Festival Schedule and Info: Fri Oct 16

Welcome to Interconnected: A Dance Festival of Bodies, Technology,
and Shared Space!

Fri Oct 16, 2026 @ 2:00 PM – 8:00 PM 
Sat Oct 17, 2026 @ 12:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Lathrop Hall, 1050 University Ave, Madison, WI

Welcome to a two-day pop-up dance festival bringing together digital, site-specific, and live performance works presented throughout multiple spaces within the historic Lathrop Hall. Highlighting the ongoing creative research of Assistant Professors Omari Carter and Bradford Chin of the Dance Department, this festival weaves together diverse movement traditions and collaborative performances, showcasing work that explores how choreography can move between bodies, technologies, and environments.

Across both days, audiences are invited to encounter dance in many forms and locations: digital works activating screens and mediated spaces, and live choreographic works unfolding in shared environments that encourage exploration and movement between rooms. With multiple events occurring simultaneously and in repetition, visitors can create their own path through the festival experience.

The program remains the same each day, allowing audiences multiple opportunities to engage with the programmed works and even revisit performances. The theater program anchors the festival, while additional installations, site-responsive works, and digital pieces are presented throughout the venue before and after the theater showcase at specific time slots. Together, these works offer a dynamic snapshot of contemporary choreographic inquiry where dance expands on and beyond the stage and into the architecture, technologies, and communities that shape how we move.

This two-day pop-up dance festival brings together digital, site-specific, and live performance works presented throughout multiple spaces within the historic Lathrop Hall.

From the years 2011 – 2025, Carter was the founder and creative director of award-winning screendance production company Motion Dance Collective (MDC), in which he directed, produced, choreographed and performed in over 50 screendance works that screened at over 100 festivals worldwide. Through MDC, Carter strengthened his mission to make and curate screendance works that brought underrepresented bodies, cultures and dance-styles to the forefront of the lens.

​​​​​In 2020, Omari graduated from the trailblazing MA in Screendance at London Contemporary Dance School (LCDS), where he became an assistant lecturer in dance until 2023. During his Master’s study, Carter developed his final dissertation which examined the role of hip-hop dance within the diegesis of screendance practice, highlighting digital hip-hop dance narratives from an urban-British perspective.

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Bradford’s work is informed by an emphasis on community-engaged artistic practice as a means of preserving and sharing our community histories toward a more connected future. Specializing in disability dance, Disability Justice-informed critically inclusive dance pedagogy, and creative process and aesthetics, Bradford has taught contemporary ballet, modern, and improvisation and/as composition techniques across the United States and internationally. Their artistic lineage includes Laurel Jenkins (Trisha Brown), Lorin Johnson (American Ballet Theatre), Gracie Whyte (WHYTEBERG/Ground Grooves), Sophie Monat (Lille Opera Ballet), Rebecca Lemme (River North Dance Chicago), Keith Johnson (Bill T. Jones, Doug Varone), and others.

Bradford earned a BFA in Dance from California State University, Long Beach, an MFA in Dance from the University of California, Irvine, and a Certificate in Social Justice and Diversity from City College of San Francisco. Their work has received support from the California Arts Council, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Actors Fund, among others. He was formerly a research consultant with Dance Data Project, two-year artist in residence with High Concept Labs (Chicago, IL), and company member with AXIS Dance Company (Berkeley, CA), one of the world’s leading ensembles of disabled and nondisabled dancers. Bradford joined the University of Wisconsin–Madison Dance Department in 2025.

