COMPANY/ DANCERS & ARTISTIC STAFFS

Carolyn Lucas

Carolyn Lucas attended North Carolina School of the Arts and graduated with a BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase before joining Trisha Brown Dance Company in 1984. Lucas originated roles in some of Brown’s most acclaimed works including Lateral Pass (1983), Carmen (1986), Newark (Niweweorce) (1987), Astral Convertible (1989), Foray Forêt (1990) and Astral Converted (1991). Lucas’ dancing has been described in the New York Times as “affecting in her softly penetrating attack” and “especially luminous.” In 1993, Brown appointed Lucas as her Choreographic Assistant, a position Lucas held for twenty years before being named Associate Artistic Director in 2013. As Choreographic Assistant, Lucas played an integral role in Brown’s creation process in dance and opera, working closely alongside Brown for pieces including If you couldn’t see me (1994), its revision to the duet You can see us (1995) with Bill T. Jones and later Mikhail Baryshnikov, Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1998), and its revival in 2002, El Trilogy (2000), Luci Mie Traditrici (2001), It’s a Draw (2002), Winterreise (2002) with Simon Keenlyside, PRESENT TENSE (2003), O Zlozony/O Composite (2004) with étoiles from the Paris Opera Ballet, Da Gelo a Gelo (2006) with Salvatore Sciarrino and La Monnaie, Rameau’s Pygmalion (2010) with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, Festival d’Aix, Holland Festival and Athens Festival, and Brown’s final work for the Company, I’m going to toss my arms- if you catch them they’re yours (2011) which premiered at Theatre National de Chaillot in Paris. In addition to assisting with new choreography, directing Company rehearsals and restaging existing choreography on the current dancers, Lucas has led projects for companies and institutions around the world, including The New School in NYC, P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels and Paris Opera Ballet. She was one of the first instructors Brown sent to P.A.R.T.S. to construct a Set and Reset/Reset, whose collaborative, interdisciplinary learning process is now a cornerstone of the Company’s education program. Lucas is currently documenting Brown's work for the Trisha Brown Archive. 

Diane Madden

Diane Madden attended Hampshire College in Massachusetts before joining the Trisha Brown Dance Company in 1980. Since then, Madden has danced, directed, taught, studied and reconstructed Brown’s work. A much lauded performer, Madden has been described in the New York Times as “one of those dancers who can make magic out of almost any task.” She has originated roles in works including Son of Gone Fishin’ (1981), Brown’s masterwork Set and Reset (1983), for which she was recently honored, along with the full original cast, by Movement Research in 2012, Lateral Pass (1985), Carmen (1986), Newark (Niweweorce) (1987), Astral Convertible (1989) for which she was awarded a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, Foray Forêt (1990), Astral Converted (1991), the “running solo” in For M.G.: The Movie (1991), Another Story as in falling (1993), Yet Another Story as in falling (1994), M.O. (1995) set to Bach’s Musical Offering, Twelve Ton Rose (1996), Accumulation with Talking Plus Repertory (1997), Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1998) and the Interlude solos Rage and Ladder in El Trilogy (2000). Madden has served as Brown’s personal assistant and was the rehearsal director from 1984-2000. She continued to teach and direct special projects for the Company before serving again as Rehearsal Director from 2010 until 2013, when she was named Associate Artistic Director. Through the talents of dancers both within the company and from internationally known schools and companies, Madden enjoys keeping Brown’s rich range of choreography alive on stages and alternative sites worldwide. Madden has developed an approach to teaching that weaves anatomically grounded technique with improvisation, composition and performance skills. In addition to her own performance work in collaborative improvisational forms, she is greatly in uenced by her study and practice of Aikido with Fuminori Onuma. Madden is honored to be the recipient of two Princess Grace Awards, the rst in 1986 and the second for sustained achievement in 1994.

Cecily Campbell

Cecily Campbell, born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was a company member of Shen Wei Dance Arts from 2008 to 2013 and joined the Trisha Brown Dance Company in 2012. She has performed repertory spanning Trisha Brown's 40-year career and has taught master classes and workshops around the world in technique, repertory, improvisation and composition. She has re-staged Trisha Brown’s work on multiple companies including Set and Reset/Reset at the Venice Biennale College Danza, Newark and Foray Forêt on the Lyon Opera Ballet, Solo Olos on A.I.M., Solo Olos at CNDC in Angers, France, and Set and Reset/Reset at The Juilliard School.  She performed in the Bessie award-winning Night of 100 Solos as part of the Merce Cunningham Centennial at Brooklyn Academy of Music and will make her Metropolitan Opera debut this fall in a production of The Hours, choreographed by Annie-B Parson.  She holds a BFA in dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Savannah Gaillard

Savannah Gaillard is a movement artist and motion graphics designer from Northern Virginia. She received her BFA in Dance and a minor in Public Health from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Savannah has performed works by Wayne McGregor, Ronald K. Brown, Sidra Bell, Rodney Hamilton, Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Reiner, Mathew James, and Nicole Mannarino. She studied improvisation and gaga in Berlin and Tel Aviv under Meg Stuart, Judith Sanchez-Ruiz, Leila McMillan, Shahar Binyami, and Ohad Naharin. She performed Off-Broadway in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma Dream Ballet (2018) and Nevermore Immersive's Dreams of Dracula (2023). Savannah creates durational, multi-media, set improvisation scores. Her work has been shown in the Jack Crystal Theater, Lightbox NYC, and the Junction Function NYC. Savannah is enthusiastic to begin her first season with the Trisha Brown Dance Company. 

