WHO WE ARE
Equipoise is a multi-generational, diverse-disciplined, collective of arts professionals dedicated to offering our combined knowledge, and connections to provide ongoing insight and guidance to dancers.
OUR STORY
In 2019 Equipoise Strategic Director, Ruthlyn Salomons, invited a group of dancers, retired dancers, and dance allies for a series of gatherings called “The Talk / Inspiring Action In Dance.”
The Talk was inspired by Ruthlyn’s personal experiences as a professional dancer and as the Resident Dance Supervisor of The Lion King on Broadway. Out of these conversations, it became evident that in the dance culture there is a historical and ongoing practice of treating dancers as expendable “bodies” with little regard to the human-artists and their rights and needs.
A small group of participants from “The Talk / Inspiring Action In Dance” set out to address this damaging legacy by joining forces with like-minded instructors and institutions to provide a supplemental training opportunity for young professionally oriented dancers.
In November of 2020 Equipoise was officially launched. We are actively fundraising, developing curriculum, and engaging with our partners. Our pilot program for six young artists begins in 2021.
Stay tuned, and join us as we endeavor to create change in this art form and profession, one beautifully balanced, human artist at a time.
THE TEAM
ALIA KACHE
Alia Kache (She/Her/Hers) (Chattanooga,TN) received her early training at Center for Creative Arts and Chattanooga Ballet, and graduated from the Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. program in 2004. Her favorite credits include Ailey II, Nathan Trice/RITUALS, Pilobolus Creative Services, Radio City Christmas Spectacular, CeDeCe (Alcobaça, Portugal), Big League Theatrical’s Aida, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and Disney’s The Lion King. Artistic director of Kachal Dance and former rehearsal director for Ailey II, her choreography has been performed by Ailey II, Ballet Memphis, Houston Contemporary Dance, Towson University, Middle Tennessee State University, and seen at Dixon Place, Bryant Park, Cistermusica, and FringeNYC. Her talents as a dancer, choreographer, singer, and costume designer have led her to become a Lincoln City Fellow and artist in residence with RestorationART in Brooklyn, NY.
RUTHLYN SALOMONS
Ruthlyn Salomons (She/Her/Hers) is the currently furloughed Resident Dance Supervisor for the Broadway production of The Lion King. Years before her twenty year relationship with the production Ruthlyn was a student of a variety of teachers and choreographers at The Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, of David Howard and of Maggie Black. Her first contract was with The Alvin Ailey apprentice company. After two years she was invited to audition and then join The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company. A few years later she joined Donald Byrd/The Group and then continued on to The White Oak Dance Project. Ruthlyn traveled widely throughout the United States, Europe, China, Japan, South America, Western Asia, United Arab Emirates and various islands in the Caribbean. During her travel she mostly performed but also taught dance and choreographed. Last year she created The TALK/IAID with friend Dr. Carol Marie Webster.
CAROL MARIE WEBSTER
Dr. Carol Marie Webster (She/Her/Hers) (St. Elizabeth, Jamaica) is a sociocultural anthropologist and professional dance artist with a deep interest in ‘the body’, broadly conceived. As a scholar and artist, she works internationally at intersections of arts, health, healing and activism. Dr. Webster received her PhD in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (with concentration in religion and performance) from the University of Leeds in the UK. She was a 2013 Arts and Humanities Research Council Cultural Engagement Fellow at the University of Oxford, UK and a 2017- 2019 Visiting Scholar in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. In 2019 she and Ruthlyn Salomons co-founded The TALK/Inspiring Action in Dance (IAD) to promote the holistic health and well-being of professional dance artists.
RON VODICKA
Ron Vodicka (He/Him/His) is a lighting designer, stage manager with an interest in labor advocacy. Ron’s lighting has been seen at numerous theatres and opera houses including: the The Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, San Diego Opera, San Francisco Opera, and New York City Opera. He has also served as a stage manager the national tours of Hairspray, Saturday Night Fever, Man of La Mancha, and Evita. He is currently the Production Stage Manager for the Lion King on Broadway.
NINA WURTZEL
Nina Wurtzel (She/Her/Hers) is a photographer with work featured in the NYTimes, Dance Magazine, and international ad campaigns. Nina also worked as an art director, graphic designer and marketing director in her own small ad agency. She is a former, professional, ballet dancer, trained at the School of American Ballet. Most of her dance career was with The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, where she danced the classics, Balanchine, Paul Taylor, and Ohad Naharin. She worked with Ruthlyn Salomons in Paris, while dancing with Concouredanse. Nina studied dance education at The Dance Education Laboratory, and taught creative movement to (K-12) children with learning differences.
HUONG HOANG
Huong Hoang (She/Her/Hers) is a New York based arts administrator for over 25 years. She is currently the General Manager of The Joyce Theater Foundation, an international dance presenting arts organization. She began her professional life in the performing arts in various staff and managerial positions with the White Oak Dance Project, from company manager to assistant general manager, and toured extensively with the company from 1995-2002. She has held positions at the Mark Morris Dance Group as general manager, and at Baryshnikov Arts Center as director of administration and finance. Prior to her work at The Joyce, she produced and toured nationally and internationally with the esteemed artist Mikhail Baryshnikov. Born and raised in Viet Nam, she is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania.