D2D Round 6 JUDGES:
KAROLe armitage
Artistic Director of New York-based company Armitage Gone! Dance, rigorously trained in classical ballet and danced professionally with George Balanchine & Merce Cunningham. She is renowned for pushing boundaries to create contemporary works that blend dance, music, science and the visual arts. Known as the “punk ballerina”, Armitage’s work is at once esoteric and popular. Her choreography credits include Broadway Productions, videos for Madonna & Michael Jackson, films for Merchant Ivory, a show for Cirque du Soleil, and the Fall/Winter 2020/2021 Marc Jacobs Fashion show. Armitage has directed operas and created new dance productions for major houses in the US and Europe. She is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Kansas University (2013), a Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard University (2106) and she is currently an MIT Media Lab Directors Fellow.
NINA MCNEELY is a choreographer, visual artist, director, creative director and animator who finds no greater pleasure than studying the human condition. She finds the human form in motion both poignant and poetic, and capable of expressing concepts and feelings that words simply cannot. McNeely has worked with artists including Bjork, Gaspar Noe’, Foo Fighters, Sam Smith, Alicia Keys and more.
BENJAMIN SEROUSSIhas been working as a creative filmmaker since the early 2000s. After studying at the UCLA Film School, he returned to Paris and launched his career making music videos and branching out into fashion and experimental films. Frequent collaborations with leading designers, cinematographers, choreographers, and musicians provide the backbone of Seroussi’s exploration of new formats & processes. With his passion for both current and obsolete technologies and as experimental effects in post-production, he infuses his work with a timeless analog feel that distinguishes it from today’s digital media climate. Seroussi’s current focus is on feature filmmaking.
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:
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
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
Tony Testa
Award-Winning Choreographer, TED X Fellow