Keith A. Thompson, Artistic Director

Keith A. Thompson, Choreographer, teacher, dancer, completed his MFA Research Fellowship in Dance from Bennington College in 2003; has worked with Dan Wagoner & Dancers, Jacob’s Pillow Men Dancers, and Creach/Koester Company, danced internationally for the Trisha Brown Company from 1992-2001, served as Trisha’s Rehearsal Assistant from 1998-2001 and continues to represent TBC in the sharing of Technique and Repertory both at the Trisha Brown Studio in New York City as well as festivals, schools, and workshops around the world; continues to perform as a dancer with the Bebe Miller Company; has taught master classes and workshops in Contemporary Technique for the International Dance Festival (Kyoto, Japan), Tanzwerkstatt Europa Festival (Munich), and the Korea Dance Festival (Seoul, Korea); faculty at the Florida Dance Festival, American Dance Festival  since ’05; his work has been selected for several American College Dance Festival Gala concerts, and he is now immersing himself in the creation of his own work with his company ‘danceTactics performance group by Keith A. Thompson’; his choreography has been featured in the American Dance Festival Faculty Concert,  2005 D.U.M.B.O. Dance Festival (Brooklyn, NY), Cool NY Dance Festival (Brooklyn, NY), Dance Theater Workshop Guest Artist Series 2006 (New York, NY); and the Dance Boom Festival at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia: in early 2005 served as choreographic assistant to Dianne McIntyre on the choreodrama “Open the Door Virginia” at the Theater of the First Amendment in Virginia; has served on faculties of Shenandoah University, George Mason University, Temple University, and Long Island University. In addition to directing danceTactics, Keith is currently a freelance choreographer, performer, and teacher based out of New York City.

Ernesto Mancebo, dancer

Ernesto Mancebo began his dance training in 1995 at the Long Island University Brooklyn Campus Summer Bridge program under the guidance of Ella-Thompson Moore. He then went on to train and perform with the Grenadan based group, Quake USA, whose repetoire consisted of Carribean folk dances choreographed by Dean Maitland. Ernesto was admitted to the Long Island University Brooklyn Campus Dance Department in 2000 and graduated in 2005 with a BFA in Performance and Choreography. Since graduation, he has performed with Claire Byrne Dance, Artis Smith, and Nathan Trice/Rituals and continues to pursue performance and choreography opportunities.

Megan Mazarick, dancer

Born and raised in North Carolina, Megan Mazarick started dancing at age four and “choreographing” at age six (her first piece was a solo improvisation performed at the Wiley Elementary School Talent Show in 1987). She received her BFA in dance from University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her MFA in Dance from Temple University. As a performer and collaborator she has worked with numerous artists in Philadelphia including Kate Watson-Wallace, Makoto Hirano, Phil Grosser, Silvana Cardell, Marianela Boan, Paule Turner, Leslie Elkins, Keith Thompson, Olive Prince, Charles Anderson, and many others. In Pennsylvania, her choreography has been
presented in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2005, Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2006, as guest choreographer with Dance Theater X at Silkwerks Theater Outlet (Allentown, PA), Glue Dance Series (Philadelphia), and nEW Festival 2007. Her short film, “Truck Stop Dance”, was shown at Mythinformation, a night of dance on film at Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2006.

Jennifer Morley, dancer, Executive Director

Jennifer Morley has her BA from Hofstra University, a diploma in dance from the Laban Centre London, and is currently pursuing her MFA in dance from Temple University. Jennifer is the director of the Figments Dance Ensemble, offering educational dance programming in the form of lecture demonstrations, master classes, and performances since 2001. She is a Pilates and Yoga teacher with a new DVD, “Classical Pilates Kids”, due out in stores this spring. Jennifer has presented at nationwide educational conferences in an effort to inspire teachers to use movement as a teaching tool. She currently resides in Philadelphia with a molecular biologist and a fuzzy white cat named Amidala.

