Justin is in his second year dancing with the CCBC Dance Company. He is a 2018 graduate of Milford Mill Academy. He is excited to be performing live again with the dance company this semester. He enjoys working with the other dancers and Company E to create art and express themselves. Justin enjoys dancing with the company in order to gain more knowledge and training.

Adria is a full time dual enrolled student at CCBC who has been with the dance company for 3 years.  She enjoys being able to dance across the floor and outside of boxes as well as being able to work with our guest artist.  Dancing at CCBC has helped Adria grow in technique and performance quality along with preparing her for the future.

Sarah is in her first semester at CCBC and with the CCBC Dance Company! She is in 12th grade currently and has been rehearsing at @centrepointeperformingarts! She is enjoying how welcoming everyone is and that everyone is willing to help her learn new things and push her boundaries! Sarah is dancing at CCBC to improve my dance education and experiences further. 

Rachel is in her first year, dancing at CCBC and this is her second semester with the Dance Company.  She has enjoyed working with some amazing people this semester. Everyone has been so welcoming, kind, and accepting. It has been a great environment to fuel her creativity and determination. 

Elena is in her second year dancing at CCBC. She is enjoying having the freedom to rehearse for our dance concert in studios with her peers, as well as working with choreographers once again to create art.  She is dancing at CCBC because she has found CCBC to be a supportive and progressive place to dance.  Elena stated that while dancing at CCBC “I am continuously being challenged while also being given the support I need to grow.” 

Stephanie is in her third year dancing with the CCBC Dance Company.Stephanie is enjoying no longer being contained to a box and moving across the floor! She has also enjoyed working with Company E and learning their works, getting to know their style and being able to perform live! Stephanie is graduating this semester with her AFA Degree in Dance and plans to transfer to UMBC. Dancing at CCBC has helped prepare her for being part of a professional dance company in the future.

CCBC is excited to be continuing the performance exchange of our Merge project and to have Towson University Dance Company join us on our concert. To learn more about our Merge roject visit http://blog.ccbcmd.edu/performingarts/2021/11/09/6360-2/

Melinda Blomquist holds a M.F.A in Dance Choreography and Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Master of Arts in Dance Pedagogy from Brigham Young University.

Melinda has presented her choreographic work at numerous venues nationally and internationally including the Mid-Atlantic and South-Central American College Dance Festival, Northwest Vista College, Towson University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the Attakkalari Festival in Bangalore India.

Currently Melinda is an Associate Professor of Dance at the Community College of Baltimore County, and she also serves as the Artistic Director for the CCBC Dance Company. Melinda has also worked with Trajectory Dance Project and with the Theatre and Music departments as a choreographer for Musical Theatre productions in Arizona, Texas and Maryland including The Fantasticks, Fiddler on the Roof, Good News, and She Loves Me. Melinda is involved in community outreach, focusing on promoting the importance of dance as art form in public education. She has provided workshops and master classes in Texas, Alaska, and Maryland to students at the Elementary, Middle, and High School levels. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Deep Vision Dance Company and as President of the Maryland Dance Education Association.

Adrienne is proud to have graduated with honors from The Community College of Baltimore County with her A.A. in Dance.  She then transferred to The University of Maryland where she also graduated with honors with her B.A. in Dance.  Besides being an adjunct dance faculty member at CCBC, she dances professionally for Trajectory Dance Project and independently for herself.  Previously, she also danced for BlueShift Dance (principal dancer), The Collective (dancer, choreographer, educator), B3W of New York City, Andary Dance (soloist, principal dancer), and withhart.dance.projects (founding member, assistant director, soloist, principal dancer).  She was Director of Dance at St. Timothy's School, a private and boarding school for girls and she choreographed as Artist in Residence at Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts for numerous years.  Recently, Adrienne choreographed for The Salem Players Theatre Company, Northeast High School, and Baltimore Composers Forum. 

