RMCF Judges 2016

Brent Schneider: As a ten year member of Repertory Dance Theatre, Professor Schneider has served as dancer, rehearsal director, administrator and trustee. He has performed and choreographed in many dance styles including ethnic, ballroom, musical theatre, tap, jazz and ballet. He has been a faculty member for Weber State University, American College Dance Festivals, Regional Dance America Choreography Conferences and has taught and choreographed extensively for dance and theater companies. He recently taught a two-week intensive for the Central American and Caribbean Modern Dance Festival hosted by the Universidad Nacional in Heredia, Costa Rica, and choreographed a work for the university. Professor Schneider teaches technique, composition, pedagogy, liberal education courses, folk forms, and is co-director of the department’s acclaimed Performing Dance Company, for which he also choreographs.

Amanda Sowerby: Amanda received her MFA in Modern Dance from the University of Utah and her BFA in Dance from the California Institute of the Arts. She worked for several years with the Gary Palmer Dance Company in California’s Bay Area and assisted in setting new and repertory pieces on the National Ballet of Peru and the National Ballet of Chile, as well as implementing outreach programs in dance for Bay Area community members. She has performed with the National Ballet’s of Chile and Peru, Enrico Labayen’s Lab Projekt USA, Yasmin Mehta’s California Contemporary Dancers and Todd Courage. Amanda’s own choreographic work has been presented at Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Theatre Artaud (SF,CA), Diesel Cathedral (SF,CA), Dance Mission (SF,CA),  and The Rose Wagner Theater (SLC,UT).

Amanda was a co-founder Paradigm Dance Project; a dance organization designed to foster arts education for underserved populations. In addition to her faculty position at WSU, Amanda serves on the board of the Utah Dance Education Organization as President and served as the Higher Education Representative from 2007-2013.

Gina Artese: Gina has been a professional ballet dancer since she was 17 years old.  She has danced professionally with KansasCity Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Christopher Wheeldon’s The Morphoses Company and Twyla Tharp. In 2014 she performed in Charleston, South Carolina’s Piccolo Spoleto Festival where she danced Kirk Sprinkles’ The Charleston as a featured dancer.  Gina also appeared as a dancer on the Kennedy Center Honors which aired on CBS and also danced Don Quixote with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Edinburgh Festival of Scotland in 2006.

Ms. Artese was currently featured on NBC’s The Blacklist as a principal ballerina and on TruTV’s Impractical Jokers as the girl who got pranked with a hotdog.  She is the face of WE tv’s Bridezillas and competed on FOX’s celebrity reality dating show The Choice in 2012. Gina was featured as a principal ballerina in Darren Arnofsky’s award winning feature film Black Swan (2010), in Something Borrowed with Kate Hudson and as a ballerina in Our Idiot Brother. She was also the recurring “Wardrobe Girl” on NBC’s 30 Rock for its last two seasons.

In 2009 she aired a national Old Navy commericial and played “Tina” in the off-Broadway show Tony and Tina’s Wedding in 2008. She also starred in the Macy’s campaign commercial with renowned rap singer Dippy in 2007-2008.  She has been a featured dancer in such feature films as Summer of Sam by Spike Lee, Center Stage and now the upcoming feature The Boxer as a disco dancer.

Angie Banchero-Kelleher: Angela Banchero-Kelleher, MFA, is an Associate Professor of Modern Dance at Utah Valley University. She has had a professional career spanning over twenty years, including 15 years with Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT), during which time she was a featured dancer in both the classical and contemporary work spanning the modern repertory from Duncan to Zvi Gotheiner.   Her performance/teaching career has taken her to venues worldwide, including the La Bella Vita Arts dance workshop in Italy for the last 4 years and as a guest teacher at Repertory Dance Theatre’s summer workshop specializing in Humphrey/Limon technique. She maintains a deep commitment to RDT and continues to teach and reset roles for the company, most recently the solo from Pigs and Fishes by Elisa Monte.  She has presented her choreography internationally, notably Lacuna in Copenhagen and Blackbird in Austria.  Material Tokens of the Freedom of Thought, was selected for the gala concert at the regional ACDA concert in Missoula , Montana  and was performed by Repertory Dance Theatre this past spring.  she is currently pursuing scholarship that reflects her interest in dance as a vehicle for social and political activism, presenting her scholarly research internationally and co- publishing a paper in the International Journal of Arts in Society.

Sean Guymon is an independent dance educator, performer, and technology consultant. He is the Past President of the Utah Dance Education Organization, the state affiliate of the National Dance Education Organization, and currently works as the Executive Assistant and Webmaster for the organization. He earned a BFA in Modern Dance from the University of Utah and was a founding member of Movement Forum, a dance improvisation performance group. Sean has performed and taught throughout the US and Great Britain. He competed nationally in Ballroom dance, directed the Ballroom dance team at Jordan High School, and his training also includes clogging, folk, and musical theatre. Sean is a self-taught technology enthusiast and is the webmaster and management/technology consultant for local and national dance organizations, companies and dancers.