Dance Faculty

Phone: 314-246-6936
Email: margaretdueker81@webster.edu

• Loretto-Hilton Center
• Webster Groves Main Campus, St. Louis, MO (WEBG)

Maggi Dueker is an assistant professor and the chair for the Department of Dance at Webster University. She founded and is the director of Webster’s Summer Dance Intensives. Her choreography has been performed by the Webster University Dance Ensemble, Convergence, and at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, American College Dance Festival, Dancing in the Streets, and National Dance Day among others.

Dueker has an MFA in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and received her BFA in Dance and BA in History from Webster (Summa cum laude). She has performed professionally with Giordano Dance Chicago II, Royal Caribbean International, the MUNY and as a freelance performer with Melissa Thodos and Dancers and the Chicago Arts Project under the direction of Jay Franke. She has previously taught at Northwestern University, Giordano Dance Center and currently teaches for the Big Muddy Dance Company. For her work at Webster, Dueker has been nominated for the Kemper Excellence in Teaching Award.

 

Diadié Bathily (pronounced JAH-jay bah-chee-LEE) is a master dancer, choreographer and dance instructor from the countries of Côte d’Ivoire and Mali in West Africa. He specializes in dances of Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Ghana. He is equally at home in contemporary dance forms. He has performed since the age of four. He has danced on stages in Africa, Europe and the United States with various dance companies, including Marie-Rose Guiraud’s Les Guirivoires, the renowned troupe of West African choreographer, dancer and musician, Adama Dramé, and with his own troupe in Côte d’Ivoire, Wara Danse.

Bathily is a member of the faculty of the Center of Creative Arts (COCA) in St. Louis, Missouri. Through COCA’s educational outreach programs, he introduces high school and college students throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area to the joys of African dance.

In 2002 and 2005, he presented his work as a guest choreographer at Washington University in St. Louis. He recently performed and gave workshops at Chicago’s Second Annual African Dance Conference in August 2004. As an instructor, he has taught master classes and workshops in Montbéliard, France, at the School of Dance at Florida State University, and at the University of the Arts and at Temple University in Philadelphia. He has also performed at the United Nations in New York, the Village Arts and Humanities in Philadelphia, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, and at various festivals and events in Albuquerque, Chicago, Des Moines, Philadelphia, and St. Louis.

In 2003, Bathily formed his own dance company, Afriky Lolo, as well as a parallel children’s company, Yelé. He performs with, directs, choreographs, costumes and stages all performances for both companies. Performers wear traditional West African costumes sewn and/or created by Bathily who travels frequently to Côte d’Ivoire and Mali to find authentic cloth, beads and masks for the companies’ performances. This summer, Afriky Lolo will perform in Los Angeles for AfricAlive, an HIV/AIDS fundraising event for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. And, in the fall, Afriky Lolo will travel to Alaska for another benefit performance. Back in St. Louis, the companies’ annual African Dance Celebration at COCA has become a much-anticipated summer event. This year Bathily took his annual show to new heights by weaving traditional dances into a story line of his own creation, The Mask. Through dance, song and percussion, the story of how an important mask is stolen from a West African village, and how it comes to be returned, is told.

Bathily has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the N’gowa Prize for “Best Dancer and Dance Teacher of the Year” in Côte d’Ivoire. Famed Ivoirian choreographer, Marie-Rose Guiraud, awarded him her Certificate of African Dance, describing him as “A true artist to watch for the future of traditional and contemporary art. Above all in the world of the Black Diaspora.” In the United States, Bathily performed at the Katherine Dunham Center in East Saint Louis for Katherine Dunham’s 90th birthday celebration. He is also schedule to perform for Ms. Dunham’s 97th birthday celebration on June 23, 2006 in Saint Louis. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has chronicled his work.

In all these venues, Bathily's greatest joy comes from connecting students and audiences to West Africa through the region’s dances, music, songs and stories.

Email: taracacciatore34@webster.edu

Tara W.F. Cacciatore graduated with honors from Webster University. She has a BFA in Dance with an Emphasis in Ballet and Modern. She studied in New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C., St. Louis and The Twin Cities with renowned artists and teachers in companies she has performed with as well as guest artists and summer intensives. Cacciatore has been featured on PBS for her solo role in Jessica Lang's “Anonymous” in the New Dance Horizon's first season of touring as well as in Dance Magazine's October 2012 issue, St. Louis Post Dispatch, News Channel Four, Twin Cities Pioneer Press, The Star Tribune and The New York Times.

