Dance Faculty

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Tara Lorenzen, director

Tara Lorenzen (Director) is originally from the hills of West Virginia. Upon graduation from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, she became a member of the Repertory Understudy Group under Merce Cunningham where she created an original role in “EyeSpace” as well as reconstructing earlier works such as “Rune” and “Summerspace". She went on to work with Stephen Petronio Dance Company from 2008-2011. She has worked with Kimberly Bartosik, Christine Elmo, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Ashleigh Leite, Todd Williams, Christopher Williams, Rene Archibald, Anna Sperber, Beth Gill (“Electric Midwife” Bessie award for Outstanding Production 2011), and Maria Hassabi (“Plastic” Bessie award for Outstanding Production 2016). Since 2011, Tara has performed and taught master classes for the Trisha Brown Dance Company all over the world. She has recently assisted in the reconstruction of Trisha’s “O zlozony/O composite” (originally created for the Paris Opera Ballet), on the Pennsylvania Ballet. At Bard since 2016.

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Souleymane Badolo

Souleymane “Solo” Badolo started his professional career as a dancer for the DAMA, a traditional African dance company. In 1993, he founded his own Burkina Faso-based troupe, Kongo Ba Téria, which fuses traditional African dances with western contemporary dance and continues to tour internationally. Mr. Badolo has danced with world-renowned contemporary African dance company Salia ni Seydou, worked with French choreographers Elsa Wolliaston and Mathilde Monnier, and performed with the National Ballet of Burkina. He and Kongo Ba Téria are featured in the widely-screened documentary Movement (R)evolution Africa which documents the continent’s emergent experimental dance scene. 

Since moving to New York City in 2009, Badolo has created a number of solo projects commissioned and presented by Danspace, New York Live Arts, Dance New Amsterdam, Harlem Stage, the 92nd Street Y, the Museum of Art & Design, and the sprawling River to River Festival (R2R). He has collaborated with Nora Chipaumire, Ralph Lemon, Reggie Wilson, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Urban Bush Women. His ongoing research in Africa has been supported by The Suitcase Fund of New York Live Arts. 

Mr. Badolo was nominated for a 2011 New York Dance & Performance (Bessie) Award as Outstanding Emerging Choreographer and in 2012, received the Juried Bessie Award (from jurists Lar Lubovitch, Yvonne Rainer and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar). In the summer of 2013, he was named Artist-In-Residence at the Institute for Curatorial Practice and Performance at Wesleyan University and Mount Tremper Arts. Badolo was commissioned to create a dance for Philadanco as part of James Brown: Get on the Good Foot, produced by The Apollo Theater for presentation there in October 2013, followed by national and international touring dates. Mr. Badolo is a participant in the Extended Life cohort of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) and the recipient of Wesleyan University’s 2014 Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award. He graduated from Bennington College with an MFA in June 2013. Since that time, he has been a guest instructor at The New School and Bennington College. Mr. Badolo was selected to be the Harkness Foundation Artist-in-Residence at the BAM Fisher for summer 2015 and was commissioned by BAM to create Yimbégré, an evening-length work for presentation in the 2015 Next Wave Festival. He won the 2016 Bessie for Outstanding Production for his piece Yimbégré, which “gloriously communicated the clash and reconciliation of the different traditions held within one’s life, one’s body.” The Suitcase Fund of New York Live Arts has supported Badolo’s ongoing research in Africa. He previously taught at the New School, Denison University, and Bennington College, and currently teaches at Bard College. 

