Performances March 20 & 21 RPL Nordlof Center
Rockford DanceMakers Festival 2026 Choreographers
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Baylor Twins Move
Twin sisters Caitlyn Baylor and Meghan Baylor graduated from Grinnell College in 2012, where they studied Dance with Professors Kathleen Hurley, Shawn Womack, and Celeste Miller. With Celeste as their mentor, they completed a Mentored Advanced Project in Advanced Choreography with a focus on dance as political activism. They are now professional choreographers, modern dancers, and dance educators based in Rockford, Illinois. As a duo, they were named “Performing Artist of the Year” (2024) by the Rockford Area Arts Council. The Baylor sisters are also recipients of numerous project grants as well as Rockford Area Arts Awards for “Innovation” and “Placemaking” in the arts. Notable recent projects include their evening length work “All Will Come Again” (2024) about navigating a life-altering medical diagnosis, "Dance at the Dells" (2019-2021; 2025), which is an award-winning site-specific dance series at Severson Dells Nature Center, and “Alma” (2020) and "Somnium: The Book of Dreams and Nightmares" (2023), both of which were collaborations with international artists that involved transforming urban spaces into immersive, multidisciplinary performance experiences. The Baylors' training and professional experience includes Rockford Dance Company, Auburn High School's Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) program, Grinnell College Dance Ensemble, Without Shoes Modern Dance Company, and Bad Wolf Dance Theatre. They are faculty at West Side Show Room and guest instructors at Chicago Dance Company. In 2024, they were selected for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's inaugural "Dance On!" summer intensive. This past summer, they were selected as the Artists-in-Residence at Great Basin National Park, and this past fall they were invited to lecture, teach, and present work at Grinnell College.
Eona Cary
Eona Carey (she/they/TA), Guest Artist Choreographer, is originally from Huntsville, Alabama, where they began their dance training with Huntsville Community Ballet and Alabama Youth Ballet Theatre. Eona is a graduate of Butler University, earning a B.F.A. in Dance Performance with a minor in Chinese language. Following graduation, Eona performed with Ballet Theatre of Indiana and Ballet INitiative, also contributing as backstage crew, before joining Winifred Haun & Dancers in 2023. She is currently in her fourth season as a company dancer and has created three original works through WH&D’s First Draft program. One of these works, Wild Roots, Fugitive Blooms, is currently part of the company’s repertory.
Gina T'ai
Gina T’ai has been creating and crafting performances, dances, and spectacles for 25+ years. She earned both her BA and MFA in Dance from Hollins University in Roanoke, VA. Ms. T’ai is on faculty at Beloit College (WI), where she teaches in the departments of Performing and Applied Arts, Media Studies, and Critical Identity Studies. Her courses include but are not limited to: Modern and Ballet dance techniques, Contact Improvisation, Performing Gender (a creative drag performance course), Depictions of Drag in TV and Film, and Arts Entrepreneurship. Ms. T’ai has presented her live work and dance-on-film work at the Sundance Film Festival, Manifest ScreenDance Festival (India), Queerly Contemporary Festival, Performatica (Mexico), World Dance Alliance- Americas and Global Summit (Canada), The American Dance Festival, Center for Performance Research, Richmond Dance Festival, Milwaukee Fringe Festival, Going Dutch Festival, RADfest, and beyond. The Dance Enthusiast described her work as “…powerful, and often hilarious and poignant.” She has presented and published research at the National Dance Educators Organization, the Congress on Research in Dance, in the journals Dance Education in Practice, and the Journal of Dance Education, and in Contact Quarterly. She is on the board of the Wisconsin Dance Council.
