Garet Wierdsma, the creator and director of Garet & Company, is a multidisciplinary artist from a small town in CT. She graduated from NYU Tisch with a BFA in Dance in May 2021. Garet was selected as the Choreography Fellowship Recipient for Sacred Heart University in January 2022, and was most recently selected for Young Choreographers Festival 2022 in NYC. Garet's work has been showcased in Dixon Place’s “8 in Show,” Emerging Artist Theatre's "New Work Series," and Queens Theatre's "Turning in Place Festival" among many other festivals across the Northeast. Garet believes that art changes the world and is passionately and actively working to be a generator of light. 

Anna Tan studied public health and dance at Tulane University, where she received the Jill Karp Choreography Prize for her choreographic capstone project Safety Net. She then completed her Master of Public Health (MPH) at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, where she was able to continue her dance training at Barnard College. Anna is also the choreographer and artistic director for her NYC-based contemporary dance company, A. Tan Dance. Founded in 2017, the company’s mission is to present emotional, thought-provoking, and dynamic dance pieces and to offer opportunities for dancers pursuing and navigating careers outside of dance to develop and flourish artistically. A. Tan Dance has previously presented work for both the stage and for film, with previous credits including the Stay Home Film Fest!, the Danza Highbridge Festival, the Dumbo Dance Festival, and the HATCH Presenting Series.

Yu.S.Artistry is a professional contemporary dance ensemble based in New York City and Philadelphia. In collaboration with artistic director, Yuki Ishiguro, the company artists create and perform new works that are presented nationally and internationally. Yu.S.Artistry aims to create choreography that combines our director’s unique movement style— a combination of ballet, contemporary, improvisation, and break dance. We seek to explore new possibilities within the realm of contemporary dance performance as a company, and to encourage each of our dancers to explore their own artistry. Yu.S.Artistry values dance education and offers classes and performance opportunities for high school, collegiate, and pre-professional students.

Misaki Hayama was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. 

She moved to New York in 2015 as a scholarship student at the Alvin Ailey Dance School. During her school career, in 2016 she performed her duet modern dance piece ”Antagatadokosa'' at the Ailey Citigroup Theater in Global Harmony. 

The following year, in 2017 she performed a solo piece ”Touryanse'' at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. After graduating from Alvin Ailey School, she presented ”Touryanse” at Ailey Citigroup Theater, Tank Theater and The Works Studio. 

In 2019, a 30-minute solo dance ”Warabe Uta” was performed at the TADA!Theater. In the same year, ”Kagome Kagome'' was shown at The Baumann. 

In 2020,She presented her new piece ”Sakura Sakura'' at Old First Church and got 4th place. In 2021, She performed her 30-minute solo piece ”Warabe Uta” in Green Space as a Take Roots 2021 artist.

Alison Cook-Beatty attended the Boston Conservatory of Music at Berklee where she earned a BFA in Dance with high honors and was the selected recipient of the Ruth Sandholm Ambrose Scholarship Award and the Jan Veen Scholarship before moving to New York City where she danced with the Paul Taylor Dance Company and Taylor 2, among other dance companies. 

In 2012, Ms. Cook-Beatty founded ALISON COOK BEATTY DANCE, a classically based modern dance company, based in New York City, whose mission is to create and share accessible and emotionally engaging dance for all. 

She has been commissioned by companies including Ballet Next, Carolina Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet School, BOCO, Steffi Nossen School of Dance, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, NYU, and Marymount Manhattan College. 

She was awarded the 2013 sjDANCEco Award for Artistic Merit and under her direction, the Company has grown into an artistically reputable and productive 501(c)(3) nonprofit dance company with local impact and international esteem. 

The company has performed throughout the United States, has been featured on ABC News for its prolific and creative efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was awarded grant support from Dance/NYC’s Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund, the New York Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council of The Arts. 

Seyong Kim is currently an Assistant Professor at Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI). He holds an MA in Dance Education from New York University and an MA in Dance from Sung-Kyun-Kwan University (Seoul, South Korea). He is a CMA (Certified Movement Analyst), a RSDE (Registered Somatic Dance Educator), a PBT (Progressing Ballet Technique), and an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 7 of the American Ballet Theatre’s National Training Curriculum. Additionally, he earned Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University. Seyong has taught for Rutgers University, Kent State University, The University of Georgia, Randolph College, American College Dance Association (ACDA), Alabama Dance Festival, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Dance Now! Miami, and Charlottesville Ballet. Seyong has professionally worked with Metropolitan Opera Ballet at Lincoln Center, Albania Opera Ballet Theatre, Landestheater Coburg Germany TAKE Dance, Oakland Ballet Company, ProArteDanza in Canada, Battery Dance Festival, and Seoul International Dance Festival in TANK. 

Caleb began professional training In 2014 at The Joffrey Ballet School where he performed works for several notable choreographers such as Nathan Trice, Sekou McMiller, Rena Butler, Lane Gifford, and Patrick O'Brien. After Joffrey, he found work with Maleek Washington as well as Justin Gile’s Soul Escape. He has worked commercially as well, as seen in HBO’s Random Acts Of Flyness by Terrance Nance, choreographed by Domani Pompey. He most recently performed his own work, “Mariposa” with Michelle Thompson Ulerich’s Spark Movement Collective. Caleb is currently working with Kayla Farrish, MATHETA dance, Movement Playground, and Lanecoarts. 

