Contemporary | Guest Choreographer
July 14 – July 21
Jennifer Archibald (she/her) is the founder and Artistic Director of the Arch Dance Company and Program Director of ArchCore40 Dance Intensives. Archibald has choreographed for the Ailey II, BalletX, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet West, Grand Rapids Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Ballet Auston, Nashville Ballet and worked commercially for NIKE, MAC Cosmetics, and Tommy Hilfiger, as well as chart-listed artists.
She was appointed as the first female Resident Choreographer in Cincinnati Ballet’s 40-year history. This season, she will create new works for BalletMet, Washington Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and Austin University. Ms. Archibald was the Movement Director for Michael Kahn’s The Oresteia at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. As a Director, she premiered WeAIghT, a film featuring current Ailey Company member James Gilmer, of which was selected for Best Choreography and Best Male Lead for Mountain View Film Festival. WeAIghT is an official selection for the San Francisco Film Festival and the Light Moves Festival in Ireland. Ms. Archibald was commissioned to create Breakin’Bricks, a new work for the 100th Centennial of the 1921 Massacre, which was a multimedia full-length ballet, presented by the Tulsa Ballet Company. The Kennedy Center announced that Archibald with be the choregrapher for the Pathways to Performance – Exercises in Reframing the Narrative in summer 2024.
Archibald’s works have been performed at venues including Aaron Davis Hall, Central Park’s Summerstage Mainstage, Jacob’s Pillow’s Henry J. Leir Stage, Lincoln Center, New York’s City Center, and The Kennedy Center. She was awarded a Choreographic Fellowship for Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab, under the direction of Robert Battle. She is a Joffrey Ballet Winning Works Choreographic Competition recipient and choreographed Seven, a biographical work about Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, commissioned by St. Louis based MADCO Dance Company. Additionally, Archibald remounted the Arch Dance Company’s Chasing Shadows, for Dallas Black Dance Theater’s 2018-2019 season and was the 2018-19 recipient of the City of New York Dance Initiative.
Currently, Ms. Archibald is an Acting Lecturer at the Yale School of Drama and was appointed as Guest Faculty Lecturer to develop the Hip Hop dance curriculum at Columbia/Barnard College. Jennifer is also a guest artist at several universities including Boston Conservatory, Columbia College Chicago, Fordham/Ailey, Goucher College, Miami New World School of the Arts, Purchase College, Point Park, Princeton, South Carolina’s Governor’s School of the Arts, University of South Florida, and Virginia Commonwealth University.
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Contemporary | Assistant/Demonstrator to Mr. Myers
July 1 – July 21
Charles Scheland (he/him) is a New York City-based dance artist and teacher. Charles grew up in Germany, Austria, and the Washington D.C. area, and graduated summa cum laude from the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program. He is also a 2017 alumnus of the Contemporary Program at The School at Jacob’s Pillow. Charles is a dancer with Carolyn Dorfman Dance, and also dances for Michael Mao Dance and Site-Specific Dances. He previously danced for RIOULT Dance NY and has been a guest artist with Buglisi Dance Theater, New England Dance Theater, Princeton Dance Theater, Neville Dance Theater, and Alison Cook-Beatty Dance. He has performed works by Alvin Ailey, Robert Battle, Adam Barruch, Clifton Brown, Amy Hall Garner, Adrienne Hurd, Tracy Inman, Bill T. Jones, Juel Lane, Jessica Lang, Milton Myers, Elizabeth Roxas, Henning Rübsam, Paul Taylor, and others.
Alongside his own dancing, Charles teaches ballet and Horton technique. He is on faculty of both the Professional and Junior divisions of The Ailey School, Kanyok Arts Initiative, Steps on Broadway, and The School at Jacob’s Pillow. He has worked as an assistant and demonstrator for Milton Myers’ domestically and internationally since 2019, and at Jacob’s Pillow since 2021.
Outside of the dance studio, Charles works for Dance ICONS in Washington, D.C. as the Executive Assistant. He was the Research Associate on the recently published book You, the Choreographer, by Vladimir Angelov, published by Routledge. For more information on Charles, visit his Instagram at @cschels.
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