26/27 Season
Choreographers + Collaborators
Learn about RDC's 2026/27 Guest Choreographers and collaborating artists!
FLOCK
Alice Klock and Florian Lochner
Alice Klock and Florian Lochner discovered their co-creative magic while serving as dancers and Choreographic Fellows at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In 2017, they created FLOCK, through which they perform their own work and co-create new choreography for film and stage. Their most recent international tours include their evening length productions “Somewhere Between” (named one of Chicago Tribune’s top 10 shows of 2023) , “The Designer”, “Quest”, and their feature length film “Holy Grail”. As a team, they have choreographed for multiple dance companies, universities, and cultural institutions, including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Charlotte Ballet, Whim W’Him, GroundWorks DanceTheater, Backhausdance, Orsolina 28, Ballet Idaho, University of Michigan, Seattle Dance Collective, the Goethe Institut, the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA, and the 92nd Street Y.
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Every year they create a new production for the Freilichtspiele Schwäbisch Hall in southern Germany where they are company in residence.
See FLOCK's world premiere in Entry Points, Nov. 6th - 8th at Catherine B. Berges Theatre​
See Hannah's world premiere in Entry Points, Nov. 6th - 8th at Catherine B. Berges Theatre​
New York City, NY
Hannah Garner (she/her), named a 2025 Princess Grace Award recipient in Choreography and ‘25 to Watch’ by Dance Magazine, is a NYC based dancer/choreographer making work that “tackles topics like death and queer identity through rigorous, inventive movement and wit” (Dance Magazine). Since graduating from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Performance and Composition and a minor in Arts Management, Hannah has gone on to work with Doug Varone, Raja Feather Kelly, Sue Bernhard Danceworks, and Megan Williams Dance, in venues such as The Joyce Theater, New York City Center, the Park Avenue Armory, and New York Live Arts.
Her work as 2nd Best Dance Company has been commissioned nationally by leading contemporary dance companies and schools, such as Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance, GroundWorks DanceTheater, GALLIM x CreateArt, SUNY Purchase, NYU, Bard College, among others. 2nd Best was the Resident Artist of Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (2022), Atlantic Center for the Arts (2021), GALLIM’s Moving Women Residency (2021), and Triskelion Arts (2019), among others. Hannah's choreography has also been presented through Triskelion Arts, Mark Morris Dance Group, Dixon Place, New York International Fringe Festival, The Wassaic Project, and appears in music videos for artists like Snail Mail, Half Waif and Frankie Cosmos.
In addition to her performing work, Hannah finds a creative home in teaching: she is currently on faculty at SUNY Purchase and Gibney Dance Center. She previously served on faculty at Bard College, Gibney PRO, Friends Seminary, and The Dalton School. Recent credits include national tours of RED (OK, TX, CT, MT, and WA) and Slumber (CA, CO), New Works Lab at Playwrights Horizons, residencies at American Dance Festival (NC) and Green Box Arts (CO), and movement direction for a new Off-Broadway play Calf Scramble. Through her work, she seeks beauty in failure, explores limits of the body, and finds solace in the humor of being human. Hannah is deeply affected by the weather and how the trains are running.
See Faith's world premiere in Entry Points, Nov. 6th - 8th at Catherine B. Berges Theatre​
Chicago, IL
Faith Balderrama is a professional dancer, choreographer, and instructor from Southern California. She graduated with a B.A. in Dance Performance from Oral Roberts University in 2020 and is based in Chicago. Faith performed with South Chicago Dance Theatre for three seasons and had the honor of working with Terrence Marling, Noelle Kayser, Jackie Nowicki, Donald Byrd, Monique Haley, Kate Weare, Frank Chavez, and Joshua Blake Carter. She also performed works by Kia S. Smith and Tsai Hsi Hung for the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2024. As a choreographer, Faith has created new works for the Oral Roberts University Dance Department, Little Fire Artist Collective, and the Winifred Haun and Dancers Third Coast Contemporary Dance Program.
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Additionally, Faith received a Chicago DCASE Individual Artist Program Grant in 2023 to produce an evening-length work in 2024 entitled “HER.” She was then invited to perform an excerpt of the work at the Harvest Contemporary Dance Festival in Chicago in 2024 and at the St. Louis Contemporary Dance Festival in 2025. Faith currently freelances as a performer, teacher, and choreographer throughout the Midwest and performs with Little Fire Artist Collective and The Seldoms dance company in Chicago.
Boston, MA
Cassie Wang is a performer and interdisciplinary dancemaker based between Boston and New York. Cassie is a movement researcher with Partnering Lab and a principal dancer with KAIROS Dance Theater. Her other recent performance credits include work with the Boston Lyric Opera, The Slutcracker, Shura Baryshnikov, Jessi Stegall, and Ilya Vidrin. Cassie was a 2025 danceWEB Scholar at ImPulsTanz, a 2024–25 Next Steps for Boston Dance grantee, and is currently in residence at Urbanity Dance. She has also held residencies at Boston Center for the Arts and Bearnstow and been presented by Motion State Arts, Asian American Ballet Project, The Bang Group, and Resilience Dance Company. Cassie worked as a teaching assistant in Dance at Harvard University and earned a BA from Pomona College in Computer Science with minors in Dance and Media Studies.
