Dance Theatre: Afro-Latin Immersion | Creative Team Member

Bianca Medina is a 2nd generation Boricua-Mexicana Dance Artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She spent the last six years touring across the world as a movement and teaching artist with Los Angeles based companies CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theatre, Viver Brasil Dance Company, and with choreographer Marina Magalhães. She continues to teach responsive community-based dance workshops and collegiate residencies at universities and institutions across the nation. Her experience stems from her co-facilitation in the CONTRA-TIEMPO Futuro Summer Dance Intensive, where she helped build a curriculum rooted in decolonization and arts activism. Medina’s choreographic research lies within the intersection of Modern Release technique, the Afro-Latin Diaspora and their inherent relationship to the earth. While honoring the divine feminine and spiritual traditions of her ancestry, she explores how the body serves as a vessel for contemporary storytelling. As such, her practice breaks the dichotomy between past and future, framing tradición as an ever-evolving practice living infinitely within our bodies and spirits. She has danced on the stages of Jacob’s Pillow, The Joyce, Lincoln Center, The Hollywood Bowl, The Ford, Disneyland, The Getty, Dance Place, The Center Chorégraphique National France, and House of Culture Bulgaria. In depth study to date includes being in Salvador, Bahia, and Brasil with Mestra Vera Passos. Her latest choreographic collaborations include Sol of El Barrio with Artistic Director Maria Torres, and also Body As A Crossroads with Tatiana Zamir and Director Marina Magalhães, which is set to premier at Houston’s DiverseWorks April ’22. Medina holds a B.F.A. in Dance from the University of Iowa and is a proud native of Chicago.

Dance Theatre: Afro-Latin Immersion | Creative Team Member

Director and Choreographer Wes Veldink began developing his unique and dynamic style of dance over three decades ago. Based in the fundamentals of jazz, ballet and modern, his work transforms human posture and gesture into movement that brings the intricacies of music to visual life and transcends the boundaries between commercial and concert dance. After opening a dance studio at age 15 in his hometown in Southern Oregon, Wes began his career in Los Angeles following his graduation from the prestigious Orange County High School of the Arts. While in L.A., Wes taught at the EDGE Performing Arts Center, co-choreographed Paula Abdul’s video Blowing Kisses in the Wind, was Michael Jackson’s double and stand-in for two videos, improvised live onstage twice with singer/songwriter Ani Difranco, and danced in the films Newsies and Tank Girl. After moving to New York City, he started his own dance company, The Wes Veldink Movement, which toured Los Angeles, Toronto and South Korea. As a teacher of dance and movement for over 30 years, Wes has worked with dance companies, universities, conservatories, conventions and festivals around the globe. In fashion, he choreographed a series of commercials for Joe Fresh, an international campaign for Nikon with Kate Moss and a Revlon campaign with Olivia Wilde. In music, he was a contributing choreographer for Alicia Keys’ Set the World on Fire Tour. In film, he choreographed the dance sequences for Gwyneth Paltrow in the feature film Country Strong and produced his own dance shorts under his production company Calm & Sense Creations. Recently, Wes was Associate Choreographer for the Netflix original series The OA, choreographed the film Brighton Beach starring FKA twigs and the film Boundaries starring Vera Farmiga and Christopher Plummer. He was Director of Choreography for Rooms, a performance/installation hybrid conceived, curated and directed by FKA twigs. Post Covid (June 2020), Veldink is a body language architect. Born and raised in southern Oregon, he is a child of the woods and deeply connected to nature and spirit. He spent formative years in Hollywood exploring and developing his voice as an artist. His journey then led him to the artful New York City where he defined his artistry. Life as a creative entrepreneur and movement alchemist has allowed Veldink to nurture relationships around the world, comparing notes and experiences with fellow artists while developing and creating unique work that can be seen in film, television, music, fashion and on stage. His self realization, relationships, and collaborations continue to fuel him. After thirty-three years of creating and teaching, Veldink is passionate more than ever to share the joy, privilege, magic, and Chi of being an Artist.

“Wes Veldink and his dancers move with a fierce, sexy quality that wreaks of passion, lust and rage. The refreshing honesty of their movement takes the audience on an emotional journey through the valleys of their own desire,” says Sara Jarrett, editor-in-chief Dance Spirit Magazine 2001.

