Writing about the Performing Arts 2020–21

Sarah Bodony is a fourth-year student pursuing a BFA in dance. She has performed works by Ann Sofie Clemmensen, Daniel Roberts, Crystal Michelle Perkins, and Susan Hadley, among others, and has been featured in films shown at international festivals. Along with performing, Bodony has produced a student-choreographed show in Ohio State's Department of Dance. With a big smile on her face, she hopes to create a space to explore, listen, and be inspired by the body, nature, her community, and the ever-changing possibilities life and art bring her way.

Ashley Boehmke is a second-year honors student majoring in psychology with minors in dance and in integrative approaches to health and wellness. On a pre–physical therapy track, she hopes to specialize in helping dancers. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Boehmke has been dancing for 15 years. Aside from dance, she plays for Fever, the women’s ultimate frisbee team at Ohio State, and loves photography. 

Isabel Brandt is a third-year student pursuing a BFA in dance and a minor in education. Originally from Oak Park, Illinois, she grew up dancing at the Academy of Movement and Music. As a company member of the dance company MOMENTA, she had the pleasure of performing numerous works by Doris Humphrey, Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, and more. During her time at Ohio State, Brandt has performed in Anna Sokolow’s Rooms as a part of the DaNCe2U mental health awareness tour. After graduating, she plans to dance professionally and attend graduate school in education.

Jacqueleen Bordjadze is in her fifth year at Ohio State, majoring in dance and English. She has performed in works by Ann Sofie Clemmensen, Susan Van Pelt Petry, and Calder White, and her choreography has been produced in Columbus, Ohio, and in Odense and Aalborg, Denmark. From Columbus, Bordjadze works as a consultant at Ohio State's Writing Center and has work forthcoming in The Dollhouse Magazine. She will graduate with distinction in December 2020.

Jackson Burkholder is a second-year student majoring in mathematics and economics with a minor in psychology. Born and raised in Cleveland, he entered the world of dance his freshman year through DanceSport@OSU. Burkholder now serves as the head of competitions for the club and competes in all forms of ballroom dance, from waltz to rumba. Beyond dancing and writing, he enjoys meeting new people, listening to country music, and spending countless hours playing board games.

Mackenzie Deighen is a fourth-year student majoring in microbiology and minoring in medical humanities. She is a Pelotonia Fellow and research aide in the Timothy Cripe Laboratory at Nationwide Children’s Hospital where she examines the use of oncolytic viruses as a treatment for pediatric solid tumors. Deighen also serves as an ally for Young People in Recovery, an organization that helps people enter long-term recovery from substance abuse. Outside of her volunteer interests, she loves rock climbing, running, and reading classic literature.

Emily Kilroy is a graduate of Ohio State’s Department of Dance where she earned a BFA with research distinction in 2020. She still attends the university, pursuing a BA in arts management and a minor in women’s, gender and sexuality studies. Her research interests are in feminist theory, the blending of performance genres, choreographic inquiries, and movement exploration. Kilroy has performed works by Kirven Douthit-Boyd, Edward Taketa, Ann Sofie Clemmensen, David Covey, André M. Zachery, and many more. Born and raised in Boston, her life has been surrounded by art in all mediums and an enthusiasm fueled by the world-changing possibilities that art provides.

Kara Komarnitsky is a third-year student majoring in dance with minors in environmental science and business. She is originally from Salt Lake City, where she trained and performed alongside Repertory Dance Theater, earned a full International Baccalaureate diploma on graduating high school, and developed her relationship with the natural world in the mountains near her home. Since moving to Columbus to attend Ohio State, Komarnitsky has worked with Jane D’Angelo of OhioDance to connect communities through the COVID-19 crisis, produced her own choreography for the Department of Dance’s 2019 Winter Concert, and become closely involved with the work of the Sierra Club Student Coalition at Ohio State. Her research is at the intersection of environmentalism and human rights, inspiring empathy beyond the self.

Abby Koskinas is a fourth-year student pursuing her BFA in dance with a minor in video arts. She has danced in works by Susan Hadley, Susan Van Pelt Petry, Daniel Roberts, and Ann Sofie Clemmensen, among others, and her films have been screened at festivals internationally. Originally from Spanish Fort, Alabama, Koskinas is committed to combining her passion for movement with her understanding of camera technology to authentically capture motion in photography and on video. 

