Welcome + Land Acknowledgement
As you settle into your seat and open your program, we’d like to thank you for coming. If you’d like, we invite you to reflect on where you just came from; look around and reflect on where you are now.
We, the core faculty in the Program in Dance, are working carefully to create a living land acknowledgement, one that is embodied in its consideration of—and engagement with—the past, present, and future. As we continue to clarify this work, we begin here: we acknowledge that this building sits on land considered part of the ancient homelands of the Lenni-Lenape peoples and that this campus was built on this land with no recorded consultation with the Lenni-Lenape peoples. We acknowledge that learning about history and making this statement isn’t enough. Equally important is our ongoing work to understand past harms; build awareness in present relationships and actions; and bring imagination, creative problem-solving, and genuine community-building to the future of our program. We are taking concrete actions towards these goals within our curriculum, pedagogy, and programming. We look forward to sharing specifics as we go.
We invite you to learn more about:
- The Native and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Princeton
- The lesser-known history of Princeton
- A map of the Indigenous history of the lands you are connected to
We’re so glad you’re here!
Reverence: A Senior Dance Thesis Collaborative Concert
Run Time
Approximately 55 minutes with no intermission.
Special Notes
Photography, video and sound recording are prohibited. Please silence all electronic devices including cellular phones and watches for the duration of the performance. Please refrain from text messaging during the performance.
Production Team
Costume Designer: Mary Jo Mecca
Lighting Designer: Aaron Copp
Music Director: Vince DiMura
Production Stage Manager: Mary-Susan Gregson
Faculty Production Advisor: Tina Fehlandt
Sound Engineers: Kay Richardson, Neil Jernigan
Light Board Programmer: James P. Lewis
Run Crew: Michael Poulaille
Student Run Crew: Mandy Qua ’23*
Costume Stitchers: Titi Sodimu ’23, Jasmyn Dobson ’24, Tanaka Ngwara ’24, Madeleine Lausted ’24
Wardrobe: Kasey Gilette
Dance Certificate Seniors
Abby De Riel is majoring in English.
Tori Edington is majoring in Physics with a certificate in Bio Physics.
Molly Gibbons is majoring in School of Public and International Affairs.
Margaret King is majoring in English with a certificate in Spanish.
Angie Sheehan is majoring in School of Public and International Affairs.
Sarah Witzman is majoring in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering with certificates in Robotics and Intelligent Systems, and Spanish.
Ally Wonski is majoring in Music with certificates in Theater, Music Theater, and Vocal Performance.
Order of Performances
Along the Way… (premiere)
Choreography: Zhong-Jing Fang
Music: “Standchen” by Franz Schubert
Musicians: Vince DiMura, piano and Laura Haubold ’24, cello
Dancer: Angie Sheehan ’22*
Tonché (2019)
Choreography: Caili Quan
Music: “Jamaica Farewell” by Harry Belafonte
Dancers: Abby de Riel ‘22*, Tori Edington ‘22*
Pretty Ugly Starburst Girls (premiere)
Choreography: Lily Kind
Music: “Pretty Ugly” by Tierra Whack and “Girls” by Beastie Boys
Dancer: Ally Wonski ’22*
Mind Furniture (premiere)
Choreography: Molly Gibbons ’22*
Sound Construction: Vince DiMura
Dancers: Yukiko Chevray ’24, Molly Gibbons ’22*, Natalia Lalin ’24, Elena Remez ’23*
I’ll Be Seeing You (premiere)
Choreography: Keerati Jinakunwiphat
Music: “I’ll Be Seeing You” music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Irving Kahal, performed by Billie Holiday
Dancer: Margaret King ’22*
an ode to these dancers (premiere)
Choreography: Netta Yerushalmy
Assistant: Catie Leasca
Music: Ryan Wolfe
Dancers: Jane Brown G1, Tori Edington ’22*, Angie Sheehan ’22*, Sarah Witzman ’22*, Ally Wonski ’22*
Guest Choreographer and Designer Bios
Aaron Copp‘s (Lighting Designer) recent projects include the Broadway production of The New One by Mike Birbiglia, Red State Blue State for Colin Quinn at the Minetta Lane, Candide at Tanglewood Music Center, One Line Drawn by Brian Brooks for Miami City Ballet, Newsies at Village Theater, and Shahrazad for The Royal Ballet of Flanders. Music projects include designs for The Silk Road Ensemble, Natalie Merchant, The Goat Rodeo Sessions, SO Percussion, Maya Beiser and the Bang On A Can All-Stars. Aaron has designed for The Old Globe, The Kennedy Center, Dallas Theater Center, and other major theaters around the country. He has worked extensively in the dance world, and in 2008 received his second Bessie Award for Jonah Bokaer’s The Invention Of Minus One. He had a long association with Merce Cunningham, designing such pieces as Ground Level Overlay, Windows, and Biped, for which he also won a Bessie.
