D2D Round 6 JUDGES:
kyle abraham
Kyle Abraham has received tremendous accolades and awards for his dance and choreography including a 2010 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance for his work in The Radio Show, a 2010 Princess Grace Award for Choreography, a BUILD grant and an individual artist fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, and a 2013 MacArthur Genius award as a choreographer.
In 2011, OUT Magazine labeled Abraham as the “best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama”. His choreography has been presented throughout the US and abroad, including On The Boards, South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, REDCAT, Philly Live Arts, Portland’s Time Based Arts Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Danspace Project, Dance Theater Workshop, Bates Dance Festival, Harlem Stage, Fall for Dance Festival at New York's City Center, Montreal, Germany, Jordan, Ecuador, Dublin’s Project Arts Center, The Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum located in Okinawa Japan, The Andy Warhol Museum and The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.
As a performer, Abraham has worked with acclaimed modern dance companies including David Dorfman Dance, Burnt Sugar Dance Conduction Continuum, Nathan Trice/Rituals, Mimi Garrard Dance Theater, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Dance Alloy, The Kevin Wynn Collection and Attack Theatre. In addition to performing and developing new works for his company, Abraham.In.Motion, Abraham also teaches his unique approach to post-modern dance in various schools and studios throughout the United States. For more information please visit AbrahamInMotion.org
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Jasmine albuquerque
is a choreographer, dancer and instructor based in Los Angeles. She is a co-founder of WIFE and has performed with companies such as Hysterica, Blue13 Bollywood, Collage Dance Theater, Ryan Heffington’s Fingered and done movement direction for Beyonce, Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez. Other performances include Soft Sex, Istanbul Light Festival, TEDx SoCal, KTCHN, We Are The World, Frequency Festival, Jane’s Addiction and Hecuba at venues including the Hammer Museum, Zebulon, the El Rey, the Wiltern, MOCA, The Ford, The Orpheum and LACMA. Jasmine has choreographed for Katy Perry, Ivy Park, Puma x Balmain, St. Vincent, Devendra Banhart, Ry X, Sylvan Esso, Cameron Avery, Monica Dogra, Carlie Hanson and danced in videos for Beck, Laura Marling, The Weekend, Miguel, Rodrigo Amarante, Lawrence Rothman, Verve Records, Fitz & The Tantrums, MIKA, Jessica Tonder and Morcheeba. She has a degree in History from UCLA and trained in contemporary dance at The Edge Performing Arts Center and in Budapest, Hungary. She has been teaching dance for the past nineteen years in and around Los Angeles, Copenhagen and Mexico. www.jasmminealbuquerque.com
paul lightfoot
Paul Lightfoot graduated from the Royal Ballet School in London before joining Netherlands Dans Theater in 1985. Lightfoot began as a dancer with NDT2. Two years later he moved into NDT1, where he danced until 2008. Early in his career Lightfoot began choreographing together with Sol León. From September 2011 until August 2020 Lightfoot was the artistic director of NDT. León and Lightfoot have been a choreographic duo since 1989 and together they have created more than 60 world premieres for the NDT, which they have received many prestigious awards for. From 2002 until 2020 León and Lightfoot were house choreographers of NDT. With the production of Schmetterling in 2022 two works by the choreographer duo were shown for the first time at the Bayerisches Staatsballett.
rick tjia
After an extensive career in dance with Ballet Austin, Boston Ballet and Delta Festival Ballet, as well as working in film and television in L.A. (with choreographers like Twyla Tharp, Joe Layton, and with film directors like Mark Rydell, & James Brooks), Rick Tija joined Edouard Lock’s La La La Human Steps in Montreal in 1993, with whom he danced and toured the world for 8 years. Today, Rick is a choreographer, coach, competition judge, creative director, and casting director. Rick was a talent scout specializing in dance for nearly 17 years in the Casting Department at Cirque du Soleil with casting credits including Daniel Ezralow, Dragone, & Canada’s Got Talent. As CEO and founder of Choreography Online, the world’s first online choreography market place, he continues to push the boundaries and offer the dance world innovative ways of evolving and opening up paths to new opportunities. These opportunities include JamarGig (online casting software), JamarGig Profile (free professional web portfolio software for performing artists and creators), a casting service CO Casting, and, in collaboration with the UK government and I-PATH , an unprecedented and accredited online Diploma in Choreography Programm, accessible worldwide. Rick is also a writer, and has written for publications such as Dance Magazine, Dance Informa, DanceLife Australia, and Red Bull.
