Musical Theatre | Music Director
July 29-August 18
Sebastian Natal is an Uruguayan multifaceted artist who excels as a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and audiovisual director. From an early age, he received formal training in classical piano and pursued skills in various instruments such as bass, percussion, trumpet, trombone, and vocals. He navigates a diverse array of musical genres, including Candombe, Salsa, Samba, Tango, Afro-Peruvian music, Cuban timba, Latin jazz, Argentine folklore, and Cuban son.
Sebastian has graced stages worldwide, performing in Europe (Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, England, Belgium, Turkey, and France), Asia (China), and the Americas (United States, Canada, Panama, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, among others). His notable appearances include venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center in NYC, BB KING NYC, American Airlines in Miami and Dallas, Teatro de Verano in Uruguay, Yankee Stadium, and more.
Currently, Sebastian Natal serves as the bassist for the Pedrito Martínez Group, a musical ensemble recognized on the global stage. The group garnered significant acclaim with Grammy nominations for Best Latin Jazz Album in 2014 and Best Contemporary Album in 2021. Beyond this, Sebastian also leads various personal projects, including S.N. Candombe Fusion, Sebastian Natal & The Orchestra, & Grupo Sensación, showcasing his versatility as an artist and his ability to effortlessly transcend musical boundaries.
In the realm of audiovisual direction, Sebastian embarked on an independent journey in 2016, driven by a desire to create original content that would address a gap in candombe-related narratives. His documentary De La Raíz a La Esencia is a testament to his dedication to preserving and sharing the rich heritage of candombe. This project was met with critical acclaim and earned a nomination for Best Long-Form Documentary Video at the prestigious Uruguayan Graffiti Awards (2023), further solidifying Sebastian’s status as a multifaceted and visionary artist. For more information, please visit sebastiannatal.com/.
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Musical Theatre | Choreographer/Director
August 11 – August 18
Karla Puno Garcia (she/her) is one of Dance Magazine’s 2024 “25 to Watch.” As a proud Filipina-American artist, Karla emphasizes musicality as a story-telling device and unapologetic individuality to create worlds and bring characters to life. In 2023, she was the first woman of color to choreograph the Tony Awards in a year where there was no script and dance opened the show. Her work is seen in the opening number and the tribute to Joel Grey and John Kander.
This past spring, Karla made her choreographic debut on Broadway with Days of Wine and Roses, starring Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’arcy James. Previously, Karla choreographed the Off-Broadway show The Connector at MCC Theatre. She was the lead choreographer for Starz’s Power Book III: Raising Kanaan season 3 and her work is seen in the Netflix film Tick, Tick … BOOM! directed by Lin Manuel Miranda (additional scenes). Other choreography credits include Noir (The Alley Theatre), Rent (Theatre Aspen), Gone Missing (Encores! Off-Center), Other World (Delaware Theatre Company), Somewhere (Geva Theatre), One Thousand Nights and A Day (Prospect Theatre), and In the Heights (VA Rep, Artsie Award for Best Choreography). Karla has also created live events work for Smuggler, Boot Barn, La Liga, Univision, the New York Knicks and more.
Karla’s self-produced/directed short films The Spot, They Wake, and Bustin’ Loose have been selected for several dance film festivals including San Francisco Dance Film Fest, LA Dance Film Fest, and DC Dance Film Fest. She has also directed/choreographed pieces for multiple Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids events including Broadway Backwards, Red Bucket Follies, Easter Bonnet, and Dancers Responding to Aids.
Karla has performed on Broadway in Hamilton, West Side Story, Gigi, and Hot Feet; and on the National Tours Wicked and Addams Family. She was seen on FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance (season 5), NBC’s Smash (season 2), Annie Live!, Better Nate Than Ever, Blues Clues Broadway Dreams, Kennedy Center Honors, and more. Karla holds a BFA in Dance and a Minor in Journalism from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is on faculty at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway, and has taught workshops all around the world.
Coming soon, Karla will choreograph the world premiere of Darko Tresnjak’s Ask For The Moon at Goodspeed Musicals and Tick Tick… Boom! in Tokyo, Japan. www.KarlaPunoGarcia.com
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ChoreoTech Lab | Program Director
July 22 – July 28
Heidi Boisvert (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, experience designer, creative technologist, and academic researcher who interrogates the neurobiological and socio-cultural effects of media and technology. Simply put, she studies the role of the body, the senses, and emotion in human perception and social change.
