• Jennifer Archibald

    Jennifer Archibald

    Dance Founder & Artistic Director of the Arch Dance Company

    JENNIFER ARCHIBALD is the founder and Artistic Director of the Arch Dance Company and Program Director of ArchCore40 Dance Intensives.  She is a graduate of The Alvin Ailey School and the Maggie Flanigan Acting Conservatory where she studied the Meisner Technique.   Archibald has choreographed for the Atlanta Ballet, Ailey II, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Kansas City Ballet, Tulsa Ballet II, Ballet Nashville; and worked commercially for Tommy Hilfiger, NIKE and MAC Cosmetics as well as chart-listed singers and actors. She was recently appointed as the first female Resident Choreographer in Cincinnati Ballet’s 40-year history. In 2018, she will be creating new works for Cincinnati Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Grand Rapids Ballet, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, Ballet Nashville and Stockholm’s Balletakademien next season.  


    Archibald’s works have been performed at venues including New York’s City Center, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Aaron Davis Hall, Jacob’s Pillow Inside|Out Stage and Central Park’s Summerstage Mainstage. Jennifer was awarded a Choreographic Fellow for Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab under the direction of Robert Battle.  She is 2015′s Choreographic Winnings recipient by the Joffrey Ballet. She also choreographed “Seven”, a biographical work about Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, commissioned by St. Louis based MADCODance Company.  Her new work “Delilah” is currently touring Scandinavia. Arch Dance Company’s “Chasing Shadows” will be remounted for Dallas Black Dance Theater for their 2018/19 season. Jennifer is currently an Acting Lecturer at the Yale School of Drama.

    In 2015, she was appointed as Guest Faculty Lecturer to develop the Hip Hop dance curriculum at Columbia/Barnard College. Jennifer is also a guest artist at several universities including Fordham/Ailey, Purchase College, Princeton, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of South Florida, Goucher College, Columbia College Chicago, and Bates College. In 2017, she premiered new works for Miami New World School of the Arts, South Carolina’s Governor’s School of the Arts, Ailey Fordham, Boston Conservatory, and Point Park. Internationally, she has taught master classes in Brazil, Bermuda, Canada, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden, France, Russia, Mexico, China, and Ecuador.

  • Carolyn Bolton

    Carolyn Bolton

    Dance Dancer, choreographer, and teacher

    Carolyn Bolton (2005 Alum) is an American dancer, teacher, and choreographer from Columbia, South Carolina. Carolyn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance Performance/Choreography from the University of South Carolina. Carolyn trained at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York and Bejart Ballet Lausanne before joining Rambert, the United Kingdom’s largest national contemporary dance company, in London, England, in 2013. Since joining Rambert, Carolyn has created three choreographic works which have been shown during Rambert’s Choreographic platform, Resolution 2017, at The Place, The National Theatre’s Riverstage, Rich Mix and The Future program, at The Lowry in Salford Quays. For the past two years she has performed as a guest at the Operaestate Festival Veneto Bassano del Grappa. Carolyn has also worked as a guest with Shobana Jeyasingh Dance and has performed as a guest artist with Julie Cunningham and Company for their 2018 Barbican season.

  • Barry Brannum

    Barry Brannum

    Dance Dance Artist

    A 2009 Governor’s School Alum and 2017 Young Alumni Award Recipient, Barry Brannum is a dance artist whose practice encompasses performance, teaching, choreography, research (both scholarly and artistic), writing, and sound design. Since leaving the Governor’s School, Brannum has graduated from Princeton University in 2013 (AB cum laude, English; Certificate, Dance) and is currently a PhD candidate (ABD) in UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures / Dance.

    Brannum has worked with several LA-based performance makers, including Dorothy Dubrule, Jennie Mary-Tai Liu (Grand Lady Dance House), Lionel Popkin, Eliott Reed, Nickels Sunshine, Kristianne Salcines, Alexx Shilling, and Kevin Williamson. He appeared as a guest artist with Cullberg Ballet in Deborah Hay’s Figure a Sea, and will perform in the Los Angeles iteration of the Merce Cunningham Trust’s Night of 100 Solos: A Centenary Event in April 2019. He has shown his own choreography at Highways Performance Space, the Electric Lodge, Pieter, and NAVEL, among other venues.
     

