Choreographer Bios

2023 Choreographers:

Alfonso Cervera

Alfonso Cervera, or sometimes known as Fonzy, introduces himself under the categories of Queer, Mexican American, first generation, activist, curator, and educator. These are the platforms in which he claims and shares his embodied experience as a professor and artist to newer generations. As a queer first generational Mexicano, Cervera is a choreographer, performer, and a current professor based at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign as an Assistant Professor in Dance. He creates works between the borders of Los Angeles, California and Illinois where he presents experimental dance works that acknowledge the current times we are experiencing globally.

His research and specialization as an independent artist, focuses on the conversation between Ballet Folklorico and Afro-LatinX social dances in a contemporary auto-biographical embodied experience that he calls Poc-Chuc. The practice of Poc-Chuc intentionally works to offer new choreographic methods, techniques. and perspectives in theory and physical embodiment. Cervera has been provided opportunities to practice his technique at the Cornish College of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, Cal State San Marcos (San Diego), Riverside Community College (CA), and Mt. San Jacinto Community College (CA).

His collaborative and independent works have been presented at the Judson Church Movement Research (New York City),  Festival of Latin Contemporary Choreographers (San Francisco), Red Cat (Los Angeles), Pieter Performance Space (Santa Monica, CA), Highways Performance Space (Santa Monica), Bushwick Studios (New York), and Lux Boreal’s 4×4 in Tijuana Mexico to name a few. His work has also been presented at numerous festivals, universities, and in non-traditional spaces.

Cervera is also the Executive Director of Show Box L.A, a nonprofit that curate festivals and provides BIPOC artists opportunities to practice their medium. He has also received various grant awards such as the National Endowment of the Arts, Artist Trust Award, a Department of Cultural Affairs recipient, and other awards from various universities and organizations. Cervera is also a collaborator with his collective Primera Generación Dance Collective where they create contemporary works that question and complicate the flux of what it means to Mexican American.

Megan Margaret Moore

Megan Margaret Moore (She/Her) is a Choreographer, Performing Artist, and Entrepreneur based in the Pacific Northwest. She began her dance journey at Huntington Academy of Dance in Huntington Beach, CA, studying extensively in the Cecchetti Method. Megan advanced her knowledge of contemporary styles by continuing her training at Huntington Beach High School’s magnet arts program, APA, graduating the program in 2015 with several awards including 2015 Dancer of the Year, Rising Star in Choreography, and Excellence in Choreographic Technique. Megan went on to study Dance at Cornish College of the Arts, where she had the honor of dancing for Choreographers such as Bruce McCormick, Laura Ann Smyth, Gerard Theoret, Bruno Roque, Deborah Wolf, Sam Picart, and assisting for Wade Madsen. Megan graduated with honors and her BFA in 2019, and in early 2020 choreographed modern opera, The Photographer, at Whidbey Island Center of the Arts under the direction of Tim Everitt. In 2021, Megan founded SaltShake, a business dedicated to sharing the benefits of somatic healing and creative play with disembodied dancers. Currently, Megan is Co Ballet Coordinator at Island Dance & Gymnastics, acts as Assistant Artistic Director for Whidbey Island Dance Theater, and is in the process of developing character based dance company “The Frettes.” Megan is honored to have been chosen as a choreographer for Full Tilt 2023, where she will present the first study of The Frettes.

Anastasiya Panchenko

Anastasiya Panchenko is a dancer, choreographer and artist fascinated with movement and its ability to inspire awareness and growth in both society and self. She earned her BFA from Texas State University in Performance and Choreography studying modern dance. She was a member of Merge Dance Company where she was given the opportunity to learn from a wide range of artists and perform both locally and internationally. Post-graduation, aside from independent projects and collaborations, Anastasiya has been focused on aerial fitness and studying how movement is related to mental, emotional and overall wellness.

Brittany Parker

Brittany is a Seattle based Choreographer, Instructor, and Performer of dance and movement. In 2012, she moved to Seattle at the age of 18 after dual enrolling in The University of Idaho’s Dance program for four years. Over the past decade Brittany has performed in over 600 shows at Julia’s on Broadway, where her choreography can currently be viewed during their weekly productions. This also led to opportunities to choreograph and dance with RuPaul Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon, season 14 finalist BOSCO, and various local drag artists in the Seattle area.

In 2013 Brittany began dancing with 3rd Shift Dance Company under the leadership of Xaviera Vandermay, where she spent five years continuing to explore her professional jazz/contemporary movement. As a former competitive gymnast, teaching Acro at different studios around the Seattle area has also become a passion that she continues to revisit throughout her teaching career. In 2017 Brittany began teaching Contemporary and Lyrical classes at Westlake Dance Center. After two years of growing a community of movers, in 2019 she founded Coalescence Dance Company, which is gearing up to launch their fourth season in early 2023.

For Brittany, collaboration is at the heart of creating pieces of movement. Utilizing the combination of the selected music, the unique talents of each dancer, and the spark that comes into play when dreaming up what a piece can become is what draws her to make dance such a large focus in her life. Forging friendships and bonds that root themselves in dance and spill over to everyday life has also been a perk of Seattle’s local dance scene that has brought so much joy to her continued collaborations.

Continuing to dance until she was 37 weeks pregnant, Brittany recently gave birth to a daughter who is now six months old. The journey of meeting your body where it’s at in any stage or age in life is important to her to incorporate in her creations, as she’s experienced first-hand how greatly the body changes during different seasons of growth.

Beth Terwilliger

Beth Terwilleger (artistic director/choreographer, The Gray) grew up in Santa Cruz, California, and always felt free to allow her imagination to thrive. She spent her early childhood years creating worlds, theatrical performances, and dance extravaganzas. At a young age she was introduced to ballet and immediately fell in love. So driven by this new passion, she forgot her roots were truly planted in creation and not personal performance. After spending ten years with Ballet Austin in Texas and then freelancing in San Francisco and London, she has re-found her roots here in Seattle and has spent the past few years passionately exploring, generating, and supporting dance works here in this city. She had once thought that this imaginative part of her brain was left in those childhood years but is excited to have found that it does still exist through her choreographic practice.