Many Happy Returns

Monica Bill Barnes

(she/her) founded Monica Bill Barnes & Company in 1997 with a collection of solos that could be performed anywhere. The company has performed in venues ranging from Upright Citizen’s Brigade to The Sydney Opera House, and has been presented in more than 100 cities.  Some of the company’s past projects include The Museum Workout, a guided exercise tour of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Happy Hour, an immersive office party dance show that ran as a recurring event for 3 years in New York City, Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, a show that combines radio and dance in collaboration with Ira Glass that toured over 25 cities in America and abroad. Current collaborations between Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri include The Running Show, Days Go By, Keep Moving the company’s first online show created in collaboration with 16 dancers from Hunter College in 2020, and It’s 3:07 Again which premiered online April 2021.

Robbie Saenz de Viteri 

(he/him) began working in theater as an audio script assistant to Anna Deveare Smith. He has created performances and toured productions throughout the world with the Obie Award winning Nature Theater of Oklahoma. He has created, produced, and performed in Happy Hour, The Museum Workout, One Night Only, Days Go By, The Running Show, Keep Moving and It’s 3:07 Again with Monica Bill Barnes & Company. Some of his other favorite projects include producing This American Life Episode 528 “The Radio Drama Episode” live on stage at BAM, directing Rachel Bonds’s Michael & Edie, and creating and performing The Spiritual Life of Modern America, a collaboration in Norway based on the experiences of foreigners traveling in America Today.

Danté Anthony Baylor

(he/him) has been a Costumier for over 20 years. Danté graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2005. In 2006 Danté joined the wardrobe department for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. In Autumn 2015 he relocated to London, England where he joined the Costume Department at The Royal Opera House and the Royal Ballet in 2016. In 2017 Danté became the resident Costume Designer and Wardrobe Manager for Ballet Central and the Central School of Ballet. When Danté returned to the United States in 2018 he joined the Costuming department at the Washington National Opera in DC before returning to Alvin Ailey in the Autumn of 2019 where he works currently.Dante’s design credits include “Uptown”, “Moan”, “Odetta”and “Testament” by choreographer Matthew Rushing; “Get On The Good Foot” at Showtime at the Apollo with Philadanco; “Chemical Water” by Yannick Lebrun; “Cinderella” by Christopher Gable; “Sleeping Beauty” by Matthew Bourne for Ballet Central; “Swan Lake” and “Romeo and Juliet” by Jenna Lee.

Elizabeth Furman

(she/her) is a Brooklyn based administrator, production associate and dance artist who has been working with MBB&CO in a variety of roles since 2017! As an administrative and production assistant Elizabeth has supported Happy Hour, One Night Only, The Museum Workout, and The Running Show, both in NYC and on tour. As associate producer Elizabeth has supported the company’s site specific work Days Go By, and digital shows Keep Moving, and It’s 3:07 Again. Elizabeth loves bringing the company’s work to new audiences be them near, far, or via the computer screen. As a performer Elizabeth creates worlds for distinct characters to inhabit. Her collaboration “once she lived on a 4^th floor walkup” was part of the 2018 All Over Westbeth Site Specific Festival. Elizabeth holds a BA in Dance and English from Kenyon College.

Flannery Gregg

(she/her) is a performer, movement director, and rehearsal director based in NYC. She has rehearsal directed and performed in Monica Bill Barnes & Company’s productions of The Running Show, Day’s Go By, Keep Moving, & It’s 3:07pm Again. She has also worked alongside Barnes as associate choreographer/dancer on the feature film Little Women (dir. Greta Gerwig). Flannery is the movement director of The Reality Show: NYU (created by Elizabeth Swados), staging performances at the Barclays Center, Radio City Music Hall, and NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. She was as the assistant choreographer to Sam Pinkleton on the Broadway musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 and the associate choreographer to Sonya Tayeh for Sing Street on Broadway. Born and raised in San Diego, Flannery got her BA in World Arts and Cultures from UCLA. She is thrilled to be dancing with MBB & Co.!

Mykel Marai Nairne

(she/her) is a Brooklyn-based dance artist, administrator, and creative producer. Born and raised in NYC, Mykel studied dance at Alvin Ailey for 14 years, where she was a fellowship student, and graduated from Dartmouth College with a BA in Film & Media Studies in 2016. Mykel re-engaged with movement through intensives with Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts, American Dance Festival, and Movement Invention Project, and has performed works by Bill T. Jones, Merce Cunningham, Robert Battle, and John Heginbotham, among others. She joined Dance Heginbotham in 2018 and has since performed in the Off-Broadway revival of Oklahoma! (dir. Daniel Fish, St. Ann’s Warehouse) and The Master and Form (Brendan Fernandes, Whitney Museum of American Art) at the Whitney Biennial. Mykel performed with MBB&Co for the first time in 2019 with Days Go By, It’s 3:07 Again virtually in April 2021, and is thrilled to return to live performance with the company at the WP Theater this summer! mykelmarainairne.com

Barbara Samuels

(she/her) is a queer lighting designer, organizer and producer residing on unceded Wappinger and Munsee Lenape land. Barbara is invested in creating design-forward live events that prioritize generosity, equity, representation, and collaboration. Working nationally and internationally, Barbara collaboratively creates intimate and explosive lighting environments for new plays, opera and dance, aiming to unearth the human condition and consciousness of our surroundings. Barbara received Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award nominations for her lighting of the immersive sci-fi folk concert, Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future (Ars Nova). She has designed for several OBIE award winning plays including Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons), Great Lakes… (New Georges/WP Theater) and Grimly Handsome (minor theater). She served as the General Manager of OBIE Award-winning 13P from 2008-2012. In 2016, in addition to being a Target Margin Institute Fellow, The Interval named Barbara a Woman to Watch. Barbara holds a B.A. from Fordham University and an M.F.A in Lighting Design from NYU.  Proud member of USA Local 829. New Georges Affiliated Artist.

Indah M. Walsh

(she/her) is a choreographer, performer, dance educator, and administrator. She has danced in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and across the US. Indah earned a BFA in dance from Purchase College Conservatory of Dance in 2008 and an MFA in dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2014. As a choreographer, Indah Walsh was awarded a Creative Engagement Grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in 2017. In 2020, Indah worked with Monica Bill Barnes and Company as Web Designer and Creative Consultant for Keep Moving, and performed in their online work It’s 3:07 Again in 2021. Indah was an Adjunct Instructor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts from 2019-2021 and was nominated for the David Payne Carter Award for Teaching Excellence in 2021. She is now a Visiting Assistant Arts Professor at NYU Tisch Department of Dance.

photo Credit: Corey Haynes

Aoshuang Zhang

(she/her) is a set and production designer based in New York who is passionate about new forms of storytelling. She has worked across a variety of media including theatre, film, installation, AR and VR. She holds a BA, MFA and Ph.D. from Beijing’s Central Academy of Drama and is the first Mainland Chinese student to graduate from NYU Tisch Design for Stage & Film (MFA). Aoshuang is the Artist-In-Residence of NYU Future Reality Lab. Recent work includes multi-user XR experience Mary and the Monster (Assistant Art Director), The Outpost (Art Director) at NYU Future Reality Lab. The Empty Place, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Recall and Alteration at NYU/Tisch, Global Gay at LA MAMA, and Patience at Corkscrew Theater Festival. She staged a ring screen performance of Hamlet Mirror at the 11th Shanghai Biennale Exhibition.  www.aoshuangzhang.com