CBLP Students — Chicago Movement Collective

Alyssa Alber is originally from Lake Zurich, Illinois. She recently graduated from the University of Iowa with a BFA in dance and had a second major of Pre-Physical Therapy. At Iowa she trained with phenomenal faculty in the dance department and studied ballet, contemporary, and modern techniques. She trained at Trilogy School of Performing Arts at the start of her dance training. She later switched studios and studied more seriously at the Academy of Dance Arts for about six years before graduating high school. She has trained with Chicago Movement Collective for the past two years during summer and winter breaks. She is starting her professional dance career in the city of Chicago and is excited to continue her dance training in a variety of techniques with the amazing faculty at Chicago Movement Collective.

Ava Faber is from Grover Beach, California. She moved to Chicago in 2021 to dance with COMMON Conservatory. Last year she relocated to Leeds, England to study with Northern School of Contemporary Dance where she earned her dance certification. Ava is now eager to be back in Chicago pursuing a freelance and choreographic career. She is very excited to dance with CMC to grow her understanding of movement and push herself to new limits.

Blake Campbell was born in Elkhart, Indiana. At age 16, Blake got her G.E.D. and moved to Chicago to pursue contemporary dance training with COMMON Conservatory. In the past 4 years, Blake has performed works by choreographers: Terence Marling, Katlin Michael Bourgeois, Alysia Johnson, Ethan Kirschbaum, Robyn Mineko Willams, Meredith Dincolo, Jackie Nowicki, and many more. Blake had the honor of being cast in New Dances 2023 in collaboration with DanceWorks Chicago. In her spare time, Blake enjoys writing poetry and has won a few poetry competitions.

Emily Horowitz is a dancer, teacher, and choreographer from Raleigh, North Carolina. Ballet was her first love and she received her early training from The Raleigh School of Ballet under the direction of Mary LeGere, attending summer intensives at San Francisco Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Carolina Ballet, and American Repertory Ballet. She then went on to earn her BA in dance pedagogy from Butler University. During her time there and her summer spent at the American Dance Festival, she began shifting her focus towards modern and contemporary dance. After graduating, she returned home to NC to teach, choreograph, and fit pointe shoes, passing her love for dance along to the next generation. She spent the last year dancing with Black Box Dance Theatre under the direction of Michelle Pearson, performing and facilitating workshops in schools and the greater community. After finishing off the season performing at the American Dance Festival this summer, Emily is so excited to be moving to Chicago and exploring a new city and new dance community!

Nic Steffensen grew up in the Chicagoland area where she trained as a competitive figure skater for over fifteen years. She holds a BFA from Columbia College Chicago where she graduated summa cum laude (‘21), and spent a year training at COMMON Conservatory under the direction of Terence Marling. Her supplemental training includes summer programs with Alzono King Lines Ballet, Moonwater Dance Project, and COMMON Conservatory. She is delighted to continue training with the guidance and support of the faculty at Chicago Movement Collective.

Miranda McGovern is 23 years old and is a recent graduate of The Ohio State University. She is originally from Henderson, Nevada where she trained and danced competitively with The Dance Zone for fourteen years. Dance has been a significant part of her life since she was three years old. Throughout the years, she has participated in various dance performances and competitions.

As passionate that she is about performing, she also has a strong interest for teaching in the dance world. Before she left for college, she had the opportunity to teach and assist her dance teachers with children of varying ages. Additionally, she was chosen as an ACE assistant for the dance competitions Adrenaline and Revive. During her senior year in high school, she worked the competitions, gaining first-hand experience of behind the scenes dance competition production. In the immersive position, she worked backstage and assisted the faculty during convention classes.

