founder and choreographer of STEME DANCE NYC. With her passion of fusion for creating multidisciplinary works, her company has employed over 30 freelance artists since 2022. Performing locally and globally, audience to performer connection and storytelling is at the forefront of SDNYC’s parades, exhibitions, and community events.
Website: www.stemedance.net ; Instagram: @steme_dance_nyc
Photo by Alice Chacon

Taylor Gordon
Taylor Gordon is an international dancer, creator, and educator. Performance credits: Metropolitan Opera Ballet (Lincoln Center), Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Angelina Ballerina (off-Broadway), Kennedy Center, & Carnegie Hall. Choreography credits: Princeton University, STEPS Beyond Foundation, Dixon Place, “Juliette’s Miracle” film, Jazz Choreography Enterprises, Uptown Rising, Asian-American Film Awards, Dublin Worldwide Productions (Res. Director), RWS Global (Show Supervisor). Teaching: NY Film Academy, United Nations Ballet Club, BDC, India, Japan, Indonesia.
Website: www.taylorjgordon.com, Instagram: @taylorjgordon

Willow Green
Willow Green is an interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, and writer. Their work often engages with grief, vulnerability, and tenderness, especially as informed by their recent butoh studies with Tiziana Longo. Their work has been performed at venues including Salon Dreiklang, MASH, MOtiVE Brooklyn, and the Jacob’s Pillow Staff/Intern Show.
Website: willow-green.com , Instagram: @will.ow.by
Photo by Yvonne Hartmann

Alexa Wilson
Alexa Wilson is a dance, performance art, video and text artist from New Zealand based in Berlin 10 years pre-Covid. She has presented in NZ, NYC, Europe, UK, Canada, Australia, India and China. She has won awards and choreographed on dance companies Touch Compass and Footnote NZ Dance in NZ.
Website: https://cargocollective.com/alexawilson ; Instagram: @alexarosadaworldwilson

Janet Restino
Janet Restino is multimedia visual artist/writer/performer (sometimes with musicians) appearing in clubs, cafes, galleries and The New York Poetry Festival. Poets & Writers and Hell’s Kitchen Foundation awarded her Grants. Publishing includes Rogue Scholars Press, Silver Tongue Devils, Riverside Poets Anthologies, One Breath Rising, Semiotext(e), Canary in a Coal Mind.
Website: www.JanetRestino.com for poetry, visual art, and videos
Instagram: @janetrestino

JRose
JRose, is a Queens-based Spoken Word Artist and Teaching Artist. She is the 2023 BRIC Brooklyn Slam Champion, and founder of The Rose Garden Events. She hosts for the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, mentors youth and women at Rikers Island, and in 2024, she released her debut poetry collection and Spoken Word album, both titled, Pieces of My Crumbled Thoughts.
Website: www.therosegardenevents.com
Instagram: @my_crumbled_thoughts
Photo by @nortographynyc

Leann Gioia
Leann Gioia has been pursuing her professional career in NYC since 2014, after receiving
her BA in English and BFA in Dance at the University of Iowa. As a dancer, she is currently a
member of the Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company, a founding member of Variety
Pack Collective, and an active teacher of the Simonson Technique. In addition, Leann is a
practicing enrolled agent and seeking her degree of Master of Science in Taxation, as well
as an art model with various schools and artists in NYC, including the Art Students League
of New York, Grand Central Atelier, and the artist Bill Crozier. Poetry has always been a
passion of hers, and she has performed her work at various open mic events. Leann
intends to continue writing and creating performance art in NYC and beyond.
Instagram: @leann_joy
Photo by Raquel Beauchamp

Margaret Mighty Oak Brackey
Margaret Mighty Oak Brackey is an NYC-based artist. She graduated with a BFA in Dance from Adelphi University (2022). Currently, Margaret is a performer with The Equus Projects, where her training in natural horsemanship and passion for improvisation come together, and the Anna Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble.
Instagram: @margaret_mightyoak
Photo by Katrina Smith

Marina Otchuda Say Gynt
Marina Otchuda Say Gynt is a multidisciplinary artist whose performance art spans four continents. She created 30 premiere works in Croatia, blending dance, theater, and music. As a filmmaker and visual artist, her works explore social issues. She directs ARKTIK – The Institute for the Future and promotes accessible art.
Website: www.Otchuda.com
Social Media: www.Otchuda.com/linktree

Michele Herman
Michele Herman’s novel, Save the Village, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Prize, and she’s published two chapbooks: Victory Boulevard and Just Another Jack. Her work has appeared in recent issues of Carve, Ploughshares, The Hudson Review, The Sun and LitHub. She’s a devoted teacher at The Writers Studio.
Website: www.micheleherman.com
Photo by Helane Blumfield

Niusha Karkehabadi
Niusha (she/they) is a LMSW aspiring somatic therapist, author of erotic poetry book, Lick My Rainbow, multidisciplinary performance artist, and pleasure activist. Their work exemplifies liberation represented through sensation as a means to allow our range of emotions to exist as they come. She aims to create space to shift how micro and macro collective permits us to exist safely as ourselves.
Website: https://niushak.com
Instagram: @niush.k
Photo by Mark Santillano

Perry Brass
Poet/activist Perry Brass: has published 23 books, been Lambda Literary Award Finalist 6 times; awarded Genny Award from The Generations Project; president of the Gay Liberation Front Foundation; co-founded Gay Men’s Health Project Clinic; co-founded the Rainbow Book Fair; on the advisory board of Pony Box Dance Theater.
Website:  http://www.perrybrass.com
Photo by Ricardo Limon

     
Stephanie Steme (Poet & Choreographer & Dancer) (left) @steme_dance_nyc
Collaborating with reading artist Alison Waller (right) @alisonwaller_
Alison Waller is an NYC contemporary dancer. She recently performed in “The Hole Story: A Docu-Cabaret,” choreographed by Leslie Galán Guyton, and is a trainee for Chutzpah Dance. Alison has a BA in Dance and English-Creative Writing from Franklin & Marshall College and studied the intersection of text and dance in her independent study, Body and Word.

Thank you to everyone who supported our fundraising campaign to make this event possible.