Born in Copenhagen, Ib Andersen was introduced to ballroom dance at a young age. He joined the Royal Danish Ballet at age 16 and became a principal dancer at age 20. His career and reputation flourished in Europe, bringing him to the attention of the director of New York City Ballet, George Balanchine. Andersen joined NYCB in 1980 and demonstrated a remarkable affinity for the Balanchine style and technique. This led to his appointment as a Balanchine Repetiteur; one of a handful of artists worldwide authorized by The George Balanchine Trust to stage the master’s pieces. Following a brilliant career performing on the world’s greatest ballet stages, Andersen was named Artistic Director of Ballet Arizona and The School of Ballet Arizona in 2000.

Matthew Ball is a Principal dancer of The Royal Ballet. He trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined the Company during the 2013-14 season, promoted to First Artist in 2015, Soloist in 2016, First Soloist in 2017, and Principal dancer in 2018. Ball has created roles with Wayne McGregor, Crystal Pite, Christopher Wheeldon, Hofesh Shechter, and Sidi Larbi, and danced alongside international stars such as Natalia Osipova, Marianela Nunez, and Alessandra Ferri. His film work includes two dance shorts with Penefather productions, co-starring with Francesca Hayward and Natalia Osipova, and Tybalt in the feature length film Romeo and Juliet Beyond Words. Ball takes a keen interest in creating original works of his own and has begun producing short dance films and choreography in his spare time. 

Robert Battle became Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in July 2011 after being personally selected by Judith Jamison. Mr. Battle’s journey to the top of the modern dance world began in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida. He studied dance at New World School of the Arts and Juilliard. He danced with The Parsons Dance Company from 1994 to 2001 and set his choreography on that company starting in 1998. Mr. Battle then founded Battleworks Dance Company in 2002. He was honored as one of the “Masters of African-American Choreography” by the Kennedy Center in 2005 and received the prestigious Statue Award from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA in 2007. He has honorary doctorates from The University of the Arts, Marymount Manhattan College, and Fordham University.

Jacqueline Green is a 2011 cum laude graduate of the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program, and trained at the Pennsylvania Regional Ballet, the Chautauqua Institution for Dance, and The School at Jacob’s Pillow. She has performed works by choreographers including Wayne McGregor, Jiří Kylián, Ronald K. Brown, and Kyle Abraham. In 2016 she performed as a guest artist with The Royal Ballet. Green is a 2018 “Bessie” Award nominee for sustained achievement, 2015 Clive Barnes Award nominee, 2014 dance fellowship recipient from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA, 2010 recipient of the Dizzy Feet Foundation Scholarship, and 2009 recipient of the Martha Hill Fund’s Young Professional Award. In 2018 she performed on BET’s Black Girls Rock honoring Judith Jamison. She was a member of Ailey II and joined the Company in 2011.

Karen and Kei were born in Korea and now live in Seoul. The two started dancing tango together in 2012. Kei has been dancing tango as a woman leader. Karen got into tango dance and music from an early age and is also active as a bandoneon player of tango. They performed in milongas, including Tango O Nada, the most popular milonga in Korea, and participated as guest dancers at the Tango Congress in Moscow in 2018. In February 2017, they met Sebastian Missé and Andrea Reyero to explore the dance of Old Milongueros, and in November of the same year they met Gabriel Missé for the first time in Osaka, Japan. Since then, they have continued to learn from Gabriel Missé and Maru Rifourcat in Seoul, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, and all over the world.

Yannick Lebrun began training in his native country at the Adaclam School, under the guidance of Jeanine Verin. After graduating high school in 2004, he moved to New York City to study at The Ailey School as a scholarship student. Lebrun was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2011, and in 2013 France-Amérique magazine highlighted him as one of the 50 most talented French people in the United States. In November 2016, Lebrun was a guest performer with The Royal Ballet in Wayne McGregor’s Chroma. In 2019, he choreographed Saa Magni, his first work for Ailey II. Lebrun was a member of Ailey II and joined the Company in 2008.

Renaldo Maurice began his dance training with Tony Simpson and graduated from Talent Unlimited High School. He attended Emerson School for Visual and Performing Arts, studying with Larry Brewer and Michael Davis. Maurice was a scholarship student at The Ailey School, Ballet Chicago, and Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, and interned at Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. He received second place in modern dance from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and received the Dizzy Feet Foundation Scholarship. Maurice incorporated his passion for the arts with social responsibility by becoming the arts activist and co-artistic director of the South Shore Dance Alliance in Indiana. He was a member of Ailey II for three years, joined the Company in 2011 and rejoined in 2019.

Wayne McGregor CBE is a multi-award-winning British choreographer and director. He is Artistic Director of Studio Wayne McGregor, encompassing creative collaborations in dance, film, music, visual art, technology, and science; a touring company of dancers Company Wayne McGregor; and learning and research programs. McGregor is also Resident Choreographer at The Royal Ballet, Director of Dance for the Venice Biennale until 2024, and is regularly commissioned by and has works in the repertories of the most important ballet companies around the world.