Cacciatore has taught and choreographed in universities, professional companies, student-based studios and under her own Project: le.Lux. Before moving to St. Paul, Minnesota, she was an adjunct professor at UMSL in their theatre and dance department, teaching modern and jazz with an additional writing emphasis on the history of dance. She, most recently, had the opportunity to choreograph at Webster University and assist in setting work on Grand Rapids Ballet. Cacciatore choreographs full length works for her pre-professional company, Project III, which donates all proceeds to women’s homes and teaches/choreographs for her studio as artistic director/owner of Momentum Dance Project.

Cacciatore's choreography can be seen on the Higher Education Channel for her full-length piece commission in a co-hosted concert “(un)Bridled.” Before graduating from college, her choreography has been selected twice for The American College Dance Festival, as well as adjudicated and chosen for their gala performance. Cacciatore was the recipient of the Chalot Douglas Trust Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts in 2010, and has continued to receive recognition for her choreography in awards and commissions.

Cacciatore is a former company member of four seasons with TU Dance, a contemporary modern/ballet company, under the artistic direction of Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands, performing locally as well as touring regionally and nationally. In her professional career, she has most enjoyed performing works of recognized choreographers such as Giocando Barbuto, Katrina Hall, Francesca Harper, Jessica Lang and Uri Sands. She has performed in acclaimed theaters like The Joyce Theater in New York and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Cacciatore is a former company member of Karlovsky and Company and Common Thread Contemporary Dance Company, as well as a guest artist with a-Trek Dance Collective and ANONNYArts. Before moving to the Twin Cities, choreographers of influence include Iyun Harrison, Christine Kardell, Dawn Karlovsky, Eddy Ocampo, Jennifer Medina, Jimena Paz and Beckah (Voigt) Reed.

Email: caldwema@webster.edu

Maura Caldwell-Thompson is a licensed professional counselor in the state of Missouri and an adjunct professor in the Department of Dance at Webster University. In addition to teaching classes in somatics, Caldwell-Thompson serves as a mental health liaison, meeting with students in the department for individual and group counseling sessions. She graduated from Webster University with a double major in Dance and Psychology. In addition to her dance career, Caldwell-Thompson holds a Master’s Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and she is the owner of Balance Within, LLC, a private therapy practice in St. Louis, where she specializes in the treatment of eating disorders, trauma, grief, anxiety and depression. Caldwell-Thompson is a certified yoga instructor, and holds certifications in Pilates and sports nutrition. Caldwell-Thompson believes in the importance of finding balance within ourselves, and in dance as an outlet for emotional expression.

Email: janicecosby71@webster.edu

Jan Feager Cosby has taught tap at Webster University since 1990. Formerly on faculty at Washington University in St. Louis and the Ballet Conservatory of St. Louis, she also teaches at DaySpring School of the Arts. In 1988 she founded and was artistic director for Tapsichore, a contemporary rhythm tap company that toured regionally and collaborated with dancers Acia Gray, Suzanne Grace, musicians Kim Portnoy, Ken Palmer, Paul deMarinis and composer Bob Chamberlin among others. She was one of eleven tap artists chosen from an international pool to work with the late tap master Charles “Honi” Coles at the Colorado Dance Festival's first Tap Creative Residency.

Since then she has performed and taught tap improvisation and technique for the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, the St. Louis Tap Festival, St. Louis Dance Festival, the Missouri Arts Council's Missouri Touring Program and the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis. Cosby served as a Regional Representative for the International Tap Association for several seasons and sat on the Steering Committee for that organization during its early years.

Prior to founding Tapsichore, Cosby toured nationally as performer and teacher with the award-winning Metro Theater Company. Her work with MTC included performances at the Kennedy Center, the Detroit Institute of the Arts and at Powell Hall with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Also an early musician and recorderist, Cosby was a guest member of the Ganzfeld Quartet and a long-time member of the St. Louis Early Music Band. She currently teaches recorder at Lighthouse Co-op where she has also taught Music Appreciation and Creative Movement. Her poem Nobody Knew You was published in 2009 by Paraclete Press.

