Registration: Arts Center Lower Lobby

Registration- Arts Center Lower Lobby

Registration: Arts Center Lower Lobby

Curated Concert- MAD Artists' Showcase - Callahan Theater

• Post-show Artist talk-back

MATTHEW STEFFENS is a NYC based director/choreographer, performer and educator. He has choreographed and taught  internationally from Mexico to China and throughout the US. His diverse background has included working with many different contemporary choreographers including Angelin Preljocaj, Crystal Pite, Steven Hoggett, as well as Broadway choreographers Susan Stroman, Rob Ashford, Christ Gatelli, Lorin Latarro and Kelly Devine. Working with such directors as Robert Lepage, Barlett Shear and Des McAnuff have shaped the way he looks at theater and teaches his students encouraging them to explore with honesty in all their creative endeavors. Credits include: Broadway - Doctor Zhivago (Associate Choreographer), Promises, Promises, Women on the Verge; Off- Broadway- PrettyHungry (Choreographer), Bountiful (Choreographer), Queen of the Night (Drama Desk Award - Associate Choreographer/Resident Director), Metropolitan Opera - 14 operas, including this season’s L’Amour de Loin. Tours - West Side Story, CONTACT, Beauty & the Beast .Filim/TV: The Last Five Years, Across the Universe, Smash, Black Box, Pan Am, Oprah. www.matthewsteffens.com

• Musical Theatre Dance

Christina D’Amico, a local native, is currently a strength coach at O.B. Training & Sports Performance and the founder of Enhance4Dance, a strength-training and injury prevention program for dancers. She holds a Masters Degree in clinical nutrition from New York Chiropractic College.  In 2011, Christina graduated Magna Cum Laude from The College of Brockport in dance and exercise physiology. She is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association, as well as a Pilates Mat Instructor.

Dance has always been a passion for Christina. She has danced with Vanessa Van Wormer Dance, Bill Evans Dance, Zehnder Dance, and Heather Roffe Dance, performing in venues including Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Dance New Amsterdam, Movement Research, Eastman School of Music, Vision of Sound in NYC, and numerous national dance festivals. She has had the opportunity to study with artists including Kate Weare, Camille A. Brown, Diane McIntyre, Larry Keigwin, Mariah Maloney, and Doug Varone. 

• Strength Training

Sarah Zehnder, Artistic Director of Zehnder Dance, is a New York based dance artist originally from Ohio, where she began her training as a hip-hop dancer. Zehnder Dance, established in 2010, is known for commanding physicality, boldness and architectural precision, and has been produced nationwide, performing in such prestigious festivals as Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Reverb International Dance Festival, Pasadena Dance Festival, DUMBO Dance Festival, Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival, and the Women in Dance Project (NYC and Chicago). Her work has been presented at Dixon Place, Ailey Citigroup Theatre, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, Gowanus Arts, Triskelion Arts Center, 92nd Y, Greenspace, and the Center for Performance Research (CPR). Zehnder received her BS in Dance from Bowling Green State University and her MFA from SUNY Brockport.

www.zehnderdance.org

• Hip Hop
• Technique and Partnering

Our mission at Callan-Harris Physical Therapy (CHPT) is to restore, preserve and enhance the well-being of the whole person. We are a physical therapist-owned general orthopedic practice, specializing in performing arts medicine, scoliosis, and lymphedema. Our highly specialized care combines manual therapy, therapeutic exercise and patient education to get you back to your activities and to prevent and avoid future injury. Physical Therapists from CHPT frequently interact with the performing arts community, running injury prevention workshops, assisting with injury risk screening, and providing pre-performance and backstage coverage. The therapists at CHPT understand the needs and requirements of performing artists. We work extensively with student, professional, and recreational dancers, as well as their teachers. During treatment for an injury (Performance Related Musculoskeletal Disorder), we provide strategies to prevent further strains, sprains or overuse so that you can return to optimal performance as soon as possible.

Jill Collins, PT, DPT received her Doctorate in Physical Therapy degree form Nazareth College. She works at Callan-Harris Physical Therapy, treating orthopedic conditions with a special emphasis on performing artists. Her previous dance background includes study under Nancy Burhyte and at the Shenandoah Conservatory. She also enjoys running, yoga, Pilates and chasing her 2 year old son. 

• The Ultimate Warm-Up

Tammy Sugden-Carrasco (Assistant Professor, The College at Brockport) is a dance artist originally from North Carolina and is a dance artist based in Rochester, NY. Her choreography has been presented by Jennifer Mueller/The Works, Movement Research at Judson Church, Gowanus Art and Production, Greenspace, OhioDance Festival, Rochester Fringe Festival, and Philadelphia’s Performance Garage, to name a few. She has studied with Bebe Miller, Susan Rethorst and Nancy Stark Smith, among many others. Tammy is Artistic Director of Rochester, NY- based company, Wild Beast Dance, and for the past two summers taught as Lead Dance Instructor at North Carolina Governor’s School East. Tammy received her BFA in Contemporary Dance from University of North Carolina School of the Arts and MFA from The Ohio State University.

