Maria Arias 03' was born in Pergamino, Argentina and moved to the US when she was six. Hollins was her introduction to the world of modern dance. Since then she has attended the American College Dance Festivals and three summers at the American Dance Festival where she worked with Shen Wei Dance Arts. 

Lara Allen 03' has been studying dance since 1987 and the first dance she learned was to Michael Jackson's "Bad”. Since then she has graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, California where she majored in Dance. For two years during her undergraduate study, she directed Funktionslust, the improvisational dance company for the Claremont Colleges. The Scripps College Dance Department awarded her the Luceille Morrison Dance Scholarship which enabled her to study at the American Dance Festival, the Seattle Festival of Improvisational and Experimental Dance, and the Conduit Summer Intensive in Portland, Oregon. She has also received the Oscar McCullough Scholarship to attend the Dance and Technology Festival in Toronto, Canada. Her award winning choreography has been presented at the Winningstad Theater in Portland, Oregon. She thanks Ellen Philpott, Donna Faye, and her girlfriend Alyssa Armster-Wikoff for getting her through when the light seemed dim.

Chris Chappel  03' was born in Virginia Beach, VA. She graduated with an interdisciplinary major in dance, creative writing, and film / photography. She has attended a number of regional college dance festivals with HRDC and spent six weeks in Durham last summer at the American Dance Festival. She also enjoyed a semester in Japan studying Buddhism and the contemporary Japanese dance form, Butoh.

Melissa Chris '98, M.A.L.S. '01, from Chapel Hill, N.C., graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in dance. Melissa is a founding member of the Hollins Dance Project (HDP), the professional company in residence at Hollins University.  Her work Punch Line was featured in the 1999 American College Dance Festival (ACDF) Gala Concert at Slippery Rock University.  Melissa’s next work, Sally Forth was selected at the Southwest Regional ACDF to be performed in the Gala Concert.  From there her work was one of only a few pieces invited to the National ACDF concert in College Park, Maryland.She was recently selected as associate artist for Florida's prestigious Atlantic Center for Creative Arts to work alongside Carrei Mae Weems. Her work "Punch Line" was selected for the gala performance at the regional 1999 ACDFA. A founding member of the Hollins Dance Project, Melissa, along with Jesse Zaritt, current M.A.L.S. student, and Sara Procopio '98, M.A.L.S. '01, auditioned a work , "Party of Two" for Dance Theater Workshop's Fresh Track Series in New York City. She has performed in works by Nathan Trice, Gerri Houlihan, Nicolas Leichter, Karinne Keithley, Jack Arnold, Myriam Herve-Gil, and Donna Faye Burchfield.

Melissa was recently chosen as one of four choreographers for The Yard 2003 residency.

Shani Nwando Ikerioha Collins '01originally from Greensboro, N.C. During two separate Hollins January Short Terms, Shani apprenticed with Ron Brown and Marlies Yearby. Her work was selected to represent Hollins at the regional 1999 ACDFA in Pennsylvania. She received the Martha Myers scholarship for choreography at ADF during summer 1999. She studied dance in London on the Hollins-Abroad London program during fall 1999. In January 2001, Shani toured with the Urban Bush Women based in New York City and later toured throughout the 2001 company season. She recently accepted a position with the world-acclaimed company, Ron Brown/Evidence.

Vanessa Fassié  B.A. Dance 02', M.A.L.S 03'...Completed her M.A.L.S degree with a focus on creating multi-media work.  Vanessa is currently working as the Hollins Dance Web-Mistress and teaches dance at the Roanoke Ballet Theatre and Roanoke College.  She also slings 'mud' at Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea. Her interests include: dance, making soundscores and videos, listening to electronic musique, watching films, and hangin' with her cats Buttons, Smokey, and Arnie (named in memory of Arnie Zane).  Her future plans include: winning the lottery and dancing on the beautiful beaches of the Mediterranean.

Nancy Forshaw-Clapp ‘03 from Charlotte, NC, graduated high school from North Carolina School of the Arts. Nancy has studied and toured with the North Carolina Dance Theatre as well as attended various summer programs at the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and most recently the American Dance Festival. She is certified to teach Pilates mat classes and taught through the Hollins Dance Project as well as the Roanoke Ballet Theatre. She has also conducted movement research with Professor Ruth Day at Duke University during the American Dance Festival.

She is now living and working in NYC.

