March 21-24, 2024

New Moves

Intimate and inventive ... a showcase of creativity."

- The Kansas City Star

About the Show

Witness the future of ballet! This limited-run showcase offers audiences the opportunity to see tomorrow’s sought-after choreographers today, as they explore bold new ways of expression and create never-before-seen dance creations.

New Moves offers an up-close and visceral experience for both the audience and the dancers. You will feel the athleticism, beauty, power, and passion of contemporary ballet in a way that you may have never experienced before.

Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to witness the evolution of dance and see emerging artists in action. Get your tickets now and be a part of the future of ballet.

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Supporting Sponsors

Choreographers

NATASHA ADORLEE is an Emmy Award-winning choreographer, filmmaker, composer, and educator in San Francisco, CA. A first-generation Asian American woman, she is currently the Artistic Fellow with Amy Sewiert‘s Imagery. Natasha began choreographing in 2014 while maintaining an award-winning dance career with Robert Moses‘ Kin, ODC/Dance, Kate Weare and Co., and The San Francisco Symphony. After winning over ten international awards for her acclaimed short film „Take Your Time“ in 2018, she has been a sought-after filmmaker, choreographer, and composer ever since. After attending SUNY Purchase and graduating from UC Berkeley, Natasha was invited to join ODC/Dance. As a performer, Natasha has danced a vast repertoire of works and contributed original choreography, sound design, and art direction to over 20+ ODC/Dance repertory works. In addition, Natasha has created over 20 original dance-based works- spanning stage, film, and immersive performance mediums. Most recently, she was commissioned to create for Joffrey Ballet‘s Winning Works, Ceprodac (Mexico), Kawaguchi Ballet (Japan), Ballare Carmel, Ballet22, and Imagery. In addition to working for dance companies, Natasha has created original work for Pixar Animation Studios, Occulus, National Geographic, and New Yorker Magazine. Natasha founded Concept o4 to create multimedia dance-based experiences advocating for more accessibility to the arts. Awarded an NEA Grant, Dresher Fellowship, and Jacob‘s Pillow Choreographic Fellowship in 2023 and a BalletX Incubator and Groundworks commission in 2024, Natasha is pursuing a prolific creation period while sharing her deep knowledge of movement and film with the greater community through Dance on Camera workshops. She is also an Artistic Advisor for Ballet22.

CAROLINE DAHM is a professional dancer and choreographer, born and raised from Los Angeles, CA. As a graduate from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, she holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography. Caroline has danced with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Kansas City Ballet, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Malashock Dance, Quixotic, San Francisco Dance Works, and Wylliams/ Henry Contemporary Dance Company, as well as countless projects in the U.S. As a choreographer, she has set original works on the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Kansas City Ballet, Musical Theater Heritage, Newport Contemporary Ballet, Regina Klenjoski Dance Company, UMKC Conservatory Dance Division, and Wylliams Henry Contemporary Dance Company. Caroline had a residency at the Charlotte Street Foundation for 2021-2023 and serves as a professor of Dance at the UMKC Conservatory. Caroline has choreographed, directed, and produced several dance films and won a Laurel Award for Best Overall Film at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for her original dance film Face Me I Face You. She looks forward to her upcoming projects, choreographing for SALT Contemporary Dance and Cincinnati Ballet. @sweetcarolinevd – carolinedahm.com

HALEY KOSTAS
American Choreographer and Dance Artist from Kansas City, Missouri. An artist who creates site-specific movements with psychological and social intent, Kostas attended the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC) Conservatory of Music and Dance along with training abroad at The London Contemporary Dance School. Haley’s choreographic works have been presented and commissioned by Kansas City Ballet, UMKC Dance Conservatory, University of Kansas, Charlotte Street Foundation, Making Moves, Creative Intersections x Owen/Cox Dance Group, MashUp Dance Company and tbd Dance Collective. A recipient of a two year residency at Charlotte Street Foundation’s 2021 Studio Residency, Sidra Bell’s Module residency at Center for Performance Research in New York, Hofesh Shechter Company intensive at Sadler‘s Wells in England and Akram Khan’s movement program at Orsolina28 in Italy. Kostas is also a past winner of ArtsKC’s Inspiration Grant for her film, ‘Conversation Between Bodies,’ which premiered at MdW Fair at MANA Contemporary in Chicago 2022. Along with being a past winner of Rocket Grants, funded by Andy Warhol Foundation for RubiX, a collaborative performance outlet merging music, movement and visual arts, which landed a 2019 residency at 21c Museum Hotel in Kansas City. Most recently Kostas was recognized for her practice and nominated for the 2024 United States Artist Fellowship, was nominated for a Princess Grace Award for her work ‘Weye’, along with winning Charlotte Street Foundation’s 2024 Generative Performing Artist Award. Kostas has worked alongside internationally recognized choreographers to create new works and large-scale productions, such as live performances for The Juilliard School and the TV series SYTYCD. Professionally, she has danced in works by a diverse range of choreographers and companies including Aszure Barton, Peter Chu, Justin Giles, Marguerite Derricks (Nip/Tuck), Jaci Royal (Royal Flux), Andrew Winghart and Odyssey Dance Theater. She has also collaborated with musical artists such as Quiet Takes, Katy Perry, Capital Cities, Flight of the Conchords and Britney Spears. Kostas has also made her mark in the film industry as a choreographer in the feature DanceOff and is a conversation-starting contributor for{DIYdancer} Magazine. As an educator she has taught both nationally and internationally for studios and programs, such as Harbour Dance Center, EDGE Performing Arts Center, SoulEscape, The Place, Quixotic Fusion, Hall of Fame Dance Nationals, In10sity Dance, The Joffrey School, Youth America Grand Prix and Wylliams Henry Contemporary Dance Company. She has also served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Dance Conservatory, and has been an Instructor and Guest Choreographer at the Kansas City Ballet since 2014. Kostas continues to study psychology as a way to expand her own movement research through the combination and intersection of movement, color and psychology. Most recently she’s been developing KOSTAS, a multidisciplinary movement creation company and brand that will launch Spring 2024. hkostas8.com 