  • Thaddeus Davis

    Thaddeus Davis

    Dance Dancer, choreographer, and teacher

    Thaddeus Davis is the Co-Artistic Director of Wideman/Davis Dance and is currently on faculty as an Assistant Professor at The University of South Carolina.  Davis’ professional performance experience includes work with the following companies: Donald Byrd/The Group, Dance Theater of Harlem, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Fugate/Bahiri Ballet NY Dance Galaxy, Indianapolis Ballet, Fukuoka City Ballet, and Atlanta Dance Theater.  

    Davis has taught as a Visiting Professor at the University of Iowa and for the following professional dance companies and programs: Alley II, Boston Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem, Ballet Quorum, Portugal, Northwest Professional Dance Project, COCA , Ballet Austin, Ballet Classical Dominican, Dominican Republic, Spectrum Dance Theater, Steps on Broadway.

    Learn more about Thaddeus Davis.

  • Garth Fagan

    Garth Fagan

    Dance Founder of Garth Fagan Dance, SCGSAH Presidential Guest Artist 2019

    Critics have called Garth Fagan “a true original,” “a genuine leader,” and “one of the great reformers of modern dance.” Fagan is the founder and artistic director of the award-winning and internationally acclaimed Garth Fagan Dance, now celebrating its 48th season. An “Irreplaceable Dance Treasure” Tony and Olivier Award winner, Fagan continually renews his own distinctive dance vocabulary, which draws on many sources: a sense of weight in modern dance, torso-centered movement and energy of Afro-Caribbean, the speed and precision of ballet, and the rule breaking experimentation of the postmoderns. “Originality has always been Mr. Fagan’s strong suit, not least in his transformation of recognizable idioms into a dance language that looks not only fresh but even idiosyncratic,” writes Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times.
     

    For his path-breaking choreography for Walt Disney’s The Lion King, Fagan was awarded the prestigious 1998 Tony Award for Best Choreography. He also received the 1998 Drama Desk Award, 1998 Outer Critics Circle Award, 1998 Astaire Award, 2000 Laurence Olivier Award, 2001 Ovation Award, and the 2004 Helpmann Award for his work on the Broadway musical, which opened in fall 1997 to extraordinary critical praise. Fagan’s distinguished work in the theater also includes the first fully staged production of the Duke Ellington street opera, Queenie Pie, at the Kennedy Center in 1986 and the opening production of Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival’s Shakespeare Marathon: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1988), set in Brazil and directed by A.J. Antoon.
     

    In the world of concert dance, Fagan choreographs primarily for Garth Fagan Dance. “An evening spent with Garth Fagan Dance is a humanity-affirming event” Victoria Looseleaf .  His work, Mudan 175/39, was named by The New York Times as the third of the top six dance watching moments of 2009. The company continues to be cited for its excellence and originality ”Consider the Fagan program a prime example of the versatility and sophistication of concert dance in this new century.”  The Los Angeles Times. Fagan has also produced commissions for a number of leading companies, including his first work on pointe, Footprints Dressed in Red, for Dance Theatre of Harlem; a solo for Judith Jamison, Scene Seen, for the debut of the Jamison Project; Jukebox for Alvin for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater;Never No Lament for the José Limon Company; and Ellington Elation, part of a triad of pieces commissioned by New York City Ballet in honor of Duke Ellington’s centenary and New York City Ballet’s 50th anniversary. In 2012 Lewis Segal wrote "...it was American master Garth Fagan who best fused technical virtuosity with conceptual depth... soul-deep conviction and spectacular flair….the indispensable dance experience of the year.”
     

    Fagan began his career when he toured Latin America with Ivy Baxter and her national dance company from Jamaica. Baxter and two other famed dance teachers from the Caribbean, Pearl Primus and Lavinia Williams, were major influences on Fagan. In New York City, Fagan studied with Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Mary Hinkson, and Alvin Ailey, who were all central to his development. Fagan was director of Detroit’s All-City Dance Company and principal soloist and choreographer for Detroit Contemporary Dance Company and Dance Theatre of Detroit.
     

    In October 2001, Fagan, a native of Jamaica, was presented with the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander: a national honor bestowed upon him by the Jamaican government. In August 1998, he received that country’s Special Gold Musgrave Medal for his “Contribution to the World of Dance and Dance Theater” and at Prime Minister P.J. Patterson’s Independence Gala, Fagan was presented with the Prime Minister’s Award, a plate bearing the signatures of all the prime ministers of Jamaica, acknowledging his achievements.
     

