BEGIN AGAIN Performers

Genna (she/her), originally from Battle Creek, MI, graduated from Western Michigan University earning her B.F.A. in Dance. She relocated to New York City and had the pleasure of working closely with Matthew Powell, Robyn Mineko Williams, Parsons Dance, KT Nelson, Lauren Edson, and Eryn Waltman among others. Her own choreography has been showcased on stages including the Ailey Theatre, Peridance Capezio Theatre, Center of Performance Research, and 92nd Street Y. Genna relocated to Seattle in late 2018 to dive deeper into her personal artistic and choreographic endeavors. She has recently opened a hybrid dance, photography and art space in the Uptown neighborhood of downtown Seattle. For her, AETHER is a blank canvas to explore, create and bridge artistic communities. Photo by: Sebastián Cvitanic

Rhea (she/her) is from Peoria, IL. She has danced with Island Moving Company (now Newport Contemporary Ballet), Central Illinois Ballet, and Rochester City Ballet performing works by José Limón, Staycee Pearl, Colin Connor, Bill Evans, and George Balanchine, among others. Since moving to Seattle, she has worked with Beth Terwilleger, Alana Rogers, Cameo Lethem, Bennyroyce Royon, Nikki Cardona, and Kyrin Grey. Her own work has been featured at the Rhode Island Women’s Choreography Project and Fuselage Dance Film Festival. Photo by: Eric Hovermale

Buffy (she/her) is a native Seattleite. She was lucky enough to discover dance as an adult and has not stopped dancing since. For her the joy of dance expresses what words cannot. She is so excited to be a part of Bennyroyce’s Begin Again cast and to be dancing with such beautiful generous human beings. Photo by: Bennyroyce Royon

Philip (he/him) is a movement artist based in NYC. Currently, he is a performer with Bennyroyce Dance, The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, and RyderDance. In addition to touring and performing, Philip also creates his own work and teaches. Philip was raised in Washington State, where he was trained and mentored by Debra Pearse Rogo. While pursuing his BFA at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, he danced in work by Crystal Pite, Sonya Tayeh, Ronald K. Brown, and Paul Taylor. Philip participated in Springboard Danse Montreal’s 2018 project, performing in original works by Maxine Doyle of Punchdrunk, and Emese Nagy of MA•ZE. Philip has performed with Bennyroyce Dance since 2019. As an Artistic Associate of Bennyroyce Royon, Philip has staged their work at Rutgers University, and assisted him in processes & teaching at The Juilliard School, Ballet Hispánico, Joffrey Ballet School, Peridance Center, and Gibney Dance. Photo by: Alonzo Blanco

Claire (she/her) is a Chinese-American artist and collaborator based in Seattle, WA. She is a native of San Jose, California, and a graduate from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, studying dance and philosophy. She was grateful to have been able to train at the School at Jacob's Pillow, the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, P.A.R.T.S., Beijing Dance Festival, and b12. She has had the privilege of working with and performing works by Anton Lachky, MADBOOTS, Sonya Tayeh, Ronald K. Brown, Ohad Naharin, and Sita Ostheimer. As an apprentice and cast member with Ate9 Dance (LA), she dove into the movement language of Gaga upon graduation, and performed three of Danielle Agami's evening length pieces in LA, NY, Chicago, and Minneapolis. Since 2019, she has been a freelance artist and collaborator, working with Nick Alselmo's PocketFuel Groovers (NY) and Volta Collective (LA), as well as an assistant and tech lead for Gaga Online classes. Photo by: Evan Feiereisel

Marie Zvosec (she/her) is a graduate of The Juilliard School (B.F.A.), the Dancers’ Studio at Oberlin, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and, most recently, Sarah Lawrence College (M.F.A.). She has been seen performing with, among others, Bennyroyce Dance, Buglisi Dance Theatre, TAKE Dance, Hilary Easton + Company, Douglas Dunn and Dancers, Juri Onuki, Doug Elkins + Friends, Mary Seidman and Dancers, Regina Nejman and Company, Shannon Gillan and Elisabeth Motley’s DOORKNOB Company, Elizabeth Keen, and with the Metropolitan Opera in productions by Zhang Yimou and Mark Morris. Choreographic and stage direction commissions include works for Brooklyn Opera Works, Adelphi University, Bennyroyce Dance, Springboard Danse Montréal, Ohio Dance Theatre, Blackbird/Oiseau Noir Dance, Moxie Contemporary Ballet, and Randolph College. With [metro collective], Zvosec created Un/Governed Bodies, a screendance work including artificial intelligence technology, which premiered in 2021. Zvosec was a Fellow at BAM’s Professional Development Program and was a full scholarship awardee for Teaching Artist Training at National Dance Institute. She served as Chair of Dance at Brooklyn Music School, as a faculty member at Adelphi University, and Chair of the Dance Department at Randolph College. She coordinated the 2022 American College Dance Association’s Mid-Atlantic South Conference, and most recently, was Director of the Helen McGehee Visiting Artist in Dance Program. This is her first collaboration as dramaturg with Bennyroyce Dance. Photo by: Alexis Silver

