Isabel Bilek has been dancing since age 2, and started taking classes in modern dance at the Northfield Arts Guild at age 3. Her ballet training at the NAG started at age 5. She just turned 11 and is moving into pointe ballet shoes this year. While she has been in recitals and dance performances in the Minneapolis area and in Northfield for 8 years now, she finds the “Dreams” performance one of the most challenging, because it requires more emotional expression through the dance. When not dancing, Isabel enjoys being in 5th grade and playing with Griffin, her dog, and Jake, her cat.

Mitch Ebert grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota where he intently studied music and theater. Upon attending St. Olaf, he took up dancing and is now a music and dance major. He plays percussion in the St. Olaf Band and the St. Olaf Orchestra and is also a member of Companydance and Veselica International Dance Ensemble. He is also an avid composer of both instrumental and popular music, and has played in numerous groups, such as Talk Show Host, and Sarah Pray and the Flame. Mitch would like to thank his caring and supporting family, who embrace his creative talents.

Jake Fitzpatrick is a senior Music Theory/Composition and Dance Major at St. Olaf College, an instructor of modern dance at the Northfield Dance Academy, and an artist in the Metropolitan Ballet. He has performed works by Paul Taylor, Anthony Roberts, Jennifer Hart, Matthew Janczewski, and others.
In 2006, Fitzpatrick received a scholarship for Zenon's Intensive Study
Program. He has also studied at the Paul Taylor School in New York City, Minnesota Dance Theater, and the James Sewell Ballet.
Fitzpatrick has choreographed 11 pieces in three years. Both "Tarantella"
(2005) and “the erased, the damned, and the red dress” (2006) performed at the American College Dance Festival. His choreography has been described as “Refreshing, innovative, and epic.”

Sarah Rose Goldberg is a Junior Dance Major at St. Olaf College, and is also interested in Theatre, Spanish and Literature. Since coming to St. Olaf, Sarah has found another passion in choreography, and had an original work featured in the Company Dance Spring Concert in 2006.
Born and raised in Bend, Oregon, Sarah began dancing at the age of two. She has been unable to stop since. Her commitment to pursuing dance helped her to participate for three summers in the Young Musicians and Artists dance program, where she learned Modern, Jazz and West African Dance. She also danced for two years with the Magic Circle Dance Theatre in her hometown. Her study in ballet allowed her to dance some of the lead roles in The Nutcracker, Paquita, and The Sleeping Beauty. In high school, Sarah was Captain and Co-Founder of the Summit High School Ballet Club, an organization dedicated to promoting appreciation of classical forms of dance. Despite her time spent dancing in various styles, modern has always been her passion.
Sarah is privileged to be attending the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC this summer for a six week intensive in all things dance. Sarah’s plans for the future are open, though she plans to dance for several years before getting her Masters in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Performance.

Ariel Nereson is a junior English and dance major at St. Olaf College. She was introduced to dance at age five by her mother, Sally, a lifelong dance student, who encouraged her to participate in “creative movement” classes at Zenon Dance Company in Minneapolis. Ariel continued to dance at Zenon through high school, focusing her training in jazz, ballet, and modern dance vocabularies. In high school Ariel was co-captain of St. Paul Central dance team, and was also privileged to choreograph Central’s 2003 production of “West Side Story.”
Ariel became involved in dance at St. Olaf through ballet technique classes, which led to modern technique classes, which led to choreography classes. A love of the creative aspect of dance pulled Ariel into the major. She is thankful for the welcoming and supportive attitudes of her professors and fellow students within the department. Ariel is also grateful to Lorry May and her fellow cast members, whose generosity and commitment have made this residency a vivid and powerful experience, sure to stand out in her memories of her years on the hill.
Ariel’s post-undergraduate plans are to pursue a PhD in English Literature and eventually become a professor at a liberal arts institution. Of course, she also plans to keep dance a joyous and significant part of her life!

