SUMMER ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE

The artists in residence this summer are both incredible humans, merging strong choreographic experience with their own personal journeys in house, hip hop, and identity. ​Save the date: Their combined show is July 13 in our Rittenhouse studios. 

Shanel Edwards (they/them) is a Black Queer Non-Binary Philadelphia based dancer, photographer, director and poet. Their work centers Black Queer Femme-hood, intimacy as a tool for healing, and radical joy. Shanel is a world builder and doesn’t rely on capitalism to imagine art. They received an Art and Change grant through The Leeway Foundation and the Small But Mighty Arts Bartol Micro Teaching Artist Grant. Shanel holds a BFA in African American Studies and Psychology from Temple University.

Lauren Auyeng (she/her) is graduating from Princeton University this June with degrees in Architecture, Dance and Urban Studies. She investigates the movement vocabularies of hip-hop in abstracted form. She draws from her training in contemporary, floorwork, and somatic techniques, interrogating the boundaries between movement practices and physical aesthetics. She ultimately hopes to contribute to the concert dance world by including the vocabularies, bodies, and experiences of people from underrepresented communities in politically mindful and culturally eloquent ways.