Metropolitan Ballet is so excited to have SEVEN incredible artists teach at our 2024 Contemporary Intensive! The program runs for two weeks, from August 5th-16th. Please visit our Summer Intensive page to learn more and to register!
MALEEK WASHINGTON (Contemporary Fusion) is a performer, choreographer, and teaching artist. Maleek began his dance training at Harlem School of the Arts and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, and attended the Boston Conservatory on a full scholarship before beginning his professional career with CityDance Ensemble. Maleek collaborated with McArthur Genius awardee Kyle Abraham and his company Abraham.In.Motion for four seasons before becoming the first african-american male to perform in the critically acclaimed immersive show Punch Drunk’s Sleep No More. Maleek has choreographed for rap legend Nas and performed for musical sensations such as Sia, Phish, Rihanna and ASAP Rocky.
Maleek was part of NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live and performed with Camille A. Brown in the TED talk conference in Vancouver. Maleek has been a member of Camille A. Brown and Dancers for 5 seasons having the opportunity to be assistant choreographer on The Metropolitan Opera’s grammy-winning “Porgy and Bess” and “Fire Shut Up in My Bones”, Spike Lee’s Mont Blanc commercial, and Camille’s Alvin Ailey piece entitled City of Rain. Maleek’s has performed at The White House, John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, Jacob’s Pillow, Joyce Theater, and Apollo Theater. Maleek is proud to have been commissioned by renowned presenting organizations, such as New York Live Arts/Fresh Tracks program, Gibney, Movement Research at Judson Church, Pepatian/Baad!, and internationally in Australia, Jordan, Mexico, and Sweden. Maleek is a sought after international teaching artist at Broadway Dance Center, Move(NYC), Joffrey Ballet School, LaGuardia High School, Brent Street in Australia, UArts and Bard University. Maleek is honored to be a 2022 Princess Grace Awardee in Choreography, 2023 Bessie nominee as an emerging choreographer.
ANNE SOUDER (Graham Technique) joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2015 and performs lead roles in Appalachian Spring, Cave of the Heart, Diversion of Angels, Dark Meadow Suite, Chronicle, Ekstasis, Immediate Tragedy, and Hérodiade. She has performed repertoire in the Company’s new and commissioned works by Jamar Roberts, Agnes de Mille, Baye & Asa, Annie Rigney, Hofesh Shechter, Sonya Tayeh, Andrea Miller, Maxine Doyle, Bobbi Jean Smith, Lucinda Childs, Lar Lubovitch, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and Marie Chouinard. Souder began her training in Tennessee and continued on to earn her degree at the Ailey/Fordham BFA program. Upon graduation, she joined Graham 2 and was awarded a Dizzy Feet Foundation scholarship. Anne is a proud member of AGMA and has been the union rep for a total of 5 years and counting.
TYLER SCHNESE (Partnering, Repertoire) is from Appleton, WI where he studied with Jeanette Makaroff before receiving a BFA from SUNY Purchase. Tyler was a soloist with the Hessisches Staatsballet in Wiesbaden/Darmstadt and Gibney Dance Company in New York City. He has performed works by Alexander Ekman, Crystal Pite, George Balanchine, Nicolo Fonte, Bill T. Jones, Richard Siegal and Marcos Morau (La Veronal) among many others. He received a nomination for the German Stage Prize (Der Faust) in 2016 for his interpretation of the title role in Tim Plegge’s Kaspar Hauser. In addition to teaching at various institutions in the US and abroad, Tyler continues to work with Gibney as a Lead Actionist facilitating movement workshops with survivors of trauma. As a choreographer, movement director, and dancer he has worked on short films and music videos for Steve Aoki, Sting, Damani Pompey, Naima Ramos-Chapman, and Emma Sophia Caymares. Tyler won Repertory Dance Theatre’s Regalia choreography competition and received a commission for their 22-23 season. Since 2022, Tyler has served as the Assistant Director of the Utah Ballet Summer Intensive. Tyler holds an MFA in Ballet and a Certificate in Gender Studies. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Ballet at Utah Valley University and an Associate Instructor in Gender Studies at the University of Utah.
