PARTICIPATING PERFORMANCE ARTISTS 2025
EMILY CARGILL + DANCERS (ECD), led by Artistic Director, Emily Cargill, is a contemporary dance company based in Jacksonville, FL. Our mission is to cultivate and ignite a collaborative environment both in the rehearsal process and in our community, working with and being inspired by artists of all disciplines. We also are dedicated to heightening the caliber of concert dance in the city of Jacksonville and beyond. Each season, ECD engages in several local performance opportunities, including producing the annual event The Women Arts Exchange, sustains a regional and national touring calendar, and offers the only professional level contemporary dance class in the city. We value innovation, curiosity and collaboration within our dance-making process and strive to create work that is daring, authentic, humanistic and bold. Together, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of dance-making and creating a meaningful impact in the world of performing arts. ECD has been presented at festivals and venues all across the East Coast including Players by the Sea, High Museum of Art, the Mint Museum, Art on the Atlanta Beltline, Richmond’s 15th Annual Mid-Atlantic Choreographic Showcase, North Carolina Dance Festival, LadyfestCLT, Skwhirlhaus Theatre, Dogtown Dance Theatre/ Touring Artist Series, Emory University’s Performing Arts Studio, Dance Canvas’ Emerging Choreographer Initiative, New Grounds Dance Festival, New Seeds Festival, OneSpark Festival, Modern Atlanta Dance Festival, Richmond Dance Festival, Detroit Dance City Festival, Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, NYC10 Dance Festival, Versatility Dance Festival, Charlotte Dance Festival, Moving the Margins/The Jessie, WhiteWave Dance Festival, among others. ECD has been commissioned for creative residencies most recently by Middle Tennessee State University, as well as James Madison University, Washington and Lee University, Winthrop University and Belmont Abby College. Emily is one of 60 Jacksonville artists who have recently been awarded the inaugural 2024-2025 Individual Artist Grant from the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville. This historic new grant program aims to serve local individual working artists in Duval County. Emily is also a 2023 recipient of the Community Foundation of Jacksonville’s Art Ventures Individual Artist Grant. This grant assisted in the creation process of bone memory, which premiered at the 2nd Annual Women Arts Exchange in April 2024.
SAMANTHA 'SAMI' COPLON is a professional dancer, choreographer, collaborator, dance educator, and social media manager currently based in New York City. Originally from northern New Jersey, she began her dance training at the Dance Academy of North Jersey. She later graduated Cum Laude from the University of Florida with a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography, as well as a minor in Mass Communications. Sami has had the privilege of performing in works by acclaimed artists such as Doug Varone, Emily Cargill, Dante Puleio, Xan Burley, Alex Springer, Elizabeth Johnson, Trent D. Williams Jr., Jason Luks, Jaclyn Walsh, Angelica Stiskin, and others. She has also trained with renowned organizations, including the Limon Dance Foundation, Doug Varone and Dancers, and Gaga People, among others. Some of her performance credits include RDA Frost Fest (Tarrytown, NY), Dance N.O.W. Festival (Ossining, NY), Emergence Dance Festival (MYC), GROWorks (NYC), Women Arts Exchange (Jacksonville, FL), NewGrounds Dance Concert (Tampa, FL), various University of Florida student and faculty concerts (Gainesville, FL), ACDA Southeast Region (Tallahassee, FL), and the Capezio A.C.E. Awards (NYC) in both 2016 and 2018. As an educator, Sami currently serves on the faculty and as a guest choreographer at Rivertown Dance Academy in Tarrytown, NY. Sami is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Cope + Company, a project-based dance company that emphasizes collaboration, authenticity, and community. The company focuses on creating work that highlights meaningful partnerships and creative exploration within the dance community, while making art that makes what’s unspoken visceral. Sami’s work has been presented in various performance spaces in both Florida and New York. Most recently, Cope + Company premiered part 1 of their newest work “In Hushed Caveats” at Frost Fest this February. They are excited to be premiering part 2 at WAX this year.
