Hélène Bouboulis started ballet around the age of two or three in Paris with a very kind teacher, Eva Arato, a Hungarian principal and refugee from Budapest. She was also taught by Natasha Siolkowa, a student of Olga Preobrajenska, Liubov Egorova and Boris Kniazeff. She grew up practicing barre au sol and learning the technique taught by Marius Petipa in Imperial Russia. She also had teachers teaching the French style  and more modern style like Adolfo Andrade. She danced on and off for a decade with a small group :”La poésie des Pointes” (Poetry of Pointe). Then she had a 28-year hiatus, started again ten years ago and had the privilege of being taught by Joan Bayley.  

Bernard Brown is a performing artist, choreographer, filmmaker, educator and arts activist working at the crossroads of Blackness, Queerness and belonging. As artistic director of Bernard Brown/bbmoves, a social justice dance theater company, he choreographs for stage, specific sites, film, and opera which has been presented across Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe, including On The Boards, Dance Camera West, Dance Camera Istanbul, American Dance Festival’s ADF Movies by Movers, Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, REDCAT, Royce Hall, and Centre de Developpment Choregraphique La Termitierre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa. Brown has developed work in residencies with The Music Center, Johns Hopkins University, B Street Theater, and Dance Italia. For nearly three decades, Brown has toured with and performed the choreography of leaders of the dance field including Lula Washington Dance Theatre, David Rousseve/REALITY,  Donald McKayle, Rennie Harris, Rudy Perez, Pat Taylor, Doug Elkins, Dwight Rhoden, and Lucinda Childs, to name a few. By invitation, he has joined casts of productions like the Kennedy Center’s Masters of African American Choreography, Los Angeles Opera’s AIDA, and Robert Wilson’s Letter to a Man with Mikhail Baryshnikov. As a sought-after educator, Brown has conducted workshops and master classes internationally, namely in Israel, Burkina Faso, Panama, and Brazil, and across the US, sharing his inclusive pedagogy. He is a core member of Street Dance Activism and an ongoing collaborator with Dancing Through Prison Walls, an aboltionist project. His activism has been featured in Dance Magazine, the Los Angeles, and New York Times. A first-generation college graduate, he is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Loyola Marymount University, a Certified Katherine Dunham Technique Instructor Candidate, and currently a California Arts Council Established Artist Fellow. The Los Angeles Times has called him “…the incomparable Bernard Brown…”

Gianna Burright is a choreographer, dancer, and educator, who explores the juxtaposition and nuances of emotional extremes: happiness and sadness, grief and euphoria, rage and mindfulness, nightmares and dreams. A self proclaimed late bloomer, she is a 2024 Hubbard Street Dance Chicago summer program Create choreographer, 2023 Carmel Dance Festival Choreography Fellow, 2022 Jacob’s Pillow Choreography Fellow and 2022 Dance Gallery Festival Choreographer in Residence. Gianna has presented choreographic work in 15 countries including at iconic venues such as Jacob’s Pillow, The Bonnie Byrd Theater, The Place, Turner Contemporary Gallery, Waterloo East Theatre, STEPS, Opendoors North America, the International Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Los Angeles Theatre Center and LA Dance Project. She has been mentored by some of the most acclaimed figures in the world of dance including Lillian Barbeito, Peter Chu, Alex Ketley, Dianne McIntyre and Risa Steinberg. Gianna is an educator who works with dancers and movers of all ages and abilities. She aims to create artistic understanding through sensory experiences, articulation and vocabulary (verbally and physically), awareness, pleasure, joy, sadness, happiness, connection, touch, listening and partnering. Gianna holds a BFA in Dance from UCSB and an MFA in Choreography from Trinity Laban Conservatory of Music and Dance.  

hasten dance is an emerging Los Angeles based female dance theater duo. Chelsea Roquero (BA Dance, 2019 CSULB) and Krystal Masteller (BA Dance Science, 2021 CSULB) separately are artists with their own ambitions and ideologies, but together they culminate an entity that explores all aspects together through physicality, intricacy, & constantly inviting play. hasten dance has presented work at MashUp’s International Women’s Day Festival (2023) & Disco Riot’s; Choreo & Fly festival presented at La Jolla’s; Wow Festival with collaborator Kaia Makihara (2023). They have been invited teaching artists at Genesis Studios, Emerging Artist Class Series (2023), Stomping Ground LA’s Community Free Day of Dance event, See Yourself (2023 & 2024) & at Renaissance Art’s High School for their scholarship students. This will be the company’s choreographic debut in Los Angeles under the established name “hasten dance.”

