Group: Collaborator

Krishna Christine Washburn is the artistic director and sole teacher of Dark Room Ballet, a pre-professional dance curriculum designed for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired people like herself, the only course of its kind in the English-speaking world. Krishna holds a Masters of Education from Hunter College, a BA from Barnard College, and multiple certifications from the American College of Sports Medicine with a focus in biomechanics. Dark Room Ballet has been featured in USA Today (Green Bay Gazette, North Jersey News), BLOOM magazine, Speak Out for the Blind podcast, Eyes on Success podcast, on Bloomberg Quicktake new, and mores. Dark Room Ballet has been hosted by Movement Research, a progressive movement arts institution in New York City; it is believed that the partnership is the only one of its kind in the United States, and that Dark Room Ballet is currently the only pre-professional dance program taught in English. The Dark Room Ballet curriculum is comprised of an eight-week introductory level course for students who have no prior knowledge of ballet or dance, an ongoing open-level class for students of all levels from beginner to professional, a series of anatomy classes that de-center sight and promote body awareness, and workshops on self-audio description as an art form, movement art created by blind performers for blind audiences.

Krishna has performed with many leading dance companies including Jill Sigman’s thinkdance, Infinity Dance Theater, Heidi Latsky Dance, Marked Dance Project, and LEIMAY. She has collaborated with many independent choreographers, including Patrice Miller, iele paloumpis, Perel, Vangeline, Micaela Mamede, Apollonia Holzer, and most notably with A. I. Merino, who especially created her signature role, Countess Erzsébet Bathory, and with whom she founded the artistic collective Historical Performances. 

Krishna has been a popular guest educator, in particular in the fields of self-audio description and curriculum development for blind and visually impaired dance students. She has taught workshops at The New School, Philadelphia’s Hook and Loop, Gibney Dance, Indiana Blind Children’s Foundation, and has been company mentor to ShaLeigh Dance Works dance company for the development of their interactive dance theater project, enVISION, led by her mentee, DJ Robinson. She has spoken about ableism in dance education at the 92^nd Street Y, New York University, National Dance Educators Organization, and ArtSpark Texas.

Krishna boasts several ongoing artistic collaborations, including work with wearables artist Ntilit (Natalia Roumelioti). Krishna is the Artistic Director of The Dark Room, a multi-disciplinary project with fellow visually impaired dancer, Kayla Hamilton. Krishna is also the Artistic Director of The Telephone Dance and Audio Description Game, or Telephone, an on-going activist screen dance documentary project meant to promote innovative artistic philosophies relating to audio description for dance with choreographer and filmmaker, Heather Dayah Shaw, with a premiere scheduled for December, 2022.

Shannon Oliver is a creative visionary with a love for fashion, unique style, and pushing design forward. With over 10 years of Costume experience in professional Theatre, Shannon has extensive knowledge of period pieces, fit for function, and running a seamless show.  She has worked with North Carolina Theatre, DPAC, and the Carolina Ballet.

Shannon holds a Bachelor of Science in Textile Technology with a concentration in Design, which provides her with an intimate understanding of fabric & garment construction, fit, and the best care practices for your wardrobe.

“I’m excited and honored to work with ShaLeigh Dance Works for ADF’s reopening event, and uphold the unique visual aesthetic these performance pieces exhibit through costume design.”

Stephanie Sevilla is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work integrates her experience in fashion, photography, tango and the beauty industry. Her work begins with listening. Carefully designing with thoughtfulness around the impact behind personal appearance, the power of expressing our inner world outwardly. Taking that external statement and mirroring the subtle nuance of consciousness and emotional intelligence informing these choices. With a keen eye and unfailing attention to detail, her work evokes a mirage of textural contrasts that ignite sensory experiences and aim to enliven the wearer into heightened embodiment, an outfit turned to second skin. Durham native. Self taught. Mother to 18 year old artist, Mars. She splits her time between client commissions, movement arts and conspiring to see beauty realized in every person, everywhere. Over the last 10 years, she has run concurrent businesses as a Fashion Designer and Leather Artist for her personal brand SEVLYN as well as Creator and Lead Stylist/Makeup Artist of The Makeup Culture. For more information visit www.stephaniesevilla.com.

