Spring Dance

Department of Theatre and Dance 

Daniel Gurskis, Dean, College of the Arts

Kathleen Kelley, Chair, Department of Theatre and Dance 

Artistic and Cast Biographies 

Christianne Bakewell (Costume Design) is delighted to be working with Montclair State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance for the first time this spring. She is a multifaceted costume professional who also works as an Assistant Costume Designer, Costume Department Coordinator, and Craftsperson. Favorite design credits include Class, a short film with GooseMango Productions, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas at GREAT Theatre, and her costume work with 52nd Street Project. Christianne was most recently the Assistant Costume Designer for the Off-Broadway production of, Are the Bennet Girls OK? at the West End Theatre.

Ronald K. Brown (Choreographer) raised in Brooklyn, NY, founded EVIDENCE / A Dance Company in 1985 and is the recent recipient of the Martha Hill Mid-Career Achievement Award (2024), American Dance Guild Lifetime Achievement Award (2024) and a Dance Teacher Award of Distinction (2024). Other awards include the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award (2020), as well as a Dance Magazine Award (2018) and Samuel H. Scripps/ADF Award (2018). Brown has also received an AUDELCO Award for his choreography in Regina Taylor’s award-winning play Crowns, two Black Theater Alliance Awards, and a Fred & Adele Astaire Award for Outstanding Choreography in the Tony Award-winning Broadway and national touring production of The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, adapted by Suzan Lori Parks.

Brown has set works on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Jeune Ballet d’Afrique Noire, Ko-Thi Dance Company, Philadanco, Muntu Dance Theater of Chicago, Ballet Hispánico, TU Dance, and Malpaso Dance Company.

He has collaborated with such artists as composer/designer Omotayo Wunmi Olaiya, the late writer Craig G. Harris, director Ernie McClintock’s Jazz Actors Theater, choreographers Patricia Hoffbauer and Rokiya Kone, and composers Jason Moran, Arturo O’Farrill, Meshell Ndegeocello, Robert Een, Oliver Lake, Bernadette Speech, David Simons, and Don Meissner. He has performed with Mary Anthony Dance Theater, Jennifer Muller/The Works, as well as other choreographers and artists.

Brown was named Def Dance Jam Workshop 2000 Mentor of the Year and has received the Doris Duke Artist Award, NYC City Center Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Choreographers Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, United States Artists Fellowship, a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, and The Ailey Apex Award.

Ronald K. Brown is Co-Artistic Director of The Billie Holiday Theatre’s Youth Arts Academy, and a member of Stage Directors & Choreographers Society.

Arcell Cabuag (Assistant to Ron K. Brown) is a first-generation Filipino-American from San Jose, CA. He moved to New York City to attend the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, where he was introduced to Ronald K. Brown. Soon after, he joined EVIDENCE, A Dance Company as its first apprentice, became a company member one year later, and has served as its Associate Artistic Director since 2004.

Arcell has danced with Camille A. Brown, and Mekeda Thomas, and in Rock the House for Paramount Pictures, The Shoji Tabuchi Show (Branson, MO), the Richard Rodgers Centennial Production of The King and I, and dance festivals worldwide.  His TV Credits include Law & Order: SVU’s ¨Choreographed,¨ and a Codorniu Cava commercial featuring PILOBOLUS for Spanish television. He has assisted Mr. Brown in creating repertory on Philadanco Dance Company; MUNTU Drum and Dance Company; TU Dance; Ballet Hispánico; Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Cuba’s Malpaso Dance Company and served as associate choreographer for the Tony Award winning Broadway and national touring productions of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.

Mr. Cabuag is proud to serve the dance community as a long standing educator and advocate nationally and abroad. Education, advocacy, and teaching EVIDENCE repertory work include: Professor of Dance at Long Island University (Brooklyn Campus); Co-Artistic Director of the Restoration Dance Youth Ensemble; Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York University; University of Massachusetts; Boston Arts Academy, The Ailey Fordham BFA and Certificate Programs;Marymount Manhattan College, and Boston Conservatory.  Arcell is a 2004 New York Dance and Performance ¨Bessie¨ Award winner for his performance and work with EVIDENCE, and received the Dance Teacher Award of Distinction alongside Ronald K. Brown in 2024.