Email: zlatkocosic77@webster.edu

Zlatko Ćosić is a video artist born in Yugoslavia whose work includes short films, video installations, theatre and architectural projections, and audio-visual performances. Ćosić’s experience as a refugee influenced and shaped the content of his early artistic practice. His work began with the challenges of immigration and shifting identities, evolving to socio-political issues connected to injustice, consumerism and climate crisis. Ćosić's artwork has been shown in over fifty countries in exhibitions such as the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Video Vortex XI at Kochi-Muzeris Biennial, St. Louis International Film Festival, Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, /si:n/ Biennale, Institut Für Alles Möglische and the Research Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale. He has received grants, including the Regional Arts Commission Artist Fellowship, the WaveMaker Grants at Locust Projects and a Kranzberg Grant from Laumeier Sculpture Park.

 

Kirven Douthit-Boyd (he/him, Boston, Massachusetts) began his formal dance training at the Boston Arts Academy in 1998 and continued his dance education at Boston Youth Moves from 1999-2002. In 2018, he earned his MFA in Dance from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. He also trained on scholarship at The Boston Conservatory and The Ailey School before performing with Battleworks Dance Company, Ailey II, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 2004-2015.

Douthit-Boyd joined Ron K. Brown/EVIDENCE, A Dance Company, as a guest artist in 2016 and has appeared in the company’s Joyce Theater season in New York. He has choreographed works for The Ailey School, The Juilliard School, Webster University, Washington University in St. Louis, The Repertory Theatre of St Louis, The Black Repertory Theatre of St Louis, The Big Muddy Dance Company, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and Ailey II. He has also staged works by Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison, and Robert Battle on companies in Japan and St. Louis. In 2010, he performed at the White House Tribute to Judith Jamison hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Douthit-Boyd is the associate director of dance at the Center of Creative Arts (COCA), the fourth largest multidisciplinary community arts center in the country, and artistic director of The Big Muddy Dance Company.

Email: loisenders@webster.edu

Lois Enders has been teaching and dancing professionally for over 15 years. After receiving her BA in Dance from Webster University, she danced aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines. Enders performed five seasons as a Radio City Rockette in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. She was a swing and assistant dance captain for the first national tour of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Enders has also been in productions for several regional theatres including Stages St. Louis, The Muny (also assistant choreographer for 2010’s “Beauty and the Beast”) and Riverside Theatre. She is proficient in many styles of dance, and when not performing enjoys teaching. Enders is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and American Guild of Variety Artists.

Email: hublerga@webster.edu

Gary Hubler joined the Webster faculty in 1973 and served as the artistic director for Webster Dance Theatre. He has performed in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and at The Muny in St. Louis. He has trained with many well-known teachers including Leon Danielian, Edna McRae, Matt Mattox and Luigi. He continues to work as a guest artist, teacher, and choreographer throughout the Midwest.

After 33 years of teaching, Hubler retired from Webster University in May of 2006. In honor of Hubler's retirement after 33 years at Webster University, the 2006 Spring Concert featured many alumni who returned from across the country to take part in a celebration of Hubler's career. Alumni danced side-by-side with current members of Webster University Dance Ensemble in reprised pieces of Hubler's from as far back as 1987. The title of the concert, From Swan Lake To Swan Song, referenced the fact that Hubler's first professional performance was in “Swan Lake” on the stage of Kiel Opera House.

Email: mayajohnson39@webster.edu

MJ Imani is a professional dancer, choreographer and creative director from St. Louis. Her love of dance began at the age of eight when her mother enrolled her in lessons at COCA. Thanks to instructors such as Lee Nolting and Anthony “Redd” Williams, she was able to cultivate her passion for dance as an artform. She studied at Webster University, earning her BA in cultural anthropology and graduated with departmental honors in 2016.

Much like her dance inspiration Katherine Dunham, Imani wanted to combine her anthropological studies with her love of dance. In 2017, she was named COCA’s Katherine Dunham Pre-Professional Division Fellow in 2017. The following year, Imani relocated to Atlanta, where she interned at Dance 411, trained in commercial styles and choreographed/performed for various artists. She returned to St. Louis in 2020 to open her dance media company, 314 Movement Lab.

Since her hometown return, Imani teaches hip hop as adjunct faculty at Webster University and Washington University, while choreographing regularly for multiple artists and providing professional opportunities for local dancers. With her classes ranging from contemporary, heels, hip hop, jazz and funk styles, her goal is to make St. Louis a hub for developing young artists.

