Feb. 3, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS CONTACT: Remi Harris, Program Co-Manager or Lois Welk, Program Co-Manager
choreoinitiative@danceforce.org

2024 recipient Sondra Loring (L) with Mentor, Ann Carlson (R)

NYS DANCEFORCE ANNOUNCES AWARDEES
NYS CHOREOGRAPHERS INITIATIVE 2025

Twelve upstate New York-based choreographers have been selected for the NYS Choreographers Initiative 2025 (NYSCI), a funding opportunity administered by The New York State DanceForce in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts. For artist bios and images visit www.danceforce.org.

The NYS Choreographers Initiative is designed to help choreographers develop their choreographic skills by providing them with resources to advance their creative practice. The awardees each receive a $2,500 stipend, access to a mentor, and support for 20 hours of creative time with dancers and other collaborators of their choice. Each project is basically a mini-residency, designed to fit the specific needs of each artist.

The NYS Choreographers Initiative serves choreographers who reside in the regions of Western NY, Central NY, Capital District/North Country, and Hudson Valley/Long Island, a total of 55 counties.

Neyda Colon-DiMaria, a 2024 NYSCI Recipient wrote: “Being a grantee and going through the NYSCI has allowed me to develop as an artist and a director. I feel more competent in my craft, but I also feel more free. Having the resources to explore and collaborate live with musicians and dancers has allowed my choreography to reach new heights. I love community and this has been a strengthened communal process. I was able to piece things together, tear them apart, make them longer, make them slower…etc. I am exercising the brain and the heart by being able to create as I go instead of just making something to fit the mold of something else.”

The 2025 NYS Choreographers Initiative awardees are:

Central NY/Capital District/No.Country
Hettie Barnhill (mentor: Andre Robles)
Emily Gunter (mentor: Jason Ohlberg)
Chia-Ying Kao (mentor: Pamela Pietro)
Danielle Russo (mentor: Alexandra Wells)

Hudson Valley/Long Island
Yebel Gallegos (mentor: Dante Puleio)
Courtney Moreno (mentor: Neva Cockrell)
Barkha Patel (mentor: Hariskishan Nair)
Huiwang Zhang (mentor: Jamie Guan)

Western NY
Ethan Beckwith-Cohen (mentor: MaryLee Miller)
Nanako Horikawa Mandrino (mentor: Mariko Yamada)
Stacy VanBlarcom (mentor: Ana “Rokafella” Garcia)
Christina Vega-Westhoff (mentor: Mara Neimanis)

Selection Committees

 Central NY / Capital District / North Country
Hanaah Bates
Sukanya Burman
Peter DiMuro
Margarita Espada
Solange Rodrigues

Hudson Valley/Long Island
Sukanya Burman
Joan Finkelstein
Jim Self
Toni Smith
Edisa Weeks

Western NY
Peter DiMuro
Kim Engel
Margarita Espada
Joan Finkelstein
Solange Rodrigues

Photo by Hettie BarnhillHettie Barnhill (mentor: Andre Robles)

Hettie Barnhill is a Broadway performer, director, dance practitioner, educator, and choreographer and is the founder of Create A Space NOW. Nominated for a New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Choreography, Hettie has performed nationally and internationally on television, Film, and Stage including on Broadway in the productions "Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark," Tony Award-winning "FELA!" (original cast), and the Tony award-nominated "Leap Of Faith" (original cast). Using art as therapy, Hettie has received awards for her outreach and service in communities, including Honored by the California Senate with a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition, "Using Film as a Vehicle For Community Engagement and Education" by Congressman Ro Khanna and California Senator Bob Wieckowski for her direction and Create A Space NOW's production, A Love Letter To Brian, Lesley, and Michelle. She has also received the NAACP's "Top 21 Leaders 40 & Under Award" In The Fields Of Arts & Culture, Twice Honored As A "Rising Star" By The Young & Powerful For Obama Group, The Shirley Chisholm "Women Of Excellence." Since 2006, Hettie has worked with A Long Walk Home Inc., a nonprofit organization that uses art therapy and the visual and performing arts to document, educate and bring about social change for survivors of rape and violence.