Joliana Canaan (Stager, OOF)  is originally from Kansas City, Missouri where she began her training at Heart of America Dance Centre. Joliana graduated from the Joffrey Ballet School Jazz & Contemporary Program in 2025. During her time at Joffrey she was a company member with Joffrey Concert Group led by Bradley Shelver. While with the Joffrey Concert group and Joffrey trainee program, she had the opportunity to perform works by Bradley Shelver, Ken Ossola, Thang Dao, Christopher Bloom, Adam Barruch, Tsai Hsi Hung, Vernard J. Gilmore, Aspen Waddell, and Eric Trope. Joliana is currently a company member with Visions Contemporary Ballet under the direction of Ranardo Domeico Grays.

Nick Kolin’s (Lighting Design) work includes collaborations with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Trisha Brown Dance Company, New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute, English National Ballet, Daniil Simpkin’s Intensio, Wendy Whelan’s Restless Creature, Dance Heginbotham, DanceBrazil, Cincinnati Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, NY City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, and Lincoln Center Festival among many others. Nick is also Lighting Director and resident lighting designer for the Philadelphia Ballet, with designs for recent new works by Angel Corella, Matthew Neenan, and Juliano Nunes. Nick is also resident lighting designer for Philadanco!, with designs for over twenty works in the company’s repertory.  Nick is an Assistant Professor and Head of Lighting in the Department of Theatre and Dance, Montclair State University with an MFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and is a proud member of USA829. www.nickkolin.com

Cameron McKinney (Choreographer) With 20 years of Japanese language study, Cameron McKinney founded Kizuna Dance to create dance works that connect the American and Japanese cultures. He has received fellowships from the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, The School at Jacob’s Pillow, Princeton University, the Alvin Ailey New Directions Lab, and the Asian Cultural Council. He has presented work and taught in over 20 states and in Mexico, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Japan, France, Ireland, and the UK. In 2020, Cameron performed his original choreography alongside Sayo Homma (Dance Barbizon) in Tokyo, Japan in the U.S. Ambassador's Residence. He has received over 30 commissions from institutions across the U.S. and abroad. He currently teaches on faculty at Peridance Center and NYU Tisch. His 2026 teachings include workshops/commissions for Circuit-Est Centre Chorégraphique (Montreal),

Vivo Center (Italy), and b12 (Germany). 

Elizabeth McPherson (Stager, Helen Tamiris’ The Skaters’ Ballet) is a Professor, Dance Program Head and MFA Dance coordinator at Montclair State University. She is the author of The Contributions of Martha Hill to American Dance and Dance Education, co-author of Broadway, Balanchine, and Beyond: A Memoir, and editor of The Bennington School of the Dance: A History in Writings and Interviews. Her newest book Milestones in Dance in the USA received the Ruth Lovell Murray book award. Elizabeth’s current research is centered on the dancer/choreographer Helen Tamiris with the expected publication of a biography in 2029. As an additional area of interest, Elizabeth has staged numerous works from Labanotation such as Antony Tudor’s Continuo and Donald McKayle’s Games and is thrilled to be staging the Tamiris ballet from the film of Up in Central Park. She earned her BFA in Dance from Juilliard, MA in Dance Research and Reconstruction from The City College of NY, and PhD in Dance Education from NYU. 

Omar Román de Jesús (Choreographer) is a queer Puertorriqueño choreographer and the director of the NYC-based dance company BOCA TUYA. He is the inaugural Baryshnikov Arts Center Fellow at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, a 2025 Works & Process Recipient, and a former Artist in Residence with 92NY. Omar is also a 2023 Dance Magazine Harkness Promise Awardee and was recently awarded the Alan M. Kriegsman Residency at Dance Place and the Kennedy Center. His accolades include the 2022 Princess Grace Award in Choreography, the 2022 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography, the 2022 Palm Desert Choreography Festival Grand Prize, and the 2020 Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow.

He has created works for over 20 companies and pre-professional programs, including The Paul Taylor Dance Company, Charlotte Ballet, The Juilliard School, Ballet Hispánico, BalletCollective, St. Louis Dance Theater, Joffrey Ballet Concert Group, Whim W’Him, Parsons Dance, The Ailey School, and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. His Papagayos, commissioned by Ballet Hispánico, premiered at New York City Center and later appeared at the American Dance Festival in North Carolina. Most recently, Like Those Playground Kids at Midnight was presented in celebration of the 92NY 150th anniversary.