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM: Installation Circuit 1

• Our Vibes Installation | Virginia Harrison Parlor (15-min bookable slots)
• Afon 11 / River 11 | Studio 249
• UDF Film Loop | Classroom 138
• 2:15 & 3:15 PM: Falling Up Stairs | Lobby Stairs
• 2:45 & 3:30 PM: 아리랑 (Arirang) | Studio 349

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4:00 PM – 4:30 PM: Break

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4:30 PM – 6:30 PM: Installation Circuit 2

• Our Vibes Installation | Virginia Harrison Parlor (15-min bookable slots)
• Afon 11 / River 11 | Studio 249
• UDF Film Loop | Classroom 138
• 4:30 & 5:30 PM: Falling Up Stairs | Lobby Stairs
• 5:00 & 6:00 PM: 아리랑 (Arirang) | Studio 349

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6:30 PM – 7:00 PM: Theater Opens

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7:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Theater Program
Live and digital dance works by:
Omari Carter
Bradford Chin
Migration Dance Film Project
Motion Dance Collective
Edward Salas
Tania Tandias

Unfolding Disability Futures Film Loop
Film Installation | Classroom 138
Running TIme: 82 minutes

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Screening Times: 
Friday, October 16, 2026
2:00-6:30 PM

Curated by Bradford Chin, Unfolding Disability Futures (Chicago, IL), and Silva Laukkanen (USA/ Finland), this installation presents films created by or highlighting disabled movement and visual artists. This screening brings attention to how historic Lathrop Hall’s geographic location and physical building layout might impact the absence of various disabled bodies from its space, how digital technology can provide a stopgap to temporarily bridge inaccessibility and absence toward connection across shared spaces, and how various disability experiences have lived and continue to live in UW–Madison’s historic Lathrop Hall and Dance Department.

Films:

• Moods in Three Movements (2024), UDF / Erlikh / Lenzo, 4:20 mins
• Radiate (2021), UDF / Bridger, 18:50 mins
• Occupied Lives (2024), Nohae (노해), 2:45 mins
• City of Glitches (2023), Hernández Cruz, 8:00 mins
• These Two (2025, excerpt), Dreyer / Tebandeke, 7:00 mins
• Nature in Motion (2026), Kaaos / Meet Share Dance, 15:00 mins
• Row Your Boat (2025), Golden, 12:55 mins
• Kyalimpa (premiere), Vaster / Tebandeke, 3:35 mins
• All of Us (2023), Griffin / milkleaf, 7:15 mins

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Digital works curated by Omari Carter
Live performance works curated by Bradford Chin and Erica Pinigis / Isthmus Dance Collective

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Production
Concert Coordinators: Omari Carter, Brandford Chin
Technical Director & Lighting Designer:  Claude Heintz
Stage Manager: Leah Bulson
Crew: Maleah Bux, Ava Anderson
Publicity/Graphic Design: Kelly Kwiatkowski
Videographers: Cut The Deck Creative, Aaron Granat, Tori Duhaime
Photographers: Eric Baillies

MAGGIE BRIDGER (Radiate) is a sick and disabled dance & fiber artist, arts organizer, and scholar interested in reimagining pain through the creative process. Maggie is a 2022 & 2025 City of Chicago Individual Artist Program grantee. Her work has been shown at The Steppenwolf Theater Company’s LookOut Series, High Concept Labs, Elevate Chicago Dance, The Art Institute of Chicago, Cottey College, and CounterBalance, among others. Maggie is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois, Chicago where she is conducting archival and ethnographic research in service of her dissertation project, Dancing With/in Pain. Her writing has been published in the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, Le Sociographe, The HowlRound and the Journal of Cultural and Literary Disability Studies. She is Membership & Conference Manager with the Dance Studies Association and serves on the organizing committee for the Chicago Dance Studies Working Group. Web: MaggieBridger.com | IG: @MaggLiz

JEN COSTILLO (Survival) is a multifocal artist with a deep background in classical ballet, contemporary and modern dance. When she is not dancing, she works in high tech and enjoys merging technology with art to discuss society and technology issues. Costillo was a member of High Release Dance collective, Artist Edge, and the Natasha Carlitz Dance Ensemble, including its performance at the Egyptian Modern Dance Festival in Cairo and Alexandria. Previous roles include the Nutcracker as Drosselmeyer and Raul Salamanca’s contemporary ballet pieces. She trained under Linda Rickert, Marny Trounson, Carmela Peter, Zoltan Peter, and Gloria Mohr. Costillo served on the founding board of directors for Push Dance Company in San Francisco. She earned SJDanceCo’s Choreoproject Award for Optional in 2019, and self-produced her first show in 2023. Web: CatMachinesDance.com | IG: @CatMachinesDance

