Kimberly Bartosik (artistic director) is a choreographer, performer, educator, and writer. She is a 2024 National Dance Project Production Grant (NDP) recipient from New England Foundation for the Arts; a 2025 New York State Council on the Arts/NYSCA Support for Artists Award grantee with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and a 2025 Harkness Foundation for Dance Project Grant recipient. Other recent awards include: the Doris Duke Foundation Performing Artist Recovery Fund in the New York Community Trust; 2020 Bessie Award Honoree for Outstanding Production; Sybil Shearer Fellowship at the Ragdale Foundation; Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography; Virginia B. Toulmin Women Leaders in Dance Fellowship at Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU. 

Bartosik’s work has been commissioned and presented by BAM Next Wave, New York Live Arts, L’Alliance New York/FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Torn Space Theater, American Dance Festival, LUMBERYARD, American Realness, Abrons Art Center, Gibney, Danspace Project, The Kitchen, La Mama, and others. She has toured to Supersense: Festival of the Ecstatic (Melbourne, Australia), Bratislava in Movement (Slovakia), Wexner Arts Center, Dance Place, American Dance Festival, The Yard, MASS MoCA/Jacob’s Pillow, FlynnSpace, Bates Dance Festival, Columbia College, Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté à Belfort, Festival Rencontres Chorégraphique Internationales de Seine-Saint Denis, Artdanthe Festival, Church, Mount Tremper Arts, and others. 

Her work has also been supported by National Dance Project (NDP) Production & Touring Grant and Community Engagement Fund from New England Foundation for the Arts; MAP Fund; Works & Process @ the Guggenheim Virtual Commission; FUSED (French-US Exchange in Dance), a program of the New England Foundation for the Arts in partnership with The Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French American Cultural Exchange; Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, USArtists International; Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artists and Emergency Grants; Jerome Foundation; Creative Arts Initiative (CAI); American Dance Abroad; and New Music USA, Live Music for Dance; and a United States Artists Fellowship nominee. 

Bartosik’s Encounter projects (2022-24)- a series of intergenerational works for dancers and non-professionals created with local participants in communities around the world – have received funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts; the Nathan M. Clark Foundation; and New York State Council on the Arts. She was an inaugural participant in the 2024 International Choreographers Retreat, organized by Montréal Danse and c.a.t.a.m.o.n Dance Group.

Creative residencies include: The Ragdale Foundation; New York Live Arts, Live Feed and Studio Series; Torn Space Theater; Marble House Project; National Choreographic Center at Akron/NCCAkron; Centre Chorégraphique National-Ballet de Lorraine; LUMBERYARD Center for Film & Performing Arts; Gibney Dance Center’s DiP Residency; Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté à Belfort; Governor’s Island through LMCC; Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University; University of Buffalo; LaGuardia Performing Arts Center; Jacob’s Pillow; Kaatsbaan International Dance Center; Mount Tremper Arts; and Movement Research.

As a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for 9 years, Bartosik received a Bessie Award for Exceptional Artistry in his work. She is currently an Advisor for The Ailey School/Fordham BFA Program and teaches at SUNY/Purchase Conservatory of Dance and the Merce Cunningham Trust. Her critical writing has been published widely, including articles featured in Dance Magazine. @kimberlybartosik_daela

Ari Barash (lighting design assistant) is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist attending the Cooper Union School of Art where he is studying painting, sound, sculpture  and performance. Ari performed as a drummer at the Apollo Theater, Shapeshifter Lab, Nublu, and more. . aribarash.com @Ari7elw

River Bartosik-Murray (lighting design assistant) is a Sophomore at The Cooper Union School of Art where he studies art of many mediums including sculpture, painting, and film. River has performed in Jerome Bel’s Gala, Thierry Thieû Niang’s To the Heart, and his mother, Kimberly Bartosik’s works I hunger for you, through the mirror of their eyes, Fanta, and The Encounter. @Rivmurtosik

Sivan Jacobovitz (composer) lives in Brooklyn. Dance collaborations include: TRIBE/Shamel Pitts’ Black Hole and Touch of RED, Marks of RED (ongoing); Kimberly Bartosik’s I hunger for you & through the mirror of their eyes & bLUr; MENAGERIE (with Shamel Pitts/Deville Cohen/Gibney Company); ASSEMBLY with GREYZONE.

Burr Johnson (performer) currently dances with Kimberly Bartosik/daela and The Trisha Brown Dance Company. He has performed with John Jasperse Projects (2010-2016), Shen Wei Dance Arts (2009-2017), Marina Abramović/GIVENCHY, Ryan McNamara, Netta Yerushalmy, Boris Charmatz, Isabel Lewis, Christopher Williams, Sally Silvers, Bill Young, Jack Ferver, Moriah Evans, and The Merce Cunningham Trust for “Night of 100 solos: LA”. He is a 2020 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award honoree for individual performance in Kimberly Bartosik’s “through the mirror of their eyes”.  His choreographic work has been presented through Abrons Art Center, Danspace Project, The American Dance Festival, GIBNEY, Works and Process at the Guggenheim Museum, and The Alvin Ailey School. 

