Lauren Bakst (dramaturgical perspective) is an artist working in the expanded field of dance and performance practices. Her work is informed by her movements between choreographic, pedagogical, and discursive modes of thinking and making. Her collaborative projects with Yuri Masnyj have been presented by SculptureCenter, Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, Danspace Project, The Drawing Center, and Pioneer Works. Her work has also been presented at MANIFESTA, Pieter, the Knockdown Center, and Abrons Arts Center, among others. Lauren is the Managing Editor of the Movement Research Performance Journal. She teaches at the University of the Arts and The Cooper Union.

Max Bernstein (video and sound designer) was born and raised in Buffalo, NY where he received his BA in Media Studies from UB. Bernstein also received an MFA in Film and Studio Art from UC Boulder. In addition, he is a technical artist with the Wooster Group, media designer for guitarist Kaki King, media designer for artist Michelle Ellsworth, a member of media-based performance group Flinching Eye Collective, an associate of Friends Of The TANK :A sonic Arts Center, and drummer and video designer of the band Eupana. Bernstein’s personal works combine elements of cinema, theater, sculpture, performance, and new media, often exploring contemporary notions of representation and phenomenology through experimental narrative and technology.

Nelson Downend (lighting and production designer) is a New York City based designer, composer and writer. He received his BFA in Lighting Design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and his career in lighting spans the fields of dance, theatre, architecture and art installation, both in the US and abroad. Nelson has worked as lighting designer for Aynsley Vandenbroucke since 2000, and as an architectural lighting designer with Domingo Gonzales Associates (2000-2006) and Lumen Architecture (2006-2011). Nelson enjoys working at the intersection of lighting, film and music, combing his three passions under the Ambershift Media banner.

Cory Nakasue (performance advisor) is a writer and theater/new media artist. Over the past 20 years she’s performed and devised with artists that include Serge Bennathan, Mark Murphy, and her own group SPINE. She runs Body Intelligence, a service that provides movement education and therapy through NYU Medical Center and independently. She advises groups and individuals on using movement applications to address psychology, neurology, and performance. She will be reading from her latest collection of poetry next month at Station independent Gallery, and has a regular astrology column slated to debut in Upstater Magazine this summer.

Sarah A.O. Rosner (managing director) hustles maximalism. She is a multimedia performance maker (the A.O. Movement Collective), arts businessperson (A.O. PRO(+ductions)), and postmodern pornographer (AORTA films) who makes work out of Brooklyn, NY. She currently serves as a Managing Consultant for Tere O’Connor Dance and Company SBB / Stefanie Batten Bland, and the Managing Director for Juliana May and Aynsley Vandenbroucke, as well as offering freelance arts business consulting for NYC’s makers. Mx. Rosner has been featured as a speaker, educator, and panelist by Kickstarter, Adobe, Dance NYC, Gibney Dance, Dance Theater Workshop/New York Live Arts, CLASS CLASS CLASS, and Dance New Amsterdam, as well as Marymount Manhattan, Sarah Lawrence, Bard, and Purchase Colleges.  www.theAOMC.org // www.AORTAfilms.com