Benjamin Berry (they/them) is a teaching artist and performance artist based in Buffalo, NY who specializes in making creative movement accessible through a variety of prop-based circus arts. Their gateway into movement was sparked when they first picked up a hula hoop in 2013 and experienced the joy of improvisation for the first time. This led them to study dance at Alfred University from 2014-2016 and participate in the online video competition Hooping Idol. Ultimately, this earned them the title of Hooping.org’s Hooper of the Year in 2015, and allowed them to embark on multiple self-organized tours, teaching workshops in over 40 cities between 2015 and 2017. In 2017, Benjamin moved to Buffalo, NY, and shifted their focus towards partnering with local community-based organizations both independently and as a rostered artist through Arts for Learning WNY. Since 2019, Benjamin has expanded their pedagogy through multiple professional developments that have clarified and enriched their unique fusion of prop-based circus arts with creative dance. These modalities include Holistic Circus Therapy by Jill Maglio, Brain-Compatible Dance Education by Anne Green Gilbert, and Functional Juggling by Craig Quat. In July of 2021, Benjamin launched Accessible Circus Project, a fiscally sponsored project of the non-profit organization Accessible Festivals. This project aims to make creative movement accessible by providing free/subsidized instructional sessions and circus toys to individuals and organizations that lack the budget for recreational activities. In the first year of the project, over 600 individuals were impacted.

Anita Boyer has been studying dance since the age of 5, with a specialty in tap. She has studied dance at Opus II Dance Studio in Ashland, Ohio, Dance History at Ohio University, and has been studying under Aaron Tolson since 2015. She has taken classes with Michelle Dorrance, Dormeshia, Derick Grant, Jason Samuel Smith and Lady Diane Walker. She has been directing and choreographing shows since 2010 and created the theatre company Our Fabulous Variety Show (OFVS) with Kasia Klimiuk. With OFVS she choreographs for dance competitions, teaches dance and theatre curriculum during the year, and directs productions. Outside of OFVS, she is a freelance dance teacher bringing her joy of dance (tap especially!) to humans of all ages on the north and south forks. She has been the choreographer for Southold High School for 11 years, Shoreham Wading River for 5 and Southampton High School for 3. This year will also be her second year Assistant Directing and Choreographing at East Hampton High School.

Beth Brown is a painter and has enjoyed being a teaching artist for ten years. She offers instruction in drawing, painting, mixed media, and collage, providing weekly lessons for adults, teens, and preteens. Because of the pandemic, she had to close her art studio in Rochester, NY. This unexpected change required her to transition from teaching in-person classes to teaching online. Since December 2020, she’s continued to provide live art lessons from home via Zoom. Having relocated from Rochester to Albany, Beth is eager to open a new art studio in the Capital Region. Her goal is to resume teaching art in person and to continue developing her own work, some of which are very large paintings. Beth studied drawing and painting at School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has experience as a sign maker, graphic designer, and muralist. She founded two former artist cooperative galleries, one in Great Barrington, MA and one in Rochester, NY. As gallery director, she provided exhibit opportunities for hundreds of local and regional artists at these venues, also showing her own work. In her current paintings, Beth is experimenting with abstraction, utilizing mixed media and collage elements within her acrylic compositions. Birds have often been her muse as subject matter. A new body of work is underway that will feature horses as her inspiration.

Katherine George is an Afro-Latina multi-hyphenate artist and educator from the Bronx, NY by way of the Dominican Republic. She received a BA in Theater from Brooklyn College and is currently getting her MFA in Acting at Columbia University. Recent acting credits include: Clybourne Park (Columbia University), The Cooking Project (NYTW), Locked Up B*tches (Flea Theater), and The Unusual Tale of Mary and Joseph’s Baby (NYC Fringe Festival). She co-stars in the film Crabs in Barrel which was the winner of HBO’s 2021 Latinx Short Film competition. As a spoken word poet, she represented New York in national and international competitions on the youth, collegiate, and professional adult levels. She was a proud member of the first-ever all-female slam team representing the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. As a vocalist, she has traveled around the country and most recently served as a background vocalist for Jennifer Lopez at her NBC Fourth of July performance and Live Spotify Studio Session. She has served communities around NYC for close to twenty years as an educator/or mentor. She is a proud member of the Dominican Artist Collective.

