Artist Profiles

  • Kyle Abraham

    Kyle Abraham, the 2012 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award recipient, began his training at the Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He continued his dance studies in New York, receiving a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

    http://www.abrahaminmotion.org

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  • Adil Mansoor

    Adil Mansoor is a theatre director and educator centering the stories of queer folks and people of color. Directing projects include Gloria by  Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Hatch Arts), Chickens in the Yard by Paul Kruse (Hatch Arts and Quantum Theatre), Desdemona’s Child by Caridad Svich (Carnegie Mellon University), Dark Play or Stories for Boys by Carlos Murillo (Carnegie Mellon University) and an upcoming ensemble generated piece with Pittsburgh Playhouse.

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  • Akasha L. Van Cartier

    Akasha L. Van Cartier, Pittsburgh’s foremost Drag Queen has been entertaining audiences for 21 years. She first started raising money performing in benefit events. Akasha has also competed and performed nationally, gaining experience, recognition, and starting Drag Queen Story Hour with Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. You can see Akasha throughout the Tri-State area, reading to children, raising money for the Humane Animal League and now starring in Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s new KST Global Stream series Drag Queen Story Time.

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  • Alexandra Bodnarchuk

    Alexandra Bodnarchuk is a freelance dance artist based in Pittsburgh who is active as a dancer, choreographer, arts administrator and teacher. In May 2014 her work, CONNOTATIONS: unknown, premiered to sold out audiences at PearlArts Studios in Pittsburgh. Excerpts of this work have been presented city-wide at RAW:natural born artists and the newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival as well as in the HATCH Presenting Series (NYC) and American Dance Festival (Durham, NC).

    http://alexandrabodnarchuk.org

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  • Anna Thompson

    Anna is a passionate educator and lifelong learner. Anna currently teaches creative movement, pre-ballet, improvisation, modern, and jazz at Dance Conservatory of Pittsburgh and Ballet Academy of Pittsburgh. She is a graduate of Point Park University, a certified Power Pilates teacher, and reiki practitioner. Anna has worked extensively with the Pillow Project, performing in spaces and places as unique and varied as Paris, France and The Carrie Furnace in Braddock, Pa.

    http://www.slowdangerslowdanger.com

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  • Bill Shannon

    Bill Shannon is a conceptual, interdisciplinary dance and media artist who creates both solo and group projects. His work is rooted in street culture and informed by the fine arts. Shannon is widely recognized in the dance and performance art world, the underground hip-hop and club dance scene, the urban arts movement, as well as the disabled artist community.

    http://www.whatiswhat.com

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  • Nora Chipaumire

    Born in Mutare, Zimbabwe and currently a resident of New York City, Nora Chipaumire has been challenging stereotypes of Africa and the black performing body, art, and aesthetic for the past decade. She has studied dance in many parts of the world including Africa (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya, and South Africa), Cuba, Jamaica and the U.S. A graduate of the University of Zimbabwe's School of Law, Chipaumire holds an M.A. in Dance and M.F.A. in Choreography and Performance from Mills College (CA).

    http://mappinternational.org/artists/view/494/

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  • Edisa Weeks / DELIRIOUS Dance

    Edisa Weeks / DELIRIOUS Dances is a choreographer, educator, and maker who creates multimedia interdisciplinary work that merges theater with dance to explore our deepest desires, darkest fears, and sweetest dreams.

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  • Jasmine Hearn

    Jasmine Hearn (Fall 2020 - Summer 2021) Choreographer and performer Jasmine Hearn will be in residence throughout the ‘20/’21 season with A Patient Practice, an ongoing project that makes room for intergenerational conversation, play, and study. Throughout the residency Hearn will facilitate space and time to unfurl their lineage as a story-teller and post-modern dancer by connecting with mentors and inspirations to begin and continue conversations that bridge the distance between age and discipline. Hearn will be working in KST’s Alloy Studios throughout the fall with public showings and workshops stemming from their research to take place in spring and summer 2021. Stay tuned for more!

