Performers and Collaborators
Amanda Browning is an Indianapolis-based dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She holds an M.F.A. in Dance from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a B.F.A. in Dance from Belhaven University. and has performed with various companies and projects, such as Ad Deum Dance Company (Houston, TX), Front Porch Dance (Jackson, MS), Kim Robards Dance (Denver, CO), Ormao Dance (Colorado Springs, CO), Moving Collective (Louisville, KY), Crossroads Dance, and Phoenix Rising Dance Company (Indianapolis, IN). Her work has been performed by companies such as the Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet, Louisville Ballet Student Company, Moving Collective, (IN)Dance, and Relevations Dance. Her work Shift was a South East Regional Ballet Association Festival recipient and her screen dance, ENOUGH, was presented at the 2024 Midwest Regional Alternative Dance festival. In addition to her studio teaching, Amanda has taught and choreographed for several colleges and trainee programs, including Belhaven University, Pikes Peak State College, Ballet Magnificat! Trainee Program, and Kentucky’s Governor's School of the Arts ARTShops. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at Taylor University where she teaches Modern, Ballet, Improvisation, Composition, Dance History, Pedagogy, and is the performing ensemble director.
Sarah Farnsley is a choreographer, dancer, and passionate dancers’ rights advocate. She holds a BFA in Dance Performance from Butler University and an MA in Dance Politics & Sociology from University of Roehampton in London, and her writing has been published in the Journal of Performing Arts Leadership in Higher Education. She has choreographed for Louisville Ballet, Ballet Memphis, and Ballet Theatre of Indiana. In 2017 she created and co-directed the dance film Absolution, which premiered at Dances With Films Festival (at the TCL Chinese theater) in LA and has appeared at more than a dozen international film festivals, winning awards for Best New Director and Best Experimental Short. Sarah began her dance career in the US, performing with the Louisville Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Chicago Repertory Ballet, Aerial Dance Chicago, Esoteric Dance Project, and Elements Contemporary Ballet. She was a guest artist with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal for 3 years before relocating to London, England. There she performed with English National Ballet at Royal Albert Hall as part of their 2016 Swan Lake production, as well as a season with New English Ballet Theatre. In 2019 she was invited by Édouard Lock to be his rehearsal assistant as he restaged his work Iolanta/The Nutcracker at the Paris Opera Ballet. During the pandemic, Sarah was selected to be part of the Mayor of London’s Creative Freelancers: Shaping London’s Recovery (CF:SLR) cohort where she led and authored reports for two research groups. She is currently the Managing Director of the Indy Dance Council, creators of the annual Indy Dance Festival.
Abigail Gerdes graduated from Indiana University in the spring of 2023 with a BFA in Contemporary Dance and is completing her Master's in Recreational Therapy. Abigail was raised in Wisconsin, where she began her dance education and gives much accreditation to Midwest Performing Arts. She has been trained in a variety of styles, including: tap, jazz, ballet, modern, contemporary, house, Bharatanatyam, African Diasporic, and hip hop. In her collegiate years, she made appearances in Bodies in Bold, Sounding Bodies, SLIP Showcase, Earthward, Journeys of Joy, and New Moves. In 2022, she attended the Fetna Convention in New York to perform Dr. Batley’s Bharatanatyam piece, “In the Beautiful Forest”. Abigail has worked alongside a number of choreographers such as Elizabeth Shea, Erik Abbott-Main, Stafford C. Berry, Cameron McKinney, Katie Mayfield, Evelyn Wang, Robert Burden, and Dr. Prathiba Natesan Batley, Kesha Milenkovic, and Robert Mckee. Recently, Abigail was awarded a grant to produce and showcase her choreographic work in-progress through the Chicago DanceMakers Forum. Abigail was a previous intern with Eisenhower Dance Detroit, and recently completed her first season as a company member with Inaside Chicago Dance.
Amanda Hoover has a passion for displaying dance on film in unique ways that push the boundary of how dance has traditionally been perceived. She graduated with dual degrees in Contemporary Dance and Cinema and Media Production from Indiana University in 2019. She has had five years in the professional filmmaking field as video editor at Paradox Post in Vineyard, Utah. While working there, she had the opportunity to direct, choreograph, and edit a dance film which won Best of Special Effects at the Utah Dance Film Fest in 2023. She also had the opportunity to work with renowned clients such as Panasonic, The Chosen, and push her knowledge and skillset of the post production world. She has recently moved back to Indianapolis, where she has continued her work in freelance filmmaking with a specialization in screendance.
