September 19-20 the Midwest Trust Center will present New Dance Partners featuring four world premiere pieces from four local dance companies. The evening will include modern and contemporary dance from national and international choreographers under the artistic advisement of Michael Uthoff.
This year’s companies and choreographers include:
Kansas City Ballet with Caroline Dahm
Dancer, choreographer, and educator, Caroline Dahm is a graduate of the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory with a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography. She has performed a diverse repertoire and contributed original choreography across a wide range of artistic mediums including Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Kansas City Ballet, Buglisi Dance, Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company, Owen/Cox Dance, Quixotic, San Francisco Dance Works, Malashock Dance, and several productions with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. As a choreographer, Caroline has created works for Cincinnati Ballet, SALT Contemporary Dance, Newport Contemporary Ballet, Indiana University, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, UMKC Conservatory, and Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company. In addition to her performing and choreographic endeavors, Caroline is a dedicated educator. She serves as a Professor of Dance at the UMKC Conservatory, mentors Trainees at the Kansas City Ballet, and teaches master classes across the country. Caroline’s work has been recognized with a two-year residency from the Charlotte Street Foundation. Passionate about the transformative power of movement, Caroline believes that art can change lives, and she continues to explore its boundless possibilities.
Kansas City Ballet is a 30-member professional ballet company under the leadership of Artistic Director Devon Carney and Executive Director David Gray. The company’s mission is to establish Kansas City Ballet as an indispensable asset in its community through exceptional performances, excellence in dance training and quality community education programs for all ages.
Owen/Cox Dance Group with Caili Quan
New York-based choreographer, Caili Quan, danced with BalletX from 2013 to 2020. She has created works for BalletX, Vail Dance Festival, New York City Ballet, Ballet West, The Juilliard School, New York Choreographic Institute, American Repertory Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, Flight Path Dance Project, and Ballet Academy East. She choreographed her first musical, “Guys & Dolls,” for Opera Saratoga’s 2024 season under the direction of Mary Birnbaum. With BalletX, she performed new works by Matthew Neenan, Nicolo Fonte, Gabrielle Lamb, Penny Saunders, Trey McIntyre, and danced at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Belgrade Dance Festival, and DEMO by Damian Woetzel at the Kennedy Center. “Mahålang,” a short documentary that wove familial conversations of her Chamorro Filipino upbringing in Guam with scenes from BalletX’s “Love Letter,” was shown at the Hawai’i International Film Festival, CAAMFest, and the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center. Quan was a 2022 artist-in-residence at the Vail Dance Festival, a 2023 artist-in-residence at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, and an Arnhold Creative Associate at The Juilliard School.
Owen/Cox Dance Group’s mission is to create new music and dance collaborations, present high-quality contemporary dance performances with live music, and engage as wide an audience as possible through affordable live performance, education, and outreach programs. Founders Jennifer Owen and Brad Cox bring together talented artists representing a variety of genres to perform contemporary dance with live music.
Störling Dance Theater with Dolly Sfeir
Dolly Sfeir is a director and choreographer who grew up in Lebanon and moved to the United States at the age of 19. She is a 2022 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography, the 2019 Grand Prize winner of the Palm Desert Choreography Competition, recipient of a 2023 NYSCA choreography grant, and a choreographic fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow. She was awarded a residency with CUNY Dance Initiative to create an evening-length work which premiered at LPAC in Spring 2022 and was artist-in-residence for Abingdon Theatre Company. Her company commissions include Holstebro Dansekompagni in Denmark, WHIM W’HIM, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, Battery Dance Company, Boca Tuya, and Litvak Dance. She has developed a creative practice methodology focused on unleashing creativity, which she offers in universities, studios, and theaters nationally and internationally. Her work has been performed in venues and festivals such Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Battery Dance Festival, Diavolo Dance Theatre and Dance Gallery Festival. Her film “It Cries too Loudly” has been at dozens of festivals such as San Francisco Dance Film Festival and Portland Film Fest and has received awards such as “best short film” (Wild Dogs Festival) and “best cinematography” (Eastern Europe film festival). She is movement director of the upcoming play, “The Pride Before.” Her work “Everybody is happy these days” toured in Denmark. She graduated summa cum laude from CSU Long Beach with a Dance BFA. In Lebanon, Sfeir appeared in nationwide musicals by the Rahbani Brothers, including work choreographed by Debbie Allen.
Störling Dance Theater is the artistic vision of Mona Störling-Enna who moved to Kansas City in 1995 to launch the company. With beauty and story as her skillset, Mona set out to enrich the community with stories and visions that would inspire others with concepts of relationships, community and hope.
Regina Klenjoski Dance Company with Jessi Stegall
Jessi Stegall is a choreographer based between Chicago and Boston. She has been an artist-in-residence with DanceWorks Chicago, Boston Center for the Arts, the National Center for Choreography (Akron), Hot Crowd Dance Company, Little Fire Artist Collective, Fever Dream Dance Collective, and was featured as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” (2022). In 2024, she premiered her first evening-length production, “The Theremin Vignettes,” at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, produced by Global Arts Live. In 2025, she will be an emerging choreographer at Springboard Danse in Pittsburgh. Stegall’s approach to choreography is guided by ode-making: crafting poetic responses and love letters that honor and amplify the voices and visions that resonate through time. Her mission is to breathe new life into the echoes of the past, deepening our understanding of and connection to artistic treasures that have shaped our cultural landscape. As a dancer, Stegall has performed works by Raja Feather Kelly, Jill Johnson, Ilya Vidrin, Ali Kenner Brodsky, Mariel Pettee, and Jamila Glass. In addition to her work in dance, she holds an M.S. in Bioethics from Harvard University with a focus in Narrative Ethics, a B.S. in Expressive Art Therapy from Lesley University, and is an alumna of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.
Founded in 1999 in Los Angeles and expanded to Wichita, Kansas, in 2014, Regina Klenjoski Dance Company (RKDC) is a prominent contemporary dance company that has captivated audiences with its innovative choreography and dynamic performances, often challenging the traditional boundaries between artist and audience. Under the visionary leadership of Founder and Artistic Director Regina Klenjoski, the company has become renowned for its interdisciplinary approach and deep commitment to collaboration, intersecting dance with poetry, original music, film, and visual art. This will be their first year participating in New Dance Partners.
To learn more, visit jccc.edu/MidwestTrustCenter. Purchase tickets here.
