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June 24th @ 2 PM
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This webinar features a conversation about networking in the dance industry, featuring the staff of JRD, and special guests Kelsey Paschich, Assistant Professor at Western Michigan University, and Monique Haley, Assistant Professor at Western Michigan University.
​If you'd like to take this advice a step further, sign up below for a FREE 30-minute one-on-one session with Jodie Randolph!
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Kelsey Paschich is a dancer, choreographer, educator, interdisciplinary artist and an Assistant Professor of Dance at Western Michigan University. She views dance as a language that can be shared across many mediums and generations. Her work often utilizes multi-media elements inspired by surrealism as the theoretical and conceptual framework. Paschich holds an MFA in Dance from the University of New Mexico and was the recipient of the National Dizzy Feet Foundation Gene Kelly Legacy Scholarship in 2016. She holds a BFA (Cum Laude) from Point Park University. Paschich received her Countertechnique® Teacher Certification in Melbourne, Australia, with founder Anouk van Dijk, in 2016. 
Paschich has performed extensively with: The Moscow State Classical Ballet, DCDC2, Thodos Dance Chicago, River North Chicago Dance Company , the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Interdansa Dance Festival 2010, Keshet Dance Company, ARCOS Dance, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Lawine Torrèn (Dance Theatre Machines Media) in the Hannibal Project in Sölden, Austria. She has performed the repertory of choreographers: Robert Battle, José Limón, Ann Reinking, Lucas Crandall, Lar Lubavitch, Tamir Ginz, Margo Sappington, Johan Renvall, Kevin O’ Day, Alan Heinline, Joanie Smith, Frank Chavez, Melissa Thodos, Zac Whittenburg, Curtis Uhlemann, Robert Moses, Gail Gilbert, Donna Jewell, Erika Pujic, Lawine Torrèn, Tomaz Simatovic, and others. Paschich continues to choreograph and perform independently. 
Paschich uses movement as a language that makes transparent the space between dream and reality with spontaneity, juxtaposition, and the element of surprise and challenges the preconceived understanding of real versus surreal. Aside from her choreography for live performance, she experiments with filming, editing, dance for film, and choreographic installations. She is a Co-Founder & Co-Director of SHIFT | DANCE. In 2017, she created several dance films in collaboration with University of New Mexico, Assistant Professor of Dance, Amanda Hamp, for the northern sky, a westward facing window, a performance/installation at the CFA Downtown Studio. In 2016, Paschich created a documentary film on the making of the large scale, site specific dance performance of Golden Migration at the Valle de Oro Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. This project was choreographed by lisa nevada and a was part of the 516 Arts Decade celebration. Paschich is passionate about education for the next generation of artists and facilitating professional, artistic opportunities for the community.
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Photo by Nathaniel Paolinelli
Monique Haley (Springfield, VA) is a graduate of The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in performing arts, specializing in jazz dance. Monique honors nine memorable years with the prestigious River North Chicago Dance Company, as the first African- American female to join the company in 2001. She has also been a member of the Bermuda Dance Company and the Eleone Dance Theater of Philadelphia. 
In Chicago, Monique was a frequent teacher for the Lou Conte Dance Studio, the Visceral Dance Center, and the Joffrey Academy of Dance Trainee Program. Monique participates yearly as part of the Chicago Dance Connection Jazz Camp Faculty and has taught for the former River North Chicago and Inaside Dance Company Summer Intensives. She has set choreography for high school, collegiate, and professional companies on a national scale. As a dance educator, Monique has been a guest teacher in 2016, 2017, and 2019 ACDA East Central Conferences.
In musical theater, Ms. Haley was featured as a dancer and ensemble member in the Disney musical The Jungle Book, directed by Mary Zimmerman and choreographed by the Tony Award-winning Christopher Gattelli. In Chicago's regional theater seen, she was dance captain/ensemble member, and associate choreographer, for the Drury Lane Oakbrook Theater's production of Aida, and the associate choreographer of Paramount Theater Aurora's inaugural production of My Fair Lady. Additional theater credits include HAIR, Joseph, and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Mrs. Potiphar). Chicago (June), On the Town, amongst others.
Monique has choreographed for American Midwest Ballet, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, Nomi Dance Company, Visceral Dance Company, the Chicago Repertory Ballet Company, and the collaborative works with the Chicago - based companies Muntu African Dance Company, and DanceWorks Chicago. In 2010, she created the entertainment segment for the Danny Clark Foundation Annual Celebrity Gala: Le Moulin Rouge, a Night in Paris, to help raise money to promote advocacy, education, and outreach programs to those in need. Haley's choreography has been featured in Dance for Life Chicago, the annual aids benefit concert. In 2015, she premiered a collaborative theatre/dance piece Still Life with Drumming at the Myron S. Szold Music and Dance Hall at The Old Town School of Folk Music. Collegiate commissions include work for the former Marygrove College, Western Michigan University, and the University of the Arts, to name a few. 
Monique's career and creative works are recognized in such publications as Dance Spirit and Dance Magazine. Haley is one of the first artists to receive a 3Arts Award (2012) for choreography and dance, as well as her contribution to the arts community in the city of Chicago. 
Ms. Haley holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance from The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She began to devise her dance process research, the Diasporic Encounter Method (DEM), which centers African cultural values and rituals in jazz dance pedagogy. Monique has been invited to the prestigious American Dance Festival (ADF), to be a part of their summer 2020 dance faculty. Haley will use DEM as a foundational teaching tool to inspire an authentic ethos and connection between participants in their daily jazz practice. Pending COVID-19 restrictions, she now looks forward to bringing this opportunity to fruition in 2021. 
Concerning future endeavors, a multi-authored book of jazz dance educators and experts, "21st Century Jazz Dance" by editors Lindsay Guarino, Carlos Jones, and Wendy Oliver features Ms. Haley's DEM research. Her chapter, Cultivating African Diasporic Ethos and Cultural Values in Contemporary Jazz Dance, to debut sometime in 2021.
In addition, she is a resident choreographer for Chicago's, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, and will soon begin virtual rehearsals on her work, ROOT (2019), as well as a new music and dance collaboration working with three other Chicago artists in the performance work, Mood Swing. CRDT Artistic Director, Wilfredo Rivera will lead us and composer Joe Cerqua in developing duets between musicians and dancers that respond to the current pandemic crisis and social justice movement, to be debut later in the 2020-2021 season.
In Kalamazoo, Monique continues to inspire and passionately educate her students at the Western Michigan University Department of Dance, teaching jazz dance curriculum and working with the musical theater performance students as an Assistant Professor of Dance.

Photo by Erika Dufour


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© 2019 Young Dancers Initiative
  • ABOUT
    • The Company
    • Auditions
    • Groundwork
    • Outreach
    • Staff + Board
    • FAQ
  • EVENTS
    • Performances + Events
    • Intensives
    • Open Classes + Workshops >
      • Guest Artists
      • ECP Residency
  • RESOURCES
    • Online Feedback
    • Mentorship
    • Webinars
  • SUPPORT
    • Individuals
    • Business & Organizations >
      • Sponsorships
      • Arts Ambassador
  • Training
  • Contact Us