Victoria Nguyen is a second-year honors student from Westerville, Ohio, majoring in biology. She is involved with the Vietnamese Student Association, is a team member for BuckeyeThon, and tutors at the Mathematics & Statistics Learning Center at Ohio State. In her free time, Nguyen enjoys reading, listening to music, and having tea dates with her friends. Her favorite karaoke song is “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey. 

Julia Romie is a fourth-year honors student pursuing a BA in public management, leadership, and policy, as well as sociology, with minors in music and French. She is the current president of OSU Tzu Ching, Ohio State’s collegiate branch of the international humanitarian foundation Tzu Chi. In spring of 2020, Romie interned at the United States Senate in Washington, DC. She writes and produces music, sings, and plays the piano, violin, and guitar, performing with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and in Ohio State’s jazz program, among others. Romie loves learning about all art forms, thinking about philosophy, and exploring her beloved city of Dayton, Ohio.

Jacquie Sochacki-Pittman is a dance researcher, choreographer, and educator pursuing her MFA in dance at Ohio State. She holds a BA in studio art and visual communication with a minor in dance from Loyola University Chicago, where she graduated magna cum laude. She is an artist and maker, with research interests in dance choreography and dance education with an interdisciplinary interest in music composition, poetry, and painting. Her studio-based research has culminated into an exploration of how dynamic breath tempo influences choreography. Sochacki-Pittman has danced professionally with ArtLab J, based in Detroit, and Dance in the Annex in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has considerable experience in teaching and choreographing ballet, modern, and contemporary dance, most recently at several preprofessional dance studios in the Detroit area. She has been a guest ballet teacher at Wayne State University and a teaching artist for Artists Creating Together in Grand Rapids and Art Possible Ohio through OhioDance.

Manal Vakil is a second-year student at Ohio State majoring in statistics and political science and minoring in quantitative economics. She is a dancer and executive board member on Ohio State's competitive Indian Raas-Garba dance team. In addition to dancing, Vakil enjoys singing as a part of Majors and Minors, a campus a cappella group.

Sara Wagenmaker is a third-year honors student majoring in dance and minoring in arts entrepreneurship. Growing up in the vibrant city of Chicago, she gained a keen appreciation for the arts at a young age. She received much of her early training in dance from Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's Youth Dance Program. Driven by an unending sense of curiosity, her own creative work manifests in choreography, writing, and out-of-tune viola music.

PROJECT MENTORS

Lane Czaplinski has been director of performing arts at the Wexner Center for the Arts since June 2017. Prior to his move to Columbus, he served as the artistic director of the contemporary performing arts center On the Boards in Seattle for 15 years. Under his leadership, the organization commissioned and produced over 80 new performance works and nurtured regional artists to make new works that garnered national funding and touring opportunities. One of Czaplinski’s signature initiatives, OntheBoards.tv, expanded the audience for On the Boards’ programming through HD-quality performance films, attracting an international subscriber base of universities and arts enthusiasts.

Karen Eliot, professor of dance at Ohio State, danced with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in the 1980s. With Daniel Roberts, she staged Cunningham MinEvents at the Wexner Center’s presentation of the Leap Before You Look exhibition (2016) and at the Parallel Connections concert (2017), a partnership between the Wexner Center, Ohio State’s Department of Dance, and BalletMet. She is the recipient of Ohio State’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching (2016) and the Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Award (2018) to oversee a student-led publication of criticism and responses to the Wexner Center’s 2019–20 performing arts season. Eliot’s most recent book is Albion’s Dance: British Ballet during the Second World War (2016). She has served as a coeditor of Dance Chronicle.

Alana Ryder joined the Wexner Center for the Arts in 2016. She oversees the center’s annual endowed lectures and serves as a liaison with faculty and university students. Ryder earned her BA in the history of art from the University of California, Berkeley; MA in history from SUNY Buffalo State; and MBA from Fisher College of Business at Ohio State. Prior to the Wex, Ryder held positions at the Burchfield Penney Art Center and the Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University. She has curated exhibitions on Charles E. Burchfield and John Cage and presented at conferences in Los Angeles; Washington, DC; New York; Miami; Chicago; and Tokyo.

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