• Contemporary Dance

Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp (BFA, Emerson College and MFA, CalArts) is a dance artist, somatic educator, filmmaker, and activist.  She is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst (CLMA) which has rooted all of her teaching and artistic work in somatics and body awareness. As the Artistic Director of inFluxdance and Collaborator with SirensProof Films, her work has been featured in cities across the country and internationally.  Rose’s creative interests lie in integrating dance, theater, design, and media. She has taught at various universities for the past 10 years including Alfred University, The College at Brockport, Dean College and the University of Virginia where, as the Head of Dance, she developed the dance program from the ground up. Much of her artistic research in the academic environment centers around collaboration across disciplines, finding ways to integrate dance with architecture, art, psychology, engineering, art, and music. She has spent a great deal of time presenting at international conferences and dance intensives with a focus on dance and social activism. In 2012 this work was highlighted in a featured art installation centering around Dance and Social Change at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center.  Currently, Rose has been performing and presenting her research internationally. Her focus is exploring metaphor as it relates to socio-political art making.  She is currently on faculty in dance at the University of Rochester.

• Contemporary/Release
• Finding Your Voice - Dance Making and Social Justice 

Michelle Pritchard danced professionally in New York City and Los Angeles for ten years before returning to her hometown, Rochester NY, in 2007. She has worked in the fitness industry for over fifteen years as a personal trainer, yoga instructor, golf conditioning instructor, adjunct professor of dance, and Pilates instructor. Michelle holds an MFA in Dance from California State University, Long Beach, a Pilates certification from BASI Pilates, and has taught Pilates and dance at SUNY Brockport, Loyola Marymount University, Orange Coast College, St. John Fisher College, the Nazareth Academy, the Harro East Athletic Club, the Country Club of Rochester, and the Rochester City Ballet among others.  Michelle is currently an adjunct professor in the dance department at Nazareth College and the owner of Evolution Pilates studio in Pittsford, New York.

• Pilates for Dance

Dancer/Choreographer Prince Diaby welcome the participants of the 5th Annual MAD Weekend. He is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated and a First Generation Scholar. Prince Diaby moved to Rochester in hopes of fulfilling his degree in nursing, but is now currently expecting to graduate with a degree in psychology.  

A native of the Bronx, N.Y., Diaby started dancing and taking dance seriously during his Advanced Regents Diploma education in High School. Since then, Diaby has achieved so many skills in the artistic/dance world.  He has traveled all over the states with the National Step Team A-Team and freestyle artists such as Lisette Melendez and Cynthia. From these experiences to music videos with Lil Mama and dance groups such as KR3T’s, ABDC’s Rhythm City, Diaby is finally ready to take his artistic ability to impact the world. He currently teaches at M/Body on University Avenue, Garth Fagan, and has also started a youth and adults dance group called Evolution and Generation X.  Diaby believes it is through experiences that knowledge is gained, and with this knowledge plan on making a difference in this world.

• Hip Hop

Stephanie Fittro is thrilled to return to Nazareth College for MAD Fest 2017! Her NYC credits include Broadway's Legally Blonde, City Center Encores!, The Merry Widow at Met Opera with Placido Domingo, and Cirque du Soleil/Macy's Day Parade (televised on NBC). Touring credits include the Tony award winning shows Hairspray and Carousel (Lincoln Center revival) and playing Anybodys in the European, regional and 50th Anniversary tours of West Side Story directed by Alan Johnson. In 2007 she was invited by choreographer Josh Bergasse to perform with Chita Rivera and the original cast of West Side Story in the historic Gypsy of The Year Tribute to the 1957 original. She has performed as a singer at the New York City jazz club Smoke and in New Hampton, NYC as part of "The Orchard Hill Gang" at Orchard Hill/Soons Orchard. She has directed and/or choreographed numerous works, among her favorites: Wizard of Oz at City College's Yip Harburg Festival and The Secret Garden at Broadway Workshop. 

As a teacher she has been joyfully able to lead dance with live drum for Empire State College, City College and has taught for Dancers Responding To AIDS, Yip Harburg Foundation, and in numerous arts programs. She was honored in 2016 to lead three weeks of Jerome Robbins and Agnes DeMille inspired movement classes for the 1st and 2nd year acting students of Asolo Rep Conservatory in Sarasota, FL.

