MARCH MADNESS

SAMANTHA SHELTON received her professional training from the Joffrey Ballet in New York and in Michigan with Rose Marie Floyd. She also studied in London with Anita Young (Royal Ballet) and at the Cecchetti International program in England. Most recently, she was appointed to the American Ballet Theatre Board of Examiners which involves traveling to various schools across the nation to examine for the ABT NTC and teach master classes. She has set classical repertoire and choreographed for the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensives in Tampa, at the University of South Florida; Austin, at the University of Texas-Austin; Tuscaloosa, at the University of Alabama; and Detroit, at the Detroit Opera House. She has also choreographed for YAGP, university, and college programs throughout the USA and Taiwan. She has been invited to guest teach at Houston Ballet and Duke University, as part of the partnership between the ABT Studio Company and Duke University. 

For the past twenty years, she has been on the ballet faculty for American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive, formerly directed by Melissa Allen Bowman and currently directed by Kate Lydon, setting ABT repertoire and choreographing new ballets for the final performances.

She has also traveled the country as an adjudicator for the ABT National Audition Tour, selecting dancers for training programs in New York, Texas, California, Florida and Alabama. Samantha taught at the ABT programs at the University of South Florida, directed by Julie Bravata; University of Alabama, directed by Carla Stallings; University of Texas-Austin, directed by Wes Chapman, and the Detroit Opera House/Wayne State University, directed by Alaine Haubert. She has choreographed and taught for the professional ballet programs at Houston Ballet, Walnut Hill School in Boston, Ballet Tennessee, Missouri Contemporary Ballet, Duke University, and Interlochen Arts Academy and taught company class for Eisenhower Dance Detroit, Complexions, Ballet Hispanico and Grand Rapids Ballet. Samantha received her first professional offer at 17, and has performed extensively in both classical and contemporary ballets. Classical roles include the Grand Pas from Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, Giselle and Raymonda. In her guest artist performances, she has partnered with Craig Salstein (of ABT), Arch Higgins (New York City Ballet) and Christopher Stowell (San Francisco Ballet) among many others. 

Samantha holds an M.F.A in Dance from the University of Michigan, where she was awarded a Rackham Thesis grant, and a B.A. in Political Science also from the University of Michigan. She has also done graduate work at New York University in Performing Arts Administration with internships in development, PR and marketing at Carnegie Hall and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. 

For six years, she served on the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance Alumni Society Board of Governors and in May 2012 spent three weeks in Taiwan, teaching and presenting a piece of choreography for Tainan University. She has also held professorships at several colleges and universities, including Wayne State University, Alma College, Grand Valley State University and most recently as an associate professor at Belhaven University in Jackson, MS. She is certified through the American Ballet Theatre National Curriculum Training Program and has co-taught the ABT NTC with Harriet Clark, at the Detroit Opera House.

Christa Smutek is the Artistic Director of Artistic Edge Dance Centre, Director of The Collective Movement, and Founder of her project based dance company, Smutek Dance.  Christa studied at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and received her B.S. in Movement Science from the School of Kinesiology graduating with distinction and University Honors.  Christa continued on to perform professionally with various companies throughout the midwest and has been teaching and choreographing for the past 16 years.  Her choreography has been showcased at numerous festivals and events including Spring To Dance, Indiana Dance Festival, Columbus Arts Festival, RADFest Midwest, and Dance Canvas.  Christa established Smutek Dance in 2019.  They have performed at WhiteWave SoloDuo Festival, CDCFest Orlando, World of Dance, Dumbo Dance, and Detroit Dance City Festival where she was the Best Choreography winner 2021.  Her film, Unchained, was awarded Festival Favorite, Newbie Filmmaker, in Opine Dance Film Festival 2020.  She has also presented films at Screendance International, Dancentric, and Cinedanza Italy.

Christa was honored to be selected for the Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship 2023 at Jacob’s Pillow, under the direction of Risa Steinberg and Dianne McIntyre.  She recently completed her residency with Western Michigan University after winning their National Choreography Competition 2024.  She was also the winner of the International Dance Exchange Award at Detroit Dance City Festival 2024 and has been invited to present work in Daejeon, South Korea in 2025.  Christa continues to set award winning competitive dance pieces as well as teach masterclasses across the country.  She is the proud mother of Eli Smutek, born January 27, 2018.

