ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Kayla Farrish is a Black American Director merging dance-theater, filmmaking, narrative, and sound score. Her commissions include Limon Dance Company, Whim W’him, Ririe Woodbury, Armstrong Now!, Danspace, Little Island, Harlem Stage, American Dance Festival and beyond. She creates live works, films, site-specific/immersive pieces, and collaborations with musicians such as Esperanza Spalding, Trixie Whitley, Moor Mother, and Melanie Charles. Presenting spaces include Chelsea Factory, Danspace, Lincoln Center, Park Avenue Armory, Symphony Space, and National Sawdust, Joyce Theater, among receiving support from The Pocantico Center, The Watermill Center, Works & Process, Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, Baryshnikov Arts, La Mama Theater, and others.

She received the Sundance Uprise Grant for Emerging BIPOC Directors, Bessie Awards for December 8th and NYLA’s “Motherboard Suite”, New York Times Top 2021 Dance Performances “Roster” and “Breakout Star.” She is a recipient of the Harkness Promise Award for 2022. She premiered reimagined archival work for Limon at Joyce Theater (2024). She toured “Put Away the Fire, dear” supported by NEFA National Dance Project. She received Watermill Center’s Baroness Nina Von Maltzahn Fellowship and the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Choreographer Award (2023). She is a 2025 CUNY Dance Initiative Artist, NYFA/NYSCA Choreography Fellow, 2026 NY Support for Artists Grantee, and Danse Mirage Foundation Choreography commissioned artist.

Jamal Abrams
Jamal Abrams is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Baltimore, MD. They received their BFA in dance from The University of the Arts. Jamal has worked with Priorie Dance, Liana Conyers, Company SBB, and Sleep No More NYC. As a maker, they have received The Next Look Residency for the 2022/23 cohort supported by The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. They also have shown work at Baltimore Center Stage's inaugural Locally Grown Festival, as well as making their NYC solo debut at Harlem Stage for the E-moves Dance Series '23. They are currently working in preparation to receive their MFA from The University of Maryland, College Park ‘29

Marirosa Crawford
Marirosa Crawford is a Miami native and a New York based movement artist. She began her training at a local studio in Miami and went on to focus more extensively at New World School of the Arts. Crawford went on to study at SUNY Purchase where she received both her BFA in Dance and a BA in Literature. While at Purchase she worked with Doug Varone and Marcus Jarell Willis, and performed works by Martha Graham and José Limon. Shortly after graduating, she traveled to Montreal to attend Springboard Danse Montreal and had the opportunity to perform works by Johannes Weiland and UNA Productions. Marirosa moved to Los Angeles after graduating, choreographing and performing her own solo work titled “measuring undercurrents”. During her time there she toured internationally with L.A. Dance Project, Volta Collective and worked extensively with Marcella Lewis, Bret Easterling, Chris Emile, and Genna Moroni. She has recently moved back to New York to continue researching her artistry as a performer and movement artist and hopes to begin her career as a writer.

Kennedy Hill
Born in Greenville, North Carolina, Kennedy Hill graduated with a BFA in Dance Education from East Carolina University. Participating in summer programs including Debbie Allen Dance Academy, The Ailey School and Abraham.In.Motion, Kennedy has trained in a variety of dance styles that have influenced her artistic voice and movement language. As a freelance artist based in Brooklyn she has performed choreography by Ebony Williams at Lincoln Center, Alexis Blake on The Chelsea High Line and BAYE&ASA at the Museum of Modern Art.

Alexander MacKinnon
Alex MacKinnon is a drummer/composer from Piermont, NY. He has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, Webster Hall, and the 92nd Street Y. As a composer he has written music for choreographers including Kayla Farrish, Giada Matteini, Betsy Coker, Selina Chau, and more. As a drummer he has worked with groups such as Layerhythm, That Shuffle, Clay Haynes, The Fine Machines, and Randy Johnston. You can find his original music at Alexmakesmusic.bandcamp.com and thewhistleblowers.bandcamp.com as well as on all streaming services.

Kendall Ramirez
Kendall Ramirez is a Brooklyn-based performer, collaborator, and maker, originally from Charlotte, NC. They hold a BFA in contemporary dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. They have been recognized in Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch for 2025. Kendall is continually inspired by their past and ongoing performance collaborations with Kayla Farrish, Claudia-Lynn Rightmire, David Dorfman Dance, Paris Cullen, Annalee Traylor, Marielis Garcia, George Staib, Danielle Swatzie, Taryn Griggs, and Chris Yon. They locate their performance research through modes of; remembering, forgetting, lineage, queering, sincerity, and absurdity.

