Dance & Performance Studies Guest Artists
Each semester RWU’s Dance & Performance Studies Program welcomes a diverse roster of artists to work directly with our students via our outstanding guest artist residency program. These internationally renowned artists offer students a range of dynamic first-hand learning experiences via master classes, repertory rehearsals, and face to face feedback – enhancing each dancer’s networking skills and professional contacts.
Working with a steady rotation of touring artists also helps RWU dancers experience the vast potential and varied paths within the field of movement studies – which helps each student develop their own identities as artists, scholars, and professionals.
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Spring 2025
Monica Bill Barnes & Company –February 3 to 7
MONICA BILL BARNES is a dancer and choreographer. Since MBB&CO’s founding in 1997, her choreography has been seen in many places, such as New York City’s Bowling Green public fountain, on stage at Carnegie Hall, throughout the galleries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and in Greta Gerwig’s film “Little Women.” The company has been presented in over 50 cities and internationally in venues ranging from The Kennedy Center to the Sydney Opera House in a collaboration with Ira Glass in Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host. Barnes began collaborating with Robbie Saenz de Viteri in 2013 at which point the company adopted the motto of “bringing dance where it doesn’t belong.” Recent collaborations include a national tour of The Running Show; a site-specific show in a mall - Days Go By; and two online works created during the pandemic - Keep Moving and It’s 3:07 Again. The company just presented a three-week run of their new show, Many Happy Returns at Playwrights Horizons in January 2025. More info about Monica and her company.
FLANNERY GREGG is a performer and movement director based in NYC. She has rehearsal directed and performed in Monica Bill Barnes & Company’s productions of The Running Show, Day’s Go By, Keep, It’s 3:07 Again and Many Happy Returns. She has also worked alongside Barnes as associate choreographer/dancer on the Greta Gerwig directed film “Little Women.” Flannery has worked as a movement director for NYU, staging student performances at the Barclays Center, Radio City Music Hall, and NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. She was the assistant choreographer to Sam Pinkleton on the Broadway musical Natasha Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 and the associate choreographer to Sonya Tayeh for Sing Street, a new musical. She is thrilled to be performing and teaching with MBB&Co.!
Christina Robson –March 17 to 21
CHRISTINA ROBSON is a performer, educator, and choreographer from Boston, Massachusetts. Her extensive performance career includes long term collaborations with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, David Dorfman Dance and Sean Curran Company where she performed historic repertory and premiered several original evening length works at The Kennedy Center, American Dance Festival, Jacobs Pillow, and The Joyce Theater. She has toured two seasons with DanceMotion USA, a cross cultural exchange partnership between Brooklyn Academy of Music and The US Department of State. Robson’s work with Monica Bill Barnes & Company includes collaborations with American Public Radio personality Ira Glass in Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host as well as This American Life Live! at NYU’s Skirball Center. Robson was a performer in the Bessie Award-winning immersive theater show Then She Fell by Third Rail Productions and has decade-long collaborative tenures with choreographers Heidi Henderson and Kendra Portier. Rachel Rizzuto, associate editor of Dance Magazine, described Robson as, “The modern dancer to watch of this next generation. Her ability to mold herself to any number of choreographers’ styles with ease and detail is truly exceptional.” Christina has been on rotating faculty at Gibney Dance and Peridance Capezio Center, and instructed pre-professional training programs at The Joffrey Ballet, DanceWave, and 92nd Street Y. In 2018, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company partnered with The Mellon Foundation through Arts Transcending Borders, where Robson facilitated NCAA Division 1 athletes at The College of the Holy Cross in a choreographic residency highlighting the physical negotiation of partnering with the mutual effort of team sports. Robson’s choreographic work has been presented by a range of institutions such as NYU Tisch, Barnard College, SUNY Purchase, Hartt School, The Wooden Floor, Providence Water Fire Festival, Bethany Arts, and Boston University.
