Jillian Kramschuster is a dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist from Kansas City, MO. She graduated May 2023 from the University of Missouri-Kansas City where she obtained her BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography. During school she performed in Parallel Lives by Gary Abbott and Madonna Anno Domini by Nicole Clark-Springer to name a few as well as pieces choreographed by Micheal Blake, Tobin James, Deanna Heitt, and Ronn Tice. Outside of school she was a part of Tristian Griffin Dance Company’s Mosaic as well as Comedy of Darkness with Alexis Borth performed at the Charlotte Street Foundation. She also danced with Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey in Setting the Stage with Tyrone Aiken and TheDynamitExperience with Latra Wilson and Winston Brown in their film/dance festival Bridges. In addition to dancing she has also taught dance classes in KC and at Ailey Camp the past two summers. She was a member of the TU Dance Cultivate Trainee program from September 2023-May 2025 under the direction of Toni Pierce and Laurel Keen where she performed pieces such as Voyage in Four by Chris Ralph and Anthem for You and I by Anna Pinault. She also performed in THREAT by Yusha Marie Sorzano in April 2024. During her second year in Cultivate she performed in pieces Quiet Home by Gregory Dolbashian and ALLHIMOD by Yusha Marie Sorzano. Most recently, she performed in TU Dance’s 20th Anniversary at the O’Shaughnessy in pieces Four Corners by Ronald K. Brown and New Second Line by Camille A. Brown. In May 2025, she performed her self-choreographed solo titled Soulfront at the Barbra Barker Center for Dance. In addition to dancing, she has been a teaching artist with TU Dance since September 2024 and will continue teaching ballet and workshop classes this school year. This August she was awarded a grant from the Minneapolis Arts and Cultural Affairs Department for Research and Development Residency and is looking forward to creating her own work with that support!

Taryn Meyer is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and actor based in Minneapolis. Originally from rural southeast Minnesota, she holds a BA from Hope College (Holland, MI), where she studied psychology, dance, and exercise science, graduating in 2024. She is passionate about the power of the performing arts to create community and connection through honest, authentic expression. Taryn received her foundational training from Misty’s Dance Unlimited (Onalaska, WI), where she trained and performed pre-professionally with Ballet La Crosse for 5 seasons, under the instruction of accomplished professionals Larissa (Sintsova) Oberly, the late Kennet Oberly, and Amanda Schams. During her time at Hope College, Taryn studied from and performed works by Heather Cornell, Sharon Wong, Matthew Farmer, Lindsey (Ferguson) Hanson, and Nicole Flinn. She was a member of StrikeTime Dance Theatre and H2 Dance Company and presented works for the Student Dance Showcase and inaugural Senior Capstone Concert. In her final year at Hope, Taryn became involved with the Heather Cornell Legacy Project (Toronto, ON), an initiative aimed at reconnecting North American music and dance. While in Minneapolis, Taryn has presented work with the Headwaters Collective of Performing Arts and has appeared as Velma in West Side Story (Inver Grove Heights Community Theatre). She has been an artist-in-residence at the LEÑA Residency on Galiano Island, BC, as a co-founder of the Haut Haus Collective, a non-hierarchical ensemble equally composed of tap dancers and instrumentalists. Taryn is currently an apprentice with Collide Theatrical Dance Company and a member of the young adults company at Keane Sense of Rhythm. She teaches at Dance Arts Centre and Chaska Valley Family Theatre. Instagram: @_taryn.meyer_

Meg Kirchhoff Singh is a dance artist, choreographer, and educator invested in embodied ways of knowing. She uses performance practices to ask questions, engage embodied thinking, challenge assumptions, explore new realities, feel deeply, and experiment with processes whose outcomes can’t be predicted. Meg’s live performances and screen dances have been presented at conferences and festivals across the United States, including the DUMBO Dance Festival, the American College Dance Festival, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Meg was the first dance artist in residence at Homestead National Park and the recipient of the New York Humanities Institute Grant and the Hinge Artist Residency. She holds a B.A. in Dance from St. Olaf College and an M.F.A. in Dance from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Shannon Hartle Dolan is from Des Moines, Iowa where she started her dance training at a young age. Shannon graduated high school early to attend Joffrey Jazz and Contemporary Trainee Program in NYC before attending college. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a BFA in Dance, Minor in Communication Studies, and a Certificate in Arts Entrepreneurship. During her time with UI Dance, she worked with many choreographers including Monica Bill Barnes, Jennifer Kayle, Christopher Rasheem-McMillan, Eloy Barragan, Armando Duarte, and more. She toured with University of Iowa’s Dancers in Company along with traveling to perform at ACDA, the American Dance Guild, and Hollins University.Now, she resides in the Twin Cities where she currently dances with Ruby Josephine Dance Theatre, Crash Dance Productions, Black Label Movement, and eMartin dance. Additionally, she has appeared in work with Threads Dance Project, Stark Dance, Hannah Albers, Ayumi Schaefer, Javan MnGrezzo, and Analog Dance Works. Her choreography has been presented in Collab Arts Volume III, Zenon Zone, Movers Make 2.0, and Candy Box Dance Festival. She is currently a teaching artist at Circus Juventas, Emerge Performing Arts, and Young Dance.

ERIN LANDERS is a Twin Cities based choreographer, dancer, mime, and teacher. Her choreography pursues poetic logic in movement-based work, often integrating a range of performance elements such as live music, props and set pieces, audience participation, or interactive technologies to create a multilayered experience. Her work has been presented by the Walker Art Center (MN), Zenon Dance (MN), UMN Opera Theatre (MN), Arts On Site (NY), and PRELUDE Festival (NY), among others. She is thrilled to be working with Block Z this Spring.

Mary Willmeng is an independent choreographer, teacher, and dancer living in Minneapolis, MN. She danced professionally in Chicago, IL with Mordine and Company Dance Theater, the 58 Group, Breakbone Dance Company, Adriana Durant Dance, and Ayako Kato before relocating to Colorado in 2009. During her time in Colorado, she performed with Cindy Brandle Dance Company, Mary Wohl Haan, and Rachel Oliver Young. Her own work has been presented at the Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder, the Colorado Conservatory of Dance, the Dance Center of Columbia College, Links Hall, the UIC Theater, Stage 773 and the Eagan Art House. She has set her work on Simantikos Dance Chicago, Trifecta Dance Collective, and the students at Zenon Dance School. Her duet, Walk With Me, was chosen as a commissioned piece by Simantikos Dance Chicago and was presented in their company show. In 2019, she was chosen as a choreographer to collaborate in the creation of a new work with flutist Hope Rogers for Trifecta Dance Collective’s Summer Engage Artist Lab. Her work, Open Field, was chosen as a commission by TDC and was set on their professional company. Most recently, she produced a show, Little Pieces, as part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival and presented a new work in the production of 16 Feet, a choreographer’s collective, at the Tek Box theater. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the dancers of the new Block Z program!