She founded and serves as the Creative Director of futurePerfect Lab, a think-do tank that harnesses the power of pop culture, emerging technology and neuroscience to ignite social change. Currently, she is mapping the world’s first media genome, while taking great care with its ethical implications, as detailed in her 2019 TED Talk. She also architects expanded reality and transmedia storytelling experiences, and devises large-scale networked dance and theatre using biocreative technology.
Boisvert’s work has been shown nationally and internationally at EMPAC, New York Live Arts, Banff, the New Museum, Queen’s Museum, ComicCon, Waag, and Kunsthalle. Her work has been featured in Kotaku, TIME, Wired, Salon, Fast Company, Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, MTV, NPR, and the Huffington Post.
She was formerly the Multi-Media Director at Breakthrough, a global human rights organization, where she designed, developed and virally propagated a wide range of new media and pop culture campaigns that helped raise awareness and instigate policy change on pressing social issues. She also co-
founded XTH, an open-source, creative, and bio-wearable start up with Marco Donnarumma.
Boisvert received her Ph.D. in the Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her dissertation explored how embodied, bio-adaptive, game-based networked performance practices could serve as an antidote to intelligent technologies’ slow violence, restoring critical feeling. As a Media Impact Fellow at The Harmony Institute, a Fellow at the MIT DocLab, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Norman Lear Center, she researches and develops open-source tools to increase empathetic engagement. She was selected as the American Arts Incubator Ambassador in Turkey for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and ZERO1, and sits on the advisory board of American Documentary POV Spark.
Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of AI and the Arts with a focus on Immersive Performance Technologies at the University of Florida’s College of the Arts, School of Theatre and Dance. She was previously the Director of the Emerging Media Technology program at the City University of New York, where she taught advanced courses in experimental game design, mixed reality, and immersive worlds, tangible media and biomedia. She is also a member of the NEW INC’s 6th and 7th cohort in the Creative Science track and a founding member of the Guild of Future Architects. Presently, she co-curates EdgeCut, a live performance series that explores human-digital relationships and is working with David Byrne on Theater of the Mind, an immersive theater piece for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, as a Technology Designer. For more information, please visit https://www.heidiboisvert.com/.
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Contemporary | Artist Faculty for Studio Wayne McGregor
July 1 – July 7
Jessica Wright (she/her) trained at Central School of Ballet before joining D.A.N.C.E. directed by Wayne McGregor, William Forsythe, Frederic Flamand, and Angelin Preljocaj. Following her time with D.A.N.C.E, Wright went on to dance with Company Wayne McGregor for 11 years, creating roles and touring internationally. She continues to work closely with McGregor, frequently touring with his company as Staging Director and re-staging his work on international companies including Hungarian National Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, and The Royal Ballet.
In addition to her work with McGregor, Wright directs and choreographs work in collaboration with Morgann Runacre-Temple, the work collectively known as Jess and Morgs. Together, the duo has made numerous dance films and interdisciplinary stage productions. Their work has been featured on Channel 4, BBC iPlayer, TATE Liverpool, the Venice Biennale, Edinburgh International Festival, and at Sadler’s Wells. Most recently, the duo’s version of Coppélia, choreographed for the Scottish Ballet, won the 2023 UK Theatre Award for Achievement in Dance, the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Best Classical Choreography, and was nominated for a South Bank Sky Art Award.
As a teacher, Wright has taught for companies and schools including DV8, Rambert, Central School of Ballet, Milano City Ballet, The Place, and Trinity Laban. In 2020, Jessica was sponsored by Studio Wayne McGregor to be a part of the Freelance Task Force, established in order to address the issues facing freelancers in the dance sector.