Christina is an alumna of Roger William University’s Dance & Performance Program, where she majored in and earned a BA in Dance. She dedicates much of her professional success to the amazing opportunities that the Dance and Performance Studies Program offered. After graduating, and several years of touring the globe as a professional dancer, she earned an MFA in Dance at the University of Maryland. She is now Assistant Professor of Dance at George Mason University – and is very excited to be coming back to RWU! Find out more about Christina.
HANNA EKHOLM
KELLIE ANN LYNCH
JILL MAC LAUGHLIN
JENNA GROSS
ROSE WOODS DANCE COLLABORATIVE
ANTHONY TORRES
CLAUDIA-LYNN RIGHTMIRE
SIMON THOMAS-TRAIN
LAYNE PARADIS WILLIS
ANNA TSE
JANICE ROSARIO
HANNAH BARROWS
COLIN STILWELL
CHARLES Z. KALAJIAN
MOUSSA TRAORÉ
NICOLE GALLO
SEYDOU COULIBALY
ASSITAN COULIBALY
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MERYL "MEZ" GENDREAU
MIKE TYUS
SHAWN AHERN
JASON ARYEH
EPHRAT ASHERIE
ALEKSANDRA "Shura" LANG BARYSHNIKOV
TANDY BEAL
MARY ELLEN BEAUDREAU
MARTY BELLER
MICHAEL BOLGER
JANIS BRENNER
DANNY BURACZESKI
CREACH/KOESTER
GISELA CREUS
TERESE FREEDMAN COLEMAN
JIM COLEMAN
FRED CURCHACK
SEAN CURRAN
DANIELLE DAVIDSON
KELLEY DONOVAN
DAVID DORFMAN/LISA RACE
HILLARY EASTON
CHRIS ELAM
DOUG ELKINS
BILL EVANS
MOLISSA FENLEY
CARL FLINK
OLASE FREEMAN
MARGIE GILLIS
ARTHUR HULL
JOSH HILBERMAN
RANDY JAMES
PETER KALIVAS
JEFF KAZAN
LESLIE KRAUS
JANICE LANCASTER
HEIDI LATSKY
NICHOLAS LEICHTER
FRED MANN
SAYER MANSFIELD
KATHRYN E. MCNAMARA
TIFFANY MILLS
MEREDITH MONK
CATHY NICOLI
DAVID PARKER
DEANNA PELLECCHIA
EMILY PLAUCHÉ
CLAIRE PORTER
NETA PULVERMARCHER
TROIKA RANCH
CHRISTINA JANE ROBSON
JENNY ROCHA
OTIS SALLID
GREG SCHANUEL
MARY SEIDMAN
DEGANIT SHEMY
HELEN SIMONEAU
BILLY SIEGENFELD
SYDNEY SKYBETTER
CHRIS LEWIS SMITH
KATHY GORDON SMITH
DANIEL STEIN
L’ANTOINETTE STINES
TAKEHIRO UEYAMA
MELODY RUFFIN WARD
KATE WEARE
ELLIS WOOD
RAPHAEL XAVIER
BRYN COHN
NETTA YERUSHALMY
JENNY ROCHA
BEBE MILLER
HOLLIS BARTLETT & NATALIE TROGDAN
CANDICE SALYERS
CHRISTOPHER-RASHEEM MCMILLAN
JOAN RODRIGUEZ
KATIE MOORHEAD
FRITHA PENGELLY
ANDY RUSS
ALYSSA GLANTZ
HEIDI HENDERSON
ASHLEY RICH
ARETHA AOKI
Jean Abreu
Jorge Cresis
Malgorzata Dzierson
TJ LOWE
KATIE LUSBY
ALEXANDER WHITLEY
RENAUD WISER
More about RWU’s Dance & Performance Program
- The Dance and Performance Studies Major and Minor
- Dance/Performance Web Pages
- RWU Dance Theatre Instagram
Contact
Professor of Dance and Performance Studies, Cathy Nicoli, cnicoli@rwu.edu