Voices 2022 Program

Lex Diggs is a 23 year old independent artist from
Dayton, Ohio. Her dance experience encompasses modern,
jazz, contemporary, ballet, and african training; her
choreographic voice and teaching style are influenced
by all of these styles. Lex previously trained with Dayton
Contemporary Dance Company II, and recently performed
Countess Winfrey’s “Homage: What Was, Is, To Come” for
Cincinnati Arts Museum’s “Black Futures Now” Capstone
Performance. Her most recent choreographic work,
“Heavenly Bodies” was premiered in New York City as a part
of Doug Varone’s Devices 7 showcase. Her central artistic mission is to create and be
a part of environments that provoke thought, feed soul, and ignite a desire to learn,
love, and share within the collective.
Sarah Emery Sarah is a freelance choreographer and
performing artist based in St. Petersburg/Tampa, FL. She
teaches ballet at the Patel Conservatory/Straz Center for
the Performing Arts as well as community contemporary
classes for Project Alchemy. She is a Creative Pinellas 2022
Professional Artist Grantee and a recipient of the 2020
Dance on Screen Alabama’s (DOSABAMA) Viewer’s Choice
Award for her dance film, TRINITY. She received the 2017
Choreography Connection Award through Regional Dance
America’s Choreographer Intensive. Sarah has taught ballet
and contemporary dance for many schools over the past 20 years including Atlanta
Ballet, Charlotte Ballet, Open Door Studios (Charlotte, NC) and Ponte Vedra Ballet
and Dance Company. She began her training under Gene Hammett and Patricia
Sorell at the Tidewater Ballet Association in Norfolk, VA. She continued her dance
education at the North Carolina School of the Arts (now UNCSA) and studied under
Balanchine prima ballerina, Melissa Hayden. There she danced principal roles in
Arthur Mitchell’s Holberg Suite and Balanchine’s Western Symphony. Her summer
studies included the Boston Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB), and
the Hungarian National Ballet in Budapest. Upon graduation from UNCSA, she
was offered apprenticeships with Ballet Arizona, Pittsburgh Ballet and Tulsa Ballet
Theatre. After accepting an apprenticeship with the Tulsa Ballet, she later went on
to dance with North Carolina Dance Theatre (now Charlotte Ballet) and the Omaha
Theatre Ballet as a soloist.
Matthew Sommers is a dance artist currently residing
in Austin, Texas. Matthew began dancing in Jacksonville,
Florida, under the training of Debra Ford and Jennifer
Turbyfill at Debbie’s Dance Company. He graduated Douglas
Anderson School of the Arts in 2018 , and then went
on to study at the University of South Florida, where he
graduated with distinction with a degree in dance and a
concentration in Modern. While at USF Matthew received
multiple talent scholarships including the WWD Scholarship
and the Victoria Catherine Seldon Scholarship. Matthew has
gotten to work with a variety of choreographers including Charles O. Anderson,
Andrew Carroll, Jeanne Travers, Alex Jones, Joshua L. Peugh, and Marc Brew.
Matthew believes dance is a way to interpret questions and ideas through art, and
enjoys the connections and stories that come from it.
Xiao-Xuan Yang Dancigers was nominated for
Best Female Dancer in Australia in 2009, has performed
throughout Asia, Europe, Australia, and the United States
with Australian Dance Theater and Cloudgate 2. Previously
Assistant Professor at the Taipei National University of
Arts, she has danced with and choreographed for Sarasota
Contemporary Dance since 2012. In 2013, Xiao-Xuan
co-choreographed Dreamfall featuring music by NOW
Ensemble with Leymis Bolaños Wilmott. She has also danced
as a soloist in Leymis’ Summer Days, of which the Sarasota
Herald-Tribune wrote, “With…Dancigers’ total ownership of the characterization,
it was stunning.” She was also a soloist in Gerri Houlihan’s Every Little Movement,
of which the Bradenton Herald wrote, “A highlight on opening night was the long
and unspeakably gorgeous solo by Xiao-Xuan Yang Dancigers. If you appreciate
dance at all, you find yourself wishing the solo would never end.” In 2017, she
choreographed and performed the solo Signal for New Music New College to music
by Luciano Berio, with the Herald-Tribune calling the performance “stunning...
precise”. Xuan is also the dance instructor at Parkinson’s Place in Sarasota, and
Associate Director of Sarasota Contemporary Dance Ensemble.
Following her passion for contemporary dance, Sarah joined the multi-disciplinary
dance company, Moving Poets Theatre of Dance in Charlotte, NC. She was a principal
dancer with Moving Poets for eight years under the direction of Till Schmidt-Rimpler
and was later brought on as co-artistic director for three years. Sarah also works as a
freelance graphic designer and received her BFA from the Savannah College of Art
and Design. She enjoys combining her love for design, film and dance and continues
to push the boundaries, connecting dance with community.
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