Ballet Tech Kid's Dance Welcomes Guest Choreographers For 6/8-11

Eliot Feld remains committed to creating a repertory of dances created especially for young dancers. For the June 8-11 season of Kids Dance, Feld will premiere works by Laura Careless, and a second new work by a trio of young choreographers who are graduates or seniors at Juilliard: Conner Bormann, Riley O'Flynn, Stephanie Terasaki.

TBA (new ballet by Laura Careless)

Laura Careless is a UK-born, New York-based performing artist specializing in storytelling through dance and movement. After graduating from The Royal Ballet School; the Ecole-Atelier of Maurice Bejart; and The Juilliard School Dance Division, she became a founding performer of Company XIV, a NY-based, Drama Desk-nominated dance theater company. Her decade of performance with XIV has established her as "A marvelously sensual dramatic dancer" (New York Times) who is "Consistently one of the most interesting and dramatically detailed dancers on New York's stages" (Broadway World). In February 2017, she will perform the choreography of XIV Artistic Director Austin McCormick for Rusalka at The Metropolitan Opera.

Laura is the founder of Alchemy For Nomads, a company that advocates for re-connection with our original physical instincts through performances, workshops and online resources. Her solo works, dedicated to telling ancient, unfamiliar stories in atmospheric and often rural spaces, tour nomadically and can be viewed on her website, lauracareless.com. This coming year, her work will be supported by residency and performance grants from the Turkey Land Cove Foundation and The Church, Cooperstown. Her physical storytelling workshop, PRIMA MATERIA, launched in New York City in 2016 and will repeat this winter accompanied by a related series of downloadable movement meditations.

A passionate educator, Laura has been on faculty at Eliot Feld's Ballet Tech, the New York Public School for Dance, since 2008, and the Sitka Fine Arts Camp (recipient of the NEA Creative Placemaking Grant) since 2012. Her commissioned choreography for the students of Ballet Tech will premiere at The Joyce Theatre, NYC in June 2017. She has coached professional and pre-professional performers at such prestigious institutions as Canadian Opera Company, The Park Avenue Armory, The Donmar Warehouse (UK), Theater For A New Audience, The Juilliard School and Circus Juventas. In July 2017 she will lead the dance faculty at Juilliard's Summer Performing Arts in Geneva, Switzerland.

When Laura is not indulging her nomadic tendencies, she lives in the woods outside Rhinebeck, NY with her husband, conductor Ryan McAdams, and Sophie the cat.

It's The Effort That Counts

Conner Bormann was born and raised in New Jersey, where he trained at the New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble and received the New Jersey Governor's Award in the Arts. Conner is in his final year at The Juilliard School, where he has performed works by José Limón, Paul Taylor, Loni Landon, Matthew Neenan, Zvi Gotheiner, and Takehiro Ueyama. Conner has had the opportunity to perform at the Guggenheim Museum presenting new work by Loni Landon, Zvi Gotheiner, and Matthew Neenan. Conner joined GroundWorks DanceTheatre in Cleveland, Ohio, as a guest artist for their summer 2016 performances.

Riley O'Flynn is a native of San Francisco. He is a 2013 Dance Winner of the Beach Blanket Babylon Scholarship for the Arts and a 2014 National YoungArts Winner in Dance. Riley is currently in his fourth year in Juilliard's Dance Division. While at Juilliard, he has had the privilege of performing works by Loni Landon, Zvi Gotheiner, Matthew Neenan, Martha Graham and Ji?í Kylián. He is a recipient of the 2016 Princess Grace Award.

Stephanie Terasaki was born and raised in southern California. She attended the Orange County School of the Arts and received her BFA in 2016 from The Juilliard School. During her time at Juilliard she had the opportunity to perform works by Kyle Abraham, Martha Graham, Eliot Feld, Camille Grown, Brian Brooks, Kate Weare, Paul Taylor, Loni Landon, and Bobbi Jene Smith. She has also worked with GroundWorks Dance Theater for their summer and fall season and performed works by Robyn Mineko Williams, Adam Barruch, Beth Corning, and David Shimotakahara.

(Photo Credit: Ballet Tech Facebook)