Harriet Jung (costume designer) Broadway credits include Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ (2023) and Illinoise (2024). Her work has appeared at New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and The Royal Ballet, for choreographers including Justin Peck, Pam Tanowitz, Kyle Abraham, and Christopher Wheeldon. Additional work has been presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Works & Process, and the Museum of Art and Design. 

Joanna Kotze (performer) has been dancing with Kimberly Bartosik since 2009. She is the 2025/2026 Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA) at New York Live Arts, a 2025 NDP Finalist, a 2024 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant to Artists recipient and a 2013 Bessie Award winner. Her work has been supported by numerous foundations and extensively presented in New York and across the US. She has taught all over the world and been supported by residencies throughout the US and Europe. Joanna also dances with Stacy Spence, and has worked with Wally Cardona, Annie-B Parson, Donna Uchizono, Tendayi Kuumba, Kota Yamazaki, Netta Yerushalmy, Sam Kim, Metropolitan Opera ballet, Daniel Charon, and others. She is originally from South Africa and has a BA in Architecture. joannakotze.com

Ashley Merker (performer)(she/her) is a Brooklyn based dance artist, and teaches GYROTONIC® and Pilates. She is originally from Denver, Colorado and a current member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company. She earned her BFA from The Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase where she performed works by Kimberly Bartosik, Hannah Garner, Aszure Barton, Martha Graham, Trisha Brown, Adam Barruch and Doug Varone. She also studied at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth and performed work by Rhiannon Newton. Since graduating, she has danced and collaborated with Buglisi Dance Theatre under the direction of Jacqulyn Buglisi, Doug Varone and Dancers, Emma Cianchi, Claude Johnson, Nicole Fuentes, and Jody Oberfelder. Ashley is thrilled to be a part of Kimberly Bartosik’s bLUr. 

Roderick Murray (lighting designer) has designed lights for dance since 1989 working with artists around the world including all of Kimberly Bartosik’s work, and for Ralph Lemon, Benjamin Millepied, Yanira Castro, Sekou Sundiata, Wally Cardona, Kathy Westwater, NYCB, ABT, Lyon Opera Ballet, Balletto di Roma, Dortmund Ballet, Grand Ballet de Genève and many others. He cofounded Open Culture Works.  He performed for nine years with Circus Amok. He is currently the Director of Production for Beth Morrison Projects.

Jacoby Pruitt (performer) (he/him) is a New York City-based performer, choreographer, and teaching artist. A member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company since 2021, he also collaborates with Sean Curran Company and Kimberly Bartosik/Daela. His performance credits include Ailey II, Company XIV, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and film/TV work such as In The Heights, Alternatino, and Good Morning America. He is a graduate of New World School of the Arts (Miami,FL) and earned his BFA from NYU Tisch. Jacoby is a Bessie Award winner and Martha Hill “Young Professional” Award recipient. He is also on year round faculty at The Joffrey Ballet School.

Donovan Reed (performer) (they/them) a New York City-based performer, and teacher, earned their BFA in Dance from The University of the Arts. During their time in college, they became an artist in residence at Die Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany, and participated in an independent artist program with the Pennsylvania Ballet. They’ve been a guest artist in collaboration with Bare Dance Company, Meredith Rainey, Helen Simoneau, Limón Dance Company, Mayte Natalio. They were a company member with A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, and in 2024, Reed was recognized as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch.” Reed is currently collaborating with Kimberly Bartosik and GALLIM. 

Ralph Lemon (moderator) is a choreographer, writer, and visual artist based in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. His work has been the subject of exhibitions at The Kitchen (2007/2015), Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans (2008), Studio Museum in Harlem (2012) and the Walker Art Center (2006, 2014, 2024). At MoMA, he performed in the Museum’s Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium for On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century (2010); he organized the performance series Some sweet day (2012); and he led the discursive project Value Talks as an Annenberg Fellow (2013–14). MoMA published the first monograph on his oeuvre, Ralph Lemon (2016) in the Modern Dance series. Lemon is a recipient of three Bessie Awards (1986, 2005, 2016), two Foundation for Contemporary Art Awards (1986, 2012), a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship and Doris Duke Performing Artist Award (2012). In 2015, he received a National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama. He is the recipient of a 2018 Heinz Family Foundation Award and a 2020 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Lemon won the Bucksbaum Award for his contribution to the 2022 Whitney Biennial. His works are in the permanent collections of institutions including the Walker Art Center, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.