2024-2025 Guest Artists

Jeo Flemming

Jevonnie “Jeo” Flemming. Jeo arrived dancing into the world in January of 1991. Brooklyn born and bred, Jeo is the by-product of parents who were dancers in their youth and involved in the arts. This exposure to all things rhythmic marinated in his veins as early as age two. Jeo would spend hours practicing, learning routines and then publicly showing off his moves at school, dance parties, and showcases as he matured from a young artist into a professional dancer and choreographer. A memorable career highlight was performing on Amateur Night at the world famous Apollo Theatre, rocking the crowd and walking away with 1st place. Teaching dance is a creative outlet and has always felt fluent to Jeo. His younger sister, also an established Dancehall Queen, was his first protégé and student. Jeo’s unique style and ability to blend different techniques from street jazz to hip hop, and from dancehall to salsa made him a very sought after choreographer. Jeo has appeared in and choreographed hundreds of music videos for renowned artists, and was featured in a dancehall documentary, Bad Like Brooklyn Dancehall, executive produced by Shaggy. He now enjoys touring the world leading dance workshops and sharing his love for his Jamaican heritage and dancehall culture globally. @theofficialjeo

LaTasha Barnes

Multi-Bessie award winner (2021/2023), and New York Times celebrated Best Dance & Breakout Star (2021) LaTasha Barnes is an internationally awarded and critically-acclaimed dance artist, choreographer, scholar, and tradition-bearer of Black American Social Dance from Richmond, VA. She is globally celebrated for her musicality, athleticism, and joyful presence throughout the cultural traditions she bears: House Dance, Hip-Hop, Waacking, Authentic Jazz, and Lindy Hop, among them. Barnes’ expansive artistic, competitive, and performative skills have made her a frequent collaborator to The Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts, Summer Dance Forever & Foundation Hip-Hop Center Amsterdam, Singapore-based Timbre Arts Group, Ephrat Asherie Dance, and many more.

Beth Corning

Beth Corning holds a BFA with Distinction from the University of Michigan’s Department of Dance and an MA in Dance from the Ohio State University. From 1981-83, Corning toured a solo repertory concert in the US and Europe called “second take.” In 1981, she began “corning dances & company” in Stockholm, Sweden where she attracted major artists, including members of the Cullberg Company. In the fall of 2003, she became the artistic director of Pittsburgh’s premier modern repertory company, Dance Alloy, which she ran until 2009. She is a recognized Master Teacher and has served on the faculty and as a guest artist in major dance programs, conservatories, and universities in America and abroad.

Simone Ferro

A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Simone Ferro is a choreographer, educator and researcher. She joined the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2001 where she served as M.F.A. program director and as department chair for many years. After a professional career as soloist with dance companies in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Geneva, Switzerland, she completed her graduate work in dance at the University of Iowa. She is a Laban Certified Movement Analyst by the Columbia College of Chicago. Simone has collaborated extensively with local dance, theater and opera companies, including the Milwaukee Ballet, the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Florentine Opera, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, the Milwaukee Opera Theater, Danceworks Performance Company, Wild Space Dance Company and Theatre Gigante. She is a strong advocate for the Milwaukee and the Midwestern artistic community where she collaborates with visual artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers and scholars of different fields. Her choreographic work encompasses a wide range of thematic approaches from social justice issues, from historical and women’s themes to the analysis of more intimate human relationships.

Heidi Latsky

HEIDI LATSKY, originally from Montreal, began her dance career in 1983, most significantly as a principal dancer for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (1987-1993). Her style and philosophy of dance were shaped by this experience, leading her to co-found Goldhuber & Latsky (1993-2000), known for notable commissions.  In 2001, she established Heidi Latsky Dance (HLD). Her career has included significant achievements such as receiving a Creative Capital two-year award for her work “GIMP” in 2009. She has made her mark in the physically integrated dance field, touring internationally and giving impactful keynote speeches.  Latsky is a strong advocate for disability rights and is involved in various organizations and mentoring programs. She has also served as an adjudicator and presenter in the dance community. Heidi holds a BA in Psychology with Honors. Her most recent awards include the Martha Hill Dance Fund Mid Career Artist Award; the Moving Our World Award for Social Justice Advocacy from The IDEAL School of Manhattan; and being honored by Dance Parade as Grand Marshal.