• Musical Theatre

Nancy Hughes--who grew up in Texas--lives in Buffalo, NY as a teacher, dance-maker and performer. Nancy’s dance work is often in collaboration with other artists. This has been seen at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Elmwood Festival of the Arts, and City of Night. She teaches improv and modern based dance classes and co-facilitates a regular contact improv jam in Buffalo. Nancy has taught and performed her work in such places as Portland Oregon, Colorado Springs and Paris, France. Companies for which she has performed include Suchu Dance, Alien Nation, and Anne Burnidge Dance. Nancy is influenced by the work of Nancy Stark Smith and the Underscore, and she co-coordinates the annual Global Underscore. Her work has received grants from Northampton Arts Council, Mollye and Kelly Maxner, Key Bank, and NYSDanceForce. She holds a certification in Pilates from Motion Studies, a Yoga certification from East Meets West Yoga, and a BA in dance from Texas Woman’s University.

• Finding the Flow in Contact Improv
• Pilates with a Twist

CHERYL JOHNSON has performed Off Broadway, at International Dance Festivals, in Music Videos, on TV specials, in nightclubs, and in touring dance companies. In Seattle, she was the dance consultant to the Jimi Hendrix Museum: Experience Music Project and an ambassador of rhythm tap dance hosting festivals, master classes, educational programs, and creating choreography for musical theatre and the concert stage. In NYC, she was a member of Gail Conrad's Tap Dance Theatre, Jerry Ames Tap Dance Company, and performed as a pioneer dancer for the original creation of MTV.  In Rochester, she has enjoyed gigs with the likes of the Vision of Sound Series, Bill Evans Dance Company, NYS Dance Force Duets Concerts, and the NYC New Mix Performance Festival. Johnson is a dance educator at the University of Rochester, SUNY at Brockport, Nazareth College, and Hochstein School of Music & Dance. She has had the great privilege of honing her craft with dance masters such as Charles 'Cholly' Atkins, Brenda Bufalino, Gregory Hines, Dianne Walker, Arthur Duncan, and the Nicholas Brothers. 

• Character Tap 
• Tap Dance Improv

• Contemporary Loft Technique

Stevie Oakes became enamored with dance at her first ballet performance while living in Amsterdam. After serious study of classical ballet, she earned a degree in Chemistry and Kinesiology from the College of William & Mary. Following the receipt of her MFA from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, Oakes stayed on living and working in New York City as an artist, an educator, and a dance scientist. She has had the pleasure of performing in works by various artists, including Tere O'Connor, Gus Solomons, jr, Roseanne Spradlin, Brice Mousset, Gerald Casel, and Gina Gibney. As a member of the team at the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries in New York, Oakes combines her passions for dance and science working to develop injury prevention programming and integrating dancer wellness into the classroom. Oakes enthusiastically joined the dance faculty as an Assistant Professor at the College at Brockport, SUNY in 2014 and is enjoying balancing her life in Rochester with opportunities to make and share art nationally.

• Contemporary Ballet

www.vanessavanwormer.com

• Intermediate Ballet
• Contemporary Ballet

Daniel Fetecua Soto, Dancer, teacher and Choreographer. From Bogotá, Colombia holds a BFA from Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen-Germany, and has appeared as guest artist in Pina Bausch’s masterpieces, Rite of Spring and Tannhäuser. Soloist member of the Limon Dance Company for ten years (2006-2016) Mr.Fetecua is a master teacher of the Limón technique, faculty member of the Limón Institute and founder member of Limon4Kids program. Founder and artistic director Pajarillo Pinta’o, a dance company that preserves and promotes the Colombian traditional dances and D-Moves, a contemporary dance project that combines Colombian traditions, Modern Dance and German Tanztheater. Other projects includes "Amalgama" Project, "El Barrio Project" and the educational residency Cumbia For Kids/Cumbia For All with Colombian composer and musician Pablo Mayor.

Grants and awards: Harlem Stage Fund for New Work, NALAC Funds for the Arts and HOLA award best choreography in La Gloria A Latin Cabaret by Teatro SEA.

• Limon Technique 
• Colombian Dance

Mark Broomfield, Assistant Professor of Dance Studies and Associate Director of the Geneseo Dance Ensemble at SUNY Geneseo (Ph.D., M.F.A.), is a scholar/artist who has danced with the repertory company Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, performing in leading works by some of the most diverse and recognized African American choreographers in the American modern dance tradition that include: Talley Beatty, Katherine Dunham, Eleo Pomare, Donald McKayle, David Rousseve, and Ronald K. Brown. His publications include the forthcoming article “Branding Ailey: “Carrying On” and the Embodied Resistance of the Queer, Black, Male Dancing Body,” by Oxford University Press and the poem “Passing Out” in Conversations Across the Field of Dance Studies. He is currently working on his book and documentary “Passing for Almost Straight.” Broomfield is the recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship, the SUNY Faculty Diversity Award and The Ford Foundation Fellowship. For more information visit: markbroomfield.org.