Email: ellenisom52@webster.edu

Ellen Isom has had a versatile career in dance since graduating with her BA from Webster University. She has danced in modern companies in Chicago and St. Louis. She has performed around the world aboard Royal Viking and Royal Cruise Lines. Isom is a proud member of Actors' Equity and has performed in musical theatre venues regionally in the United States including the Goodman in Chicago and Stages St. Louis.

Isom has choreographed a variety of musicals, plays and dance pieces in the St. Louis area for professional venues including Stages St. Louis, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, New Jewish Theatre, Echo Theatre, and The Temporary Theatre Company. She has also choreographed musicals for both Webster University and St. Louis University.

She is on faculty at several St. Louis area schools including Visitation Academy, the Stages' Performing Arts Academy and On Your Toes Dance Studio.

Isom is privileged to teach students of all ages and abilities. At Webster, she currently teaches beginning ballet and intermediate ballet and jazz which she finds particularly rewarding. Building a strong foundation in ballet and jazz is important to the success of a dancer and developing the keen mind-body connection of a dancer is beneficial to all students.

Email: dawnkarlovsky52@webster.edu

Dawn Karlovsky is a prolific choreographer whose thought provoking, athletic, and emotionally candid dances have been commissioned and presented by universities, modern dance companies and theatre companies both regionally and nationally. Karlovsky is the founder and artistic director of Karlovsky & Company Dance, a contemporary modern dance company dedicated to exploring and nurturing the art of dance with innovative choreography that celebrates the human experience. Karlovsky's recent work focuses on developing dance for the camera. Her video, Closer, created in collaboration with New York-based choreographer, Megan Nicely, was presented at the American College Dance Festival – ScreenDance Festival in March 2011.

Karlovsky's choreography has been commissioned and presented by Webster University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL), University of Minnesota–Duluth, University of Utah, American College Dance Festival (ACDFA), Dance St. Louis, Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), Christopher Watson Dance Co. (Minneapolis), Ressl Dance!, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, That Uppity Theater and others.

Karlovsky came to St. Louis in 1998 after dancing and touring with companies in San Francisco, Louisville, and Chicago including Afterimages Repertory Dance, California Contemporary Dance and GASH/VOIGT Dance Theatre here in St. Louis. In addition, she has performed with many independent artists including contact improvisation works with Andrew Harwood, David Marchant, Liz Claire and Angela Culbertson, project collaborations with Mary Ann Rund, and performing Isadora Duncan repertoire under the direction of Dr. Alice Bloch.

Locally, her choreography has been presented in festivals including Spring to Dance, St. Lou Fringe Festival, Dancing in the Street, St. Louis Dance Festival and Contemporary Moves hosted by Dance St. Louis. Full evening concert programs by Karlovsky & Company Dance are presented annually. Karlovsky holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Utah and a Bachelor of Arts with honors from Northern Illinois University. Karlovsky is a faculty member of the Performing Arts Department at Washington University and the Department of Dance at Webster University in St. Louis, dance faculty at COCA, and a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique.

Email: taylerkinner35@webster.edu

Tayler Kinner grew up in the cornfields of Springfield, Illinois. She holds a BFA in Dance and a minor in Advertising and Marketing Communications from Webster University, graduating with departmental honors. Kinner spent several years in San Francisco, where she was fortunate to work with contemporary and dance-theatre companies, including RAWdance, Alyssandra Katherine Dance, Tim Rubel Human Shakes, KWENTO, REYES Dance and several independent artists. She has performed in New York, Berlin, St. Louis and throughout the Bay Area. Kinner is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Big Plate Dance, using improvisation to bring spontaneous and joyful works to audiences. She currently works with Karlovsky and Company Dance and lives in St. Louis with her partner and two cats.

Email: cknoblauchoneal@webster.edu

Christine Knoblauch-O’Neal, PhD, is a professor of Practice in the Performing Arts and the director of the new MFA in Dance Program for the Performing Arts Department at Washington University. Knoblauch-O’Neal performed for twenty years with companies such as American Ballet Theatre, the National Ballet Dancers, the Cincinnati Ballet dancers and the Dayton Ballet.