Teresa Fellion founded BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance, a contemporary dance company of womxn and non-binary individuals, in 2011 after working as an independent choreographer since 2004. The company captures and communicates human encounters through dynamic, purposeful movement while bringing a wealth of cultural arts activism experience into each work they create with community partners. BodyStories’ mission is to examine the depths of society in their darkest and brightest moments, while uplifting minority voices and inspiring audiences to physically sense emotional and psychological aspects of the human condition through dance. BodyStories has performed at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jacob’s Pillow, The Public Theater, Danspace Project, University of Florida, ENTPE University, NYU, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Ailey Citigroup Theater, Bryant Park, BDF Edinburgh EICC, City Center, Dixon Place, UME, ICA Boston, Franco-American Cultural Center, CPR, Merce Cunningham Theatre, Dance Complex, Southampton Arts Center, Southampton Cultural Center, Triskelion Arts, and in concert with Phish. Fellion’s work has been positively reviewed by The New York Times, NPR, The Huffington Post, The Scotsman, Oberon’s Grove, NYTheatre.com, The Skinny Magazine, World Dance Reviews, Edinburgh Festivals Magazine, Edinburgh Spotlight, Southampton Press, Stage Buddy, East Hampton Press, The Sun Journal, Broadway Baby, and Earth Press, among others. 

Ankita is a bold emerging artist interested in creating genre-resistant performance that holds meaning for diverse audiences. They invest in visceral, immersive work that leave audiences reflecting in new ways. Physically, their movement practices are rooted in and draw from contemporary dance, dance theater, and forms from both the South Asian and African diaspora. Ankita holds a B.A. in Dance and Anthropology from Colorado College and is currently based in Brooklyn, NY. 

Faustine Lavie was born in Toulon, France, where she started ballet at 3 years old. She studied in different reknowned dance schools such as Paris Opera Ballet School. She moved to NYC in 2015 to attend The Ailey School, where she graduated from the Certificate Program in May 2018. Faustine had the opportunity to perform works by many choreographers, such as Darrell Grand Moultrie, Manuel Vignoulle, Winston Dynamite Brown, Amy Hall Garner, Fredrick Earl Mosley, Clifton Brown and Shay Bland. She is currently a company member with iKADA Contemporary Dance Company, LaneCoArts, sarAika, The DynamitExperience, Keiko Fujii Dance Company and Six Degrees Dance. She founded Faustine Lavie Dance Project in 2020. 

Sarah Blake (Choreographer) is an up-and-coming choreographer and dancer based in New Jersey/New York. She began dancing locally at the age of 3 in ballet and then added jazz, tap and modern by the age of 6. At the age of 12, she auditioned for New Jersey School of Ballet’s summer intensive program and by that fall she enrolled in their year-round pre-professional training program studying ballet, pointe, partnering, variations and jazz. She performed with the New Jersey Ballet Company in their Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Don Quixote, and La Esmerelda. Additionally, throughout high school she was a member of the West Essex Dance Team, serving as captain of the varsity team her senior year and assisting with choreography. She began teaching ballet and substituted for jazz and contemporary classes at Theatre NextDoor in her senior year of high school and is a dance/theater instructor at Carousel of Progress Academy (a school for special needs students). Recently a graduate of Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY double majoring in Dance and Psychology with a minor in Business Management. She studied modern, contemporary and ballet learning from Shawn Bible and Andrei Kisselev. She has performed in every fall and spring dance concerts working with guest choreographers: Alex Olivieri, Michael Trusnovec, Bonnie O’Rourke, Judi Jaekel, Sarah Housepian, Michaela McGowan, Janice Rosario and Brad Beakes, as well as many student choreographers. In the Fall 2020 Virtual Dance Concert, her choreographic piece Arachna was presented alongside professional choreographers. She also served as captain for the Manhattanville Dance Ensemble/Performance Team choreographing jazz and contemporary dances for campus events. She is hoping to continue presenting choreography around the country. 

New York City based emerging dance artists, Olivia Passarelli and Sophie Gray-Gaillard, began collaborating in 2021 to form five two Dance Company. Olivia received her BFA in Dance from Montclair State University, and Sophie graduated with a double major in Neuroscience and Dance from Swarthmore College. Olivia has had her work performed at Alexander Kassar Theater, Dumbo Dance Festival, KoDaFe International Dance Festival, Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, was awarded 1st Place in Salt Contemporary Dance’s Shape Choreography Festival, and received the Choreographic Excellence Award upon graduating from Montclair. Sophie has created and performed work in Philadelphia, New York City, and Melbourne, Australia, and she was awarded the Melvin B. Troy Prize for her choreography at Swarthmore College. five two’s work has been featured in Steffi Nossen Dance Foundation’s Fall Showcase and in various showcases at Arts on Site, Balance Arts Center, Green Space, i KADA Dance Center, KYL/D’s Dance Center, and Triskelion Arts. 

The mission of the ERA Dance Company is to create a body of work that is reflective of cultural truths. The process behind the work is meant to engage with and empower the larger community. The company is led through the choreographic vision of Jelani Taylor and realized through a group of versatile, powerful, and engaged group of artist. Creating work that is meaningful, visceral, sensual, and nostalgic the company seeks to bring people to dance through an honest sharing of our lived experience.