ARTISTIC CONSULTANTS
Our Team
Our Artistic Consultants are Springboard artists who have contributed to our programming through the many iterations of their flourishing careers as movers, makers, and facilitators.
ARTISTIC CONSULTANTS
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KYLE ABRAHAM (Founder and Artistic Director, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham) He/Him/His: has been profiled in Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue & Vogue UK, W Magazine, among many others, and is the proud recipient of a National Dance Critics Award for Choreography (2024 – Are You in Your Feelings / Alvin Ailey Dance Theater); Dance Magazine Award (2022); and The MacArthur Fellowship (2013). In addition to performing and developing new works for his company, Abraham has been commissioned by several renowned companies, including American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, and The Royal Ballet. In 2024, Abraham premiered three celebrated new works, 'Cassette Vol. 1' in Hamburg, Germany; 'Mercurial Son' for American Ballet Theater, and most recently, 'Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful' for The Park Avenue Armory -- The New Yorker called “An extraordinary dance memoir."
Civic Light Opera Academy and the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He continued his dance studies in New York, receiving a BFA from SUNY Purchase, an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Washington Jefferson College. He has served as a visiting professor in residence at UCLA’s World Arts Cultures in Dance program from 2016 to 2021. And in 2021, he was named the Claude and Alfred Mann Endowed Professorship in Dance at The University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Abraham currently sits on the advisory board for Dance Magazine and the artist advisory board for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In 2020, he was selected to be Dance Magazine’s first-ever Guest Editor.
For more information visit, aimbykyleabraham.org/
Photo by Tatiana Wills
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Brooklyn-born dancer-choreographer, educator, and artist organizer, Alanna Morris began their dance career as a company member with TU Dance (St Paul, Minnesota) under artistic directors Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands. From 2007-2017 they were featured in works by Kyle Abraham, Gioconda Barbuto, Camille A. Brown, Ronald K. Brown, Greggory Dolbashian, Katrin Hall, Francesca Harper, Dwight Rhoden, and Uri Sands. In 2020 they served as the company's Artistic Associate, offering administrative and artistic guidance to the company. For over 10 years Alanna spearheaded youth dance education at TU Dance, developing the current curriculum for the youth dance program for ages 5-9 years old.
In 2017 Alanna left TU Dance to further develop her creative voice. In 2018 they were named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch!" In 2019, Minneapolis City Pages’ Artist of the Year and Best Choreographer for their solo, “Yam, Potatoe an Fish!” The project also made Minneapolis’ Star Tribune’s Best of Dance in 2018. Alanna is the recipient of fellowships from The McKnight Foundation in Dance (2015), Choreography (2021) and Springboard Danse Montréal (2022). In 2022, Alanna Morris’ Black Light a re:Search performance was named Best of 2022 by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
For more information visit, https://iamartss.com/bio
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PETER CHU (he/him) is a movement artist whose versatile roles encompass director, choreographer, stager, performer, educator, and mentor. Driven by a deep curiosity and a passion for learning, he generously shares his experiences and insights with others. Chu's love for the arts fuels his vivid imagination and creative expression.
Born in the Bronx and raised in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Peter’s interest in Traditional Chinese Medicine deepened his understanding of his Chinese identity and influenced his artistic and individual values. This healing approach informs his creative process and shapes the movement experiences he cultivates.
Peter began his journey as a competitive gymnast and further developed his artistry at Dussich Dance Studio. As a BFA student at The Juilliard School, he honed his technical skills and embarked on a path in choreography, earning the Hector Zaraspe Prize for Choreography upon graduation.
With over two decades of experience in both concert and commercial dance, Chu has performed with esteemed companies such as Ballet Jazz de Montreal, Crystal Pite's Kidd Pivot, EZdanza, Aszure Barton and Artists, and Celine Dion's A New Day. His choreography has been featured in numerous organizations, including Ballet Augsburg, Backhaus Dance, Charlotte Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Cirque du Soleil, DART Dance Company, Gibney Dance Company, Giordano Dance Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Kansas City Ballet, MØN festival,and the Paul Taylor Dance Company. In 2008, he founded the project-based company chuthis., where he explores innovative lighting and sound alongside live contemporary movement, delving into the depths of his identity and artistry as a director, choreographer, and educator.
Chu's accolades include the 2010 A.C.E. Capezio Award and recognition as the 2008 Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival choreographer. In 2018, he was honoured with the Harvard Blogett Award for Distinguished Artist for his impactful creative work at the Theater, Dance, and Media Department at Harvard University, where he served as a guest faculty member for three years. He has also been the Rehearsal Director for Nederlands Dans Theater 2 and served as Guest Rehearsal Director for NDT1.
Currently based in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Peter travels frequently for freelance choreographic commissions and teaching opportunities. He is honoured to be a Choreographic Mentor for one of the Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellows and the Upsurge Dance Festival. This past summer, chuthis. enjoyed a residency at Orsolina 28, where they premiered a new work and chuthis. ended dancing a mini tour to Germany and the Netherlands featuring a duet evening called SHIFT. chuthis. concluded the summer with a residency at Perry Mansfield in Steamboat Springs, CO.
