Jillian Foley Cusano (President), grew up training and performing with Northeast Ballet Company, based in Schenectady, NY. She attended the Hartt School, where she traveled to Amsterdam, NL for the Julidans Festival and graduated with a BFA in Ballet Pedagogy, and two minors in Psychology and Performing Arts Management. Since graduating, she has performed professionally with Amy Marshall Dance Company, and worked closely with companies like Schoen Movement Company and Dance Devise Lab. Jillian has had the pleasure of instructing the students of Joffrey Ballet School, The Hartt School Community Division, Steffi Nossen School of Dance, and is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Hartt School’s Theatre and Vocal Divisions. Jillian has choreographed and performed with the Des Moines Metro Opera in Iowa and Portland Opera in Oregon; in 2018-2020, Jillian was affiliated with the American Guild of Musical Artists. Most recently, Jillian directed and choreographed the Hartt School’s productions of Hansel and Gretel and Street Scene and choreographed She Loves Me. Jillian is the Chief Operating Officer and founding member of Parkville Sounds, a multi-faceted performing arts studio space in Hartford, CT and co-produced The Parkville Sessions, which premiered on CPTV/PBS in October 2018. At Parkville Sounds, she has had the pleasure of working on projects for Amazon Prime, American Ninja Warrior, The Allman Brothers Band, Allen Stone, Jazz at Lincoln Center, SiriusXM, The Hartford Symphony, Ashley Jayy and so many more. Jillian founded the Hartford Dance Collective in 2017 to be a space where females in dance would hold all of the leadership roles and to expose a wider range of audiences to professional contemporary dance with unique performance locations. Since the inception of this group, she has curated over 15 performances, hosted hundreds of adult community classes, and collaborated with artists from companies like David Dorfman Dance, The Limon Company, The Radio City Rockettes, Merce Cunningham Trust, Doug Varone and Dancers and many more. She is honored to work with the inspiring artists of Hartford & beyond everyday. 

Born and raised in Connecticut, Gabby Dominguez has always been a lover of movement. Her passion for codified techniques and composition grew during her time at Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts High School. After graduating, Gabby went on to attend AMDA College + Conservatory of the Arts in Los Angeles for two years. She later moved on to train at professional studios around LA including EDGE Performing Arts Center, Millenium Dance Complex, and TMilly Studios. Gabby began to train and perform with Geometry Contemporary Dance Company, and later began working with Chehon Wespi-Tschopp as the Mentorship Program Coordinator for IAF Studios, assisting on several dance film and photo projects. Her music video credits include Donovan Woods, Duomo Musik, and Red Jesus. Gabby has also had the pleasure of taking part in several live performances and dance films around LA including Capezio ACE Awards, Choreographer’s Carnival, Club Jete, and more. Since moving back to the East Coast, Gabby has continued to train at professional workshops with companies such as Boston Dance Theater and SALT, as well as at New York’s Broadway Dance Center. She teaches throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts, and has a passion for encouraging students to find authenticity and freedom in their movement. Gabby is so excited to have found community in new and old friends with The Dance Collective, and to dance with so many incredible Hartford-based artists.

Michelle Montano, a Connecticut native, has trained and worked in the professional commercial dance industry for the past 10+ years. She trained extensively in numerous programs including Broadway Dance Center’s summer internship, Rhapsody James’s Motivating Excellence and Dana Fogia’s United Project. She is featured in music videos with artists such as Sky Tunez ft. Chris Brown, Kayla Brianna, Jhene Aiko, Xhibit and more. She toured the US with Kayla Brianna on K Michelle’s “The People I Used To Know” tour, and has performed in productions with The RICHFAM in Los Angeles, CA and Stockholm, Sweden. She was a member of The FLYGIRLS, an r&b burlesque inspired residency, and performed in Candace Brown’s “The Soul Spot.”

Along with performing Michelle also has a passion for teaching and choreographing. She has taught and choreographed for studios and dance teams on both coasts. She worked as an assistant choreographer for a KIDZ BOP music video, and has set award-winning choreography on studios in CT and NY.

Michelle holds a B.S. in Marketing and a M.A. in Political Psychology and currently works for an affordable housing nonprofit in Hartford, CT. As a new Hartford resident, Michelle is so excited to build connection with the dance community here.

Lauren Horn is a movement and text based artist from Windsor, CT. She graduated from Amherst College with degrees in Psychology and Theatre and Dance. Lauren’s work explores identity and the ways it can be uncovered, marginalized, highlighted, and erased. By utilizing movement and text as means of fostering a more welcoming form of vulnerability, the work creates a space for self-reflection and conversation for both the performer and viewer. Another aspect of Lauren’s work is entrenched in creating a dialogue around our current society’s relationship to technology. From the Silent Generation to Generation Z, she wants to understand how groups of individuals, in each living generation, feel that technology has affected their expression of their true self. Lauren’s choreographic work has been showcased at The BAM Fisher Theatre in Brooklyn, NYC, The Boston Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, MA, Hibernian Hall in Boston MA,The Meydenbauer Center Theatre in Belleview,WA,  The Armory in Sommerville, The Studio of Contemporary Dance and Thought in Northampton, MA, The Northampton Center for the Arts, Amherst College and ACDFA New England.

Susannah Marchese 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.

Susan Rodriguez 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.