    In 2012 Garth Fagan was selected as an “Irreplaceable Dance Treasure” by The Dance Heritage Coalition, An irreplaceable dance treasure has made a significant impact on dance as an art form, demonstrated artistic excellence, enriched the nation's cultural heritage, demonstrated the potential to enhance the lives of future generations and shown itself worthy of national and international recognition. In 2011, the Institute of Caribbean Studies, which celebrates excellence in literature, science, technology, community service, and corporate leadership, presented Fagan with the Marcus Garvey Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2012, the University of Rochester and its Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies awarded The Frederick Douglass Medal to Fagan to acknowledge his scholarship and civic engagement that honor the Douglass' legacy. In Fall 2017, Garth received A Lifetime Achievement award from the American Dance Guild.
     

    He is a Chancellor’s Award-winning Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of the State University of New York, and taught for over three decades at the State University of New York at Brockport. In the fall of 2003, Fagan received the George Eastman Medal from the University of Rochester for “outstanding achievement and dedicated service.” He holds honorary doctorates from the Juilliard School, the University of Rochester, Nazareth College of Rochester, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges. In 2001 he was the recipient of the Golden Plate Award and was inducted into the American Academy of Achievement. In 1996 he was named a Fulbright 50th Anniversary Distinguished Fellow. Fagan received the 2001 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a prestigious three-year choreography fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.  In recognition of his contribution to modern dance, Fagan has received the Dance Magazine Award for “significant contributions to dance during a distinguished career” and a Bessie Award for Sustained Achievement. Other awards include the Monarch Award from the National Council for Culture and Art, the Lillian Fairchild Award, and the Arts Achievement Award from his alma mater, Wayne State University.

  • Mark Godden

    Mark Godden

    Dance Choreographer and Dancer

    Award-winning, internationally acclaimed choreographer Mark Godden has been The HARID Conservatory’s resident choreographer since 1995. His relationship with HARID, however, began in 1992 when director Gordon Wright first invited him to create a new work for the students. Godden has returned each year since then to set new works on the students and his annual visits have become an integral part of the school’s curriculum.

    Godden danced professionally as a soloist with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and spent a brief period of time in Holland with Jiri Kylian’s renowned company, Nederlands Dans Theatre. He was resident choreographer of the RWB from 1991 until 1994, when he moved to Montreal and began working independently.

    Godden’s ballets have won awards at the Banff Festival of the Arts, the Varna and Helsinki International Ballet Competitions, and (for HARID) at the Youth America Grand Prix National Final in New York. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Choo San Goh Award. Several of his full-length ballets have been made into award-winning films. In addition to the many works he has created for HARID over the years, Godden has made ballets for Boston Ballet, American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens du Montreal, Ballet Florida, Ballet Gamonet, Compañia Nacional de Danza in Mexico, Ballet Contemporania in Argentina, Ballet Memphis, Alberta Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet British Columbia, BalletMet, American Repertory Ballet, Louisville Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, and Northern Ballet Theater in England.

    Ballets created for The HARID Conservatory include Agram, Baffled Kings Composing, Capsize, Corazón de la Llama, Diversions, Fable, Gracioso, Laudon Loudon, Sarabande, Speaking in Tongues, Taal, Three-Quarter Moon, Tightrope, The Unanswered Question, What Can I Tell My Bones?, and Why Are You Here Today?

    Learn more about Mark Godden. 

    (Bio Credit: http://harid.edu/resident-choreographer/)

  • Gerri Houlian

    Gerri Houlian

    Dance Founding Chair

    Gerri Houlihan began her professional career at the Juilliard School, where she studied with Antony Tudor and members of the Martha Graham and José Limón dance companies. Professionally, she has performed with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company and Paul Sanasardo Dance Company and spent five years as a soloist with Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. From 1991 to 1999, she directed her own company in Miami. Houlihan joined the Florida State University faculty in 2007 and has taught contemporary and ballet technique, Senior Seminar, Teaching Methods, and Composition. She has been a longtime faculty member at the American Dance Festival, where she has served as Dean since 2013. 

