Natalie Border is a lover of all things movement. With dance being a prominent movement form in her lifestyle, Natalie revels in the connection between the mind, body and spirit. Natalie calls the Utah mountains home, however, craves to live near the ocean someday. Natalie received her BFA from the University of Utah in 2015 and has since worked as a freelance artist where she has collaborated with choreographers Nick Blaylock, LAJAMARTIN, Satu Hummasti and Daniel Clifton among many others. Natalie participated in Snow College’s Juilliard Summer Intensive as well as Northwest Dance Project’s Launch program. She has guested in Repertory Dance Theatre’s Emerge show, and produced her own show, Nomad. Natalie danced for SALT Contemporary Dance in 2018 and had the privilege of working with artists such as Brendan Duggan, Penny Saunders, and Jenni Gordon. From 2019-2021 Natalie was a company member of Vim Vigor, a New York physical theater company, under the direction of Shannon Gillen. Returning to Utah, she has ventured into screendance-making and collaborating with artists, Rebekah Guerra and Megan O’Brien. Natalie looks forward to continuing to dance, create, perform, and explore the tender moments of being a human. Natalie is currently dancing for Nichele Woods and recently started teaching tango, her new-found love of partner dancing.

Jonathan Kim (he/him) is a dance artist currently based in San Francisco, CA. Before relocating to California this year, he was a full-time company member with Repertory Dance Theatre and freelanced in the community. Originally from Southern California, he obtained his Bachelor's in Dance from California State University, Fullerton. Previously, he worked with SALT Contemporary Dance, SJDanceCo, and Lineage Dance Company. He has been fortunate to perform works by a diverse spectrum of choreographers and répétiteurs during his professional career including, but not limited to: Doris Humphrey, José Límon, Donald McKayle, Ihsan Rustem, Lar Lubovitch, Noa Zuk and Ohad Fishof, Mitsu Salmon, LAJAMARTIN, Joni McDonald, and Brendan Duggan. While not dancing, he can be found reading a good sci-fi/fantasy book or napping. 

Tara is a dance artist originally from Nevada City, California. Her performance credits include NOW-ID (Charlotte Boye-Christensen), Keith Johnson/Dancers,  Hope Mohr Dance, The Feather Theory (Raja Feather Kelly), Little Seismic Dance Company (Katie Faulkner), Gerald Casel & Dancers, and Risa Jaroslow & Dancers. She was a member of the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company from 2008-2014, where she performed in both original works and repertory by Charlotte Boye-Christensen, Johannes Weiland, Daniel Charon, Doug Varone, Bill T. Jones, John Jasperse, and Susan Marshall, among others. She was also a part of the Centennial Tour of the work of Alwin Nikolais, touring across the US., France, and Italy. Tara holds a BFA from California State University Long Beach and is currently pursuing a Master of Social Work (MSW) at the University of Utah. 

Morgan Phillips, originally from Mesa, Arizona is a freelance performer in the Salt Lake City area. She has performed with many local companies including RDT's Emerge, SALT Contemporary, Cat+Fish Dances, Wasatch Contemporary Dance, Myriad Dance, The Woods Dance Project, and SB Dance Company. Morgan is a full body mover with a focus in floorwork. Her work is mostly created through improvisation using complex textures, sensations, and imagery. Outside of working with contemporary companies in the Salt Lake area, she also is a pole dancer where she integrates her contemporary dance background with the apparatus. 

Melissa Younker (she/her) is an artist with a multifaceted dedication to dance; directing, choreographing, teaching, learning, performing and designing costumes. Her experimental approach combines her multi-disciplinary experiences to create and collaborate in solo, ensemble, site-specific, video, and theatrical performances. She is driven by curiosity: engaging in processes that are intimate and unrestrained.

Originally from Southern California, Melissa received her BFA from California State University, Long Beach in 2014. From 2014-2020, she was a full-time dance artist with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. During that time, she toured throughout the US and France performing dance works by over 20 internationally acclaimed choreographers including historical repertory by Alwin Nikolais with Nikolais Dance Theatre. In 2018, Melissa traveled to Mongolia and South Korea as a cultural ambassador with DanceMotion USA℠, a cross-cultural exchange program of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs administered by BAM ® (Brooklyn Academy of Music). Melissa is a founding member of Heartland Collective, a multi-disciplinary collective with collaborations in dance, visual arts, music, and performance that has produced 8 evening length works since its inception in 2019. Additionally, she collaborates with project based movement groups And Artists (Utah), Ballet Opera de Guerra (Utah), Brolly Arts (Utah), Keith Johnson/Dancers (California), and Oriantheate Dance Company (Paris, France) with whom she recently toured to Croatia. Since Fall 2020, she has served as Co-Artistic Director of Utah Valley University’s Contemporary Dance Ensemble, where she was honored with the School of the Arts Dean’s Award of Excellence, for Adjunct Faculty. As a dance artist, she has worked with choreographers Adam Barruch, Jonah Bokaer, Ann Carlson, Daniel Charon, Mehdi Farajpour, Rebekah Guerra, Molly Heller, Tzveta Kassabova, Raja Feather Kelly, Stephen Koester, Joanna Kotze, Andrea Miller, Mitsu Salmon, Doug Varone, Netta Yerushalmy, Yin Yue, among others.

Melissa’s work is always always an exchange of ideas - a sharing of wonder. 

Rae Luebbert joins The Woods Dance Project on June 6th to moderate a special, post-show Conversation with the Artists.

Rae (she/they) is a multi-disciplinary dance maker, educator, and community organizer. Rae is the director and co-curator of the annual Noori Screendance Festival, the facilitator of Monday Movement Lab (a creative incubator space for new dance work), a 2022-2024 loveDANCEmore Artist in Residence, and an educator at South Valley Creative Dance. They continuously seek ways to foster collaboration. Most recently, Rae co-directed Shoreline Swell, a creative process involving 20 musicians and dancers making new work about Utah’s ecology. Rae is an organizer for Queer Spectra Arts Festival and is invested in embracing curiosity, play, and queerness within the creative process to complicate and expand what is considered normative.