Choreographers and performing artists bios

d’vorah dance arts

Diana Mighdoll Hoffmaster was born in West Palm Beach Florida and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of South Florida in Dance Performance and her Masters of Fine Arts from Florida Atlantic University in Arts Administration. She recently launched her own project based company D’Vorah Dance Arts, and was the co-founder of the The Dancers’ Space (TDS) in West Palm Beach Florida. She has served as the Grants Manager for the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, and the Director of Grants and Development Operations for the American Dance Festival. Diana has choreographed many works that have been presented as part of The Dancers’ Space at the Duncan Theatre and Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in South Florida and is a recent recipient of the Artist Support Grant from The United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County and  ADF’s Studio Subsidy Program. Diana studied under the direction of Lynn Wimmer, Jeannie Travers, Michael Foley, John Parks, Demetrius Klein, Gerri Houlihan, Danny Buraczeski, and many others. She has attended the Limón Summer Intensive with Risa Steinberg, the Malashock Dance School with John Malashock, and Prodanza Italia USA with Rose Trusendi in Castigliano, Italy. She also has had the great honor of performing Visions of Peace, by Jennie Travers in Paris France. With a passion to create immersive dance experiences, Diana studied Lighting Design in graduate school and has designed lights for dance productions at the Centre for Dance and the Performing Arts in Oakland, FL, and for the Dances We Dance performances at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. Diana continues to teach masterclasses after having taught consistently at various dance schools for the last 25 years. She has had the pleasure of teaching at Klein Dance, Hillsborough Community College, Florida Atlantic University, Centre for Dance & the Performing Arts, and Destiny Dance Institute.

Sarah Bowdoin began her classical ballet training in Houston, Texas. She holds a BFA in Ballet Performance from The University of Oklahoma and a graduate degree in Arts and Cultural Management from The College of Charleston. Sarah has danced professionally with Charlotte Ballet, Palmetto City Ballet, Unbound Ballet Project, Holy City Opera, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, and Killian Manning's No Forwarding Address, and has taught for numerous studios and schools in the greater Southeast region. She is also certified in Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga and Progressing Ballet Technique. She is currently the Director of Grants and Development for the American Dance Festival.

Zoe Walders is dancer and choreographer based in College Park, Maryland. Originally from Rochester, NY, she received her BA in Dance from SUNY Potsdam and is currently an MFA Dance candidate at the University of Maryland. Over the past few years, she has been a performing artist with Frazee Feet Dance, Create A Space NOW, Grassroots Dance, and PUSH Physical Theater. She was the recipient of the 2023 Dance Force New York State Choreographer’s Initiative grant and presented her research at the NYS Dance Force annual summit in Ithaca, NY. In 2022, Zoe co-presented her second evening length show, Jumpsuit Suite with Zachary Frazee as part of the 2022 Rochester Key Bank Fringe Festival. Other recent choreography and performance credits include returning to her alma mater, SUNY Potsdam, as a guest choreographer, presenting her new work Everything is Just a Little Bit Wrong, at Gibney Dance Center in New York City as part of the Doug Varone Devices Choreographic Intensive, Mariah Maloney’s The Forest is Behind You, her first evening-length show Wild Gestures in the 2021 Rochester KeyBank Fringe Festival, Frazee Feet Dance’s In Process of Being and SHIFT, the 2020 Rochester Vision of Sound Festival, and The Wake Forest Dance Festival. In addition to her movement and choreographic projects, Zoe is the Operations Associate for Urban Bush Women and is a freelance musician.