    Photo  credit: Jon Nalon
     

  • Kate Jewett

    Kate Jewett

    Dance Dance Artist, Choreographer

    Kate Jewett is a dancer, teacher, and rehearsal director who has conducted master classes at various venues and performed all over Europe, Asia, Australia, and the U.S.  Her works have been performed at DeSales University, the United Nations, Park Avenue Armory, Milan, the Fabbrica Europa, and Performatica festivals. Named Director of Education and Outreach for Shen Wei Dance Arts in 2008, she has created a dance-in-education program for the New York City Schools. Jewett has been Rehearsal Director for the Shen Wei Dance Arts since January 2009.

  • Alonzo King

    Alonzo King

    Dance Founder of LINES Ballet, SCGSAH Presidential Guest Artist 2018


    Alonzo King has been called “a visionary choreographer, who is altering the way we look and think about movement." King calls his works ‘thought structures’. created by the manipulation of energies that exist in matter through laws, which govern the shapes and movement directions of everything that exists. Named as a choreographer with ”astonishing originality” by the New York Times, Alonzo King LINES Ballet has been guided by his unique artistic vision since 1982.
       
    King has works in the repertories of the Royal Swedish Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Ballet Bejart, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Hong Kong Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and many others. He has collaborated with distinguished visual artists, musicians and composers across the globe including Pharaoh Sanders, James Campbell, Hamza El Din, Pawel Szymanski, Jason Moran, Charles Lloyd and Zakir Hussain.

    Renowned for his skill as a teacher, King was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Corps de Ballet International Teacher Conference in 2012. An internationally acclaimed guest ballet master, his training philosophy undergirds the educational programming at the Alonzo King LINES Dance Center of San Francisco, which includes the pre-professional Training Program, Summer Program, and BFA Program at the Dominican University of California.
     
    King’s work has been recognized for its impact on the cultural fabric of the company’s home in San Francisco, as well as internationally by the dance world’s most prestigious institutions. Named Choreographer of the Year by Danza & Danza in Italy and a Master of Choreography by the Kennedy Center in 2005, King is the recipient of the NEA Choreographer’s Fellowship, the Jacob’s Pillow Creativity Award, the Irvine Fellowship in Dance, the US Artist Award in Dance, NY Bessie Award, and the National Dance Project’s Residency and Touring Awards. In 2014, King was appointed to the advisory council of the newly established Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University; in 2015 he received the Doris Duke Artist Award in recognition of his ongoing contributions to the advancement of contemporary dance. Joining historic icons in the field, King was named one of America’s “Irreplaceable Dance Treasures” by the Dance Heritage Coalition in 2015. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom presented the 2nd Annual Mayor’s Art Award to Alonzo King in October 2008. He also received the Barney Choreographic Prize from White Bird Dance in April 2013, numerous Isadora Duncan awards, the San Francisco Foundation’s 2007 Community Leadership Award, the Hero Award from Union Bank, the Lehman Award, and the Excellence Award from KGO.  In October 2012, the San Francisco Museum & Historical Society named Alonzo King a "San Francisco Treasure."

    He is a former commissioner for the city and county of San Francisco, and a writer and lecturer on the art of dance; his contributions appear in the books Masters of Movement: Portraits of American Choreographers and in Dance Masters: Interviews with Legends of Dance. In 2005 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate by Dominican University of California, the Green Honors Chair Professorship from Texas Christian University as well as an honorary Doctorate from CalArts.

  • Sirui Liu

    Sirui Liu

    Dance Principal Dancer

    Born in Shanghai, China, Sirui Liu started her dance training with the Shanghai Dance School in the year 2000. After 7 years of training, she continued her studies at the Shanghai Dance College of Shanghai Theater Academy for four years. In 2011 Liu started her professional career in the United States with the Cincinnati Ballet as a Corp de Ballet member.  She was promoted to Principal with the company in 2017.  In 2009 Liu won the gold medal in the senior division at the Ninth Taolibei National Dance Competition in China. She also won the gold medal in the senior division at the Beijing International Ballet Competition in China in 2010. Sirui was included in Dance Magazine’s Top 25 Dancers to Watch in 2017.

