THE COLLEGE SHOWCASE IS DDCF’S LATEST VENTURE STARTED IN 2021 IN HOPES OF ATTRACTING MORE COLLEGE LEVEL DANCERS AND PROFESSORS TO PARTICIPATE. HELD IN THE MAGNIFICENT DETROIT FILM THEATRE LOCATED INSIDE OF THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS (DIA), THIS IS A CHANCE FOR STUDENT CHOREOGRAPHERS, PROFESSORS AND GUESTS ARTISTS TO PRESENT THEIR NEWEST WORK.
Read about our 2024 College Showcase Artists!
Roderick George - Western Dance Project
Roderick George, born in Houston, Texas, studied dance at Ben Stevenson’s Houston Ballet Academy. Roderick continued to develop his skill by exploring other techniques at The Alvin Ailey School, Miami City Ballet, LINES Professional Program and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, TX. Before starting his professional career, he was a bronze winner of the Youth American Grand Prix in New York City in 2005 and was elected as a Presidential Scholar under the YoungArts Foundation in 2003, where he performed for the US President. Roderick joined Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in 2005. Roderick decided to move abroad to work with Basel Ballet/ Theater Basel in 2007 and later to guest with the Goteborg Operan DansKompani. Roderick joined The Forsythe Company in Frankfurt, Germany. Where he learnt and shared his greatest moments with William Forsythe and the artists of TFC. His career has embraced the collaborations of his work and other great choreographers such as Peeping Tom, Jorma Elo, Jerome Bel, Jacopo Godani, William Forsythe, Johan Inger, Jiří Kylian, Sharon Eyal, Ohan Naharin, Benoit Swan-Pouffer, Richard Wherlock, Tino Seghal and many others.
Sarra Lacour - Hope College
Sarra LaCour, originally from Aurora, Illinois is now located in Holland, Michigan at Hope College. She is a Dance Choreography and Performance Major with a Dance Pedagogy Minor. For the past year, LaCour has performed with Hope College’s Strike Time Dance Theatre and is now performing with Hope’s H2 Dance Company. Throughout her education, she has had the pleasure of working with Mark Yonally, Heather Cornell, Ray Tadio, Matthew Farmer, Kara Brems, Nicole Flinn, Stephanie Rankin, and Jasmine Meija. She currently serves as President of the Hope College Tap Club, for which she both teaches and choreographes. The love that Sarra found for choreography started last year when creating the piece "Beloved" in dedication to her grandmother, which premiered in Hope's Student Dance Showcase. Sarra is thankful for the support of her family and friends in helping her reach her goals and hopes to honor them through her dancing.
June Wallace - Oakland University
June Wallace (They/He) is born and raised in Michigan, and is a current student at Oakland University. They are entering their second year as a double major in Dance (BFA) and Psychology (BA). They plan to attend graduate school in order to receive a Dance/Movement Therapy Degree after graduating college. June has been able to combine their passion for dance and mental health awareness into their future. They have had the opportunity to work with choreographers Neda Ebrahimi, Lauren Anderson, Ali Woerner and The Take Root Dancers, Wade Schaaf, Stephanie Pizzo, Brandon Harneck, Stephen Sanford, Ella Dorman, Duncan Cooper, Laura Berman, and Carley Klebba. Lastly, June has collaborated with choreographer Ari Mokdad of Embodied Arts Collective and performed with Ari Mokdad, Elizabeth Schmuhl in Water Studies, and Justin Koertgen in The Nutcracker.
Kaleigh Estby - Hope College
Kaleigh Estby, originally from the suburbs of Chicago, currently attends Hope College in Holland, Michigan. She is a Dance Performance and Choreography Major with a Professional Writing Minor. For the past year, she has been a company member of StrikeTime Dance Company, under the direction of Nicole Flinn. In the coming year, she will be a member of H2 Dance Company, led by Matthew Farmer and Jasmine Meija. Throughout her time before and during college, she has had the pleasure of working with choreographers and artists including Jasmine Meija, Lindsey Hanson, Steven Ianacone, Makenzie King, Drew Lewis, Noelle Kayser, and Mark Yonally. She currently serves on the Tap Club Exec Board at Hope College. She is grateful to her family, friends, and mentors for their love and support as she launches her career into the dance world.