sarah elgart
Award-Winning Director/Choreographer & Founder of D2D
Sarah Elgart is a Los Angeles based choreographer and director working under the auspice of Sarah Elgart | Arrogant Elbow. Sarah creates original content for stage, screen, and site-specific venues. Her stage and site-works have been performed at alternative spaces including LAX Airport, The Skirball Center, Mark Taper Forum, Van Nuys Flyaway, The Bradbury Building, Jacob’s Pillow, INSITU Site- Specific Festival NY, and Loft Seven, where she created a rooftop work lit entirely by a hovering helicopter accompanied by Nels Cline (Wilco). Her work has been produced by venues including The Music Center, MASS MoCA, Dance Place, Los Angeles Theater Center, Mark Taper Forum and The International Women’s Theater Festival. In film Sarah has worked with noted directors including JJ Abrams, David Lynch, Catherine Hardwicke, and Anton Corbijn. Her own films include award-winning music videos, dance shorts, and an Emmy nominated PSA, and continue to be accepted into festivals internationally. In addition to teaching dance and film, Sarah writes a regular column, ScreenDance Diaries that focuses on the intersections of both genres internationally for online magazine Cultural Weekly.
zoe rappaport
Movement Director | Choreographer & Creative Producer of D2D
Zoe Rappaport is a movement director, choreographer & creative producer based in Los Angeles and New York. Working with world-renowned choreographers by the time she was 18 years old, Zoe's diverse and versatile background has led her to work with some of the top names in live production, tv/film, editorial, fashion, commercial, content creation and site-specific work over the last 15 years. She has worked as a Movement Director/Choreographer for global artists & luxury brands including Estée Lauder, Vidal Sassoon, Grammy award-winning electronic artist ZHU and "LOVE" Magazine. Her work has been performed throughout NY & LA and her dance film "Unspoken Words" was selected to be featured in Dance Magazine. As an interdisciplinary artist, Zoe has worked across many fields & platforms behind-the-scenes from fashion shows for Hermés to television shows like So You Think You Can Dance and America's Got Talent.
Grounded in the belief that movement was born to bring people together and communicate beyond words, Zoe's work aims to grow & expand the audience for dance by bringing movement further into unexpected spaces, broadening access, creating more pathways to pursue dance as a sustainable career — and thus, elevating the field as a whole.
Our acclaimed panel of judges come from both the worlds of dance & film and have included:
Karol Armitage
Artistic Director of Armitage Gone! Dance
Casey Brooks
Director of commercials & dance films
Peter Chu
Founder/Director: chuthis, Choreographer,
Dancer: Kidd Pivot, Aszure Barton & Artists, Cirque du Soleil
E. Moncell Durden
Assistant Professor of Practice USC Kaufman School of Dance, Dancer, Historian,Ethnographer, Author, Documentarian
Kristy Edmunds
Executive & Artistic Director of UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA), Artist, Curator, Frequent Keynote Speaker
Valerie Faris
Award-Winning Director (with Jonathan Dayton) Little Miss Sunshine
Katherine Helen Fisher
Choreographer, Director & Founder of Safety Third Productions
Stephen Galloway
Go-To Creative Movement Director for the world's most progressive brands
d. Sabela grimes
Rockefeller Artist, Choreographer, Composer,
& Educator at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance
Ben Johnson
Director of Performing Arts for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
Louise Lecavalier
Award-Winning Dancer/Choreographer & Former Muse of La La La Human Steps
Rosalynde LeBlanc Loo
Chair of Dance Program Loyola Marymount University – LMU, Choreographer,
Dancer: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, White Oak
Julie McDonald
Agent, Co-Founder McDonald Selznick Associates
Nina McNeely
Emmy-Winning Choreographer/Director
Renae Williams Niles
Principal, Renae WN Consulting
Former Associate Dean of Administration & COO for the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance at USC
Vincent Paterson
Award-Winning Choreographer & Director
Desmond Richardson
Tony Nominated Dancer & Educator
Co-Founder & Co-Artistic Director Complexions Contemporary Ballet
Benjamin Seroussi
Creative Filmmaker
Tony Testa
Award-Winning Choreographer, TED X Fellow