Tommy a native of Washington, D.C., received his M.F.A. in Dance (Choreography and Technology) from Arizona State University and his B.F.A. in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. From 1998-2002 he was an Assistant Professor of Dance at Kent State University. While in New York City he danced with J. Fregalette Janson Dance, Centaur Dance Theatre, Beyondance Inc! and the Paris based multi-media performance art company FIASCO. Mr. Parlon has danced in pieces by Doug Varone, Stephen Petronio, Alvin Mayes, Laura Dean and Elizabeth Streb. In 1996-1998 he collaborated on Falling to Earth, an interactive multi-media performance piece created with the Institute for Studies in the Arts at Arizona State University. His choreography has been commissioned by Incidents Physical Theater of New York City, NEW ARTiculations in Tucson, Arizona, Lansing Chamber Dance in Michigan, and numerous colleges throughout the United States. He was awarded an Individual Artist Award in Solo Dance Performance from the Maryland State Arts Council in 2004 and an Artist Award in Choreography in 2007. Mr. Parlon is currently the Artistic Director of Tommy Parlon Dance Projects in Washington, D.C., the Artistic Associate of Ground Zero Dance in Richmond and the Dance Coordinator at CCBC.

Kristi attended the University of Oklahoma as a teaching fellow where she received her MFA in modern dance (2011). She also has BFA in dance education from Kent State University (2004).  Through a graduate student grant, she studied Laban Movement Analysis at the Laban Institute in NYC. Ms. Schaffner has performed with Jeslyn Dance Gallery, Clawson Dances, Junction Dance Theatre, and Tommy Parlon Dance Projects among others, and is a current dancer and Director of Education and Outreach for Dragonfly Dance Experiment. Her choreography has been presented across the country including Pittsburgh, Oklahoma City, Washington D.C., Annapolis, Baltimore, Salt Lake City and at the Howard County Dance Festival. A passion for education has inspired her to create and implement dance curricula for both preschools and charter school students diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. Ms. Schaffner is a current adjunct faculty member in the dance divisions of Anne Arundel Community College and the Community College of Baltimore County and is a frequent guest instructor and performer in schools and community events.

Alice is a dance artist and educator who is director of Trajectory Dance Project, a Baltimore-based modern dance ensemble. She has held full-time faculty positions at universities including Coppin State University, UNC Charlotte, and Lamar University.  In addition, she served from 1995 to 2004 as artistic director and resident choreographer of Washington, D.C.’s Sister’s Trousers Dance Company, a modern dance ensemble based in the D.C. area. Sarah Kaufman of The Washington Post described Howes’ performance as “riveting, thrilling and deeply mysterious”.  Howes’ choreography has appeared in selective showcases at venues such as D.C.’s Dance Place, The Booth Theater in Charlotte, North Carolina and the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater and Millennium Stage. She holds an MA in dance from American University and an MFA in dance from Sam Houston State University. Howes also has earned a Certificate of Movement Analysis (CMA) from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies in New York City.

has worked on 5 continents and 30+ countries, including 6 evening-length commissions at the Kennedy Center in DC. The company performs, teaches, and collaborates with international & national artists through the US Department of State, creating programs from Israel, Spain, Poland, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, & more. Choreographer Robert J. Priore is a founding member and independent choreographer; his work has been presented in DC, NYC, Cuba, Kazakhstan, & Russia, to name a few. Photo Credit - Paul Gordon Emerson

is a native of Louisville, Ky. After dancing through elementary and high school, Tara moved to Tampa, FL where she received a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from the University of South Florida. Tara has choreographed and performed with multiple dance companies around the world, including residencies and debuts in Paris, New York City, Kazakhstan, Spain, Los Angeles, among others. 

She is Managing Director and Director of Education for Company E, traveling internationally through the US Department of State for the past seven years teaching contemporary dance in countries such as Algeria, Spain, Kazakhstan, Uruguay, Russia and more.

