
ABOUT
RYDERDANCE
Founded in 2018, RyderDance is a contemporary dance collective that merges storytelling with innovative, athletic movement. The company elevates traditional dance performance into a multi-dimensional experience by integrating movement that shifts between structure and fantasy, literal and figurative, text and context. This dynamic physicality guides the audience’s eye, sparking the senses and leaving space for the imagination to flourish. For RyderDance, dance is an expansive, exhilarating, and deeply personal experience meant to be shared and celebrated.
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The collective is committed to expanding the reach and accessibility of contemporary dance by exploring new audiences and mediums. RyderDance has performed at a variety of festivals across the tri-state area, including the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Eryc Taylor Dance and PBS's EARTH, Dixon Place's UnderExposed Series, Your Move: Jersey City's Modern Dance Festival at Loew's Jersey Theatre, NACHMO Final Festival at the Mark Morris Dance Center, the Summer Series at Triskelion Arts, and Eryc Taylor Dance’s performances at the Martha Graham Studio Theater, among others. The company has also self-produced several sold-out shows at New York City Center Studios, the Tank NYC, and Old Stone House Brooklyn. With performances spanning both stage and screen, RyderDance continues to evolve, connect, and invite audiences into new, captivating worlds.

ARTISTS
THE


Chelen Middlebrook is a NYC based movement artist and choreographer from Northern Virginia. She relocated to NYC in 2017 and graduated from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance in 2022. They have performed works by Stanton Welch, Trisha Brown, Crystal Pite, George Balanchine, and Ohad Naharin among many others. They have recently worked with Kayla Farrish's Decent Structures Arts and Shamel Pitts' TRIBE under the direction of Marcella Lewis.

Philip Strom (he/him) received his BFA at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he danced in work by Crystal Pite, Sonya Tayeh, Ronald K. Brown, and Paul Taylor. Since graduating he has performed with Andrea Ward, Bennyroyce Dance, Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Company, Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, Gabrielle Johnson + Artists, inDance (Hari Krishnan), & RyderDance. He danced in Spingboard Danse Montreal’s 2018 project, performing in works by Maxine Doyle of Punchdrunk, and Emese Nagy of MA•ZE.

Devon Travis is a native of Dallas, TX, where she graduated from Booker T. Washington High School. Devon moved to NYC in 2015 and graduated Summa Cum Laude from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She has performed works by Crystal Pite, Sidra Bell, Sonya Tayeh, MADBOOTS Dance among others and has worked in Italy under Giada Ferrone’s WADE Dance. Devon has collaborated with other companies in NYC such as VALLETO, BiteDown Collective, and Javier Padilla, and has been a member of RyderDance since 2018.
ADDITIONAL PAST AND PRESENT DANCERS/COLLABORATORS
AYALA ABRAMS
RICARDO G. BARRETT
EMILY CATTAN
ZURI NOELLE FORD
JULIA GOLD
SPENCER GROSSMAN
ISRAEL HARRIS
MEGUMI IWAMA
GABE KATZ
STONE MATHERS
LAURA MENDES
CHELEN MIDDLEBROOK
ALYSSA MYERS
ROB NEUBAUER
DANTE NORRIS
EMMA MASSARELLI
JERARD PALAZO
OSCAR ANTONIO RODRIGUEZ
MIRIAM ROSE
PHILIP STROM
ALEX TENREIRO THEIS
DEVON TRAVIS
MIRANDA VIARS
ALEX WARE
LAWRENCE I WILDE
ELIZA WOITINNEK
LIANA ZHEN-AI