NICOLE VON ARX (Contemporary) is a Swiss & British performer and choreographer based in Brooklyn, New York. She is actively working in Canada, the USA, and Switzerland. She is a 2023 NYSCA grant recipient, 2022 Dance Initiative artist in residence, 2022 Leimay Incubator, 2020 Lauréate of a Gland Culture Grant, a 2020 Jacob’s Pillow Choreography Fellow, and 2018 STUFFED artists in residence at Judson Memorial Church. Nicole most recently choreographed the opera Orphée+ at the Edmonton Opera. She’s been commissioned to create original works for Der Freischütz at Wolf Trap Opera, Stanford Live, Whim W’Him, LINK Choreography Festival, and the Luminato Festival. She creates under the name NVA & Guests. Her performance career led her to become a soloist at the Royal Opera House and Chicago Lyric Opera while dancing for Jasmin Vardimon. She’s worked for Carte Blanche - The Norwegian National Company for Contemporary Dance, Bryan Arias, The Metropolitan Opera, Company XIV, Loni Landon, and Romeo Castellucci.
DAMANI POMPEY (Contemporary Devices) is a Caribbean-American independent interdisciplinary artist whose work emphasizes collaboration, world-building and choreographic visualizations. Inspired to alchemize movement practice through intentional narrative and spatial organization, his work roots itself in mind-body-spirit autonomy. His work seeks to expand dance and movement incubation through Black Future and radical community/ possibility. He is a director, filmmaker, choreographer, educator, lighting designer, writer and movement/ visual artist. He is the Director of Dance on HBO’s Peabody Award-winning show, Random Acts of Flyness and is also the Movement Director for contemporary fashion’s Telfar.TV of Telfar Global. Pompey currently teaches the Choreography course for the prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School’s Dance Department. Recent credits include the historic Judson Memorial Church, MoMA PS1, Whitney Biennial, BET’s Queen Collective, and Denver Quarterly Magazine.
Pompey attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Dance, graduating with The Stefanie Silverman Award. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance as an Adopt-a-Dancer in 2012, minoring in Arts Management. Pompey has performed repertory by Paul Taylor, Yvonne Rainer, Kanji Segawa, Crystal Pite, Pedro Ruiz, Nathan Trice, Ronald K. Brown, Colleen Thomas, Pat Catterson and Sarah Mettin amongst others. He has been commissioned for work at The Metropolitan Ballet Company (Philadelphia), The Harlem Stage Gatehouse, MoveNYC at Gibney Dance, Montclair High School (New Jersey), Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, Brooklyn High School of the Arts and was also commissioned to present an evening length work for Dab Dance Company (Shanghai, China) in September 2014. He has also presented work at The American Dance Guild (2014).
COURTNEY LOPES (Limon Technique) is originally from Bermuda and attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts for her high school education. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.F.A. in dance from SUNY Purchase in 2012 and studied in Taiwan at the Taipei National University of the Arts. As a student, she performed works by Paul Taylor, Jessica Lang, Lar Lubovitch, and Huang Yi of Cloud Gate Dance Theater. In addition to performing with Dance Heginbotham for over nine years, she has worked as a freelance artist with Megan Williams, Sameena Mitta, Kathryn Alter, Sue Bernhard, and Robert Mark Burke. As an educator and répétiteur, she has worked with the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, Ballet Tech, 92Y Harkness Dance Center, Dance for PD®, and the José Limón Institute. She is currently a company member with Mark Morris Dance Group.
DANIEL MAYO (Floorwork, Modern) is originally from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He received his BFA in Dance in 2007 from The Juilliard School. Mr. Mayo danced with Philadelphia based company BalletX, from 2014 until his retirement in August 2018. As a member of BalletX, he performed extensively throughout the United States and was featured in numerous creations including works by choreographers Matthew Neenan, Jorma Elo, Nicolo Fonte, and Trey McIntyre. Prior to joining BalletX, Mr. Mayo was a member of the Montreal based company RUBBERBANDance Group under the direction of Victor Quijada. During his 3 years with RUBBERBANDance Group, he toured throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, and participated in multiple film projects, most notably for Bravo!FACT. From 2007-2010, he was a company dancer with Atlanta Ballet under the direction of John McFall, where he performed many classical roles as well as contemporary works. He has also worked professionally as a guest artist with The Atlanta Opera, Dance Grand Moultrie, and Bennyroyce Dance. In addition to performing, Mr. Mayo was on faculty at Western Wyoming Community College, and currently serves as a guest teacher and choreographer throughout the United States.
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