Will Brighton

Will Brighton is a dancer, choreographer, and playwright based in St Louis, MO. Originally from Ann Arbor, MI, Will attended Western Michigan University (WMU), graduating in Spring 2020 with a B.F.A. in Dance and a B.A. in English: Creative Writing. While at WMU, Will performed in concerts alongside Taylor 2 and Peridance Contemporary Dance Company and was a member of WMU’s touring company, Western Dance Project, for its 2017-2018 season. In 2021 Will had the privilege of performing as a guest artist with Saint Louis Ballet in their production of Alice in Wonderland.

Will has performed works by notable choreographers, including Yin Yue, Christian Denice, Norbert de la Cruz III, Prince Lyons, Kirven Douthit-Boyd, Brian Enos, BAIRA, Joshua Peugh, Harrison McEldowny, Antony Tudor, George Balanchine, Paul Taylor, and many others. Will is entering his 4th season with The Big Muddy Dance Company in St Louis, MO, under the direction of Kirven Douthit-Boyd. In 2020, Will was selected as the winner of the Young Dancers Initiative’s Emerging Choreographer Project and was selected in 2021 as an Emerging Choreographer for Eisenhower Dance Detroit’s NewDANCEfest.

Paige Van Nest

Paige Van Nest is originally from St. Louis, Missouri, and began training at Arts in Motion School of Dance. She graduated from Webster University in 2019 with a BFA in Modern Dance and a Certificate in Entrepreneurship. Her training outside Webster University includes Nashville Ballet, The Big Muddy Dance Company, MADCO, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In addition to performing with Leverage Dance Theater and MADCO, Paige has also performed in the KP Project and the SMTC summer residency projects with Jacob Henss. She looks forward to continuing her movement research in the St. Louis dance community.

Nicole Kennett

Nicole graduated from Webster University with a BFA in Dance. She was fortunate to study under Alica Graf, Betsy Brandt, Maggi Deuker, Beckah Reed, and Michael Uthoff. Nicole has enjoyed performing with Karlovsky & Company Dance as well as performing the works of Jose Limon and Cleo Parker Robinson. At Dance St. Louis, Nicole held the role of Education Coordinator, working with St. Louis area public schools to bring Dance Artist Residencies to classrooms, as well as writing educational materials. Most recently, Nicole had the pleasure of teaching the wonderful dancers at Grand Center Arts Academy as well as at Arts in Motion.

Jacob Henss

Jacob Henss (he/him) is a dancer, producer, choreographer, and teacher primarily based in the Midwest. He has been an adjunct faculty member at Millikin University since 2020, where he was awarded outstanding adjunct faculty in 2023. Henss also is a Lecturer for the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign (UIUC) since 2022. He holds an MFA in Dance from UIUC (2019-22), where he was awarded the Vannie L. Sherry Memorial Award for best graduate performer in 2021 & 2022. He is also a graduate of Webster University (2013–17) with a BA in Dance and Music, where he was awarded dance honors and the emerging choreographer award.

Henss has performed with the Modern American Dance Company (MADCO), located in St. Louis, MO, where he was a MADCO2 founding member (2017–18) and later an apprentice for the leading company (2018–19). Post-graduation work includes becoming the producer and Artistic Director for Space Station Dance Residency, an organization dedicated to presenting experimental dance work in the greater St. Louis area. Henss has been fortunate to dance for such choreographers in his career such as Sara Hook, Tere O’Connor, Jennifer Monson, Roxane D’Orleans Juste, Ashley McQueen, Rebecca Nettl-Fiol, Omri Drumlevich (resetting a work by Ohad Naharin), Nejla Yatkins, Micheal Uthoff, Rachel Rizzuto, Kayt MacMasters, and now Jennifer Allen and Deke Weaver. 

Henss has also been in residency with St. Louis presenters such as Sports Medicine & Training Center, Webster University, MADCO2, Karlovsky and Company, Materializing and Activating Social Habitus (MARSH), and CommUnity Arts Festival.