As an educator, Hettie has taught at several Colleges and Universities, sharing her love for dance and exploring how to create spaces where form and technique are being learned, perspective is being shared, culture is being experienced, and history is being discussed. In addition, she has worked as a Visiting Artist-In-Residence in Dance at Skidmore College in Saratoga, NY, a Visiting Asst. Professor of Theater and Dance at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY, and Stephens College in Columbia, MO. She has also been a Guest Artist at the University Of Rochester, Suny Potsdam, Suny Brockport, Suny New Paltz, and Sam Houston State University. Hettie graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and has her Master of Fine Arts Interdisciplinary Arts, Performance Creation Concentration from Goddard College focusing on Art and Activism.
Photo by Steven RodriguezEthan Isaac Beckwith-Cohen (mentor: MaryLee Miller)

Ethan Isaac Beckwith-Cohen is a Choreographer, Performer, and Teaching Artist. Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Ethan trained at Rochester's School of the Arts, Garth Fagan Dance, Borinquen Dance Theatre, and other local dance organizations. Ethan holds a BFA in Dance from The University of the Arts, where (under the direction of Donna Faye Burchfield) he had the opportunity to work with Sidra Bell, Mark Caserta, Doug Varone, and Kim Bares-Bailey and other incredible artists. In 2022 Ethan began his professional career with Garth Fagan Dance. In addition to being a Company Dancer, Ethan is also Co-Director for the Garth Fagan Dance Student Ensemble. GFDSE is a youth dance company where students study Fagan Technique, learn choreography by the directors, and perform around the community. Even while dancing full time, Ethan maintains his passion for choreography. Ethan has choreographed over 25 works, curated multiple evenings of dance, and produced community-based projects in collaboration with local artists. Among these projects is "Wander & Wonder", a site-specific dance tour, which Ethan has co-directed with Missy Pfohl Smith since its creation in 2021. Since then, W&W has involved over 100 dance artists and musicians, becoming a staple event in Rochester's Dance Community.
Photo by Marissa MooneyYebel Gallegos (mentor: Dante Puleio)

Yebel Gallegos is a first-generation Mexican-American dance artist from the borderlands of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. He played an essential role in founding Cressida Danza, a contemporary dance company in Mérida, Yucatán. From 2008 to 2012, Yebel worked with Cressida Danza as a dancer, teacher, and rehearsal director. He also contributed to creating and implementing the Festival Yucatán Escénica, an international contemporary dance festival. In 2013, Yebel joined the Salt Lake City-based Ririe Woodbury Dance Company, where he performed works by various choreographers, including Daniel Charon, Ann Carlson, Doug Varone, Kate Weare, Jonah Bokaer, and Joanna Kotze. While in Utah, Yebel was involved in many collaborative projects, co-choreographing with local artists and teaching in the community. In 2019, he concluded a six-year tenure with Ririe-Woodbury to pursue a master's in fine arts from the University of Washington (UW). At the UW, Yebel began research intersecting dance, gender, and Latin American studies, which has inspired his choreographic, scholarly, and pedagogical work for the last four years. In his career, he has toured the United States and internationally to countries such as Mexico, Austria, Chile, France, Mongolia, and South Korea. Yebel holds an Assistant Professorship at Bard College.

Photo by Gary GoldEmily Gunter (mentor: Jason Ohlberg)

Emily Gunter is a performing and teaching artist based in New York's capital region. She is a professional modern dancer, Arts in Education Coordinator, and Administrative Assistant to the Artistic Director for the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, a resident company of The Egg in Albany. Emily rehearses, teaches, and performs company repertoire and is instrumental to the creative process for new works which have been performed in site-specific spaces like museums or outdoors, in theaters, and often in collaboration with live musicians. Emily holds a BA in Dance and Classics from Skidmore College. Her training includes working with and performing repertoire from the dance companies of Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, Stephen Petronio, and Doug Varone, plus Skidmore Faculty Mary Harney, Debra J. Fernandez, and Erika Pujič. Since 2019, Emily has presented original choreography inspired by Greek and Roman mythological heroines at the Tang Teaching Museum in Saratoga Springs and Choreography on the Edge in Kingston and Hudson. In 2024, she was awarded the Brightheart Fellowship by the Paideia Institute where she spent two weeks in Greece reading and speaking ancient Greek and visiting archaeological sites to build choreographic source material for a new solo presented at the conclusion of her residency
Photo by Darwin LinChia-Ying Kao (mentor: Pamela Pietro)

