Lora Allen is the artistic director of Philadelphia based dance company allendance. As well as the founder and director of The Iron Factory; a rehearsal and performance space offering low rental rates for Philadelphia performing and visual artists. Lora has shown her work in Philadelphia, New York City, Louisiana, New Jersey, and across Pennsylvania. Her recent films made in collaboration with film maker Adam Peditto, musicians Bon Lanzetti, Ross Pederson, Peter Adams, and dancer Andrea Lanzetti have been shown in New York City and Philadelphia film festivals. She is currently involved in a two year research project-working to identify how to best transmit embodied movement through technology. Lora is very grateful to be involved as an artists in residence with HATCH. 

 

Belle Alvarez is originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. She spent the first half of her childhood in Manila, Philippines before immigrating to the USA. Belle is a Dance Artist currently based in Philadelphia. As a project based performer, Belle has been in featured in work by Sean Thomas Boyt, New Street Dance Group, Jennifer D. Yackel, Leah Stein Dance Company, Jessica Warchal-King/The Embodiment Project, and Evan Hoffman. She has presented choreography at the Outlet Dance Project, Inhale Performance Series, Koresh Artist Showcase, and ETC Performance Series. An active arts educator recently honored with a scholarship from the Bartol Foundation, Belle facilitates transformative experiences with dance as the Outreach Coordinator for BalletX, Philadelphia’s premier contemporary ballet, and as a Teaching Artist with award-winning Pierre Dulaine’s Dancing Classrooms. Belle earned her BFA in Dance from Temple University where she performed in work by Jillian Harris, Colleen Hooper Performance Projects, Dance Exchange, Charles O. Anderson/Dance Theatre X, Larry Keigwin, and Beau Hancock during her undergraduate years.

Marie Brown, originally from Jacksonville, Florida, moved to Philadelphia in 2005 after graduating from Radford University with a BFA in Dance.  While in Philadelphia, she had the honor to work with a variety of companies and independent artists such as Scrap Performance Group, Group Motion Dance Company, MacArthur Dance Project,  StoneDepotDance Lab, Chisena Danza, Beau Hancock, Jodi Obeid, and Olive Prince Dance.  She has recently returned to Philadelphia after graduating with an MFA in Dance Performance from The University of Iowa and is most recently working with Chisena Danza and Megan Bridge.  She is currently looking to create her own work after many years of identifying as a performer.  She is excited to be presenting her work through HATCH and is looking forward to continuing her adventure in dance.

Mawiyah's works mostly explore ideas about but not limited to: the traditions of African American culture in Los Angeles in relation to the African diaspora throughout the world, femininity, versatility and diversity in movement styles, daily social experiences and her urban upbringings.

Mawiyah has been choreographing since the age of 15 but became more dedicated to the practice in college. She is very thankful to embark on this new journey through Birds on A Wire’s Hatch program in support by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

For her new work, she's very eager to jump in the studio and start exploring new ideas regarding today's social issues and things specific to each mover. She's interested in forming dialogues(both physical and verbal) that are sensitive, uncomfortable and may go beyond the "norm."

Corey Melancon, a native of New Orleans, graduated with a B.F.A. in Dance from Temple University in Philadelphia.  She studied at the Martha Graham Institute in New York City and has traveled to Europe visiting Trinity Laban Dance Conservatory in London and PARTS in Brussels, Belgium.  In March 2015, her choreography was chosen to represent Temple at the Northeast Regional American College Dance Association.  At that time, she was also invited to audition for the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch Company in Wuppertal, Germany, which she attended in March 2015. Corey currently teaches Modern Dance Master Classes in New Orleans at the Debby Dillehay Dance Studio and creates choreography for their dance troupe for regional and national competitions.  She has an intense interest in African and Haitian movement and through her overseas travel and association with Arsha Vidya Gurukalum in Saylorsburg, PA and Coimbatore, India, she is living her passion to explore a variety of dance cultures to create an innovative fusion of techniques and movement styles.

A lover of performing, Katie Moore is beginning to break out of her shell and hatch her choreographic career. Katie is a senior at Temple University who will graduate in May with a BFA in Dance along with a general business studies minor, and as a student of the Temple Honors Program. 

With a strong musical background, Katie is interested in collaborating with musicians and sound designers as well as making her own music to inform her creative process. She is intrigued by the complexity of human evolution from adolescence to adulthood. This examination focuses heavily on self-reflection and false expectation informed by a movement approach that is technical, yet chaotic. Katie believes that exposing the inner workings of the mind is not only therapeutic, but also sparks rich conversation. She desires to create healing visual experiences connecting to the lifelong process of understanding our identity. 

Nandini Sikand is an Odissi dancer, filmmaker and anthropologist. She is the co-founder and co-director of Sakshi Productions, a neo-classical and contemporary dance company. Her work has been funded by LMCC (Lower Manhattan Cultural Council), the Asian American Arts Alliance and Joyce Soho in New York City. She is also the Associate Director/Choreographer of Harmattan Theater, a performance group committed to an environmentally and socially-engaged theater. Nandini Sikand is an Assistant Professor of an interdisciplinary film and media studies program at Lafayette College, PA. 

Using a gestural dance vocabulary and Indian movement practices, most Sakshi performances inhabit dancing bodies, personal histories, vocal intonations, evocative images and live percussion. Sakshi Productions was founded in 2008 by Kakoli Mukherjee and Nandini Sikand and they have performed at many notable venues, including Lincoln Center, the United Nations, Danny Kaye Playhouse, Hunter College, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Pace University, John Jay College and The Graduate Center, CUNY in New York.

donia salem’s work is driven by a desire to know how identity and experience are shaped by place, language, lineage, migration, history, and gender. She is a student of acclaimed Odissi Guru, Durga Charan Ranbir, and works closely with Rahul Acharya. Performances include Princeton University, Bard College, Kansas University, The FlynnSpace, Alvin Ailey, and the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts – with Rajika Puri as part of WMI's Dancing The Gods series. In addition to being part of Sakshi Productions, salem co-directs The Outlet Dance Project – an annual festival of women choreographers and filmmakers; is part of the Brown Girl in the Ring Collective, and was a founding member of Kalamandir Dance Company. Some of her poetry can be found in the Winter 2016 issue of Sukoon Magazine. donia has her MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College.