Musical Theatre | Creative Team Member

Jill Marie Vallery is an award-winning dancer and choreographer of Theater, Television, and Film. She is an original cast member of the Tony Award Winning Broadway musical FELA!, where she was also the Dance Captain for its Broadway, international, and national tours. During the 2013 national tour, she was promoted to Tour Assistant Choreographer and also served as the Company Promotional Director. Additional Choreography credits include: Netflix Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness, Oxygen Network Fix My Choir, WGNTV Chicago, SAY YES music video with Michelle Williams featuring Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland, winner of the 2015 Stellar Award for Best Music Video, Just Do You music video (India Arie), Shadow/Land (Fault Line Theatre), LORDES (New Ohio Theatre), Cullud Wattah Associate Choreographer (Public Theater), Tsidii Le Loka Concert (Time Warner Center), and numerous student showcases. Ms. Vallery is a recipient of the Fred and Adele Astaire Award for “Outstanding Excellence on Stage”, and the Advisor Committee on Chorus (ACCA) Actors Equity Award for “Outstanding Broadway Cast.” A graduate of The Ailey School, she has worked extensively with youth throughout the United States and abroad, choreographing showcases, teaching master classes and workshops as an Ailey Arts and Education Teaching Artist. She is also a Barre3 certified instructor where she taught at their exclusive West Village studio in Manhattan, NY. Additional performance credits include Off Broadway: Tales from The Sun (Ars Nova), And My Name Ain’t Peaches (Theatre Outlet); TV: She Gotta Have It (Netflix); and Film: BlackKKKlansman (Focus Feature). Jill will be seen as Caesar Rodney in the highly anticipated upcoming Broadway revival of 1776 directed by Tony award winner Diane Paulus and is currently a movement instructor throughout NYC.

Musical Theatre | Creative Team Member

Courtney Paige Ross is a professional dancer and teaching artist who hails from New Orleans LA. Courtney earned her BFA, with honors, from The Ailey School/Fordham University. Currently, she is a performer with Camille A. Brown and Dancers. She has toured with Ailey II and later, EVIDENCE Dance Company (Artistic Director Ronald K. Brown). She has worked and performed closely with Tank & the Bangas, Jon Batiste, Jemel McWilliams, Jeffrey Page, Ray Mercer, Darrell Moultrie, and The DynamitExperience. Other credits include Porgy & Bess (Metropolitan Opera), For Colored Girls Workshop, 2021 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (NBC), Broadway Bares: Takeoff (Choreographer. Laya Barak), PowerPlay (The Shed), 2016 Video Music Awards: Beyoncé (MTV), and release industrials for The Wheel of Time (Amazon Prime) and Samsung S8 Release (Choreographer Rich & Tone Talauega). She is a Trauma Informed Registered Yoga Teacher and certified Social Emotional Learning facilitator. She founded BLOOM Dance, Inc, a 501(c)(3) organization that aims to fortify mental/emotional health and wellness of youth, through dance and creative arts therapy programming. She is honored to have been a part of this project since its inception. Courtney gives thanks to God, her family, and chosen tribe for the unwavering support!

Musical Theatre | Creative Team Member

Crystal Monee Hall is a singer/songwriter, composer, vocal arranger and producer and music director based in New York City. Her varied career has included roles on Broadway (Rent and Kristen Chenoweth’s For the Girls), sold out tours with Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead) and Dave Schools (Widespread Panic), and guest appearances on the CW’s Walker and HBO’s High Maintenance. She has released three original albums, with work from her most recent EP, If You Breathe called ‘riveting’ by Billboard Magazine. Composing, arranging, directing, performance and vocal production credits include: Sesame Street (“Wash Day”), Ayodele Casel (Chasing Magic), Walker (CW network), “A Beautiful Noise” (Gospel Arrangement, Biden/Harris Campaign), Ben Platt: Live From Radio City Music Hall, Donkey Hodie (PBS Kids), Nature Cat (PBS Kids), Alma’s Way (PBS Kids), Fearless (Mandy Gonzalez’ Album), Black Ink Crew (VH1), Broadway Inspirational Voices, Craig David’s “All We Needed”, (official song of the BBC’s 2016 Children In Need campaign), Cynthia Erivo (PBS Special), Brandon Victor Dixon (PBS Special). Mickey Hart Band, Kristen Chenoweth (For the Girls, Broadway), After the Storm (Ahrens and Flaherty), Quilters (NYU Tisch New School on Broadway), Sister Act (NYU Tisch New School on Broadway), Thomas Rhett, Renee Elise Goldsberry, John Legend, Patti Austin, Oleta Adams, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Kesha (Grammys 2018), Roy Ayers, Scott Alan, Shayna Steele, Jason Mraz, Spencer Day, Mandy Gonzalez, Ledisi, Kanye West, The Last Internationale. Find out more about Crystal at crystalmoneehall.com, and follow her on social media @crystalmonee.

