Amanda Abrams grew up dancing at Chapel Hill's own Bounds Dance Studio but gave it up to study biology at UC Berkeley and, later, to travel and work in Europe and Asia for a few years. She recently earned a graduate degree in foreign affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and works in the field of international democracy promotion. Amanda is active in the contact improvisation community and has studied improvisation at workshops around the country. She is a co-organizer of this year’s DC International Improvisation Festival and is working with Cat Scratch Theatre on a new piece. Amanda misses the creative freedom of Choreo Collective but is excited about emerging opportunities in her adopted home, Washington.

Suzanne Cantwell Birkin has B.F.A and M.Ed. degrees in dance from Temple University. She has taught at private dance schools in the Triangle area, including Faulkner's Dance Studio and Holly Springs School of Dance. In addition, she has taught dance in Philadelphia, New York City and Connecticut and as a dance resident artist in private and public school systems. Suzanne was an independent choreographer during her stay in New York City. She has shown her work at DIA Center for the Arts, the Mulberry St. Theater, Broome Corner Studios and Abizaid Arts in New York City. She is currently teaching dance and choreographing in Coventry, England with her dance company, gravity’s angel (www.gravitysangel.co.uk).

Nancy Simpson Carter earned her BA in Dance from Meredith College, concentrating in performance and choreography and somatic studies. She has also studied at Zen Monkey Project and the American Dance Festival. She earned her Therapeutic Massage Certificate from Wake Technical Community College. Nancy has danced in work by Lisa Race, Katherine Auman, David Beadle, Michelle Pearson, Caroline Williford, Laura Thomasson, Peter DiMuro, Joan Nicholas-Walker (Nickwalk Dance Project) and Carol Finley (Postcards Project), including a North Carolina Dance Festival tour. She has also danced in community dance projects by David Dorfman and Liz Lerman. Her choreography has been performed most notably at Meredith College, the American College Dance Festival, Choreo Collective, and the American Dance Festival's Acts to Follow. She has served as a guest choreographer for Meredith Dance Theater and for Broughton High School. Nancy has guest taught at Meredith College, West Johnson High School, Riverside High School, Smart Start, and Bounds Dance Studio. In 2006 she co-taught a choreography class for the Duke Center for Learning in Retirement (DILR). She has worked as a House Manager for the American Dance Festival and is a Fieldwork facilitator for The Field/NC. Nancy is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Dance at the University of Utah.

Blanche Case took her first dance class at age five and has been dancing ever since. Her primary training has been in modern dance, Martha Graham being one of her major influences. She has trained with Stephen Petronio, Chris Elam, and members of both the David Parsons Company and the Martha Graham Company. In May 2006, Blanche graduated from Brown University with a degree in Theatre Arts. While in school, she was a member of Dance Extensions, a repertory company, where she performed works by Graham, Limon, Parsons, and more. Blanche joined Choreo Collective soon after moving to Carrboro, North Carolina, where she takes dance classes at The Ballet School. A lover of all dance forms, Blanche has also studied ballet, jazz, tap, swing, salsa, and hula.

Sarah Covington holds a BA in Performing Arts (Dance emphasis) from Washington University in St Louis, MO, where she also graduated with a BA in Latin American Studies. Since then, she has taken dance with her in her career in international education and humanitarian work in Mexico City, San Francisco, Denmark, and New York City. Before moving to North Carolina, she was in Guinea, West Africa, carrying out relief and development programs with Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees. She recently acquired her Master's degrees in Social Work and Public Health from UNC Chapel Hill.

Alyssa Ghirardelli's early background is in figure skating. She first studied modern dance during high school as part of the campus dance company at Charlotte Country Day. Over the years she has taken classes in Pasadena, California and in Asheville, North Carolina, as well as in Durham, and Chapel Hill. She has studied with several Triangle based modern dance educators such as Marian Turner-Hopkins, Carol Richard, Laura Thomasson and Amy Chavasse. Her underlying creative desire to produce art led her to move beyond just taking class and her exploration ventured into modern dance choreography. In 1997 she became Co-Founder and Co-Director of Choreo Collective. She values immensely the open and nurturing environment of Choreo Collective, as well as the performance and production experience. Alyssa also has a Master's degree in public health with a background in health education, project management, and intervention research through the University of North Carolina. She currently is a parent of a rowdy four year old boy, dabbles in video production, and works as Assistant Director for Wellness Partners in the Arts with Glenna Batson.

