The 2026 Team
Special Guest:
Alfonso Pulé
Alfonso Finest Pulé is a self taught Street Dancer from Los Angeles, California with over 45 years experience in the culture of Street Dance performance and competition.
Credited as being one of the first of his generation to consistently showcase on the now legendary streets of Hollywood blvd & Highland in the late 70's and early 80's. With his family's lineage, considered by most legendary street and industry dancers, as the creators of Street dance culture.
In the last 15 years, Alfonso has dedicated his life to mentoring and developing under privileged youth and established amateur street performers in Oklahoma City. By teaching the foundations of streetdance & Hip Hop Culture. Creating a unique comparison to the same street performance enviroment on Los Angeles streets. Strategically establishing support from community leaders and the city's major Art Districts, such as 16th Street Plaza District and Citizens Bank legendary monthly festival, Heard On Hurd in the Downtown Edmond, Oklahoma art district. While cementing his legacy in Oklahoma's education curriculum for UCO Dance Department, the Metropolitan Library System (Neighborhood arts), Maps Community Health and Wellness Adult center & Oklahoma public schools. Making a historical impact on the future of Oklahoma's dance culture through education, community engagement, entertainment and Freestyle Streetdance.
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Special Guest:
Emi L. Matsushita
Emi Lou dances at the intersection of scientific inquiry and art, blending biology with beats, and entrepreneurship with expression. Her body speaks in diverse dialects - from contemporary fluidity to hip hop's sharp punctuation, from krump's raw energy to contemporary’s refined grace.
A global performer and visionary choreographer, Emi's work transcends boundaries, painting vivid stories across international stages from Seattle to London, Dallas to Japan. Her creative palette draws from the precision of her analytical mind and her authentic curiosity for intuitive exploration and play; crafting performances that are both viscerally powerful and intellectually stimulating. She creates dynamic playgrounds where analytical precision and embodied spontaneity engage in a captivating dialogue of movement and meaning.
As an embodied entrepreneurship coach, Emi is helping to redesign the future of dance and art, nurturing the next generations’ raw talent to curate their own sustainable artistic careers. She's not just a dancer, but a catalyst, igniting transformation in studios, universities, and creative hubs around the world. She is the current Chair of Art Boost Dallas, an arts entrepreneurship conference, working alongside the Business Council for the Arts and Dallas Morning News, KERA, and SMU. She also teaches at the University of North Texas and Dallas College, supporting emerging leaders to tap into their artistry, heal through movement, and live embodied lives.
In Emi's universe, movement is more than art - it's a universal language, a tool for community building, transformation, and healing; a constant conversation between body and mind. With each performance, class, and workshop, she choreographs not just dances, but new possibilities for the artistic and global ecosystem.
As a Creative Director, she has led transformative events like Open Your Mind London, Bridges Festival, and Mount Dora Movement Festival.
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Special Guest:
Sam Mandelbaum
“am has been studying the dynamics of touch, movement, and relationship for a decade through bodywork, dance, and theatre. He didn’t even know he had already begun studying CI (Contact Improv) when a friend began flinging his body at him with abandon at an ecstatic dance in 2015; reflexes took over and guided them safely to the ground. He now practices Cl as an artform as well as a practice of curiosity, unraveling those secret, unconscious moments of reflex that delight him even today.
Heidee Lyn Alsdorf
Heidee Alsdorf is a freelance dance-theatre artist, body-worker, and facilitator from the southern foothills of the Ozark Mountains – Northwest Arkansas (NWA). Heidee holds a BFA in Dance Performance from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and an MFA in Physical Threatre from Accademia dell’Arte (IT/DE/CZ) in partnership with Mississippi University for Women. They are a somatic practitioner, with a certificate in Embodied Social Justice from Transformative Justice and a certification in Dry Massage Therapy from Oligenesi in Florence, Italy. They have had the privilege of interpreting works as a guest artist with The Flyover Dance Collective (USA), Novel Creative Movement (USA), TeeBoDans (USA), Broken Jump Theatre (IT), Spazio Seme (IT), and several independent choreographers. Their works have been presented by Collaborative Arts Lab (IT), Creative Spaces NWA (USA), CACHE Studios (USA), CRISISArts Festival (IT), and Spettatori Erranti La Festa (IT). Heidee’s approach to dance-theatre is decidedly anti-cartesean, life-affirming and collaborative, interlacing critical explorations in somatic experiencing, impulse, gesture, and community building.