Katie Cavenagh has 40 years of dance experience and began her teaching career at age 15, choreographing musicals for her high school. She has been teaching tap professionally for over 25 years, and has extensive training from the American Tap Dance Foundation in NYC. Katie has performed throughout New England and has danced with Tap City, The Boston Tap Company, Taplife, and her own company the CTC. Katie founded the CT Tap Collaborative in 2010 and runs the company focusing on history, improvisation, and collaborative new works.

Ginette Christie 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.

Rosanna Karabetsos (Vice President) 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. 

“It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey”

Colby Connelly, from Middletown, CT, is a dancer, teacher and choreographer based in the Connecticut area. Colby began her training at age 4, continuing through high school at Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, and college at University of Hartford- The Hartt School, where she received her BFA in dance with an emphasis in Ballet Pedagogy. Following college, Colby taught at Joffrey Ballet School in NYC before relocating back to CT. She has done projects with Spectrum in Motion, Sonia Plumb Dance Company and currently The Hartford Dance Collective. She also choreographed for Hartford Gay Men’s Chorus, Real History Productions, and collaborations with local composers. Colby is now teaching at GHAA and various studios around CT.

Emily Daly is a dance artist, educator and choreographer based in Connecticut. She is the owner and director of Verve Dance in Simsbury, CT. She did early training with the American Academy of Ballet, Boston Ballet, the School at Steps NYC, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and The Ailey School. Emily graduated from Muhlenberg College with a B.A. in Dance and was the recipient of the Baker Award for Excellence in Performing Arts. Emily began her professional career in New York City dancing with Parsons Dance and Bryn Cohn & Artists. After moving to San Francisco she performed with Katie Faulkner/little seismic dance company, Risa Jaraslow & Artists and CALI & Co. She has also performed with the Teriaca Ensemble in Italy. She has toured and performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Emily was the program director of RoCo Dance in Marin County, CA for a decade where she focused on dance education and youth program development. Emily is also the co-founder of MDRN YGA, a hybrid vinyasa yoga and modern dance class that has been featured at Wanderlust Yoga Festival. After becoming a mom to two boys, Emily returned to her home state and has been on faculty at Ballet Theater Company and Miss Porter's School. She is a teaching artist in the Moving Matters program in the Hartford Public School system and has taught master classes at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. 

Raechel Manga is a Hartford resident that is a freelance artist and special education teaching assistant in the West Hartford school district. She received years of training at The Hartt School Community Division as well as Connecticut Concert Ballet for a brief period. She has been dancing since the age of two years old, her versatile training spanning from classical ballet, Horton technique, tap, jazz, and graham technique in her arsenal. Raechel has attended the Royal Ballet school in London, England, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Joffrey New York, Los Angeles and Dance Theater of Harlem. From the age of nine until eighteen she was a part of the Figments Youth Dance Ensemble being introduced to experimenting with choreographing. She also went to Greater Hartford Academy of The Arts as a dance major in high school. Aside from being a professional dancer she has branched out towards acting. She was an extra for Sneaky Pete season two, which can be seen on Amazon Prime, also featuring in the film The After Party that is on Netflix, and was an extra on season four of FBI that is seen on CBS . As of now Raechel is diving back into school in pursuit of being a forensic pathologist assistant. But never forgetting her lifelong passion of dance.    

Caitlyn Hydeck was born and raised in Newtown, Connecticut. Her passion for dancing would grow and flourish through the many styles of dance she studied. Her first loves were jazz and tap, later accompanied by hip hop, contemporary, and ballet. She later studied at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance and performance. She expanded her hip hop repertoire with more styles, such as breakin', popping, and locking. Her love for performance and creating movement continued as she took classes in New York, North Carolina, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Connecticut. She began teaching and choreographing award- winning hip hop, jazz, and contemporary routines at studios throughout New York and Connecticut. She has danced for artists such as Kat Deluna, Flo Rida, and Def Jam productions and has appeared on networks such as MTV2. She has danced with companies such as Double Up Dance Company and CT Theater Dance Company while presenting her works in New York City. During the last six years, she has coached and choreographed for the Fairfield University Dance Team and taught contemporary, heels, hip hop, street jazz, and improvisational dance for the Sacred Heart University dance program. She has also directed and choreographed for numerous theater productions and taught at The Norwalk Conservatory. She has been spreading her passion for dance through teaching and performance for the last 30 years and loving every minute.

Chantal Edwards-Matthews is a Jamaican born movement artist. She started her professional dance career at the age of Seven in Freehold New Jersey as a competitive dancer. Chantal traveled for 11 years all over the U.S with her dance company Freehold Academy of Performing Arts. She studied styles such as contemporary, ballet, point, modern, Jazz, hip hop and tap. 

While attending UHART Chantal  joined Island reflections Dance Theater Co. IRDTC added styles like African, Folk, Horton and Caribbean to her repertoire (2016) . In 2018 she joined Nightfall Hartford where she studied & performed puppetry and theater. 

After 2018 her dance career continued to grow as a solo artist taking on commercial projects such as Hartfords Anti Litter Campaign (2019).Chantal is currently dancing with Lauren Horns new work "Renaissance Gyal” and Deborah Goffes "Scapegoat Garden". Both bodies of work offer a residency premiering in summer 2023.

Bonita Weisman (Improvisation Workshops)

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.