Biba Bell (US) is a dancer, choreographer, and writer based in Detroit. Her choreographic work, often set in unconventional venues, focuses on domesticity, labor, and architecture. Her current project investigates dance and arts activism as it intersects forest protection and conservation, through the lens of what she theorizes as epiphytic choreographies. Bell’s choreographic work has been presented at the Kitchen, Movement Research, Roulette Intermedium, Jack NY, Centre Pompidou, Garage for Contemporary Culture, Jack Hanley Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Insel Hombroich, Matéria Gallery, Galerie Camille, amongst others.  Most recently she was a guest artist researcher at Im_Flieger in Vienna, and performed with Detroit Opera in John Cage’s Europoeras 3 & 4 directed by Yuval Sharon and Joan Jonas’ Mirror Piece I & II at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC). Bell earned her PhD in Performance Studies from New York University and is the Director of Dance at Wayne State University. She is a teacher for the Joffrey School, on faculty for the Midwest intensive. Of her dancing the New York Times writes: “It’s invigorating to watch someone who borders on wild.” www.bibabell.com

David Curwen is a Professor Emeritus of the Department of Dance at Western Michigan University, having taught and choreographed there from 1995-2020.  David’s teaching credits include ballet technique, partnering, improvisation and choreography at WMU, as well as guest master classes at Point Park University’s International Summer Intensive, ACDFA, and the Paul Mitchell International Guest Artist Evening in Aspen CO.  In 2011, David and his wife, Sharon Garber, were the first two ballet teachers from the West to be invited to teach at Sichuan University in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China.

Although David did not start ballet training until he was 21, he danced lead roles in 5 national ballet companies from 1977 to 1988 in ballets choreographed by Balanchine, Petipa, Ashton, De Mille, Limon, Flindt, Uthoff and San Goh.  

At WMU, David choreographed over 30 works covering a wide range of content and dance styles, often employing digital projections, live music and movable sets.  In 2006, The End, a collaboration with Digital Artist Kevin Abbott, was chosen by the American College Dance Festival Association (ACDFA) to be performed in the National Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  It was the first such nomination of a faculty work in the department’s history. From 2000-2014, he served as the founding director of The Western Dance Project (WDP), the department’s performance ensemble.  He also received WMU’s College of Fine Arts Awards for Excellence in Creative Research (2016) and Service (2008). 

David’s ballet classes include straight forward barre work that works to incorporate breath, full body movement, and style.  Barre also focuses on balance in order to enhance alignment, efficiency and freedom of movement.  Rhythmic accents are also key.  Center movement builds upon these principles while highlighting musical and expressive dancing.    

David is a founding member of CORPS de Ballet International Inc., a professional organization of ballet teachers in higher education.  He was president of the organization from 2006-2008, and hosted the organization’s 2007 international conference at WMU. In 2024, David and his wife, Sharon Garber, spearheaded CORPS’ 25th Anniversary Legacy Fund which raised over $25,000 and were awarded CORPS’ Outstanding Service Award. 

David is currently the Vice President of Partners in Dance (PID), a community based support organization that provides additional scholarship funds to students of WMU Dance.  PID has recently successfully met their goal of $25,000 to establish the WMU Dance Student Emergency Support Fund. Go Broncos!

David continues to teach locally as well as Point Park’s International Summer Dance intensive in Pittsburgh, PA.

Kara Roseborough is a multi-disciplinary artist specializing in dance, creative writing, and theatre. She holds an MFA in Dance and a Certificate in World Performance Studies from the University of Michigan as well as a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Utah. She holds teaching certifications in Grades I-V of the Cecchetti Ballet method. Currently, Kara is a Lecturer at the University of Michigan while also working as a freelance dancer and choreographer. From 2018 to 2022, Kara was on the artistic leadership team of the Evanston Dance Ensemble, and in the 2021/2022 season she served as the Interim Artistic Director of EDE2. Kara has performed with dance companies and theatres including Charleston City Ballet, The Ruth Page Civic Ballet of Chicago, South Chicago Dance Theatre, New Dances, Pittsburgh Public Theatre and Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. Her choreography has been presented across the United States and internationally, including with the Dutch National Ballet.

Kelsey Paschich is a multi-disciplinary dance artist who blends strong technical foundations with creative exploration, merging movement and digital innovation to imagine new ways of performing and making dance. With over 25 years of professional experience, she has performed internationally with companies including Moscow State Classical Ballet, DCDC2, Thodos Dance Chicago, River North Chicago Dance Company, ARCOS Dance, and Lawine Torrèn (Austria). She has danced works by celebrated choreographers such as Robert Battle, José Limón, Ann Reinking, Lar Lubovitch, Margo Sappington, Kevin O’Day, Robert Moses, Tamir Ginz, Johan Renvall and many others.

Kelsey holds an MFA from the University of New Mexico and a BFA (Cum Laude) from Point Park University. She is a certified Countertechnique® teacher and currently serves as Associate Professor of Innovation in Dance at Western Michigan University. As a sought-after guest artist and educator, she has taught for Ballet Preljocaj (France), Dance Kaleidoscope, South Chicago Dance Theatre, Eisenhower Dance Detroit, ARCOS Dance (Austin), and Adaptations Dance (Maui), and has led master classes and workshops throughout the United States, Asia, Europe, and South America.