Li Chiao Ping

Li Chiao-Ping, Artistic Director of Li Chiao-Ping Dance, was named by Dance Magazine as one of the “25 to watch”. Ms. Li was on faculty at Mills College, the Director of the Hollins College Dance Program, and the former Chair of the UW-Madison Dance Dept. She formed Li Chiao-Ping Dance in 1990 and co-directed the SF-based Dziga Vertov Performance Group with Douglas Rosenberg from 1992-94. She has had the pleasure of dancing original solos created for her by Cynthia Adams, Mark Dendy, David Dorfman, Molissa Fenley, Joe Goode, Heidi Latsky, Victoria Marks, Bebe Miller, Daniel Nagrin, Sally Silvers, Gus Solomons jr., Elizabeth Streb, June Watanabe, and Mel Wong. Collaborations with visual artist/director Douglas Rosenberg include several dance films which have aired on public television and screened around the world. She is the subject of two documentaries, including “Seven Solos: A Documentary”, directed by Douglas Rosenberg, which was made about her “Women Dancing” solo project and was selected for the Dance On Camera Festival held at Lincoln Center on January 29, 2012 in New York; it was also screened in the 2012 Wisconsin Film Festival. A recipient of numerous awards, grants and honors, including several grants from the NEA and awards from the Asian Pacific Women’s Network, National Arts Association, and the Los Angeles Arts Council first prize awards for performance and choreography, Li has also received choreographic distinctions from the Wisconsin Arts Board, Wisconsin Dance Council, Scripps/ADF Humphrey-Weidman-Limon, and honored to be the American representative in ADF’s International Choreographer’s Program. She recently received the Bartell Award in the Arts, recognizing her dedication to reaching beyond the campus and into the greater community with her work, as well as a 2015 School of Education Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award, for her contributions to the UW-Madison School of Education. She was recently awarded a Vilas Research Professorship, one of the highest honors bestowed by the university and one of the first artists to ever receive one.

Debra Loewen

Debra Loewen earned a BFA in dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MFA in dance from UW-Milwaukee. She formed the New Space Company while teaching at the University of Delaware, where her interest in site-specific work was first recognized in the early 1970’s. She lived in Colombia and Peru, where she taught, choreographed and performed with Ballet Moderno and the National Ballet of Peru. As a solo performer and independent choreographer, she performed her work in Canada, California, Philadelphia, Chicago and throughout the Midwest. She also toured with Interface Inc. wearing a movement-sensitive costume interfaced with a computer/sound system. Her work with modern dance pioneer Robert Ellis Dunn began in the late 70’s continued until his death in 1994. In 1987, she founded Wild Space Dance Company, creating more than 100 works for the company while performing to critical acclaim throughout Wisconsin and in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Japan and Korea. Over the past two decades, Loewen has earned multiple choreographic fellowships from Milwaukee County, the Wisconsin Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts. She currently teaches at UW-Milwaukee and Lawrence University and leads Wild Space’s residencies at Lincoln Middle School of the Arts. She has consulted with K-12 educators to help design dance residencies and promote arts-in-education projects and conducted choreography and contact improvisation workshops throughout the Midwest.

Kia Smith

April Berry

April Berry is a dance director, master teacher, educator and former internationally acclaimed dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Berry has been actively involved in the field of dance education and community engagement for more than 30 years. She has created award‐winning education programs as Director of Community Engagement and Education for Kansas City Ballet, as Director of Education and Community Outreach for North Carolina Dance Theatre (now Charlotte Ballet) and as Director of Education and Community Programs at BalletMet Columbus. Ms. Berry has served on the dance faculty at Kansas City Ballet, Charlotte Ballet and at BalletMet Columbus in Ohio, and has served as adjunct faculty in the Department of Dance at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her teaching experience includes guest instructor and lecturer at various universities and dance institutions in the U.S., including the School at Jacobs Pillow, and as a lead teaching artist representing several U.S. ballet organizations in various school systems around the country. Berry has presented at various conferences, including the Dance/USA Conference in Philadelphia, two National Dance Education (NDEO) Conferences, International Association for Blacks in Dance (IABD) Conferences, and the Collegium for African American Dance (CADD) Conference at Duke University. She authored “Building Bridges for Ballet’s Future” for Dance/USA’s online journal From the Green Room, has served on grants panels for the Missouri Arts Council, North Carolina Arts Council and the Arts & Science Council in Charlotte, and was the Founding chair of Dance USA’s Community Engagement and Education Directors Affinity Group. Berry’s professional training in ballet began in New York at the former National Academy of Ballet and Theatre Arts and at the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Subsequently, Berry studied modern dance techniques and jazz dance at Alvin Ailey American Dance Center (now the Ailey School) in New York and traveled to Cuba to study Caribbean folkloric and popular dance forms at the Escuela Nacional des Arts (National School of the Arts). A former principal dance artist with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT), Berry worked under the direction of Founding Artistic Director Alvin Ailey and Artistic Director Emerita Judith Jamison. Berry is featured in numerous dance books and several AAADT videos, performed on two televised Kennedy Center Honors Programs and served as a guest artist with several ballet companies, including the Teatro La Scala Ballet in Milan, Italy.

Vershawn Sanders Ward