2013-2014 DanceForce Award
2017 March Emelin Theater
2018 February 11-19, Guest artist in residency Princeton University 
2020 Dec Home Title (version 1) 
Commissioned by the Valerie Green Dance Company Entropy
2021 Fall Title Home (version 2) 
New work commissioned by the University of Minnesota
2022 June 13-18   CND Centre National de la Danse (CND) Paris Pantin
2023 Creative Capital Award

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Yebel Gallegos

Yebel Gallegos is a dance artist from El Paso, Texas. Yebel played an important role in the founding of Cressida Danza Contemporánea in Yucatán, Mexico. During his time with Cressida Danza he served as dancer, company teacher, rehearsal director, and academic coordinator for the Conservatorio de Danza de Yucatán. While in Mexico, he also helped in the creation and implementation of the Festival Yucatán Escénica, an international contemporary dance festival hosted by Cressida Danza. More recently, Yebel concluded a six-year tenure working full time with the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. While in Utah, he also involved himself in projects with local artists, as well as teaching various population groups in Utah and across the United States. He has performed work from artists such as Twyla Tharp, Doug Varone, Alwin Nikolais, Ann Carlson, Daniel Charon, Stephen Koester, Netta Yerushalmy, Claudia LaVista, Joanna Kotze, Jonah Bokaer, among others. Yebel has had the fortune to travel internationally as a performer and educator to countries such as South Korea, Mongolia, France, Austria, and Chile. He earned his BFA in dance, both from the University of Texas at Austin and from the Escuela Profesional de Danza de Mazatlán, directed by Delfos Dance Company. In the Spring of 2021, Yebel received his Master's in Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington in Seattle.

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Hannah Garner

Hannah Garner (she/her/hers), awarded Dance Magazine’s ‘25 to Watch’ in 2020, graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Purchase, earning a BFA in Performance and Composition and a minor in Arts Management. While at Purchase, Hannah performed in works by Adam Barruch, Aszure Barton, Larry Keigwin, Rosalind Newman, Claire Porter, and Nicole Wolcott in addition to one semester dancing abroad at the Beijing Dance Academy. Since graduating, Hannah has worked with Doug Varone, Raja Feather Kelly, Sue Bernhard Danceworks, Megan Williams Dance, and Rovaco Dance Company in venues such as The Joyce Theater, New York City Center, and New York Live Arts. Her work as 2nd Best Dance Company has been commissioned by GroundWorks DanceTheater, Gibney’s ‘dance-mobile’ series, Triskelion Arts, Kizuna Dance, GALLIM x CreateArt, musical artists (Snail Mail, Frankie Cosmos, and Half Waif), the Hartt School, and SUNY Purchase, among others. In addition to her performing work, Hannah finds a creative home in teaching: she is currently on the dance faculty of SUNY Purchase, Bard College, and Gibney Dance Center as well as for their professional program, Gibney PRO. Recent credits for Hannah's choreography, which “tackles topics like death and queer identity through rigorous, inventive movement and wit” (Dance Magazine), include residencies at GALLIM and Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, movement direction for Snail Mail band (Valentine European tour, 2022), and a new evening-length production commissioned by Gibney's presentation series, Gibney Presents.

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Maria Simpson

Maria has been teaching ballet at Bard College since 2004 and was the director of
Bard’s Dance Program from 2008 – 2022. Maria has also taught at Mount Holyoke
College, Middlebury College, University of Washington, Bates Summer Dance Festival,
the 1997 Seattle Summer Dance Festival, the 2007 Vassar College Summer Workshop,
and Gibney Dance Center in New York City. Maria teaches all levels of ballet, anatomy,
and writing in relationship to dance. Maria has performed with dance companies and
independent artists in Seattle and New York including Peter Schmitz and Dancers, the
Pat Graney Company, Gina Gibney Dance, and the Chamber Dance Company, Aileen
Passloff, Jean Churchill, Peggy Florin, and Peter Kyle. Maria has been a rehearsal
director for dances by Zvi Gotheiner, Trisha Brown, Hannah Kahn, Doug Varone, Mark
Dendy, José Limón, and Marjani Forté-Saunders. Maria received a B.F.A. from the
University of Massachusetts and an M.F.A. from the University of Washington.