Knoblauch-O’Neal danced in the film “Turning Point,” performed as Kristine in “A Chorus Line,” and toured with dancers to Italy’s Spoleto Festival. She was asked to perform Jennifer Medina’s “Courtesan” during the Spring to Dance Festival at the Touhill Center for the Performing Arts through Dance St. Louis in 2008. In addition, she was one of 14 choreographers featured in Dance St. Louis’ Contemporary Moves concert in May 2004, premiering her work “Black, Pearls, and Harry” at Touhill. Knoblauch-O’Neal has choreographed over 15 works for WashU Dance Theatre. She has choreographed and performed in eight of her own works and the works of five international and regional choreographers in the faculty concert, Dance Close-Up. In addition, she has choreographed over 30 department musicals and theatre productions, including “Legally Blonde” (2019), “Rocky Horror” (2018), “Urinetown” (2017), “Company” (2015), “Three Penny Opera” (2010), “Fiddler on the Roof” (2006), “Violet” (2006), “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Into the Woods” (2006), “Hair” (2005) and “The Awakening” (2004).

Knoblauch-O’Neal attended Smith College as an Ada Comstock Scholar, graduating with an AB in theatre. Her MALS thesis from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, culminating with performances of “As Is,” a classical ballet, structured improvisation with Webster Dance Theatre was featured in the Summer/Fall 2001 edition of Contact Quarterly. O’Neal participated in the panel discussion, Musical Theatre as Liberal Inquiry: The Pathway to Craft, with colleagues Anna Pileggi and Lisa Campbell, and presented her own research, Welcome to the World of Parallel: A Journey from Ballet to Ballroom, at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities in Honolulu, January 2007.

In 2014, Knoblauch-O’Neal’s article, A Pedagogy of Restaging: The Authenticity of Embodied Practice, appeared in the Journal of Emerging Dance Scholarship through the World Dance Alliance. She co-presented with Jennifer Medina, The Mature Artist: An Embodied Story at the CORPS de Ballet, at the International Conference in July 2009 where she also performed Ms. Medina’s solo Courtesan. For the 2011 CORPS de Ballet conference, Knoblauch-O’Neal presented her research on the work of the Répétiteurs of the Tudor Trust in restaging the ballets of Antony Tudor. As part of the Antony Tudor Dance Studies Curriculum Development Committee created by Sally Bliss, Executor of the Tudor will and Trustee of the Tudor Trust, Knoblauch-O’Neal joined fellow committee members in presenting the newly designed curriculum during the 2011 CORPS de Ballet conference. She was a guest of the performing arts department as the colloquium speaker in September 2014, presenting her research, “Restaging History: The Work of the Répétiteurs of the Antony Tudor Ballet Trust.”

Her awards include a bronze medal from the International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria, a state department medal in recognition of her accomplishment in Varna, the ArtSci Faculty award from Washington University, and the 2009 CORPS de Ballet International Service Award. She recently published, “Revealing the Inner Contours of Human Emotion: Preserving the Ballets of Antony Tudor.” Her research interests include the restaging of master dance works, storytelling and the embodied narrative.

Email: jaysonlawshee77@webster.edu

Jayson M. Lawshee is a St. Louis-based production director and designer whose experiences include musical theatre, opera, new work and dance. An alumnus of The Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University, Lawshee holds a BFA in Lighting Design. Lawshee is currently the technical director at COCA Center of Creative Arts. He has designed for Metro Theatre Company and COCA, as well as Lyric Rep and Shakespeare Festival St. Louis (SFSTL). Some lighting design credits include “Billy Elliot,” “wUNDERland,” “Four Little Girls” (COCA); “Last Stop on Market Street” and “Ghost” (Metro); and “Love at the River's Edge” (SFSTL). He has additionally served as the assistant lighting designer for the Repertory Theatre of Saint Louis’ production of “Pride and Prejudice.” He was the lighting programmer for Shakespeare Festival St. Louis’ production of “King Lear.” He was the first electrics intern at Wolf Trap Opera in Washington D.C., and served as assistant master electrician at Opera Theatre Saint Louis. Jayson often refers to the tech table as his “home,” and is passionate about making theatre, in all forms, accessible to all people.

