Emily Kent (PILOBOLUS)

The core values of Pilobolus are creativity, collaboration and communication. This workshop uses Pilobolus signature techniques of improvisation and movement creation to elevate training to the next level and reinvigorate creative impulses. 

Join Pilobolus Education Director Emily Kent to discover your own unique artistic voice, and learn how to work with others to create original material collaboratively. Class will include partnering, collaborative choreography and peer to peer feedback.  This class is designed to stretch the limits of movers and performers of any background.

Emily Kent earned a BSEd in Dance Education from the U of GA. She joined Pilobolus in 1999 as dancer, collaborator, Teaching Artist and now as Education Director. She has created programs to bring Pilobolus’s ideals of collaboration and improvisation to people of all ages and abilities around the country: Pilobolus @ Play, the flagship touring education residency, Connecting with Balance, a program for the aging population, and The Pilobolus Teaching Manual, to share our techniques with teachers.  

Jill Cusano (Contemporary, Dance For Camera)

Jillian Cusano, a versatile artist and entrepreneur, trained with Northeast Ballet Company and holds a BFA in Ballet Pedagogy from the Hartt School, where she minored in Psychology and Arts Management, and showcased her talent at the Julidans Festival in Amsterdam, NL. She has performed with Amy Marshall Dance Company, and performed and choreographed for Des Moines Metro Opera and Portland Opera, all while directing productions and instructing students as a professor at the Hartt School. As the Chief Operating Officer of Parkville Sounds, she's contributed to projects for Jazz at Lincoln Center, Amazon Prime, Lizzo’s dancers, American Ninja Warrior, The Hartford Symphony, Allen Stone, and more. Jillian is the Founder and President of the Hartford Dance Collective, promoting female leadership and exposing new audiences to dance. Her impact extends to curating hundreds of performances and multi-faceted arts festivals, hosting open adult classes with thousands of participants, and collaborating with renowned artists, including David Dorfman Dance, Pilobolus, the Radio City Rockettes, The Limon Company, Merce Cunningham Trust, and more; solidifying her role as a trailblazer in contemporary dance.

Ginette Christie (Krump) aka Gin, is a performing artist from Hartford County. She loves hip hop, dancehall, traditional afro, and krump, and her style consists of mainly these foundations. Ginette is Connecticut’s first active female krumper. She has battled throughout the US and has won tournaments for krump. She is also a visual artist and has been working on different ways to incorporate visual arts and props into performances to help tell the story with an abstract way of looking at things. Connection, creativity, relatability, and inspiring others are of huge importance in Gin’s classes. Her creation process is about telling a story with music or sound.

Lisa Race (Dorfman Dance)

Lisa Race performed, choreographed and taught in NYC for many years before moving in 2004 to Connecticut, where she is a Professor of Dance at Connecticut College. She danced with David Dorfman Dance from 1989-2000, having received a Bessie in 1995 for her dancing with the company. She then took a pause when her and Dorfman’s son was young before rejoining the company in 2013. Under the guise of RaceDance, her choreography was seen at the former Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Dancenow and MR at the Judson Church while in NYC. She has been fortunate to teach at Bates, ADF and ImPulsTanz dance festivals multiple times, and has given classes and workshops at many locations around the globe. Race has collaborated with Shawn Hove on three dance films, and is currently in the midst of a mediated video collaboration with Hove and Rachel Boggia, for a solo she is creating centered on Race’s mother Beverly (1920-2022) for performances at Connecticut College in September ‘24. The evening, which will be shared with Kendra Portier, will also feature a duet Race and Jennifer Nugent created in 2001, which is being restaged on Portier and Christina Robson.

Rosanna Karabetsos (Heels, Rehearsal Director)

Rosanna Karabetsos was born and raised in Hartford, CT. She attended the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. After graduating she jumped into her professional dance journey and developed a passion for her community. She served as the lead puppeteer and choreographer for Nightfall Hartford, an outdoor production that features giant puppetry, theater, live music & dance. Her involvement in this interdisciplinary project ignited her devotion for creating opportunities through the arts and dance. She went on to choreograph for numerous competitive dance teams across CT and the northeast. Rosanna’s commercial dance experience began with DFX Entertainment. Through DFX, she performed in various traveling productions as Dance Captain such as “Echoes of Sinatra” and Joby Rogers’ the Ultimate Michael Jackson Experience. Rosanna also spent a number of years working at Mohegan Sun Arena, stage managing and assisting the Game Entertainment & Presentation team. She simultaneously danced for the WNBA Connecticut Sun, which the arena houses until she relocated to New York City to dance for the NBA Brooklynettes dance team. Rosanna keeps her love for her home community alive by hosting live events such as the annual Small State Great Beer festival in Hartford, CT and the CPTV show “The Parkville Sessions”. She is the Vice President and a Resident Artist with the Hartford Dance Collective. Rosanna has been fortunate enough to work with artists including BLACKPINK (2022 MTV VMAs), Alyson Stoner, Lil Kim, Busta Rhymes, Rakim, Lion Babe, Saint John, Pretty Poison, Clinton Sparks and New Kids on the Block and more. Rosanna’s choreography credits include Alabama State University, the University of Saint Joseph. Rosanna is represented by United Talent Agency. 