Laurel Osman grew up in Minneapolis, MN.  She began dancing at the age of 15 while a student at Southwest High School.  During that time, Laurel had the opportunity to dance for a modern company based out of the Minneapolis Public Schools.  As a fifth generation Ole, Laurel continued her dance studies at St. Olaf College, where she will receive her BA in Dance, English, and Management Studies.  In recent years, Laurel has had the pleasure of dancing in works by Janice Roberts, Heather Klopchin, Mathew Janczewski, and others.  As an avid hip-hop and jazz dancer, Laurel is also the captain of St. Olaf’s competitive Dance Team.   

Anthony Roberts unofficially came to St. Olaf College in 1994. While teaching at Gustavus Adolophus College that same year, he also spent his weekends guiding a ragtag, but enthusiastic, group of St. Olaf men through the fundamentals of beginning modern dance (for many of them, this was simply experiencing how to walk on the beat of the music). This process led to his first piece of choreography at St. Olaf, Jock-ularity, which was also performed by this same group of guys (and Anthony) at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 1995. Anthony was hired at St. Olaf the following year to teach the intermediate and advanced ballet classes. He currently teaches modern dance technique and is co-artistic director of Companydance. He has developed a new course, Dancing with the Computer, which integrates elements of human movement, dance for the camera and computer generated movement.
Anthony has performed nationally and internationally with Repertory Dance Theatre and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, both located in Salt Lake City, Utah; Sharir Dance Company in Austin, Texas; and the Jacob's Pillow's Men Dancers (a project touring internationally to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ted Shawn's birth). He has performed historical modern dance works by Ted Shawn, Doris Humphrey, Helen Tamiris, Jose Limón, Charles Weidman and Merce Cunningham. He has also performed the works of many prominent contemporary choreographers, and he is extremely proud of playing one of the mice in Colorado Ballet’s Nutcracker, where he darn near gnawed the nutcracker’s cheesy foot in two.
Anthony earned a BFA in Ballet Performance from the University of Utah and an MFA in Dance with a Dance Technology Emphasis from Arizona State University, Tempe.
Anthony's Curriculum Vitae

Jake Schlichting is a sophomore studio art and dance major at St. Olaf College. Growing up, Jake was highly active. He was involved in baseball, gymnastics, show choir, marching band, and musicals. After attending his first modern dance performance during his first year at Saint Olaf, he was captivated by the performers' abilities to emote through movement and as an artist, the human body’s natural beauty.  This is Jake’s first year in studying dance. His diverse and nontraditional movement background has given him the ability to choreograph outside the norm of most dancers’ previous experiences. Jake is highly interested in meshing his two passions, photography and movement.  In 2006, he choreographed a piece entitled “Screen” in which he incorporated the use of a Polaroid camera, avant-garde instruments, such as plastic garbage bags, lighting, and pedestrian movement to create an all-encompassing experience.

Liz Sexe is a senior dance and biology major at St. Olaf College.  She will be attending graduate school next year to pursue her M.A. in dance.  Dance has been an important part of her life.  At the age three of she started taking classes and has continued her commitment to the art by exploring new ways of viewing dance through technology and collaborative processes.  Liz still dances at her home studio, Studio 3-D and teaches there during the summer.  She has been a member of St. Olaf’s Companydance for the past four years and has had the opportunity to dance in works by Heather Klopchin, Sherry Saterstrom, Anthony Roberts and others.  She was a dancer in the cast of “Swing a Club: Facing Cancer” last year and performed at Willamette University in Oregon and the University of Minnesota.  Working with Lorry May and the cast of “Dreams” has been a rewarding process.

Brittany transferred to St. Olaf in 2004 as a Sophomore and soon became a member of Companydance. Besides dancing at St. Olaf, she has also studied dance at the American Dance Festival under the direction of David Dorfman, Lisa Race and Tatiana Baganova; The University of Ghana; Hope College; and the Reif Center.
Brittany has performed works by several contemporary choreographers, including Tere O’Connor, Lise Houlten, Janice Roberts, Sherry Saterstrom, Robin Stiehm, Doris Ressl, and Corrie Befort. Besides performing, she has also choreographed works for members of Companydance, the Reif Center, and Grand Rapids High School.
Brittany will graduate from St. Olaf this year with a B.A. in Dance and a concentration in Africa and the Americas.