THE COLLEGE SHOWCASE IS DDCF’S LATEST VENTURE STARTED IN 2021 IN HOPES OF ATTRACTING MORE COLLEGE LEVEL DANCERS AND PROFESSORS TO PARTICIPATE. HELD IN THE MAGNIFICENT DETROIT FILM THEATRE LOCATED INSIDE OF THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS (DIA), THIS IS A CHANCE FOR STUDENT CHOREOGRAPHERS, PROFESSORS AND GUESTS ARTISTS TO PRESENT THEIR NEWEST WORK.
Read about our 2023 College Showcase Artists!
Ariel Vidrio - University of Michigan
Mexican-American world-builder trained in Western dance practices (ballet, Humphrey, Dunham, Release, floorwork technique), Mexican folkloric, and other various cultural dance forms seeking new avenues of thinking, expressing, relating, and connecting through the physical body and the material and natural world. Curious about what it means to be a disabled minority in the dance industry and how the community can engage those that have lost confidence in their physical and spiritual bodies in order to forge a personal self-practice and better relationship with oneself and others. Ariel Vidrio recently graduated from the University of Michigan with a BFA in Dance and BSE in Computer Science & Engineering. During their time there, Ariel Vidrio worked with and performed works by Rosie Herrera, Shannon Gillen, and Megan Bascom.
Madeline Williams - Hope College
Madeline Williams, originally from the East side of Michigan, is now located in Holland, Michigan at Hope College. She is a dual Dance and Business Major with a Dance Pedagogy minor. Currently, Williams is a company member of Matthew Farmer and Jasmine Mejia’s H2 Dance Company. Previous to her time with H2, Williams was a company member in Hope College’s StrikeTime Dance Theatre under the direction of Nicki Flinn. Through her time in these companies, Williams has had the pleasure of working with and performing works by Sharon Wong, Heather Cornell, Matthew Farmer, Steven Ianacone, Jasmine Mejia, and William Crowley. Williams has gained teaching experience at Lake Michigan Dance Academy in Allendale, Michigan and Turning Pointe School of Dance in Holland, Michigan. While working in these studios has helped Madeline grow her love for teaching young dancers, she has also taught classes and choreographed for college-aged dancers while serving on Hope College Hip Hop Club’s executive board for the 2021-2022 school year. The love Madeline found for choreography in Hip Hop Club prompted her to begin creating formal works which would be shown in Hope’s Composition I Showcase in 2022 and Formal Student Dance Showcase in 2023. Madeline is thankful for the support of her family and friends in helping her reach her goals and hopes to honor them through her dancing, teaching, and creating.
Kia Smith - Western Michigan University Western Dance Project
Kia S. Smith is a Chicago native and her early training included Hyde Park School of Dance, The Joel Hall Dance Center, ETA Creative Arts Foundation, StoryCatchers Theatre, and the American Dance Festival. She holds a BFA in Dance from Western Michigan University and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she was an Advanced Opportunity Program Fellow. She is the Founder and Executive Artistic Director of the South Chicago Dance Theatre, the company’s Resident Choreographer and the founder of its signature programs South Chicago Dance Festival, the Choreographic Diplomacy Program, Choreographic Fellowship and Arts Administration Fellowship. As a freelance choreographer, Kia’s recent and upcoming commissions include Madison Ballet (2021), Chicago Repertory Ballet (2022), Houston Contemporary Dance Company (2023), Chicago Opera Theater (2022, 2023), Ruth Page Civic Ballet Training Company (2022), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2023), Giordano Dance Chicago (2023), Western Michigan University (2023) and a new evening length work Memoirs of Jazz in the Alley for South Chicago Dance Theatre premiering at the Auditorium Theater of Chicago. Kia S. Smith was recently named a Rising Star in 2023 by Chicago Magazine and Player of the Moment in the category of Dance for New City Magazine's annual 50 Players List in 2023. Additional collaborative and choreographic credits include; Nike, Chicago Opera Theatre, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, actor Jack Black, world renowned visual artists Manuel Mendive and Nick Cave, “Loving the Silent Tears” an original musical (director Vincent Patterson), the “Afterword” film (director Catherine Sullivan), saxophonist/composer Ernest Dawkins, South Shore Opera Company, Chicago Fringe Opera, HBO, the City of Chicago’s Night Out in the Parks Concert Series, String Quartet D-Composed Chicago, cellist Lilianna Zofia Wosko and Seoul, South Korea’s Choomna Art Center. Her work has been presented at Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, Kennedy King College (Chicago, Illinois), Englewood Jazz Festival (Chicago, Illinois), Sons D’hiver Jazz Festival (Paris, France), Chicago Home Theatre Festival, the Jacob Caruthers Center for Inner City Studies (Chicago, Illinois), Young Auditorium (Whitewater, Wisconsin), the Logan Center for the Arts (Chicago, Illinois), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Harris Theater For Music and Dance, where SCDT is a Resident Company. In 2018, she received the inaugural Young and Ambitious Entrepreneurship Award from the Metropolitan Board of the Chicago Urban League and was chosen by the New York City based Stage Director’s and Choreographers Foundation as a member of the national Observership class. In 2021, Kia received a 3Arts Make A Wave award and was an Ann & Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellow at the renowned Jacobs Pillow. She was a 2022 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Awardee and a participant in the Artist in Residence ``AIR`` Program at the Cliff Dwellers Chicago. As a recipient of the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Individual Artist Grant Kia worked as a cultural ambassador for the city at Impulstanz Dance Festival in Vienna, Austria in the summer of 2016. She is a member of the International Association of Blacks in Dance where she received the Joan Myers Brown Artist Development Fund scholarship and was a 2018 invited panelist for “Women of Color Arts Leaders”.