VANESSA HERNÁNDEZ CRUZ (City of Glitches) is a Chicana disabled multidisciplinary dance artist based in Los Angeles, CA. Over the past years, Vanessa has presented dance work locally, nationally, and internationally. In Spring 2026, she was a guest choreographer at James Madison University where she set a new work on their students, Catacombs of Cyborgs: Exodus I, set to premiere in Fall 2026. She recently received an Exemplary Women in LA Dance award presented by Mashup Dance Company, highlighting the work she has done in the Los Angeles Dance Community, as well as a “49 Under 49” award from California State University, Long Beach, celebrating her achievements in dance as an alumnus. She is a 2025 NEFA National Dance Project recipient (ongoing) for her new evening length work, Echoing Memories in a Distance Future, uplifting marginalized Disabled artists. Web: GalaxiesDance.info | IG: @GalaxiesDance

CHRISTELLE DREYER (These Two) is a Cape Town-based artist who combines choreography, performance, and visual design across a 25-year professional practice. Trained in visual communication design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Christelle has produced corporate identities, posters, books, and campaigns for dance companies and festivals. Her design work informs her choreographic approach, bringing a strong visual logic to movement, staging, and dramaturgy through the lens of inclusive and accessible design. She has performed in theatre and dance productions including Marat/Sade at the Baxter Theatre and No Function All Anguage at festivals nationally and abroad. Additional performance and creation credits include Balloons (de Stilte / ASSITEJ South Africa, 2024) and Sister I Can Feel It In My Bones (Kaaos Company / X Dance Festival, 2025). For her contribution to the arts, Christelle received the Western Cape Government Cultural Affairs Award in 2017. IG: @ChristelleDance

SYDNEY ERLIKH (Moods in Three Movements) is a pained dancer and educator based in Chicago, IL and a founding member of Unfolding Disability Futures. She earned her PhD in Disability Studies from the University of Illinois, Chicago, conducting a multi-site ethnography on inclusive dance companies with dancers with intellectual disabilities in Finland and South Africa. She was a 2023-2024 Fulbright Finland Fellow at the University of the Arts (Helsinki, FI) and was a fellow with the Finlandia Foundation, the American Scandinavian Foundation, and the Defense Language and National Security Education Office (Boren) for her research on dance and disability. Her research has been published in the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, Le Sociographe, RACAR, Choreographic Practices, and See Chicago Dance. Erlikh has two decades of experience teaching in K-12, higher education, and community settings and teaches regularly for UDF & Synapse Arts’ weekly Inclusive Dance Workshop series.

BRIAN GOLDEN (Row Your Boat) is a neurodivergent choreographer based between Los Angeles and New York. His interdisciplinary practice blends dance, theater, spoken word, and object-based performance to create immersive, surreal environments. Rooted in his lived experience with dyspraxia and auditory processing disorder, his work transforms sensory experience into embodied storytelling. Golden holds a BFA in Dance Performance with a minor in Film Production from Chapman University and an MFA in Choreography with minors in Pedagogy and Integrated Media from the California Institute of the Arts. He is the inaugural Research Fellow at BEMOVING and served as a teaching artist at The Broad in Los Angeles. His recent highlights include choreographic residencies with Jacob’s Pillow, Dance Lab New York, and Dance Gallery Festival. His work has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, Jacob’s Pillow, The Joyce Theater, Battery Dance Festival, Catskill Art Space, SCI-Arc, New Century Dance Project, and the McCallum Choreography Festival. Web: BrianGolden.dance; IG: @BrianGolden13