Susan Rodriguez (Latin Hip Hop)

Susan was raised in Danbury, Connecticut and began teaching hip-hop, street jazz, and social latin styles in 2008. While pursuing her degree, she earned the opportunity to dance and choreograph for both the Fairfield University Dance Ensemble and the Spanish-American and Latino Student Association. At this time, Susan also worked extensively with the directors of Double Up Company & Entertainment, and assisted in the development of dynamic training programs for pre-professional dancers. She has proudly worked with the Liberate Artists Dance Education Movement as an apprentice for its FOCUS LA event and as a faculty member for its Phoenix Fire training program and production in NYC.

Today, she continues to teach all ages in Fairfield County and Hartford County, and serves as the studio manager to Dance on the DL, the only all Hip-Hop & Breaking studio in Darien, CT. Susan is inspired by the way dance lessons and life lessons often connect, and strives to teach her students how to be exceptional humans that move exceptionally.

Ty Graynor (Modern)

Ty Graynor, originally from Huntington, New York, received his BFA in Dance from The Hartt School at the University of Hartford. There, he studied under Nina Watt, Miki Orihara, Stephen Pier, and Doug Varone, and performed several classic works by historical artists such as Martha Graham, José Limón, and Doris Humphrey. After completing his studies, Ty advanced his training at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and joined Graham 2 as a Company Dancer. In 2019, he joined the Limón Dance Company as a performing and teaching artist. He took part in the creation process of three new contemporary works for the company, “Suite Donuts” by Chafin Seymour, “Only One Will Rise” by Olivier Tarpaga, and “Migrant Mother/Madre Migrante” by Raúl Tamez. Ty is currently based in Austin, Texas where he teaches regular classes in the Limón technique and contemporary dance forms. He is the Artistic Director of TY&CO, an emerging and dynamic collective of dancers dedicated to forging connections between classical influences and experimental contemporary realms. Ty is also a dancer with Peter Stathas Dance, Ventana Ballet, Red Nightfall Dance Theatre, and Sea Legs Dance.

Susannah Marchese (Ballet, Pilates)

Susannah began her early ballet training in New York with Andre and Leda Eglevsky and later danced with The Eglevsky Ballet before spending several years as a Principal Dancer with Ballet Omaha under the directorship of Robert Vickrey and as Principal Dancer with The Hartford Ballet under the directorship of Michael Uthoff. During her career, Ms. Marchese danced lead roles including Swanhilda in Coppelia, The Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Lise in La Fille Mal Gardee, Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux, Allegro Brillante, Serenade and Flower Festival. As a dancer and rehearsal assistant, Ms. Marchese has been honored to work alongside Samantha Dunster, Peter Anastos, Loyce Houlton, James Sewell, Edward Vilella, Michael Uthoff, Gemze DeLappe, Angel Corella, Bruce Marks, Xiomara Reyes, Gianni DiMarco, Joan Lazarus, John Gardner and Amanda McKerrow.

In 1994, Marchese joined the Broadway show The Phantom of The Opera where she remained for 3 years. Ms. Marchese spent several years at Radio City Music Hall, New York City Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, The Houston Grand Opera, The MUNY, James Sewell Ballet, and has danced in countries around the world including Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Canada.

Locally, Ms. Marchese has taught ballet at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Hartt Community Division and for 15 years was owner of PHIT Pilates Studio in Hartford. Most recently, Ms. Marchese was School Director for School of Ballet Hartford and has acted as Interim Chair of Dance, faculty member, Ballet Master and Production Coordinator for the Hartt School Community Division Dance Department. During her tenure, Ms. Marchese choreographed the original full-length ballets The Red Shoes and The Swan Princess, as well as Symphony #8, The Nutcracker, Passo and The Young Composers Projects GO and Rituals of an Unknown Continent.

Bonita Weisman (Improv Jam)

Some of Bonita’s earliest memories are being in Bonnie Bird’s creative movement class at the renowned 92 Street Y in New York City. She was 3 years old and it was 1957.

Bonita’s passion resides in helping people find and deepen their creative gifts.  She believes that movement is the most elemental form of communication and connection.  Bonita has been teaching, performing and creating dances in Hartford since 1983.  A modern dancer, her training took place in NYC, SUNY Purchase and Boston.  She studied under such notables at Bonnie Bird, Mary Anthony, June Lewis, Louis Falco, Nat Horn, Pepsi Bethel, James Truitt, Carol Fried, Kazuko Hirbayashi, Simone Forti, Steve Paxton and Marilyn Woods.  In addition to dance technique, Bonita’s training includes studies in dance therapy at the New School for Social Research, Expressive Therapies at Lesley University, movement studies at the Laban Institute in NYC and many folk and social dance styles.

In the Connecticut area, Bonita has taught modern, improvisation, contact improvisation and stress release courses.  She was on faculty at Connecticut College and has taught at Trinity College, The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Wesleyan University and the Hartford Conservatory.  Until the pandemic, she was a longstanding adjunct professor in the BFA program at the Hartt School.  (Yes, she taught many of the Hartford Dance Collective professionals!)

Bonita’s main focus is improvisation, creative process and inclusiveness in movement experiences.  She includes the audience (in some unexpected capacity) in all her performances and she facilitated a movement/music jam for over 30 years that was open to everybody.  In recent years she has found joy playing rubboard with several zydeco bands, notably River City Slim and the Zydeco Hogs and Planet Zydeco.  When she is not dancing or playing she is busy helping others on their path to wellness as the owner of West Hartford Massage Therapy.  Bonita continues to improvise at attempted mothering of her two amazing (and grown) sons while she hope for grandbabies.  Some of Bonita’s goals in her 70th year on this planet are to continue practicing the art of possibility, attempting to live her truth and learn how to let go of everything she doesn’t need and still hold on to her center.