Musical Theatre | Creative Team Member

Robin Gee holds an MFA in Contemporary Dance Choreography and Performance from Sarah Lawrence College and specializes in African, Caribbean, and Modern dance techniques. She is a Professor at UNC Greensboro where she teaches African and Modern dance as well as the Screen Dance curriculum. Her choreographic works have appeared in the North Carolina Dance Festival, Dumbo Arts, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, as well as resident works mounted on various colleges and universities around the world. She is the recipient of the West African Research Association’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in African Research, the Central Piedmont Artist’s Hub Grant for her work on dance and music in West Africa. Most recently she is the recipient of the American Association of University Women’s Post Doctoral Research Award (2006 – 2007) for her work on The Mande Legacy, a dance documentation project for which spent six months in Guinea in 2007 and the Fulbright Award for her Research in Burkina Faso in 2013. In 2021 Gee was awarded a Fulbright Specialist Award to travel to Cabo Verde to conduct a Curricular Assessment for inclusion in the Fulbright Scholars Program. In 2006, Ms. Gee also formed her own company Sugarfoote Productions, a multipurpose service organization designed to expose communities to the myriad expressions evident in African art and to help local audiences experience the richness of African and Diasporan cultural traditions. Sugarfoote also co-produces the Greensboro Dance Film Festival, a boutique dance film festival screening films from around the world. Ms. Gee’s own dance films have currently screened in 27 film festivals worldwide include: Dance Film Screenings: Wanting (2018) Aphrodite Film Festival; Indie Boom; Global Film Festival; Central States Indie Fest; L.I.M.P.A Festival; Adirondack Film Festival; Festival International Videodanza; Movimiento de Movimientos; CKF International Festival; PRISMA Dance Fest; Independent Shorts Awards; Frame x Frame Film Festival; Festival International de Vidéo Danse de Bourgogne. NCDF Moving Movers, Screendance in the Landscape (Scotland); Studio Faire Artists Residence Program (France). Her 2 latest films are in post-production.

Musical Theatre | Guest Artist Class Artist

David Chase has been Music Director, Supervisor and Music Arranger for forty Broadway productions. Currently: his revivals include The Music Man (with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster) and 1776 (currently at the American Repertory Theatre, and heading to Broadway in the fall). West End shows include the dance music for the Donmar productions of Guys and Dolls and Evita, and a new version of Beauty and the Beast. Chase has done many arrangements for the Boston Pops and Tanglewood Festival Chorus (including their signature Twelve Days of Christmas), The Kennedy Center Honors, Radio City Music Hall (where he served several years as Music Director), Essential Voices USA (including the upcoming choral cycle Washington Women, which will be featured this summer in an NPR Tiny Desk concert), and for TV’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He was Music Director for several productions at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Music Arranger for NBC’s live performances of The Sound of Music and Peter Pan, both of which received Emmy nominations, and Apple TV’s Schmigadoon!. He was nominated for a Grammy with the cast album of Nice Work if You Can Get It, and has had Choral works published by Hal Leonard. Chase is dedicated to sharing his knowledge about the history of music for dance, and in particular celebrating the great 20th-Century Broadway dance arrangers, especially Peter Howard, Genevieve Pitot and Trude Rittman. David lives in New York City with his wife, actress and Drama Desk Award nominee, Paula Leggett Chase, and their two sons, Kyler and Dashiell. Musical training: Biology degree from Harvard.

