Silvana Cardell is a Philadelphia-based award-winning choreographer, dancer, and educator. She is the Artistic Director at Cardell Dance Theater and the Director of the Dance Program at Georgian Court University. Prior to working at GCU, she worked as faculty for the School of Dance at The University of the Arts.
You can learn more about Silvana at cardelldancetheater.com
Paula Meninato is an Argentine-born American artist, activist, and public speaker. She has an MA from Plymouth College of Art in Plymouth, UK and graduated from Tyler School of Art with a BFA, a Full-Tuition Merit Presidential Scholarship, and the Dean’s Grant for Student Research. She has curated art events at Tate Modern, Philadelphia City Hall, and The School District of Philadelphia. Her first solo exhibition was at The Embassy of Argentina in Washington, DC. Meninato has given 300+ speaking engagements around the world, including Barcelona, Berlin, London, Luxembourg, Sweden, and Vienna.
Learn more about Paula at paulameninato.com
Olivia Jenna Brown is a dancer/choreographer and dance educator who loves sharing the joy of movement with students of all ages. Originally from NYC, Olivia trained at the acclaimed Alvin Ailey School, where she studied Ballet, Limon, Graham, Jazz, and Horton techniques. She holds a BA in Dance from Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, from which she graduated in 2019. Through Hunter College, Olivia performed works by esteemed choreographers such as Doug Varone, Vicky Shick, and Monica Bill Barnes. Olivia’s pedagogy is informed by recent studies in movement development with the Laban Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, as well as by Anne Green Gilbert’s BrainDance method. In her dance teaching, Olivia aims to foster integrated neuromotor development in her students, and empowers children ages 3-9 to express themselves through creative movement. Olivia’s movement practice is grounded in her ongoing practices of somatics, contact improvisation, and contemporary dance. Her choreography, which explores Jewish themes and collaborative process, has been featured at venues across Philadelphia and in festivals such as Flair Dance (2021) and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival (2021, 2023). She is passionate about the healing potential of dance as a means of radically imagining and embodying positive change in the world.
Julian Darden studied performance and choreography at the Esther Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. As a teaching artist, he has worked with the youth of Philadelphia in association with the Lenfest Center, The Village of Arts and Humanities and presently, The Philadelphia Ballet. He teaches Umfundalai, a contemporary African dance technique, at Temple University and taught various adult classes in Center City at Urban Movement Arts and Range of Motion Philly (2018-2023). Standing on the shoulders of his mentors Oluko C. Kemal Nance and his Mwalimu Monique Newton Walker, Darden received his professional teaching certification of the Umfundalai dance technique in February 2021.
As a performing artist, Darden performed with D2D: Dare to Dance Co., Kariamu & Company: Traditions, and the Nance Dance Collective. He performed at New Freedom Theatre in “The Ballad of Trayvon Martin” (2016) and had his choreography featured in the productions of “Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope” (2016) and “Black Nativity” (2016), shared the stage with the Stella Maris Dance Ensemble in Kingston, Jamaica (2017-2019) and participated in the Philadelphia Fringe Arts Festival in 2016, 2017, and 2019. Darden had the privilege to work as an assistant choreographer and be featured in Saleka Shyamalan’s music video “Clarity” (2020), Kingsley Ibeneche’s music video “So Kind” (2021) and Tierra Whack’s music video “27 Club” (2024).
Loren Groenendaal holds degrees in Dance: a BA in Dance from Oberlin College and an MFA from University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is a Certified Movement Analyst in Laban/Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies. As an educator of educators, she has provided mentorship to junior colleagues at University City Arts League, Koresh Kids Dance, and the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies and has taught Dance Pedagogy at Temple University. She currently teaches Improvisation at Muhlenberg College. As an administrator, she has been the Program Coordinator for Mascher Space Cooperative as well as serving on their board and led many programs through Vervet Dance, Impermanent Society of Philadelphia, and Dissolving Doors. Most of her artistic work is through Vervet Dance which is based in Philadelphia and has performed in Canada, Mexico and many places in between. This creative work often references patterns in the natural world, investigates the community-building possibilities of live art, the spectrums between improvisation and composition and ritual and performance, and blurs the distinctions between dance and music.
Tyler Rivera holds a BA in Dance from Georgian Court University where he performed works by innovative choreographers such as Sidra Bell, Stephanie Batten Bland, Megan Mazerik, Gregory King and more. His Choreography valIDity (2019), a multidisciplinary dance theater work, displays concepts of queer agency, fighting the expected silence or assumed conformity to stereotypical, western sociocultural ideologies of “gayness” as a fixed identity was presented at the 2020 American College Dance Association (ACDA) Regional Festival Gala, and was further selected to be performed at the 2020 ACDA National Festival in Long Beach, CA. For this piece, Tyler received the Emerging Scholar Award from the New Jersey Women and Gender Studies Consortium.
Albert Quesada is a Spanish dancer and choreographer fascinated by musical structures and group dynamics, influenced by Thomas Hauert. He creates stage works, screendances, and pieces for education. Notable solo works include Solo on Bach & Glenn (2008) and Rewrite (2016). Duets include Trilogy (2011) with Vera Tussing and OneTwoThreeOneTwo (2015). Group choreography includes Ensemble (2012), Slow Sports (2012), Wagner & Ligeti (2014), and more. His works Flamingos (2019), Fire Burns Slowly at First (2021), Desert (2022), and Dancing Biodiversity (2023) showcase his format versatility. Albert was an associate artist at Mercat de les Flors (Barcelona, 2018-2021). Since 2009, he has danced with ZOO – Thomas Hauert. Currently, he is working on Beneath Flamenco, Unicornsaurus, and The Sun is Always the Sun with Katie Vickers.