Hadar Ahuvia is a performer, choreographer, Jewish educator and ritual leader. She is grateful to have been performing with Fist and Heel since 2017. Previous work credits include Sara Rudner, Jill Sigman, Anna Sperber, Kathy Westwater, Molly Poerstel, Tatyana Tenebaum, Donna Uchizono, and Trisha Brown Dance Company, among others. Her writing on choreographing an Israeli identity beyond Zionism is featured in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on Jewishness in Dance. Ahuvia is a two time finalist for the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, a recipient of a Bessie nomination for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer and was one of Dance Magazine’s ‘25 to Watch in 2019’.
Rhetta Aleong's performance roots are grounded in community-theater, performance art, and a good Catholic all-girls high school in Trinidad and Tobago. She has a BFA in Journalism, with an art bent, from School of Visual Arts and is a 5th degree black belt. Aleong began working with Mr. Wilson in ’91 and began “wearing many hats” within Fist and Heel Performance Group. Creative Artists of special significance to Aleong: Pat Akien, Michael Steele, Helen Camps, Noble Douglas (Trinidad), Anita Gonzalez, Ms. Hattie Gossett, Tiyé Giraud, Cynthia Oliver, and Lawrence Goldhuber. Respect to those before, after, above and below.
Paul Hamilton is a Brooklyn based movement artist. He attended SUNY Purchase, where he trained with Kazuko Hirabayashi, Kevin Wynn and Neil Greenberg, and also studied at the Alvin Ailey school. He has performed with Elizabeth Streb, the Martha Graham Dance Ensemble, The Barnspace Dance, Mauri Cramer Dancers, Ballet Arts Theatre, Ralph Lemon(Bessie nominee Scaffold Room), Deborah Hay, David Thomson, Headlong Dance Theater, David Gordon’s The Matter 2019, Melinda Ring, Oren Barnoy, and The Museum of Modern Art, recreating Bruce Nauman’s Wall/Floor Positions. He is a member of Reggie Wilson/Fist and Performance Group, Keely Garfield Dance, and Jane Comfort and Company.
Lawrence A.W. Harding was born in Sierra Leone and now practices Physical Therapy in New York. He is the Director of Fitness at The Axis Project, a multidisciplinary center that serves people with physical disabilities and empowers them to pursue a healthy and active lifestyle. He is also the developer and President of Spinal Mobility, a novel manual technique that enables clinicians to improve their rehabilitative interventions for people with Spinal Cord Injury and other Neurological diseases. He has been a member of Fist and Heel since 1993 and continues to delight in discovering himself in Reggie’s work. He gives continued thanks to Remi, D.Z. Martha, Samuel and all the dead ones. Big love to the ‘rents and the family.
Michel Kouakou is a choreographer and dancer from the Ivory Coast. He is the founder and director of Daara Dance. Michel received his MFA in Dance from Hollins University. He is the recipient of the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance (2012), a Jerome Foundation Fellowship for research in dance (2012), winner of a New York Foundation of the Arts Artist Fellowship (2008), and winner of the U.S. Japan Fellowship (2008) to conduct six months of research in Tokyo and Kyoto. In 2008 he was nominated for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative and in 2010 and was a finalist in The A.W.A.R.D. Show in New York City and Los Angeles. Mr. Kouakou moved to New York in 2004 and subsequently to Los Angeles, where he is now based and has been a lecturer at UCLA since 2009. He maintains an active touring and teaching schedule across the globe and continues to pursues his long-term goal of building an “artistic bridge” between his origins in the Ivory Coast and the US. Michel Kouakou’s company has moved to Minnesota due to a new job position at the University of Minnesota where he was an assistant professor in dance at the Barbara Darker Center for Dance for two years.
Clement Mensah is a performer, choreographer and educator. He is a third culture kid who was born and raised in Ghana, West Africa. After living and going to school in the Netherlands, U.S. and the U.K., where he did postgraduate degree at Trinity Laban conservatory, Mr. Mensah is humbled to have performed, taught and traveled with many dance companies to at least forty-nine countries. Mr. Mensah founded the Off the Radar creative project in 2015 to educate the young generation. Mr. Mensah joined Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance group in 2012.
Gabriela Silva is an Afro-Brazilian performer based in New York City. She studied dance at the OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center, Boston Art Academy and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Gabriela has performed with Selmadanse, Jean Appolon Expressions, Danza Organica, Quicksilver Dance and independent choreographers Peter DiMuro, Emily Beattie and Marina Magalhães. She has also worked as teaching artist for the Kroc Center, Community Art Center, Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, Boston Ballet, Boston Public Libraries, Boston Public Schools, NYC Public schools and The People’s Forum. Gabriela has been in residency at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, under the mentorship of Reggie Wilson. She also trained, taught and presented her work at Sarayyet Ramallah in Palestine. Gabriela has been a performer with Reggie Wilson/First and Heel Performance Group since 2016.
Annie Wang is a freelancer with training in classical ballet, Graham technique, wushu, taiji, and software engineering. In addition to Fist and Heel Performance Group, she has also worked with Same As Sister, Emily Catalyst Johnson, and Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch. Her own choreography has been presented by Five Myles, CPR in Brooklyn, the 92Y, the Exponential Festival, Pioneers Go East, BKSD, WestFest Dance, BRIC, and Triskelion. She has been Artist-in-Residence at BRIC, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Marble House Project and an invited guest teacher at Amherst and Smith colleges.
Michelle Yard is a Brooklyn native who stands firmly on her Caribbean foundation. Yard joined Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group in 2017 for …they stood shaking while others began to shout, and POWER (2019). Upon her graduation from NYU Tisch School of the Arts (B.F.A. Dance), she began dancing with the Mark Morris Dance Group, where she enjoyed an illustrious twenty-year career. Ms. Yard also dances with Vanessa Walters. In 2020, she earned an M.A. in Arts Administration from CUNY/Baruch College. She is a certified Pilates instructor and a freelance arts administrator. A mis padres, gracias.
Miles Yeung is originally from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Miles has been dancing since the age of 10 before relocating to Philadelphia, PA to continue his training at the University of the Arts. Here, he completed his BFA in Modern Performance with honors and was awarded for Excellence in Modern Performance. His performance credits include Brian Sander’s JUNK, Stacey Tookey’s Still Motion, Helen Simoneau Danse, La Biennale di Venezia’s Arsenale della Danza, and the New York production of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Miles recently completed his MFA in Dance through the University of the Arts and is currently based in Philadelphia, PA.