Ashreale is a native of St. Louis, MO. She discovered her passion for dance at Central Visual and Performing Arts high school and was awarded a pre-professional scholarship to the Center of Creative Arts (COCA).

 

Despite starting dance at a late age, COCA helped her to grow and develop her technique. She received a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Dance with an emphasis in Modern Dance, from Webster University. It was there at Webster where she was able to deepen her training and discover her artistry as a mover and performer.

 

She has had the wonderful opportunity to work with artists such as Alicia Graf (Alvin Ailey), Antonio Douthit-Boyd (Alvin Ailey), Kirven Douthit-Boyd (Alvin Ailey), and Leonard Cruz (Bill T. Jones). As a teenager she performed in AIDA and High School Musical at The Muny, America’s oldest and largest outdoor theater. She has performed in The Wiz and The Black Nativity with The Black Rep of St. Louis. Ashreale has also studied and performed in Italy. 

 

She has trained and performed with Beyond Measure Dance Theater under the Executive and Artistic direction of Alicia Sunshine Gbaho. In 2015, Ashreale became a company dancer with Consuming Kinetics Dance Company under the Executive and Artistic direction of Arica Nyamsi. In the Fall of 2016, she made her debut as a choreographer in Consuming Kinetics Dance Company's professional Concert, Take Root. In the Spring of 2018, Ashreale became the Assistant Artistic Director of Consuming Kinetics Dance Company. She maintained her leadership role until the Spring of 2022 when she became a mom to a beautiful baby boy.

 

Ashreale embarked on her new journey in life as a mother. She and her new family moved to Ashland, OR in November 2022. Since then she has had the wonderful opportunity to step back into dance! She is a founding company dancer with TANDEM Dance Collective and has also started her own business, Take Root Dance LLC, inspired by CKDC’s Fall of 2016 concert.

Aurora Quinn is a queer-identifying storyteller, dancer, and mixed media artist. Aurora began her craft as a performer and creative director in her hometown of San Francisco, training at DancEsteem and Steppin’ Out Dance Studio. In 2017 she moved overseas to Amsterdam with her family. While in Europe, Aurora continued training in multiple styles of dance from contemporary and ballet to hip hop and Bollywood. She also starred in an experimental opera, produced several short films, and went to school for Philosophy & Psychology at University of Edinburgh. Now residing in Ashland as of 2022, she is pursuing a Theatre degree at SOU. 

 

She dreams of reawakening our inner children and higher selves through immersive theatre and play. She is a founding member of the Ashland-based Songbird & Starling artist collective which is devoted to healing our relationships to our bodies, ecology and community through weaving new and ancient myth into devised performance-art rituals.

 An Ashland local, Hanna trained at Studio Roxander and Danceworks as a teen before going off to study dance performance and choreography at Elon University. Her training includes modern (heavily limon and release technique), ballet, jazz, hip hop, West African dance, Gaga, contact improvisation, multiple aerial apparatuses, and more.

 

Hanna has performed internationally as a dancer, musician, and aerialist, with credits including Troyboi Music, Quixotic Fusion, Postcards from Hotel Cassiopeia Off-Broadway, Intention Dance Company, Northwest Dance Project (a show directed by the company members) and graced some of the biggest stages in North America, including Coachella.

 

As a teacher, she has taught classes in dance and yoga throughout Europe and the west coast of the US. Hanna currently teaches dance and aerial, performs with Levity Circus Collective, is the Director of Operations at Ashland Folk Collective, and produces her own shows here in the Rogue Valley. She is beyond thrilled to join Tandem!

Aubrynn began training in dance at the age of eleven with Turning Point Dance in Southern Oregon. There, she studied rigorously in ballet, pointe, contemporary, modern, acro, and jazz. She has trained with Eugene Ballet and other regional artists through Northwest Dance Festival, where she also performed at their showcase.  

 

Alongside her dance training, Aubrynn has studied musical theater with local, acclaimed company Teen Musical Theater of Oregon. Some of her performance credits include Beauty and the Beast, Footloose, and The Little Mermaid.

 

Aubrynn has always loved creating magic onstage through the performing arts, and is thrilled her journey has led to joining Tandem for their second season. She couldn’t be more excited to share her love of dance and storytelling within the company.

Andersen's dance journey began in her early years, blossoming into 15 years of dedicated study. She was on a path towards a professional career as a ballet dancer, and performed as a young woman with the Gwinnett Ballet Theatre. However, the rigid constraints of the ballet world proved challenging for her untamed spirit. 

