SATURDAY November 8TH
Show 4 - 8:00 pm
Meet the Artists
REBECCA LEUSZLER OF LADYBUG A/V CLUB
REBECCA LEUSZLER is a native of Cleveland, Ohio where she began her pre-professional training in 2003 at the Royal School of Ballet under the direction of Joanne Hughes Morscher. In 2007, Rebecca graduated from the Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts located in Torrington, Connecticut, with a BFA in Ballet and Modern Dance Performance. During her professional career, Rebecca has performed with the Kirov Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Ohio Dance Theatre, MOMIX Dance Theatre, Doug Elkins and Friends, MorrisonDance and Verb Ballets. Rebecca has taught dance throughout northeast Ohio and spent 4 years teaching as an adjunct professor at Baldwin Wallace University dance department. Rebecca is one of the founding members of The Movement Project, a modern dance company located in Cleveland, Ohio. The Movement Project was founded in 2009 by Megan Gargano and Rebecca Leuszler with a mission to challenge perspective, evoke social change and bridge communities through the power of movement. Her most recent project has been creating and collaborating with her husband and daughter. Ladybug AV Club emerged through a big shift in learning how to develop differently as an artist and mother. For the past 2 years we have focused on bringing analogue technology back to our community while collaborating with local artists on new work.
DANSERIES COLLECTIVE - Caitlyn Schrader and kt williams join forces under the moniker DanSeries Collective (DSC). Together they are attracted to challenging modes of dance traditions, and they make work that explores how dance intersects with immersive platforms, with an aim of making dance visible in unexpected and non-traditional spaces. DSC makes dance in the form of public performances, installations, and events that are typically presented as a series, placed in public locations, and many times involve Doc Martens. Originally established in North Carolina, DSC now maintains this collaborative relationship across two states, working and presenting in both Illinois and North Carolina. Fostering long-distance collaboration, they use dance as a catalyst for maintaining and sustaining their creative partnership, ultimately making dances together, while apart. Over the last two years, DanSeries Collective has presented works in the Gatewood Gallery (Greensboro, NC), BOOM Fringe Festival and Goodyear Arts (Charlotte, NC), in addition to pop-up performances at more alternative locations like gas stations, shopping malls, downtown high streets, parking-deck staircases, a Jewel-Osco parking lot, and Michigan Avenue.
MOJO CO.LAB
MORGAN JOANNE GRUBE, a Cleveland-based movement artist, holds a BFA in dance performance and choreography from Kent State University. Morgan began her professional career with Philadelphia based company, Cardell Dance Theatre, while concurrently training on scholarship at The Ailey School in New York, NY. In 2019, Morgan joined Cleveland-based and integrated dance company, Dancing Wheels Company. During her five seasons with Dancing Wheels, she was a full time company member and company class instructor. In her final two seasons, Morgan led as Dancing Wheels Company Rehearsal Director and Wardrobe Manager. Creatively, Morgan is an ever-evolving and passionate choreographer driven by inclusivity, empathy, candor, and collaboration. Throughout her creative journey she has been commissioned by establishments such as Kent State University, Bellingham Repertory Dance, GroundWorks DanceTheater, Cleveland Dance Festival, Dance City Festival, Mark DeGarmo International Dance Festival, OhioDance Festival, and Contemporary Dance Choreography Festival. In 2023, Morgan was awarded the Michigan Residency Award by Detroit Dance City Festival and became a GroundWorks DanceTheater Discovery Residency Artist. In 2024, Morgan was selected as a Commissioned Artist for Cleveland Dance Festival where she premiered her newest work, “Happily Ever Never.” Presently, Morgan is a freelance dancer and collaborator for Dominic Moore-Dunson's, The Remember Balloons Tour, Ajayi Dance in Cleveland, OH, and also STILGO dance + tech in Columbus, OH where she is collaborating on a dance film project set to film in 2025.
THE CLEVELAND TANGO SCHOOL - Founded by Alberto Ramos Cordero and Micaela Colleen Barrett, The Cleveland Tango School is dedicated to fostering tango culture through dance, music, and community engagement. With over 15 years of teaching experience, Alberto and Micaela emphasize tango as both an art form and a dynamic conversation between partners. Beyond the dance floor, the school has expanded into live music, forming the Cleveland Tango School Community Orchestra, a collective that brings tango’s rich musical heritage to life. Through performances, workshops, and collaborations with local and international artists, The Cleveland Tango School continues to build bridges between dance, music, and cultural storytelling in Northeast Ohio.