A former faculty member at Towson University Community Dance Department she also serves as a judge at Dance Masters of America.

She Co-Founded the Company | E Movement Center at the Dance Loft on 14, serving as its Teen Program Director from 2015-2016.

Ms. Compton is the Director of Education at Company | E, overseeing the Company | E Movement Center and the Company | E dance education programs in the DC Public School System.

Click here to read about Kelsey.

Robert founded his company PrioreDance in the fall of 2016. He is alsp very proud to be a founding member of Company | E, where he has had the honor of dancing works by Ohad Naharin, Andrea Miller, Sharon Eyal, Rachel Erdos, Roni Koresh, Marco Cantalupo, and Thomas Noone. Robert continues to hone his craft while being the Choreographer-In-Residence for the City Dance Conservatory program as well as an Ignite Artist. Robert received a BFA in dance from Point Park University. Robert was a 2015 recipient of the John F. Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project and created a special work for the artists of Company | E, Speak Easy. Speak Easy has been on the road, being presented in collaboration with Company | E, In Russia, Azerbaijan. Cuba and most recently in Ukraine. In 2016, 2017 and 2018 Robert also was named an outstanding fellow in the arts in his home of the District of Columbia. Last November Robert presented a new work at the Dance Gallery Festival in New York City, being named one of the three Level-Up commissioned choreographers. In January of 2017 Robert held a workshop at La Fábrica in Buenos Aires Argentina, and set a work on local professionals for a performance there. In April of 2017 Robert traveled to Holguin Cuba to set an original work on the dancers of CoDanza. In Fall of 2017, Robert returned to Holguin with fellow dancer Abby Leithart to perform the premier of Casita with CoDanza at the Vladimir Malakhov Grand Prix, where the piece won the audience choice award. In July of 2018, PrioreDance was chose to perform Priore’s choreography at the InsideOut Stage at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow. In September 2018, Robert and five dancers returned to Holguin to present excerpt of Cirque De Nuit for the Vladimir Malakhov Grand Prix. Most recently, Robert was commissioned to choreograph a work for the Mark Twain Prize awards ceremony honoring Julia Louis-Dreyfus which airs on PBS in mid-November 2018.

Kelsey started studying dance at Richmond Ballet through their public outreach program, Minds in Motion. She later graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with a BFA in Dance and minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. She went on to dance with Joshua L. Peugh’s Dark Circles Contemporary Dance and then worked in Geneva, Switzerland with Ballet Junior de Genève and Alias Dance Company. She has performed works by Sharon Eyal, Barak Marshall, Angelin Preljocaj, and Roy Assaf. Currently, she is enjoying being a part of the NoVA and D.C. dance community under Jane Franklin Dance, Robert J. Priore’s PrioreDance, and Company | E.

Marc has been involved in theatre for over 40 years and has been responsible for designing or technically directing over 350 productions. With B.A. and M.F.A. degrees in Technical Theatre and Design from Towson University, he has been the full time Technical Director for CCBC Dundalk since 1980.  In addition, he is the theatre technical consultant for the CCBC Catonsville and Essex theatre facilities. Marc has received numerous technical theatre achievement awards from The United States Institute of Theatre Technology.  Several of his production designs have been displayed in juried expositions including A Little Night Music and The Cemetery Club for technical achievement and Bus Stop for Scenic and Lighting Design.  Marc’s scenic and lighting designs for the CCBC Essex production of Zombie Prom were part of the finalists in the Region II Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and his lighting design for the DCT production of I Do, I Do, won “Best Lighting Design” at the Maytime International Theatre Festival in Ireland.

Lisa has worked on over sixty productions in the Baltimore area for many companies including Dundalk Community Theatre, Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre, and Phoenix Festival Theatre. Lisa just celebrated 15 years as the Box Office Manager for CCBC and also serves as the Administrative Manager for Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre. In her spare time, she sits on the Board of Directors for Dundalk Community Theatre and the Twirltastix Boosters.