Chia-Ying Kao is a Taiwanese artist who explores cross-cultural and interdisciplinary art-making to bridge autobiographical storytelling with larger cultural issues. She received her MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College in 2012. As a movement researcher, her work aims to break down and rebuild the relationships between human bodies on a political, cultural, and social level. In her practice, she strives to create refined movements that are both organic and conceptual; she likes to deconstruct movements both mechanically and viscerally, discovering their infinite signifiers. Chia-Ying’s work has been commissioned by Chen Dance Center, Asian-American Cultural Circle of Unity, Triskelion Arts, Tribeca Film Festival, Manhattan's Union Square, and Roulette NYC. She has been accepted to numerous residencies over her career that include the International Choreographer's Dance Residency at the American Dance Festival in Henan, China and Durham NC, Topaz Arts Artist Residency, Kunstinitiutive Im Friese- KunstBUS Festival, Broward College, and the ArtsConnection Governors Island Residency, among others. Her dance film “Familiar” was selected for the 2024 Sarah Lawrence College Dance Film Festival. Chia-Ying's dance project 'Where should I stand' received the 2025 NYSCA Award.
Photo by Nanako Horikawa MandrinoNanako Horikawa Mandrino (mentor: Mariko Yamada)

Nanako Horikawa Mandarino is a dance performer, choreographer, and collaborator, originally from Sapporo, Japan. She has showcased her versatility and artistry in works by Mariah Maloney, Richard Haisma, Missy Pfohl Smith, Heather Roffe, Laurie MacFarlane, Ruben Ornelas, Daystar/Rosalie Jones, Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp, Eran Hanlon, among others. Nanako has worked closely with director Frank Kuhn, musician J.J. Kaufmann, and choreographer/performer Andrea Vazquez in “Life is a Dream,” with pianist Yoshiko Arahata and cellist Svetlana Garitselova, and had the opportunity to perform with Eastman Opera Theatre in “Les Enfants Terribles” and “Orfeo ed Euridice.”

As a solo and collaborative choreographer, Nanako co-produced the piano & dance performance tour “WA” with Kanako Horikawa and Yuko Hashimoto, presenting in Spain, France, Moldova, Romania, and Japan, and co-produced the full-length dance show “Fables and Histories” with Natalia Lisina for the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival. In addition, her work has been seen at Friends University, Luther College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, SUNY Oswego, Hamilton College, Syracuse Civic Center, Nazareth University, St. Joseph’s Park, and Multi-use Community Cultural Center (MuCCC). Nanako has been involved in programming the ACDA Northeast Regional Conference and is a co-director for Dances at MuCCC festival with Donna Davenport since 2023.
Photo by Hudson Valley VisualsCourtney Moreno (mentor: Neva Cockrell)

Courtney Moreno (she/they) spent over twenty years in the San Francisco Bay Area as a performing artist, aerialist, and dance teacher. With a background in contemporary dance, contact improvisation, and aerial arts, she was a longtime company member of the vertical dance company, BANDALOOP, performing and teaching across the United States as well as all over the world. Other collaborative performance highlights while on the West Coast include works by Lizz Roman & Dancers, FogBeast, Flyaway Productions, Sean Dorsey Dance, Christy Funsch, and Chris Black. After moving to New York in 2022, Courtney formed Steep Horizon Dance, with the aim to develop site-reactive and aerial dance in the Hudson Valley, collaborating with local dancers, musicians, and shadow artists in traditional and unconventional performance spaces.
Photo by Rishi RajBarkha Patel (mentor: Hariskishan Nair)

Barkha Patel is a kathak dancer, choreographer, educator, and the Artistic Director of Barkha Dance Company based in New York City. A touring artist, Barkha has performed solo and ensemble works at dance festivals in India and the U.S. Her work has had the opportunity to present at venues such as Dance Theatre Harlem, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Joyce Theatre, Lincoln Center: Out of Doors, Little Island Dance Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NJPAC and SOPAC. She has also performed at venues in India such as Lakme Fashion Week, Modhera Festival, Chidambaram Festival, and Jamshedji Tata Theatre among others. She has been awarded a choreographic fellowship with NJPAC and an Individual Artist grant from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and New Jersey State Council of the Arts.

Barkha was a Dance/USA Institute for Leadership mentee and fellow with Forge NYC consulting. She was named a 2022-2023 fellow with the National Arts Club, a recipient of the 2023 Juried Bessie Award, and a 2024 Princess Grace Award recipient. Barkha is currently in residency with Movement Research and a Harlem Stage WaterWorks Fellow.
Photo by Jordan McHenryDanielle Russo (mentor: Alexandra Wells)

