Artistic Collaborators
Below are artists with whom we have collaborated over the past several years.
MANAGING DIRECTOR AND DRAMATURG
Gina Kohler is the Managing Director and Dramaturg for Wideman Davis Dance. She began with the company in 2016 and is committed to the company’s vision. Kohler works as an artist rooted in unveiling complex identity politics through performance. Gina works at Community School in Roanoke, VA and teaches dance, mindfulness and theater.
RESEARCH AND COMMUNICATION
Nikolas Oscar Sparks, PhD is the Director of Research & Communication for Wideman Davis Dance. He has worked with the company for nearly a decade as a grants specialist but has broadened the scope of his involvement with the launch of Migratuse Reimagined and the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Grant. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY where he works as a freelance writer and bartender.
DANCERS, ACTORS
Petra Everson is a graduate from the University of South Carolina with a BA in Dance Performance and Choreography as well as a minor in Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior. She received her dance training through the School of Dance Arts, South Carolina Dance Theatre, and the South Carolina Governor’s School of the Arts and Humanities. During her time at U of SC she performed in works by Thaddeus Davis, Tanya Wideman-Davis, Bryan Arias, Shaun Boyle, and George Balanchine (staged by Stacey Calvert). Petra joined Wideman Davis Dance in 2018, with the WDD and Slippage Performance Technology production of CANE, and also performed in Migratuse Ataraxia (2019 and 2021).
Jenelle Figgins is a Dance Artist from Washington, DC. She is a former company member of Dance Theater of Harlem, Collage Dance Collective and Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. She is a Princess Grace Award winner and was named one of Top 25 to Watch by Dance Magazine in 2015. In 2022, Figgins was an Artist in Residence at the Kennedy Center for Reframing the Narrative and was a recent fellow at the Utah Choreographic Institute. Jenelle led the largest protest in Aspen history for the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2020 and was named an Aspen Hero by Theater Aspen. Figgins is an internationally recognized Dance Artist, emerging Choreographer and Musician for Kosen Rufu.
Ronald McCall is an award winning actor, recipient of the 2003 Giorgee Award for Best Leading Actor in a Drama. He is also an accomplished vocalist, director and teaching artist with a wide range of experience in film, television and theater. He is currently participating in his third production with Wideman Davis Dance and looks forward to future collaborations.
Michael Malique McManus is from Bennettsville, South Carolina and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina with a Bachelors in History and a minor in dance. He received his training at Crystal McInnis School of Dance in Laurinburg, NC. Michael has taught hip hop, jazz, and contemporary dance at multiple studios in the Salt Lake City area. Michael has performed with Unbound, under the direction of Caroline Lewis Jones and Susan Hancock, and was a special guest performer with Salt Lake based company Divinity, under the direction of Krissie Edwards and Nikole Black. Michael joined WDD in 2020 with the production of Migratuse Ataraxia.
Jamal Story trained at the Lula Washington Dance Theatre in Los Angeles and holds degrees in Dance Performance and TV/Radio Communications from Southern Methodist University. He has performed with Complexions, Dallas Black Dance Theater, Donald Byrd/The Group and Madonna and Cher and was the dance/aerial supervisor for her most recent tour residency. In addition, Jamal has choreographed for Blue Man Group, Alfani and Luminario Ballet among others and has continued his arts advocacy as chair of the National Dance Committee for SAG-AFTRA. Both of his books, 12:34 and Toss in the Ether, are available on his website (http://www.jamalstory.com/online-book-store).
DIRECTION, DRAMATURGY, DESIGN, SCHOLARSHIP
Myron Beasley, Ph.D. Myron is the cultural anthropologist for Migratuse Ataraxia. He is Associate Professor of American Studies at Bates College, where he also serves on the committee of Gender and Sexuality Studies. His ethnographic research includes exploring the intersection of cultural politics, material culture and social change.
Thomas F. DeFrantz is Professor of African and African American Studies, Dance, and Theater Studies at Duke University; President of the Society of Dance History Scholars; and Director, SLIPPAGE: Performance|Culture|Technology.
VISUAL ARTISTS
Michaela Pilar Brown is an image and object maker, a multidisciplinary artist using photography, installation and performance. She studied sculpture and art history at Howard University. She cut her teeth in the halls of a museum where her mother worked as a security guard. For her entire life she has been immersed in the culture of objects, their making and interpretation.
