Maria Gillespie
Program Director
Maria Gillespie (she/her) is a choreographer, performer, dance and somatic educator. She is a CLMA Laban Bartenieff Movement Analyst and certified Pilates teacher. She directs MG/The Collaboratory and Hyperlocal MKE, both dedicated to interdisciplinary collaboration and improvised performance practice. Gillespie developed the community teaching project, Parts of the Whole-The Body is Home, to bring creative somatics, dance, and community building to system impacted individuals. These community practices are based on the belief that liberation begins in the body. Focusing on outreach to incarcerated youth, Parts of the Whole shares kinesthetic learning and expressive experiences as a way to address prison abolition through transformative justice and building communities. By developing creative movement in collective settings, individuals recognize and strengthen their voice to connect parts to a greater whole.
Regionally, Gillespie has collaborated with artists Nirmal Raja, Sonja Thomsen, Glenn Williams, Nathaniel Stern, Joelle Worm, Christal Wagner, Tim Russell, Devin Drobka, Barry Paul Clark, Mike Rea, and dozens of choreographers and composers to create collaborative performances. Gillespie founded and directed LA-based Oni Dance (2003-2015) and was named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch". Gillespie's dances... "ricochet between vulnerability and strength with razor-sharp shifts in intensity and intent" (LA Times). Her work has been presented nationally and internationally including The Ford Amphitheatre, The Getty Museum, the Roy and Edna Disney/Cal Arts Theater (REDCAT), UCLA's Department of World Arts & Cultures, Cal Arts, The Fowler Museum, Highways Performance Space, Joyce SoHo and CounterPULSE. Gillespie has performed and taught in Beijing, Guangzhou, Tokyo, and Mexico City. She has taught at UCLA Department of World Arts & Cultures, Cal Arts, Loyola Marymount University, University of Iowa, Dance New Amsterdam (NY), Beijing Modern Dance Festival and was a choreographic and teaching resident in Mexico City with Apoc Apoc. Choreographic commissions include The Getty Center, Loyola Marymount University, Scripps College, Pomona College, Cal State Long Beach, Utah Valley University, University of Florida, and Santa Monica College dance departments. She is grant recipient from The Wisconsin Arts Board, The Durfee Foundation, The Irvine Foundation, UWM’s Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, The Center for International Education and was a 2014 UWM Global Studies Fellow. In 2019, she was a UWM Research Mentor of the year nominee for her commitment to undergraduate research and received the 2019 Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. onidance.org | hyperlocalmke.com
"Teaching for me is about creating spaces for folks to connect; connect to and honor their own experience, to appreciate and celebrate their embodied self and to connect to others to celebrate and support others. Dancing for me is really about communication and making meaning with others. In teaching movement, I find solace in the ongoing practice of being a resource to others, to uniting people in movement, ultimately to heal, to create beautiful moments, and even to embrace the harsh moments with rigorous tenderness. And to mine spaces where we are healing together. Dancing saved my life. I don't know if it can do that for others, but it makes it so I'm able to manage the weight of the world, in space, in music, and with friends."
Photo by Dylan Bernard
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Nicki Gamroth
Student Program Assistant and Teaching Artist
Nicki Gamroth (pronouns she/her/hers) is a senior Design and Visual Communications major at UWM and will be graduating in Spring 2021 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. During her time in college, she has found that a balance between hand lettering, designing, and hands on artisan work has kept her to pursue the path that she is most grateful to walk. While in college Nicki has worked to explore social justice topics and create work that reflects movement towards peace and community. Her Fall Capstone called “MeWe” was a student facilitated in-class workshop structured to collectively build safer, more growth provoking dialogue in the classroom to support critical thinkers and community. Nicki believes that we learn as we heal and achieving collective healing can help us reconstruct the world we need. Nicki plans to continue to create work that revolves around agency, connection, and equal education. Through creativity and art she hopes the spirit of her work carries love, color, and sense of wonder.
More of Nicki’s work can be found at nickigamroth.com
Photo by: JD Byrne
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Zoe Garnett
Student Program Assistant and Teaching Artist
Zoe Garnett is a dancer and performing artist from Appleton, WI. She has trained at three dance schools across the country, including several years at a pre-professional ballet school. From an early age, she has had a desire to share her love for dance with those not normally able to experience the beauty that the artform has to offer due to racial and class biases. Driven by a passion to make dance more accessible, Zoe is currently exploring how dance and somatic practices can be applied in therapeutic settings. Having begun her own personal journey seeking treatment for PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder), and completed several months of intensive treatment, Zoe learned about somatic properties as a healing practice for trauma and is excited to begin to incorporate this information into her movement practice and research. In the future, she hopes to help share this knowledge among marginalized communities to teach how dance is healing for the body, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Zoe is currently in the Honors College pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. During her time in the department, she enjoyed performing in faculty-selected piece, “Ex Nihilo” by Maddie Prokop in “New Dancemakers: Disconnect//Reconnect.” She plans to return to performing in the spring, and desires to incorporate her research in all facets of her movement. After taking the last year off to deal with medical issues, Zoe is happy to be back in Milwaukee as it presents her with invaluable performance, learning, and teaching opportunities.
