Kathryn Alter hails from Juneau, Alaska. After attending Interlochen Arts Academy, she went on to graduate from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance with the highest honors in 2001. In 2003, Ms. Alter joined the Limón Dance Company, She has had the privilege of performing works of Jose Limón, Doris Humphrey, Jiri Kylian, Lar Lubovitch, Susanne Linke, and Jonathan Riedel. In addition to dancing with the Limón Company, Ms. Alter is a founding member of the Riedel Dance Theater, and has enjoyed projects with Alan Danielson and Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater. Her choreography has been presented in New York City at a variety of venues, including the Limón Studio, Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater, the DUMBO Arts Festival, and SUNY Purchase.

Faye Driscoll was hailed as "1 of 25 to watch out for in 2008" by Dance Magazine. Her recent work, 837 Venice Boulevard, was named "one of the top 5 dance shows of 2008" by the New York Times. Driscoll’s video flip book dance, Loneliness, was featured in Younger Than Jesus the first edition of the New Museum’s new signature triennial in which fifty select artists from twenty-five countries are presented. Driscoll began creating There is so much mad in me this summer through a commission from the American Dance Festival and has continued it’s creation through the support of residencies at Kaatsbaan, University Settlement and The Joyce SoHo. In addition to creating her own work, Driscoll is inspired by her collaborations with several theater artists. She is currently choreographing for Cynthia Hopkins new show, The Truth: A Tragedy, premiering at Soho Rep in 2010. Recently she directed and choreographed for Taylor Mac's 5-act epic extravaganza,The Lily's Revenge, a sold-out hit at HERE Arts Center in October 2009. In the recent past she choreographed for Jennifer Miller's Cracked Ice, the National Theater of the United States of America'sChautauqua! and Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment and Church.

Driscoll is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Joyce SoHo, was a member of the HERE Artists Residency Program 2007-2009 and a BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange Artist-in-Residence 2005-2007.Driscoll was a member of Doug Varone and Dancers, performed extensively with Yasmeen Godder and was choreographic assistant to David Neumann in his creation of The Common Foreign Language of the Red-Haired People with Mikhail Baryshnikov. She holds a BFA from NYU's Tisch School for the Arts. www.fayedriscoll.com

Mana Kawamura  grew up studying dance at the Izumi Kawamura Dance Studio, a dance school her grandmother established in 1953. In 2001 she traveled to Germany to study under Dominque Merci and Malou Airaudo (both members of Pina Bausch Dance Company) at the Folkwang Hochschule, Germany until 2003. She then returned to Japan and started dancing as a member of the Izumi Kawamura Dance Company. In addition to this, she choreographed and performed her own solo for the All Japan Modern Dance Competition in Akita, and received 1st prize. Continuing to the national competition in Tokyo, she placed 7th. She then applied for and received a scholarship from the Agency for cultural affairs in Japan to further studies abroad, and traveled to New York in 2006. She has received first prize at the Yokohama competition choreographic department 2010.

In New York City, she has choreographed a new solo which she has performed several times in the city. Furthermore, she has been selected by the "Audition for New Steps: an emerging choreographer series" Spring of 2008 and 2009 to show a new work for drive dancers. Her choreography also has been presented at Dance Theatre Workshop, Joyce Soho, 92nd Street Y, Movement Research at Judson Church, Bric Studio, Cunningham Studio, The Chocolate Factory, and the Flea Theater. She is a current Artist-in-Residence at Dance New Amsterdam 2010-2011.  In 2010, she received a space grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and also the Emergivng Artist Commissioning Program at STREB Lab for Action Mechanics 2011 to create a new work.  www.manakawamura.com

Bennyroyce Royon born in the Philippines, started professional dance training at age 16, under the tutelage of Wade Walthall, at the Evergreen City Ballet Academy in Auburn, Washington. In 2006, Bennyroyce received his BFA degree from The Juilliard School where he danced notable works by Jose Limon, Paul Taylor, Mark Morris and world premieres by Jessica Lang, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Ron Brown, Eliot Feld, Alan Hineline, and Jill Johnson. He has freelanced with numerous companies in New York City such as the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Sidra Bell Dance NY, and Collective Body Dance Lab. 

Bennyroyce is a founding member of Rasta Thomas' all male dance company, Bad Boys of Dance. He has also toured Canada and Europe with Cas Public, a Montréal-based contemporary dance company. Bennyroyce has taught ballet & contemporary classes in Seattle, New York City, Montréal, and Jacob's Pillow. He has received choreographic commissions from The Evergreen City Ballet, Bad Boys of Dance, The Juilliard School, and most recently from Atlanta Ballet.  He currently dances with Armitage Gone! Dance.  www.bennyroyce.com


Matthew Westerby Artistic Director, Dancer, Teaching Artist is originally from the UK and trained at Laban, London. He worked professionally in the UK with Transitions Dance Company, Smallpetitklein, NMO, Celia Grannum and Influx. After relocating to New York in 2005, Matthew performed with Nai-Ni Chen, Dusan Tynek, Risa Jaroslow, Covenant Ballet Theatre of Brooklyn, Sue Hogan, Tze Chun, Peter Kyle and Bronwen MacArthur, and was a member of Roland Gebhardt's The Only Tribe.
Westerby works as a freelance choreographer, and has previously shown work in venues in the UK, in Poland, in Connecticut, and in New York at Dance New Amsterdam, Movement Research (at Dance Theater Workshop), Covenant Ballet Theatre of Brooklyn and at the Gene Frankel Theater. Most recently, his duet Slow Fall was presented by BAX as part of the Upstart Festival, The Evolve Festival (Tarrytown, NY) and at DNA’s 25th birthday celebration. Westerby is choreographer-in-residence for SHADOW/Light Contemporary Dance Ensemble (Staten Island, NY), a pre-professional dance company. He was also commissioned to make work for Dancewave Company II, Covenant Ballet Theatre of Brooklyn, Evolve Dance Company (Tarrytown, NY) and the Dance Department at Naugatuck Valley Community College (CT). He will choreograph an adaptation ofThe Sleeping Beauty for the Hudson Guild Theatre Company in 2012.As an international teacher and educator, Westerby has taught classes and led workshops at  schools and colleges including Laban, the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance, Naugatuck Valley Community College and the International Contemporary Dance Conference & Performance Festival/Silesian Dance Theatre (Poland), as well as working throughout the New York City metro area with all ages in public schools, studio, community and professional settings.