Jamilah Bourdon

Irvin Manuel Gonzalez

Dr. Irvin Manuel Gonzalez (he/él/they/elle) is an artivist, scholar, community organizer, and teacher. He is an assistant professor at the Ohio State University. Gonzalez’s scholarship analyzes how immigrant, queer, and working-class Latin American social dancers navigate hegemonic forces through feeling and creativity while situating creative constructions of/for belonging. In doing so, he examines how Latin American social dancing offers methodologies for social change, looking at how practices of resistance are embodied and embedded in the dance transmissions, dancing, and dance floors of Latine, working-class people. Gonzalez theorizes the possibility for these maneras de ser (ways of being) to inform new approaches to prison abolition work, migrant activism, and transborder belonging. He is a founding member of Primera Generación Dance Collective (PGDC) and a board member of Show Box Los Ángeles (SBLA).

As an artist, Gonzalez grounds his art approaches, strategies, and constructions in rasquachismo, a low-brow Chicanx sensibility, to generate collaborations and new potentials that upend the intended use-value of materials, connections, and being. His love for lo rasquache informs experimentation with the homegrown, minoritarian shortcuts and crafts he grew up with to develop choreographies of resistance that aid community engagement work. He has had the honor of presenting work at Dance Studies Association conferences, Redcat (LA), HIGHWAYS Performance Space (LA), Kennedy Center for the Arts (DC), Bootleg Theater (LA), Dance Mission Theater (SF), Human Resources (LA), Judson Church for Movement Research (NYC), Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (LA), El Teatro Campesino (CA), and most recently at Critical Resistance in Oakland, CA.

Dominique Harris

Dominique Harris is a self-proclaimed community journalist, commentator, and advocate. He joined the Georgia Justice Project as an Outreach Associate on December 12, 2023. He carries a deep commitment to fairness and justice is driven by his personal philosophy of community development and succession. His passion for amplifying the voices of the community through his writing and mentorship is evident in his work, where he focuses on breaking down structural barriers to criminal-justice equity and supporting historically marginalized communities.

Prior to joining GJP, Dominique played a vital role in youth diversion programs as a mentor and group facilitator. He also served as an accountability and support partner for returning citizens and justice-impacted individuals. Dominique’s journey is marked by a continuous effort to enhance his journalism and communication skills, aiming to articulate issues in ways that resonate across various layers of language and culture. His approach not only reflects the aspirations of his community, but also bridges the gap in understanding complex social factors. He strives to ensure that every voice is heard and every story is told.

Gabrielle McNeillie

Gabrielle McNeillie, originally from Rochester, NY, received her early training at Brockport School of Dance and Performing Arts and the Rochester City Ballet. She holds a BFA in Dance Performance from the University of Akron and an MFA in Dance/Choreography from The University of Arizona. As an Assistant Professor and Dance Program Coordinator at Central Washington University, she seeks to reach the inner artist in each of her students by creating a classroom built on mutual respect to foster creativity, confidence, and a passion for movement. Her choreography has been staged locally and nationally, most recently at the Detroit Dance City Festival, and she has presented at various conferences including NDEO, IADMS, and the Dance Science and Somatics Educators Conference. Gabrielle is a board member of the Dance Educators Association of Washington and is a licensed Fletcher Pilates® teacher. When she is not in the studio, you can find her spending time with her husband and two young daughters.

Mor Mendel

Mor Mendel is a performance artist, choreographer, dance improviser and educator.  Mendel always danced but never defined technique or form as part of her dance calling. Instead she is invested in movement that is part of who we are in our everyday life, movement that has a play with imagination, intuition and personal stories. Dance as the playground of poetry, memories and the ones we love, music and our shared existence. Mendel’s teaching focuses on dance as an individual pathway to freedom inside ones’ body, creativity and joy. Mendel earned her BA in Dance Theater in Tel Aviv as well as her Improvisation mastery with dancer Ilanit Tadmor. In 2012 Mendel moved to NY to complete her Masters in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College. Over the years she has participated in numerous workshops and courses around dance, improvisation and other somatic fields as well as university courses in psychology and creative therapies. Her work was performed at Tel Aviv galleries, Acho Fringe Festival, Gowanus Arts center, the 14Y, Fridman Gallery, Brooklyn Studios For Dance, BAAD!, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Movement Research at the Judson church, the Collezione Maramotti in Italy, BigParadise and more. Mendel was the 2022 Parent Artist in Residence at Movement Research and Fall Family residency at Groundworks NY. She is grateful to have worked with artists such as Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze, Hadar Ahuvia, Patricia Hoffbauer, Tamar Ettun, Stephanie Nelson, Faye Driscol, Rebecca Medina, Mariangela Lopez, Nikima Jagudajev, Miriam Simun and many others.