Bridget Kelly was a member of Choreo Collective beginning in 1998 and became a co-director in January 2004, serving until she moved to Washington, DC in the fall of 2007. She is trained in ballet, modern, and African dance and was awarded a Hutchinson Fellowship in fine arts for her work in choreography as a student at Williams College. Early in her career she performed with the Albany Berkshire Ballet, the Arthur Hall International Dance Ensemble in Camden, Maine, Hojarasca Danza Teatro in Burgos, Spain, and the Contemporary American Theater Festival Dance Ensemble in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. She spent ten years in North Carolina, where in addition to Choreo Collective, she danced in the work of Laura Thomasson, Five Chick Posse Productions, Joan Nicholas-Walker, Niki Juralewicz, and Amy Beth Schneider's Thread Dance Theater based in Brooklyn, NY. She has shown her work in venues throughout North Carolina as well as in New York and Washington, DC. She is a trained facilitator in the Fieldwork method and is the former director of The Field/NC, a network site of The Field, an artist service organization based in New York. She was an original founder of the Triangle Dance Forum and former Vice-President of the North Carolina Dance Alliance, where she currently serves as a member of the Advisory Board. In addition to her work in dance and grassroots nonprofit arts management, she currently works in health and science policy at the Institute of Medicine.

K Rain Leander began studying dance at fourteen years of age. Years of training began with the Holliman School of Ballet where she studied during and after school for two years straight. Since then, Rain has studied at the Jordan Academy of Dance, the Tupelo Academy of Dance Arts, several American College Dance Festivals, the University of Southern Mississippi where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance, and Durham’s own American Dance Festival. Since graduating, Rain has danced with Memphis Dance Theatre, Kris Cangelosi Dance Project, Beacon Dance, Ondine and Company, Duende Dance, and Choreo Collective to name a few. She began producing her own work in 2001 as part of One-Third Productions, founding Rain’s Dance Group a year later as a creative outlet for new and young dance and art professionals.

Anne Miklos grew up in Nashville, Tennessee and began taking ballet at age 4. After performing with the Centennial Youth Ballet for 6 years, Anne attended Kenyon College where, after a rocky start, she came to love the differences between ballet and modern dance. She majored in Psychology and minored in Dance, leading to an internship at the American Dance Festival. She performed with the Kenyon College Dance Ensemble and the Danswers Co-operative, which strives to give everyone the opportunity to dance and choreograph. After graduation, Anne interned at Dance Place and The John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. She currently works in the financial industry.

Sarah Catherine Nelson began ballet training at the age of 8 at the Dance Arts Studio in Oak Ridge, TN, where she went on to perform regularly with the senior company of the Repertory Dance Theatre. She gradually added modern, tap, and a bit of jazz to her repertoire and later received a Dance Minor from UNCG along with her B.S. in Biology (graduated December 2004, Phi Beta Kappa). During her undergraduate years, Sarah had the privilege of studying under Gerri Houlihan, B.J. Sullivan, and the dance faculty at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia . She moved to Durham in the winter of 2005 to work at Duke's Center for Human Genetics and is delighted to have found a warm and welcoming dance family within Choreo Collective. Sarah also teaches ballet at Ninth Street Dance School in Durham.

Shelley Poovey now resides in Brooklyn, New York. Her current projects mostly consist of collaborating with musician Bret Mosley, exploring ways of making dances that are activist art. She is on staff at Dance New Amsterdam as a production coordinator for the Works In Progress series. Her work has been shown at FieldDay, WAX, and Chashama, as well as producing a short dance film with FluidFilm Productions. She is a certified Pilates instructor and teaches primarily at Ellie Herman Studios.