Rosie Herrera is a Cuban-American dancer, choreographer and artistic director of Rosie Herrera Dance Theater in Miami. She is a graduate from New World School with a BFA in Dance Performance. She has been commissioned by The Miami Light Project, The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Ballet Hispanico, Moving Ground Dance Theater, Houston Met Dance, New World Symphony and the American Dance Festival (ADF) in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2016.  Her company has been presented by the Northrop Dance Series, New World Symphony, Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Baryshnicov Arts Center, Texas A & M University, Duncan Theater, The Annenburg Center in Philadelphia, Maui Arts and Cultural Center, Dance Place, Gotham Dance at Skirball and Focus Dance at The Joyce NYC as well as by The American Dance Festival at the Joyce NYC in 2016.

Rosie is also a classically trained lyric coloratura soprano and performs with the Performers Music Institute Opera Ensemble as well as works as an independent director and creative consultant throughout Miami. With over a decade of experience in both dance and cabaret, she has collaborated on productions with The South Miami Dade Cultural Arts Center, New World School of the Arts, The University of Central Florida, Six Floor Ensemble, Zoetic Stage and the New World Symphony as well as with the interdisciplinary performance ensemble/avant- garde cabaret Circ X. She has also collaborated with filmmakers Adam Reign, Lucas Leyva, George Echevarria and Clyde Scott to create original short films and music videos.

Rosie is a 2016 USArtist Sarah Arison Choreographic Fellow, a 2010 and 2018 MANCC choreographic fellow, a 2014 Bates Dance Festival Artist in residence, a 2016 Bessie Schoenberg Fellow and a 2011 and 2016 Miami Dance Fellow.  She was awarded a Princess Grace Choreographic Fellowship for her work with Ballet Hispanico in 2013.

JEREMY KUMIN (Lighting Designer)  has designed the lighting for plays, musicals, opera, dance, video, fashion shows, and many other events.  Starting with a BA in Drama from Duke, he went on to get an MFA from Brandeis in Lighting Design, and then to nearly 2 decades of freelance design work based in New York City.  He designed and programmed Off Broadway productions, tours, and assisted on Broadway shows, but one of the highlights for him was any opportunity to collaborate on lighting dance, which came to include stints with the American Indian Dance Theater, Carlota Santana, Nai-Ni Chen, Laura Dean, and Amanda Selwyn/Notes In Motion.

Through his company Tri-Luminary, Inc. he applied his design and production management skills to numerous special events in NYC from 1999 to 2007. For the decade following that he was handing North American Sales/Marketing for a lighting manufacturer based in Australia. It was during that phase, he was able to return to Durham and reestablish connection with this community.  Jeremy works now as a freelance lighting designer/programmer in NC, and a consultant on marketing and product development for a select group of manufacturers in the entertainment technology field.  An article he wrote was recently published in the Winter 2019 issue of Protocol Magazine. For more information, visit tri-luminary.com.

Elizabeth Corbett danced with the Joffrey Ballet and the Milwaukee Ballet before she moved to Europe. There, she became a soloist with William Forsythe’s Frankfurt Ballet and danced for over a decade in works including Love Songs, Artifact, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Enemy in the Figure, Steptext, Behind the China Dogs and other Forsythe works. Ms. Corbett now teaches ballet, improvisation technologies, and Forsythe repertory internationally. She was Dance Coordinator for Anne Teresa DeKeersmaeker’s school of contemporary dance, PARTS, in Brussels from 1999 – 2005 and danced in a work created for her by Ms. DeKeesmaeker in a Rosas/Impulstanz production called With/For/By. She has been choreographic assistant to William Forsythe, Ms. De Keersmaeker and for Robert Wilson in productions for the Paris Opera and Rosas. Ms. Corbett has taught classes and workshops for dance companies, festivals and schools around the world including PARTS/Rosas, Impulstanz Vienna, Cullberg Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, University of the Arts Philadelphia, Movement Research, Dance Platform Istanbul, Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts and Beijing Dance Academy where she received an honorary professorship. Elizabeth contributes Forsythe classes to outreach programs in Memphis and was recently awarded a Chairman’s Award locally for her fund raising work providing meals at schools in Kenya. She choreographs yearly for Memphis’ New Ballet Ensemble and has been an American Dance Festival faculty member since 2006.

Lucia Del Vecchio is an actor, director, and playwright and  holds an MFA in Theatre and Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin.  Her plays produced in her hometown of Asheville include  MILF: The Musical,   Shangri-la , theevolutionofwoman , and  The Family Tree, all at The Magnetic Theatre.  She is the Associate Artistic Director and Managing Director of The Magnetic Theatre, a theatre company focused on new works for the stage.  She will direct her newest play, Employee Handbook Revision Committee, for its premiere in October 2015 at Magnetic’s new venue, Magnetic 375, in Asheville’s River Arts district.