During her time at Ohio State she participated in numerous shows as a performer, choreographer, and backstage help. She has performed and trained in works and practices ranging from Cunningham to African techniques. She has performed in pieces choreographed by Daniel Roberts, Crystal Perkins and Countess Winfrey. In addition to faculty work, she has also performed in and choreographed student run concerts. While at OSU, participating in numerous composition classes inspired her to perform a self-choreographed work to share her story and life experiences. Improvisation has been a seminal concept of her dance career and continues to serve as inspiration behind aspirations to be a performer in company works and works of her own.

In addition to training at OSU, she has trained with companies Ate9, Deeply Rooted Dance, Groundworks Dance Theater Cultivate Dance Project and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. She is currently training in Chicago, IL

To further cultivate her interest in teaching, she is currently starting to do research on how movement and improvisation can benefit people with disabilities. She wants to start teaching people with disabilities about improvisation and contact improvisation and how it can open up a creative outlet for the disabled especially those who are nonverbal

Rae Beck is originally from Highland Park, IL. Dancing for 19 years, she primarily trained at Extension Dance in Chicago under the direction of Lizzie MacKenzie. Rae also attended summer intensives and camps like Interlochen Arts Camp, River North, MIP 2, NWDP, and BOOM CRACK!. Shaping her into the versatile dancer she is today, Rae continuously studies ballet, contemporary, jazz, modern, and hip hop. She furthered her dance education at the University of Michigan, and received her BFA in Dance in December! At U-M, Rae gained many choreographic and performance opportunities, growing her love for artistry and creation! She was an Artist in Residence at the Croft Residency, developing her love of intertwining nature with her art. Recently, Rae created a dance performance alongside her peers as her senior thesis titled “Tales from our Roots.” She is currently teaching dance and a company member on Boom Crack! Rae is enthusiastic to be back in Chicago and to learn from such spectacular artists!

Andrea Moses is a dancer, choreographer and educator from Maumee, OH. She began her training at Company C Dance Club and Daryl Jervis Dance Studio where she trained vigorously in jazz, ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, and tap. Growing up, she was immersed in the commercial and competition dance world. She has now graduated from The Ohio State University with a BFA in Dance with a focus in performance and education and a BA in Arts Management. At Ohio State she trained contemporary, modern, ballet, and the African diaspora. Andrea has had the opportunity to learn and perform historic dance works by score including Anna Sokolow’s Rooms and Martha Graham’s Steps in the Street. Andrea has recently moved to Chicago and is excited to train and perform in a variety of dance styles.

Ava Trpeski is a 17 year old artist from Crown Point, IN. She has trained at Ruth Page School of Dance, as well as COMMON Conservatory under the direction of Terrance Marling. Ava spent two years with Collaboration’s The Light advocating for body positivity and eating disorder awareness within the dance and teenage communities. As a part of The Light, Ava toured the city preforming on stages such as Lollapalooza’s Kidzapalooza, Navy Pier’s Fresh Fest, Silver Room’s Block Party, and The Simple Good - City of Big Dreams. She is currently based in Chicago where she trains in various forms of dance. Ava will be attending CLI Conservatory next fall!

Caitlin Howland (Massachusetts) is a classically trained contemporary dance artist based in Chicago. She fell in love with dance at the age of three, training at local studios throughout her youth before transitioning to RAD classical ballet. Interested in exploring different genres of movement, she began studying hand balancing, acrobatics, and aerial silks at New York based STREB Inc. at age ten. She then furthered her ballet training under the direction of Cambridge- based Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre.

In 2021, Caitlin graduated from DePaul University Cum Laude with a B.A. in English Creative Writing and a Double Minor in Philosophy and Performance Studies. During her college career, Caitlin interned with Professor Theodore Anton on his book Programmable Planet: The Synthetic Biology Revolution, researching and writing about synthetic biology and mRNA technology. She was also the Program Manager for the Guild Literary Complex, a nonprofit performance based literary arts organization. Then, in her final year of college, Caitlin had her self-written short story “Moonstruck” published in Crook & Folly Literary Magazine.