Susan Quinn co-founded Choreo Collective with Alyssa Ghirardhelli in 1997 and co-directed the group for seven years. She is grateful to the group for their camaraderie, creativity, and cooperation over the years and is very excited about their incorporation as a non-profit. She feels that the members of Choreo Collective are outstanding models for making decisions smoothly and selflessly, especially for a group that operates by consensus. Susan has performed in North Carolina with various artists, including Carol Finley, Laura Thomasson, Caroline Williford, Mims Dance Project, Five Chick Posse Productions, Julee Snyder, and Jodi Staub. She also danced for the camera in Sara Smith and Roger Beebe's film “A Woman, A Mirror . . .” Susan has shown her own work in New York at DanceSpace Center and with The Field at Pier 63 and Community Garden B. She has been a guest choreographer for Independent Dancemakers, Peace College, the Enloe Dance Ensemble, and Cary Academy. In NC, Susan happily developed a new dance program at Cardinal Gibbons High School, teaching there from 1999-2003 in addition to serving as Vice President of the North Carolina Dance Alliance. Susan currently lives in Brooklyn where she choreographs, shows her own work, and dances with Thread Dance Theater. susanq@choreocollective.org

Kendall Rileigh had early training in ballet but was soon drawn to gymnastics. She was a competitive gymnast for 11 years and State Champion at the NC State Games. Since then she has studied Modern Dance with Clay Taliaferro; African Dance with Ava Vinesett; and Theatre Movement with Andrei Droznin (Moscow Art Theatre), Rafael Lopez-Barrantes, and Carol Childs. Kendall is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Duke University in drama and psychology and a local actor and musician. She has performed as an actor with Burning Coal Theater, Manbites Dog Theater, Temple Theatre, Theatre Or, Streetsigns, Drama Circle, Live Wire Theatre, Agora Players, Square One Theater, TheatreFest, Theatre in the Park, NCKT, NRACT, Theatre Orange, Dog & Pony Show, New World Stage, Cary Players, Greensboro Playwrights Forum, Wendell Theatre, Shaw University, Peace College, and Duke University. Kendall has also had original plays produced in NC, Illinois, and Oklahoma.

Amy Beth Schneider graduated from Oberlin College in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and English. She also studied at The American Dance Festival for four summers and performed with various North Carolina based choreographers, such as Rafael Lopez Barrantes, Irva Picciotti, and numerous Choreo Collective members. She currently resides in New York, where she founded Thread Dance Theater as a performance and production enterprise in June of 2002. Since its inception, TDT has received financial support from The Brooklyn Arts Council, The Durham Arts Council, The 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, The North Carolina Dance Alliance, and The Puffin Foundation, LTD., and has pioneered GATHER, an art auction and performance benefit which helps TDT to realize its endeavors. TDT produces several annual concerts, including the Brooklyn Dance Sampler, and has shared company repertory at dance festivals and series in North and South Carolina, Florida, Washington, DC, and New York City. Amy Beth teaches movement and dance in various forms both in New York City’s public school system and numerous other NYC community venues.

Carey Storan spent the first twelve years of her dancing career studying with Carole Ogg. During that time she also danced with Annie Sailer through the Kenyon College Dance Department and with former Mouseketeer Bob Wagner. She was an original company dancer and soloist for Dancers and Artists Networking through Community and Education. After graduating from Oberlin College with a BA in English and Dance, she moved to Martha's Vineyard and discovered The Yard. There she studied with Robin Becker and performed with Silvio Facchin and Blanca Allonso. Since moving to the Triangle she has performed with Rafael Lopez-Barrantes and at the Durham School for the Arts. She is currently working in early child development and raising her greatest artistic accomplishment, her daughter Sofie.

Jennie Sussman received her BS in Dance from Skidmore College in 1999 with a concentration in performance and choreography. While attending Skidmore, she trained with Bill T. Jones during his 1998 summer residency and danced in works by Ellen Sinopoli, Ken Topping and Niles Ford. Jennie also attended American Dance Festival in 1996 and 1997 where she performed the work of Cornelius Carter in the faculty concert and Alvin Ailey in the repertory concert. Since graduating, Jennie has danced for Stephen Koplowitz, Lynn Shapiro, Nathan Trice, Skip Costa Core Movement Project, John Passafiume Dancers, Choreo Collective and Niki Juralewicz. Her choreography has been performed at Skidmore College (NY), the Bridge for Dance (NYC), and Choreo Collective's Current Collection 2005 (NC). Jennie also taught ballet and modern for Franklin School of Performing Arts, TN, and Garden State Ballet, NJ.

Natarsha Sanders Watson began dancing in the womb of Cynthia S. Alford and danced all the way to the altar to meet Lorenzo A. Watson. She studied dance with Donna Faye Burchfield at Hollins University. She has danced for Sherone Price and Stafford Berry of African American Dance Ensemble, Jen Nugent and others. She is a modern and liturgical dancer with Judah Dance Ministries and Liberation Liturgical Dance Company.