Tere O’Connor (Choreographer) has been making dances since 1983 and has created over 40 works for his company. They have been performed throughout the US, Europe, South America, and Canada. O’Connor has created numerous commissioned works for dance companies around the world. Among these have been works for Lyon Opera Ballet and the White Oak Dance Project. He has also created works for Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jean Butler and Peggy Baker among many solo commissions.
O’Connor is a 2009 United States Artist Rockefeller Fellow. He received a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. In 2014, O’Connor was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a recipient of a Foundation for Contemporary Art Award and was a 1993 Guggenheim Fellow. He has received three New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards and is a recipient of repeated grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, NEFA/National Dance Project, the New York Foundation for the Arts and many others.
An articulate and provocative educator, he has taught at festivals and universities around the globe. He is a Center for Advanced Studies Professor in Dance at the University of Illinois and divides his time between Champaign and New York City, where he has worked with his company, taught and mentored young artists for the last 45 years.
Tim Bendernagel (Performer) is a New York City-based dancer. He grew up in Brooklyn and began his training at Dancewave studio in Park Slope. He went on to graduate with a BFA from The Ohio State University in 2017. Most recently, Tim has performed in the works of Anna Sperber, Donna Uchizono, Stacy Spence, Chloe London, Ryan McNamara, Maya Lee Parritz, Sharleen Chidiac, and John Jasperse, among others.
Liony Garcia (Performer) is a dancer and choreographer from Miami, FL. He holds a BFA from New World School of the Arts. As a dancer, he has worked with BodyTraffic, brigid baker’s wholeproject, Bistoury Physical Theater and is a founding member of Rosie Herrera Dance Theater. Garcia’s choreography has been commissioned by Miami Light Project, The Ringling Museum, National Performance Network, The Aspen Institute, Pioneer Winter Collective, and New York Live Arts. His project Corporeal Decorum has been presented in partnership with MLP’s Here&Now Festival 2019, The Wolfsonian, the Miami Design Preservation League, New World Symphony, and Movement Research at Judson Church. Liony is thrilled to be performing with Tere O’Connor and the cast members of The Lace.
Gabriel Bruno Eng Gonzalez (Performer) is a multidisciplinary dance artist based in New York City. He is a former Fulbright Taiwan English Teaching Assistant and holds a B.A. from Beloit College and an MFA from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is online at Goob.online
Natalie Green (Performer) has danced for Big Dance Theater, Levi Gonzalez, Heather Kravas, Juliette Mapp, Tere O’Connor, Anna Sperber, RoseAnne Spradlin and Donna Uchizono. She was a 2023 Movement Research Parent Artist in Residence and has presented her own choreography at Dance Theater Workshop, The Chocolate Factory Theater, BAX and CPR. She grew up in Austin, TX and is a graduate of SUNY Purchase.
Aaron Loux (Performer) is a dance artist and educator living in New York City. He has performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Merce Cunningham Trust, Ellen Cornfield, and Christopher Williams. His choreography has been commissioned by the Juilliard School, Marymount Manhattan College, the Guggenheim’s Works & Process Artists Virtual Commissions series, and the Society for New Music. Aaron teaches on the faculty of Marymount Manhattan College, Dance for Parkinson’s®, and the Gibney Dance Center. Aaron holds a BFA in dance from Juilliard and graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University in 2025 with a BA in American Studies.
Emma Judkins (Understudy) is a Brooklyn based dancer and artist. She is the daughter of two performing artists, raised among unicycles, juggling balls, and studio mirrors. Emma graduated summa cum laude from Connecticut College with a BA in Dance and French in 2011. Described by The New York Times as “terrific,” and having “a natural, winning clarity,” she has performed most recently in work by Beth Gill, Tere O’Connor, Anna Sperber, and Pavel Zustiak/Palissimo Company. Emma is also a freelance administrator and bookkeeper. emmajudkins.com
Heather Olson (Performer) has been a dancer in NYC since 1997. She has received two Bessie Awards; one for her body of work with Tere O’Connor (2010) and another for her performance in Yanira Castro’s Dark Horse/Black Forest (2009). Olson worked with Tere O’Connor from 1997-2015, and is thrilled to be back. She has also worked with lots of other amazing choreographers. Olson’s choreography has been presented by The Chocolate Factory, Olgas Zitluhinas Dejas Kompanija in Riga, Latvia, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Dance Roulette, La Mama, Movement Research, Catch!, 100 Grand, and Creature Feature in Berlin, Germany.
Harriet Jung and Reid Bartelme (Costume Designers) met in 2009 while pursuing fashion design degrees at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. They started designing collaboratively in 2011 and work frequently with Pam Tanowitz, Kyle Abraham, and Justin Peck among others. They have devised costume centric performances for commissions from the Museum of Art and Design and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. They designed the costumes for the Broadway revival of Bob Fosse’s Dancin in 2023 and for Justin Peck’s Illinoise on Broadway in 2024. Reidandharriet.com
Michael O’Connor (Lighting Designer), contrary to popular belief, is not related to Tere but has collaborated with him for 27 years, creating the lighting for numerous works across their long-standing artistic partnership. Michael’s very first show in the dance world took place on this very spot with Tere in what was Dance Theatre Workshop back in 1998. Since then his designs have been seen in venues around the world, including BAM, New York City Center, The Joyce Theater, OTB, YBCA, The Kitchen, and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Aside from design, Michael’s favorite thing to do is spend ALL his free time watching his son play hockey.
Cynthia Hedstrom (Moderator) is the Producer with the experimental theater company The Wooster Group. She was the Producer and then Programming Director with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, CT from its founding in 1996 to 2004. Prior to the Festival, Hedstrom worked with The Wooster Group (1986–1996); was the Dance Curator at the Kitchen Center (1986–1990); and the Director of the Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church (1980–1983). She performed as a dancer in the 1970s with the Natural History of the American Dancer and the Lucinda Childs Dance Company, among others. She has been a panelist for a number of funding organizations including the NEA, NYSCA, DCLA, and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
