Artists

JULIAN DE LEON joined Kate Weare Company in 2014, bringing with him a deep history in the dance field and a breadth of expertise in supporting the creative work of choreographers. As Rehearsal Director, De Leon helped to evolve work in process, maintain and restage repertory, integrate new dancers and support tour logistics. De Leon began his dance training at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in California. In 1997, he moved to London, England to study at the Laban Center for Movement and Dance. In 2000, he joined Wayne McGregor's Random Dance Company. De Leon moved to San Francisco, CA in 2003 where he danced for Kunst-Stoff, Janice Garrett and Dancers, and Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. In 2007 he moved to New York City and danced with Stephen Petronio Company for seven years.

Julian De Leon in Marksman. Photo by Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang.

KAYLA FARRISH was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina into a dance-loving family. She graduated from the University of Arizona in 2013 summa cum laude, and was granted the Gertrude Shurr Award for excellence in modern dance and passionate dancing. Since moving to New York, she’s had the opportunity to work with wonderful choreographers including Sleep No More, Aszure Barton and Artists, Helen Simoneau Danse, Gallim Dance, Chris Masters Dance, Bryn Cohn, Elena Vazintaris, Bare Dance Company, Schoen Movement Company, Matthew Westerby Dance Company, CEMA Dance, and others. She has premiered her own dance film work through the Chez Bushwick Residency (September 2017) and Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (April 2017). She joined Kate Weare Company in 2014.

Kayla Farrish in Dark Lark. Photo by Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang.

DOUGLAS GILLESPIE is a founding member of Kate Weare Company, originating memorable roles in over 15 years of Weare’s work, as well as teaching, rehearsal directing and assisting Weare in creating commissions throughout the U.S. Gillespie is a Brooklyn-based Dance Artist passionate in the making, teaching and embodying of dance as an art form. He teaches at colleges and dance centers around the world, including The Juilliard School, NYU Tisch Summer Program, Mark Morris Dance Group, National Taiwan University of the Arts and at Gibney Dance Center in New York. Gillespie is an avid dance maker choreographing for Teoria De Gravidad, Limon Professional Training Program, Moving Current Dance Collective, Sarasota Contemporary Dance and Doug Varone DEVICES workshop. Gillespie has also created his own student commissions for Florida Southern College, SUNY Brockport, Cleveland State University, University of Florida and Santa Fe College; two of his works have premiered at American College Dance Association. Gillespie has also premiered two international self-choreographed solo projects. Most recently for Festival Danza Urbana in Monterrey, Mx. in August 2018 and 2019 also in Taipei, Taiwan November 2015. Douglas was recently a member of David Dorfman Dance 2018 to 2021 and has been an originating member and creative contributor throughout Kate Weare Company’s first decade and beyond. Gillespie has performed in Punchdrunk Emursive's Sleep No More and Third Rail Projects’ Then She Fell. Gillespie was born in San Diego, raised in Jacksonville, Fl. and received his BFA in Dance from Florida State University in 2005.

Douglas Gillespie in The Light Has Not The Arms to Carry Us. Photo by Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang.

LESLIE KRAUS was a principal dancer and soloist for the Kate Weare Dance Company from 2006 to 2015. Kraus danced in over ten of Kate’s creations and held the position of Assistant Director. Kraus also starred in lead roles in Punchdrunk’s famous productions Sleep No More (New York City) and The Drowned Man (London). She is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Dance at the University of Oklahoma and coordinator of the Five Moons Dance Festival. Kraus has a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA from the University of Washington. She is honored to be working with Kate again on a new creation.

Leslie Kraus in Garden. Photo by Christopher Duggan.

RYAN ROULAND SMITH has been a member of Kate Weare Company since 2014, performing in and originating roles in Dark Lark, Unstruck, Marksman, Praise and Pine. Smith hails from Colorado where he graduated from the Denver School of the Arts. A recipient of the Carpenter Scholarship, Smith graduated cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in Dance and Choreography in 2013. While a student at the American Dance Festival both in 2012 and 2013, he had the pleasure of working with John Jasperse, Reggie Wilson and performed in the first reconstruction of Bill T. Jones’ Love Redefined. At DanceNow in 2019 Smith performed in Nicole Vaughan-Diaz’s A Portrait of Them. Additionally in 2019, Smith began performing in Stefanie Batten Bland’s Look Who is Coming to Dinner with a reprisal in 2021 at Lincoln Center. Smith joined ODC in San Francisco for their fall season in 2021 and performed in KT Nelson’s Path of Miracles and the Velveteen Rabbit.