As a choreographer, Kelsey enjoys pushing creative boundaries by combining dance with film, motion capture, and emerging technologies, while always keeping the human body at the center of the work. Her choreography has been presented at festivals across the U.S., Asia, Canada, and Europe. Her work has been recognized with the WMU Presidential Innovation Professorship Award, invitations to the Choreographic Coding Lab in Cologne, and selection as an international “Distant Digital Dance Maker” for Tanz mit dem Tiger in Ulm, Germany. She is also a recipient of the Creative Living for Dancers Award (Brussels), the NCCAkron Dancing Lab: Art Speaks 2.0 Residency, and the National Dizzy Feet Foundation Gene Kelly Legacy Scholarship.

Her most recent multimedia live/digital solo, Trio of Duality, premiered at the Seoul International Dance Festival in TANK, Seoul, Korea. Kelsey is passionate about fostering and cultivating the next generation of artists.

Eisenhower Dance Detroit Artistic Director, Stephanie Pizzo, joined the company as a founding member in 1991. At various points in her dance career with EDD, she served as Resident Choreographer, Associate Artistic Director, and Co-Artistic Director. Ms. Pizzo now leads the company into her 7th season as Artistic Director. She focuses on collaborating with the highest quality national and international artists and creating strong ties within the metro Detroit community through the art of dance. Her dance for film work, The Five Tangos, inspired by the music of Astor Piazzolla and created in collaboration with the Detroit Institute of Art and Zazu Creative Studio, was selected as the winner of BEST EXPERIMENTAL film, 2022 Dancecentric Film Festival (Florida); semi-finalist, 2022 Inspired Dance Film Festival (Australia); and featured online in Dance Magazine’s “Friday Film Break.”

Ms. Pizzo also believes in educational programming and youth mentorship as key tools to develop community connection. She works to use the art of contemporary dance both as a means to present beautiful, athletic, and engaging repertory and as a vehicle to reflect on and explore issues of social significance. She has set her choreography at Illinois State University, Texas A & M University, Texas Christian University and Wesleyan University, along with having staged numerous works by Laurie Eisenhower on companies and universities throughout the United States. Her work has been presented in Tel Aviv as part of Eisenhower Dance Detroit’s production of The Light Show, at international dance festivals in Poland, and the Inside/Out Stage at Jacob’s Pillow. A native of Clinton Township, Michigan, Ms. Pizzo holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Oakland University. In 2009, she received a Distinguished Alumni or “MaTilDa” award from the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance. She served as a special lecturer in dance at Oakland University for 12 years.

Andrew Cribbett, originally from Thomasboro, Illinois, received a full scholarship to The Washington Ballet in Washington D.C. He then attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts to finish his senior year of high school. He joined Eisenhower Dance Detroit in 2011 and retired as a company dancer and Rehearsal Director in 2021. While dancing with the company, Mr. Cribbett toured nationally and internationally both teaching and performing in venues as far as Tel Aviv, Israel. He also had the great pleasure of performing original works by Nicolo Fonte, Gina Patterson, Darrell Grand Moutrie, Edgar Zendejas, Joshua Peugh, Ron De Jesus, among many others. His choreography has received recognition for Top 12 placement at YAGP for solos, small groups, and ensembles. Over the years, Mr. Cribbett has taught and choreographed for several local studios including The School of Eisenhower Dance Detroit and also trains elite level figure skaters in Junior Ice Dance. He is also pursuing a degree in Nursing concurrent with his role of Assistant Artistic Director. 

Ms. Chirio-Humenay graduated with a BA in Dance from Oakland University and joined EDD as a company dancer in 2012. From 2012-2020, she had the pleasure of touring, teaching, and performing with EDD. In 2018, through EDD’s Beyond the Stage Initiative, she was promoted to Company Manager and currently serves as EDD’s Director of Operations. Wearing several hats within the organization, Ms. Chirio-Humenay teaches at The School of EDD and directs several of the projects and programming EDD offers including the annual intensives: NewDANCEfest, U.P.rootEDD, and the EDD Winter Intensive. She is responsible for national booking and coordination of in-studio workshops, known as The EDD Experience, as well as educational and choreographic residency programs for school systems from elementary to college level. Ms. Chirio-Humenay also manages EDD’s EducatEDD programs which provide high quality educational materials and resources from knowledgeable and experienced professionals to the public and the dance community. A few of these programs include EDD’s monthly Pro-Tips, High School Dance Table Talks, An Insider’s Guide to Contemporary Dance online course, and EDD's annual “See and Be Seen” event.