Maria E. Castello
Maria graduated from the National School of Dance and the Contemporary Dance School of Teatro Municipal San Martín, both in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She holds a Medical Degree from the University of Buenos Aires and is a Laban/Bartenieff Analyst of movement (CMA). Maria has a Master's Degree in Teaching with an endorsement in Bilingual Education from Rockford University. Maria has been a dancer, choreographer, and teacher for more than 40 years. She has worked in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the United States. In collaboration with her husband Jacques Saint-Cyr, Maria has been presenting performances in contemporary dance and tango since 1994 in Canada, Argentina, and the United States. In 1996, María joined the Rockford Dance Company as the first full-time school director until 2024. Maria received a Finalist Award in choreography from the Illinois Arts Council and the Hispanic Heritage Award, given by La Voz Latina for her contributions to the cultural life of the community, in 2002. In 2020, Maria received the Arts Educator of the Year Award from the Rockford Area Arts Council. Maria recently retired after 20 years of teaching at the Rockford Public Schools in Bilingual classrooms. She continues to serve as the Artistic Director of the Without Shoes Modern Dance Company and to teach at the Rockford Dance Company.
Penna M. Broman
Penna M. Broman has been teaching dance for the last 50 years. She holds a BFA in dance from Rockford College and an MA in interdisciplinary arts from Columbia College Chicago. During her undergraduate work, she was a student of Jayne Poor and Chuck Hoenes. She was also a dancer, instructor, and school director for the Rockford Dance Company. She has taught dance at Rockford College, McHenry County College, Beloit College in Wisconsin, and Roosevelt University in Chicago. Penna was a founding member and former Artistic Director of Without Shoes Modern Dance Co. She has studied with amazing artists such as Nana Shineflug, Alison Knowles, Meridith Monk, Alwin Nikolais, and Liz Lerman. Her passion is using the arts in an interdisciplinary way in teaching and performing. While living in Chicago, she worked for Reading In Motion and Play In A Book using the arts to teach and support students in reading.
Without Shoes Modern Dance Co
The idea of a movement choir originated in the 1920s with Rudolf Von Laban, a choreographer and performer based initially in Germany who later moved to the UK. María Castello is a Laban/Bartenieff Certified Movement Analyst. Currently, movement choirs are most popular in the UK and Germany; as connecting with oneself and others becomes increasingly important, movement choirs are slowly but surely becoming a global trend. The Without Shoes Modern Dance Company will conduct and present a piece for the Rockford DanceMakers Festival, held March 20 & 21 at the RPL Nordlof Center in the J.R. Sullivan Theatre! The piece will be a movement choir and will focus on the simplicity and beauty of movement. Members of the movement choir will collaborate to create a moving and original piece of choreography. María Castello will lead the collaborative process.
Ella Lakey
Ella Lakey is a Chicago-based dance artist whose training began through the Rockford Public Schools Performing Arts Program and Rockford Dance Company, where she studied a wide range of dance genres. While training, she performed in numerous productions, including The Nutcracker, and attended pre-professional intensives at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, The Boston Conservatory, and SALT Contemporary Dance. In 2022, she completed the trainee program at Water Street Dance Milwaukee before relocating to Chicago. Ella’s professional career spans concert dance, musical theatre, and multimedia performance. Her performance credits include Skylight Music Theatre, Black Arts MKE, Mandala South Asian Performing Arts, and the Rockford Area Arts Council. As a choreographer, she has presented work at showcases hosted by Cornish College of the Arts (2021), Water Street Dance Milwaukee (2022), the Rockford Area Arts Council (2022–25), the West Side Show Room (2025), Alluvion Dance Chicago (2025), and Still Inspired (2026). This past summer, Ella founded Chicago Dance Company and produced its inaugural performance, which debuted in Rockford and Chicago in the fall of 2025.