Peter Pattengill is a queer alternative movement artist currently residing in the greater DC area. Originally from San Diego California, Pattengill began their dance and performance training in the world of classical ballet. After training with the Houston Ballet for two seasons, Pattengill shifted focus to training in several modern and contemporary techniques. Pattengill later attended the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University as a member of their inaugural BFA in Dance Performance class.Here, Pattengill studied countertechnique™ as well as Muller technique, and Horton. Pattengill graduated top of their class, being granted the Evergreen Scholarship Award. Pattengill now attends the University of Maryland College Park as a Graduate Assistant and MFA Candidate. Pattengill’s work explores the worlds of camp, horror, and queer expression. Work that tows the line between performance art and potentially allows the viewer to ask themselves to question what they consider dance. Pattengill prides themself on a dynamic and varied moveset that emphasizes weight and gesture. Pattengill specializes in creating character driven non-narrative work that explores concepts of humanism and antihumanism alike. Pattengill hopes to create work that turns heads and acts as both sabotage and subterfuge for expected cultural and artistic norms. Pattengill has presented work at Gibney Dance in NYC, attended and presented work at the Impulstanz Festival in Vienna as a member of the ATLAS program, performed a leading role with the Baltimore Concert Opera, assistant directed the dance film, “scattered.place.”, which was accepted for the International Fine Arts Festival 2022, as well as being granted an artistic choreographic residency at the Peabody Conservatory. Pattengill is also an active board Member with Kaleid Dance Collective in New York City.

Big red dance project

Gerri Houlihan studied at the Juilliard School with Antony Tudor and members of the Graham and Limon dance companies. She performed with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. From 1991-1999 she directed Houlihan and Dancers, based in Miami, Florida and was on the faculty of the New World School of the Arts. She has been on the faculty of the ADF from 1981-1983 and from 1987 to the present. As an international representative for ADF, she has participated in 17 international linkage programs in such countries as Korea, China, Mongolia, Brazil, and Chile. She is a retired Professor Emerita from Florida State University and also the recipient of the ADF’s Balasaraswati, Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching. She was Co-Dean and then Dean of the ADF School from 2010-2015 and received her MFA from the Hollins/ADF MFA program. She currently teaches at the ADF studios in Durham and is the Artistic Director of the Big Red Dance Project- a group of dancers age 35-73 and up!

Antonia Beh performed in NYC with the Mimi Garrard Dance Co. before moving to North Carolina.  She choreographed and performed with New Performing Dance Co. in Durham, and later formed her company, The Dance Project in Raleigh, for which she received the NC Dance Artist Project Grant.  After retiring from many years of teaching dance and ESL in the public schools, Antonia is happy to be dancing again, and is proud to be a founding member of the Big Red Dance Project.

April Strickland saw her 1st modern dance class in progress while coming out of a ballet class in Chapel Hill at age 24.  It looked like a wonderful world and she wanted to be a part of it!  She took modern dance classes everywhere in the Research Triangle and later, moved to the greater NY area where she studied with Ruth Currier and Alan Danielson.  She performed with various choreographers there from 1988- 2001.  Almost 5 decades later, she could not be happier than to dance with the amazing Big Red Dance Project dancers.

Andrea Didisheim moved to Chapel Hill from Princeton, NJ in 2018.  She was thrilled to reconnect with Gerri Houlihan, who was a teacher of hers when she was a student at Connecticut College and ADF almost 40 years ago.  She received a B.A. in Dance from Connecticut College and an MFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.  Andrea is an Integrative Health and Wellness Coach, and Mindful Movement and Meditation teacher.

Beth Starosta-Desmond grew up in Pennsylvania and has lived in North Carolina since 2002.  She is a graduate of the Juilliard School and performed professionally with the internationally known dance company Momix.  After that, she worked for the State of North Carolina, a position from which she has now retired.  She teaches at the ADF studios. 

Sue Hill finds joy each Sunday dancing and rehearsing with the wonderful movers of the Big Red Dance Project.  During the week, she dons her superpower cape to teach middle school children dance at the Wake Forest County Public School System and to support middle school educators in the county.  Sue is thankful that the Big Red Dance Project is back performing.

Beth Seaton is a Dance Educator for the Wake County Public School System.  She is a Raleigh native and thrilled to be performing with this fabulous group of movers.  Thanks to Gerri for this opportunity and giving me something to look forward to every Sunday!