Email: masonev@webster.edu

Eve Mason is originally from St. Louis, where she graduated from Webster University with her BFA in Dance and Choreography as well as her MA in Business and Leadership. After graduating from college, Mason moved to Los Angeles, where she continues to pursue a dance and choreography career. Her credits include: Latin American Music Awards, American Billboard Awards, American Music Awards, Mexican Billboard Awards, America’s Got Talent (Seasons 5 and 6), Princess Cruises, Jennifer Lopez, Cee-Lo Green, Sheila E, Nike, MTV MADE Coach, plus many more live shows and commercials. Mason is currently working as an assistant choreographer with Liz Imperio on projects, and owns and operates Velocity Dance Convention.

Email: aprilmok@webster.edu

April Mok earned her PhD in Composition from the University of Chicago, where she was a Scherer Center Fellow. Her teachers included Andrew Imbrie, Shulamit Ran, Marta Ptaszynska and Bernard Rands. She previously served as an assistant professor of Theory and Composition at Xavier University of Louisiana and Principia College.

Mok’s music has been featured at festivals, including Electronic Music Midwest, Third Practice, soundSCAPE, Santa Clara New Music Festival, Chicago Winter Composition Festival and the Society of Electro-acoustic Music in the United States Conference, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, Eighth Blackbird, Pacifica String Quartet and Matt Gould of Duo 46, and published by Wolfhead Music. Additionally, she was a Clews Center for the Arts resident at the La Napoule Art Foundation in France.

As a pianist, she holds a BM in Piano Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Mack McCray. She has played in masterclasses for Alfons Kontasrsky, Theodor Edel and Kevin Kenner, and has led an active performance career over the years in music ministry, musical theatre and concert chamber music. Mok has also performed as a soloist with the University of Chicago Symphony and Seoul Symphony Orchestras.

Mok’s scholarly interests involve reinstating beauty as the principal objective in music, establishing fresh perspectives and novel associations to redefine it. She is also interested in mobilizing the collaborative potential between music and other disciplines and in the social dimension.

Email: monicanewsam68@webster.edu

Monica Newsam, President of NEWSAM AERIAL DANCE, was born in Panama. Newsam's internationally acclaimed body of work stretches across four continents. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National School of Dance and Folklore in Havana. She continued her exploration of international movement styles in India where she received a Post Graduate Diploma in Indian Classical Dance at Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra and Yoga at the Sivananda Yoga Center of Kerala. In 1999, inspired to take dance into the local community, Monica Newsam and her sister, Graciela, co-founded Gramo Danse Company, the first aerial dance company in Panama. In 2003, Newsam received a master's degree in education from Lindenwood University. She began exploring aerial circus techniques which lent new perspectives to her artistic work. Since 2008, Newsam works with the St. Louis nonprofit consortium ANNONYArts. In 2017, Monica and Graciela Newsam published a pioneering Aerial Dance Curriculum for Dancers. Through her extensive creative output, Newsam seeks to expand global awareness of aerial dance as an exciting, expressive movement discipline.

Email: robertpoe@webster.edu

A native of Aiken, South Carolina, Robert Poe has enjoyed a professional dancing career since 2004. For almost 17 years, he has performed with Columbia City Ballet, Cedar Lake II, Nashville Ballet and the Nashville Opera before coming to St. Louis to dance with Missouri Ballet Theatre. In 2011, he became a founding member of The Big Muddy Dance Company, and spent nine seasons rehearsing, performing and choreographing with the company, before leaving to flourish his own nonprofit dance organization, Ballet 314.

In February 2019, Poe co-founded Ballet 314, and he serves as co-artistic director with Rachel Bodi. Through this company, he co-published a children's book, "The Nutcracker and the 1904 World's Fair," based off of the ballet he co-created, premiering in December 2019; in addition, he spearheaded Project Change, a community initiative that encompassed the premiere of his first full length ballet, "Ragtime, the American Experience," in July 2021.

Since coming to St. Louis, Poe has also appeared with local organizations such as the St. Louis Ballet, and performed for two summers with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where he was part of the original cast of the world premiere opera, "Fire Shut Up In My Bones." He has taught for numerous dance studios and universities across St. Louis, Illinois and the South East, and his choreography has been seen with several dance companies throughout the years, including Nashville Ballet, Nashville Ballet II, Missouri Ballet Theatre, The Big Muddy Dance Company, La Voute, Leverage, Missouri Baptist University. Most recently, he has created a collaborative, dance-centric work on La Voute, inspired by "The 63106 Project," in partnership with Before Ferguson, Beyond Ferguson.