Gabriel Missé is a dancer, teacher, and choreographer of Argentine Tango. Missé began dancing when he was four years old with internationally renowned Argentine National Folkloric dancer and choreographer Santiago Ayala “El Chucaro”; he has since studied Tango with Carlos Rivarola, Miguel Ángel Zotto, and Antonio Todaro. Missé has been called the “Baryshnikov of Tango” by The New York Times. He has worked in various theaters on Corrientes Avenue and with the Tango X2 show, the Mariano Mores show, and others, including eight years at the Vail Dance Festival. In 1997, he made his debut at City Center with Zotto’s company Tango X2 and then returned in 2015 with his own work. He and his partner Maru Rifourcat have danced together since 2018.

Maru Rifourcat is a professional dancer, teacher, and choreographer from Argentina. At the age of four, she took her first dance steps and has studied ballet, modern, jazz, and contemporary dance in Italy, Argentina, and the US. Maru has excelled in several national and international dance competitions as a soloist and group performer. She has danced in numerous television and stage programs, in “Calle Corrientes” shows, national and international tours, as well as on cruise ships. In 2017, she met Maestro Missé and started traveling the world with him the following year, teaching and dancing true Argentine Tango.

Jamar Roberts graduated from the New World School of the Arts. He trained at the Dance Empire of Miami, where he continues to teach, and The Ailey School’s Fellowship Program. Mr. Roberts was a member of Ailey II and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Dance Magazine featured him as one of “25 to Watch” in 2007 and on the cover in 2013. In 2016 he was a guest with The Royal Ballet and won Outstanding Performer at the New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards. He made his Ailey II choreographic debut with Gêmeos. He has premiered three works for the Company: Members Don’t Get Weary (2017), Ode (2019), and A Jam Session for Troubling Times (2020). In 2019 Mr. Roberts was appointed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s first Resident Choreographer. He first joined the Company in 2002. 

Calvin Royal III began his formal dance training at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida. In April 2006, he was a finalist at the YAGP Scholarship Competition and was awarded the Ethan Stiefel Scholarship to attend the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. Royal joined ABT II (now ABT Studio Company) in 2008, and the Main Company as an apprentice in 2010. He was promoted to the corps de ballet in 2011, Soloist in 2017, and in 2020 he was appointed Principal Dancer. Royal was a finalist at the 2013 Clive Barnes Awards, the winner of the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship, and the July 2020 cover star of Dance Magazine. He has also been featured in global campaigns for GAP, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Target, Ralph Lauren, and Canali. He has been named the 2020/21 Artist in Residence at Vail Dance Festival.

Matthew Rushing began his dance training with Kashmir Blake in Inglewood, California, and later continued his training at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. He was a scholarship student at The Ailey School and later became a member of Ailey II. During his career, Mr. Rushing has performed as a guest artist for galas in Vail, Colorado, as well as in Austria, Canada, France, Italy, and Russia. He has performed for Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, as well as at the 2010 White House Dance Series. During his time with the Company, he has choreographed four ballets: Acceptance In Surrender (2005), Uptown (2009), ODETTA (2014), and Testament (2020). Mr. Rushing joined the Company in 1992, became rehearsal director in 2010, and associate artistic director in January 2020.

Bijayini Satpathy is a 2020 Bessie nominee for outstanding performer. Her US debut “Kalpana” was included in the best dances of 2019 in Dance Magazine. Satpathy is commissioned as a choreographer by Duke Performances and BAC and is the proud recipient of the 2020 NDP production grant of NEFA. Satpathy is the former principal dancer of the famed Nrityagram Dance Ensemble and the director for training of Nrityagram school for 25 years, where she researched and expanded the training vocabulary of Odissi. She has shared a unique performance partnership with Nrityagram’s Artistic Director and choreographer, Surupa Sen. Their duet “Vibhakta” was listed as one of the best dance performances of 2008. According to Mark Morris, “Bijayini is easily among the top five dancers I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.”

Sooraj Subramaniam trained at Ramli Ibrahim’s Sutra Foundation, Malaysia, in Bharatanatyam, Odissi, ballet, and contemporary dance forms. He continued ballet training in Perth, Australia, with Stella Johnson, and graduated from the Western Australian Academy for Performing Arts in 2006. He has since worked primarily in the UK with SRISHTI, Akademi, Balbir Singh Dance Company, and Shobana Jeyasingh Dance. Subramaniam now lives in Belgium and presents his own work, collaborating with choreographers including Nicole Kohler, Kalpana Raghuraman, Seeta Patel, and the Maghenta Collective. His initial Odissi training was in the style of guru Debaprasad Das. Over the last decade Subramaniam has trained intermittently in New Delhi, India, with guru Madhavi Mudgal, imbibing her meticulous and nuanced approach. His current mentorship with guru Bijayini Satpathy has been online due to the global lockdown.

Alastair Macaulay is a critic and historian of the performing arts. He was chief dance critic of The New York Times from 2007 to 2018, and the chief theater critic of the Financial Times from 1994 to 2007. He was a director's fellow of the NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts in 2019, and has lectured on aspects of dance at Juilliard, the 92nd St Y, at the University of Oxford's Dansox research society, and many colleges. He began curating and presenting City Center’s Studio 5 series in 2019.