Eto Otitigbe is a polymedia artist. He has performed at New York venues such as Monkey Town, The Tank, and Grace Exhibition Space; and in “Monk’s Mood,” at Joyce SOHO, with SLIPPAGE Performance Group (2009). He founded and directed es ORO Gallery & Polymedia Projects (2007 to 2009) and has a wide range of exhibition credits.
DIGITAL MEDIA DESIGN
Adrian D. Cameron is a Brooklyn-based, conservatory-trained, theater/performance/media artist and alumnus of La MaMa’s ETC and Lincoln Center Theatre’s directing programs. He has presented productions of remixed theater, multimedia cabaret theater, hybrid experimental music/theater, French absurdist drama by Eugène Ionesco, surreal karaoke theater, robot-populated Dada performance by Tristan Tzara, the texts of Antonin Artaud as an awards show, postmodern PI noir, and a feminist revisioning of classic Greek drama.
PRODUCTION/SET/LIGHT DESIGN
Tony Stoeri (Production Manager & Light Design) is a Minneapolis native who began working as an electrician and lighting designer at the age of sixteen. After graduating from Carleton College with a B.A. in history, Tony returned to the Twin Cities to work full time as a free-lance lighting designer with companies such as Walking Shadow Theater Company, Theatre Forever, Mu Performing Arts, Mission Theatre Company, and St. Paul’s Young Artists Initiative.
Allen Hahn (Light Design) has designed productions at many of the world’s leading theatre and opera companies including New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, the Lincoln Center Festival, BAM Next Wave Festival, Boston Lyric Opera, and the Spoleto USA Festival. His international design credits include opera companies and festivals in Australia, South Korea, France, Germany, Norway, Finland, The Netherlands, Spain, and the UK.
Eric Morris (Light Design & Set Design) is a teacher, designer, painter, and writer. He is on faculty at University of South Carolina, and Designer/Production Manager, USC Dance. Eric has assisted, designed, and produced for trade shows, ballet, opera, regional theatre, Off-Broadway and Broadway and at venues such as The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Trinity Repertory, and Great Lakes Theatre Festival.
Jack Mehler (Set and Light Design) has, for over 25 years, been a critically-acclaimed, international award-winning theatrical lighting and scenery designer. He has created unique performance environments for dance, theatre, and related events. Rather than having a signature style, he develops specific designs that support the intentions, needs, and aspirations of each client or project and, with his collaborators, creates environments that transport an audience.
SOUND DESIGN
Jamie Keesecker has composed across a broad range of styles for large and small ensembles, including The Wet Ink Ensemble, The Atlanta Chamber Players, Quadre, Las Tubas de Tucson, Percussia, Sospiro, and the Duke New Music Ensemble, for which he is a regular performer.
COSTUME DESIGN
Charles Heightchew has designed costumes for a range of ballet classical and contemporary works, including overseeing the builds of Christopher Wheeldon’s Four Seasons and Daniel Pelzig’s Resurrection.
Marilyn R. Wideman is a multi-faceted artist working in costume design and construction, textiles, and visual art. For more than 40 year she has designed and shared her work throughout the Chicago area. She is the primary costume designer for Wideman Davis Dance and mother of Tanya Wideman-Davis.
Wideman Davis Dance acknowledges dancers who have actively contributed to and performed in past collaborations.
Jacqueline Ball
Jeremy Bannon Neches
Bonnie Boiter-Jolley
Caroline Bolton
Jade Solomon Curtis
John Green II
Kevin Guy
Mary LaCroix-Lohr
Vincent Michael Lopez
Paige Maxwell
Amber Nicole Mayberry
Kaitlin McCormick
Kalin Morrow
Angela Patmon
Sara Paul
Melinda Rawlinson
Jamal Story
Emily Tedesco
Wideman Davis Dance thanks the following organizations that have contributed to the development of our work and organization over time.
PAST WORKS
Migratuse Ataraxia
Based on Images
Voypas
Above: Migratuse Ataraxia at Hampton Preston Mansion, Columbia, SC. Photo by Sean Rayford. Artists: John Green & Thaddeus Davis. Balance. Photo by Jason Ayers. Artists: Hannah Lagerway, Vincent Lopez, and Jacqueline Ball. Migratuse Ataraxia at Hampton Preston Mansion, Columbia, SC. Photo by Sean Rayford. Artists: Petra Everson and Michaela Pilar Brown. Past Works: credits here.