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Hannah Mucha
Hannah Mucha grew up in The Woodlands, TX where was educated under the ABT National Training Curriculum syllabus at Excelsior School of Ballet. As an apprentice with Ballet Excelsior of Houston, Hannah traveled on three international tours throughout Europe and Asia. She later attended Belhaven University where she studied ballet, modern, and pedagogy techniques. Hannah developed a love for somatic and creative movement underneath choreographers and companies including Norbert De La Cruz III, Madison Hicks, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Bruce Wood Dance, and Eisenhower Dance Detroit. The Belhaven dance faculty awarded her both the Bezelel Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement, and the Daniel Award for Outstanding Scholastic Achievement for the highest Cumulative GPA of the 2022 graduating dance majors. Hannah graduated from Belhaven in April of 2022 Summa Cum Laude with NHSDA Honors (National Honors Society For Dance Arts).
Hannah has been in NWA for the past three years, dancing as a company member with Northwest Arkansas Ballet Theatre. She has a great love for creative movement exploration and is excited to join Fayetteville Movement Dance Festival this year!
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Clementine Simpson
Clementine is a Fayetteville local and recent Bachelors of Science in Nursing graduate from the University of Arkansas. While pursuing her degree, she rediscovered her passion for skating and started a skate group called Arkansas Roller Skate Crew in March of 2021. She’s been hosting monthly events for the local community and has a mission to turn every gathering into a celebration of movement, art, and pure fun on wheels. While she specializes in downhill quad skating, she incorporates all styles of skating in her meetups and creates a space welcome to all levels and backgrounds. She provides private lessons and you can find more information on her website clemskates.com.
IG: @clem.skates and @arrollerskatecrew.
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Claudia Smith
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Claudia evolved as a movement specialist from a background in modern dance, pilates, prison yoga, MovNat, Foundation Training, and functional movement & therapeutic breath work. Claudia loves to learn about movement, but she no longer adheres to a particular technique or style. Claudia instead finds purpose by empowering people to stay curious about their movement and to find what that feels good in their movement to improve overall vitality, wellbeing, and sense of ease.
Dana Krementz
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With over ten years of experience training, performing, and teaching acroyoga across the US and Canada Dana (they/them) is a certified acroyoga instructor by VanCity Acro and specializes in dynamic, strength based washing machines. As a teacher, Dana believes that through direct, honest, and open communication; a commitment to safety and technique; and a genuine excitement to try something new, acroyoga can be a powerful tool to practice connection with ourselves and others.
Dana has a passion for facilitating safe learning spaces and is eager to share their love of acroyoga with anyone and everyone!
Nena Shelton
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Hi! My name is Nena! I am originally from Little Rock, AR but moved to NWA in 2020. I love spending time with family and my soon to be husband Trey and our morkie August. Dance has been apart of my life since I was at least 3 years old. I absolutely love to dance and sharing the happy feelings dance brings to me and those around me! I am currently the lead instructor at DivaDance NWA and I have been with them since 2022. DivaDance brought dance back into my life after moving to a new city and I’m so glad I took a chance and went to a class! I’ve been hooked ever since! I look forward to dancing with you!