• Afro-Caribbean 

KRISTEN DUFFY YOUNG (BA, BBA UMass Amherst, MFA Goddard College) is a Co-Director of Accumulation Dance, Founder and Director of the Colleges of the Fenway Dance Project, and Adjunct Faculty member at Emmanuel College. Her teaching and artistic philosophies are grounded in her studies as a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in NY. Prior to Accumulation Dance, Kristen performed with Bosoma Dance Company, Weber Dance, and Influx Dance. She has instructed classes at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies program at Lesley University, The Longy School of Music, Fairfield University, Salem State College, the American Dance Festival, the American College Dance Association, and Needham Public Schools. She is Vice President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Dance Education Organization and a former board member of the Boston Dance Alliance. 

• Contemporary Dance

Michelle Iklé is an Associate Professor of Dance at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY.  She holds an M.F.A. from SUNY Brockport in Dance Science/Somatics and Dance Performance and a B.A. in Dance Teaching and Performance from SUNY Buffalo.  She is a Certified Instructor at EastWest Somatics Institute for Yoga, Dance, and Movement Studies.  Iklé specializes in contemporary jazz, modern dance, partnering, and somatic integration in technique class and for the stage.  In addition to independent choreographic and performance projects, Iklé has been a long time member of Present Tense Dance Company in Rochester, NY. Iklé’s choreography has been commissioned by Middle Tennessee State University, Shelter Repertory Dance Theatre, Wells College and the Vision of Sound concert series.    

• Jazz Technique

Missy Pfohl Smith, MFA, is the Artistic Director of BIODANCE and the Director of the Program of Dance and Movement at University of Rochester.  She has taught and performed across the US and abroad with BIODANCE, Randy James Dance Works, Paul Mosley, among others.  BIODANCE, established in 2002, is a repertory company that performs the work of Smith, Heidi Latsky, Bill Evans, D. Chase Angier, Ivy Baldwin, Jeanne Schickler Compisi, Courtney World and more.  Over the past two years, Smith has been developing a BIO/DANCE and Social Justice series in various community venues, and enjoys collaborating with multi-disciplinary artists in music, visual art, sculpture and digital media. Her areas of interest include choreography, site specific performance, improvisation, socially conscious dance work and dance on camera. www.biodance.org

Ashley A. Friend, a native of the Central Coast of California and has been primarily based in Brooklyn, NY since 2006.  Her choreography has been performed throughout the USA, NYC, and abroad.  She currently splits her time between Brooklyn and Brockport, NY.

Friend’s recent choreographic work is titled Outside the Outside.  It has been performed as a quartet at SUNY Brockport and as a solo at Northeast ACDA 2017.  It is a project that has a variety of perspectives based on the notion of being on the edge, placed in the margins, and processing personal and societal identities.  In 2015-16 Friend worked on a project titled Owned (also referred to as We Are Magic)and was performed at Byrdciffe Theater (Woodstock, NY), Women in Motion (Brooklyn, NY), hatch (NYC), New Dance Alliance (NYC), Poetry Church (various venues in San Luis Obispo, CA).  This extensive and evolving piece focused on the relationship between the performers, sound, and interaction with the made environment and extensive props.  It was characterized as a shamanistic experience, compelling the audience to enter the choreographer’s vision.

Friend taught modern dance technique, theatrical dance, and choreography at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, NY (2010-2015). She was a guest professor in Performing Arts Education at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, CA from 2014-2016.  Friend is currently serving on Faculty as a one-year guest artist at The College at Brockport, NY.

Friend also works as a freelance videographer.  Her video work includes documentation of many many many individual artists and arts organizations throughout NYC (2008-present).

• Freedom and Response-ability Choreography Workshop

Heather Acomb is a Rochester-based dance artist and educator. She has performed and had her work shown in several venues throughout the US, including Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, American College Dance Festival, Core Project/Going Dutch, Midwest RADFest, and WAX Works, among others. She has worked in several prestigious dance departments both locally and nationally as part of the Bill Evans Dance Company as well as independently as a freelance artist. Heather is certified in the Evans Method, and currently teaches Evans' work as well as her own somatic-based work at Wells College, where she is on faculty as Visiting Assistant Professor.  Heather is also a certified Holistic Health Practitioner, Hatha Yoga Instructor, and an advocate for organic farming and sustainable living.  She holds an MFA in Dance from The College at Brockport.