Contemporary Ballet | Artist Faculty

Devon Carney, Artistic Director of Kansas City Ballet, was born in New Orleans, where he began his dance training with Harvey Hysell. He later joined the New Orleans Ballet, where he danced his first leading roles. In 1978, Mr. Carney was invited to join Boston Ballet. While a corps de ballet member, Mr. Carney was chosen by Choo San Goh to dance the title role of Romeo in Goh’s first and only full-length ballet, Romeo and Juliet.  Mr. Carney was promoted to principal in 1986.

During his 21-year professional dance career, Mr. Carney was able to perform many leading roles in well-known classical ballets such as Giselle, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty, and Raymonda Act III. Mr. Carney also had the opportunity to perform leading roles in 20th-century classical works such as John Cranko’s Eugene Onegin and Taming of the Shrew, Ben Stevenson’s Cinderella, Bruce Wells’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Harald Lander’s Etudes, and Anthony Tudor’s Lilac Garden.  He also was able to dance roles choreographed by cutting-edge choreographers; these roles include Maurice Bejart’s Le Sacre du Printemps, Paul Taylor’s Company B, Merce Cunningham’s Breakers, Sir Frederick Ashton’s Monotones 1, Mark Morris’ Mort Subite, and Susan Marshall’s Overture.  His George Balanchine repertoire includes principal roles in Square Dance, Agon, Mozartiana, Rubies, The Four Temperaments, and Theme and Variations.

Mr. Carney toured extensively throughout Europe, the United States, Mexico, and Asia with such greats as Rudolph Nureyev, Fernando Bujones and Cynthia Gregory. In 1994, Mr. Carney was the non-competing partner of the Senior Division Bronze Medalist at the Jackson International Ballet Competition. 

He also performed at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 1981 and in their Gala of 1987.  He has additionally choreographed and taught for The School at Jacob’s Pillow Ballet Program in 2013.

Mr. Carney served as Ballet Master for Boston Ballet from 1998 to 2003. During this time he worked closely with choreographers Ben Stevenson, Christopher Wheeldon, Michael Corder, Michael Pink, and Bruce Wells. Furthermore, he has worked closely with Anna-Marie Holmes in the staging of several major productions of the great classics.

Mr. Carney was appointed Artistic Director of the Boston Ballet Summer Dance Program in 1994 and served in this capacity for nine years. Teaching credits include Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, Arizona Ballet Summer Program, Ballet Austin, Ballet Met, Boston Ballet, Boston Conservatory, Butler University, Cincinnati Ballet, Guangzhou Ballet of China, Hartford Ballet, Houston Ballet Summer Program, Kansas City Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, University of North Carolina School for the Arts, Texas Christian University, The School at Jacob’s Pillow, University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music Dance Department and various regional ballet companies and schools across the United States and Europe. He also has served as a judge on the juries of the 2002 and 2021 Youth America Grand Prix Ballet (YAGP) Competition finals and the 2005 and 2006 American Ballet Competition, as well as semi-finals of YAGP in 2018 and 2019. In addition, his choreographic endeavors include the ballets Opus II and Interlude for Boston Ballet, Cascades and Daystar for Boston Ballet II. Through the years, he choreographed Symphony #1, Awakenings, and Wonderful Land for the Boston Ballet Summer Dance Program, as well as staged several classical ballet excerpts. He choreographed a work for BalletMet in August of 2007 titled Speaking in Tongues. He also worked very closely with the Cincinnati Opera from 2005-2012 choreographing works in Aida, Un Ballo in Maschera, Lucie de Lammermoor, Die Meistersinger, La Traviata, and many others. In addition, Mr. Carney has choreographed several ballets for Cincinnati Ballet including U Too?, Just You and Me, Another Time Another Space, Blue Rondo, and in September of 2007, Convergent Sight. Also, in February of 2006, Mr. Carney choreographed Acts 2 and 4 of the full-length Swan Lake for Cincinnati Ballet. Then, in November of 2006, he choreographed his full-length version of Giselle for Cincinnati Ballet to rave reviews. Also, he presented his full-length world premiere of Dracula in October of 2008 and then subsequently choreographed his world premiere of World Citizen in March of 2009 with a review stating, “Carney’s work is not only well crafted but moody and intense with a palpable sense of loneliness. His work grows more confident and more skillful with every piece he creates” (David Lyman, Cincinnati Enquirer).