Chloe Ryherd - Lindenwood University
Thayer Jonutz - Oakland University
Thayer Jonutz performed as a fulltime company member with Repertory Dance Theatre before moving to Michigan, immersing himself in both historical and contemporary works. Some notable choreographers that he has worked with are Douglass Dunn, Zvi Gotheiner, Daniel Nagrin, Bill Evans, Scott Rink, and Susan Hadley. He has his MFA dance degree from the University of Michigan where he furthered his professional career performing with the Peter Sparling Dance Company. Jonutz began his professorship position at Oakland University in 2009 and has taught Modern dance technique, improvisation, composition, dance pedagogy, partnering and is the director of the student Repertory Dance Company. Thayer has guest performed and collaborated with a lot of companies during his time in Michigan. These include Patterson Rhythm Pace Dance Company, Rustic Groove, Agua Dulce Dance Theater, Eisenhower Dance Ensemble and Rebudal Dance. Thayer has also co-founded three professional dance companies which have served as building blocks to his current ventures. Mise en Place Dance, soduo, and Take Root enjoyed much success pushing the boundaries of technology and dance and performing in festivals in New York, unconventional spaces in Detroit, and a handful of international opportunities. Thayer is a comprehensively trained McEntire Pilates instructor. Since gaining this life altering knowledge in 2013, Thayer has worked with a fascinating body of clients. They have ranged from children to seniors, physical problems to neurological, chronic to acute pain, and novice to expert athlete. This experience has enriched Thayer’s skill as a teacher, as a creative and as an overall human. Never satisfied, in response to the Pandemic shutdown, Thayer was inspired to fight for another University Degree. Feeling called to become better equipped for lifelong caregiving for his Autistic twin boys, Thayer graduated with an Oakland University Accelerated Nursing Degree December of 2022. As an educator and artist Thayer has been and still believes strongly in a variety of influences. Always open to new collaborative relationships, Thayer strives to continually stretch as well as challenge his comfort zone. His current multiyear creative process on the solo concert Hammer and Nail has pushed Thayer outside the typical modern dance aesthetic and has merged acting, vocalization, sound engineering and integrative props to tell his Pandemic survival narrative. Thayer is honored to have an excerpt of Hammer and Nail chosen as a finalist for this year’s Maggie Allessee Choreography Award as well as representing this year’s Oakland University Presidential Colloquium.
Kara Roseborough - University of Michigan
Kara Roseborough is a multi-disciplinary artist specializing in dance, creative writing, and theatre. She is a recent graduate of the Dance MFA program at the University of Michigan where she was also a Graduate Student Instructor, World Performance Studies Fellow, and Rackham Merit Awardee. As a grad student, Kara was the co-founder of the University of Michigan Chapter of Ballet & Books and the Graduate Advisor for Black Scholars in Dance. This Fall, she will be a Creative Careers Fellow with Arts Initiative as well as a Lecturer in the Department of Dance. Kara is certified to teach Cecchetti Grades I-V and holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Utah. After her undergraduate studies, she danced with Charleston City Ballet, The Ruth Page Civic Ballet of Chicago, South Chicago Dance Theatre, Studio5 and the New Dances Festival through Thodos Dance Chicago and DanceWorks Chicago. She has also performed with Pittsburgh Public Theatre and Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. While a freelance dancer, Kara was the Artistic Director of the Evanston Dance Ensemble 2 (ede2) and served on the founding committee of Dancers Amplified. She has choreographed across the United States and internationally, including on the Dutch National Ballet.
Katie Hatfield - Western Michigan University
Katie Hatfield is a dancer and choreographer from the suburbs of New York. Currently, Katie is a senior at Western Michigan University, pursuing a BFA in dance. While at Western, Katie has had the privilege to perform in works by guest artists such as Tsai Hsi Hung, Jae Man Joo, and Kiki Lucas, as well as faculty works by Kelsey Paschich, Carolyn Pavlik, and Monique Haley. During the 2022-2023 school year, she was a member of Western Dance Project, WMU’s touring performance company, under the direction of Kelsey Paschich. Katie is also involved in multiple dance student organizations such as Orchesis Dance Society and 269 Crew.
Kayt MacMaster - Alma College
Catherine (Kayt) MacMaster is a dancer, choreographer, and scholar. She spent her early career in New York City dancing with artists such as Janet Panetta, K.J. Holmes, Johanna Stevens Meyer, Julie Atlas Muz, and Bread and Puppet Theater. Her choreography has been presented at venues including Triskelion Arts, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Dixon Place, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Links Hall (Chicago), MARSH and The Space Station (St. Louis), and the Dagara Music and Arts Center in Medie, Ghana. She earned an MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she performed in works by Tere O’Connor, Cynthia Oliver, and Sara Hook. MacMaster is currently the Director of Dance at Alma College.
COLLEGE SHOWCASE MEMORIES
