DIANNE MCINTYRE, celebrating 53 years as a dancemaker, is a 2022 Dance Magazine Award Honoree and a 2023 Martha Hill Dance Awardee.  Known for concert dance work with celebrated music artists, she also choreographs for theatre, film, television and opera.  She has created work for numerous companies including Dance Theatre of Harlem, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dancing Wheels, GroundWorks Dance Theater, Philadanco, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, DCDC, many university ensembles as well as her own companies - most notably, Sounds in Motion.  The company/school was a vital institution in Harlem-New York City where artists met, collaborated and were nurtured. The company toured internationally. McIntyre’s film credits include Beloved from Toni Morrison’s novel and Miss Evers’ Boys (Emmy nomination).  Her work has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in over 35 regional theaters. Other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Doris Duke Artist Award, a Dance/USA Honor Award, a Duke United States Artists Fellowship, National Black Theatre Teer Pioneer Award, Cleveland Arts Prize, American Dance Festival 2008 Balasaraswati/Joy Anne Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching, two AUDELCOs, 3 Bessies/New York Dance and Performance Awards, and two Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degrees (from SUNY Purchase and Cleveland State University).  Dianne McIntyre also develops dance-driven dramas from her interviews about real life events, including I Could Stop on a Dime and Get Ten Cents Change (her father’s stories) and Open the Door, Virginia! (1950s civil rights). McIntyre’s current work In the Same Tongue fuses dance, music, poetry and her history. Mentors include Elaine Gibbs Redmond, Gus Solomons jr, Louise Roberts, Rick Davis, Helen Alkire and Vera Blaine. She received a BFA in Dance from The Ohio State University.

DOMINIC MOORE-DUNSON, one of Dance Magazine’s 2023 “25 to Watch,” is an award-winning choreographer, professional dancer, producer, and teaching artist. Dominic is the co-owner of MooreDunson Co., a performing arts production company housing national touring arts + entertainment products and local arts community impact initiatives. MooreDunson Co. is committed to Urban Midwest Storytelling, a style of presentation capturing the juxtaposition between the beauty and hopelessness of humanity. Known for his community-centric approach, Dominic is a champion of community engagement in dance and entrepreneurship. Dominic's work has earned him acclaim, including as an Associate Artist at Atlantic Center for the Arts, the 2019 Cleveland Arts Prize's Emerging Artist Award for Theatre & Dance, and as a 2019 Fellow of The Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Program at Jacob’s Pillow. He's also deeply involved with the National Center for Choreography–Akron as a Creative ResearchResidency Artist and Creative Administration Research Fellow.

ALICIA LEIGH HANN is a dance educator, performer, and choreographer based out of Columbus, OH. Alicia began her dance training in early childhood focusing heavily on the study of ballet, she later received a BFA in Modern Dance Performance and Choreography from Ohio University. Alicia fell in love with Modern and Contemporary dance forms because of the endless possibilities for creative physical expression. Alicia has been a dance educator for over a decade and continues to teach Modern, Contemporary, and Ballet technique classes to students ranging in age from 3 to 83yrs old in studio and university settings, including lecturing at The Ohio State University. Alicia has also had the opportunity to facilitate trauma-informed conscious dance experiences in therapeutic, classroom, and community settings. Alicia is currently performing with Hixon Dance Company and serving as their rehearsal director and resident choreographer under company director, Sarah Hixon. She has also set solo and group choreographic projects throughout the Midwest. Alicia has had the privilege of working with and performing for various choreographers from around the country: notably, Miki Orihari, principal dancer from the Martha Graham Company in a reconstruction of Graham’s early works ‘Heretic’. She has also worked with Alexandra Bodnarchuk of Doma Dance Theater in Minneapolis, Columbus Modern Dance Company with director Laura Puscas, Perennial Movement Group under the directorship of Sarah Ramey and Chloe Napoletano, and Lexi Clark-Stilianos of STILGO dance + tech in Columbus, Ohio. Alicia hopes to be able to foster an appreciation of dance as a physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual pursuit for students, audience members, and collaborators of her work.