Omar’s stage and screen works have been presented internationally, earning recognition through the Joffrey Academy’s Winning Works, Whim W’Him’s Choreographic Shindig, The Dance Gallery Festival, Reverb Dance Festival, and the International Dance Festival of Puerto Rico, where he received the Ambassador of Dance Medal. His film Los Perros del Barrio Colosal has reached audiences in over 20 countries and won Best of Screen Dance International, as well as Best Choreography and Best Narrative at the ReThink Dance Film Festival. Over the past five years, he has toured internationally to Colombia, Panama, and the Canary Islands, and presented work across the U.S. in New York, Georgia, Washington, Pennsylvania, and California. Omar is fond of education and has experience teaching workshops and master classes all over the world for professional dancers, students with special needs, people with physical disabilities, and marginalized communities.

Bradley Shelver (Choreographer) received his training at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg and The Ailey School in New York. A prolific leader in the dance community, he currently serves as the Artistic Director of the Joffrey Concert Group, Joffrey Jazz and Contemporary Trainee Track, and the Joffrey Pre-Professional Contemporary Summer Program and the Joffrey Contemporary Ballet Winter program . He currently sits on the Artistic Advisory Board of the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. 

Now in his 17th season as a principal dancer with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Mr. Shelver has enjoyed an illustrious performing career. He has danced with Ailey II, Elisa Monte Dance, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Hispánico, The Francesca Harper Project, and the Limón Dance Company. His international credits include Phoenix Dance Theater (UK) and projects with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co., Lar Lubovitch Dance, The Universal Ballet, Radio City Music Hall, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. Between 2013 and 2016, he also served as the Artistic Director of the STEPS Repertory Ensemble and the Production Director for Steps on Broadway, following his six-year tenure as co-producer and curator for the REVERBdance Festival.

As a choreographer, Mr. Shelver has created works for an array of prestigious companies and institutions, including vildwerk, Contemporary West Dance Theater,  Richmond Ballet, Ailey II, Ballet Austin, Graham 2, the St Louis Dance Theater, Royal Danish and Royal Swedish Ballet Schools, Boston Conservatory, The Ailey School, Cedar Lake 2 and The Cape Town Dance Company, His teaching expertise is recognized worldwide; he has served as a company teacher for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Matthew Bourne’s Adventures in Motion Pictures, and The Lion King on Broadway.

Mr. Shelver has served on the faculty of the ABT/JKO School, The Ailey School, and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, and is currently an Adjunct Professor at Montclair State University. He is a certified teacher of the ABT® National Training Curriculum and an international adjudicator for competitions such as the Valentina Kozlova International Ballet Competition and Global Dance Open. A former contributing writer for Dance Spirit magazine, he is the author of the book Performance Through the Dance Technique of Lester Horton, which is available worldwide.

Hélène Simoneau (Choreographer) is a Guggenheim Fellow and a New York City Center Choreography Fellow. Most recently, she was awarded a Pillow Lab residency at Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, MA and a residency at Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. She was also a resident artist at Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYU/Tisch, NCCAkron, and a fellow of The NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts, Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab, the Bogliasco Foundation, and the Swiss International Coaching Project for Choreographers (SiWiC) in Zurich. Simoneau was awarded first place for Choreography at the 13th Internationales Solo-Tanz-Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, for her solo “the gentleness was in her hands.” Her choreography has been commissioned by Oregon Ballet Theatre, The Juilliard School, Charlotte Ballet, PARA.MAR Dance Theatre, Vitacca Ballet, The Ailey School, BalletX, and the American Dance Festival. Hélène is originally from Luceville, a small village near Rimouski in Eastern Québec.

Kami Smith (Costume Design) is a junior at Montclair State University. She is majoring in Theatre: Design, Technology, And Management with a concentration in Costumes. She has worked as an Assistant Costume Designer on Spring Dance (2025) and Marie Antoinette (2024). As well as Assistant Hair & Makeup Designer on Natasha Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (2025), Oklahoma! (2025), Pride & Prejudice (2024), and Marie Antoinette (2024) at Montclair. This is her first time Costume Designing for a production. She is very excited and grateful to be working on this production with a wonderful team.