ORGANI CITY was born to create visual sociopolitical, cultural, emotional and ancestral discourse that subverts hierarchies from our experiences in the world. Through the human body as our primary artistic medium, we create, play, explore, nurture and challenge each other. We emphasize creation through play, ambiguity, experimentation and serendipity. Jonathan "JayWAN" Pattiwael is an Indonesian immigrant dancer, teacher, and choreographer who creates cross disciplinary performances by remixing their artistic practice in breaking, hip-hop, house, indigenous dances, experimental theatre and contemporary forms to reinforce our place in the world and subvert the social order. Born and raised in Indonesia, JayWAN lives in multiple artistic worlds that reflect the negotiation of their authentic identity as a 21st century US immigrant. From 2019 to 2023 JayWAN served as Hip-Hop lecturer at the University of Dayton and resident artist at Dayton Contemporary Dance Company before moving to Texas. JayWAN has completed 7 evening length choreographic works, 22 performances, a film, and 11 guest artist residencies spanning 10 US States and 8 countries. JayWAN's work has been sought by the Ohio Dance Festival, REST Fest, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Fayetteville Movement Festival, Festival Entrelaçados, the Nordic Fringe Network and TicTac Art Centre Belgium.
ALICIA HANN IN COLLABORATION WITH HIXON DANCE is a dance educator, performer, and choreographer based out of Columbus, OH. Alicia began her dance training in early childhood focusing heavily on the study of ballet, she later received a BFA in Modern Dance Performance and Choreography from Ohio University. Alicia fell in love with Modern and Contemporary dance forms because of the endless possibilities for creative physical expression. Alicia has been a dance educator for over a decade and continues to teach Modern, Contemporary, and Ballet technique classes to students ranging in age from 3 to 83yrs old in studio and university settings, including lecturing at The Ohio State University. Alicia has also had the opportunity to facilitate trauma-informed conscious dance experiences in therapeutic, classroom, and community settings. Alicia is currently performing with Hixon Dance Company and serving as their rehearsal director and resident choreographer under company director, Sarah Hixon. She has also set solo and group choreographic projects throughout the Midwest. Alicia has had the privilege of working with and performing for various choreographers from around the country: notably, Miki Orihari, principal dancer from the Martha Graham Company in a reconstruction of Graham’s early works ‘Heretic’. She has also worked with Alexandra Bodnarchuk of Doma Dance Theater in Minneapolis, Columbus Modern Dance Company with director Laura Puscas, Perennial Movement Group under the directorship of Sarah Ramey and Chloe Napoletano, and Lexi Clark-Stilianos of STILGO dance + tech in Columbus, Ohio. Alicia hopes to be able to foster an appreciation of dance as a physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual pursuit for students, audience members, and collaborators of her work.
ELYSE KASSA & EMMA LITTLE
ELYSE KASSA (she/her) lives in Columbus, OH, and loves to make things-- most recently for her collaborative company/collective, “all our friends collective”, which she founded in 2024. Elyse has performed as part of STILGO dance + tech, Lp & dancers, Perennial Movement Group in addition to touring her own solo and collaborative works around the region. She is always trying to learn something new. Elyse holds a BFA in Dance: Performance & Choreography from Ohio University.
EMMA LITTLE (she/they) lives in Raleigh-Durham, NC, with one foot in Ohio. Her work has been presented at ImPulsTanz, Ohio University, and Cleveland Dance Festival. She is inquisitive and anatomical, and values compassionate art. She holds a BFA in Dance. She loves to improvise, be upside down, and evolve.
CDF 2025 Show 4 Artist - Alisha Jihn
ALISHA JIHN | 靳書怡 (she/her) is a dance artist, board-certified dance/movement therapist, and educator. Her work is grounded in ideas of hybridity and intercultural experiences reflective of her identity as a Taiwanese-American raised in the Midwest. She was a Fulbright Fellow to Taiwan researching cross-cultural approaches in dance/movement therapy. Alisha has presented her work at the Asia Pacific Dance Festival in Hawaii, OhioDance Festival, DanceLAB MKE, The Alice Wilds Gallery and was a choreographic fellow with Wild Space Dance Company in Milwaukee, WI. Alisha holds an MFA in Dance from The Ohio State University.