    In 2011 Liu was invited to dance in the Hong Kong Ballet’s production of Swan Lake. In 2016 she got invited to dance in the Gala “Night of Ballet” in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Liu was a Guest Principal with the Los Angeles Ballet’s production of Bloom in 2022. She has danced several Pas de Deux including Black Swan, Don Quixote, Esmeralda, Diana and Acteon, Le Corsaire, Paquita, and Coppelia. Liu has performed principal roles such as Odette and Odile in Swan Lake, Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Queen in Nutcracker, Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty, Waltz girl in Balanchine’s Serenade, Tall girl in Balanchine’s Rubies, Cinderella in Cinderella, The Chosen One in Rite of Spring, Pas couple in Minus 16, amongst other ballets. 

    Ms. Liu has also worked with internationally acclaimed choreographers such as Annabelle Lope Ochoa, Helen Pickett, Val Caniparoli, Yuri Possokhov, Kirk Peterson, Nicolo Fonte, Garrett Smith, Justin Peck, Alejandro Cerrudo, Septime Webre, Trey Mcintyre, Ohad Naharin, Jennifer Archibald, Edwaard Liang, Ma Cong, Travis Wall, etc. 

    Liu is the Co-Founder of Active Royale.

  • Roxanne Lyst

    Roxanne Lyst

    Dance Dance Artist

    A native of Annapolis, MD, Roxanne began her professional dance training in Washington D.C. under the mentorship of Alfred Dove and Adrian Bolton. She continued her studies at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and as a fellowship student at the Ailey School and earned a Master of Fine. Arts from Hollins University. Lyst has been a member of AILEY II, The Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO), and The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). She has toured nationally and internationally performing works choreographed by Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison, Robert Battle, Twyla Tharp, Ulysses Dove, Lar Lubavitch, Paul Taylor, Ron Brown, Mauro Bigonzetti, Alonzo King, and many more. She has performed independently with Hope Boykin Dance, DANCE IQUAL, and Waheed Works. At PHILADANCO and AAADT, Lyst taught company classes and master classes around the world.

  • Stephanie Martinez

    Stephanie Martinez

    Dance Choreographer, Dancer

    Stephanie Martinez is an award-winning Chicago dance artist with over 30 years professional performing experience. Her 2009 choreographic debut, AviMar, for Luna Negra Dance Theatre’s 10th anniversary season instantly secured her status as a sought-after dancemaker. She has since traveled the country as a master teacher and professional choreographer, working with dance companies and university departments in addition to a wide number of reputable ensembles local to her native Chicago.

    photo credit: Cheryl Mann

  • Brian McSween

    Brian McSween

    Dance Dance Artist

    Brian McSween was born and raised in Charlotte, NC where he began dancing in ballet, tap and jazz at the Charlotte City Ballet. He attended the Joffrey Ballet School for two summers before being accepted into the school, and the Joffrey Concert Dancers under full scholarship. He worked seasonally with Joffrey, ABT, and Grand Rapids Ballet before joining Aspen Ballet Company full time. After two years, he returned to the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago where he performed varied roles throughout the repertoire. McSween has also worked with Complexions: A Concept in Dance, has taught around the country and has choreographed for Charlotte City Ballet. He was seen in the Robert Altman film “The Company”, and was the advanced ballet instructor for ChiArts, Chicago’s performing arts high school. McSween returned to the Joffrey Ballet School in the summer of 2010 as a teacher and choreographer.

  • Rosa Mercedes

    Rosa Mercedes

    Dance Dancer, Choreographer

    Founder and artistic director of Duende Ballet Español, Rosa Mercedes is recognized for her expertise in all styles of Spanish dance, including flamenco, bolero school, folklore and classical Spanish Dance. Hailed by Dance Magazine as a “virtuoso,” she has performed in the most important theaters throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and Canada as both soloist and principal dancer.  Mercedes has also enjoyed an extensive career in opera, being featured as both a choreographer and dancer with the Metropolitan Opera, Opera di Roma, and the Seattle Opera among others. For the past thirty years, she has taught dance workshops around the world, and is the recipient of the Dance Miami Choreographer’s Fellowship and the ACCA Critics Choice Award.

  • Emily Ramirez

    Emily Ramirez

    Dance Dance Artist

    Emily Ramirez grew up in Katy, TX.   After seeing professional dancers on an episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood when she was 2, she informed her mother that she would be a ballerina. She trained at Adamson Ballet School, High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, TX, and Houston Ballet's Ben Stevenson Academy. After a rewarding decade-long career dancing and choreographing in professional ballet companies, she transitioned to performing in the professional musical theatre world. Since then she has added voiceover, film, and writing to her arsenal. She's currently a freelance artist in a suburb of Chicago.