Omnia Hegazy is an independent musician and teaching artist based out of Staten Island, NY. She has released music as a solo singer/songwriter and most recently as a member of the indie soul/pop duo HEGAZY with her twin sister. She obtained her B.F.A from the prestigious Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2012, and performs frequently at venues and universities in the United States. Her music has been featured in Rolling Stone, Fox News, The Daily Beast, Pop Matters, pan-Arab newspaper Al Sharq Al Awsat, and many more. She teaches private music lessons on guitar, violin, and cello while working in multiple public schools teaching violin and choral music.

Clark Jackson has served thousands of New York City public school students as a teaching artist in the areas of theatre, movement, creative writing, and improvisation, in classes ranging from advanced students to the severely emotionally disabled in a variety of settings. He was honored for his commitment and expertise as a teaching artist as the 2019 recipient of the Lloyd Richards Teaching Fellowship by the National Alliance of Acting Teachers. Among other organizations, Clark has taught for Lincoln Center Theater (LCT), Elders Share The Arts (ESTA), Lifetime Arts, Children’s Museum of Manhattan, Queens Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Young Audiences New York (YANY), Community Works, Hospital Audiences Inc. (HAI), Arts Horizons, Plays For Living, Theatre Development Fund (TDF), Manhattan Class Company (MCC), Arts Genesis, and Theatre For A New Audience (TFANA). He has also taught at HB Studio, New York Film Academy, Hunter College, St. Francis College, as a private coach, and as a corporate facilitator for ImprovEdge working with Fortune 500 professionals. An award-winning actor, writer and producer, Clark has appeared on Broadway and starred in numerous TV series and films, most recently in the feature film “A Journal For Jordan” directed by Denzel Washington. He is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and a proud company member of the Actors Center in NYC. Clark continues to expand the scope of his brand via a variety of projects as an educator, writer, director, and producer. To learn more, visit www.clarkjacksononline.com.

Aldo Kattón is a rehearsal director, choreographer, Artistic Director, and former dancer with extensive professional experience. He has participated in the creation and production of numerous ballets with companies and projects around Mexico, USA, and Guatemala. His expertise is not limited to the technical and artistic aspects of dance, but extends to collaboration and coordination of logistics, sound, lighting, set design, costume design, and publicity aspects of small and large-scale theatrical productions. He is committed to excellence and the development of individual artists and artistic institutions. As a ballet teacher, he has taught all levels in dance education, from absolute beginners to seasoned professionals. Kattón is a member of the International Dance Council CID (The United Nations of Dance). Kattón’s choreography and pedagogical approach promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion as means to preserve the art of classical ballet by allowing it to evolve. Currently, Aldo Katton is a Ballet Instructor for Syracuse University in the Drama department.

John Ling is a musician who lives in Brooklyn.

Alberto Lopez Herrera is Calpulli Mexican Dance Company’s co-founder, artistic director, choreographer, wardrobe designer and maker, and lead teaching artist. With Lopez at the helm, Calpulli’s productions have matured from showcasing regional folk dances into evening-length performances that demonstrate the spectacular beauty of Mexican culture and tell compelling and relevant stories. With each new production, Lopez gives voice to the Mexican diaspora, prioritizing collaboration with Mexican or Mexican-American choreographers, set-designers, and composers to reflect the wide array of perspectives within our community. Lopez’s works have been praised by critics at the New York Examiner, Queens Courier, Houston Chronicle, New York Times, and the New Yorker where dance critic Brian Seibert has called the company’s performances “delightful.” Lopez served as dramaturg and folk choreographer for Barrington Stage’s Off-Broadway production “A Crossing”, under the direction of Joshua Bergasse, for which they received an Outstanding Choreography award from the Berkshires Theater Critics Association. Lopez created and oversees Calpulli’s education programs, which offers programs  in-school and in community settings. Each year Calpulli serves thousands with classes, residencies, and assemblies in schools around NYC and beyond, bringing high-quality arts instruction to more than half a million students and audiences in total. Lopez also directs Calpulli Community which provides free and low-cost dance and music classes targeted to Mexican immigrant and Mexican American families in and around NYC. In his time overseeing the program, approximately 20 youth have graduated and continued to pursue careers in the arts.