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Contemporary | Artist Faculty
July 7 – July 14
Cindy Salgado (she/her) has been a proud member of Crystal Pite’s Kidd Pivot since 2009, transitioning from the role of Performer to Pepetiteur in 2020, staging works on Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Antwerp, NDT2 in The Hague, STRUT in Perth, and Les Ballets Jazz De Montreal. Since graduating from the Juilliard School with the Princess Grace Award in 2005, Salgado has performed with Aszure Barton and Artists, Peter Chu’s ChuThis, and on various projects for Mia Michaels and Andy Blankenbuehler. As a choreographer, Salgado has collaborated with many diverse artists to create short films, short works, and a full evening length dance theatre piece produced in New York and Montreal. Salgado was a co-founder of Artists Striving To End Poverty (recently renamed Arts Ignite) and organized a series of advocacy videos called Dancers for the Poor People’s Campaign. Salgado was an Assistant Rehearsal Director for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and the Assistant Choreographer for Crystal Pite with NDT’s Kunstkamer. She assisted on Cirque du Soleil’s Delirium, generated pre-production on Hamilton, In The Heights, and other Broadway shows, and most recently was Associate Choreographer of Andy Blankenbuehler’s Only Gold. Salgado has taught company class, workshops, and intensives around the world and has been on faculty with New York City Dance Alliance since 2012. Learn more through www.cindywelik-salgado.com.
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ChoreoTech Lab Program | Program Director
July 22 – July 28
Qudus Onikeku (he/him) is a renowned artist, researcher, innovator, social impact engineer, and the founder and Artistic Director of the QDance Center, who subliminally uses art for non-art outcomes. Over the last decade, Onikeku has established himself as a major international artist, working with different media including performance, installation, curating, and community organizing. His international artistic practice intersects between his interest in visceral body movements, kinesthetic memory, and embracing both an artistic vision and a futuristic practice of which both respect and challenge Yoruba artistic traditions.
With QDance Company, Onikeku has created a substantial body of critically acclaimed work that ranges from solos to group works, as well as artist-to-artist collaborations with visual artists, architects, musicians, writers, multimedia artists, data scientists, and creative technologists. In 2009, after completing his higher education in France, Onikeku created his first company, YK projects, in Paris, with which he created several solo and group dance pieces of critical acclaim. In 2014, Onikeku returned to Lagos with his partner Hajarat, and together they co-founded the QDance Center, serving as an incubator with which they examined and experimented the possible intersections between arts and society.
Onikeku has been an international favorite on major stages and festivals across various countries including Biennale de Lyon, Festival d’Avignon, Centre Pompidou, Philharmonie de Paris (France), TED Global, Venice Biennale, Torino Danza, Roma Europa (Italy), Kalamata Dance Festival (Greece), Dance Umbrella (UK), Bates Dance Festival (USA), and Festival TransAmerique (Canada). Onikeku’s dance works are in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada and he has been a Visiting Professor of Dance at the University of California Davis and Columbia College in Chicago.
Onikeku is currently the first Maker in Residence at The Center for Arts, Migration and Entrepreneurship of the University of Florida. His current research ATUNDA, explores a deep technological solution, an Al-ready dataset for dance recognition and movement analysis, to lay a background for cutting-edge interactive systems to synthesize, preserve, protect, and securely share dance and movement data in the age of virality. With his team, Onikeku recently started the QSchool of Movement, Sound, and Media Art for young creatives in Nigeria. For more information, please visit https://www.qudusonikeku.com/.
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Musical Theatre | Choreographer/Director
August 4 – August 11
Luis Salgado (he/him) is an award-winning international director, choreographer, and educator from Puerto Rico and is currently based in New York City. He is the Director/Choreographer of the current National Tour of On Your Feet! The Musical – The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan and is currently working on the upcoming production of AIDA at STAGES in St. Louis, Missouri. Previously, Salgado was the Assistant Latin Choreographer of In the Heights on Broadway, which won four Tony Awards.
In 2022, Salgado directed and choreographed the world premiere of ON YOUR FEET! La historia de Emilio y Gloria Estefan ¡EN ESPAÑOL! at GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington, D.C. The production led the 2023 Helen Hayes Awards field with fifteen nominations and 9 wins including Outstanding Production, Outstanding Direction, and Outstanding Choreography in a Musical.
Additionally, in 2022 Salgado directed and choreographed In The Heights at STAGES in St. Louis, Missouri. The production was recognized by the St. Louis Theater Circle Awards with a field-leading eleven nominations and took home 6 wins including Outstanding Production, Outstanding Ensemble, and Outstanding Choreographer of a Musical.