As a choreographer, Danielle Russo (she/her) has been presented nationally at the American Dance Festival, Detroit Institute of Arts, Jacob's Pillow, Lincoln Center for Performing Arts at Damrosch Park, The Oculus at the World Trade Center, and The Yard; and internationally in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Panama, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Trinidad and Tobago. Residency and fellowship awards include C.N.N. - Ballet de Lorraine (FR), Danscentrum Jette (BE), Independent Artists Initiative WUK (AT), Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation (US), LEIMAY (US), Mana Contemporary (US), Nadine Laboratory for Contemporary Arts (BE), New York Community Trust (US), Performing Arts Forum (FR), and Springboard Danse Montréal (CA). She is a grant recipient of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Carnegie, Dance/NYC, Harkness Foundation for Dance, One Brooklyn Fund, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, among others. Additional highlights include Armory Arts Week, Julian Schnabel's Casa del Popolo, Governors Island, HERE Arts Center, The High Line Nine, La MaMA (fabNYC), LMCC River to River with Amy and Jennifer Khoshbin, Moynihan Station, Place des Arts, and Solange Knowles's Saint Heron. Outside of her own devising, Russo danced with The Metropolitan Opera for several seasons. As an educator, she is an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Department of Performing & Media Arts at Cornell University. Previously, she was faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, CUNY Queens College, University of Iowa, and The Joffrey Ballet School BFA and Professional Divisions.
Photo by Sara HeidingerStacy VanBlarcom (mentor: Ana “Rokafella” Garcia)

Stacy "BGirl Resolve" VanBlarcom is a Buffalo, NY based dancer, arts educator, and choreographer. In 2021, she cofounded B.flo-Girls alongside DJ Lisa Lux with the mission to uplift women in Hip Hop and bring the music and dance elements of the culture together. BGirl Resolve has dedicated herself to the craft of Breaking since 2008 and has more than 30 years of dance training in various styles. She was the featured dance artist at the 2022 Ladies First event in Buffalo and has organized and danced in countless performances throughout her career, including concerts, festivals, community events, and music videos. As an arts educator, Resolve provides programming for youth and adults through B.flo-Girls and has taught at dance studios, schools, and various programs throughout WNY and southern Ontario. She has competed in breaking and all styles battles across North America, becoming the first BGirl to win Battle @ Buffalo and going on to judge events throughout NYS. Most recently, Resolve judged the BGirl City Battle for NY in 2024. Deeply passionate about building community, Resolve cofounded Vibe Garden, a multi-generational community Hip Hop party, alongside fellow dancer and arts educator T.E.I.N. in 2022.
Photo by Christina Vega WesthoffChristina Vega-Westhoff (mentor: Mara Neimanis)

Christina Vega-Westhoff is a poet, translator, choreographer, dancer, and educator living in Buffalo, New York. Her work is rooted in ecology and community. Recent choreographed performances include Aerial Ode for the Trees, There's Nothing So Precious, and Dream of Another World. In 2024 she was involved as a dancer, artist, and/or dramaturg in performances by Rosalie Jones, Nancy Hughes, Stephen Koplowitz, and Angela Lopez. In Buffalo, she has performed her choreography at Silo City, the AKG Art Museum, Riverworks, Dnipro Cultural Center, and elsewhere. She is the author of Suelo Tide Cement (Nightboat Books, 2018). Vega-Westhoff teaches aerial dance to youth and adults at The Bird's Nest Circus Arts.
Photo by Stephanie CrousillatHuiwang Zhang (mentor: Jamie Guan)

Huiwang Zhang was born in Jiujiang, China. He is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher based in Long Island, New York. His choreography, often through a sociocultural lens, gives voices to communities at risk of social exclusion and people whose stories are lost in the official narratives, structuring an alternative history from the personal and private stories of individuals. Zhang produced his first independent evening-length performance Degrees of Freedom (2021)at Green Space, Queens supported partly by a grant from the Mellon Foundation. He has been selected for creative residencies including the Mare Nostrum Elements: Emerging Choreographer Series and AAPL dance residency at Topaz Arts. He received a Bessie (NY Dance & Performance Awards) for Outstanding Choreography with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company for his contributions to Deep Blue Sea (2021). He assisted Seán Curran setting choreography for the world premiere of M. Butterfly at Santa Fe Opera (2022). He has presented works at Movement Research at Judson Church, Crosscurrent Dance Festival, Arts on Site as well as commissions from universities like Queens College CUNY, Jacksonville University, and University of Florida. Zhang’s movement research is informed by his training in Chinese Classical Dance, Peking Opera, and teachers like Jennifer Nugent, Stephen Koester, Eric Handman, Katharina Christl, and his work with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. He was nominated an Outstanding Performer by the Bessie for his performance of Our Labyrinth at the Metropolitan Museum of Art directed by Lee Mingwei and Bill T. Jones(2020).