Current CBLP Dancers
Ariana Sugay trained at The Chicago Academy for the Arts and later graduated with a BA in Contemporary Dance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. She is a freelance performer who has recently appeared in Danceworks and Thodos Dance Chicago's New Dances at the Athenaeum Theatre, as well as at the Dance for Life gala at the Auditorium Theatre. This year, she is teaching and choreographing at Artistic Pursuit in Westmont and at North Shore Elite Talent Company in Glenview.
Ashton Craven is a Chicago-based contemporary and tap artist. She discovered her passion for dance at age three at Dancenter North in Libertyville where she trained with Stacy Keller, Julie Cartier, Matt Pospeshil, Greg Begley, and Victoria Barlow. Ashton also had the privilege of performing for two years in the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade through the Chicago Human Rhythm Project.
A recent graduate from the University of California-Irvine, Ashton has a BA in Dance and a BS in Biological Sciences. She studied under Charlotte Griffin, Molly Lynch, Lar Lubovitch, Katarzyna Skarpetowska, Tong Wang, and Diane Diefenderfer at UCI. Throughout her time in college, Ashton was interested in investigating the overlap between the arts and sciences. Based on research done by the Microbial Evolution lab she trained in, Ashton created a dance film using contemporary movement to explain complex scientific topics. She hopes to continue exploring how information can be made more accessible through dance and is excited to be back in Illinois!
Caitlin Howland (Massachusetts) is a classically trained contemporary dance artist based in Chicago. She fell in love with dance at the age of three, training at local studios throughout her youth before transitioning to RAD classical ballet. Interested in exploring different genres of movement, she began studying hand balancing, acrobatics, and aerial silks at New York based STREB Inc. at age ten. She then furthered her ballet training under the direction of Cambridge- based Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre.
In 2021, Caitlin graduated from DePaul University Cum Laude with a B.A. in English Creative Writing and a Double Minor in Philosophy and Performance Studies. During her college career, Caitlin interned with Professor Theodore Anton on his book Programmable Planet: The Synthetic Biology Revolution, researching and writing about synthetic biology and mRNA technology. She was also the Program Manager for the Guild Literary Complex, a nonprofit performance based literary arts organization. Then, in her final year of college, Caitlin had her self-written short story “Moonstruck” published in Crook & Folly Literary Magazine.
After graduating, she joined COMMON Conservatory’s ‘21-’22 and ’22-23’ season working with a myriad of notable choreographers such as Terrance Marling, Robyn Mineko Williams, Joseph A. Hernandez, Katlin Michael Bourgeois, and Jackie Nowicki. Caitlin performed in numerous stages while with COMMON including the fully produced “Choices We Carry” and “Capsule of Time”. During her second season with COMMON Conservatory, she performed at Navy Pier Chicago LIVE! and Harvest Contemporary Dance Festival featuring works by Terrence Marling and Project Bound Dance, respectively.
She attended Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Explore intensive during the summer of 2022. This past summer she attended COMMON’s Create & Perform Session with Noelle Kayser and DanceWorks Chicago’s DanceForce. She was featured in Noelle Kayser’s new work “Montage” this past July. Caitlin is excited to join Chicago Movement Collective’s Legacy Program and explore new vocabularies of movement and community.
Elayne Podolske is a contemporary and classical ballet artist based in Chicago, Illinois. She gained her early training in ballet, jazz, modern and tap at the Dance Academy of Libertyville under Amy Rose, Rob Lane, Lisa Sheppard Shipman, Phil Brooks, Emily Winkler and Katie McCann. She has attended many summer programs and workshops with companies such as Milwaukee Ballet, Joffrey Academy of Dance, A&A Ballet, Ballet West, River North, Visceral Dance Chicago and DanceWorks Chicago. Upon graduating, she joined Fort Wayne Ballet as a trainee where she
performed in classical and contemporary works. She came back to Chicago by invitation to join Ruth Page’s Training Program in their inaugural season. While in the program she had the pleasure to work with Dolores Long, Birute Barodcaite, Rigo Sauro, Maray Guterriez & Victor Alexander. During that year she also traveled to dance and train with international schools InColBallet in Cali, Colombia and Escuela de Música y Danza in Coruna, Spain. During a short season as an apprentice with Ballet Quad Cities she helped run outreaches to local schools and performed in
regional tours with the company. Elayne then joined Ballet 5:8 as a trainee in 2020, followed by a promotion to the second company. She was then offered a company position with Central Illinois Ballet where she performed in Rebekah von Rathonyi’s The Nutcracker and an original ballet of Les Miserables as well as works by Jessie Williams and Dyson. Ramey. Elayne also worked as Operations Manager for their school where she organized fundraising events and co-directed outreach performances for local Peoria schools. Elayne is passionate about bringing dance to all audiences and is excited to be back in the Chicago area moving and grooving once again!