See Cassie's world premiere in Entry Points, Nov. 6th - 8th at Catherine B. Berges Theatre​
Vim Vigor
Shannon Gillen & Jason Cianciulli
Ann Arbor, MI
Shannon Gillen is the artistic director of VIM VIGOR (US). Her creative work has been commissioned across the USA, Canada, Central America, South America and Europe. Projects include commissions by L.A. Dance Project, dance.films for BAM, fashion label Phelan for NY Fashion Week, Danceworks at the Lobero Theatre, Hubbard Street 2, Gibney Dance Company, over het lj in (NL), Jacob's Pillow Festival, Boston Dance Theater at the ICA in Boston, Ruvuelo (Chile), Mainfranken Theater Würzburg (DE), Arts Umbrella in Vancouver (CA), the International Solo-Tanz Theater Festival in Stuttgart (DE), the TIF theater in Kassel (DE, de dansers (NL), as a think big choreographer-in-residence at Staatsoper Hannover (DE) and at Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton where she was a choreographer in residence; notable festivals and venues where her work has been seen include Springboard Danse festival in Montreal, New York Live Arts, Prisma Festival in Panama, Judson Church, PULSE art fair/Art Basel, Bryant Park, NYC's River to River festival, Perry Mansfield, and The Joyce. In 2024, Gillen was commissioned to create new works for the IUA in Reykjavik, Iceland, the b12 Festival in Berlin and Vassar College in 2024 and in 2025 will create new works for The University of Limerick in Ireland and the IAB in Barcelona, Spain. Gillen is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Michigan and is establishing Ann Arbor as a midwest hub for contemporary practices with VIM VIGOR’s open classes and annual winter / summer programming. Gillen is a graduate of The Juilliard School and earned her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.
Jason Reese C. is a Psycho-Physical Theatre Artist whose research is grounded in Floorwork, Partnering and Physical Theatre. He is a teacher, performer, bodyworker and creator who aims to make worlds, sculpt space and tell stories. As an international performer he has worked throughout the United States and many other countries, including Canada, Panama, Germany, and Romania. He holds a License in Massage Therapy in both Michigan and Pennsylvania, working in Swedish, Deep Tissue, Craniosacral, and Myofascial Release Techniques. Jason is a co-choreographer with VIM VIGOR. He holds a BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase and an MFA in dance from the University of Michigan. After receiving his BFA, Jason returned to SUNY Purchase to teach as a lecturer. With VIM he has taught at various institutions throughout the globe, creating work and teaching VIM’s Physical Dance Theater Methodology. He most previously was teaching at the University of Iceland. Jason was a Performer and Rehearsal Director with the iconic immersive show, Sleep No More NYC.
See the return of KAIROS in Entry Points, Nov. 6th - 8th at Catherine B. Berges Theatre​
See Continuum Vocal Ensemble perform alongside RESILIENCE in the return of Speak Easy - Move Loud: a one-night encore performance at the Hett.
Continuum Vocal Ensemble
St. Louis, MO
Founded by Artistic Director, Dr. John McDonald, Continuum Vocal Ensemble launched in 2023 with a mission to provide inspiring and transformative experiences for a new and energetic audience through unique repertoire performed in unconventional spaces. This ensemble brings together the best ensemble vocalists from the St. Louis region with the goal of musical excellence and building a community through the art of choral music.
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See Just (2025) in RDC's Spring Concert April 16th - 18th at Catherine B. Berges Theatre​
Annie Rigney
New York City, NY
Annie Rigney is a New York based dancer, choreographer, Gaga teacher and Ilan Lev Method therapist. Annie is an Alumnus of the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase. She danced with the Batsheva Ensemble under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin, toured internationally with Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak Dance Company and was a cast member of Punchdrunk's immersive theater production, Sleep No More, from 2015-2019.
In April, 2023 Annie premiered a new choreographic work, "Get Up, My Daughter," commissioned by and created for the Martha Graham Dance Company and presented at the Joyce Theater. Her choreographic work, “Galithea" was featured as a part of the 92nd Street Y’s Future Dance Festival and performed at the Joyce Theater. Annie was guest choreographer for the Fall Concert at NYU Tisch School of Dance this Fall and has also been commissioned for the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, the University of the Arts, and Resilience Dance Company, among others. She was a recipient of the Moving Women Residency from Gallim Dance, a 2023 CUNY Grant recipient, and a choreographic fellow for Robert Battle's New Directions Choreographic Fellowship program at the Alvin Ailey School.
Annie was the 2023-2024 Artist in Residence at the 92nd Street Y and premiered her evening-length work entitled, "...she was becoming untethered." at their newly renovated Buttenweiser Hall. She is an adjunct professor at the Alvin Ailey School, Tisch School of the Arts, and the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance.
Annie has been a practitioner of the Ilan Lev Method since 2012 and runs a private practice treating dancers and musicians for injuries and functional limitations. She is currently the Director of the Ilan Lev Method School in New York.