Jenna Riegel

Jenna Riegel, originally from Fairfield, Iowa, is a dance artist and movement educator. Jenna holds an M.F.A. in Dance Performance from the University of Iowa and a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Maharishi International University. During her eleven-year performing career in New York City, Jenna toured and performed nationally and internationally as a company member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, David Dorfman Dance, Alexandra Beller/ Dances and Bill Young/ Colleen Thomas & Company. She also danced with Michel Kouakou, Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, Shaneeka Harrell, Tania Isaac Dance and johannes weiland. Jenna received a New England Foundation of the Arts NEST touring grant for her evening-length solo Varvara. Her choreography has been commissioned by the FACT/SF Company, University of Vermont, Barnard College, Virginia Commonwealth University, Colby College, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Iowa and her choreography has been presented at such venues as the ODC Theater and the Dance Complex. Jenna was granted choreographic residencies at Homeport Art House, Subcircle and Creative Arts and Multidisciplinary Performance (CA+MP).  She has been on faculty in the dance departments of Barnard College, The Juilliard School and Virginia Commonwealth University and at the American Dance Festival and the Bates Dance Festival. Jenna is currently an Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance at Amherst College.

Headshot photo is by Oliver Scott
Dancing photo is by Derek Fowles

Alfonso Cervera

Alfonso Cervera (He/They/El) is a current Assistant Professor of Dance at the Ohio State University where he shares his research interests and movement practices grounded in Mexican American themes. Being a Queer first generation Mexican American practitioner and choreographer who received his MFA from the University of California, Riverside, Cervera is certified in Asana Yoga, Pilates, and Reiki Healing. His research and specialization focus on the conversation between queerness, Ballet Folklorico, and Afro-Latine social dances in a contemporary auto-biographical embodied experience that he calls Poc-Chuc. Poc-Chuc, an emerging and inclusive dance technique developed by Cervera, weaves these techniques as a pedagogical tool to adhere to the current times and to create representation for marginalized communities. Cervera is a founder and collaborator of Primera Generación Dance Collective in the Los Angeles area creating works that represent Mexican American identity and social justice. Among other things, he has been awarded grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, Artist Trust in Seattle, and Department of Cultural Affairs in Los Angeles, and is now one of the four Executive Directors of Show Box L.A.

Ogemdi Ude

Ogemdi Ude is a dance and interdisciplinary artist, educator, and doula based in Brooklyn. Her performance work focuses on Black femme legacies and futures, grief, and memory. Her work has been presented at Kampnagel, The Kitchen, Gibney, Harlem Stage, Danspace Project, Abrons Arts Center, BRIC, ISSUE Project Room, Recess Art, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Center for Performance Research, and for BAM's DanceAfrica festival. As an educator, she has taught at The New School, Princeton University, Sarah Lawrence College, and University of the Arts. She is a 2025 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Choreography, 2025 Princess Grace Honoraria in Choreography, 2025-2028 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, 2024 NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant recipient, and a Live Feed Residency Artist at New York Live Arts. She has been a 2024/2025 BAX Artist-in-Residence, 2024-2025 Leslie Lohman Artist Fellow, 2022-2024 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence, 2021 danceWEB Scholar, 2021 Laundromat Project Create Change Artist-in-Residence, and a 2019-2020 Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU Resident Fellow. In January 2022 she appeared on the cover of Dance Magazine for their annual “25 to Watch” issue. Most recently, she has published a book Watch Me in a collection edited by Thomas DeFrantz and Annie-B Parson: Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study published by Dancing Foxes Press and Wesleyan University Press.

Photo by Chidozie Ekwensi