Melissa Riker is Artistic Director and Choreographer of Kinesis Project dance theatre. She is a dancer and choreographer who emerged as a strong creative voice in the NYC performance world. Riker is the Executive Producer of the EstroGenius Festival, Founder and Co-Director of Women in Motion and Founder and Collective Member of Dance Rising. Riker’s dances and aesthetic layer her training in ballet, modern dance, martial arts, theatre and circus. She invents large-scale out-door performances and spontaneous moments of dance for public spaces.

In 2022 Riker was the Artist in Residence for the Progressive Failure of Brittle Rocks Conference (PRF22) an international conference of Geologists, Geomorphologists and Mechanical Engineers, convened by Dr. Missy Eppes and her colleagues. In 2023, Riker’s work as a dance advocate is through Dance Rising and Dance/NYC as a community organizer and master facilitator of the Dance Industry Census Roundtables.

Audiences and critics have called Riker’s work “a Marx Brothers’ routine with soul,” “A movable feast.” And from The New York Times, her choreography is: “comically acrobatic, gracefully classical, visually arresting.” Her work has been seen and supported nationally, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, Vermont, Florida and in New York City at such venerable venues as Danspace Project, Judson Church, Joyce Soho, The Minskoff Theatre, The Cunningham Studio, West End Theatre and Dixon Place.  The company dances outside in sculpture gardens, universities, and annually since 2006 in Battery Park’s Bosque Gardens and The Cloisters Lawn as well as hosting over 30 surprise performances all over New York City and the tri-state area as an element of the company’s earned income and outreach programming with volunteer populated flashmobs. Residencies include: Earthdance 2006, Omi International Arts Center 2008, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center 2011, TheaterLab 2014, Adelphi University 2014. Ms. Riker is a 2016 and 2017 CDI Residency Fellow, 2015 LMCC Community Arts Fund grantee and was commissioned by The Brooklyn Botanic Garden for a surprise large-scale work. Performances of the Company’s work Secrets and Seawalls were seen at Omi International Arts Center, LongHouse Reserve, Gateway National Park in partnership with Rockaways Artist Alliance and The South Street Seaport Museum. Ms. Riker has received commissions from Carson Fox and the Ephemeral Festival in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 for large-scale outdoor events, NYU in 1998, for an outdoor work long before “flashmob” was coined, 2006 and 2008 grants from the Puffin Foundation for her work Community Movements, a dance work with community volunteers, Fellowships from the Dodge Foundation, Space Grant Residencies from 92nd St Y, The New 42nd St Studio, Gibney Dance Center, and The Joyce Theatre Foundation, and grants from The Bowick Family Trust and John C. Robinson to support the continued work of Kinesis Project dance theatre. Kinesis Project’s home studio is part of the Nord Anglia International School NY 5th Floor Artist in Residence program on Second Street in the East Village.

Hilary Brown-Istrefi  (dancer/collaborator) is a Canadian-American dance artist and arts worker, who is a graduate of École de danse contemporaine de Montréal. Since 2009, she has performed in works by Bouchra Ouizguen, Jillian Peña, Melissa Riker, Doug Elkins, Linda Tegg, and Candice Breitz. In 2013 she co-founded the award-winning performance collective, Same As Sister (S.A.S.), with her twin Briana Brown-Tipley. Their commissions have been presented internationally at The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance; Base: Experimental Arts + Space; MOMus – State Museum of Contemporary Art; Danspace Project; Centre d’Art Marnay Art Centre; BRIC Arts | Media House; and New York Live Arts, among other venues. Brown-Istrefi initiated the choreographic platform, HB² PROJECTS in 2017, to expand her collaborations in performance. HB² has presented work as a resident artist with West Harlem Art Fund’s Visual Muze Residency on Governors Island; Norte Maar’s Dance at Socrates Residency at Socrates Sculpture Park; and Exploring the Metropolis’ Choreographer + Composer Residency at Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning.

Sabrina Canas  (dancer/collaborator) (she/her) is a first generation Argentine American artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She completed her BFA in Dance at the University of the Arts (UArts) in May 2019, where she performed works by Jesse Zaritt, Netta Yerushalmy, Helen Simoneau, Marguerite Hemmings, Beth Gill, Sidra Bell and others. In 2020, she presented a collaborative duet at The Craft that uses two female bodies as a conduit through which energetic currents flow to support deterioration, chaos, and regrowth. Sabrina was also featured in jazz musician Tony Glausi's music video, When It All Comes Crashing Down, in February 2021. She recently presented a collaborative duet with Indigo Sparks at Triskelion Arts that was an investigation on the many ways we experience loss. Sabrina is currently working with Kinesis Project in NYC and Hillary Pearson in Philadelphia while continuing to make her own work in Brooklyn.

Abigail Linnemeyer (she/they, dance/collaborator) is a Brooklyn based performer, choreographer and dance activist. She is physically invested in improvisation, partner work, and athleticism. Her queer identity inspires her research into gender in process and community outreach. She is currently working with, Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDprojectNYC, m i c c a, and Kinesis Project. In recent years, she has worked on projects with Kayla Farrish, MICHIYAYA Dance, ChrisMastersDance, Elizabeth Dishman, Megan Flynn, Mark Dendy, Heather Dutton and Grounded Aerial Dance Company. Since Abigail’s relocation to NY in 2021 they have had the opportunity to perform at BAM, HereArts, Dixon place, TADA Theater, House of YES, 92nd St Y,  NoOSPHERE Arts, and Lincoln Center among other non-traditional spaces. In addition to Abigail’s creative efforts, she is part of Dance/NYC’s Junior Committee. Abigail is eager to continue to pursue her desire to work in environments that center collaborative values and actively work to uplift queer communities.