Peter Papangelopoulos (Lighting Design) (he/him) is a BFA Design, Technology & Management Junior at Montclair State University with a concentration in Lighting & Sound design.  At Montclair, he has sound designed the production of Stupid F*cking Bird, worked as an assistant lighting designer on Sophisticated Ladies and Pride And Prejudice. Outside of Montclair, he has also worked off-broadway on Winesday: Wine Tasting Musical and assistant sound designing at Argyle Theater’s Music Man and resident technical supervisor at Broadway Bound Theater Festival. 

Helen Tamiris (Choreographer): Helen Tamiris (1902-1966) had an extensive career, from dancing with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet to nightclubs to concert dance to Broadway. She was one of the early innovators in modern dance, collaborating with her contemporaries Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Chalres Weidman on the collective Dance Repertory Theatre 1930-31. From 1935-1939, she was a lead choreographer for the WPA’s Federal Dance Project, the first instance of government support for Dance in the USA. In 1945, she began choreographing for Broadway musicals. These include Up in Central Park, Annie Get Your Gun, a revival of Showboat, and Touch and Go for which her choreography won a Tony award. 

Tweetboogie (Choreographer) Always representing The South Bronx, TweetBoogie is devoted to the street styles of hip-hop. Her passion led her to work with top artists like Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Shakira, Kanye West, Mary J Blige and the iconic Miss Janet Jackson herself. Tweetie was also the host of MTV's "Dances From Tha Hood" with Sway Calloway as her executive producer. More of her biggest clients were teaching Gail and Oprah some of the latest hip-hop moves as a guest choreographer on The OPRAH Show, LIVE with Kelly & Mark and New York Living on PIX11 News with Marysol & Alex. Tweetie has choreographed for BET’s 50th Hip Hop Anniversary, 50 Cent's “Green Light Gang” World Tour 22’, the Queen of R&B Mary J. Blige on her “Good Morning Gorgeous” and “For My Fans Tour”. TweetBoogie’s theater work at Harlem Stage, The Jamaican Dance Festival, Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture, Montclair State University and The Ailey Extension has been humbly acknowledged to be nominated for a Bessie Award for Choreographer/Creator in 2025. Her work continues to push the envelope as it passionately speaks for itself.  

Alexandra Valentino (Production Stage Manager) is a junior at Montclair State University. She is majoring in Theater Design, Technology, and Management with a concentration in Stage Management. She is very excited to be a part of Spring Dance (2026) as Production Stage Manager. She has worked on many other productions at Montclair as an both Production and Assistant Stage Manager, including Fall Dance (2025), Fall Dance (2023), Marie Antoinette, and Stupid F*cking Bird. She is very excited to have been a part of this production and has loved collaborating with this amazing production team!

Sierra Wade (Lighting Design) is a sophomore at Montclair State University. She is a Lighting concentration in Theater Design, Technology, and Management. Sierra is very glad to be Asst. Lighting Designer on Spring Dance ‘26. She has participated in previous productions at Montclair State in a handful of positions. This includes, Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (HE), Mad Forest (ALD), Senior Dance ‘25 (Co-LD), Creative Collaboration ‘25 (Co-LD), Oklahoma! (AHE), Fall Dance ‘24 (ALD). She was also Board Op & Programmer for Spring Dance ‘25 and Spot Op for Jesus Christ Superstar. Sierra is very grateful for the opportunity to grow her artistry, and work with such an amazing array of people on this production!

Azalea Fairley (Costume Design) is a New Orleans born NYC based costume designer and textile artist who has worked on and off Broadway as well as regionally. Selected credits include: Broadway: Associate designer A Strange Loop; Assistant Designer Hamilton, Once Upon a Mattress. Off-Broadway World Premiers: Shadow/Land (The Public); Chiaroscuro (The Flea Theater); TJ Loves Sally 4Ever (Jack Theater); What Lies Beneath (On Site Opera NYC). Regional: After Midnight (Paper Mill Playhouse); King James, Clyde’s (George st Playhouse NJ); Fabulations (Chautauqua Theater Company); Eternal Life Pt1 (Wilma Theater, PA); Detroit ’67, Schoolgirls (TheaterSquared AR), By the Way Meet Vera Stark (Colorado Fine Arts Ctr), Film: “White Meat”; “Murderer”; and “The Rainbow Experiment.” She’s received nominations for Outstanding Costume Design for the Audelco Awards, the Barrymore Awards, and The Henry Awards. Member USA 829 Azalea-Fairley.com