Creative Team, Creative Dream!

 These incredible artists have been joining me on this journey of Dark Adaptation. Next month, we're sharing Seeking, one of the pieces from the entire performance, at the Reading Theater Project's 5-Minute Fringe Festival: Shadows. 

Arielle Ridley found her passion for dance at the age of thirteen in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. She joined her local dance studio and was featured in shows such as Jasmine and the Lamp and Alice in Wonderland. At the age of seventeen, Arielle began exploring her own choreographic skills and found a passion for teaching and performing. She earned her BFA in Dance Theatre with honors from The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, where she attended both the NY and LA campuses. She has trained under choreographers and instructors such as Genevieve Carson, Laura Berg, and Tracie Steinfield. She currently resides and works in the Philadelphia area, performing as a company artist with Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Company and JCWK Dance Lab. In addition to company work, Arielle has also performed works with choreographers such as Grant Jacoby, Michael Kerr, and Stephanie Tolbert-King. She currently teaches contemporary, jazz, ballet, and more at Synergy Dance Center and the Ballet Guild of Lehigh Valley. When she's not dancing, she loves spending time with her big family and giving herself and her friends manicures! 

Cady Monasmith feels that movement is a powerful way of speaking through our bodies. Cady emphasizes change and choice through movement, awakening the conscious by letting the spirit dance in the flesh. Her use of interpretative movement helps individuals reflect their story of emotional pain, explore the past and bridge their experiences to their present self. Cady has helped her clients reconnect to their bodies by finding compassion, self-acceptance, and a sense of freedom and inner strength. This connection reintegrates the physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual aspects into the client's past experience with present meaning. Cady was given artistic guidance from Philadelphia artists, including Kun-Yang Lin, Jillian Harris, Ellie Goudie-Averill, Elizabeth Reynolds, Janet Pilla and Laura Katz-Rizzo. She is elated to join JCWK Dance Lab.

Richard Maldonado, Jr is an All Styles Hip Hop dancer. Richie started dancing around the age of 7, learning break dance foundations. By the age of 13, he continued to train wherever he could outside on the concrete, at family gatherings and at his local church in his hometown Bridgeport, Connecticut. By the age of 14, the Maldonado family relocated to Reading, PA where he continued to dance and joined a street dance crew called The Boogie Monsters, an all breaking and pop group. By the time Richie was a junior at Reading High School he took a leap of faith and auditioned for The Red Knights Dance Team and danced with them until he transferred to I-Lead Charter School. He graduated from I-Lead Charter School and became the choreographer for their dance team. During this period, Richie joined another street dance crew called Dramatic Influence where he began to have more performances and intensive choreography training. He taught at Wandra Holdren's Dance Academy. Richie continued his education at Reading Area Community College and choreographed for the RACC Dance Team. Richie continues to dance for non-profit community organizations such as The Rize Program and Barrio Alegria and teach.