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Guillermo Leyva Barley

Guillermo Leyva Barley

Guillermo Leyva Barley

Guillermo Leyva trained at the Professional School of Arts in Camaguey, Cuba. After graduating, he began dancing professionally at the Ballet de Camaguey under Fernando Alonso's direction. He was with the Ballet de Camaguey company for 11 years as a principal dancer where he danced several classic roles. Later he danced for three years with the Ballet de Monterrey in Mexico, under the direction of Ann Marie D’ Angelo, Fernando Alonso, and Fernando Bujones. He also danced as a principal dancer with Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Lexington Ballet, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Illinois Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet de Santiago, Chile and Ballet Royal de Wallonie in Belgium. Guillermo has worked with renowned choreographers, Alberto Alonso, Frederick Franklin and danced under the direction of Alonso King and Randy Duncan. He is co-artistic director of Alma Dance Theater, NFP.

Guillermo has coached students for The Youth America Grand Prix Regionals and Finals resulting in his students placing and winning in both the junior and senior divisions. He was awarded Outstanding Teacher in 2014 at the Youth America Grand Prix Indianapolis Regional and in 2019 at the Chicago Semi-Finals.

Guillermo’s dream as a child was to direct his own classical ballet company and to be a successful choreographer. He also dreamed of having his own Art Ballet School to help children from low-income areas to get out of the streets and become professional dancers. One of his goals is to keep passing on to his students all of his knowledge and experience, which he has always done with deep love.

Rachel Benzing

Rachel Benzing

Rachel Benzing (she/her), a native of South Elgin, IL, began her dance training at Copeland Dance Academy and continued her dance education studying at Joel Hall Dance Center, Visceral Dance Center, the American Rhythm Center, and as a member of Xtreme Dance Force. Her dance career has led her to learn from and perform for many great teachers and choreographers such as Sarah Burney, Brooke Pierotti, Tony Tzar, Laura Edwards, Lane Alexander, Lillian Barbeito, Rosalynde LeBlanc Loo, Sarah Savelli, and many more proficient teachers from diverse backgrounds and styles.

Rachel graduated from Loyola Marymount University (2014) with a Bachelor's Degree in Dance and a Bachelor’s Degree in History, where she was able to work with professional dance artists such as Lillian Barbeito (BODYTRAFFIC), Barak Marshall, Tony Czar, and Rosalynde LeBlanc (Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company), and choreographed numerous works, one of which was featured at the American College Dance Festival (2014). Rachel is a graduate of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where she received a Master of Fine Arts Degree (2016) in Dance: Creative Practice and was able to pursue a performance art based creative process.

Rachel has performed on stage in the Chicago Human Rhythm Project Rhythm World Festival with the reunion of the all female tap ensemble Rhythm ISS (2018) as well as performing with M.A.D.D. Rhythms in “A Journey Of The Dance Through Rhythm” (2019) and award-winning tap ensemble Tapman Productions original work “What It’s Like To Be Human” (2019).

Rachel currently teaches in the Chicago area and choreographs for dance studios and competition teams around the country. Her work has won numerous awards for Choreography, Entertainment, Creative Concept, Overall Presentation, and has been chosen as contending nominees for the Industry Dance Awards. Rachel is a writer for SeeChicagoDance.com, writing reviews of professional dance performances in the greater Chicago area and holds a 200 hr level Yoga Teacher Certification from Core Power Yoga.

Jessica Kondrath 

Jessica Kondrath 

Jessica Kondrath

Jessica Kondrath, a Chicago native, holds degrees in dance from UC Santa Barbara (BFA) and California State University, Long Beach (MFA). Her choreography through her company GRAYSCALE has been presented nationally and internationally; and she's had works commissioned by Moorpark College, Mt. San Antonio College, Cyprus College, El Camino College, Rio Hondo College, CSU Long Beach, Santa Monica College, CSU Fullerton, College of DuPage, Stevenson and Beverly Hills High Schools, and Momenta Performing Arts Company for their 35th and 40th anniversary concerts.

She has taught guest classes and lectures at Loyola Marymount University, Colorado State University-Fort Collins, University of Wyoming-Laramie, CSU Fullerton, the University of Colorado-Boulder, Columbia College Chicago, Joffrey Ballet Academy, and Novia University in Finland.

As a dancer, Jessica recently performed the works of Carol McDowell, Liz Hoefner Adamis/Immediate Action Dance, Sarita Smith-Childs and in her own work as part of the Hi, Solo series and at Beyond Baroque’s Poetry Series You Can Get There from Here curated by Liz Hoefner Adamis.