Erika Hand 03' a double major in dance and women’s studies. Currently, she is most interested in the study of hip-hop, improvisation, and water. She enjoys the challenge of making ideas manifest in the flesh through the vehicle of embodiment. She sees dance as her life-long intellectual pursuit. She hopes to actively challenge the stereotype of the unintelligent dancer and plans to attend graduate school. Her favorite noteworthy experiences at Hollins include an internship with Choice USA in Washington D.C., acting as a student representative for the Hollins/Spellman exchange, and performing with HRDC for four years. Erika loves the Guerilla Girls, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, black feminist theory, and Las Vegas.

She is currently living and working in sunny San Diego, Ca.

Sara Beth Higgins ’03 from Tennessee.  While at Hollins she was a member of HRDC, and played on the soccer team. She is extremely thankful and grateful to the other members of HRDC for their amazing talent and inspiring dedication.

Isabel Lewis 03' Dance and English. She is interested in studying across media, particularly in sound, comic books, film, improvisation, and literature, to excavate a common language of composition and metaphor amongst various forms to be applied to the making of dances. Isabel has presented her work at the Cunningham Studios in NYC and in Albuquerque, NM and Missoula, MT at the American College Dance Festival.  Currently living, and working in NYC.

Nicole Oxendine 03' a cognitive psychology major and a dance minor. Her honors thesis was on the Strategies of Movement Recall in Dancers, Athletes, and Non-dancers/non-athletes. She will be an attorney by the year 2006. As far as her dance experience; she was a dancer before she got here, she is a dancer now, and she will be a dancer when she leaves.

Jillian Pena 03' born in Ann Arbor, land of many trees and lakes, but her formative years were spent among the cacti, dirt, and watermelon-colored mountains of New Mexico. Her current obsessions include color fields, riot grrrl, lemon tetra, Vanessa Becroft, and the alcoholic existentialist “painters” of the ‘60’s. She is very small. She is one-half conquistador and one-half Viking.

Sara Procopio '98, M.A.L.S. '01 is originally from Syracuse, NY. She graduated from Hollins College in 1998 with Claire Benton, Melissa Chris, and Marlo Harris with whom she co-founded the Hollins Dance Project under the artistic direction of Donna Faye Burchfield.  While at Hollins, Sara had the great fortune to study extensively with an amazing array of artists.  She performed in works by Nathan Trice, Gerri Houlihan, Nicholas Leichter, Melissa Chris, and Donna Faye Burchfield.  As a current company member of Shen Wei Dance Arts, she has performed extensively in the U.S. and Europe.

Katy Pyle ’02 lives in bushwick and dances for john jasperse company and ann livingston young. She also makes videos.

Malaika Sarco  B.A. 02', M.A.L.S 03'

Malaika Sarco graduated from high school as a contemporary dance major at the North Carolina School of the Arts, before earning a B.A. at Hollins in Intercultural Performance Studies 02'. Malaika has studied performance, creation and movement from countless angles through programs at the American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, James Madison University, the Laban Centre for Movement Studies, and the Omega Institute. Performances with the Hollins Dance Project, Kosei Sakamoto's Monochrome Circus, the Hollins Repertory Dance Project have taken her throughout the United States. Her graduate study at Hollins was made possible by the generous support of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which named Malaika a 2002 graduate scholar and fellow.  She is currently pursuing an M.A. at Dartington College of Arts.

Gina T’ai '02-recently made the big move from NYC to L.A. Why? Couldnt really tell you - a hunch I guess. Still a member of bopi's black sheep/Dances by Kraig Patterson in NYC, Gina is been working with some independent choreographers in L.A and is persuing a career in commercial dance. With the dream of being bi-costal, she hopes to still play with her Hollins dancing friends. (* make sure to keep your eyes open when watching future episodes of The Guardian, The West Wing, and others to see Gina playing a hooker, a tornado victim, and other fun characters.)

Kate Totherow '01, from Goffstown, N.H., has pursued her love of contact improvisation in various ways, including doing a Short Term internship at Movement Research in New York City and working on an organic farm during breaks. She studied on the Hollins-Abroad London program during fall 1999. She spent the summer of 2001 at EARTHDANCE, reconnecting with her love of nature and improvisation. She is currently living and working in northern California.

Ann Liv Young formally known as Prince, is from the Outer Banks, NC. She went to North Carolina School of the Arts studying drama and modern dance. She then studied at Laban Centre London and then left straight away to arrive at Hollins where she hangs with her dog Lydia. Currently living and working in NYC.

Jesse Zaritt grew up in Worcester, MA.  He graduated in May 2000 from Pomona College in Claremont, CA with a BA in Dance Theater and Performance Art.  Jesse has studied and performed in California, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and Israel. Jesse is honored to be (he hopes) a life-long member of the Hollins Dance Project.  He extends his profound thanks to his family, friends and all the members of the Hollins Dance Community for their support, inspiration, and multi-faceted beauty.