Caitlin Javech, a native of Miami, FL, holds a BFA in Dance from the Juilliard School and an MFA in Choreography from California Institute of the Arts. Javech’s artistic work has been recognized with a Juilliard Career Advancement Award, Orlando Ballet Dance Accelerator nomination, a Distinguished Artist Fellowship at the Hambidge Center, a ‘Dance in the Districts Awardee’ by LA Dept. of Cultural Affairs, and residences at The Yaddo Corporation and Keshet Makers Space Experience. Javech is currently based in Los Angeles, where she is the artistic director of her project-based company T O R R E N T, creating multidisciplinary choreographic work for stage, film, and installation. Most recently, Javech’s choreographic work has been commissioned by Los Angeles DCA ‘Empowerment Project’, Heidi Duckler’s ‘Ebb & Flow Festival, Stomping Ground LA’s VOICES: Latinx & Indigenous Artists showcase, CalArts Happenings 50th Anniversary, Emotions Physical Theater, and Keshet Center for Dance and the Performing Arts. Javech is also a comprehensively certified Pilates instructor, running her own business ‘JavechMovement Pilates’ as well as teaching Pilates classes and rehabilitative pilates-based training as Special Faculty at California Institute of the Arts. 

Olivia Liberati has a BFA in Dance Performance, with minors in both Entrepreneurship and Disability Studies, from Chapman University.

Kaia Makihara is a professional Los Angeles-based dancer from Sonoma County, California. He received his BFA in Dance from CSU, Long Beach in 2019. Since graduating he has appeared in film projects for Rebecca Lemme and musical artist Half Alive (choreography by the JA Collective). In 2021, he began working with Micaela Taylor’s The TL Collective and has performed live works by Dolly Sfeir, Kevin Williamson and  Jessie Lee Thorne. Makihara has also been a teaching artist for Ground Grooves TV. Kaia is working towards his interior design certificate through UCLA extension. His current interests and gained skills in interior design have contributed to the set for this project.  

Genna Moroni is a Los Angeles-based dancer, choreographer and teacher. Her primary dance credits include performing, developing and staging works with Barak Marshall from 2009-2024 and being a founding member of Ate9 Dance Company from 2012-2019. She has performed at renowned venues like Jacob’s Pillow, White Bird Dance, CAP UCLA, The Joyce Theater and American Dance Festival. In 2020, Genna debuted her collective Gorgeous Ugly Movement (G.U.M.) during REDCAT NOWFEST 2020. Her work has since been presented by Congress: Legalize Dance and Ballet Florida.Recently, Genna has merged her talents to the commercial work. She has been grateful to dance for and assist top choreographers like Teresa “Toogie” Barcelo, Dana Wilson and Monika Felice Smith. Independently, she has choreographed for recording artists like Carly Rae Jepsen, Dominic Fike and Reneé Rapp among many others. Outside of dancing and choreographing, Genna was certified in the Gaga and now Dance Church®. She is currently on faculty in the CalArts theater department and is the creative producer for dancefilmmaking.com. gennamoroni.com

Joey Navarrete–Medina, also known as Na-Me (pronounced Nah-Mey), is a first-gen queer Mexican American contemporary dance artist based in Los Angeles. Born and raised in Southern California’s Inland Empire, Joey’s work is inspired by growing up as the youngest of seven in a Latinx, Catholic, and immigrant-working family. They are committed to connecting their art practice to inclusivity and their personal and collective journey of decolonization and queerness. In 2023, Na-Me received an MFA degree in dance from UCI and holds a BFA in Dance from CSULB, followed by a Pilates certification under Body Arts and Science, International (BASI). Joey is also a Nationally Certified Pilates Teacher (NCPT). Na-Me has taught at local and international schools such as UCLA, UCI, CSULA, RCC, and UDLAP, and is served as adjunct dance faculty at Cypress Community College. Additionally, Na-Me has worked with choreographers like Bill T. Jones and Doug Varone, and has collaborated with various artists and companies in LA, including Primera Generation, Keith Johnson/Dancers, Whyteberg, Acts of Matter, No)one.Art House, Heidi Duckler Dance, Rosa Frazier, and Jobel Medina. In addition to this work, Joey has also performed in various commercial projects, including The Barn – Movie musicals, and music videos for Justin Timberlake, Young Miko, Feid, and Jean Paul Gaultier.
 
