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Ms Cristina has performed in multiple productions of the “Tales of Hoffman” with The<br />
Palm Beach Opera in (2014). This year is Ms.Cristina’s Fourth season with the Sarasota<br />
Contemporary Dance company; she has recently been promoted to “Development<br />
Associate” where she manages/refines all SCD Donor events and relationships.<br />
Xiao-Xuan Yang Dancigers (Founding<br />
Company Member/Associate Director of SCDE) was<br />
nominated for Best Female Dancer in Australia in 2009,<br />
has performed throughout Asia, Europe, Australia, and<br />
the United States with Australian Dance Theater and<br />
Cloudgate 2. Previously Assistant Professor at the Taipei<br />
National University of Arts, she has danced with and<br />
choreographed for Sarasota Contemporary Dance since<br />
2012. In 2013, Xiao-Xuan co-choreographed Dreamfall featuring music by NOW<br />
Ensemble with Leymis Bolaños Wilmott. She has also danced as a soloist in Leymis’<br />
Summer Days, of which the Sarasota Herald-Tribune wrote, “With…Dancigers’<br />
total ownership of the characterization, it was stunning.” She was also a soloist in Gerri<br />
Houlihan’s Every Little Movement, of which the Bradenton Herald wrote,<br />
“A highlight on opening night was the long and unspeakably gorgeous solo by Xiao-<br />
Xuan Yang Dancigers. If you appreciate dance at all, you find yourself wishing the solo<br />
would never end.” In 2017, she choreographed and performed the solo Signal for New<br />
Music New College to music by Luciano Berio, with the Herald-Tribune calling the<br />
performance “stunning...precise”. Xuan is also the dance instructor at Parkinson’s Place<br />
in Sarasota, and Associate Director of Sarasota Contemporary Dance Ensemble.<br />
Monessa Salley (Dancer/Production Lead) South<br />
Carolina native, Monessa Salley, is in her 4th season<br />
dancing, teaching professionally, and currently serving<br />
as Production Lead with Sarasota Contemporary Dance<br />
Company. She is also an adjunct dance educator for<br />
the Booker High School Dance Dept. and serves as a<br />
teaching artist for several arts organizations including,<br />
The Van Wezel Performing Art Center (Artworks<br />
Anywhere), Wholehearted Education, Suncoast Black<br />
Arts Collaborative, and assistant choreographer for West Coast Black Theater Troupe.<br />
She holds a B.A. in Dance Performance from Winthrop University and an M.Ed. in<br />
Divergent Learning from Columbia College. After continued education and serving<br />
as a certified dance educator for 12 years in SC, she went on to pursue her MFA<br />
in Dance Performance and New Media at New York University’s Tisch School of<br />
Arts. She has previously toured and performed professionally with Sapphire Moon<br />
Dance Company, Vibrations Dance Company, T.O. Dance Inc., The Power Company<br />
Collaborative, and NYU’s Second Avenue Dance Company. Salley enjoys sharing<br />
the joy and passion of dance with all ages. She has a mind, body, spirit approach to<br />
dance and relishes in refining her craft as a performer and teacher, generating health,<br />
healing, and happiness through dance, and enhancing community relations.<br />
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