2023 Bessie Outstanding Creator/Choreographer for The Jazz Continuum, 2021 Bessie Outstanding Performer award winner, and New York Times lauded Best Dance & Breakout Star LaTasha Barnes is an internationally awarded and critically-acclaimed dance artist, choreographer, educator, and tradition-bearer of Black American Social Dance from Richmond, VA. She is globally celebrated for her musicality, athleticism, and joyful presence throughout the cultural traditions she bears: House Dance, Hip-Hop, Waacking, Authentic Jazz, and Lindy Hop, among them. Barnes’ expansive artistic, competitive, and performative skills have made her a frequent collaborator to Dorrance Dance, Singapore-based Timbre Arts Group, Ephrat Asherie Dance, and many more.Barnes’ leadership and business skills have placed her in positions of service as Chair of the Board of Trustees for Ladies of Hip-Hop Festival®, Vice President of Marketing & Outreach for the International Lindy Hop Championship®, Board Member of the Black Lindy Hoppers Fund, the Frankie Manning Foundation, and a contributing member to the NEFER Global Movement Collective.
Expanding the scope of impact for the communities she serves, Barnes completed her self-designed Masters in Ethnochoreology, Black Studies and Performance Studies thru New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study (2019). Her thesis and continued applied research are working to bridge the gap between communities of practice and academic cultural dance research, performance, preservation and pedagogy. In support of this dialogue, Barnes was honored to be a contributing author to the award winning text Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century - Univ. FL Press (2021). Ensuring future artists and dance scholars maintain authentic cultural context as they move through the world bearing forth Black dance traditions. To further support this effort Barnes joined the esteemed faculty of Arizona State University School of Music, Dance & Theater as Asst. Prof of Dance in Fall 2021.From the analysis of here research and in deeper concert with the mission to strengthen Black artists reverence for and expression with Jazz, Barnes is honored to be the visionary creator and Artistic Director of the multi-award winning intergenerational and intercommunal cultural arts project and stage experience The Jazz Continuum, commissioned and presented by Guggenheim Works & Process and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2021.
Additionally she is deeply honored to be a part of the Brain Trust that developed the ground-breaking stage production Swing Out, bringing the passion and power of Lindy Hop and its community to the concert stage. The New York Times said of her collaboration with Caleb Teicher in Swing Out, “Barnes is especially extraordinary for the way the past and the present can pass through her...”
Across all her efforts, Barnes' eternal purpose is to inspire fellow artists and arts enthusiasts to champion artivism through cultivating an authentic sense of self and intention in their creative expressions and daily lives.

Tom Weksler is a dancer, choreographer and director of the company Wonderground Movement Arts with his partner Roser Tutusaus. Tom is also the founder of ‘Movement Archery’, a workshop concept that presents a unique approach to Movement, philosophy and dance. Since 2014 he has been teaching this approach internationally in dance schools, circus schools, universities, professional companies, martial arts gyms and more. Tom’s teaching is globally acclaimed and he is considered one of the pioneers of the modern ‘Movement Culture’.

Movement Archery:

movementarchery.com

Wonderground Company:

wondergroundcompany.com

GoFundMe for Matthew Stillman:

https://gofund.me/69b59d67

Primal Derma:

primalderma.com/btm

Abigail Rose Clarke is an author, somatic educator, writer, and artist. She has an inordinate amount of love for octopuses, the moon, and her extensive collection of anatomy books. She is the creator of The Somatic Tarot and The Body Oracle decks, and the author of Returning Home to Our Bodies: Reimagining the Relationship Between Our Bodies and the World (world release date: January 9, 2024, with North Atlantic Books and Penguin RandomHouse). 

She has developed what she calls The Embodied Life Method, which centers on the relationship between body and culture, and how we can use the inherent wisdom of our bodies to be in direct conversation with our creativity and our aliveness. When we do that, we dismantle oppressive systems and build a future that is lush and generative and deeply relational.  

Abigail does not teach that embodiment always feels good, because it doesn’t. Her work prioritizes exploration over assumed results, because the body is always adaptable and always adapting. Our creative efforts should do the same, and they can, when we are in relationship with our own bodies.

In a world of such rapid change, Abigail teaches embodiment as a practice and a responsibility. As the world changes so dramatically we are tasked with the enormous responsibility of remaining present to the world as it is, which requires we remain present to ourselves as we are. From here, the way forward becomes possible.

You can learn more about Abigail’s work and approach here:

www.abigailroseclarke.com

IG: www.instagram.com/abigail.rose.clarke

Returning Home to Our Bodies is available for pre-order and is out on January 9, 2024

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/730766/returning-home-to-ourbodies-by-abigail-rose-clarke/

GoFundMe for Matthew Stillman:

https://gofund.me/69b59d67

Primal Derma:

primalderma.com/btm