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Lindsay Clark

Lindsay Clark has been performing and teaching in NYC and internationally since 2005. She has had the pleasure of working with Shen Wei Dance Arts, Faye Driscoll, Jennie Mary Tai Liu, Yve Laris Cohen, Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People, Vanessa Anspaugh, Jack Ferver, John Jasperse, Yasuko Yokoshi, Michelle Boulé, Pontus Lidberg, Xavier Le Roy, and Juliana May. Lindsay has taught professional and open ballet classes in NYC and modern dance, composition, and improvisation at the University of the Arts, Hollins University, and the American Dance Festival. Lindsay attended High School at the North Carolina School of the Arts as a ballet major, holds a BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase and an MFA in dance from Hollins University. She is currently enrolled as a postgraduate fellow at Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy, to become a licensed psychoanalyst. Lindsay is a certified Alexander Technique teacher, with a private practice in Clermont, NY.

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Amy Miller

Amy Miller is a NYC-based dancer, choreographer, educator and advocate. Formerly with the Ohio Ballet, she was also a founding member and artistic associate of Cleveland-based GroundWorks DanceTheater. Now a Gibney Company Director alongside Nigel Campbell, and a performing member of Gibney Company, Miller has facilitated numerous teaching residencies at Oberlin College, Brown University, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and Bates Dance Festival among many others. Miller also focuses on Gibney’s Community Action initiatives through facilitating movement workshops with survivors of trauma, conducting both local and international trainings for artists interested in engaging in social action, developing healthy relationship workshops for young people and raising awareness about the role of the arts in violence prevention. She has conducted Gibney’s Global Community Action Residencies at Mimar Sinan University and Koc University (Istanbul), University of Cape Town (South Africa), DOCH: School of Dance and Circus (Stockholm), MUDA Africa (Tanzania) and most recently in Gisenyi, Rwanda. She is an active member of the National Dance Education Organization’s Access, Diversity and Equity Committee, as well as Dance/USA’s Dance & Disability Affinity Group working toward National Initiatives. Miller has twice been a Dance/USA Mentor through their Institute for Leadership Training. Miller was honored to receive an Arts & Artists in Progress “Pay it Forward” Award from Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Miller holds a BFA in Dance and is a recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for her choreography.

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Jean Churchill

Studied modern dance at Connecticut College Dance Festival. Member, Boston Ballet Company (1966–72); artistic director, New England Dinosaur (1976). Performed works by James Waring, Trisha Brown, Carolyn Brown, George Balanchine, Norman Walker, and in classical and modern ballets. Choreography in Choreographer’s Showcase, Split Stream, Fresh Tracks, Men Dancing, Performance Mix, and To the Pointe festivals; venues in Scotland; and many venues in the United States. Choreography and direction for Cinderella’s Bad Magic, opera composed by Kyle Gann, premiered in Moscow (2002). (1980– ) Professor of Dance.

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Peggy Florin

Choreographer, performer and teacher who has taught at Oberlin College, Ohio University, Williams College, Bennington College and at summer residencies at the Bennington College July Program, Pro Danza Italia and the White Mountain Dance Festival. She teaches modern and ballet technique, dance composition, repertory and experiential anatomy. Trained as a child in classical ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House by Anthony Tudor and Margaret Craske, she performed with the Atlanta Ballet and as a soloist with the Manhattan Festival Ballet. She has appeared in the work of many choreographers including Anna Wyman, Muna Tseng, Albert Reid, Phyllis Lamhut, Janet Panetta and Charles Moulton, touring nationally and in Europe. Her choreography has been presented at Dance Theater Workshop, the Cunningham Studio, DIA, Movement Research and the Marymount Manhattan Theater in New York City, and at Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out in Massachusetts, the Bennington College Martha Hill Performance Space, the Bard College Fisher Center of the Performing Arts, and the New England Artists Conference. Peggy’s creative work and teaching is influenced by her on-going study of movement through the Alexander Technique, clowning techniques learned from Yuri Belov, Eric Trules and Bill Irwin and experiential anatomy from Lulu Sweigart, Irene Dowd, Nancy Topf and Andrea Olsen. An AmSat certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, she is on the faculty of the teacher training program at the Riverside Initiative for the Alexander Technique in New York City. She studied in the BFA program at Juilliard, holds a BA from Empire State College and an MFA from Bennington College.