Sasha Donovan-Anns

Sasha Donovan-Anns is a dance-writer and multimedia artist based in Sheffield, England. She trained in the Vaganova ballet method for fifteen years before acquiring a chronic illness. Since graduating with a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, Sasha has written for Rrramble digital arts magazine, exhibited photo-textile sculpture, and is a Poetry Editor for Scribbled. She also provides dance-writing workshops for dance artists and researchers.

Lisa Green-Cudek

Lisa Green-Cudek is a writer and dancer. She teaches courses in dance history, aesthetics, technique, and creative process at Loyola University of Maryland, and teaches ballet at Johns Hopkins University. She is on the faculty of Peabody Preparatory Dance where she teaches students of all ages and is the resident dance historian.

Throughout her career, Green-Cudek has been committed to cultivating dance in communities as a medium for exploring ideas and histories, identities and relationships. She has been awarded funding for this work from The Pennsylvania Humanities Council, The Maryland Humanities Council, The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and the Center for the Humanities at Loyola University of Maryland.

Valerie Ifill

Valerie Ifill is a Philadelphia-based dance artist, educator, and researcher whose work centers on community engagement, identity, and storytelling through movement. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Drexel University, where she directs the Drexel Community-engaged Movement Partnerships (D-CEMP), including Dance at the Dornsife Center, a dance education program for youth and adults; Wheelchair Dance partnerships with Rachel Federman Morales, MA BC-DMT, the HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy, and Drexel Dance; as well as an elementary school touring dance ensemble offering interac0ve dance assemblies throughout the School District of Philadelphia.

Her university teaching, choreography, and community-engaged work explore how care, collaboration, and embodied reflection can be used in creative practice to nurture more authentic relationships. Drawing on her Trinidadian and US Midwestern backgrounds, Valerie’s practices are rooted in ease, valuing pluralistic cultural perspectives, and cultivating meaningful relationships. These practices create environments ripe for deeplearning and creativity.

Her collaborative projects exploring movement storytelling, motherhood, and interdisciplinary learning have received support from the Spencer Founda0on and the Mellon Founda0on. Valerie’s education includes an MFA in Dance from the University of Oregon, a BBA from Kent State University, Urban Bush Women Summer Leadership Institute, and the Independent Study and Teacher Certification: Horton Technique programs from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Lauren Neefe

Lauren Neefe is a sound writer and docu-poet based in Durham, NC, on Saponi Nation land. "The Feel Phoneme" is the title of her thesis exhibit for the M.F.A. in Experimental and Documentary Arts at Duke University, on show at the Center for Documentary Studies in March 2026. She frequently collaborates with musicians, dancers, and filmmakers, weaving field recordings and interviews into live performance, such as "Eunoisha (Witness)" (with the Atlanta Improvisers Orchestra Choir) and "F(L*)IGHT," a site-specific multisensory performance at the 7 Stages Theatre (with Dr. shady and Windy Oya Radical). She holds a Ph.D. in English literature from SUNY Stony Brook and an M.A. in Poetry from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and has taught courses on sound studies, poetry, Romanticism, and aural architecture at distinguished universities and in Georgia state prisons.