In total, Salgado staged 8 productions in 2022 including 3 productions of In The Heights and 3 productions of On Your Feet, of which included the world premiere of the Spanish language production in his home of Puerto Rico. Salgado conceived, directed, and choreographed Let’s Dance, a production for Transcendence Theatre Company in California and directed/choreographed the award-winning 2022 upfronts for Telemundo.
Salgado has worked as the Associate Director/Choreographer of Cirque du Soleil’s Paramour in Hamburg, Germany. Among the productions he has directed/choreographed in the United States and abroad include musical Ella Es Colombia in Bogota, Colombia, the Holland production of On Your Feet!, RAGTIME, TO BE OR NOT TO BE… a Shakespearean Experience, AIDA The Musical, FAME, Amigo Duende the Musical, In The Heights, Matilda, Song of Solomon, Speed the Plow, The Tempest, and Candela Fuerza y Pasión in Lima, Peru, and in 2021, Viva Broadway’s When We See Ourselves concert as part of the Curtain Up event in Times Square produced by Playbill and the Broadway League.
Salgada directed and choreographed the U.S premiere of the Spanish version of In The Heights at GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington, D.C. The production received 9 2018 Helen Hayes Awards including Outstanding Production in a Musical, Outstanding Direction in a Musical, and Outstanding Choreography in a Musical. He has appeared on Broadway in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, ROCKY, In The Heights, and On Your Feet!, as well as Off-Broadway shows including The Mambo Kings (Frankie Suarez), Fame on 42nd Street (Joe Vegas, understudy,) AIDA, and more. Film credits include American Gangster, Dirty Dancing 2, Havana Nights, the television remake of Dirty Dancing, Enchanted, and Step Up 2: The Streets (Alejandro), for which he also was assistant choreographer.
Salgado is the Founder/Director of R.Evolución Latina, an affiliate of the non-profit organization Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Salgado’s personal mission as an artist and a leader is to empower communities through the power of the arts and make a change for the better. For more information visit: www.LuisSalgado.com
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Contemporary Ballet | Artist Faculty
June 24 – June 29
Anitra Keegan (she/her) began her early training at the Academy of Dance Arts in New Jersey at the age of 11. She continued her training at the Royal Academy of Dance in Yorkshire, England, the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and the Pennsylvania Ballet’s Rock School for Dance Education. Ms. Keegan has danced professionally with Pennsylvania Ballet Company, Ohio Ballet Company, American Repertory Ballet, Chambers Dance Project, DancesPatrelle, BalletNY, and BalletX where she performed in both classical and contemporary works, choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Edwaard Liang, Alex Ketley, Jorma Elo, Donald Byrd, Matthew Neenan, Alonzo King, Darrell Moultrie, and Jodie Gates.
Ms. Keegan received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. She was an Adjunct Ballet Faculty Member at University of the Arts, Drexel University, Temple University, Bryn Mawr College, and Princeton University. In 2012, she worked as Capezio’s Principal Pointe Specialist and traveled the continental United States and Canada as their Brand Ambassador, creating educational events for all Youth America Grand Prix competitions and designing custom pointe shoes for premiere ballet companies. In 2018, she joined Nimbus Dance in Jersey City, NJ as the Marketing Associate/Company Manager and was promoted three years later to Associate Artistic Director. Currently, Ms. Keegan is Ballet Mistress at Ballet Hispanico.
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Contemporary Ballet | Artist Faculty
June 17 – June 21
Noah Gelber (he/him) was born in New York City and began training in both singing and dance at the age of five. Alongside many years of training at the School of American Ballet, Gelber attended the High School of Performing Arts and the Professional Children’s School in New York, performing often with the New York City Ballet. At age 16, Gelber became a Principal Guest-Artist with the American Ballet Company, dancing numerous principal roles from the Balanchine repertoire. Following his time with the American Ballet Company, he sang and danced in a New York production of West Side Story, before pursuing his career in Europe. After three years as a soloist with the Royal Ballet of Flanders, he toured the U.S. and Mexico as a Principal Guest-Artist, before William Forsythe invited him to the Frankfurt Ballet. Gelber earned widespread critical acclaim for his speed, dynamism, and technical precision, including his ability to excel in the classical ballet genre, as well as inspire contemporary choreographers. Gelber was invited to perform in many international galas, performing solos and pas de deux created especially for him, including William Forsythe’s Two Part Invention and New Sleep Pas de Deux.