Vince DiMura (Resident Composer/Musical Director) has appeared on concert stages and theaters throughout North America, Canada, Europe and Latin America. He has conducted theater seasons in virtually every region of the United States. He is best known for his arrangements of My Way: A Tribute to the Music of Frank Sinatra, Simply Simone, and I Left My Heart, (with over 900 productions nationally). He is also the author of A Conversation With The Blues, a 14 part web instructional series on improvisation through the Blues produced by Soundfy Inc. He holds fellowships from the William Goldman Foundation, Temple University, Meet the Composer, CEPAC, the Union County Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Puffin Cultural Forum, and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. He has released six CDs and has just completed a collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa entitled Echos of the Great Migration, which is currently being workshopped for a New York premiere in 2023. He has also collaborated with Princeton alumni Philicia Saunders and Roger Q. Mason on their award winning 2020 film, Breathe.
Zhong-Jing Fang (Choreographer) was born in Shanghai, China, and began her ballet studies at the Shanghai Ballet School where she trained for seven years. She then attended the Performing Arts College of Shanghai Drama University, and graduated with a major in ballet. Fang has won many prestigious ballet competitions including the Prix de Lausanne, Paris international ballet competition, and she won gold medals in Helsinki and Shanghai International ballet competitions. She joined the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) studio company after graduating from university and soon became a member of the main company. In 2018 she was promoted to Soloist with ABT. Fang has choreographed many ballets in the past 10 years, including for the 2011 “Innovation Initiative” at ABT and for their JKO School in 2014. In 2015, she had her first commissioned ballet Song Before Spring by New York Theatre Ballet (NYTB), co-choreographed with Steven Melendez. In 2017, she continued to work with NYTB and created Painted Within. In 2018, she was chosen to participate in the Counter Point project in Brooklyn and collaborated with visual artist Audra Wolowiec. She also joined ABT’s Lauren Post’s Colab Dance project to create a Pas de Duex, Seen by Two. She was also invited to create a piece for the Columbia University Dance project fall season “Where We Go” to empower female dancers. Early in 2021, she was chosen to be one of the new choreographers for Dig Dance project for the 92nd Street Y, where she created her piece Prince Street Fantaisie. Lastly, in November of 2019 she joined ABT’s Incubator project. Fang has extensive teaching experience at Shreveport Ballet school, Shanghai Ballet School, Charm Ballet Company, Maywood Fine Arts Studio, Cincinnati Ballet School, and countless other facilities and studios. In 2020 February she was invited to be one of the jury of the 48th Prix de Lausanne competition. Fang continues to choreograph during the pandemic. She created Perception for ABT’s first dance film festival; The Unforeseen for ABT’s Incubator project; Letters to my younger self for Burberry Inspire Project in collaboration with ABT and Northern Ballet, with many additional projects in the making.
