DanceChance NWA 2.0
Discover the rising stars of the Northwest Arkansas dance community!
A choreographic showcase of community artists, DanceChance NWA hands the stage to local dancemakers to share their newest works and works-in-progress. Like an open-mic night in motion, this interactive dance performance features choreographers of every genre presenting original works to the local community, culminating in a moderated Q&A where the audience and artists can connect, share feedback, and get a glimpse at the process behind the curtain. Interested audience members will also have the chance to put their name in a drawing to be one of the three choreographers featured at the next DanceChance NWA event.
Hosted by Karen Castleman and Blake Worthey, and facilitated by Laura Goodwin, this moving demonstration of courage and creativity is not one to miss. See you there!
Free, tickets required. Register online or with Guest Services at 479.657.2335 to reserve your spot today.
ABOUT THE CHOREOGRAPHERS
Grace Reed
Grace Reed is blessed to have trained professionally with the Houston Ballet Academy and Kansas City Ballet School, under the direction of Vikki Attard and Grace Holmes, respectively. She has performed in works by Stanton Welch AM, Devon Carney, Victoria Morgan, Val Caniparoli, and many more. She spent her summers on a full scholarship to Pacific Northwest Ballet’s and Kansas City Ballet’s summer intensive programs. This is Ms. Reed’s first season in the Second Company with NWA Ballet Theater.
Kerridwyn Schanck
Kerridwyn began training in 2006 at The Portland Ballet under Nancy Davis. Starting in 2011, she began to attend summer programs including Houston Ballet, The School of American Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet. While at The Portland Ballet some of her favorite performance opportunities included Valse Fantasie and Who Cares by George Balanchine, as well as Bournoville’s Napoli, Les Sylphides, and John Clifford’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ms. Schanck joined Ballet Idaho in 2017 as an apprentice and remained there until 2019. Her repertoire included corps de ballet roles in Swan Lake and Raymonda by Peter Anastos, Agon by George Balanchine, Ambiguous Content by Craig Davidson, Dreamland by Danielle Rowe, Cinderella by Edward Liang, and featured roles in Peter Anastos’ Nutcracker and Daniel Ojeda’s A Great Unbridgeable Distance. In her first year with Northwest Arkansas Ballet Theater, she performed in multiple works choreographed by Ryan Jolicoeur-Nye, including his Cinderella. She was also featured in James Vessell’s Lost and Found. In March of 2020, she made her choreographic debut with A Blessed Unrest. She continued her choreographic career in 2021, with the May debut of Cafe of Old Dreams, and the August digital debut of Wishing well.
Kendra Spreutels
Kendra Spreutels was born and raised in Northwest Arkansas. She trained as a trainee with NWA Conservatory of Classical Ballet from the fall of 2012 to the spring of 2017. As a trainee, she had the opportunity to perform many roles including Clara, lead Spanish, and lead Angel in The Nutcracker. In the fall of 2020, Spreutels graduated from Belhaven University with a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies with Dance and Sports Medicine Exercise Science. While attending Belhaven, she had the privilege of performing in different classical works restaged by Ravenna Tucker Wagnon (Royal Ballet), and an original contemporary ballet created by Melonie Murray (Radio City Rockettes). She also had the opportunity to perform original choreography for Belhaven’s Emerging Choreographer’s Concert. Spreutels first joined NWA Ballet Theatre for their 2020/2021 season and is grateful to be performing with them again for their 2021/2022 season.
ABOUT DANCECHANCE NWA
Created in 2021 by dance artist Karen Castleman, and inspired by a similar initiative in Chicago, DanceChance NWA is a bi-monthly choreographic showcase grounded in community building. Three local choreographers are randomly selected for each DanceChance NWA event and invited to present new work, or works in progress, with very few barriers to engagement. In addition to driving visibility by providing performance opportunities for local movement artists, DanceChance NWA also encourages participation, cultivating conversations that cross unseen lines between audiences, choreographers, and dancers.
ABOUT KAREN CASTLEMAN
Karen Castleman is a dancer, choreographer, and educator based in Rogers, Arkansas. She holds a BA in dance from Belhaven University and has performed internationally with companies such as MOMIX, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and RUBBERBANDance Group. Karen studied and performed works by American modern dance pioneers, Doris Humphrey, Martha Graham, Isadora Duncan, and Loie Fuller. She has educated dancers in ballet, modern, jazz, and contemporary dance at schools all over the country, including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Youth Education Department and Loyola University Chicago.
Karen currently teaches in the dance department at Arkansas Arts Academy High School and at the Northwest Arkansas Conservatory of Classical Ballet, and serves on the board of directors of NWA Ballet Theater. She is a 2015 recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship award for choreography and has had the pleasure of creating original ballets for Tulsa Ballet II and NWA Ballet Theatre. In 2018, Karen was in the first cohort to receive an Artists 360 grant, awarded by the Mid-America Art Alliance and the Walton Family Foundation. Her 2021 research project, funded by the Walton Family Foundation, aims to support and develop the dance ecosystem of NW Arkansas. Karen loves doing life together with her husband and their three incredible kids.
ABOUT BLAKE WORTHEY
Blake Worthey is a dance-theater artist originally from Memphis, Tennessee, with a B.F.A. in Dance Performance from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. After earning his degree and delivering a notable performance of WHATT?!!! by Rennie Harris, Worthey studied at Modus Operandi, a Vancouver-based contemporary dance training for young emerging professionals within a multi-year curriculum. In Vancouver, he worked with OutInnerSpace, RadicalSystemArt, Company 605, Kidd Pivot, and Ballet BC. Most recently Worthey attended Orsolina28 where he studied the process of Crystal Pite and William Forsythe. Worthy has performed as part of a “Looking for America” exhibit in 2019 and he has been a guest artist of the Northwest Arkansas Ballet Theater for the past three years.
About Laura Goodwin
An arts educator and advocate, Laura Goodwin has been part of the Northwest Arkansas community for more than 25 years. A fan of creative movement (all forms!), she believes that contemporary dance and circus might just cure what ails us.
Registrants of this event will receive communication directly from DanceChance NWA following the event to support ongoing research of dance communities in Northwest Arkansas.
Per the CDC’s updated guidelines, we are requiring all guests ages 2 and up and staff to wear a face covering indoors and while attending outdoor programs, except while eating or drinking. Masks will be available upon entry for those who do not have one.