Morgan Johnson grew up dancing in Greenwood, IN. She owes her love of dance to Stage 1 Dance Academy. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance and her minor in small business management from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. She currently teaches dance education to all ages at Stage 1 and loves sharing the art form with young minds. She has enjoyed dancing in Indy with Phoenix Rising Dance Company which is where she met Amanda Browning. She is eager for everyone to see this intriguing production. Morgan wants to thank all of her family, friends, fellow dancers, and Amanda for their endless love and support along the way!
Claire Liechty received her BFA in Contemporary Dance with a minor in Adaptive Movement/Exercise and her MS in Recreational Therapy during her time at Indiana University. Claire has recently performed and choreographed with fellow local Indy-based artists where she first met Amanda Browning; Claire has had the joy of working with Amanda on recent works including Suite Bru (2022) and A Little Less Noise Please (2023). Throughout her education, Claire had the privilege to perform works by several companies including Paul Taylor Dance Company, Company SBB, Eisenhower Dance Detroit, Boy Friday, and more. In addition to performing, Claire spreads her love of dance through teaching her wonderful students at a variety of studios around the Indy area. She also founded and directs Dance Abilities, an adaptive dance program where she combines dance with her therapeutic knowledge to translate into providing educational spaces for students of all needs and abilities. Claire wants to thank all who have been a part of her dance journey—she is thrilled to be back on stage performing Amanda’s expressive and compelling choreography!
Sarah Butts Zych is a local Indianapolis dancer, originally from Battle Creek, Michigan. Sarah received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance Performance from Anderson University in 2018. Since then she has been performing locally in the Midwest area, including performances with the Louisville Dance Series, Flourish, and Phoenix Rising Dance Company. On top of performing, Sarah is also the Artistic Director at Dance Connection in Indianapolis. She is thankful for the opportunity to cultivate local art to give to the community and to perform alongside such talented artists.
Film Collaborators
Lauren Curry received her early training at the Academy of Ballet Internationale in Indianapolis. After college, Curry joined the faculty at Midland Festival Ballet in Midland, Texas under the artistic direction of Susan Clark. Since returning home to Indy, Lauren has worked with No Exit Performance, Rebecca Pappas, Phoenix Rising Dance Company, Crossroads Dance, iibada Dance Academy, and others. Lauren's work has received the RDA Monticello Award and been shown at Midwest Radfest in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She currently serves as director at Indy Movement Arts Collective.
Judith Reed currently enjoys a busy life of retirement. Her joys are her husband, daughters and grandchildren. Traveling is a special joy for Judy and Gary. Throughout her life she has been a teacher. She especially focused on middle school students and helping teachers of adolescents develop teaching skills. In retirement, Gary and Judy moved to Indiana to be near family. Judy now enjoys getting to know and talk with women in various stages of life. Her teaching focus is now in her church ranging from early elementary students to all ages of women in Bible study. Coming alongside to listen and help other women of various ages and life stage brings her joy and personal growth in the time spent together.
Iris Rosa Santiago was born in Guayama, Puerto Rico and raised in East Chicago, Indiana. She is a Professor Emerita in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies (AAADS) and the founding and former Director of the African American Dance Company (AADC). Her specializations include teaching dance technique, history, and choreography from the perspective of the African American and African Diaspora and bridging the contemporary modern dance genre with African diaspora dance forms and styles. Prof. Rosa has studied, researched, presented, and taught dance in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Havana, Matanzas, Guantanamo, and Santiago, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica and Beijing, China. Rosa opened the Iris Rosa Dance Studio in May 2022 and is the Artistic Director of Seda Negra/Black Silk Dance Company (SNBSDC) both located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her choreographic themes explore immigration, emigration and lived experiences of people in the African diaspora.
Janice Sneller is a lifelong resident of Northwest Iowa and has been a winter resident of Yuma, Arizona for the past thirty-four years. She and her late husband Scott were married for 60 years, and together raised three daughters. Janice was a musician from an early age, singing and playing piano all through her school years. She spent her musical career teaching piano, serving as church organist and directing church and community choirs for sixty years. Her greatest joys are spending time with family, including special moments with her seven grand-chilldren and ten great grandchildren. She is honored to be part of her grand-daughter Amanda’s project.