Mary Susan-Gregson (Production Stage Manager) has worked with Princeton Dance Program since 2012. Recent credits include Gabriel Kahane’s 8980: Book of Travelers, Lincoln Center’s Global Exchange: Art for Good, A Proust Sonata for Da Camera Chamber Music, Narcissus Now Festival for the Onassis Cultural Center, Sufjan Steven’s Round Up and Gabriel Kahane’s The Ambassador, both at BAM. At The New Victory Theater she has stage-managed over twenty shows in the last 20 years and spent 20 summers production coordinating for Lincoln Center Festival. She has production managed Divinamente Festival and the New Island Festival on Governor’s Island. New York shows include Dance Africa, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, The Gate, BQE, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Jazz Nativity, Breaking the Code and Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Regional credits include McCarter Theatre, Yale Rep, Williamstown, The Huntington, and the White House. She has toured with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Elisa Monte, Jennifer Muller, Pilobolus and internationally with Forbidden Christmas starring Baryshnikov.
Keerati Jinakunwiphat (Choreographer), originally from Chicago, Illinois, received her BFA from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase and was a recipient of the Adopt-A-Dancer Scholarship. She has additionally studied at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and Springboard Danse Montreal. She has worked with and performed works of artists such as Kyle Abraham, Nicole von Arx, Trisha Brown, Jasmine Ellis, Hannah Garner, Shannon Gillen, Andrea Miller, Kevin Wynn, and Doug Varone. Keerati began working with A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham in 2016. She has additionally assisted Kyle Abraham in new commissioned work for New York City Ballet and Paul Taylor Dance Company. As a freelance choreographer, Keerati has presented her own choreographic works at the American Dance Guild Festival, Triskelion Arts, Dixon Place, Battery Dance Festival, Dance Gallery Festival, the Joyce Theater and New Victory Dance. She has been commissioned to set and create works on the Evanston Dance Ensemble, the Martha Graham School, SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Dance, A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham, Houston Contemporary Dance Company, New England Ballet Theatre, and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. Keerati has graced the cover of Dance Magazine, featured as part of ‘25 to Watch’ for 2021.
Lily Kind (Choreographer) is a choreographer, performer, writer, and producer. Lily’s work has been presented by Philadelphia Dance Projects, Table Gallery (Chicago), Miami Light Projects, Sarasota Contemporary Dance Company, Le Mondo (Baltimore), Creative Alliance (Baltimore), and The Baltimore Museum of Art. Since moving to Philly in 2016, Lily has made multiple iterations of her critically acclaimed show Wolfthicket, also the de jure name of her devising ensemble. From 2008-2014 she directed the Effervescent Collective in Baltimore, Maryland, gaining recognition as Best Choreographer (Baltimore Magazine, 2014); Best Dance Company (Baltimore City Paper, 2010 & 2012, Baltimore Magazine, 2012); and winning a Baker Artist Award ‘B’ Grant in 2011. From 2017-2020 Lily helped operate Urban Movement Arts (UMA), directing the Artist Residency program and training with Ron Wood, Vince Johnson, The Hood Lockers, and in community. A lindy hopper since the early 2000s, Lily has taught vernacular jazz at California Institute of the Arts, Swing Jose (Costa Rica), Apollo Swing (Belgium), Bryn Mawr College, Temple University, Haverford College, and co-founded Ragtag Empire. She is an alumnus of Breai Mason-Campbell’s Guardian Baltimore. Lily is one of two American women teaching Flying Low & Passing Through, the methods of David Zambrano. She holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Goucher College, a certificate from Headlong Performance Institute, and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts with a concentration in Afro-Diasporic Studies from Goddard College.