MingLiang Lu, “master 3-D paper portrait cutter”, was born in Shanghai, China where his artistic practice focused on stone sculpture and Chinese stone stamp-seal carving. Master Lu has practiced several ancient Chinese art forms, including teaching Chinese calligraphy, Chinese brush painting, and paper cutting at New York Chinese Cultural Center for over 20 years. Paper cutting dates to the Han dynasty and Master Lu started exploring paper-cutting art at the age of five with his father who encouraged him to learn fine art. His paper-cutting artwork has been exhibited in the American Museum of Natural History. MingLiang Lu has been featured in the New York Times, highlighting his 3-D paper portrait cutting –  Making Faces in the Subway, Using Paper and Scissors. Lu has been conducting Chinese cultural programs and art workshops for Queens Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and New York Public Library in person and online since 2016. MingLiang Lu is New York City Artist Corps Grant Recipient of 2021 and Brooklyn Arts Council 2020, 2022 Grantee – SUCASA Teaching Artist. At present, he works as a consultant to teach Chinese Calligraphy, Chinese Brush Painting and Paper Cutting Art at JCCGCI SENIOR CENTER in Brooklyn, CBN COVELLO SENIOR CENTER in Manhattan and CPC NAN SHAN SENIOR CENTER in Queens, New York.

Brynne O’Rourke (they/them) is a white, transfemme theatre practitioner, teaching artist, sexuality health educator, Trans-inclusivity consultant, and poet dedicated to anti-oppressive practices and imaginings for a freer and more just world. As a theatre practitioner, Brynne commits themself to stories that challenge and expand definitions of performance in ways that uplift the project of Trans liberation and support the development of critical consciousness and critical action. They are a member of the F.U.N. (FiercedUntamedNiñes) Collective, Pride Youth Theatre Alliance, Trans Asylum Seeker Support Network and Trans Writers Union. They co-founded and co-produced the first ever Gallatin Mental Health Arts Festival. Their work as a director, playwright and performer has been showcased at Fiasco Theater Company, Dixon Place, WOW Cafe Theater, The Tank, The Brick, The Kraine Theater, usagi gallery, NYU Gallatin, Sitting Shotgun Players, Skidmore College, No Exit Theatre Collective. Brynne holds a BA from NYU Gallatin’s School of Individualized Study and an MA in Applied Theatre from CUNY School of Professional Studies. www.brynneorourke.com

Iviva Olenick is a Brooklyn-born and based visual artist and arts educator using textile handcrafts as windows into social histories. In collaboration with New York farms, gardens and historic houses, Iviva grows textile crops from seed and leads public dye- and fiber-making to acknowledge colonial histories, foundational enslaved labor, study and preserve culturally-specific textile traditions, and be in close collaboration with the natural world and aware of climate change. In addition to developing her own public arts education programming, Iviva is a Teaching Artist for the New Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem and BRIC. She is a faculty member of SVA’s MFA Art Practice program, and the part-time Lower School Arts Teacher for Hannah Senesh Day School in Brooklyn. Iviva holds a BA in French Language and Literature/Psychology from Binghamton University, and an AAS in Textile/Surface Design from FIT.

Shawn Rawls grew up in Cleveland, Ohio studying martial arts and street dance from a young age. At sixteen he attended Cleveland School of the Arts and began dancing with the Y.A.R.D (Youth At Risk Dancing), an award-winning program helping youths develop an artistic voice, and U.D.C (Urban Dance Collective). He received a full scholarship in dance to pursue a B.F.A. in performance and choreography from Belhaven University. He also received his M.F.A. from Wilson college. He has been commissioned to create work on Dancing Wheels and the Roxey Ballet along with numerous choreography commissions for colleges and student training programs. Shawn is the founder and artistic director of Emotions Physical Theatre, a dance company that performs in New York and around the United States. Shawn works with the DEA to create shows and teach residencies that combine high-quality dance presentations with an anti-drug message for at-risk kids. Shawn has also been teaching dance for over thirteen years at numerous dance schools, training programs, summer intensives, conventions, and in the Newark Public School system.

Megumi Saruhashi is a Japanese violinist, composer and educator based in Brooklyn. Having performed around the globe from Carnegie Hall to refugee camps in the Middle East, Megumi knows no boundary when it comes to performing music. Megumi has embraced her credo “The earth is my home, the sky is my blanket. Wherever I go, I am home”, with three bases she calls home, namely, Japan, New York and Egypt. Through steeping in these three cultures, she found her voice in musical compositions that express her admiration for these distinctively unique cultures, and discovered the magic and healing in uncovering the unity that hides in diversity. Her compositions reconcile differences across the cultural psyches, and enrich each one through the gifts of the other. As an educator, Megumi has been teaching violin in underserved communities in New York City and providing workshops at refugee camps in the Middle East because her love for Arabic music led her to discover another side of this region: on-going political issues that displace millions of people. One of her compositions “Refugees” was composed for Syrian refugees in Aramoun, Lebanon where she held a singing workshop called “Song without words” with a local NGO, URDA. Megumi continually crosses borders — literally and musically — in her dedication to finding a unifying healing force through embracing diversity.