Ashley Ray Garcia

Ashley Ray Garcia is a dancer and choreographer from Michigan.

She received her BFA in Dance-Performance and Choreography from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Through her love of traveling, she has had the opportunity to perform in France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, and the Czech Republic.

Throughout her career, she has had the opportunity to work with Maria Gillespie, Simeone Ferro, Mair Culbreth, Daniel Burkholder,
Anthony “YNOT” Denaro, Melissa Anderson, Dani Kuepper, Dan Schuchart, Christal Wagner, Rachel Miller, and Emily and Gwen Petry. 

Garcia has shown work at Central de La Danse (Paris, France), Get It Out
There MKE (Wisconsin), Collage Dance Festival, and RAD Fest (Michigan).

She is currently a company member of Wild Space Dance Company and Danceworks Performance Company while choreographing independently. Garcia enjoys choreographing, performing, and improvisation and looks forward to gaining knowledge through both exploring and experience.

Libby Steckmesser

Libby Steckmesser (she/her) is a dancer,
researcher, and choreographer, currently pursuing her BFA in contemporary
performance and choreography with a minor in somatics at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Her dance training began in 2006 at the Jean Wolfmeyer
School of Dance in Manitowoc, WI.

She has since collaborated with artists such as
Maria Gillespie, Simone Ferro, DeMar Walker, Parijat Desai, Marina Magalhaes, and Dan Schuchart. She has performed in Dance Works’ "Get It Out There," UWM's Dancemakers, and with companies such as Hyperlocal MKE and GLPD.

She has studied and performed at the Chicago National Association of
Dance Masters, as well as in Paris, France at the Camping Dance Festival in
2022.

She is currently working alongside Maria Gillespie
in her Student Undergrad Research Fellowship.

Katie Speltz

Katie Speltz is a dancer
and choreographer from Winona, MN, currently in Milwaukee, WI to pursue her BFA in contemporary performance and choreography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

She has traveled throughout the United States with
Celebrity Dance Conventions assisting choreographers such as Ashley Cinq-Mars,
Addison Johnson, and Cat Cogliandro.

During her time at UWM, she has performed
in the works of Maria Gillespie, Aysha Upchurch, Alfonso Cervera, DanSchuchart, Kia Smith, Karlies Kelley, and Dawn Springer.

She has also had theprivilege of performing with Gina Laurenzi Dance Project, at the American College Dance Association North-Central conference,Danceworks’ “Get It Out There,” and
has presented work in UWM’s Dance Student Organization Dance Collective.

Allison Haase

Allison Haase (she/her) is a dancer and educator in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

She began her dance training in 2004 at Mirror Image and continued her training at All the Above Dance Company in West Bend, Wisconsin. Through her youth, she danced competitively for 10 years and performed in several shows including The Nutcracker Ballet. She took her passion of dance with her to UWM by completing a minor in Dance Performance while pursuing a degree in Elementary Education.

While completing her minor, Allison collaborated with artists such as Mair Culbreth and Jasmine Uras. She has performed in works such
as UWM’s New Dancemakers and Spring Dances along with performing in the American College Dance Association Conference in 2022 and Gina Laurenzi Dance Project.

She taught dance at All the Above Dance Company for four years and is currently a student teaching in the West Allis School District in hopes of
continuing her teaching in both dance and education in the Milwaukee area after graduation.

Emma Becker

Emma Becker is a Dance Major at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

She has been studying
ballet from the age of 5 to the present day and has also been studying modern dance at UWM. She started her dance journey at the Central Wisconsin School of Ballet in Wausau, WI under Madam Karkar and Patrik Kasper. Some roles she performed with CWSB have been Clara, Coffee Princess, Lead Mirliton, and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Aurora in Sleeping
Beauty, Lead Mummy in Thriller, Cuckoo Bird in Carnival of the Animals, and the Dying Swan Solo. 

She recently attended the Milwaukee Ballet Summer Intensive and in past years has done the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive as well as practiced in a workshop under Carlos
Lopez.

Some performances she has been in while studying in Milwaukee have included UWM Productions of New Dancemakers: Viewed &
Perceived and Diverging Pathways,Winterdances Longing is Momentum in Disguise where she worked closely with Mair Culbreth and
Kia Smith ),Springdances Elemental where she also worked with Alfonso Cervera, as well as Dancework’s Get It Out There performance and Milwaukee Ballet’s Emergence performance. 

Kalista Roling

Kalista Roling is a multi-disciplinary performer and choreographer, originating from Chicago, IL and currently based in Milwaukee, WI. As a 2023 graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts, Kalista obtained her BFA in Contemporary Dance Choreography and Performance, performing in works by renowned choreographers such as Simone Ferro, Maria Gillespie, Ashley Ray Garcia, Dawn Springer, and Kia Smith. During the time she spent working towards her degree, Kalista worked full-time as a judge and backstage manager for FLY National Dance Competition and traveled across the country every weekend, while also pursuing her career in the midwest working for Activate Your Artistry Dance Convention. Since graduating, however, Kalista has now begun extending her work to unique and marginalized demographics in the greater Midwest community.

Kalista currently works with Wildspace Dance Company as an outreach artist, designing and implementing dance courses for different organizations within the community, such as Lincon Middle School of the Arts and Racine Youth Offenders Correctional Facility. Kalista also returns to Illinois regularly to continue setting guest choreography at various studios in the Southwest Chicago area, such as Studio 20 Dance Academy, Dreams Dance Company, and Relevé Dance Company. Additionally, Kalista is currently working with Plie Promotions Dancewear as a Customer Experience Specialist and Trade Show Exhibitor. In her free time, Kalista enjoys modeling for clothing catalogs and photography conferences, choreographing and directing independent dance films, and performing in various dance shows throughout Milwaukee

Jasmine Uras

Jasmine Uras is a performing artist, educator, and researcher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance supplemented by studies in the Early
Childhood Education department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the
spring of 2022. Jasmine was a Teaching Artist with Parts of the Whole- The Body
is Home where she taught somatic practices at Vel R. Phillips Youth Justice
Center underneath the guidance of Maria Gillespie. Jasmine recently taught and
performed at Centre National de la Danse in Paris, France during the summer of
2022. Her work “Strings of Healing” was presented in the American College Dance
Association Conference in 2022 as well as the Centre National de la Danse.

Jasmine’s current works are influenced by the sound, relationships, and environment that we experience in our daily lives. Her research focuses on how we use music and sound to heal,
overcome, and prosper as a form of therapy for artists and humans within a
community. She loves collaborating with live music as well as unique spaces and other dancers!

Jasmine is currently completing her Master of Fine Arts in Dance at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee She also teaches at DanceWorks, the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the Schauer Arts Center. She is a performing artist
with Wildspace Dance Company and Gina Laurenzi Dance Project in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin.