RAE COZART (they/she) is an interdisciplinary artist who works with movement, film, writing, and visual art. They grew up in Greensboro, NC, surrounded by the arts, and enjoys exploring the intersections between disciplines. Cozart received their BFA in contemporary dance from UNC School of the Arts in May 2022 and aspires to continue making work and seeking out supportive creative communities. Their work is inspired by their experience with mental illness and escapism. Rae loves psychology, baking, animation, and learning ASL and they started their crochet and craft business, Cozart Craftz, in 2022.

FAITH FIDGEON is 21 years old and originally from Spotsylvania, VA. Faith is a recent graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts where they performed works by José Limón, Robert Battle, and Ming-Lung Yang. In addition to their stage performances, they’ve worked closely with UNCSA’s film department to dance in several notable projects such as Black Warrior and Longleaf Film Festival’s Best Drama, échappé, directed by Rebecca Walters. Outside of school, Faith has worked on performance art installations and projects such as Interstitial installations by Chris Yon and Taryn Griggs, Los Angeles Opera Digital Short, and the Winston Salem Symphony’s Valentines Mixtape. This year Faith participated in UNCSA’s third year of Studio for Creative Practice where they worked on developing their creative process and collaborating with fellow artists. Their recent research explores the gender binary in bathroom spaces and the liminality of using men’s bathrooms. Faith has also been researching tenderness and its relationship to time through a practice of contact improvisation with their creative partner, Kendall Ramirez.

GERRI HOULIHAN studied at The Juilliard School with Antony Tudor and members of the Martha Graham and José Limón dance companies. She performed with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company, the Paul Sanasardo Dance Company, and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. From 1991 to 1999 she directed her own company, Houlihan and Dancers, based in Miami, FL. During that time, she was on the faculty of the New World School of the Arts. Ms. Houlihan serves on the Advisory Board for the American Dance Festival (ADF). She has been on the faculty of ADF from 1981 to 1983 and from 1987 to the present. As an international representative for ADF, she has participated in 17 international linkage programs in such countries as Korea, China, Mongolia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Estonia, Poland, and Russia. She is the recipient of the ADF’s Balasaraswati, Joy Anne Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching. She was Co-Dean and then Dean of the ADF School from 2010 to 2015 and received her MFA from the Hollins/ADF MFA program. She recently retired from Florida State University, where she was the Pearl S. Tyner Distinguished Professor in Teaching and is now Professor Emerita. Currently, she teaches at the ADF studios in Durham and is the Artistic Director of the Big Red Dance Project.

MADDY O’BRIEN was raised in Boston, MA, and carries a lot of pride in these roots. She spent 13 years in the Boston Public School system, where her present self and younger mind began to be molded. She attended the city's only public high school for the arts before auditioning for the University of North Carolina School for the Arts and heading down south. Between the ages of 14 and 17 she spent 3 summers at Earl Mosley's Institute for the Arts and one life-changing summer at Bates Dance Festival. Both EMIA and BDF hold a special place in her heart and she hopes to return to these places in some shape or form upon graduating. Today, she is researching how she can change the form of dance to nurture healing. She hopes to go into art and social justice work in the future and take a leading role in making dance more accessible to all people. She moves between media, with her primary ways of art-making being choreography, film, audio building, and spoken word.

KENDALL RAMIREZ is a 22 year old freelance movement artist based in Winston Salem, NC. She is a recent graduate, with a BFA in contemporary dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Kendall has most recently worked with Chris Yon and Taryn Griggs on various projects. They are currently in residence as a dance artist with NC Dance Project’s Collaboration Exchange Program for their 2022-2023 season. Within southern art spaces, she is interested in researching experiences of availability and impulse in the body,as well as grief, queerness, storytelling, and forms of physical affirmation.

CAITLYN SWETT (she/her) is a dance-maker, sound artist, and arts administrator from Black Mountain, NC. Her work has meandered throughout North Carolina and led her to co-found Triptych Collective (Charlotte), co-produce On Site/In Sight Dance Festival (Winston-Salem), perform in electropoetry band Streak of Tigers (Durham), and collaborate with interdisciplinary noise/dance project Paideia (NC/NY). Caitlyn’s administrative career has supported the work of Neighborhood Theatre, Helen Simoneau Danse, American Dance Festival, and Culture Mill. She has also performed with choreographers throughout the state. Through lines of Caitlyn’s artistic and administrative career include sustained commitments to embodied approaches to making, experimental art in non-traditional venues, and a sonic curiosity.

STEVE MORRISON'S studio practice explores transformations and breaks between evolving forms, creating cycles of growth, decay, and regeneration. Using paint, animation, digital processes, and sculpture, his art enacts a tragicomic theater of impermanence.  His work has been shown in galleries and museums nationally and internationally in Italy, France, Greece, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta, including the Southern Center For Contemporary Art (SECCA), Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA-GA), Atlanta Contemporary, Whitespace, Pensogiovane (Italy), Saint-Denis da la Reunion (France), Masur Museum of Art, Columbia Museum of Art, Westmont Museum of Art, and The Center For Puppetry Arts. Morrison was a 2018 MINT Leap Year Residency Artist. He received a grant from Idea Capital in 2017 and was awarded a Walthall Fellowship by WonderRoot in 2016-2017 (curated by Sarah Higgins of the Zuckerman Museum of Art). In 2015, he was a finalist for the Working Artist Project (MOCA-GA), curated by Siri Engberg of the Walker Art Center. He has received several grants from the Center For Puppetry Arts.