After graduating, she joined COMMON Conservatory’s ‘21-’22 and ’22-23’ season working with a myriad of notable choreographers such as Terrance Marling, Robyn Mineko Williams, Joseph A. Hernandez, Katlin Michael Bourgeois, and Jackie Nowicki. Caitlin performed in numerous stages while with COMMON including the fully produced “Choices We Carry” and “Capsule of Time”. During her second season with COMMON Conservatory, she performed at Navy Pier Chicago LIVE! and Harvest Contemporary Dance Festival featuring works by Terrence Marling and Project Bound Dance, respectively.

She attended Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Explore intensive during the summer of 2022. This past summer she attended COMMON’s Create & Perform Session with Noelle Kayser and DanceWorks Chicago’s DanceForce. She was featured in Noelle Kayser’s new work “Montage” this past July. Caitlin is excited to join Chicago Movement Collective’s Legacy Program and explore new vocabularies of movement and community.

Jayme Braverman, a native of Iowa City, Iowa, began her dance training at Nolte Academy under the direction of Leslie Nolte. After graduating high school a year early Jayme went on to attend Point Park University studying and performing under Jason McDole, Kiesha Lalama, Daniel Karasik, Maree ReMalia, and Garfield Lemonious, among others. She earned her BFA in Dance with high honors in the spring of 2020.

Over the years Jayme has studied and performed works by Martha Graham, José Limon, Lloyd Knight, Autumn Eckman, Joseph Kudra, Yin Yue, Oscar Ramos, Brandon Cournay, Britt Juleen, and many others. Upon graduating, Jayme spent a year as a trainee with Visceral Dance Chicago under the direction of Cait Cucchiara and Nick Pupillo. Jayme is currently a freelance dancer based in the Chicago area, artistic and admin coordinator for PARA.MAR Dance Theatre, and assistant for Stephanie Martinez.

In addition to performing, Jayme has a passion for teaching and costume design which was most recently on display with Ballet Chicago and Trinity Irish Dance Company. Jayme is a lover of dogs, traveling, and enjoying moments with people who are near and dear to her heart. If she is not in the dance studio Jayme is probably working on her current sewing project or relaxing with a cup of tea and a jigsaw puzzle.

Nyja White is a dancer, educator and theater artisan originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. She began her theater and dance training with Anthony Bean Community Theater, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) and the McDonogh 35 Eaglette Dance Team where she was introduced to competitive jazz dance technique. She recently graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University Magna Cum Laude, as a POSSE alum, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre with a Minor in Theatre Dance. During her time at Illinois Wesleyan she participated in the School of Theatre Arts as both a performer and production team member primarily focusing on Dance, Directing, and Stage Management. At Wesleyan she trained with dance faculty studying Ballet, Modern, Tap, Jazz, Dance Composition, and Kinesiology. In addition to her training, she has worked with dance organizations such as Dance The Yard (Martha’s Vineyard) , Brown Body, and Red Clay Dance Company. Nyja is new to the Chicago area and is excited to be apart of the Chicago Movement Collective Claire Bataille’s Legacy Program to continue her dance training and step outside of her comfort zone.

Sidney Valdez (she/her) is a multidisciplinary dancer from the Chicagoland area. Sidney grew up dancing at DuPage Dance Academy and graduated from Dickinson College in 2023 where she majored in Dance and Neuroscience and was awarded the Gould Award for exceptional contribution to the Theatre and Dance department. While at Dickinson, Sidney had the pleasure of working with Sarah Skaggs, Erin Crawley Woods, Emie Hughes, and Orange Grove Dance, as well as train with Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet instructors including Frances Perez-Ball and Matthew Donnell. During her junior year, Sidney studied abroad at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy where she engaged in exploratory, conservatory style dance theater training under Alessio Trevisani. Sidney currently teaches dance in the Chicago area and writes for SeeChicagoDance.com through the Dance Writer Incubator Program.

CHICAGO MOVEMENT COLLECTIVE