CHARLOTTE GRIFFIN (All of Us), from Durham, NC, is a Southern California-based contemporary choreographer exploring the fleeting and enduring nature of the human experience in live performance, screendance, and multimedia platforms. In 2020, she founded milkleaf to support independent and collaborative dancemaking across a broad aesthetic and technological field. Versed in multiple social, somatic, and concert dance forms, Griffin generates emotionally resonant performances that explore memory, connection, and our shared humanity. With three decades of international artistic and academic experience, she is recognized for building bridges between higher education and the professional field, for cultivating holistic, inclusive learning environments, and for celebrating the arts as an essential component of a thriving society. Griffin holds a BFA from The Juilliard School and an MFA from UT Austin. She is delighted to support the next generation of dance artists as an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of California, Irvine. Web: MilkLeaf.org; IG: @MilkLeafProductions

SILVA LAUKKANEN (Co-Curator, UDF Film Loop), based in Austin, TX and her native Finland, has spent over 20 years in disability dance education, community artistry, and arts activism in Europe and the US. Previously the director of integrated dance at both Art Spark Texas (TX) and Keshet Dance (NM), she led Refocusing Dance Education, a national project on disability dance education, through three funding awards from the National Endowment for the Arts (2020-2026). She earned a BFA in Dance from North Karelia College Outokumpu (Finland) and an MA in Community Dance from The Place / London Contemporary Dance School  & University of the Arts London (UK). Certified in the DanceAbility method since 2003, Silva is currently board president of Kaaos Company (Helsinki), co-founder of Tractus Art, and director of X Dance Festival (Helsinki). Her book, Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance, co-authored with Emmaly Wiederholt (Stance on Dance), is available for purchase through Bookshop.org.

MIGRATION DANCE FILM PROJECT The migration dance film project is the creative collaboration between two pioneers breaking conventions within their respective artistic practices: screendance film director Marlene Millar and percussive dance choreographer Sandy Silva.

Sound plays an equally prominent role throughout the progression of these stories where the performers’ sonorous connection to the different landscapes and surfaces they navigate are as telling in narrative form as the deeply breathtaking visuals.

The films explore the migratory experience for the artists themselves and the communities engaged with — nomadic storytellers connected by the intimate knowledge of individual and shared experiences in unison. Renewed interpretations between hushed abstract formations are captured and the defiant personal gravity that displacement deeply imprints.

Silva’s choreography translates through Millar’s camera in a porous lingering resonance. An assemblage of sound design, montage and alternative screens all reside as a visceral convergence that the opening of possibilities allot — offering an intimacy impossible to see or hear on a live stage.

NOHAE (노해) (Occupied Lives) is an interdisciplinary artist, activist, and researcher. They explore the complex realities of how disabilities are produced, perceived, and represented amid critical sociopolitical issues. Informed by disability studies, queer and decolonial theories, memory studies, and architectural sociology, their practice connects personal narratives with broader political structures. They approach art as a site for relation-building, critical reflection, and shared imagining, fostering intersectional and transdisciplinary exchanges between art, activism, and research toward liberatory futures. IG: @HanBamHae

ERICA PINIGIS (Co-Curator, Live Performance) started dancing as a teen and received her BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota. She produced and choreographed at Suburban World Theater and Varsity Theater, was curated by the Red Eye Theater, and was Artist in Residence at the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Arts. Erica has performed with Kanopy Dance Company, Peel and Core Dance Company, University Dance Theater, Zenon Block E performance group, Eclectic Edge Ensemble, and Marylee Hardenbergh’s Global Site Performance. Erica migrated to the Bay Area where she performed with Facing East Dance & Music, Paco Gomes & Dancers, Natasha Carlitz Dance Ensemble, Slick Babble Dance Project, H2O Dance, and Bianca Cabrera’s Blind Tiger Society. Erica completed her MFA in performance and choreography at Mills College and received the E.L Wiegand Award for excellence in performance and choreography. Since returning to Madison, Erica co-founded Isthmus Dance Collective, a non-profit cooperatively run organization that supports dance artists.
Web: IsthmusDanceCollective.org; IG: @IsthmusDanceCollective