Across the span of his decade spent in collaboration with William Forsythe, Gelber performed the greater portion of the Frankfurt Ballet’s repertoire, notably premiering in the original cast of The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude. Well versed in the complex improvisation techniques of Forsythe, Gelber was chosen to demonstrate his capabilities in the William Forsythe Improvisation Technologies CD-ROM. Gelber is regularly invited to conduct educational workshops teaching these improvisation modalities at various international universities and institutions.
Throughout his time with the Frankfurt Ballet, Gelber was active in the choreographic processes, creating considerable solo and duet material also contained in some Forsythe pieces. He was the first American choreographer ever invited to create a world premier for the Kirov Ballet at the Mariinsky Theater. This story ballet, The Overcoat, won two Golden Sofit awards including Best Ballet of the Year and a Golden Mask – Russia’s highest theatrical prize. Gelber’s other creations include The Golden Age for the Mariinsky Ballet, Object Ours for the Royal Ballet, E Point Major for the Helsinki National Ballet Competition, Running Time, and his own solos Gnos Naos and Opus 3/1-3. Additionally, Gelber has choreographed for the hit television show Born to Dance and collaborated with Cirque du Soleil’s aerial ballerina Erika Lemay for her feature show Animus Femina. Gelber’s choreographic works have been presented across the globe in Moscow, St. Petersburg, New York, London, Milan, Monte Carlo, Montreal, Tallinn, Helsinki, Budapest, Tel Aviv and Frankfurt.
Since 1997, while still dancing himself, Noah has maintained the responsibility of Choreographic Assistant for 16 different ballets from William Forsythe’s repertoire. The long list of companies with whom he has collaborated includes the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, La Scala Ballet, the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater (The Hague), Royal Swedish Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Rome Opera Ballet, Vienna State Ballet, Dutch National Ballet (Amsterdam), San Francisco Ballet, New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem, Ballet Hispanico, Oregon Ballet Theater, Cincinnati Ballet, National Ballet of Canada (Toronto), Les Grands Ballets Canadiens (Montreal), Berlin State Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Bavarian State Ballet (Munich), Hamburg Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Ballet de Monte Carlo, Lyon Opera Ballet, National Ballet of Portugal, Compañía Nacional de Danza (Madrid), Scottish Ballet, Ballet du Grand Theatre (Geneva), Ballet de Marseille, Zurich Ballet, Basel Ballet, Moscow State Stanislavsky, Nemirov-Danchenko Ballet, Perm Tchaikovsky State Ballet, Yekaterinburg State Ballet, National Ballet of the Republic of Belarus (Minsk), Czech National Ballet, Hungarian National Ballet, Israel ballet, Ballet am Rhein (Düsseldorf), Hannover Ballet, Badische State Ballet (Karlsruhe), Dortmund Ballet, Mecklenburgisches State Ballet (Schwerin), Sao Paulo Dance Company, Ballet de Lorraine (Nancy), Queensland Ballet (Brisbane), and Introdans (Arnhem), among others.
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Contemporary Ballet | Guest Choreographer
June 24 – June 29
Silas Farley (he/him) is a ballet teacher and choreographer, who currently serves as the Armstrong Artist in Residence in Ballet in the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University (SMU) and as a Principal Guest Teacher at the School of American Ballet (SAB). Farley is a former dancer with New York City Ballet and former Dean of the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute at The Colburn School in Los Angeles, CA. He has taught and choreographed for the School of American Ballet, Peabody Conservatory, the Kennedy Center, The Washington Ballet, Houston Ballet, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was an inaugural Jerome Robbins Dance Division Research Fellow at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. He is writer and host of the NYCB podcast, Hear The Dance and has written for Dance Magazine, Dance Index, and has lectured at the Museum of Modern Art. Currently, Farley serves on the Board of The George Balanchine Foundation.
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