Kathy Johnson
I am Kathy Johnson the owner and CEO of Kultured Cardio Fitness LLC. Our mission is to encourage everyone to find their fit. Find what you love to do and do it consistently. Ours is Dance Fitness. We know if you find something you love to do, you are more likely to stick with it and be successful. We want to show minorities like ourselves how to be proactive vs reactive regarding health and wellness. This is often not taught to us in our communities, and because we have not made health and wellness a priority, we as minorities were the demographic hit hardest during COVID. We are shifting the mindset in our communities . Showing people who may not workout that they need to make their health and wellness a priority, and that working out can be fun. Leading by example, because if we did it they can too. No longer working out situationally based on what event is coming up, but making Health and Wellness a lifestyle..If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready!
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Diamond Jones
Diamond known as Dime is an established creative director, dancer , choreographer and performer that has skills in Hip Hop, contemporary, lyrical. African , tap, jazz. Born and raised in Milwaukee WI, she has made her mark in her hometown , Dallas, TX , Atlanta, GA and now Northwest Arkansas with many other states. Diamond works closely with directors, producers and other dancers and artists. She has worked with many dance studios for competitions, dance teams, and independent training in hop hop. With Diamond work, many studios have won titles, first places, top 5 and top 10 in hip hop solos, trios and groups. At the age of 14 years old Diamond and her brother Devonte became the CEO & Founder of TakeNotez Dance Crew winning dance awards for Best Dance Crew, Best in the North, Dancers of the Year and more. Diamond continues to show her passion in hip hop with teaching around Northwest Arkansas the foundation in her culture.
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Erin Irizarry
Erin is the branch manager of @GearheadOutfitters in Fayetteville, an Arkansas native, and avid outdoor enthusiast with over a decade of experience in the industry. She believes that the outdoors is for everyone and strives to expand access through her role at Gearhead. Whether you are exploring your own backyard or embarking on a once and a lifetime adventure, you can trust to find quality products backed by deep expertise inside any of the many family owned Gearhead Outfitters locations. Erin's favorite forms of movement are: rock climbing, hiking, backpacking, yoga, and meditation. You can connect with her on instagram @_carryonkid or stop by the Block Ave. shop in historic downtown Fayetteville.
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Philip Sheperd
Philip is an advanced Movement practitioner and teacher living in Fayetteville, AR. His physical practice started when he received his black belt in Tae Kwon Do at the age of 16. He then studied music and quickly started performing locally with various music groups. After receiving his 200-hour and 500-hr Yoga Teacher certifications at the Circle Yoga Shala and teaching classes for 5 years, he began the 1000-hour Yoga Therapy Certification to become a professional Yoga Therapist. In 2020 he became an online student of the Ido Portal method and continues to study and teach advanced Movement concepts, integrating aspects of gymnastics, dance, martial arts and weightlifting. Philip works part time as the Rehab Director at Thrive Wellness Center in Fayetteville and offers in-person and online movement, fitness, and therapy coaching.
IG: @philipmoves
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Jamie Leigh White
While deep in the cosmic ocean of soothing sounds and inspirational vibrations during her first gong bath, Jamie knew then that gongs were the answer to her search for inner peace.
A few months later at Gong Camp, a school in Pennsylvania led by Mitch Nur, she bought her first three gongs and a variety of bells and mallets. A workshop at Memphis Gong Chamber with Don Conreaux, added to her collection of gongs and other smaller instruments. During multiple trips to India, she selected a wide variety of Himalayan style singing bowls, bells and rattles to bring home. These eclectic mix of instruments makes up her unique meditative Gong Song experience.
For the past 30 years, Jamie has been a massage and craniosacral therapist in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and has taught yoga as community outreach at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Through massage, yoga and Gong Song, Jamie brings physical and spiritual relief to her clients and students. The greatest benefit, she feels, is her ability to help them reach states of deep relaxation and tune into their own inner wisdom.