Email: voigtbe@webster.edu

Beckah Reed is a professor emerita of Dance at Webster University. She has been teaching dance at Webster since 1986, served as the program head and chair of the Department from 2006-2013, and as the artistic director from 2013-2021. Her focus has been modern technique, composition, dance history, improvisation, pedagogy and somatics.

Reed served as co-artistic director for Wishbone Dance Theatre, a company with homes in two Missouri cities, and as co-artistic director for GASH/VOIGT Dance Theatre (GVDT), an all-women’s contemporary dance theatre ensemble based in St. Louis. She created full evening-length works, collaborating with Susan Gash and a variety of nationally and internationally renowned composers, visual artists, writers and videographers. The company toured throughout the world to Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Russia, Taiwan, Costa Rica, China, Germany and other countries. GVDT spent 15 years self-producing its work, conducting educational residencies and international cultural exchanges. The company was supported by numerous private individuals, foundations and corporations, including government agencies, such as the US Department of State. Reed founded ANNONYArts, a St. Louis-based performing arts company dedicated to supporting a consortium of independent movement and performing artists, and served as artistic director from 2003-2013. Reed has been very involved with the American College Dance Festival, serving on the Board of Directors for two terms. She has served on various boards of arts organizations and on panels for arts funding agencies, including the Missouri Arts Council and the Regional Arts Commission. Reed’s choreography, best described as theatre dance, draws on the use of props, voice and the motivation of human interactions to create her pieces.

Reed enjoys her work in somatics, focusing on transformation through subtle energies. She is a Master Reiki Practitioner with training in Hun Yuan Taiji and qigong, as well as other healing modalities.

Email: ninareed21@webster.edu

Nina Reed works professionally with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, both based at Webster's Loretto-Hilton Center.

Email: williamrussell87@webster.edu

William (Bill) Russell, PhD, specializes in the treatment of dancers, musicians and actors, and maintains an on-site clinic for Webster students, treating acute and chronic injuries using a variety of physical medicine techniques and Pilates-based exercise programs. He received the Doctor of Chiropractic from Logan University, holds a Diplomate of the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians in sports medicine, and has studied acupuncture extensively in China and the United States. He is an active member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science and Performing Arts Medicine Association, and has published numerous articles and lectured nationally and internationally on dance medicine.

In addition to his performing arts medicine practice, he is an internationally known artist, exhibiting works in Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom. In St. Louis, his work can be seen at ARTICA and the Contemporary Museum and as sets for ANNONYArts. Dr. Russell graduated from Pittsburgh University with a BFA and MA and Washington University with a MFA in Multimedia. He has danced with Sara Shelton Mann and Off Track Dancers and studies African dance via Katherine Dunham Technique and Black Dance USA.

Email: gwitzmann66@webster.edu

Gretchen Stanton grew up in Chicago and moved to Memphis as a young girl. She was enrolled in a classical ballet academy at the age of two because her grandmother was a dancer. She moved on to a ballet company in high school and began participating in musicals as well. Stanton is a graduate of Webster University and holds a BFA in dance. She has trained and performed with Tennessee Ballet Company, The Memphis Ballet Company, and the Nashville Ballet. In the St. Louis area, Stanton has performed with MADCO and in several shows at Stages St. Louis as well as numerous industrials in and around the city. She is the director of the RJ's Ellisville award-winning competition team.

Email: lindatackes76@webster.edu

Linda M. Tackes, PT, COMT, CEAS, teaches anatomy and cross training classes for the collegiate dancer. She is a graduate from Maryville University’s School of Physical Therapy with over 33 years of experience in outpatient orthopedic physical therapy, and specializes in working with performing artists and occupational medicine. She is a member of the Sports Program and Flexible Sports team with SSM HEALTH Physical Therapy in St. Louis. Tackes is a Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist, trained by Select Medical (2019), Certified Ergonomic Assessment Specialist (CEAS), trained by The Back School (2017) and completed the training for FCE by Select Medical Work Strategies (2018).

