ASZURE BARTON

Artist and choreographer Aszure Barton has collaborated with celebrated dancers and companies including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Misty Copeland, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, English National Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, National Ballet of Canada, Nederlands Dans Theater, Sydney Dance Company, and Teatro alla Scala, among many others. She is a Bessie Award Honoree and has received numerous honors including the prestigious Arts & Letters Award, joining the ranks of Oscar Peterson, Karen Kain, and Margaret Atwood. She was the first Martha Duffy resident artist at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and is an official ambassador of contemporary dance in Canada. She is the founder of Aszure Barton & Artists, an inter-disciplinary international dance project.

AMY HALL GARNER

Amy Hall Garner is a native of Huntsville, Alabama, and a graduate of The Juilliard School. Her work has been praised internationally and commissioned by Ailey II, ABT Studio Company, Collage Dance Collective, The Juilliard School, The Ailey School, Barnard College, The University of the Arts, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, Point Park University, and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Recently, she has received virtual commissions from BalletX, Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process Digital Series, ABT Studio Company, Boulder Ballet and a virtual collaboration between Miami City Ballet and Paul Taylor American Modern Dance. She personally coached Grammy Award winner Beyoncé, providing additional choreography for The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour. Theatrical choreography credits include: The Color Purple (Milwaukee Repertory Theater) and Invisible Thread, associate choreographer (Second Stage Theater, NYC). In 2018, she was selected to participate in Alvin Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab supported by the Ford Foundation. Garner was one of the first recipients of the Joffrey Ballet’s Choreography of Color Award (now titled Winning Works). She is an adjunct professor at New York University’s New Studio on Broadway at Tisch School of the Arts. In 2021, Ms. Garner was a Virginia B. Toulmin Fellow at The Center for Ballet and the Arts. Currently, she is creating and reimagining the classical ballet narrative The Nutcracker, at Baltimore School for the Arts.

OHAD NAHARIN

Ohad Naharin is a choreographer, the House Choreographer of Batsheva Dance Company, and creator of the Gaga movement language. Born in 1952 in Mizra, Israel, he joined Batsheva Dance Company in 1974 despite having little training.  During his first year, guest choreographer Martha Graham invited him to join her own company in New York, where Naharin later made his choreographic debut at the Kazuko Hirabayshi studio in 1980.  For the next decade he presented works in New York and abroad, including pieces for Batsheva Dance Company, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, and Nederlands Dans Theater.  Naharin worked closely with his first wife, Mari Kajiwara, until she died from cancer in 2001. In 1990, Naharin was appointed Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company, and in the same year, he established the company’s junior division, Batsheva – the Young Ensemble.  He has since created over thirty works for both companies and set pieces on many others.  He has also collaborated with musicians including The Tractor’s Revenge, Avi Balleli and Dan Makov, Ivri Lider, and Grischa Lichtenberger.  Under the pseudonym Maxim Waratt, he composed, edited, and mixed many of his own soundtracks.  Naharin’s work has been featured in several films, including Tomer Heymann’s Out of Focus (2007) and the Heymann Brothers’ Mr. Gaga (2015). In addition to his stagework, Naharin also developed GAGA, the innovative movement research and daily training of Batsheva’s dancers that has spread internationally among both dancers and non-dancers. A citizen of both Israel and the United States, Naharin currently lives in Israel with his wife, dancer and costume designer Eri Nakamura, and their daughter, Noga.

SPENSER THEBERGE

Spenser Theberge is a dancer and choreographer based in Los Angeles. A graduate of The Juilliard School and a former company member of the Nederlands Dans Theater and The Forsythe Company, Spenser's own creations have been commissioned and presented worldwide, including at LA Dance Project, Gothenburg Opera Dance Company, The Broad Museum, Korzo Theater, Springboard Danse Montreal, and NAVEL, among others.

As a movement director and performer, Spenser has worked with artists and brands including Taylor Swift, Rihanna's Savage x Fenty, Gwen Stefani, Ben Platt, LANY, LykkeLi, and the Tune-yards, and his work has appeared on The Today Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Spenser is a former faculty member at the CalArts School of Dance, and conducts masterclasses at conservatories, schools, and programs across America, Europe, and Asia. Spenser is a YoungArts award winner, a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and a Princess Grace Award winner.