About 2nd Best Dance Company:

2nd Best Dance Company, led by Hannah Garner (Dance Magazine ‘25 to Watch’ and Princess Grace Award Winner), is a NYC-based dance-theatre company that creates, performs, and teaches physically rigorous, sometimes virtuosic, almost always slapstick dance plays. We connect to audiences, students, and professionals alike as we share emotionally accessible work that is relatable, honest, and resonant. Since our founding in 2016, we have used our practice and platform to play out absurdist scenes: we move, perform text, sing, utilize props, unconventionally handle proscenium spaces, and ask the audience to play active roles or even perform in the work alongside us. We dance hard, play very seriously, and lean into hunches that take us to uncertain and often ridiculous places all to ask: what does it mean to be alive? 

2nd Best Dance Company has been commissioned nationally by leading contemporary dance organizations such as Whim W'Him Seattle Contemporary Dance, Gibney Dance, SUNY Purchase, and GroundWorks DanceTheatre, among others. Through this work, we seek beauty in failure, explore limits of the body, and find solace in the humor of being human. In real life 2nd Best lives in New York, we live online at 2ndbestdance.com . @2ndbestdance

Hannah Garner (she/her/hers)
Hannah, awarded a Princess Grace in Choreography in 2025 and Dance Magazine’s ‘25 to Watch’ in 2020, graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Purchase, earning a BFA in Performance and Composition and a minor in Arts Management. Hannah has worked with Doug Varone, Raja Feather Kelly, Sue Bernhard Danceworks, Megan Williams Dance, and Rovaco Dance Company 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 has appeared on theater stages and on film. In addition to her performing work, Hannah finds a creative home in teaching: she is currently on the dance faculty of SUNY Purchase and Gibney Dance Center. She also sat on the Bessie Selection Committee for 2023-2024. Hannah is deeply affected by the weather and how the trains are running.

Courtney Barth (she/her/hers, they/them/theirs)
Courtney is a New York–based dancer originally from Las Vegas, NV. She began her training at Inspire Dance Company and the Las Vegas Academy of Performing Arts before moving to New York to earn a BFA in Dance at SUNY Purchase. While at Purchase, Courtney studied abroad at London Contemporary Dance School, where she performed at Sadler’s Wells as an original cast member in Polaris by Crystal Pite. Since moving to New York, Courtney has had the pleasure of performing with Shannon Gillen at New York Fashion Week, Kensaku Shinohara at the Queens Museum, and Loni Landon / Amy Gardner in their film project Fuel. She is currently a long time collaborator and dancer with Hannah Garner’s 2nd Best Dance Company and Doug Varone and Dancers. Courtney’s performing and teaching practice is informed by her teacher training in the Alexander Technique, which she is currently pursuing at the Balance Arts Center.  Her ongoing study of the Alexander Technique continues to shape her approach to performance, pedagogy, and collaboration.

Will Noling (they/them/theirs)
Will is a performer and educator born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. A founding collaborator with 2nd Best, they graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Dance, having spent a term on exchange at London Contemporary Dance School. Will is also a dancer with Doug Varone and Dancers, and previously served as Artistic Associate with Gibney Dance Company. Additional performance credits include works by Megan Williams, Raja Feather Kelly, Chuck Wilt, and Crystal Pite, in venues such as Sadler's Wells, New York City Center, and the Joyce Theater. Will is also a Community Actionist and Partnership Manager for the Hands are for Holding® program at Gibney, facilitating movement workshops for survivors of intimate partner violence and working with young people to promote healthy relationships through movement.

Hsiao-Jou Tang (she/her/hers)
Hsiao-Jou was born and raised in Taiwan. In 2008, she graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Dance. Hsiao-Jou was a company member of Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion (2010-2012) and Doug Varone and Dancers (2012-2019). As a freelance dancer, Hsiao-Jou has had the pleasure of working with John Jasperse, Netta Yerushalmy, Trisha Brown Dance Company, Nancy Bannon, Xan Burley+Alex Springer, Shen Wei Dance Arts, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Luke Murphy- Attic Projects, and The Pharmacy Project, among others.

Ryan Yamauchi (he/him/his)
Ryan was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and began his dance training at the Mid-Pacific Institute School of the Arts. He later moved to New York and received his BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase. Ryan has had the pleasure of dancing with 2nd Best Dance Company, Doug Varone and Dancers, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Loni Landon Dance Projects, and Sidra Bell Dance New York. He has also performed as a guest dancer with Gibney Dance Company, Santa Fe Opera, and Santa Barbara Dance Theater. As a choreographer, Ryan collaborated with Hannah Garner to create an evening-length work titled Housewarming, and has been commissioned to create work for students at San Jose State University, SUNY Purchase, and The Juilliard School. Ryan is currently on faculty at SUNY Purchase and Peridance Center.

Céline Maillard (she/her/hers) 
Céline is a first generation Swiss, Angolan, and Portuguese performance artist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 2024, she graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, earning a BFA in Dance Performance. While at Purchase, Céline studied abroad at the Amsterdam University of the Arts in their Expanded Contemporary Dance program. She is currently a freelance artist based in Brooklyn, and performs with Hivewild and as a Guest Artist with 2nd Best Dance Company. She has performed works by Vim Vigor, Antonin Rioche, Hannah Garner, Amy Miller, Martha Graham, and Trisha Brown. Céline has attended additional dance training programs with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, Hofesh Shechter, and B12. She also works with Ballet Tech Across New York, a foundation that provides free dance enrichment classes to public elementary schools.

CM Carney (she/her/hers)
CM is an artist and designer whose work spans clothing, sculpture, and performance. Currently, her studio practice is focused mainly on costuming and creating ready-to-wear clothing under the label name Social Call. She is a graduate of SUNY Purchase College, presently living and working between Brooklyn, NY and her hometown in Montclair, NJ, with her unfriendly but lovable cat called 'chicken.'

Matt Morris (Lighting Designer )
Matt Morris is a New York City based lighting designer with varied lighting design experience across theater and dance, music, comedy, and other live events. He particularly enjoys working on new work with emerging artists and has an affinity for dance and movement.
Through his work at Triskelion Arts in Brooklyn he has collaborated on new pieces with several artists and companies, including the SHA Creative Outlet, 2nd Best Dance Company, and the Jamal Jackson Dance Company. His recent work includes designing for MoveNYC's Sweat Lab ar Chelsea Factory and for shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh.
@matehyo

Anna Wotring (Director of Production)
Anna Wotring is a community-minded dance artist, designer, and production stage manager, dedicated to the practice of collaborative leadership. As the Director of Production at Triskelion Arts, Wotring shapes programming that makes production design accessible to movement artists, whether they're starting to explore an idea or deep in research. Trisk serves as a home, allowing artists to materialize their production vision and find imaginative pathways around and through tangible possibility. Wotring holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the Five College Dance Department in Western Massachusetts. She has had the privilege of working with a wide range of dance artists and organizations, including Alvin Ailey Studios, Annie Heath, Attack Theater, Ballet Des Ameriques, BalletNext, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, the Dance Conservatory of Pittsburgh, Dance Place, H2O Contemporary Dance, Jennifer Nugent, Lauren Horn, Monica Bill Barnes & Company, New York Live Arts, the Pillow Project, Prayers of the People, RoseAnne Spradlin, Scapegoat Garden, slowdanger, Time Lapse Dance, and many others. Wotring is deeply grateful and honored to be working, imagining, and making magic with the Trisk team and community.