Dancers

Michael Bishop started his training in Vaganova based ballet at age 21, receiving his BFA in dance and choreography from Belhaven University before going to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre to train further. Michael has toured internationally and nationally with many companies and choreographers such as the International European Tour of West Side Story 2012-2014, Opera Philadelphia, Bill T. Jones, Manuel Vignoulle, and Alessandra Corona Performing Works to name a few. In addition to dancing, Michael also choreographs and directs dance films, and started his own dance company, Mollét Contemporary Ballet, and his own dance film production company, Dance in Frame Productions. Michael is a member of the Actors Equity Union, AGMA Union, Live Core member with New York Live Arts and is SAG-AFTRA Eligible..

Brianna Rivera – originally from New Jersey – started her dancing career at the age of three. Following a move to Virginia, Brianna trained at the Dance Academy of Loudoun and Studio Bleu Dance Center where she danced competitively from age seven to seventeen. Her formal training includes Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Hip-Hop, Musical Theatre, Contemporary/Lyrical, and Acrobatics. In 2010, Brianna was honored to be awarded the Teri and Shari Malone Foundation Award for Dance Excellence.
After graduating high school Brianna attended Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA to pursue a career in dance, where she began her training in modern technique. Through the VCU School of the Arts she received her B.F.A in Dance & Choreography; including a Minor in Media Studies in May 2018, under the direction of Dr. Gaynell Sherrod.
Throughout her college career, Brianna performed in numerous works created by faculty and guest artists such as: Autumn Proctor Waddell, Dr. Gaynell Sherrod, Eric Rivera, Melanie Richards, Dawn Marie Bazemore, and Helen Simoneau. In addition, she collaborated with her fellow students to create pieces where she was the performer, the choreographer, or both.
Brianna has attended Hubbard Street Dance’s Pre-Professional Summer Program, Point Park University’s Summer Ballet Intensive, and Christopher K. Morgan’s Summer Intensive. Upon moving to NYC, she attended Broadway Dance Center’s Professional Semester, the Galen Hooks Method: Classic Edition, and Springboard X Skills & Processes.
She has worked with multiple choreographers on projects presented at Dumbo Dance Festival, Fertile Ground, APEX- Peridance, RAW Artists, and Boston Contemporary Dance Festival. Brianna has worked on film sets for, “Honor Amongst Thieves” (movie), “One thing is certain: a dance film”, and on Mr. Chicken’s music video “Never Could”. Brianna performed with Nuevo Tango Ballet during Fall 2021.
Brianna is currently performing upcoming works with Barkin/Selissen Project and continues to reside in NYC.

Originally from Dallas, TX, Lindsay Harwell is a New York City based dancer and choreographer. A graduate of the Juilliard School, he has performed the works of William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Andrea Miller, Loni Landon and Pam Tanowitz. since graduating he has worked professionally with Brian Brooks, Gallim Dance, Norbert De La Cruz, BARKIN/SELISSEN PROJECT, Isodoc Dance and Lone King Projects. Lindsay is also a co-founder of HEWMAN, a collaborative collective of artists bent on widening the potential for equality and empathy between dance audiences and performers.

Sumire (Sue) Ishige was raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. She graduated from the high school program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2015 and graduated magna cum laude from the Ailey/Fordham BFA program in 2019. She has also attended the American Dance Festival and National Ballet School of Canada summer intensives, and has been a part of the Merce Cunningham Trust Workshop. Sumire has performed with McKoy Dance Project, Boston Dance Theater, WHITE WAVE, Parsons Dance Company, and J Chen Project. She is currently a co rehearsal director for Pony Box Dance Theatre, and dancer for BARKIN/SELISSEN PROJECT.

One of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” (2020), dance artist Kara Chan has danced lead roles with Twyla Tharp Dance and assisted Ms. Tharp in the staging of Deuce Coupe and GHOSTCATCHER on American Ballet Theatre. She has performed with companies including Pam Tanowitz Dance, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, Merce Cunningham Trust, Janis Brenner & Dancers, Gleich Dances, among others, and has graced prominent venues such as Park Avenue Armory, Guggenheim Museum, Lincoln Center, The Fischer Center, The Barbican Center, 92nd Y, Carnegie Hall and Brooklyn Academy of Music. A native of Vancouver, Canada, Chan studied with Astrid Sherman at Pro Arté Center before earning her BFA from The Juilliard School. She is an alumna of Springboard Danse Montreal, The School at Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Program, and Youth America Grand Prix. Chan teaches dance to kids when not performing or rehearsing, and is a certified ABT Ballet Teacher for Levels Pre-Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. www.karachandance.com‍ ‍

Ellie Swainhart is a New York City based dancer. She began dancing at age 14 and continued her training at the University of Florida where she received a BFA in Dance with a minor in Business Administration. Since graduating she has performed works by Gregory Dolbashian, Ted Shawn, Ashley Lindsay, Enzo Celli, Black Label Movement, and José Limón. Ellie performed in Dante Puleio’s original work, The Persistence of Time, at WHITE WAVE in 2019. Most notably, she performed in the first co-ed restaging of José Limón’s The Traitor. Ellie currently dances with the Limón Second Company and Barkin/Selissen Project.

Mark Willis is a freelance artist from NYC. He received his B.F.A in Dance from Montclair State University where he was the recipient of Jeanne Wade Henningburg Scholarship and Spirit of Dance Award. Mark has worked with companies such as The José Limón Dance Company, WHITEWAVE Dance, Jody Oberfelder, Douglas Dunn and Dancers, Christina Noel and The Creature, among others. He has taught and performed in the US, Mexico, Canada, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He has been guest faculty at Montclair State University and has taught at The University of Wyoming, Detroit Dance Festival, Gibney Dance, Chung-Ang University, Ningbo Culture and Arts Training Center among others. His other interests include choreographing, composing, singing, and playing the trumpet.

OTHER DANCER PARTNERSHIPS

Katie Aggen, Mor Gur Arie, Rawinan Asawakanjanakit, Mica Bernas, Esme Boyce, Matthew Branham, James Cabrera, Andrew Chapman, Frances Chiaverini, Julia Discenza, Gregory Dolbashian, Elise Drew, Beth Edwards, Tyra Els, Aidan Feldman, Eduardo Fernandez, Emily Gayeski, Isabel Gotzkowsky, Molly Gray, Ross Katen, Fumihiro Kikuchi, Naoki Inui, Allison Jones, Loni Landon, Casey Loomis, Aiko Maezawa, Seth Miner, Martinus Miroto, Siobhan Murray, Kisara Ninoka, Emily Oldak, Alex Olivieri, Rosalia Panepinto, Madison Pineda, Christopher Ralph, Kendra Isobel Samson, Richard Scandola, Kristi Ann Schopfer, David Shen, Amanda Sommers, Matthew Sparks, Marie Douesnard Strevens, Thomas Welsh-Huggins, Kevin Williamson, Rachel Yoo, Yin Yue