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  • Joy-Marie Thompson

    Joy-Marie Thompson is a dancer, choreographer, and certified ANIMAL FLOW© instructor based in Osage Land-otherwise known as Pittsburgh, PA. Joy-Marie is currently teaching Ballet / Jazz (ages 3-6) as a part of The Alloy School.

    joymariethompson.com

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  • Laura Stokes

    Laura Stokes has fostered a passion for connecting community engagement, education and the movement arts over her near-decade living in Pittsburgh. She has taught creative movement in Pittsburgh Public Schools with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and at the Hope Academy of Music and the Arts. She recently co-created The Contact Lab, with fellow dancer Jean-Paul Weaver, a workshop committed to inspiring the study of contact improvisation through its community-based approach. Laura has performed works and collaborated choreographically with Moriah Ella Mason’s Yes.Brain.Dance.Theatre and The Pillow Project. She holds a B.A. in Dance from Slippery Rock University.

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  • Mario Quinn Lyles

    Mario has taught at dance studios throughout Greater Pittsburgh, including Pittsburgh Heat and Evolve Dance Complex. Currently, he works as house manager and teaching artist at Kelly Strayhorn Theater, and a production assistant at Emmy Award-winning recording studio Ya Momz House. Mario is also a hip hop educator and mentor at Hip Hop On L.O.C.K, and is a founder/art director and choreographer at Level Up Dance Studio. Mario is the founder of Markav Clothing Inc., a locally-based urban apparel company, and can be found recording and rocking the stage with his band and best friends 30 Realm.

    http://marioquinn.com

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  • Marjani Forté-Saunders

    Marjani Forté-Saunders is a choreographer, performer, educator, community organizer, and mother. She refers to dance and embodiment as her sorcery—revolutionary, transformative, wild, ancient, and fresh. Her practice is informed by years in anti-racist organizer training and as a lead facilitator with Urban Bush Women’s (UBW) Builders, Organizers and Leaders through Dance. She is anchored in a steady collaboration with partner and composer Everett Asis Saunders.

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  • Marjani Forté-Saunders & Everett Saunders / 7NMS

    Marjani Forté-Saunders & Everett Saunders / 7NMS (Fall 2020 - Fall 2021) KST is thrilled to be a co-commissioner for A Prophet’s Tale, a new forthcoming multidisciplinary body of work from artists Marjani Forté-Saunders and Everett Saunders that upholds Hip Hop music’s Emcee as the “minister of global transformation."

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  • Melanie Paglia

    Melanie Paglia holds a BFA from Point Park University's Conservatory of Performing Arts, where she has taught Acting for Dancers for the International Summer Dance Intensive since 2008. Melanie currently serves as Director of Production for the Kelly Strayhorn Theater where she has had the fortune of working with local, national, and international choreographers, dancers, musicians and theatrical artists who continually inspire, challenge and foster her creativity and love for the performing arts.

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  • Rahaman “Kil” Kilpatrick

    Rahaman “Kil” Kilpatrick is a music producer, relationship coach, and screenwriter and Community & Family Engagement Senior Manager for Horton’s Kids. Kil has worked with youth in Southeast Washington, DC for more than 20 years & lives in Waldorf, Maryland with his wife, Tanya, and daughter, Naomi. Kil is originally from Philadelphia, PA and earned his B.A. at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland in telecommunications.

    https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/a-prophets-tale-a-portrait-of-the-lyricist/

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  • slowdanger

    anna thompson and taylor knight, are co-founders of performance entity, slowdanger. Together, they fuse sound and movement through contemporary and postmodern dance frameworks, using integrative technology, vocalization, and ontological examination to engage in collaborative work.

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  • STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos (SPdp&SS)

    STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos (SPdp&SS) exists to interpret and mirror culture and community through dance and dance centered multi-media experiences. With diverse casting and programming, SPdp&SS explores innovative conceptual possibilities while participating in meaningful collaboration.

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  • Kate Watson-Wallace

    Kate Watson-Wallace is a choreographer and visual artist. She has received numerous awards for her choreography including: A Pew Fellowship in the Arts in Choreography, two Map Fund Grants and a Doris Duke Exploration grant through Creative Capital, multiple grants from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage through Dance Advance, The PA Council on the Arts, The Independence Foundation and Penn PAT. She has choreographed music videos for: Black Dice and Animal Collective. Recent Commissions include: Ballet X, Hotel Monoco/Kimpton Hotels, RedBull Art-of-the-Can, and Meredith Rainey/Carbon Dance Theater.

    http://katewawa.com

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  • Anthony Williams

    A resident teaching artist at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Anthony has studied with a range of master teachers and choreographers including Terrence Greene, Nathan Trice, Ray Mercer, Gary Abbott Christopher Huggins, Sidra Bell, and Kyle Abraham. Anthony continues his journey in Pittsburgh as a freelance dancing artist.

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