Group: Guest Dancers

Audrey-Anne is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and pedagogue. Since 2008, she has been working as a lighting designer in dance and theater. Her versatility and interest in the collective creation process has also led her to explore the process of stage direction. Inspired by her own visual disability, she initiated the Au-delà du visuel research project in 2016 to reflect on the possibility of creating and communicating dance and theater to an audience with low vision. In 2019, she directed and co-wrote the text for Camille: un rendez-vous au-delà du visuel, presented at MAI. With her team, she pursues her artistic approach beyond the visual and launches the creation of a second work entitled Fragments. She is engaged in the reflection on inclusive practices as a member of the expertise committee of the Chantier en Accessibilité Universelle de la ville de Montréal and of the advisory committee on universal accessibility of the Montreal Arts Council.

“It has been a pleasure for me to share exercises and techniques to create and communicate dance and theatre in a multisensory way in order to reach an audience living with low vision. Through the process, I encountered some brilliant creators who were not scared to take risks and explore paths outside of their comfort zone. Profound, caring and open minded artists.The work that ShaLeigh is doing with DJ and her collaborators is important and very unique. I feel fortunate that I was involved in its process!”

Pioneer Winter (he/they, b. 1987) is a Miami-based choreographer and artistic director of Pioneer Winter Collective, an intergenerational and physically integrated dance-theater company, rooted in social practice and community, queer visibility and beauty beyond the mainstream. Recognized in Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch, Pioneer Winter’s work democratizes performance in public spaces, museums and galleries, stage, and film.

A major objective continues to be expanding the definition of all that dance is and can be so that all bodies survive, thrive, and are witnessed in spite of constant erasure based upon race, body type, age, and ability – this goes for both the artists as well as the audience. Pioneer has been commissioned by Miami Theater Center, Karen Peterson and Dancers, Tigertail Productions, Jacksonville Dance Theatre, FundArte, and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, where Pioneer was the Center’s first Artist-in-Resident collaboration in a decade (2019-21).

Pioneer has been a guest artist at universities, including Miami Dade College, Nova Southeastern University, Broward College, and Florida State College. Most recently, Pioneer’s work has received support from NEFA’s National Dance Project Award, MAP Fund, the Knight Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and Creative Capital.

An extension of his creative practice, Pioneer has curated and directed ScreenDance Miami Festival since 2017, presented by Miami Light Project; Pioneer’s own films screen internationally.

Pioneer serves as Assistant Teaching Professor in the Honors College and College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts at Florida International University. Pioneer is affiliated faculty at the Center for Humanities in an Urban Environment (CHUE) and an inaugural Fellow in the Miami Studies Program.

“I’m excited to get the opportunity to work with ShaLeigh Dance Works! Like SDW, I often work collaboratively and devise choreography that draws directly from a union of our lived experiences. Over the years, I’ve found certain prompts, tasks, studies, games, exercises, and approaches have helped me through the ‘oh-no-what-do-I-do’ moments in my own creative process. I aim to facilitate an environment that is safe, creative, generative, and cathartic for others. I loooooove process and look forward to also learning from SDW’s way of being.”

Sand Pact is the experimental audio and visual project of Alex Fresa (Debt Stalker) and Kaanchee (Gudiya). Residents of North Carolina, the two artists found solace through deconstructed media from a young age, gravitating towards the online, underground club scene. Initially lacking access to this community outside of a virtual space, however, the pair have been working with individuals and organizations in the Triangle to carve out safer and supportive club spaces. Sand Pact is known in the local scene to bring about some of the most contemporary, hybrid sounds being produced worldwide. For more information, follow their Facebook page here. 

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.

Robbie Link is a performer and teacher on the double bass, cello, electric bass, viola da gamba, and violone. He performs and records with many period instrument, chamber, jazz, and folk music ensembles and enjoys performing everything from Renaissance to Jazz. He maintains a private teaching studio near Chapel Hill, NC.

A staple in Triangle area music scene for over 35 years, Link has worked with dancers many times, both improvising and performing fixed compositions. But Bamboo Wind was his first truly collaborative experience with a dance company and what a wonderful place to begin with such talented dancers and choreographer. He is very grateful to be a collaborator with the company.

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.

Internationally acclaimed Pianist and Composer Alejandro Santoyo is a World-Class musician, who has lived in the US, Europe, and Latin America. He began playing the piano by ear and composing when he was 7 years old and ever-since has developed a unique sound that evokes profound moods and images. He studied music at Berkeley College of Music in Boston and later obtained a Masters Degree in music form UNM. Alejandro is an active performer, composer, and producer for different projects in the US and Internationally. His music has a very special energy that deeply penetrates, heals, and caresses the listener’s soul. It is very moving, gentle, and romantic. His passionate sounds and piano playing invite the listener to write their own story while they listen to him. When you close your eyes and listen to his music, it will take you to a distant realm of your own creation.

Mike Wall is a sought after composer of music for dance, video, instillation, jazz, and multimedia collaborations. He has been praised by the New York Times for his “haunting piano score”. His works are performed widely in the U.S. and abroad. He has scored, along with Oscar Award Winning composer Darren Morze, “Bel Borba Aqui” and “Neurotypical” which aired on PBS. Michael has worked for NYU, Princeton University, Rutgers University, The Ohio State University, The American Dance Festival, Bates Dance festival and is currently faculty at The University of Utah. He received a degree in Jazz Piano from Rutgers University, where he studied with Kenny Barron. Michael performed on Kenny Barron’s Grammy Nominated recording, “Spirit Song”, which also received a special award from Verve Records. He is the founder of soundFORMovement.com, a website dedicated to music for dance with over 300 tracks released in the last year. More at soundFORMovement.com.