Jumatatu Poe

Jumatatu Poe hails from California, by way of Philadelphia, PA.  He is an alum of Swarthmore College and a recent graduate of the MFA program at Temple University.  While at Swarthmore, Jumatatu studied the Umfundalai technique (under C. Kemal Nance) and other African-inspired dance styles, performed in student and faculty choreographed works, and created Hip-Hop/Dancehall infused works for the student-run company, Rhythm N Motion.  Jumatatu has trained at Philadanco and in the Jacob’s Pillow and Illadelph Legends Festivals.  In addition to working with danceTactics, Jumatatu has also performed in the works of Charles Anderson, Oscar Araìz, Myra Bazell, Stafford Berry, Marianela Boan, Silvana Cardell, H.T. Chen, Phil Grosser, Tania Isaac, C. Kemal Nance, Meriàn Soto, and Kariamu Welsh (as a member of Kariamu & Company: Traditions). His choreography has been featured at Swarthmore College, Temple University, as well as the Philadelphia Fringe! and GLUE festival series. 

Nicole Daunic, dancer, Press/Publicity Coordinator

Nicole Pope received her BA in Liberal Arts at Bennington College and is now a dancer and a writer living in Brooklyn, NY. She has enjoyed her first experience managing press and publicity for danceTactics. Nicole is also a dancer for Susan Sgorbati's performance group Emergent Improvisation.

Daniel Puneky, dancer, Company Manager, Web Design

Daniel Puneky, born in New Orleans and raised in Virginia, is a BFA graduate of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He is also an alumnus of the Virginia School of the Arts. While at George Mason, Daniel performed the works of Doug Varone, Lar Lubovitch, Mark Morris, Susan Marshall, Lara Dean, David Parsons, and Danny Ezhralow. He also performed the works of Susan Shields at both the National College Dance Festival and the 2004 Beijing International Cultural Tourism Festival. In addition to working with danceTactics, Daniel also dances for Cornfield Dance in New York City. He currently resides in Brooklyn.

Matthew Reeves, dancer

Matthew Reeves is a recent BFA graduate of the University of Florida. Matt has performed with the Florida MOD Project, The People?s Touring Project, Shadow Dance Theatre, and Diavolo. His choreographic work has been seen and produced at the American College Dance Festival Gala and at New Grounds Dance Festival in Tampa. Matt would like to thank God, his family and Colette for all their love and support.

Sara Roer, dancer, Rehearsal Director

Sara Roer, a native of Wilmington, North Carolina, is a BFA graduate of George Mason University. She has recently been working and performing with Emily Berry, Michele Dunleavy, Shelley Poovey/bigGRITs, and of course danceTactics by Keith Thompson. She would like to sincerely thank her family for their ongoing love and support.

Jen Rose, dancer

Bio Coming Soon

Emily Upson, Production Manager

Emily is originally from Michigan where she started working as a Stage Manager and Lighting designer at Lansing Community College and was a production consultant for the Happendance professional company where she also co-created the Young Choreographers Showcase.  She has since moved to Philadelphia and has worked as Stage Manager and Lighting Designer for Waheed-Works directed by Tommie Waheed Evans of PHILADANCO and as Stage Manager for Philip Grosser.  For two summers she has worked production at the American Dance Festival where she has had the privilege of working with such companies as Paul Taylor, Pilobolus, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Shen Wei, and other international companies.  ADF also gave her the opportunity to work with Jennifer Tipton and to Stage Manage for Tatiana Boganova of Russia.  She also works throughout the year with the ADF/Hollins University MFA program.

Rebecca Chaleff, apprentice

A native of New Jersey, Rebecca started her early dance training at the Princeton Ballet School. In May 2008, she will receive her BA in Dance and English from Barnard College, where she has had the opportunity to perform repertory from Merce Cunningham and Bill T. Jones, and work with choreographers including Keeley Garfield, Reggie Wilson, David Neumann, Ivy Baldwin, David Gwirtzman, Gerald Casel, and Keith Thompson. Rebecca is studying on scholarship at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio. She also serves of dance/NYC's Youth Advisory Committee and interns in the Dance Program at the New York State Council for the Arts.