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TK Rakoski
TK moved to Arkansas from Texas 4 years ago and absolutely loves being apart of the NWA community. Throughout his life, TK has been told that he couldn't succeed--too old, too poor, too this or that. But through perseverance and believing in himself, he discovered that he could succeed. He could dance, paint, teach, and run a successful business. It is this passion and belief that he uses to encourage his students to recognize their full potential. He believes that anybody can dance! draw! etc! TK is honored when people tell him what a great teacher and dancer he is, especially since he started his journey in his 40s. It is his passion and joy to share his love of art and dance (especially Ballroom / cha-cha) with others so they can experience that same excitement of success,.. despite the naysayers and the little negative voice inside each of us that says, "you can't". But TK is proof that everyone most certainly can. Whether it is art, dance or some other endeavor that takes you out of your comfort zone, just do it! "The pain of discipline or the pain of regret" - Jim Rohn
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Lauren Eno
Lauren Eno is the Education Director and Assistant Manager at Wild Birds Unlimited in Fayetteville, AR where shares her love and deep knowledge of wildlife, songbirds, and environmental science with audiences of all ages. With a degree in Environmental Science and growing up as a bird watcher in Vermont, Lauren has been successfully teaching wildlife education for nearly a decade across the country. Lauren is a sought-out speaker and takes pride in providing high-quality, entertaining, and informational topics to the NWA community. Since she started with Wild Birds Unlimited in 2020, Lauren has been teaching local customers, adults, and children by helping customers create their ideal birdwatching oasis, facilitating custom feederscaping, leading seasonal bird walks across NWA, and teaching students the importance of creating a healthy and responsible habitat for birds and other creatures. Wild Birds Unlimited partners with schools, Girl Scouts, Arkansas Master Gardeners, students at the Institute of Lifelong Learning at U of A and other organizations across NWA to provide this educational service. So, whether you want to know which birds are in the area right now, how to attract more species to your yard, what to feed or how to house songbirds, or where to see our many colorful bird species, come "Explorin' with Lauren".
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Rhythm Pantry
The Rhythm Pantry is a dynamic DJ duo born from the shared passion and energy of two brothers, emerging on the vibrant music scene in Northwest Arkansas. With a sound as diverse and unexpected as the contents of a well-stocked pantry, we bring an eclectic mix of rhythms, genres, and vibes to every event we perform. Whether you're looking for smooth grooves or high-energy beats, we create a unique rhythmic experience designed to energize and uplift. We're excited to share our love for music and craft unforgettable moments through the power of sound.
Emmie Brenzel
Emmie Brenzel has over thirty years of experience in Holistic Health and Wellness working as a Registered Nurse and Health Coach. Her background includes training in a variety of complementary health practices and knowledge of the human energy system as a Healing Touch Practitioner. She has been certified as a Forest Therapy Guide with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and graduated from the Osage Forest of Peace School of Spiritual Direction. Emmie owns a local business, Ozark Forest Therapy, providing group Forest Therapy Walks and Eco- Spiritual Direction.
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Claudia Aguilar
Claudia Aguilar has been providing dance and fitness to the NWA community since 2010. She teaches salsa, bachata, cumbia, chacha and merengue, as well as organized dance events where her purpose is to tell people about the latin culture through dancing.
To learn more about Claudia and En Fuego, visit enfuegonwa.com.
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Lara Cato
Lara has been teaching yoga and pilates since 2010. She began teaching in Louisiana and has experience teaching both rehabilitative and advanced mat pilates as well as intermediate and advanced hatha yoga. Lara pursued these mindfulness practices after leaving the corporate world in order to connect students with the playfulness that movement can offer. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree in the social work program at the University of Arkansas and will be joining a psychiatric practice as a therapist in May. She hopes to integrate yoga and traditional talk therapy and pursue somatic therapeutic modalities. Lara's classes are dynamic and student focused, with an emphasis on building strength and creative sequencing.