ELISABETH ROSKOPF 이지영 (아리랑 (Arirang)), born in South Korea and raised in Wisconsin, is a dancer, performer, choreographer, educator, pianist, and a mother to her daughter. She is a company member of Li Chiao-Ping Dance, Danceworks Performance MKE, and Wild Space Dance Company. Elisabeth earned her Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her Dance MFA thesis concert, | Out of Place |, became a platform for her to create the first Transracial Asian American Adoptee Dance Project in Milwaukee. She currently teaches dance at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Marquette University, and she is a first cycle recipient of the 2026 Create Wisconsin Statewide Artist Grant Program. As a Korean American Dance Artist, Elisabeth’s research and choreographic work cultivate a space for Adoptees and Artists of Color to be visible in the fullness of their identity and express their stories through movement while fostering belonging. Web: JeeYeongDance.com | IG: @ElisabethRoskopf

EDWARD SALAS (Tsunami) began dancing at 19 while earning his AA in Theater Arts at Mt. San Antonio College. He later received his BA in Dance from California State University, Fullerton. Edward has performed with Re:borN Dance Interactive, FUSE Dance Company, Contemporary West Dance Theatre, and Disneyland Parades. Edward holds a black belt in taekwondo, which informs his dynamic movement style through precision, control, and grounded power. Rooted in the Limón and Graham techniques, his choreography explores themes of cultural identity, environmental sustainability, and the romanticization of the West Coast. Since relocating to Madison to join Kanopy Dance Company in 2022, Edward has developed new works with Central Midwest Ballet Academy, Kanopy Dance Academy, the Unincorporated Dance Lab, Isthmus Dance Collective’s D.E.L.V.E. choreographic incubator, and Dance Wisconsin. He was selected for the second Wisconsin Dance Council’s Emerging Artist Mentorship Program (2025) and premiered his latest work, Torch, in Milwaukee in January 2026. IG: @ElephantEddie

LIZ SEXE (Falling Up Stairs) is the choreographer/artistic director of Liz Sexe Dance. Her choreography “encourages viewers to ponder hard questions with humor, poignancy, and a bittersweet sense of irony.” In the Madison Isthmus, she is described as a “clean and efficient mover,” and having “toughness under her grace.” In her processes, tasks inspire poetic movement, game theory finds logical, yet often unexpected phrasing, and athletic dancing is paired with deep intentionality. Her choreographic work has been featured at the World Dance Alliance Festival in Hawaii, Arts on Site in New York and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in Spring Green, WI. In 2018, she was an artist in residence at The Bubbler at Madison’s Central Library which gave her the opportunity to expand her passion for installations and multimedia work. Currently, Sexe is Teaching Faculty at UW Madison, is creating new work each season with Liz Sexe Dance, and is part of a team of artists committed to sharing dance in Dane County. Find out more at lizsexedance.com.

TANIA TANDIAS (Colombianas) studied flamenco, Spanish classical, and escuela bolera with two of the top flamenco dancers in the US, Pablo Rodarte and Eva Enciñias-Sandoval (Albuquerque, NM). She additionally studied with Juana Amaya (Seville), Rosa Montoya (San Francisco), and other Spanish artists including La Tati, Ciro, Eva “La Yerbabuena,” Javier LaTorre, Antonio Canales, and Lola and Carmela Greco. She performed with Maria Benitez’s Nuevo Flamenco (Santa Fe, NM) and Alma Flemenca (Albuquerque, NM), performing and teaching throughout the state and at the acclaimed annual Festival Flamenco Internacional (Albuquerque, NM). Tandias now lives in her hometown of Madison, WI, introducing the beauty and passion of flamenco and Spanish dance to fellow Wisconsinites. She has choreographed and performed for Madison Opera, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Milwaukee Ballet, Oshkosh Symphony Orchestra, Kanopy Dance Company, and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Tandias received the 2016 Choreography and Performance Award from the Wisconsin Dance Council.
Web: FlamencoDance.net; IG: @TaniaTandiasFlamenco