Jorgie Ingram (Dancer/Collaborator) (she/her) uses movement, imagination, and sensing to facilitate an expansion of what we believe to be possible of us and the space around us. We imagine and create tangible environments that support us; with emphasis in somatic practice and mindfulness, Jorgie enacts this through dance research and performance, choreography, writing, multimedia art-making practices, creative consultation, and project management. Based in New York City, Jorgie is an alumna of The University of The Arts, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with her BFA in Dance. Most recently, Jorgie has been invited to perform with Jungwoong Kim & collaborators at Studio 34 in Philadelphia, in Jungwoong’s improvisation score, improvising home, has worked as a guest artist with Eva Dean Dance Company in Brooklyn, and has acted as a design correspondent and cinematographer for Jason Vu’s multimedia dance work, THROUGH NOISE, commissioned by The Asian Arts Initiative. She currently works with Kinesis Project, Daria Faïn, and freelances in New York City + beyond.

Michelle Amara Micca “Micca” (Choreography Assistant/Past Dancer/Collaborator/Company Manager) is a Queens based movement artist originally from Winchester, CT. They began training in dance under their mother at Valley Ballet and later received a BFA from Elon University. As a choreographer Micca has presented work at the IRT Theatre, Queensboro Dance Festival, Greenspace Blooms, Elon University, Young Choreographers Festival, and many other venues over the past 10 years in NYC. MICCA is now a rigorous dance company known for out of the box and expansive community performance experiences. Micca has been part of Kinesis since January 2014.

Hendri Walujo, Dancer/Collaborator, born in Jakarta with happy feet, lived in Dallas where he started the dance, and ends up in Seattle where he has had the priviliege to study, collaborate and perform with the incredible talent of Mark Haim, Lucia Neare('s Theaterical Wonders), KT Niehoff, Jessica Jobaris (& General Magic), Ellie Sandstrom, Kristin Hapke, Carla Barragan/BQdanza, Vanessa DeWolf, Stephanie Liapis, Jurg Koch, Gender Tender, and many other dance luminaries.
​He is thankful to continue performing onstage, offstage and on films; on city sidewalks, parks and beaches; in museums, galleries, and warehouses; in Ecuador, Paris, and NYC. Hendri has been working with Kinesis Project in Seattle since 2016.

Kimberly Holloway, Dancer/Collaborator A North Carolina native, Kimberly is a creative soul who likes rich depth of connection, spontaneity, and adventuring to new places. This led her to earn her BFA at Belhaven University, then on to Kansas City where she spent three seasons with Störling Dance Theater, and finally westward to beautiful Seattle.

Kimberly is passionate about conveying specific narratives abstractly enough to allow audiences to translate the work through their own experiences. She pairs emotionally visceral movement with technical articulations, her movement infused with quirkiness and virtuosity. She desires to be part of seeing people become themselves fully. Her work has shown at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, The Folly Theater (Kansas City), Out on a Limb Festival (Olympia, WA), Waterfire Arts Center (Providence, RI), and in Seattle at Velocity Dance Center, Fremont Abbey, Studio Current, and Seattle International Dance Festival. Kimberly is the recipient of grants from the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and Artist Life Guild, the Cornish Arts Incubator Residency, and is an artist in residence at the Fremont Abbey. She has been honored to perform with artists including Michelle Miller/Catapult Dance, Störling Dance Theater, Stone Dance Collective, Shannon Stewart, Alana O Rogers, Maya Soto, and Ashleigh Claire Miller/Faunix. Kimberly has been dancing and creating with Kinesis Project since 2016

Kimberly enjoys teaching and sharing movement through classes, and intensives. She teaches for workshops and intensives in NYC, Kansas City, Colorado, Bainbridge Island, and Seattle.

Prasti Purdum, Dancer/Collaborator is a Seattle-based dancer and received her B.A. in Dance and International Studies from the University of Washington. She has performed in various local dance festivals including Seattle International Dance Festival, and has had the opportunity to work with many stellar dance artists and choreographers in the Seattle area.

Margaret Behm, Dancer/Collaborator is a dancer and teaching artist with an affinity for improvisation. She takes pride in her own, and guiding others’ discoveries of their dancing bodies, and wants everyone to feel empowered to take up space in the world. Since graduating in 2013 from CU Boulder with a BFA in Dance and a Minor in Women and Gender Studies, Margaret has made a life performing and teaching in Colorado, her home state, with Keshet Dance Company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and now in Seattle, since late 2016. Margaret is a member of AJnC Dance-Theater, directed by Amy J Lambert. Other Seattle artists she has worked with include Wade Madsen, Marlo Martin, Cameo Lethem and Corina Dalzell. As an educator, Margaret is passionate about creating community empowered through movement. She has taught people of all ages and abilities in both studio and community settings. In Albuquerque, Margaret taught adaptive dance, working with dancers with disabilities. She has been an instructor at American Dance Institute since 2016, and is a 2017 graduate of TAT Lab. Margaret has been dancing with Kinesis Project in Seattle since 2019.

Bree Breeden  (dancer/collaborator) is a freelance performance and media artist. They were born in Cheraw, SC, raised in NJ and now resides in Brooklyn, NY with their wife and son. They graduated from Montclair State University and is currently the managing director and artist with Proteo Media + Performance and is a dance artist with Kyle Marshall Choreography, Michiyaya Dance and Von Howard Project. Bree works primarily in collaboration with project based artists which includes Jessie Young, Janessa Clark, Jordan Demetrius Lloyd and joined Kinesis Project NYC 2022. Outside of performance Bree enjoys filming, baking and exploring new landscapes.