AMANDA GABALDON is an interdisciplinary dance artist, educator, choreographer, and arts journalist. Gabaldon is the artistic director of Poetica, a company that blends poetry, dance and community together. Her collaborative & immersive choreographies have been showcased at the Tampa Museum of Art, the Scarfone-Hartley Gallery, Moving Current’s NewGrounds Festival, Tallahassee’s 621 Gallery, FEMMEfest Atlanta, the Decatur Arts Festival, and the Atlanta Fringe Festival. Gabaldon studies under master teacher Anne Green Gilbert and builds on her brain-compatible dance curriculum to emphasize creativity and strengthen mind-body connections in the studio. Gabaldon was the recipient of a Gobioff Foundation micro-grant to develop an annual National Dance Day performance for local choreographers and has been commissioned for the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts and Moving Current modern dance’s summer season. She was featured in Dance Magazine for her outdoor, socially distant dance series in summer 2020.
HILARY LIBMAN is dedicated to promoting the arts in Northeast Florida through her involvement, activism, and philanthropy. She is a founding member of Jacksonville Dance Theatre, where she has contributed as a dancer, choreographer, costume designer, and former president of the board of directors. From 2011 to 2014, she served as the artistic director of the nonprofit Braided Light Dance Project, focusing on multidisciplinary collaboration, community outreach, and site-specific choreography. Hilary holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance performance from Jacksonville University. She has also danced with West Florida Ballet, Sarasota Ballet, and the Illinois Ballet before returning to Jacksonville to raise her family.
Hi I’m JADA LA FAIRE ALLEN! I was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida where I studied at FSCJ and will be completing my BFA in dance at Valdosta State University. Last year I had the privilege of attending American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina and this January I studied in New York with Doug Varone and Dancers. When I am not dancing, I enjoy spending time with my partner and our cats, and these days I have been deepening my connection with myself and the earth by meditating.
STARR FOSTER DANCE, founded by Artistic Director Starrene Foster, is an award-winning contemporary dance company based in Richmond, Virginia. Known for creating emotionally resonant works, Foster feels strongly about embracing the human spirit and fostering the idea of merging interdisciplinary practices. The SFD dancers have received much praise for their superb technique and innate sense of connectedness while executing Foster’s unique movement vocabulary. For the last 20 years, Starr Foster Dance has produced the highly recognized Annual Mid-Atlantic Choreographers Showcase, producing more than 250 dance artists and companies from around the country. Starr Foster Dance has been recognized as “2024 Best Professional Dance Company of the Year” by the Virginia Dance Awards, the Best Dance Company in Richmond's Style Weekly Magazine Readers Choice Award issue for consecutive years, and featured on PBS Virginia Currents. Starrene has received grants from CultureWorks RVA, the Virginia Council for the Arts, and many commissions for new dance works from universities and various dance companies. Starrene is an advocate for enriching the world with more art and has dedicated her life to collaborating with all types of artists and mentoring young artists. www.starrfosterdance.org
Founded by DMV-based movement artists Julianna Raimondo and Chloe Conway, J&C DANCE PROJECT is a contemporary dance collective committed to exploring and expressing personhood through movement. With a deep-seated passion for collaboration, their work is rooted in a female and queer centered ethos. j&c dance project aims to create dances that serve as a powerful medium for storytelling and social commentary. Their performances delve into complex themes such as intimacy, identity, control, and greed, challenging audiences to reflect on the world around them and their place within it. Julianna and Chloe began creating and presenting work together in 2021, and previously collaborated during their undergraduate dance careers at James Madison University. Most recently, j&c dance project presented work in the 2024 DC Dance Canvas Festival, the 2024 Transformations Festival, and the 2025 NACHMO Showcase at the ATLAS Performing Arts Center, and are currently developing an evening-length work to premiere in 2025.
ANNA JACOBSON is a teacher, poet, and storyteller. She has developed curriculum for the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, The Journalism Education Association National Conference in partnership with the New York Times, and the Reynolds Journalism Institute. Her poetry has been published in a variety of anthologies, including Fantastic Beautiful Creatures and Moss Gossamer. She teaches high school English and is a certified writing circle facilitator and high school internship coordinator for Women Writing for (a) Change. Anna is also a multiple Grand Slam storytelling competition winner at Bab's Lab in the CoRK Arts District and has been featured on WJCT with the Florida Theater podcast Untold Stories. She is honored and delighted to be working with WAX dancers for a third collaboration.