Rosa Rodríguez–Frazier is an educator, dance-maker, and performing artist based in Riverside, California. As a first-generation Mexican American woman artist, she values “movement” as a means to wrestle with and rejoice in her Mexicanidad. Her movement aesthetic and choreographic interests are rooted in a mix of soulful Contemporary and Latin social dance forms approached by “experimental” dance-making processes and Post-Modern frameworks. Frazier holds a BA in Dance and an MFA in Experimental Choreography from the University of California, Riverside and is an Associate Professor of Dance at Riverside City College. Over the past fifteen years, she has created and performed work with dance partner, Joey Navarrete-Medina. She is co-director of Primera Generación Dance Collective, a collaborative group of four first-generation artists that generate art that speaks to their brown, working-class experiences; a board member of Show Box L.A., a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles, CA; and board member of the Latina Dance Project, a cultural non-profit corporation- originators of the BlakTinx Dance Festival. For more information: larosadance.com

Breayre Tender has over 25 years of dance training and has been choreographing professionally since 2011. Having traveled many places to share her choreography, from the Bratton Theater in Chautauqua, NY to the Meyerhold Theater in Moscow Russia, Tender is returning to the Odyssey to showcase her work with one of her favorite communities. Breayre’s mission as a choreographer is to find as many connections between human existence, healing and expression as possible, and to filter those connections through dance and creative experiences.

Marianna Varviani is a Greek dance-theater artist. She has worked internationally in Greece, the UK, Spain, Brazil, and the USA as a choreographer, dance theater performer, movement director, and educator. Marianna has a B.A. in Contemporary Theatre from E15/ University of Essex and an M.F.A. in Dance from UCLA. She has been a member of the Krump Demolition Crew 100/ DCX since 2021. In 2016 Marianna found Selcouth Dance Theatre, creating the works “Vortex,” which was performed at the Arc for Dance Festival, European Dance Network and Festival of Rematia Our Festival;  “Ahtikos: a dance for liberation” as part of Prime Movers for the Arc for Dance festival; “Phoenix Rising from the Ashes” at UCLA Kaufman Hall; “Untwine” for the San Pedro Festival of the Arts/USA; “Co” for the Ebb and Flow festival, produced by Heidi Duckler Dance; and “Are you with me?” after the Culture Flow residency at Piyoda Flow. Her award-winning collection of short dance films, “Time to Dream,” has toured internationally to 20 film festivals. The project “Art Truck LA” premiered at The Other Art Fair in 2023 in Los Angeles. “Mark'”was performed at Highways Performance Space. She has also directed “Super Sweet Pergamond” for Ha! Theater Ensemble, as well as “Grey Zone” and “The Isle of Oturia” as a guest director at E15. She has performed in projects by Salia Sanou, Friidom, Ghislain Grellier, Stella Spyrou, Ohi Paizoume, Brian Astbury, Uri Roodner, Ken Cambel, Ian Morgan, Tobby Clarke, Murto Delimichali, Ohi Paizoume, Kelly Sarri, Karina Lopez, Erin Cooney, Patari Project and others. She was the co-founder of Ha! Theatre Ensemble, where she has co-produced, devised, and performed “Star-trip,” “The age of the Woodcock,” “Colorful Water” and “Super Sweet Pergamond.” Marianna has been teaching dance and theater since 2008 in Brazil (Theatre of the Oppressed, RJ), UK (E15/ University of Essex), Greece (Kinitiras studio, Belleville, Lotofagoi/Ministry of Culture, Studio Trajectory), and the USA (UCLA, Heidi Duckler Dance, Motive Brooklyn, Piyoda Flow, Young Choreographers Project).

Leah Zeiger is a choreographer, dancer, and activist based in Los Angeles. As a survivor of a teenage abusive relationship, Leah’s work is largely derived from her lived experience as well as embodied research in the survivor community. Leah is the founder of The Sunflower Project, a nonprofit organization that educates young people on sexual violence and relationship abuse and empowers survivors to tell their story through artmaking. Leah’s methodology – Body Memory – invokes somatic principles, improvisational scores and body-based research to explore the ways in which our bodies hold memory and how those memories shape our life experience. She has been commissioned to choreograph and present her work by entities such as the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company Choreographer’s Lab, and more. She will be presenting work in the summer of 2024 at Highways Performance Space and the Odyssey Summer Dance Festival.