  • Howard Jarell Rochelle

    Howard Jarell Rochelle

    Dance Dance Artist

    Jarell Rochelle is a visual movement artist, actor, and inspirational speaker with a BFA in Musical Theatre from Sam Houston State University. Rochelle's artistic credits include being a two-time Vegas finalist on FOX's hit TV show So You Think You Can Dance. He has also worked with Grammy-nominated recording artist Angie Stone, The Harlem Globe Trotters, Dance Houston, Groundworks, Son Kiss'd Dance Theater, and award-winning directors Shawn Welling and Larry Carell.

    While remaining a critically-acclaimed movement artist in Houston, he performed as a featured speaker alongside poet Jerome Washington in a piece entitled "Boxes" at TedX Youth in 2014, which marked his transition from a movement artist to a speaking artist. In 2019, he made his official speaking debut as a guest artist at TEDXGreenville, and was awarded as "speaker of the night" at TEDXGVL's open mic night. When not performing, Rochelle is constantly refining his techniques, not only as a performing artist, but as a renowned speaker.

     

  • Lissette Salgado-Lucas

    Lissette Salgado-Lucas

    Dance Teacher and Choreographer

    Miami, Florida native, Lissette Salgado-Lucas, has danced with the Joffrey Ballet, the Miami City Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet where she became Principal dancer. Salgado retired as a dancer in Winnipeg, Canada and was asked to join Artistic Dance Center in Miami as the Assistant Director, a position that she currently holds. She has guest taught at the North Carolina School of the Arts, South Carolina Governor’s School of the Arts and Humanities, Laguna Beach Dance Theater and Dillard High School for the Performing Arts. Furthermore, she has been invited to teach master classes and workshops as well as judge in statewide competitions. Lissette and her husband David are the Founders/Directors of Shake the Ground, The Ultimate Dance Competition and the sister company Universal Ballet Competition.

  • Augusto Soledade

    Augusto Soledade

    Dance Choreographer

    Augusto Soledade, a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow, is the Founder Artistic Director and resident choreographer for Augusto Soledade Brazzdance, formally known as Brazz Dance Theater Incorporated, in Miami. Soledade is the winner of the 2012 Knight Arts Challenge Grant in support of the Miami Dance Mecca Project, six-time winner of the Miami-Dade Choreographer’s Fellowship and two-time winner of the State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship. He is a 1998 M.F.A. Graduate from SUNY Brockport. Augusto Soledade, a native of Bahia, Brazil, started his dance training at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil in a program with strong modern dance emphasis and has trained with Garth Fagan and Clyde Morgan. 

  • Jonathan Spigner

    Jonathan Spigner

    Dance Hong Kong Ballet

    Born in South Carolina, Jonathan Spigner trained at the South Carolina Governor’s School of Arts and Humanities and at Académie Princesse Grace in Monte Carlo. He joined Hong Kong Ballet as a member of the Corps de Ballet in 2010 and was named Coryphée in 2014. He assumed the additional role of Pilates Instructor for the Company in 2017.

    With Hong Kong Ballet, Spigner has danced featured roles including Fritz and Spanish Doll in Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker, Puss in Boots in Cynthia Harvey’s The Sleeping Beauty, Gamache in Nina Ananiashvili’s Don Quixote, St Gaudins in Val Caniparoli's Lady of the Camellias, Executed Prince in Natalie Weir’s Turandot, Young Uncle Tak in Yuri Ng’s Firecracker and Factory Boss in Yuh Egami and Hu Song Wei Ricky's Carmen. He has also performed in John Meehan's Swan Lake, Ronald Hynd's Coppélia, George Balanchine’s Serenade, Jiří Kylián's Petite Mort, Nacho Duato’s Castrati, Jorma Elo's Shape of Glow, Fei Bo’s Shenren Chang and Edwaard Liang’s Sacred Thread.

    Since joining the Company, Spigner has premièred choreographic works at Hong Kong Ballet's Choreographers’ Showcase, including Passion Flower (2016), Days Gone By (2015), Wepart (2014), Overview Effect (2012) and (The Wonderful Known Tick) (2011). He also choreographed SoLo(2013). Spigner received awards from Youth America Grand Prix regional competitions in 2004, 2008 and 2009.