Mendel teaches improvisation and creative movement to people with Parkinson's and elderly and currently creatively engaged with the Lilach Orinstien dance project.

She is a mother of two curly boys.

Lauren Neefe

Lauren Neefe is a poet, sound writer, educator, and activist based in Atlanta on Muscogee Creek land. Her poems can be found in 1913: a journal of forms, MC Hyland’s The End Part One, and, most recently, in the cover art for local trio BASrelief’s latest album, Given Dreams. She regularly collaborates with actors, musicians, and dancers, weaving field recordings and interviews into live performance. In 2023, she produced and directed a live collaborative improvisation based on her poem “Eunoisha” at No Tomorrow in Underground Atlanta. In May 2024, she is contributing to “F(L)IGHT,” a site-specific theatrical performance putting Ilya Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic in conversation with Pearl Cleage’s Love and Trouble. She is the co-creator and producer of the Perkins&Will podcast Inhabit: a show about the power of design. She has a Ph.D. in English literature from SUNY Stony Brook and an M.A. in Poetry from the Writing Seminars at John Hopkins University. She has taught courses on sound theory, podcasting, aural architecture, Romanticism, and poetry at Georgia Tech, Oxford College of Emory University, Stony Brook University, and in Georgia state prisons.

Jade Robertson

Jade "Charon" Robertson, is a Choreographer, Filmmaker, and Associate Professor of Dance and Media Technology at Medgar Evers College. She received her MFA in Dance from UCLA and BA in Interdisciplinary Arts concentration in Dance and Theater from Columbia College Chicago. Robertson is currently a doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interest explores dance, film, spirituality, and new media technologies through an African-American Woman’s Lens. 

Allison Roux

Allison Roux (she/her) is the Dance Program Coordinator and an Assistant Professor and choreographer in the Department of Theatre & Dance at Converse University in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She holds an MFA in Dance (Choreography) from the University of North Carolina Greensboro and a BFA in Acting from the State University of New York at Fredonia. Allison is a dance educator, choreographer, researcher, certified yoga teacher (RYT 200), and ScreenDance producer. Recently, Allison has performed in works by Renay Aumiller, BJ Sullivan, Janet Lilly, W. Terry Beck, Lani Weissbach, and Kylee Fassler-Pike, among others. She has performed, choreographed, and taught professionally for Flatlands Dance Theatre, Glow Lyric Theatre, Blue Gate Musicals, The National Theatre for Children, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Missoula Children’s Theatre, Tweetsie Railroad, and other regional theatres and dance companies across the United States. Her dance films have been selected for festivals around the world, including Wicklow ScreenDance Laboratory (Ireland), Jacksonville Dance Film Festival (Florida), the International ScreenDance Festival (Iowa; Mexico), Flick! Film Festival (North Carolina), and Makers in Motion Film Festival (North Carolina). Allison’s research is set at the intersection of creative practice, pedagogical investigation, and art for social change. Her choreographic work focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration with social practice and current issues and questions how we, as artists, might be catalysts for change and social justice. You can read more about her concert dance, musical theatre choreography, and research projects at allisonroux.com.

Yukina Sato

Yukina Sato is a Japanese dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker. Her work examines and embodies the liminal space and hybridity of being in between two countries. She worked with various performing artists such as Abby Zbikowski, Crystal Perkins, Bebe Miller, Diavolo -Architecture in Motion-, and many more. She is a co-founder of YY Dance+Media and creates/performs a multimedia live performance that intersects dance and technology. Their new work, “Motion of Seeing” premiered and won the National Exchange Award in 2023. Currently, she is serving as an Assistant Professor in Dance at Minnesota State University Mankato.