In addition to her time spent in the PT clinic, Tackes follows her passion for dance science, working with dancers in outreach and collegiate level. She also holds a certification in Progressing Ballet Technique. Tackes developed and implements cross training classes for Irish dance schools in the St. Louis area. Tackes is a member of IADMS and participates in Select Medical Performing Arts Journal club. Her passion is working with all levels of dancers in all forms to improve their dance performance through education of injury prevention, therapeutic physical therapy treatment and dance fitness.

Tackes and her family enjoy their time together on the water, boating, playing with their two boxers and dabbling in Missouri native wildflowers.

Email: michaeluthoff73@webster.edu

Michael Uthoff is an internationally renowned artistic director, choreographer, teacher and dancer, and the artistic and executive director of Dance St. Louis since 2006. Uthoff was born in Santiago, Chile, to former dancers Ernst Uthoff and Lola Botka, both of the Jooss Ballet and founders of the Chilean National Ballet. He started dancing after high school and a year later arrived in New York to attend the Julliard School of Music, School of American Ballet, and Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. He danced with the José Limón Company and was a principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet.

In 1972, Uthoff established the Hartford Ballet in Hartford, Connecticut. For the next 20 years, as artistic director, he developed the company into a national institution that toured throughout 49 states. He commissioned works by new and established choreographers, and created more than 100 ballets for the company himself. In 1992, Uthoff accepted the position of artistic director of Ballet Arizona, a post he held until 1999. From the time that Uthoff created his first dance for the Joffrey Ballet in 1967, his ballets have entered the repertory of companies all over the world. His large-scale works include “The Nutcracker,” “Coppelia,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Awakening,” “Dias de Muertos”and “Romeo and Juliet.”

He has directed opera and choreographed for opera companies internationally, and has served on the Board of Dance/USA and panels of the National Endowment for the Arts. Uthoff's recent career as guest teacher, choreographer, and artistic advisor includes entities such as the government of Chile, the Shanghai Ballet of China, the California Ballet of San Diego, Portland Opera Performing Institute, Andanza Dance Company of Puerto Rico, the Ballet Estable of the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he held the post of artistic director, and his own Michael Uthoff Dance Theatre, which premiered in 2003.

His teaching continues at the university level in the dance departments at University of Missouri–St. Louis and Webster University. He has been awarded a Laureate Degree from the Harford College For Women; an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and was recognized by the Arts and Education Council for the Excellence in the Arts Award 2013.

Uthoff completed a recreation for MADCO in St. Louis and a new work for Dancing Wheels in Cleveland, Ohio to music of Alice Cooper. He also choreographed for New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida, for the final performance under retiring Dean Daniel Lewis in Spring 2011. Among other dance works are “Galleria,” premiered in February 2007 by Boston Conservatory, and “Honorable Sky,” which he created in August 2007 for 30 X 30, the 30th anniversary celebration of BalletMet Columbus.

Email: xizhao11@webster.edu

Xi Zhao received her MFA in Performance and Choreography from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and her MA in Dance Choreography at the School of Dance, Minzu University of China. She is the founder and artistic director of The NEW-Beijing New Dance Festival. The festival has successfully invited over 100 international artists from more than 25 countries to perform and to teach in Beijing, introducing many contemporary dance artists and companies from central and Eastern Europe to China for the first time. It has hosted over 10,000 participants and spectators from all over China. Zhao was a tenured lecturer at the School of Dance, Minzu University of China for 11 years.

In view of Zhao's contributions to the contemporary dance scene in China, she was commissioned by China's Ministry of Culture as the dance expert assisting the visit of the CEEC (Central and Eastern European Countries) Dance Festivals and Choreographers delegation in 2014. In 2016 she was invited to be a keynote speaker at the Chinese Government's "16+1" initiative, the China-CEEC Arts Cooperation Forum. She has given keynotes and panel discussions about Chinese contemporary dance development at many international dance festivals. In 2019 she was a visiting guest artist in the Dance Department at Webster University in St. Louis where she currently serves as an adjunct faculty and the artistic director of Webster University Dance Ensemble.

Zhao has actively engaged in the Chinese community through her teaching and service and has worked as the artistic director for the annual St. Louis Lunar New Year Galas. She has worked as an independent choreographer worldwide and is a member of China Dancers Association, the leading association of dance professionals in China. In April, 2019 Zhao received the "Award MENADA for Extraordinary Achievement in the Field of Contemporary Dance" from the Dance Fest Skopje in North Macedonia.