Yearning for a more authentic expression, Andersen made a choice to step away from dancing. 

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Her path led her to travel in Europe and South America, where she explored diverse cultures, became a yoga teacher, began to learn to work with the land through farming, and reopened the pages of her deep love story with nature.

 

One night, in the calm quiet of a cabin deep in the middle of no where, she began again to dance.. no mirrors, no judgment, just her and the music. 

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Since then, dance has become a daily ritual, giving her the power to transmute emotions and trauma through the magic of movement.

Driven by this newfound understanding, Andersen is committed to delving deeper and deeper into the exploration of movement. Her intention is to share this transformative magic with the world, and continue to discover her strength, through translating the language of her own body.

Megan, a native of Chicago, began her dance journey at three years old with Dance Center Evanston. In her early teens, her passion for dance intensified when she began training privately with Mike Gosney, founder and Artistic Director of the then newly-formed Elements Contemporary Ballet. Under his guidance, Megan began an apprenticeship with Elements.

 

Within a few years of study as an apprentice, Megan was invited to join the company as a full member. Over the next twelve years, Megan was a lead dancer in the company and performed in dozens of shows around Chicagoland. During that time, she became an inspiration to Mike and had a significant influence on the company's style.

 

In 2019 she moved to northern California for a change of pace and has become the mother of a young daughter. Megan has also grown into a seasoned dance educator, with a strength in leading improvisational exploration and co-taught Tandem's first ever public workshop. She is a vital, founding member of the company and is incredibly grateful to be dancing and performing again. 

Julia Greidanus was born and raised in Southern Oregon, where she began her dance training at Turning Point Dance. In high school, she joined All That Jazz, a pre professional advanced company team based in Grants Pass, Oregon. There, she worked with artists such as Wes Veldkin, Greg Russel, and Alexi Jean Jackson.

 

Julia expanded her dance education by attending various summer intensives in California. She studied with Dean Elex Bais at the EDGE Performing Arts Center as well as Taye Diggs, Alexis Carra Girbes, and Chryssie Whitehead Disbrow at Broadway Arts Community.

 

Julia continued her studies in Las Vegas at the University of Nevada under Michael Jarrett, Louis Kavouras, Ari Mayzick, Dolly Kelepecz, Victoria Baltimore-Dale and Cathy Allen. She is now teaching and directing young dancers at Southern Oregon Dance Center in Grants Pass and is a founding member of The Southern Oregon Dance Collective and Tandem. 

 

Growing up, Julia was always interested in exploring the full range of both creative and analytical activities. A few of her many interests include painting, acting, gardening, hiking, astronomy, mathematics and psychology. Currently attending Southern Oregon University as a psychology major, Julia hopes to someday create a dance therapy program to help individuals through the hardships and challenges of life. She has experienced the therapeutic effects of dance and her choreography has been influenced by the everyday emotions we go through as individuals.

Holly Curran is a performer, educator and artist currently residing bi-coastally between New York and Southern Oregon. A native of New Jersey, she trained and graduated from the Rock School of Dance Education. Some of her professional performance experience is with Ballet Austin, Terra Firma Dance Theater, Claudia Schreier and Co, New Chamber Ballet and the Lyric Opera of Chicago amongst others.

 

She is currently a member of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet at Lincoln Center. Through her career she has had the opportunity to work with some of the most acclaimed coaches and choreographers, and hopes to bring the knowledge she has gained to a new generation of students. 

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 Simultaneous with her dancing career, Holly studied American History at Columbia University, where she graduated Cum Laude in 2018. 

Jackson Megyesi is Tandem Contemporary Dance Collective’s first company member. Born and raised in Grants Pass, OR, he began his training in ballet at the age of 10 under Patricia Wilson, Erica Bury and Sylvia Bolton. After high school, Jackson took a hiatus from ballet to travel the West Coast and explore other artistic mediums, such as sculpture.

 

In 2021, a contemporary dance workshop reignited his love for dance, and he returned to the field to train professionally. Since then, he has trained with the Northwest Dance Project, Open Space Dance, and Eugene Ballet under movement artists such as Ihsan Rustem, LeeWei Chao, Olivia Ancona, and Joseph Hernandez.

 

Jackson holds an Associate of Arts degree with a focus in art history and strives to draw on that rich history to inform his movement, along with an intense appreciation for the human body and the natural world.