Hannah McGrew - Hope College
Hannah McGrew (she/her) started as a competitive gymnast and began her dance training with Berrien County Dancers (BCD) under the direction of Theresa Graziano. Through BCD, McGrew performed works by Cesar Celinas, Stephanie Martinez, Ron de Jesus, Jon Lehrer, and Nick Pupillo. She also discovered her own passion for choreographing by setting four large group pieces for the company and later received the Excellence in Dance and Choreography Award. In pursuit of her BA in Dance and Psychology, McGrew has been instructed by Matthew Farmer, Sharon Wong, Jasmine Meija, Heather Cornell, Lindsey Ferguson-Hanson, Kara Brems, Shawn Stevens, Roberta Wong, and Sherilyn Foley. She has performed works by Twyla Tharp, Sharon Wong, Matthew Farmer, William Crowley, and Lindsey Ferguson-Hanson. At Hope College, she participated in StrikeTime Dance Theatre, H2 Dance Company, and a Paris performance. McGrew also has a passion for teaching dance and gymnastics. As a gymnastics coach, she has worked alongside John Rothlesburger, Randy Parrish, and Kristen “Osh” Jones and choreographed award-winning gymnastics floor routines. As a dance instructor, she has led technique classes and choreographed for advanced contemporary, jazz, modern, and ballet at multiple dance studios in the midwest. McGrew seeks to continue growing as a performer and instructor to spread her passion for movement.
Tricia Zweier - Lindenwood University
Tricia Zweier is an Associate Professor of Dance and The Dance Program Coordinator at Lindenwood University, where she teaches mostly contemporary and jazz techniques, dance history, dance & technology, and dance science courses. She earned a Master of Science in Kinesiology and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance, with a concentration in choreography, from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Zweier performed with Leverage Dance Theater, The Atlantic City Ballet, and Flatlands Dance Theatre, as well as international tours in the cruise line industry as a lead dancer and dance captain. Other performance credits include the works of Hanya Holm, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Sean Curran, Mark Dendy, and Nejla Yatkin. Her recent creative works seek to embody historical people, places, and events in an effort to bring underrepresented, forgotten, or misinterpreted historical narratives to the dancing body. These works have been showcased with Lindenwood University students in national festivals including The Boston Contemporary Dance Festival and The Detroit Dance City Festival. She has also been commissioned to create original work for The Center for Contemporary Dance Pre-professional Student Intensive (Orlando, FL), The College of Lake County (Grayslake, IL), and Texas Tech University (Lubbock, TX), amongst others. She is also a PBT/PCT certified teacher and a Certified Yoga Teacher (CYT-200). Her scholarly research focuses on integrating kinesiology with dance to promote healthy training practices. She regularly presents her research at conferences including The National Dance Education Organization, The Missouri Dance Organization, and The International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. Tricia serves as the Operations Coordinator for The Dance Science and Somatics Educators and Secretary for Modern American Dance Company’s Board of Directors. www.triciazweier.com
ElleAnna Casterline - University of Michigan
ElleAnna is a 23-year-old multi-hyphenate from Metro Detroit with a BFA in Dance and a BA in Communication & Media Studies from the University of Michigan. In addition to her 15 years of versatile technical dance training, ElleAnna also has extensive vocal training, theatre training, and a range of choreographic approaches including screendance direction. She has trained with and performed works by Wideman-Davis Dance, Batsheva’s Breeanna O’Mara, Marcat Dance’s Mario Bermudez Gill and Catherine Coury, Complexions Detroit, and more. Her work intersects her passions through performance, artistic direction, and media marketing, all with a foundation in supporting sustainable performing arts trajectories.
COLLEGE SHOWCASE MEMORIES