Jessica has been part of an ongoing collaboration with visual artist Diana Baumbach showing their collaborative works nationally and internationally, most recently at Columbia College Chicago. She was a recipient of the Professional Artist Fellowship Grant from the Arts Council of Long Beach for her work as the Artistic Director of GRAYSCALE, was recently nominated for a Faculty Teaching Award at Loyola University Chicago and listed as an Outstanding Divisional Adjunct Faculty Member at College of DuPage.

Over the past twenty years, Jessica has also worked as a lighting designer for dance, a Pilates Instructor certified at the Kane School of Core Integration under the direction of Kelly Kane and she is currently on faculty in the Dance Departments of College of DuPage and Loyola University Chicago. Her most recent projects include an artist residency and premier of the evening length work Invisible Landscapes at The Visionary in Mt. Vision, NY, the One Hour Project with Project Bound in Chicago, and for the choreography of the dance film Hemlighet in Vassa, Finland.

Todd Rhoades

Todd Rhoades

Todd Rhoades

Todd Rhoades received his BFA in Dance from Point Park University and his MFA in Dance from the University of Iowa. Todd has danced professionally across the US with various dance, theater, and opera companies. He started his professional dance career as a guest artist at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, moving on as a company member at Ballet Austin. He relocated to Chicago, where he danced with Luna Negra Dance Theater, Danzloop Chicago, The Seldoms, and Ron de Jesus Dance Theater. Todd was a Principal Dancer with the Lyric Opera of Chicago for twelve years and performed at many of the Chicago heater houses, including the Marriott Theatre, Drury Lane Theater, The Paramount Theatre, and the Goodman Theatre. He was seen onstage at the Tennessee Williams Festival in Provincetown, MA, and the MUNY in St. Louis.

Todd’s choreographic credits include Nomi Dance Theatre, Inaside Chicago Dance, Project Bound Dance, Chicago Dance in the Parks, Trifecta Dance Collective, Finger Lakes Opera/New York State Ballet, New Orleans Opera/New Orleans Ballet, Des Moines Metro Opera, Paramount Theatre (Aurora, IL), Music Theater Works (Wilmette, IL), Lifeline Theatre (Chicago, IL), The Theatre School - DePaul University, University of Michigan (Opera, Theater, Dance Departments), and The University of Iowa (Department of Dance). His works have been presented at the Trifecta Dance Festival (Chicago, IL, in 2020), MADCO – Dare to Dance (St. Louis, 2022), and the Iowa Dance Festival (The James Theater - Iowa City, IA, in 2022; Grinnell College - Grinnell, IA, in 2023).

As an instructor, Todd has taught movement in various forms, including dance (ballet, jazz, modern, contemporary), Pilates, Yoga, and functional exercise/injury prevention for over twenty years. He has been on faculty at Hollins University, The Theatre School – DePaul University, the University of Iowa - Department of Dance, Ballet Austin Academy, The Youth Ballet at the University of Iowa, and a guest instructor for Ballet Des Moines, Roanoke Ballet Theatre, Inaside Chicago Dance, Thodos Dance Chicago, and Chicago School of the Arts. Todd also served as the private yoga and Pilates instructor for the touring cast of Cirque du Soliel’s Luzia.

Todd is a proud SDC, AEA, AGMA, and Director’s Lab Chicago member.

kt williams

kt williams

kt williams

kt williams is a contemporary dance artist, educator, and dance-maker based in Chicago, IL. She earned her MFA in Dance/Choreography from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received the Donald Carducci Memorial Scholarship Award for overall excellence in dance performance. She has performed professionally in works by Renay Aumiller, Sara Hook, and B.J. Sullivan, along with various Chicago-based groups including Peckish Rhodes Performing Arts Society and Simantikos Dance Chicago. As an artist, kt is curious about the intersections between history, space, and emotion and their somatic influence on the body. Her work dynamically blends concert dance, experimentation, and interdisciplinary performance, and she is fascinated by socially-engaged practices and its ability to create immersive dance spaces that cultivate collective transformation. More recently, she has co-founded DanSeries Collective with creative colleague Caitlyn Schrader, and together they make duet work that explores and pushes common traditions of dance performance through social provocation and immersive community platforms. kt’s pedagogical, artistic, and scholarly practice is collaborative in nature, as she genuinely believes working in community fosters the wellbeing and sustainability of the artist-citizen.

kt is a practitioner and pedagogue of Safety Release Technique and her embodied practice is informed by somatic perspectives, including Bartenieff Fundamentals, the Feldenkrais Method, and Pilates. Her contemporary classes offer a foundational approach to integrating contemporary dance with somatic practices. Class typically begins on the floor and progresses into standing, traveling, and physically rigorous movement patterns.