As the director of chuthis. Perspectives and co-director with Jess Hendricks of Creating WAVES, Chu continues to push the physical boundaries of dance, earning respect as a sought-after artist in the industry.
For more information visit, peterchuthis.net
Photo by Levi Walker
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SHAMEL PITTS (Brooklyn, NY), a 2024 MacArthur Fellow & 2024 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, is a performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, director, and teacher. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Pitts began his dance training at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and, simultaneously, at The Ailey School. He is a first prize winner in The National Arts Competition from YoungArts. Pitts went on to receive his BFA in dance from The Juilliard School and was awarded the Martha Hill Award for excellence in dance. He began his dance career in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM_Danse Montreal. Pitts danced with Batsheva Dance Company for seven years under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin and is a certified teacher of Gaga movement language. Pitts has created a triptych of award-winning multidisciplinary performances, with his arts collective TRIBE, known as his “BLACK series,” which has toured extensively to many festivals & performance spaces around the world since 2016. He is an adjunct professor at The Juilliard School, a guest faculty member at Princeton University, New York University, Wesleyan University and has been an artist in residence at Harvard University. He is the recipient of a Princess Grace Award in Choreography, a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow, a Jacob’s Pillow artist-in-residence, and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow.
For more information, visit www.shamelpitts.com or www.itsatribe.org.
Photo by Scott Shaw
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Kate Hilliard creates through movement, digital media, written, and spoken word. Her performances look closely at narratives of loss and transformation. In an effort to understand her own relationship to the moment, she embodies states of being that are slow and attuned to an inevitable process of change. Hilliard’s desire to code in many areas of expression has led to a practice that is deeply collaborative and rooted in immersive discovery. Her work has been presented in The United State, Germany, Mexico, Australia, and Canada.
For more information, katehilliard.net/about.html
Photo by Sean Rees
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Ami Shulman is a movement artist - a rehearsal director, an artistic advisor, somatic practitioner, and an educator who likes to straddle the worlds between art and science.
Ami has choreographed for the National Theatre of London, UK; the Shakespeare Theatre Company, and has co-created works with the Cirque Du Soleil, assisting creations with the National Ballet of Canada; Ballet BC, and Grand Theatre Junction. Ami has been Artistic Director-on-tour for Compagnie Marie Chouinard, an Associate Choreographer to Maxine Doyle, and has staged works for Johannes Wieland. Ami has been a rehearsal director for several companies including the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani.
Ami has taught throughout Europe, Canada, and the USA including for Nederlands Dans Theater; Venice Biennale; the Juilliard School; Jacob’s Pillow; National Theatre School of Canada; BANFF Centre for the Arts; Staatstheater Kassel; Cedar Lake; Sleep No More; B12; CODARTS; Alvin Ailey School; Hollins University; Boston Conservatory; School of Toronto Dance Theatre; Munich DANCEPAT; Tanzfabrik; EDCMTL; Circuit-est; Concordia University; UCSD; Brown University and UQAM amongst others and she is an Artistic Associate of the Springboard Project Montreal/New York.
Ami has an invested interest in the healing arts, she is a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, trained in Hypnotherapy, and has studied Cranio Sacral therapy. She has presented her work at conferences internationally including Brain, Body, Cognition at Oxford University; the International Society for Gesture Studies at the Nouvelle Sorbonne University; Embodied Design in Interaction at the Utrecht University; Neurofrontiers 2021; FutureLife 2021; MACAS 2022; RITMO 2022 and Embodied Design Research Lab at UC Berkeley. Ami has co-written articles on embodied cognition and co-authored the anthology Back to the Dance Itself.
For more information visit, amishulman.com
Photo by Mats Backer
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Stephan Laks is a Canadian dance artist who works as a director, curator, and consultant for a wide range of dance organizations. He works as the Dance Manager of the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (OBV), in collaboration with Jan Vandenhouwe (Artistic Director of OBV) and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Artistic Leader of Dance of OBV). Since 2020, Stephan has been part of the curating council for Dansens Hus (Sweden’s International Scene for Contemporary Dance) in Stockholm. He is a frequent collaborator with the choreographer and director Alan Lucien Øyen, working in a variety of roles with Øyen’s company Winter Guests and related projects.
Stephan worked as rehearsal director with the GoteborgsOperans Danskompani from 2010 – 2018, assisting and collaborating with many of the dance and theatre world’s leading contemporary artists, makers, and directors. He has also worked in a similar capacity with the Royal Swedish Ballet, Sasha Waltz & Guests, and the Staatsballett Berlin. He worked in collaboration with Emily Molnar at the Banff Centre as the program head of the Creative Gesture dance program from 2016 to 2018, developing professional development programs with invited artists including Fernando Melo, Alan Lucien Øyen, Michael Schumacher, Jermaine Spivey, and Ruth Little.
During his time as a student at the Juilliard School, Stephan was a participant in Springboard’s first two years of existence and was contracted as a dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens from exposure through the program. Since 2011, he has participated as a Principal Company repetiteur and choreographer. He strongly believes in the mission, culture, and energy of Springboard, as well as its’ relevance to the dance world.
He lives with his family between Berlin and Belgium.
For more information visit, www.stephanlaks.com
Photo by Jubal Battisti