Mr. Carney was with the Cincinnati Ballet from 2003 to 2013, most recently serving as the Associate Artistic Director. He had the opportunity to work closely with choreographers such as Donald Byrd, Lynn Taylor Corbett, Jorma Elo, Victor Kabanieav, Trey McIntyre, Donald McKayle, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Kirk Peterson, Viktor Plotnikov and many others during this time.

He recently created a new version of the full-length version of the world-renowned Sleeping Beauty to great critical acclaim. In addition, he choreographed in the spring of 2011 a world premiere, Thrive On Here, set to the live music of the nationally known hit group Over the Rhine. In the summer of 2011, Mr. Carney again had the opportunity to choreograph for the Cincinnati Opera, for the recently written opera A Flowering Tree by John Adams. In the Spring of 2012, he choreographed a world premiere version of the Hans Christian Anderson story of The Steadfast Tin Soldier.  In the spring of 2013, he had the opportunity to choreograph two works back to back for Cincinnati Ballet. The first was Concerto #4 in March of 2013. The second, which closed the 2012–2013 season, was Boot It Up!.  This was performed with the live musical accompaniment of rock-and-roll legend Peter Frampton and his entire band and hailed as a tremendous high point in the Cincinnati performing arts scene for the season.

Devon Carney was appointed Artistic Director of Kansas City Ballet starting with the 2013–2014 season. Upon arrival he created his first work for the company, titled Opus I.  Additionally, in 2014, he choreographed for Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s productions of Die Fledermaus and La Traviata. In 2015, Kansas City Ballet presented his critically-acclaimed version of Giselle.  Also in 2015, Kansas City Ballet debuted his newly-choreographed rendition of the timeless classic, The Nutcracker, with stellar reviews including: “The rebuilt and re-imagined Nutcracker … is, among other things, a visually mesmerizing spectacle that will fill viewers’ heads with indelible images.” (Robert Trussell, The Kansas City Star). This success was immediately followed in 2016 with his staging of the world-renowned classical masterpiece, Swan Lake. One review stated: “In Kansas City Ballet’s first-ever presentation of Swan Lake, artistic director Devon Carney’s relentless enthusiasm and vision seems to have finally manifested—the performance Friday indicated a company capable of anything.” (Libby Hansen, The Kansas City Star). In 2017, Mr. Carney had the opportunity to see his renowned new version of The Nutcracker presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. One review stated it quite simply on this occasion that, “Carney’s choreography is clear and elegant.” (Sarah Kaufman, The Washington Post) Also, audiences enjoyed for the first time his The Sleeping Beauty and his world premiere choreography of Romeo & Juliet. The 2017-2018 season closed with Mr. Carney’s world premiere choreography of Peter Pan.  And in February of 2020 Mr. Carney’s renowned version of his full length Swan Lake returned to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

Contemporary Ballet | Guest Artist Class Artist Faculty

Ashley Bouder was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and began her ballet training at the age of six at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet with Marcia Dale Weary. After attending the School of American Ballet for one summer session and the 1999/2000 school year, Ms. Bouder joined the New York City Ballet. She was promoted to principal dancer in 2005 and has remained with the company to present day. Ms. Bouder has danced in ballet galas around the world and guest starred in companies including the Bayerisches Staatsballett, Mariinsky Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet. As a student, she was awarded the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise at the School of American Ballet. As a professional, her awards include the Janice Levin Honoree from the New York City Ballet, the Miss Expressivity for 2011 and the Miss Virtuosity for 2013 from the Dance Open Gala, the 2019, Benois de la Danse, and the Award for Artistic Excellence from the Borough of Manhattan Community College for her work in promoting gender equality in the ballet world.  As the founder and artistic director of the arts collaborative Ashley Bouder Project, Ms. Bouder works to promote gender equality, diversity and inclusion in creative leadership roles within the dance world. Her previous choreographic work has been presented at Bryant Park Presents, New York City Ballet, Peter Norton Symphony Space, School of American Ballet Choreographic Workshop, and The Joyce Theater.

Contemporary | Assistant/Demonstrator to Mr. Myers

July 1 – July 21