Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş is choreographer and writer from Mill Valley, CA currently researching the intersections of language and movement through interdisciplinary collaborations with designers, animators, filmmakers, coders, writers, and dancers. She has had the privilege of extending her project strikethrough at NYU Tisch School of the Arts to organizations including Mill Valley Public Library, The Writers Nest, and Inbtwn. Magazine. She graduated magna cum laude from NYU Tisch with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a Minor in English and American Literature. In 2020, she published her first novella, through Eileen with VerbalEyze Press.
Hiroka Nagai, is a Japanese American San Francisco Native who currently studies Dance and Child Development at New York University. Her dance training began at San Francisco Youth Ballet Academy at the age of 5. In addition, she was accepted to be part of the ODC Theatre’s youth dance company, the ODC Dance Jam, in 2017 where she received her modern and contemporary training. Hiroka has spent many summers studying at ABT, Gelsey Kirkland Ballet Academy, LINES Ballet, SFCD, Hubbard Street and Northwest Dance Project. Alongside her pursuits as a performer, Hiroka is making efforts as an emerging choreographer inspired by multimedia-multifaceted work merging performance and technology unitedly. She is excited to continue her dance and educational pursuits both in the US and Japan.
Israel Harris was born in Guatemala and raised in Bellevue, WA. He began dancing at the age of ten at Backstage Dance Studio under the direction of Marty Roberts. In 2019, He was asked to dance as a guest company member with the Sean Curran Dance Company, and had the opportunity to work with Lar Lubovitch, the Wayne McGregor company, and Ron K Brown/Evidence during his last year at NYU Tisch Dance. Israel graduated in May 2020 with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Psychology and a minor in Hebrew and Judaic Studies.
Jade Lien is a student at NYU Tisch majoring in Cinema Studies and minoring in Film Production + Comparative Literature. In the process of experimenting with different mediums including film, photography, writing, and digital art with the goal of finding new visuals and ideas in an era when even "originality is dead" has long been an olden phrase. Poetry is the basis of her work, and technology is the tool she uses to create. Through them, she seeks to discover original perspectives hidden and thriving in the "blind-spots" of our world.
Alex MacKinnon is a musician and producer living and working in Brooklyn. After growing up on the Beatles he studied jazz performance at SUNY Purchase where he also dabbled in music production. In addition to working as a freelance musician he has released projects under his own name and under the moniker “The Whistleblowers.” Since being introduced to dance accompaniment in college he has worked steadily as an accompanist, composer, and collaborator within the dance world and he greatly enjoys the collaboration across mediums.
Hamilton Guillén is a designer for stage and film based in New York and California. He designs lighting for theater and dance with a specific interest in cross-disciplinary collaborations involving performance, music, technology, and visual art. Whether text-based or devised, his work synthesizes research, politics, and culture to produce experimental, design-driven performances.
Troy Kelley is a Connecticut native, attending NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where he majors in Dance, and Computer Science. Aside from NYU, he has also studied at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD). Troy has been a part of the first university-level performance of London-based choreographer Wayne McGregor, dancing an excerpt of F.A.R. in October 2019. Troy has also had the opportunity to work with Ronald K. Brown and Arcell Cabuag from Evidence Dance Company performing Upside Down, as well as with Lar Lubovitch in Marimba. Troy has worked with Wendy Perron in the first ever reconstruction of Trisha Brown’s 1978 Splang. Troy is also an avid computer programmer and web developer. He has a passion for everything technology, from mobile computing to the fundamentals of backend systems. He uses his programming knowledge in tandem with his web development skills to design fully-featured, beautiful software. In his work, dance and programming each informs the other and allows him to approach tasks and ideas in new ways.
Special thanks to Ezster Retfalvi (costume support), Hsin-Ho Yang (set advisement), Cari Ann Shim Sham (concert advisement), Susan Hamburger (production support), BJ Marchini (tech support), Alexandra Noelle Chan (photography), Ida María Obediente (photography), Elizabeth Coker (thesis advisement), Wendy Lee (thesis advisement), Maureen McLane (thesis advisement), Catherine Barnett (thesis advisement), Elizabeth Chen (administrative support), Genevieve Hoeler (administrative support), Jeremy Nelson (teaching support), Sarah Broderick, (teaching support), and Karen Benke (teaching support).