Susan Hartley has her BA in Dramatic Arts from UNC-CH and an MFA in Dance from UNCG.  She founded DANSYNC, a Performing Arts Ensemble: performed with Antonia Beh’s The Dance Project and Annie Sailer Dance Co.: taught 30 years with Wake County Public School System: and now is an Artist in Residence throughout the state.  

Jennifer Scully-Thurston is a dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, curator and video installation artist.  Her performance credits include Michael Foley, Gamble/Van Dyke, X- Factor and the Bipeds.  She is Founder and Director of FilmFest by Rogue Dancer.  Her curation and adjudications include Encore: Dance on Film and ADF’s Movies by Movers and Screen Dance International. Her dance film work has been featured internationally in Core Dance presents and ADF’s Movies by Movers.  She manages the American Dance Festival’s Studio Programs and Community Engagement.  

Masha Dashkina Maddux is a professional concert dance performer and a dance educator. A native of Kiev, Ukraine she was first introduced to dance through the classical Vaganova ballet technique. After moving to the United States she studied under the direction of Ruth Weisen at the Armour Dance Theater of Miami, FL and ultimately graduated summa cum laude with her BFA from New World School of the Arts under the directorship of Daniel Lewis. Ms. Dashkina Maddux joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2007 and rose to the rank of principal dancer, performing major roles in classical Graham repertoire along with works created by some of the most influential contemporary choreographers. She has been featured in Dance Magazine’s “Dancer’s Choice”, and also appeared in projects including Martha Graham Dance Technique DVD Beginning and Intermediate levels, directed by Miki Orihara and Susan Kikuchi, and in a feature film Fall to Rise, written and directed by Jayce Bartok. In addition to performing, Ms. Dashkina Maddux has collaborated with photographers to capture the art of dance. Her image was featured on the covers of the Dior Magazine Issue #26 and The Art of Movement, a highly acclaimed book conceived and created by the founders of NYC Dance Project, Ken Browar and Deborah Ory. Ms. Dashkina Maddux is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Wake Forest Dance Festival, a free and open to the public day of dance, based in Wake Forest, NC. She is one of the founding members of Movement Migration, a dance collective of seasoned artists based in Charlotte, NC founded and directed by Kim Jones and is an ambassador for the Dancing Angels Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides scholarships to help passionate and committed young dancers fulfill their dreams. In the summer of 2018, she received the Alto Jonio Best Dancer Award in Calabria, Italy. She continues to perform, choreograph and most recently has been restaging works choreographed by Martha Graham on university dance programs across the county.

om grown dancers

Courtney OM (choreographer) hails from Toronto, Canada and is a full-time dance educator and choreographer in the Triangle. Her professional training includes Ryerson University (BFA Dance program) and the Conteur Academy, a contemporary conservatory under the direction of Eryn Waltman, where she graduated in 2013. She has additional training from The Alvin Ailey School, The American Dance Festival, L.A. Contemporary Dance Company and Steps on Broadway Exchange Program where she has trained with such notables as Andrew Winghart, Sidra Bell, Alexandra Wells, Gerri Houlihan, Abby Zbikowski, Shannon Gillen and Kate Hutter to name a few. Courtney began producing work in the United States in 2014 at the annual SARUS festival in Wilmington, NC and has since spent the last 8 years teaching at local studios and setting work across the triangle and country.
Courtney established her contemporary dance company, OM grown dancers, in 2016 and with them- has produced 5 evening length premiers, held pop-up performances around Durham, hosted free community dance events, facilitated summer/winter intensives and collaborated with other local creatives on projects. The evolution of the OM grown dancers has played a vital role in her growth as a young creative in Durham. In 2020, Courtney created a pre-professional, contemporary focused program called TRAIN: Dance at Threehouse Studios. Her growing mission is to provide dancers seeking additional training opportunities, a platform to further develop their artistic voice and nourish their evolution as a contemporary artist. Courtney has a passion for dance education and is proud of the symbiotic offerings she has created as an educator.Additionally, Courtney co-owns and is the dance director of Threehouse Studios, a movement studio located in the Lakewood and Lyon Park communities in Durham. Courtney is also a 200hr RYT certified yoga teacher and teaches weekly heated yoga classes alongside contemporary, floorwork and ballet classes at Threehouse. Courtney is currently working on writing a Floor-work Teacher Training called Floor3 as well as creating a mentorship program for aspiring dance teachers in the community.