Ryan Rouland Smith in Marksman. Photo by Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang.

THRYN SAXON is a freelance dancer, film maker, choreographer and teacher based in NYC. Saxon’s work under the moniker SAXYN Dance Works has been performed at venues across NYC such as The Craft, GreenSpace, Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center and The Actor’s Fund Theater. Saxon has also had the privilege of teaching at the Cameron Dance Center in FL, DanceWave ASDI Summer Intensive, A Different Drum Dance Group at Yale University, Connecticut College, Gibney Dance Center and Peridance Capezio Center. As a dancer Saxon has performed with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, John Zullo, Julia Ehrstrand, Rosie DeAngelo, TYKE Dance, Sleep No More and Kate Weare Company with whom she has toured nationally and abroad. Saxon’s dance film work has been screened across the US including LA, NY, and Miami. Her debut dance film, “all of her”, was an official selection for the 2018 LA Dance Shorts Film Festival, The MarDel Presents: Dance on Film Festival (nominated for Best Choreography), SPARK Dance Film Festival and the ARTS TRIANGLE Dance Film Festival. In 2019 Saxon was selected as one of 8 resident choreographers to participate in the Mare Nostrum Elements: Emerging Choreographer Series as well as an Artist in Residence at The Church in upstate New York. Saxon also shares a choreographic project with Brad Beakes and together their work has been performed at The Perez Art Museum in Miami, FL, Windhover Performing Arts Center, Dumbo Dance Festival, and others. In Spring of 2020 they were selected as 2 of 8 choreographers in residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna, FL. Saxon has been featured in Dance Spirit Magazine, DIYDancer Magazine, and made her film debut this year as a body double in the upcoming feature film Left With Only Rain, directed by Todd Bogin.

Thryn Saxon in Landfall. Film still by Jack Flame Sorokin.

KENDALL TEAGUE was raised in the mountains of western North Carolina and attended the South Carolina Governors School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, SC. He started his professional career in the Bay Area in 2008 as a corps de ballet member at San Francisco Ballet. He has since worked with North Carolina Dance Theatre, Complexions Contemporary Ballet under Dwight Rhoden, Ballet San Jose, Alonzo King Lines Ballet and ODC/Dance. Kendall is thrilled to have begun working with Kate Weare Company in 2021.

Kendall Teague in Moth. Film still by Jack Flame Sorokin.

NICOLE VAUGHAN-DIAZ has been a member of Kate Weare Company since 2013, performing in and originating roles in Dark Lark, Garden, Unstruck, Marksman, Bridge of Sighs, Praise, Pine, Landfall and Moth. Vaughan-Diaz is a choreographer and performer, newly-based in Asheville, NC. Additionally, she has performed works by Sasha Waltz, Kate Hilliard and Rosie Herrera. Vaughan-Diaz's own choreographic work has premiered at venues including: Judson Memorial Church (NY), The Public Theater (NY) and Arts on Site (NY). In 2019, she won the Challenge Winner Award for the 24th Annual DanceNOW Festival at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, and development of her work has been supported by Connecticut-based residency The Dragon's Egg and DanceNOW.

Nicole Vaughan-Diaz in Sin Salida. Photo by Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang.

JACK FLAME SOROKIN began his career at age 15 by assisting documentary filmmakers and celebrity portrait photographers in NYC. His early photographs of friends and family earned him varied youth awards including recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2011. In 2015 he received a BFA in photography from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Sorokin is a freelance editorial and commercial photographer based in Western North Carolina, and his artwork focuses on our connection as human beings to each other and our environment. Sorokin began collaborating on dance films with Artistic Director, Kate Weare, in 2019.

Self portrait by Jack Flame Sorokin.