UNFOLDING DISABILITY FUTURES (UDF Film Loop) is a grassroots collective of disabled, sick, injured, and neurodivergent artists founded to provide a platform for Chicago’s disabled performing artists to explore and create work. UDF’s shared leadership structure of core artists and its community network of local artists span artistic practices (dance, sound/music, theater, performance art, storytelling) deeply connected to the disability arts and culture movement and the development of disability aesthetics. UDF values cross-impairment collaboration, reveling in the perspectives and practices that come from folks with different impairments working toward a shared goal. They arrive at exciting and innovative solutions through conflicting access needs and priorities that arise during creative process, essential to the artistic community they seek to create. Partnered with Chicago-based organizations including High Concept Labs, Synapse Arts, and Access Living, UDF hosts disability performance arts workshops, labs, and weekly disability- centered movement classes. UDF has shared work throughout Chicago and in Atlanta (USA), South Africa, and Finland.
Web: UnfoldingDisabilityFutures.com; IG: @UnfoldingDisabilityFutures

UNINCORPORATED DANCE LAB (u.DL) (Tsunami) is a modern contemporary dance company based in Madison, WI. They strive to offer dancers and choreographers who maintain full-time work outside of the arts with a platform to create and perform original choreography. u.DL’s mission is to sustain collaborative artistic practice within a flexible, inclusive framework. This structure supports creative growth while acknowledging the realities of working artists’ lives. Catch u.DL’s upcoming Season 3 production, dis•sonnance, at the Sunrise Theater, Madison Youth Arts, October 29-31. IG: @the_u.dl

KYALIMPA VASTER (Kyalimpa) has been a competitive weightlifter since 2013, representing Uganda at international Paralympic competitions. She is also a passionate dancer and a member of Splash Dance Company, where she continues to develop her artistic practice and find new ways to express herself through movement. Web: SplashDanceCompany.org; IG: @SplashDanceCompany

LIGHTING DESIGNER

CLAUDE HEINTZ is a theatrical and software designer who has created lighting, settings, and video for numerous works seen on stage including hundreds of dance concerts with choreographers from around the globe. Recent highlights include pieces by Dyane HarveySalaam, Carol Teitelbaum/Merce Cunningham, Anna Halprin and José Limon. Heintz also designs and writes software and hardware for lighting that is used for all kinds of performances around the world. Over thirty years ago, MacLux Pro(tm) was one of the first software applications specifically created for drawing light plots. Heintz’s current software, including LXBeams, LXConsole, and open source dmx hardware/software libraries has been used for the planning and operation of this performance.

Acknowledgements
This concert is presented and produced by the Dance Department and is supported by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) Chancellor’s Fund and the School of Education. 

Dance Department Land Acknowledgement
Acknowledging Ho-Chunk Nation’s ancestral lands, University of Wisconsin–Madison Dance Department celebrates the rich traditions, heritage and culture that thrived long before our arrival. We respectfully recognize this Ho-Chunk land and affirm that we are better when we stand together.

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Thanks

This festival would not have been possible without the hard work of the many Power Rangers within the Dance Department. Huge thanks go to our Dance Department staff: Chris Hofland, Laura Drake, Evelyn Henriksen and Amairani Zepeda. This team keeps the engine running, and we are truly grateful for their unwavering support and service to our department. A special thanks to our Communications Manager Kelly Kwiatkowski for the beautiful poster design and marketing magic for the festival. Thank you to our poster photographer, UW dance major Hannah Byma, for helping us strike the right pose for the moment. Thank you also to Claude Heintz our, theater director, for his ongoing efforts to support interdisciplinary artworks within Lathrop Hall.

Oh wait, there are more to thank: Tim Russell, Jesse Darley, Aaron Granat, Tori Duhaime, Eric Baillies, Corey Holl, Katelyn Altmann, Everett Higa, our idiosyncratic guest artists and collaborators, the amazing theater team, our magnificent ushers and all of the Dance Department faculty and staff family! 

Last but not least, thank you to all who came out to support and engage in this work. Join us at our other UW–Madison Dance Department events this year, including our Centennial Celebration, April 14-17, 2027, celebrating 100 years of dance in higher education!

Until next time…