New Dance Partners 'The Ultimate Collaboration'

The collaborative partners are:

• The Kansas City Ballet, working with Caroline Dahm
• Owen/Cox Dance Group, working with Caili Quan
• Störling Dance Theater, working with Dolly Sfeir
• Regina Klenjoski Dance Company, working with Jessi Stegall

Caroline Dahm is a dancer, choreographer, and educator from Los Angeles. A graduate of the University of Missouri - Kansas City Conservatory with a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography, Dahm has performed a diverse repertoire and contributed original choreography across a wide range of artistic mediums. Her performance credits include Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Kansas City Ballet, Buglisi Dance, Wylliams Henry Contemporary Dance Company, Owen/Cox Dance, Quixotic, San Francisco Dance Works, Malashock Dance, and several productions with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

As a choreographer, Dahm has created works for Cincinnati Ballet, SALT Contemporary Dance, Newport Contemporary Ballet, Indiana University, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, UMKC Conservatory, and Wylliams Henry Contemporary Dance Company. Notably, she has developed five original works for Kansas City Ballet, including a dance film, “Misguided.” In addition to her performing and choreographic endeavors, Dahm is a dedicated educator. She serves as a professor of dance at the UMKC Conservatory, mentors trainees at the Kansas City Ballet, and teaches master classes across the country. Dahm frequently teaches at Steps on Broadway in New York City. Her work has been recognized with a two-year residency from the Charlotte Street Foundation. She received a Laurel Award for Best Overall Dance Film for her original dance film, “Face Me I Face You,” at the Palm Springs International Film Festival which she directed, choreographed, danced, produced, and edited. Passionate about the transformative power of movement, Dahm believes art has the ability to change lives, and she continues to explore its boundless possibilities. Learn more at carolinedahm.com.

Caili Quan is a New York-based choreographer who danced with BalletX from 2013 to 2020. She has created works for BalletX, Vail Dance Festival, New York City Ballet, Ballet West, The Juilliard School, New York Choreographic Institute, American Repertory Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, Flight Path Dance Project, and Ballet Academy East. She choreographed her first musical, “Guys & Dolls,” for Opera Saratoga’s 2024 season under the direction of Mary Birnbaum. With BalletX, she performed new works by Matthew Neenan, Nicolo Fonte, Gabrielle Lamb, Penny Saunders, Trey McIntyre, and danced at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Belgrade Dance Festival, and DEMO by Damian Woetzel at the Kennedy Center. “Mahålang,” a short documentary that wove familial conversations of her Chamorro Filipino upbringing on Guam with scenes from BalletX's “Love Letter,” was shown at the Hawai’i International Film Festival, CAAMFest, and the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center. Quan was a 2022 artist-in-residence at the Vail Dance Festival, a 2023 artist-in-residence at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, and an Arnhold Creative Associate at The Juilliard School.

Dolly Sfeir is a director and choreographer who grew up in Lebanon and moved to the United States at the age of 19. She is a 2022 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Choreography, the 2019 Grand Prize winner of the Palm Desert Choreography Competition, recipient of a 2023 NYSCA choreography grant, and a choreographic fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow. She was awarded a residency with CUNY Dance Initiative to create an evening-length work which premiered at LPAC in Spring 2022 and was artist-in-residence for Abingdon Theatre Company. Her company commissions include Holstebro Dansekompagni in Denmark, WHIM W'HIM, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, Battery Dance Company, Boca Tuya, and Litvak Dance. She has been a guest choreographer and creative practice teacher at universities such as Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Manhattan Marymount College, Chapman University, Montclair University, CSU Long Beach, Orange Coast College, and CSU Fullerton. She has developed a creative practice methodology focused on unleashing creativity, which she offers in universities, studios, and theaters nationally and internationally. She led a course in the methodology at Chapman University, and Beirut Contemporary Ballet. New Dialect has offered her and collaborator, James Barrett, a research residency for a new duet. Her work has been performed in venues and festivals such Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Battery Dance Festival, Diavolo Dance Theatre and Dance Gallery Festival. Her film "It Cries too Loudly" has been at dozens of festivals such as San Francisco Dance Film Festival and Portland Film Fest and has received awards such as “best short film” (Wild Dogs Festival) and “best cinematography” (Eastern Europe film festival). She is movement director of the upcoming play, “The Pride Before.” Her work "Everybody is happy these days" toured in Denmark. She graduated summa cum laude from CSU Long Beach with a Dance BFA. In Lebanon, Sfeir appeared in nationwide musicals by the Rahbani Brothers, including work choreographed by Debbie Allen.

Jessi Stegall (she/her) is a choreographer based between Chicago and Boston. She has been an artist-in-residence with DanceWorks Chicago, Boston Center for the Arts, the National Center for Choreography (Akron), Hot Crowd Dance Company, Little Fire Artist Collective, Fever Dream Dance Collective, and was featured as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” (2022). In 2024, she premiered her first evening-length (65 min) production, “The Theremin Vignettes,” at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, produced by Global Arts Live. In 2025, she will be an emerging choreographer at Springboard Danse in Pittsburgh. Stegall’s approach to choreography is guided by ode-making: crafting poetic responses and love letters that honor and amplify the voices and visions that resonate through time. Her mission is to breathe new life into the echoes of the past, deepening our understanding of and connection to artistic treasures that have shaped our cultural landscape. As a dancer, Stegall has performed works by Raja Feather Kelly, Jill Johnson, Ilya Vidrin, Ali Kenner Brodsky, Mariel Pettee, and Jamila Glass. In addition to her work in dance, she holds an M.S. in Bioethics from Harvard University with a focus in Narrative Ethics, a B.S. in Expressive Art Therapy from Lesley University, and is an alumna of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

Supported in part by the Kansas Arts Commission.