Jayme Braverman, a native of Iowa City, Iowa, began her dance training at Nolte Academy under the direction of Leslie Nolte. After graduating high school a year early Jayme went on to attend Point Park University studying and performing under Jason McDole, Kiesha Lalama, Daniel Karasik, Maree ReMalia, and Garfield Lemonious, among others. She earned her BFA in Dance with high honors in the spring of 2020.
Over the years Jayme has studied and performed works by Martha Graham, José Limon, Lloyd Knight, Autumn Eckman, Joseph Kudra, Yin Yue, Oscar Ramos, Brandon Cournay, Britt Juleen, and many others. Upon graduating, Jayme spent a year as a trainee with Visceral Dance Chicago under the direction of Cait Cucchiara and Nick Pupillo. Jayme is currently a freelance dancer based in the Chicago area, artistic and admin coordinator for PARA.MAR Dance Theatre, and assistant for Stephanie Martinez.
In addition to performing, Jayme has a passion for teaching and costume design which was most recently on display with Ballet Chicago and Trinity Irish Dance Company. Jayme is a lover of dogs, traveling, and enjoying moments with people who are near and dear to her heart. If she is not in the dance studio Jayme is probably working on her current sewing project or relaxing with a cup of tea and a jigsaw puzzle.
Mary Swansburg is originally from Boston, MA. She began her training at L’Ecole de Ballet and the MA-based ballet company, Dance Prism. She performed with Dance Prism’s corps de ballet in Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, and Sleeping Beauty, among a variety of other ballets, and was promoted to apprentice company member in 2017. Mary went on to graduate from Wheaton College, MA (no affiliation with Wheaton College, IL) where she majored in English and Psychology and minored in Dance. At Wheaton, Mary studied primarily under Cheryl Mrozowski, Leticia Guerrero, and Andrea Taylor-Blenis. As a member and eventual Captain of the college’s dance company she had the opportunity to work with choreographers across New England such as Diane Arvientes, Kurt Adametz, and Sarah-Katarina (SKooj CorE-O.) Since graduating in 2022, Mary relocated to Chicago to continue her training with Winifred Haun’s 3rd Coast Contemporary Dance Program, and has been invited back to guest choreograph for the dance department at Wheaton for the 2023, 2024, and 2025 seasons.
Kalie Ferry is an artist, choreographer, performer, and instructor. She received her BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle Washington. She has been a company member of Metamorphosis Dance Company, Elemdi Performance Collaborative, and Balliamo Dance Collective. She has taught contemporary, jazz, and ballet to professional dancers in Rhode Island for several years, and has just moved to Chicago. Kalie is a certified personal trainer, yoga instructor, and nutrition coach through the International Sports Science Association. As an artist, Kalie is interested in exploring opposing energies of bound and free movement, while honoring the importance of anatomical sustainability. Kalie identifies as a dancer who pushes the boundaries of tradition to make space for mental, emotional, and physical health in the dance world.
Sidney Valdez (she/her) is a multidisciplinary dancer from the Chicagoland area. Sidney grew up dancing at DuPage Dance Academy and graduated from Dickinson College in 2023 where she majored in Dance and Neuroscience and was awarded the Gould Award for exceptional contribution to the Theatre and Dance department. While at Dickinson, Sidney had the pleasure of working with Sarah Skaggs, Erin Crawley Woods, Emie Hughes, and Orange Grove Dance, as well as train with Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet instructors including Frances Perez-Ball and Matthew Donnell. During her junior year, Sidney studied abroad at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy where she engaged in exploratory, conservatory style dance theater training under Alessio Trevisani. Sidney currently teaches dance in the Chicago area and writes for SeeChicagoDance.com through the Dance Writer Incubator Program.
Taylor Walzem, with over twenty years of dance practice and experience, moved to Chicago in 2023 from New Braunfels, Texas. She studied Texas Woman’s University where she received a Bachelor of the Arts in Dance with a minor in Art History, benefitting from professors such as Jordan Fuchs, Mary Williford-Shade, and Sarh Gamblin, through which program she was able to perform regionally as well as be credited as an international performer at the Coco Dance Festival. Walzem was also on the company Transcend Motion, started by Sarah Tran in 2020, where she learned the joys and hard work required for professional dance, spurring her to pursue her career to new heights. Continuing her growth in Chicago she has studied under Winifred Haun, Ariel Dorsey, Patti Eylar, and Imani English as part of the Third Coast Contemporary Dance Program.
Valerie Lowder is a classically trained ballet and modern dancer based in Chicago. She currently dances at CMC. Valerie has been doing ballet for 17 years and Horton-based modern for 10 years. She has also had 2 years of jazz training and has taken a variety of classes in hip hop, contemporary, and African. She spent 6 years in Hyde Park School of Dance’s pre professional company in high school where she danced 15+ hours every week. Throughout her time at Hyde Park School of Dance, she realized that she wants to dance professionally. Valerie is currently pursuing her BFA at the Art Institute of Chicago after which she aims to blend visual arts and dance to create new avenues of storytelling.