Kar’mel Antonyo Wade Small
Kar’mel Antonyo Wade Small is an Afro-Puerto Rican interdisciplinary artist from the South Bronx with a BFA in Dance Performance and Composition from SUNY Purchase. Kar’mel has toured and worked for A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham, Kizuna Dance, and is currently with Battery Dance. He has performed works by Kevin Wynn, Damani Pompey, Kayla Farrish, Roderick George, Martha Graham, Jock Soto, Sidra Bell, Merce Cunningham, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Jerome Robbins, Eleo Pomare, Faizah Grootens, and many more notable choreographers and collaborators. Kar’mel has been on set for HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness, TELFARTV, and UNIVISION. He is also featured in music videos such as KAYE's "Neon God" and Heesu’s “SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL”. In 2022, he was recognized as an Chez Bushwick Artist in Residency award recipient through the Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation. In 2025, Kar’mel received the Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) Award, supported by the Bronx Council on the Arts, for Choreography in Performing Arts. His most recent work, ROADMAPPIN’, was presented in the Bronx Museum in collaboration with Anthony C. Wyche III/SOUNDWAV3, Kennedy Hill, and poet T.J. McGowan/The Everyday Bite.

Junyla Silmon
Junyla Silmon is a New Jersey-based movement artist and gender-equity analyst originally from Canton, MS. She graduated from Montclair State University (’22), receiving her BFA in Dance Performance with a minor in business administration and certificate of entrepreneurship. Junyla has performed with the dance companies Freespace Dance, Accent Dance NYC, and Susan Marshall & Company. She was also a performer in the final years of Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More NYC and premiered in Alba Albanese’s immersive show, FAIRYLAND: ETHER, last November. Junyla has ongoing engagements with choreographers Stefanie Batten Bland and Kayla Farrish, and is currently touring the work “MAJOR” by Ogemdi Ude. Beyond her performance career, Junyla is a Senior Research Consultant and Team Training Lead with Dance Data Project, a nonprofit organization committed to advancing gender parity in the dance industry through data analysis. Junyla is passionate about cultivating safe dancing spaces for communication, learning, and healing.

Jessica Ray
Jessica Ray is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of movement, film, and visual art. Originally from Oklahoma City, she is a filmmaker and video editor specializing in the performing arts and education, Jessica has created work with institutions and artists such as Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, New York Live Arts, Kayla Hamilton, Zavé Martohardjono, J. Bouey, Marie Casimir, and Celia Bambara. She currently serves as Video Producer and Editor at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where she develops compelling content across Education, Family Programming, and Marketing. Her choreographic project, Jkaris Dance, has been presented at Dixon Place, Triskelion Arts, and Judson Church, while her dance films have screened in the states and internationally. As a performer, she has worked with a range of choreographers and continues today with her own movement practice.
Through all facets of her practice, Jessica is committed to exploring the possibilities of movement and media, creating work that bridges perspectives and reimagines the ways performance can live on screen and stage.

Alexander Diaz
Alexander Diaz (he/they) is an independent artist born and raised in The Bronx. Diaz is a graduate of the University of The Arts in Philadelphia and the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program. Alexander has had the pleasure of working with nathantrice/RITUALS, Sidra Bell, Christal Brown’s (INSPIRIT (https://christalbrown.com/)), Fredrick Earl Mosley (Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance (http://emiadance.org/)), Sara Shelton Mann, and Maurya Kerr (tinypistol (http://www.tinypistol.com/home/)). In 2021 Alexander was an artist in residence with PEPATIÁN (https://www.pepatian.org/)’s Dancing Futures: Artist & Mentor Collaborative Residency (https://www.pepatian.org/projects/dancing-futures-artist-mentor-collaborative-residency), with mentor Maurya Kerr. Diaz was awarded a BRIO award (Bronx Recognizes Its Own Award) in 2022 and named one of the recipients of the 2023 Bronx Dance Fund from the Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA). As a marketing professional, Alexander has spearheaded successful marketing campaigns for organizations such as Sidra Bell Dance New York (https://www.sidrabelldanceny.org/), Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance (http://emiadance.org/), and GALLIM (http://gallim.org/), driving engagement and growth for each organization. Alexander is currently the Marketing Manager for  A.I.M by Kyle Abraham (http://aimbykyleabraham.org/).

Connor Sale | Lighting Design is a New York based Lighting Designer and the Resident Lighting Designer at Triskelion Arts in Brooklyn. Recent collaborations include projects with Dominica Greene, Julia Antinozzi, Nicole von Arx, Stuart B Meyers, Erick Montes, Hilary Brown-Istrefi, Zoe Rabinowitz, Nocturnal Medicine, among many others. His work has been seen throughout New York and Chicago, including at: Triskelion Arts, La MaMa, PAGEANT, Gibney Dance, Performance Space New York, The Brick, HERE Arts, SMUSH Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Victory Gardens, Edge Theatre, The Chopin, among others.

He’s interested in using the temporary nature of light to make people more active in space.

He tours internationally with Akram Khan's Gigenis and the production of Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring that Sadler's Wells and École des Sables are producing. Previously, he was the Lighting Design Intern on the 2019 Broadway transfer of The Sound Inside; a Venue Technician at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival; and a Production Intern in 2018 at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.