Mary Jo Mecca (Costume Designer) Currently collaborating with Rebecca Lazier and Janet Echelman on Everywhere The Edges premiering in Nova Scotia in 2022. Previous work includes Nicole Wolcotts’ Luggage Lost at Triskelion Arts; Ellen Cornfelds’ Raw Footage; Aaron Landsman’s Empathy School & Love Story at Abrons Art Center; Joanna Kotze’s Find Yourself Here at Baryshnikov Arts Center; Liz Magic Laser’s Like You; Laura Petersons’ Forever at The Kennedy Center; Rashaun Mitchell’s Tesseract, Interface at Baryshnikov Arts Center and Nox at Danspace Project; Rebecca Lazier’s There Might Be Others at New York Live Arts, Coming Together/Attica at the Invisible Dog and I Just Like This Music, Terminal; Zvi Gotheiner’s Bear’s Ear, Detoura, Escher/Bacon/Rothko, Surveillance at New York Live Arts, Sky and Water at the MUSA! Festival; Jody Sperling’s Time Lapse-Fantasy at Danspace Project; Laura Peterson Dance’s Atomic Orbital and traceroute; Barkin/Sellisen Project’s Differential Cohomology. Mecca has designed for the Theater and Dance Programs at Princeton University since 2009. She studied Couture Design with Miss Alice Sapho of Paris and New York.
Caili Quan (Choreographer) is a New York-based choreographer who danced with BalletX from 2013 to 2020. She has created works for BalletX, The Juilliard School, Nashville Ballet, Owen/Cox Dance Group, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, and Ballet Academy East. She served as an Artistic Partnership Initiative Fellow and a Toulmin Creator at The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU. With BalletX she performed new works by Matthew Neenan, Nicolo Fonte, Gabrielle Lamb, Penny Saunders, Trey McIntyre, and danced at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Vail Dance Festival, Belgrade Dance Festival, and DEMO by Damian Woetzel at the Kennedy Center. Mahålang, a short documentary that wove familial conversations of her Chamorro Filipino upbringing on Guam with scenes from BalletX’s Love Letter, was shown at the Hawai’i International Film Festival, CAAMFest, and Dance on Camera Festival. Caili is a Creative Associate at The Juilliard School.
Ryan Wolfe (Composer) is a songwriter, singer, composer, and instrumentalist from Portland, Oregon. Since graduating from the University of Michigan, he has lived in NYC where he plays for dance for Hofstra University, Princeton University, Alvin Ailey, The Martha Graham School, Limon Company, and Cunningham Trust, among others. He has performed and collaborated with choreographers and dance companies such as Alice Liddell and Dancers, Grounded View, CNDC/Angers, The Lovelies, Colin Stilwell, and Chloe London.
Netta Yerushalmy (Choreographer) originally from Israel, is a choreographer and performer based in New York City. Her work aims to engage with audiences by imparting the sensation of things as they are perceived, not as they are known, and to challenge how meaning is attributed and constructed. She was honored to be a 2019-21 Princeton Arts Fellow, and most recently was awarded a 2022 United States Artist Fellowship. Netta has also been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, Jerome Robbins Bogliasco Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, National Dance Project Grant, commission from LMCC’s Extended Life program, and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. She was a Research Fellow at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and a Fellow for Women Leaders in Dance at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University, as well as a New York City Center Choreography Fellow. Her work was presented by such venues as the American Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater, Danspace Project, New York Live Arts, Jacob’s Pillow Dance, Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation. Her work has been supported by institutions such as Baryshnikov Arts Center, the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Movement Research, Watermill Center, and she has taught and staged her work at universities and repertoire companies nationwide. As a professional dancer Netta has performed with Pam Tanowitz Dance, Doug Varone and Dancers, the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, among many others. Her brand new major work, MOVEMENT, premiered March 17-20, 2022, at PEAK Performances (Montclair, NJ).
Lewis Center for the Arts
Interim Chair: Michael Cadden
Executive Director: Marion Friedman Young
Director of Program in Dance: Susan Marshall
Associate Director of Program in Dance: Rebecca Lazier
View a full list of the Program in Dance Faculty & Guest Artists
For a look at all the people working behind the scenes to bring you this event, view a full list of LCA staff members »
