About West Michigan Dance Festival
​Mission
West Michigan Dance Festival gathers together our local dance community through a weekend of master classes, networking events, discussions, educational panels, and performance opportunities.
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Vision
Our vision is for West Michigan to have a vibrant, thriving, and supportive dance community.
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Everyone is Welcome
West Michigan Dance Festival strives to create a safe and inclusive environment that encourages the artistic expression of all dancers. Our festival is an inclusive space where everyone can learn and thrive. All those associated with WDMF are responsible for conveying respect when interacting with others and honoring the dignity of all community members. Our collective success depends on holding ourselves accountable to welcoming all voices and encouraging dialogue from different perspectives in the dance community.
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Meet Our Team
Jacquie Pittman, Executive Director
Jacquie Pittman is a Michigan-based dance researcher, choreographer and educator who graduated with an MFA in Dance at The Ohio State University in 2022. She holds a B.A. in Studio Art and Visual Communication with a minor in Dance from Loyola University Chicago (2015) where she graduated magna cum laude.
She is an artist and maker, with her research interests consisting of dance choreography and dance education with an interdisciplinary interest in painting and multimedia art. She is a positive mental health advocate and explores the physical manifestation of emotional experiences through dance. She researches how dancers increased emotional intelligence can process complex lived experiences, and has presented her research at the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), Dance Studies Association Conferences (DSA), and the OhioDance Festival.
She has danced professionally with Artlab J, based in Detroit, MI and Dance In the Annex (DITA), in Grand Rapids, MI. She holds considerable teaching experience, including teaching students of all abilities through Artists Creating Together (ACT) and Art Possible Ohio. She has been a guest teacher at Wayne State University, a Graduate Teaching Associate at The Ohio State University, and was a lecturer at The Ohio State University Department of Dance. She is currently the Executive Director for the West Michigan Dance Festival and a teaching artist for ACT.
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Contact
email: westmichigandancefestival@gmail.com
website: jacquiepittman.com
Kendra DeFazio, Director of Communications
Kendra DeFazio is a contemporary dance artist and choreographer based in Grand Rapids, MI. She began her training at South Coast Conservatory and Orange County School of the Arts in Southern California. Kendra earned her Bachelors of Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography from Hope College in 2018. While at Hope, she was a member of H2 Dance Company, performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and was the recipient of the Kurtze-Wickersheimer Dance Performance and DeLong Senior Dance Awards. Her performance and choreography career in Chicago includes working with companies such as Joel Hall Dancers, Chicago Tap Theater, Inaside Chicago Dance, Simantikos Dance Chicago, and Lucid Banter Project. In 2022 she founded Currents Dance Theatre in Grand Rapids, MI and is currently the Executive/Artistic Director. She was the 2024 recipient of the Maggie Allesee Choreography Award and her work has been featured in Detroit Dance City Festival, the Grand Rapids Ballet Summer Festival, West Michigan Dance Festival, of which she is a cofounder, and more.
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Contact
website: currentsdance.org
Lachan Niedbala, Director of Operations
Lachan Niedbala is a professional dancer, choreographer, and educator based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. After achieving her B.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography from Hope College, she performed and choreographed with Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers, CPR Dance: Inhale Movement, and Chamberlain Dance Company, among others. Additionally, she has been directing the Youth Performance Ensemble for Wellspring since 2021 while teaching dance classes throughout Kalamazoo. In 2022, she founded Movement Reservoir Dance Company, where she now serves as the Artistic Director while continuing to build community with other dance companies. Lachan's work has been presented in Paris (France), Chicago (Illinois), and various cities in Michigan, including Kalamazoo, Stevensville, Grand Rapids, Detroit, and Holland. Her choreography has been presented in prestigious festivals such as RADfest, Detroit Dance City Festival (now known as Dance City Festival), Emergence Dance by Alluvion Dance Chicago, DaCi USA, and Oakland Dance Festival. Additionally, she aspires to foster a dance community that supports individuals in showing up intentionally and authentically while honoring individual growth. Lachan is thrilled to be contributing to the West Michigan dance community and beyond through West Michigan Dance Festival!
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Contact
website: movementreservoirdancecompany.com
Meet Our Board Members
MICHAELA "M" NEILD
MICHAELA "M" NEILD (she/they), is an interdisciplinary artist, dance educator, movement coach, and nonprofit professional based in Buffalo, NY. As an independent artist, M is engaged with improvisation and multidisciplinary investigation, community-building, seeking liberation through storytelling, and the sharing of space. They earned their MFA in Dance and Nonprofit Studies from The Ohio State University and their BFA in Dance Performance & Choreography from SUNY University at Buffalo.
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While M is primarily a dancer, she enjoys infusing her choreography with other visual, video, and installation art mediums. Their choreographic process is experiential, collaborative, and emergent—combining traditional compositional techniques with devising theatre techniques, improvisational games, and chance operation structures. More often than not, M enters the creative process by facilitating discussions and cultivating experiences that pull a central theme for the creative work out of the people she engages with—viewing the challenges, perspectives, combined talents, cultures, and possibilities that emerge as inspiration.
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When M isn't performing or choreographing, they can be found working behind the scenes as a freelance grant writer and program manager for arts nonprofits and independent artists. In these roles, M aims to build infrastructures that open doors for who gets to participate in dance, who gets to watch dance, and how dance happens. M is also the proud founder of Creative Care With Michaela, a sliding-scale healthy aging service dedicated to helping elders age actively, creatively, and independently through movement and therapeutic arts coaching.
Contact
website: www.michaelaneild.com
EMILY MEJICANO-GORMLEY
Emily Mejicano-Gormley is an emerging dancer and choreographer based in the Chicago Land Area. She graduated from the Hope College Dance Department in 2018, receiving the DeLong Senior Dance Award. MG has performed and choreographed with local companies such as Chicago Tap Theatre and Simantikos Dance Chicago, as well as abroad in Mexico, Scotland, and France. She teaches at various studios around the Chicago area and is Currents Dance Theatre’s inaugural guest choreographer.
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