Photo by Humberto Decanini
Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro
Student Program Assistant and Teaching Artist
Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro (he/him) is a Mexican performing artist and dancer. He started his training at the University of Guanajuato, having a multidisciplinary approach, combining mostly contemporary dance and acting techniques. He has trained and performed the work of Mexican choreographers such as Juan Caudillo, Sylvia Salomon, and Selene Aguirre, and with theater directors such as David Eudave, Israel Araujo and Eugenia Cano. He participated in dance workshops with Edgar Zendejas, Adolfo de la Tova, and FDR (Formal Dance Research) Dance Company. He has performed at the International Cervantino Festival (2016) with the multidisciplinary play, Todo Puede Ser, directed by Horacio Almada, as well as the starring role in the short film, Azul, directed by Charlie Zamora and presented at the Guanajuato International Film Festival.
He is currently focusing on his dance training at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, doing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Contemporary Dance Performance and Choreography. He has performed in works by Maria Gillespie and Water Street Dance Company, and more recently he has appeared in the pieces, Steel Moon, by Emma Draves and Things We Carry, by Bernard Brown. Currently, he is part of the works in process of Caitlin Mahon and Joe Goode, which are going to be performed at UWM Dance department´s Springdances 2020.
Photo by Carlos Aguirre
Ida Lucchesi
Student Program Assistant and Teaching Artist
Ida Lucchesi (she/they) works at the intersection of movement exploration and communities that have historically been ignored. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in dance and a Bachelor of Science in social work from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. With focuses dealing in interpersonal relationships and community building, Ida aims to connect the LGBTQ+ community to the benefits that come from art education. Her primary research interests include creating space for marginalized communities to find joy in their own bodies, and the relationships developed by people who take up space society has historically denied them. Ida has produced and presented work in the Milwaukee Fringe Festival, and she has worked with artists Andrea Burkholder, Posy Knight, and with Joe Goode on the piece Real Stories, a work supported by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2019.
Now, Ida is studying at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Social work and a Bachelor of Arts in Dance.
Photo by Alberto Lucchesi
Victoria “Tori” Isaac
Student Program Assistant and Teaching Artist
Victoria “Tori” Isaac (she/her) is a dancer, researcher, and educator. Currently based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, her work explores the ideas of cultural citizenship, body politics, and the intersection of social inequality and educational opportunity within the United States. A Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Scholar, she holds research appointments within both the departments of Dance and Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her current research projects examine the effects of arts education on student achievement among Black and Latinx high school students, as well as the role of movement education within young, incarcerated populations.
Victoria is currently completing her Bachelor of Arts degree, double majoring in Dance and Sociology. She has performed collegiately and professionally throughout Milwaukee and the Midwest, appearing in works by Wild Space Dance Company, Bernard Brown, Christal Wagner, Melanie George, and Jade Charon.
Photo by Christal Wagner
Natalie Derr
Student Program Assistant and Visual Artist
Natalie Derr (she/her) is a visual artist, researcher, and mentor working within Milwaukee communities. Born and raised in Wisconsin, Derr has a strong commitment to working with people locally, such as participating in local art builds, mentoring with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and collaborating on community art projects. Her personal work explores the ideas of home, rural identity, self-expression as healing, and community togetherness through the arts. Her primary mediums include digital and traditional painting. She served as a Student Artist in Residence for two years with the Milwaukee nonprofit, Islands of Brilliance, where she led design thinking workshops for neurodiverse individuals on the autism spectrum. Working with this community has been a great opportunity to see how art can empower on an individual level and professionalize creative awareness. Additionally, she helped spearhead the Brilliant Treasures Program, that connects Islands of Brilliance students with local nursing home residents as pen-pals.
Derr is currently a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee graduating in December with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Digital Studio Practice and a focus in Painting and Drawing. She was also a teaching assistant for Intro to Printmaking at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Photo by Hayley Pauli
Autumn Powless
Student Program Assistant and Teaching Artist
Autumn Powless (she/her) is a Native American dancer, born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Autumn has worked with local Milwaukee/Madison artists on music videos, promotional videos, performances, as well as performing around the community at local events. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Dance and Psychology with a certificate in Childhood and Adolescent Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has worked alongside faculty and students in multiple performances and course work including performances with Maria Gillespie and Demar Walker with exposure to Dance Movement Therapy curriculum by Rena Kornblum of Madison, Wisconsin. She has performed with many organizations including Originz Crew and has experience teaching dance for studios and organizations around the Milwaukee area.
This past summer, she interned with the Milwaukee non-profit, City on a Hill Inc., within their youth center planning and teaching dance classes and curating wellness programs. Currently, she works as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks 414 Crew and has been with them for three seasons.
Photo by Sonya Kammes
Jasmine Uras
Student Program Assistant and Teaching Artist
Jasmine Uras (she/her) is a performing artist, educator, and researcher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is trained in several techniques as well as multiple experiences teaching in dance studios, recreational centers, and art programs. As an educator, she utilizes her studies about Montessori and Emilia Reggio philosophies within her teaching in academic and dance settings. Her research focuses on the way children and young adults use art to heal and overcome issues in their communities. She is an advocate for funding art programs within urban education in cities like Milwaukee and Chicago. Jasmine aims to bring artistic opportunities to communities in need and build relationships using movement and music with her passion of teaching.
Jasmine is currently completing her Bachelor of Arts in Dance as well as studies in the Early Childhood Education department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has performed collegiately in works by Gina Laurenzi, Parijat Densai, Demar Walker, Dani Kuepper, and Dan Schuchart.
Photo by Natalie Dibert