Bri Cooper (performer) was raised in Durham, NC. She holds a BFA in Dance Performance from East Carolina University. Her training also includes time at the American Dance Festival, Giordano Dance Chicago, and the Tuscan Summer Dance Intensive. Ms. Cooper’s professional work has taken her around the U.S. and Europe. She has performed with a variety of artists, most notably Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, La Bella Vita Arts, Code f.a.d. Company, Natalie Marrone & The Dance Cure, and KT COLLECTIVE. Brianna currently performs with OM Grown Dancers, a contemporary dance company led by Artistic Director Courtney OM. Brianna has been teaching young dancers since 2010. She is currently the Jazz and Contemporary Director at Destiny Dance Institute and an instructor for Campaneria Ballet School, Threehouse Studios, and Little People’s Creative Workshop. When she isn’t dancing, Brianna also works in group fitness and Pilates. 

Skyler Herrick (performer)

Hannah Nicole Marr (performer) was born in Raleigh and currently lives in Durham, NC. She graduated in 2017 from the University of North Carolina School of The Arts (UNCSA), where she also attended her senior year of high school. Hannah has been a company member with OM Grown Dancers since its inception in 2016. She is a dance teacher and choreographer to all ages for many studios and programs around the area, including TRAIN at Threehouse Studios, Ninth Street Dance, and Stage Door Dance Productions. She also regularly guest teachers and choreographs for many schools and studios both locally and out of state. Hannah has been honored to perform works by Doug Varone, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, Wayne McGregor, Juel D. Lane, Ming- Lung Yang, Netta Yerushalmy, Kira Blazek, and many others.

Emily Mitchum (performer)

Stazia Ritch (performer) was raised in Apex, North Carolina and trained pre-professionally for many years at the Academy for the Performing Arts, with a focus on contemporary dance. Since 2020, she has been a company member with the OM Grown Dancers under the direction of Courtney OM. After graduating high school in 2019, she began to explore her passion for teaching and choreographing at local studios and public schools. She is currently focused on mentoring and training dancers of all ages, mostly within the company program at APA and the TRAIN program at Threehouse Studios. Stazia is creatively driven through her personal exploration of intuitive and sensation-based movement. She encourages using tools like improvisation and yoga to develop body awareness and individualized artistry in her students. Her movement and choreography has been influenced through training and performing work by artists such as Emily Greenwell, Nancy Andrews Roque, Marcos Roque, Ashley Lindsay, Brooke Averette, and many more.

Marsha Thosmas (performer) is from Raleigh, and moved to Cary in 2008. Currently she is a full time mom to Dylan, Aspen, and Daniel. These 3 and her husband continue to show up and aide in her inspiration, motivation, and discipline. Marsha loves being a part of this vibrant dance community. She has been dancing with OM grown dancers since it formed in 2016. She owes a great amount of thanks to being able to continue her dance and fitness training at Threehouse Studios, Advanced Community Ballet at Barriskill Studio, and The Body Mechanic, dynamic power training. Marsha has also participated in the American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, and ImPulsTanz Festival. She has performed and had 2 choreographic works produced by Tobacco Road Dance Productions, 2018, 2019 and as well as Queen City Jazz Company 2003, 2004. She has worked at Samuel Scripps Studios, Ninth Street Dance and various other studios in the triangle area since graduation in 2003. Marsha has developed a preschool movement program at 2 preschools in Raleigh and was a preschool teacher for 7 years. She has a BFA in Dance Performance from East Carolina University, a Professional Diploma from Laban Centre London, and a Pilates certification.