“Hummel creates an affecting world. The results are enormously sophisticated. The choreography quivers with subtle emotions like the writing of Virginia Woolf.”

-Tobi Tobias, The Village Voice

Shannon Hummel (Choreographer/Artistic Director) is the choreographer and founding artistic director of Cora Dance, a contemporary dance company founded in 1997 to facilitate her choreographic and educational aspirations. Over the past twelve years, Hummel's work has been commissioned across the nation by such institutions as Dance Theater Workshop/NY State Dance Force (NYC), Dixon Place/Mondo Cane!

Commissioning Program (NYC), University of Maryland/College Park (MD), Marlboro College/Vermont Performance Lab (VT), Rhode Island College (RI), Queensborough College (NY), James Madison University (VA), among many others. Hummel's choreography has been presented by a plethora of institutions in New York City, including the 92nd Street Y, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, BRICstudio, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Dixon Place, The Flea, La MaMa, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, HERE Arts Center, New Dance Alliance, Joyce SoHo, among many others. Her work has been widely acclaimed by critics across the company, called "poignant and sophisticated," "remarkably assured and perceptive," and "as vivid and truly as a Eudora Welty story" by such publications as the New York Times, The Village Voice, Style Magazine, among many others.

Hummel is not only a choreographer of note, but a career arts educator. Her significant teaching background has brought her to widely diverse venues and communities - urban, suburban and rural - having taught in social service programs, public and private schools, formal dance studios, colleges, universities and even city parks.

Currently on staff as the Dance and Movement Specialist at the Poly Prep Lower School in New York City, she has been on faculty of a vast number of dance and community institutions in New York and Virginia for the past 21 years. For ten years, she worked at the award winning arts education institution, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, serving in many capacities including long time teacher, summer arts programs director, Youthworks coach, performance workshop director and founding director of BAXco, BAX's youth repertory company. She has been a teaching artist in over a dozen public and private schools across the city through placements from Arts Connection, BAX, Good Shepherd Services among others. In her seven years as a Dance and Movement specialist at Poly Prep, she works with students ages 3-10, and has engaged in significant professional development, expanding her knowledge of teaching standards; physical, social and emotional benchmarks for K-12 students; individual teaching and learning styles; and classroom management for dance teachers. Hummel's extensive teaching experience has led the company to also teach and speak at studios, public and private schools and community centers across the country and to speak and teach at such institutions as Dance Theater Workshop (NY), Rutgers University (NJ), The College of William & Mary (VA), Marlboro College (VT), Henrico Center for the Performing Arts (VA), among many others. She has been an adjunct professor at James Madison University (VA) where she also holds a Bachelors degree in Dance and at Queensborough College in NYC.

Hummel's equal commitment to choreography and education has led her and Cora to make a top priority of providing professional performance and education experiences to isolated communities, particularly in intensely urban and rural areas. To this end, Hummel and Cora developed "The Crossroads Project" in 2002 to create accessible performing arts programs for those with little or no exposure to dance. Since the inception of the project, Hummel and her company have worked with over 2000 "non-dancers," in small communities in KY, VA, WV, VT, and NY. In 2009, Hummel is proud to be have found a home for her choreography and teaching at SPACE 205 in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

SPACE 205 serves as a home base for Cora Dance as a professional company while offering subsidized space rental to the NYC dance community and sliding scale performing arts classes to the young people of Red Hook, Brooklyn. Led by Hummel and the outstanding performers/educators of Cora, the company aims to offer a full range of classes to the Red Hook community by the fall of 2009.

Hummel has received numerous awards and grants during her tenure as an artist. Most recently the company received significant residencies from Vermont Performance Lab in Vermont, as well as past support from the Brooklyn Arts Council, JP Morgan Chase, Department of Cultural Affairs, Copper-Beech Foundation, Royal Trust, Arts Council of the Valley, among others. Currently, Hummel serves as an Artistic Advisor to the Artist-in-Residence Program at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, at which she was formerly a BAX Artist-in-Residence from 2005-2007. She was the longtime co-curator of the UnderExposed Festival for emerging choreographers at Dixon Place with fellow downtown dance colleague Monica Bill Barnes from 2000-2008 and currently curates, speaks, and sits on many guest panels at numerous venues throughout the country.

Naoko Nagata (Costume Designer) started her career as a biochemist in Japan. Her evolution into costume making is a long story. With literally no formal training, Nagata's first costume was created for Jeanine Durning in 1998. From that moment, she has been creating for a diverse group of choreographers and dancers non-stop. She has collaborated with David Dorfman Dance, Bebe Miller, Reggie Wilson, Liz Lerman, Nora Chiaumire, Tiffany Mills, David Neumann, Gina Gibney, Nina Winthrop and many, many others. Working closely with collaborators, Naoko helps bring to life what she herself calls, "The creation of a shared dream." Currently she is working with Urban Bush Women and Jant-Bi for BAM Next Wave Festival.