GABRIEL LORENA
Brazilian choreographer Gabriel Lorena refers to his movement as sign language, allowing dancers to access their inner voice exploring imagination and musicality by combining classical technique with a touch of humanity, letting human experiences bring movement to life. Mr. Lorena‘s vision is to inspire dancers and audiences to question what it means to be an artist and all that this art form has to offer humanity. gabriellorenachoreography.com

PARRISH MAYNARD danced with American Ballet Theatre, where he was invited to join by Mikhail Baryshnikov, and as a principal dancer at The Joffrey Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. In addition to being a recipient of the Princess Grace Award and the Presidential Scholar Award, he was a silver medalist in the International Ballet Competition. Mr. Maynard has performed in Dance in America’s American Ballet Theatre Now, danced Nacho Duato’s Romanso, and danced in Lar Lubovich’s Othello at San Francisco Ballet in the role of Iago which was created on him. In 2005 Mr. Maynard joined the faculty of San Francisco Ballet School. In his 10 years at San Francisco Ballet, Mr. Maynard choreographed more than 20 ballets for the San Francisco Ballet School, some of which have been danced by companies around the world including Royal Ballet School, Royal New Zealand Ballet and National Ballet of Canada.

EMILY MISTRETTA
Throughout her 17 year dance career, Emily Mistretta has worked on multiple choreographic collaborations and movement theories, leading her to find her own signature style and produce her own work. She has choreographed for Kansas City Ballet, Moving Arts project, Kansas City Ballet School, Creative Intersections festival and Cirio Collective. Emily created her first piece Beyond Blood for the KCB company in 2018, followed by Prism Break in 2019 and Wu Li’ Livin’ for KCBS. She then created In Wounded Woods for the Moving Arts Project in the summer of 2019. Emily created Velvet Vacancy for the 2021 season’s digital rep, and premiered Looking for Perilune in the Starlight Theatre that same year. Most recently she has created Ladies Lunch on Kansas City Ballet and Woven In a collaboration for the Cirio Collective.

MORGAN SICKLICK, originally from Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, received her training at the Irine Fokine School of Ballet. In 2013, Morgan graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in Dance Performance and a minor in Marketing from Butler University. Morgan was the recipient of multiple performance and academic awards alongside earning a Butler Summer Institute Research grant in 2012 to begin exploration for her Honors Thesis. In August 2013, Morgan became an inaugural member of Kansas City Ballet’s Second Company. After two seasons with KCB, Morgan joined Wonderbound, Denver‘s premier contemporary ballet company under the leadership of Garrett Ammon and Dawn Fay. Currently in her 9th season, Morgan has originated 20+ roles in works by Garrett Ammon and Associate Choreographer/Ballet Master Sarah Tallman. She also had the privilege of performing at the 2017 Vail Dance Festival with Wonderbound. As a choreographer, Morgan created works in 2018 and 2019 for Wonderbound‘s Wonderlab, a platform developed to provide company artists with the opportunity to explore their individual choreographic voices. Furthermore, Morgan has choreographed for independent artist collectives in Denver, various dance schools in the Denver and Kansas City Metro areas, and set her work, In the Moment of Not Knowing (2013), on KCB‘s Second Company.

CAMERON THOMAS began his dance training in his hometown of Rochester, NY. In 2013, he began performing regularly with the Rochester City Ballet. In 2015, Mr. Thomas received a full scholarship to attend the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre. He then joined Kansas City Ballet II for the 2016-2017 season and was promoted to the company the following season. Now in his sixth season with Kansas City Ballet, Mr. Thomas has performed featured roles in William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, Septime Webre’s The Wizard of Oz, Val Caniparoli’s Lady of the Camellias, and Devon Carney’s The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.

Frequently Asked Questions