Abby (she/they) started dancing 14 years ago and was a Performance Division dancer at Evergreen City Ballet. She performed in productions such as The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and many more. Arabian Lead and Spanish Lead are her favorite roles that she has performed in ECB’s production of The Nutcracker. She has also choreographed for Elevate and Elevate Reimagined, ECB student-choreography showcases. Abby is currently an apprentice for Bennyroyce Dance, where she is a teacher assistant for Kalahi Dance Group at Filipino Community Center of Seattle. Abby is mixed-race and bilingual. Her extra-curricular activities are singing and performing Vietnamese songs for events such as Tết in Seattle. Abby is a senior at Hazen High School, and she sings with their zero-period vocal ensemble. She will be a pre-arts major at the University of Washington and is excited to dance there in September. Photo by: Bennyroyce Royon

Annamarie (she/her) is a junior in high school, attending Running Start at Green River Community College. She’s been dancing for over 10 years in various styles such as ballet, contemporary, modern, and jazz. She’s trained with Allegro Performing Arts Academy, Evergreen City Ballet, and currently Dance Conservatory Seattle and Bennyroyce Dance. Between her years of training she’s attended summer intensives including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Joffrey Ballet New York, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Bennyroyce Dance, and this summer she will attend Alonzo King Lines Ballet. Annamarie plans to continue her dance training and education and someday join a company to dance contemporary-ballet professionally. Photo by: Bennyroyce Royon

Bridget (any pronouns) has been dancing since they were 4 years old. They started out dancing at a studio in Kentucky called Shannon’s All About Dance. In 2016 Bridget moved from Dry Ridge Kentucky where they grew up to Auburn Washington. Bridget continued their dance journey at a competitive studio called The Dance Academy of Puyallup. In 2018 Bridget made a switch out of competitive dance and shifted to a more classical pre-professional studio called Evergreen City Ballet. Bridget has danced in productions such as Evergreen City Ballet’s rendition of The Nutcracker and Coppelia. Bridget’s favorite role was Marzipan lead. They have also choreographed a dance piece with Evergreen City Ballet’s student choreographed production, Elevate. This studio is where they met and started their dance journey with Mr. Bennyroyce Royon. Currently Bridget is dancing with Mr. Bennyroyce as an apprentice in his contemporary modern company Bennyroyce Dance. Through Bridget’s time with Bennyroyce they have learned many important lessons and tasks; such as becoming a teacher’s assistant. They demonstrated for a 3/4 modern class being taught at the International Ballet Theater, as well as demonstrating for Kalahi Dance Group, a Filipino folk dance group at the Filipino Cultural Center in Seattle. Currently Bridget is a junior at Auburn Riverside High School, and their dream is to dance professionally. Photo by: Bennyroyce Royon

Emma (she/her) was born in Seattle, Washington. She first started dancing when she was 4, studying Scottish Highland Dance. She danced competitively throughout the greater Northwest until the age of 8, winning numerous medals and awards and passing several medal tests through the Scottish Dance Teachers’ Alliance (SDTA). She then participated in competitive figure skating for several years, and during this time took her very first ballet class. She continued to dance recreationally at Ballet Academy of Performing Arts (BAPA) and Haven Dance Academy until highschool graduation. At 19, she was accepted to and attended her first summer intensives with the Whitman Summer Dance Lab, Summer at Cornish at Cornish College for the Arts, and International Ballet Academy’s (IBA’s) Summer Program. After this, Emma spent three years studying at IBA. She graduated from IBA’s Professional Division in 2022, after two years performing with them as an International Ballet Theatre member. Emma is currently a freelance artist in the Seattle area and has performed with Dance Conservatory Seattle, Westlake Dance Center, The Guild Dance Company, and Evoke Productions’ Full Tilt. Photo by: Andrew Lucio

Jackson (they/them) is a Seattle based artist, and has been a member of the local dance community since 2017. They began dance training in high school in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California and continued training in Los Angeles at Yuri Grigoriev School of Ballet and Santa Monica College. Upon relocating to Seattle they have been blessed to train and work with different local teachers and creators as they continue to cultivate a deep love for and connection to the Seattle arts community. They are passionate about dialogues between different art forms, relevancy and intersectionality in dance, as well as work and practice that transgresses colonial values. Photo by: Vanessa Mok