Kelly Bartnik (Dancer) is a graduate of James Madison University where she earned her BA in Dance and BBA in Computer Information Systems. Since moving to New York, she has performed with the Wright Now! Performance XPerience, Melissa Briggs Dance, Shannon Hummel / Cora Dance and Carl Hancock Rux. Her own choreography has been presented at Dixon Place, Williamsburg Arts Nexus, the Publick Playhouse in Maryland, James Madison University, Brooklyn Arts Exchange/BAX, Joyce Soho, BRIC Studio, Dance Theater Workshop and Arena Stage in Washington DC. Kelly is a founding member of Forum, Inc., a multidisciplinary arts organization based in Washington D.C., as well as a video production company, Gk1 Productions. She is currently the co-director of BAXco, the teen repertory company in residence at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange. This is Kelly’s fourth year performing with Cora Dance.

Xan Burley (Dancer) a native Ohioan, graduated in August of 2007 from the University of Michigan with a BDA in Dance and a BA in English. Since her move to New York as an independent artist she has had the great pleasure of working with Daniel Charon, Sarah Council Dance Projects, DOORKNOB Company, Shannon Gillen, Meg Hebert Dance and is soon to be joining a project with Pocket Engine. Xan also co-produces alexanDance with Alex Springer, through which they have shown work at WAXworks, Solar One, Dixon Place, and Williamsburg FreeFest. They also create video shorts for youtube in their spare time.

Galois Cohen (Dancer) was born in New York and attended LaGuardia High School. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst she danced with the New York Dance Collective, Leap of Faith, Room Eleven Dancers and Rosa Mei Dance. She has been with Cora Dance since 2000.

Donna Costello (Dancer/Performers Liaison & Rehearsal Assistant), originally from New Jersey, is a dancer, performer and teaching artist living in Brooklyn. She is a founding member of Shannon Hummel / Cora Dance and has created and collaborated with Shannon for over 10 years. She also continues to be inspired by her ongoing relationships performing for Mollie O'Brien, Jiimena Paz and jill sigman/thinkdance. Donna has had the pleasure of working with a diverse group of choreographers in NYC including Barbara Mahler, Stephan Koplowitz, Melissa Briggs, Naomi Goldberg, Juliette Mapp, Kelly Bartnik and Pele Bauch among others. Recent projects not to go unnoticed have included blogging for jill, singing for Monica, Fünf 'n' Twisting for Anna, and teaching at DNA.

Katie Dean (Dancer) Katie Dean is a dancer and choreographer originally from Virginia, where she graduated with a BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has performed the work of Courtney Cooke, Shannon Hummel, Rob Petres of Ground Zero Dance Company, Scott Putman of Amaranth Dance Company, Shane O’Hara, Heidi Weiss, Erin Dalton, Brinson Leigh Kresge, and Monica Bill-Barnes, among others. Her own choreography has been shown at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s Choreographer Showcase (MD), Grace Street Theatre (VA), Brooklyn Arts Exchange’s Upstart Festival (NY), Dixon Place (NY), Gallery 5 (VA), Wow Café (NY), Our Space (NY), Joy of Motion (DC), and Triskelion Arts (NY). Katie Dean is currently a member of the Cultural Reflex Project headed by VCU alum Megan Harrold.

Erika Hansen (Dancer) Erika Hansen was born in a small town in Southeastern Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities with a BFA in Dance.

Nicki Marshall (Dancer) has been dancing, choreographing, and teaching in NYC since 2000, after receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Mount Holyoke College. She has self-produced three evenings of work and has been presented at various venues throughout NYC including Dance Theater Workshop, Joyce Soho, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, WOW Café Theater, Theater 80, BRIC Studio, and Galapagos Arts. She recently received a Space Grant from BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange with her collaborator, Helen Tocci. Nicki has been a member of Magbana Drum & Dance, Movement for the Urban Village Dance Company, Company Amy Cox and Maura Nyugen Donahue/In Mixed Company. This is her first season dancing with Cora Dance.

Tara O’Con (Dancer) is happily dancing for many choreographers here in NYC including mvworks/Megan Sprenger, Tami Stronach, and Third Rail Projects. Her own work has been presented at Dance Theater Workshop, as part of the Fresh Tracks Performance and Residency Program, The Chocolate Factory Theater, and by DanceNOW[NYC].

Jennifer Schmermund (Dancer) holds an MFA in dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has been on the dance faculty at Marymount School of New York and Bucknell University where she has been both a commissioned guest artist and an adjunct professor. In addition to creating work as director of Fresh Blood Dance, she performs with Kimberly Young and the Extra-Sensory Pedestrians. Trained as a yoga teacher through Om Yoga and J. Brown at Abhyasa Yoga Center, she hopes to share more of her teaching.

Cynthia Thompson (Dancer) has enjoyed a career as a dancer, choreographer and educator that spans twenty-five years during which time she has been a major force in the development of the successful BA program in dance at James Madison University. Her long-time partnership with Kate Trammell in the duet company Thompson & trammel has shaped her professional career. The company has toured nationally and internationally to critical acclaim and has been awarded numerous grants and honors. Cynthia has been a guest artist with Cora Dance for the past two years.

Jessica Weiss (Dancer) was raised in Cheshire, Connecticut where she studied ballet and Doris Humphrey technique under the direction of Ernestine Stodelle. She studied dance at Sarah Lawrence College, the Limon Institute and the Tisch School of the Arts. In 2005, she finished a BA with Honors in Dance and Dance Writing from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU. She has performed with several New York companies, including Douglas Dunn & Dancers, Sue Bernhard/ Dance Works, Pam Tanowitz Dance and HT Chen and Dancers, and is currently performing with Liz Gerring Dance and dance by Alan Danielson.