Rochelle Jamila

Rochelle Jamila is a Brooklyn based interdisciplinary artist, dancer, and womb/ birth worker hailing from Memphis, Tennessee. She began her dance career at Classical Ballet Memphis under Pat Gillespie and Katie Smythe’s New Ballet Ensemble. While attending Phillips Academy Andover, Rochelle studied modern and post- modern dance with Judith Wombwell and Erin Strong. Rochelle graduated from Columbia University in 2017 with a B.A. in Dance and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. While attending Columbia, Rochelle performed works by Joanna Kotze, Alexandra Beller, and Colleen Thomas, and began her own choreographic journey. Rochelle has notably worked with Ebony Noelle Golden, Ogemdi Ude, Jasmine Hearn, Jodi Melnick, Beth Gill, Maria Bauman, and Reggie Wilson, among others. Rochelle’s choreographic practice imagines liberation inspired by Nature’s cycles, folk practices of the African diaspora, and the physical and psychic realms of women/bleeding people and has been presented in Tennessee, New York and the Netherlands. Her work has been shown at Judson Church, Snug Harbor Botanic Garden, Triskelion Arts, The Buckman Theater, and University of Amsterdam. Rochelle is elated to join TBDC for the 2024/2025 season.

Burr Johnson

Burr Johnson is a dancer and choreographer currently living and working in New York City. As a performer, he has danced with John Jasperse Projects, Kimberly Bartosik/daela, and Shen Wei Dance Arts. He has also worked for Marina Abramović/GIVENCHY, Walter Dundervill, Ryan McNamara, Boris Charmatz, Isabel Lewis, Nick Mauss, Peter Sellars, Christopher Williams, Sally Silvers, Bill Young, Jack Ferver, Moriah Evans, Brittany Bailey, and Netta Yerushalmy. His choreographic work has been presented through Movement Research, Dixon Place, Abrons Art Center, Danspace Project, New York Live Arts, The American Dance Festival, GIBNEY, Works and Process at the Guggenheim Museum, and The Future Dance Festival at the Joyce Theater.  He has guest-taught at Appomattox Regional Governor’s School, Philadelphia University of the Arts, the University of Utah, Salem College, MoMA PS1, Goucher College, Virginia Commonwealth University, UNC Greensboro, Purchase College, and The American Dance Festival. In April 2019 he performed four solos choreographed by Merce Cunningham for "Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event" at UCLA in Los Angeles. 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”. He also works as a gardener and floral designer. (BFA Virginia Commonwealth University 2009)

Catherine Kirk

Catherine Kirk (she/her) is a performing artist, choreographer, and yoga teacher from the unceded land of the Kiickaapoi and Wichita peoples, now called Dallas, Texas. She graduated with a BFA from New York University, Tisch School of Dance and has performed works by Bebe Miller, Doug Varone, Fernando Melo, Ohad Naharin, and Sharon Eyal. She has collaborated and performed with Danakah Dance, UNA Productions, Burr Johnson, Jasmine Hearn, and Helen Simoneau Danse and held choreographic and artistic residencies at Art Cake Brooklyn and the Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation. Catherine is currently in her 10th year as a Dancer and Marketing Associate for A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, and her first season with Trisha Brown Dance Company. 

Photo: Mark Mann

Ashley Merker

Ashley Merker (she/her) is a Brooklyn based dance artist, and GYROTONIC® and Pilates instructor. Originally from Denver, Colorado, she began her dance training at an early age. 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, Australia where she performed work by Rhianon Newton. Upon graduation, she was invited to join Buglisi Dance Theatre under the direction of Jacqulyn Buglisi, and has since performed with Doug Varone and Dancers, Emma Cianchi, CLaude Johnson, Nicole Fuentes, and Jody Oberfelder.

Patrick Needham

Patrick Needham is an LA native living in New York City, where he earned his BFA in Dance and Choreography from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Along with being a current member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company, he has enjoyed collaborating with choreographers such as Maddie Schimmel and Netta Yerushalmy, among others. Needham has performed experimental dance theatre with Company Stefanie Batten Bland and HOLDTIGHT. Teaching highlights include summer dance intensives at the ASWARA School of Dance in Malaysia and WESTSIDE Dance Project in Southern California. Needham's most recent endeavor has been teaching for the Trisha Brown Dance Company's Education programs, all while pursuing his performance career. Currently, he is thrilled to be focusing on a new chapter of creating his own choreography repertoire for future performances and events.

Jennifer Payán

Jennifer Payán is a Dominican American dance artist originally from The Bronx, NY. She received her BFA from Rutgers University with Magna Cum Laude. Ranging in both live performance and film, Jennifer has collaborated with Pam Tanowitz Dance, Bobbi Jene Smith, Yara Travieso, Jasmine Hearne Dances, amongst others. She currently performs with Company SBB and serves as their Associate Artistic Director. Seasonally, she performs in Punch Drunk’s SleepNoMore and works for UNA Productions as their Rehearsal Director. Jennifer was first invited to join the Trisha Brown Dance Company in The Decoy Project (2021) and is excited to join them again for their 50th anniversary celebration.

Spencer James Weidie

Spencer James Weidie (they/them) is a visual and performing artist based in New York City. They graduated from the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, SUNY with a BFA in Dance and a concentration in Dance Composition. They also studied at London Contemporary Dance School, Springboard Dans Montreal, and with the Merce Cunningham Trust. Spencer has performed works by Kyle Abraham, Kimberly Bartosik, Brian Brooks, Merce Cunningham, Sharon Eyal, Andrea Miller, Omar Roman de Jesus and many more. Spencer has previously held company positions with Brian Brooks/Moving Company, Bocatuya, Gallim Dance, MADBOOTS Dance, and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. In 2022, Spencer was invited to join the Trisha Brown Dance Company.