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DJ Afrosia
DJ Afrosia, a Fort Smith, Arkansas native, has been a dynamic force in Northwest Arkansas for over a decade. Starting as a college radio disc jockey at KXUA 88.3 FM, she transitioned from music journalism to full-time DJing. Her eclectic and electric style effortlessly blends today's and tomorrow's sounds, mastering mash-ups and crazy blends. Notably, she's opened for Hippie Sabotage and graced FORMAT Festival in Bentonville. Afrosia's sonic journey continues as a vital part of the Classic Flow collective, where she and her partner fuse the four elements of hip-hop, earning the collective the honor of opening for Wu-Tang Clan. DJ Afrosia's electrifying beats and innovative blends make her a driving force in the Northwest Arkansas music scene, promising an unforgettable auditory journey that transcends genres and captivates audiences with each performance.
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April Kennedy
April is a trauma informed somatic coach, Pilates instructor & wellness educator in Northwest Arkansas. She creates safe spaces for learning, growth & healing. In addition, she serves as the Washington Co. community liaison for Weave: The Social Fabric Project, helping facilitate community engagement & deepening connection & relationships within our region.
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Jasmine Canady-Hartman
My name is Jasmine, and everyone calls me Jazzy! Since I can remember, I cannot stop moving. From growing up a dancer, running around cities, and discovering yoga for myself I have an immense passion for how movement liberates ourselves and our communities. What kept me into yoga, was diving into the roots and philosophy of the practice to learn that what created that “feel good” emotion - was more than doing the physical postures. Yoga has completely transformed my life and I can't get enough of it! When I'm not on the mat, I'm a full-time social worker/activist, a big fan of reality TV, and always up for some brunch or quirky adventures. I am excited to share the joy of creative movement with other like-minded, curious people at the movement festival!
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Alexzandrea Hollinshed
Alexzandrea has been teaching community yoga since 2019. She’s been instrumental in the spread of accessible, beginner friendly, and affordable class options in Northwest Arkansas. As of 2023, nearly all of her teaching hours are spent providing free and donation based classes. Alexzandrea teaches an approachable vinyasa flow and especially encourages beginners to join in the practice, making sure to hone in on foundational poses and modifications. She believes if you can inhale and exhale, you can do yoga and she’s so excited to meet you on the mat.
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Chrissy Dennis
Hairdresser buy trade, Chrissy has been practicing yoga for 25 years. She has since developed her own teaching her "style" of yoga for 16 years to encompass all types of bodies and all types of philosophies. She has gathered bits and pieces of pilates, physical therapy, yoga, meditation and even dance to put together a special individual experience to anyone who takes her class.
Find her classes on the Clubhaus schedule.
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Dave Briggs
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Dave has been in his body since birth and has been trying to figure out how best to use it ever since. He has played sports, ran, climbed, danced, flipped, swam, biked, meditated, done gymnastics, yoga, and even injured himself in the exploration. The education of these things has brought him the most valuable tools in the evolution of him as a human. With tools in curiosity and self-inquiry, Dave has been able to accommodate his practices in thoughtful and impactful ways. He hopes to inspire his students to open to the world and themselves as a result of their practice.
Jamie Dye
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Jamie has been practicing yoga since 2014, obtaining her 200 RYT from Trailside Yoga in March 2023. Her classes include breathwork, movement, and meditation with the intention to allow everyone an opportunity to sink into the present moment. Off the mat, Jamie is a mother of three incredible humans who keep her busy with all of their extracurricular adventures. By being a mother, Jamie has utilized yoga as a therapeutic tool to help balance her busy life, externally and internally. “My hope with teaching and practicing yoga is to encourage connection to first ourselves, and then to each other as a community. Finding an intention to practice and watching the transformation from habit, to second nature, and finally a lifestyle…that’s the greatest goal.”
DANCECULTure
DANCECULTure's mission and purpose are to create a community where members experience joy through movement. We celebrate the sacred beauty of expression, both individually and as a community. No Dance "knowledge" required. Just be yourself!
DANCECULTure is currently running every Sunday morning (10am - 1pm), in Sequoyah Hall at Mount Sequoyah Center. We have a few simple rules - respect others, the space and yourself.
DANCECULTure is a free event. Donations are encouraged to continue are weekly offering of this space.
Join here.
Founder
Kyndal Saverse