LIZ CONWAY (she/her) is a Cleveland-based professional dancer, actor, choreographer and teacher. Her professional theatre credits include: A Chorus Line (Bebe) and Can-Can (Featured Ensemble) at Porchlight Music Theatre, Beauty and the Beast (Ensemble) at Drury Lane Oakbrook, Chicago (Featured Dancer) at Big Noise Theatre and Joseph..Dreamcoat (Wife) at Music Theater Works. Her professional concert dance credits include: The Dance COLEctive, Kristina Isabelle Dance Company, Kelly Anderson Dance Theater and The Movement Project. She was a featured dancer and actor in the short film, Limerence, directed by Dan Pedersen. Conway’s choreographic work has been presented at the Going Dutch Festival and the Inaside Choreographic Sponsorship Event in Chicago, IL. Her work was also featured as a part of Dog Night, by Rabid Bat Theatricals. A Cleveland, OH native her early training led her to study dance at Ohio University where she graduated with a BFA in Dance Performance & Choreography in 2014. Conway was a dance instructor at various studios around the Chicagoland area and has taught modern technique and improvisation for The Movement Project Summer Intensives. She continues to train in all dance styles including modern, ballet, jazz, tap and hip hop as well as training in voice and acting. Currently Liz is a Company Member with The Movement Project.

ELYSE MORCKEL (she/her) is a dance artist from Akron, Ohio. She earned her BFA from The Ohio State University with concentrations in choreography and dance technology. In 2017, she joined The Movement Project and in 2022 was named Associate Director. Morckel has performed the choreographic works of Dianne McIntyre, Pam Tanowitz, Kimberly Bartosik, Rebecca Leuszler, Megan Gargano, Grace Nicklos, Liz Conway, and more. Her choreographic projects include in the end, this is a victory dance (2018, restaged 2022), (6) Vignettes of Drama (2019), Sixes & 7’s (2021, restaged 2023), Coddiwomple (2021), It’s a Game We Play (2022), and VOID (2023). Her work has been presented at festivals and venues including the Ohio Dance Festival, Cleveland Dance Fest, Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival, and SummerWorks Concert Series. Morckel co-choreographed The Little Amal Akron Experience with Dominic Moore-Dunson. She received the 2024 Outstanding Artist in Dance Award and Best Collaborative Project through Arts Alive. That same year, she was named an Artist in Residence and selected as an Ann Amer Brennan Resident through Akron Soul Train, where she is reimagining her latest work, VOID, as a dance film titled Wanderlust Blue in collaboration with Denzel Washington. Recently, she relocated to southern Vermont, where she is currently studying Authentic Movement practices with Carolyn Shakti Sedah and continuing to investigate her own creative practices while remaining deeply invested in the future of the northeast Ohio dance community.

MEGAN L. GARGANO (she/her) is a native of Cleveland, Ohio where she began her training in 2003 at the Royal School of Ballet under the direction of Joanne Hughes Morscher. In addition, Megan studied at The Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts, BalletMet, performed with The Pennsylvania Ballet and participated in several dance festivals throughout Ohio. In 2012, Megan received her BFA in Performance and Choreography from Ohio University School of Dance. While studying at OU, Megan performed the reconstruction of Alwin Nikolais piece Noumenon Mobilus, under the direction of Alberto del Saz. She has performed in faculty works by Mickie Geller and guest work by Adriana Durant, Stefanie Batten Bland and Sean Curran. July 2010 Megan studied at the Laban Centre in Greenwich, London where she furthered her studies in Limon and Release Techniques, choreography and contact improvisation. In 2009, Megan co-founded The Movement Project, a professional dance company serving the communities of Cleveland and Akron. TMP’s mission is to challenge perspectives, evoke social change and bridge communities through the power of movement. In 2016, TMP launched Cleveland Dance Fest, an annual dance festival supporting Cleveland dance artists in the creation of new work, while making dance performance accessible and affordable to residents. Over the past 8 seasons, Cleveland Dance Fest has grown into a sustainable ecosystem embraced by artists from across Ohio, the regional Midwest, and beyond. 2024 marked TMP’s first annual CDF | Akron Concert Series, an extension of the CDF platform, expanding artist resource support in Akron. Fall 2024, Megan, along with her creative team at The Movement Project was awarded the 2024 Knight New Work for their project “techMOVES: the cyclical relationship in creative practice.” The project will focus on developing low-cost, tech-based tools to lower barriers for dance artists, showcased through workshops and premiere performances in both Akron and Detroit Summer 2026.