Faith Minneyfield
Faith Minneyfield grew up dancing in her hometown of Rockford, IL, and has continued to teach in studios across the area. She received her Bachelor of Science in Dance Performance and Psychology from Illinois State University in 2022. During her undergrad, she was fortunate to have worked with choreographers such as Molly McMullen, Alexander Michael, Mark Caserta, and Morgan Williams. Post-undergrad, Faith trained and performed with Water Street Dance Milwaukee during its fall term in 2022- early 2023. Faith has choreographed and performed in the local immersive multidisciplinary art show, “SOMNIUM,” since 2022. As a choreographer, Faith has presented and performed work for the American College Dance Association for adjudication, Water Street Dance Milwaukee’s “Water On Water” at Water Street Dance Festival, was selected to present work at Trifecta Dance Collective’s “A New Light” Emerging Choreographers’ Showcase, and has taught studios across the Midwest. As an artist, Faith emphasizes movements with authentic individuality, the complexity of simplicity and minimalism, and connectedness through the psyche.
Jenny Vause
Jenny Vause is the Co-Artistic Director and Co-Owner of Evolve Dance Company in Rockford, Illinois. It has been a privilege to see the growth of many dancers in the Rockford area! Jenny has taught classes of all levels and ages in the last 20 seasons at Evolve and several years before that at other studios. In addition to her choreography at Evolve, Jenny has been featured at Carnival Choreographers Ball-Chicago, opening for the National Tour of Kidz Bop, as well as on the Disney Channel and on the Indiana Fever court. She is a judge for dance and talent competitions, including Imagine and Tribute, and had the opportunity to create the opening number at Edge's Nationals. Jenny has taught classes at Rockford University and IAMT in New York. She enjoys choreographing local productions in the area, including West Side Story, Hairspray, Newsies, Cinderella, Legally Blonde, and most recently, Grease at Starlight Theater.
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Michelle R. Stolberg
Michelle R. Stolberg started dancing in a studio-based setting while in college, and graduated with a BA in Dance from The University of Iowa in 2013. Prior to her studio work, Michelle found a passion for the visual arts in high school with the Dubuque Senior High School Color Guard and through performing with The Colts Drum and Bugle Corps Color Guard based out of Dubuque, IA. While at the University of Iowa, she had the pleasure of dancing for a number of artists, including Christopher Masters, Jennifer Harge, Jessica Anthony, and Deanna Carter. After graduating, Michelle performed with several companies in the northern Illinois region, including Rockford Dance Company, Without Shoes Modern Dance Company, and Bad Wolf Dance Theatre. Michelle has taught on the faculty of Rockford Dance Company and as an Adjunct Professor of Dance at Rockford University. While teaching, she had the opportunity to set work on the students of RPS 205’s Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) Program. As she continues her work, Michelle continues to find and produce work based on the intersections of mixed performing arts and advocacy for marginalized communities in her choreography and teaching philosophies.
Winifred Haun & Dancers
Winifred Haun is the founder, choreographer, and artistic director of her own modern dance company, Winifred Haun & Dancers. Since establishing the Company in the 1990’s, Ms. Haun has created over 75 new dance works, including one full length ballet and four dance films. She has received numerous awards and accolades for her choreography, including a 2016 MacArthur Foundation Award to create a new work in collaboration with renowned Australian Circus Artist, Emma Serjeant. Ms. Haun’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Dance Magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, SeeChicagoDance, and many others. Winner of three nominations for the prestigious Ruth Page (Chicago Dance) Award for Choreography, Ms. Haun has presented her dances at Danspace Project at St. Marks (NYC), Overture Center (Madison, WI), Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, Epic Center (Michigan), St. Mary’s College, Moming Dance & Arts Center, Florida State University, and many others. Her work has also been presented at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple, Cheney Mansion, Millennium Park, and many other public spaces. Ms. Haun’s choreography has been presented and commissioned by several Chicago, Midwest, and national dance companies, including Chicago Ballet, Aerial Dance Chicago, Zephyr Dance, MOMENTA, and the Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble.
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Your Choreography Here!
If you are interested in having your choreography professionally produced as a part of next year's Festival, stay tuned! Or, reach out at RockfordDanceMakersFestival@gmail.com. Thanks!