Chitra Subramanian is an Indian American dancer, choreographer, and educator based in Washington, DC. A Pittsburgh native and originally from South India, she teaches, choreographs, and performs with her collective, chitra.MOVES. Her aesthetic draws from Hip Hop and Indian classical and folk foundations to tell stories, elevate artists, and meaningfully engage unseen and new audiences.

Chitra fell in love with Hip Hop in the club scenes of Pittsburgh and Washington, DC. Spaces like the Shadow Lounge and Reunion Thursdays weren’t just places to dance—they were spaces where she learned about her city, forged lifelong friendships, and discovered her purpose creative voice. These experiences deeply shaped her path, leading her to youth work and anchoring her commitment to community.

Chitra’s work is deeply influenced by her 20+ years in youth education and community work, particularly with young people and their families in DC. Her performance projects explore themes of relationships, community, and the transformative power of institutions. Drawing on her immigrant roots and love for Hip Hop, Chitra’s creative process is shaped by strong community ties and a commitment to exposing untapped talent.

Recent works include TEMPLE, an evening-length performance that sold out at Dance Place, and LINKED, which premiered during her Atlas ArtsLAB residency. Chitra also curates and teaches the Rooting the Dance Hip Hop Dance Class Series, which spotlights the stories and talents of women and femmes in DC’s street dance scene while providing consistent, high-quality training for the community.

Her work has been presented at venues including The Kennedy Center, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Joe’s Movement Emporium, and the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. Chitra is the recipient of the Gallim Parent Moving Artist Residency, the DC Commission Fellowship Grant, the Atlas ArtsLAB Fellowship, the Kennedy Center's Local Dance Commissioning Project, and the National Dance Project Production grant.

Born and raised in Washington DC, Ellie Walton is committed to honoring stories of everyday revolutionaries with authenticity, dignity, and playfulness. Since 2006 she has collaborated with communities on over 100 award winning non-fiction films that have screened at festivals across the country, including the DC Environmental Film Festival, Tribeca, DOC NYC, DC/DOX, broadcast nationally on PBS and streamed on NETFLIX. These stories have centered public housing residents fighting displacement (Chocolate City, 2007), theater artists imagining change (Walk With Me, 2012), teenagers overcoming violence (Fly By Light, 2015), young women in India rewriting tradition (Brave Girls, 2019), and poets retelling a forgotten history (La Manplesa: An Uprising Remembered, 2021).  Ellie is a Fulbright scholar, winner of the DC Mayor’s Arts Award and the Media for a Just Society Award. When she’s not behind the camera, she’s getting muddy in the woods with her two adventurous boys. 

Hari Krishnan is a dancer, choreographer, scholar, and educator who specializes in Bharatanatyam, queer dance, and contemporary dance from global perspectives.

Krishnan’s choreographic explorations center both postcolonial complexities in Indian dance as well as queer themes. He is among the pioneering generation of choreographers of South Asian origin who began to explore the intersections between traditional South Asian and global contemporary dance forms in the North American diaspora. His extensive body of work arises from a critical awareness of Bharatanatyam, fused with contemporary global dance styles and postmodern, queer, anti-racist and anti-caste social critique. His choreographies are designed to challenge stereotypes and enable minoritized communities to reclaim control over narratives of sexuality, religion, and culture in a global arts world. He is also the artistic director of inDANCE (indance.ca), which he founded in 1999.

For two decades, he had trained with hereditary teachers from former courtesan communities in South India. As a master performer of Bharatanatyam, his work in this realm acknowledges Bharatanatyam’s messy and uncomfortable pasts and constantly negotiates the ethical challenges of engagement with the form. Krishnan performs and choreographs Bharatanatyam inflected by his extensive research on the form. The goal is to engage with the critical history of Bharatanatyam, while expanding its contemporary methods and creating equitable futures for South Asian dance.

Krishnan’s scholarly repertoire is as extensive as his choreographic one. His research covers historic and sociological themes, from queerness and global cultural politics in dance to representations of Bharatanatyam in film. These research themes deeply inform his choreography, and vice-versa. His monograph, Celluloid Classicism: Early Tamil Cinema and the Making of Modern Bharatanatyam (Wesleyan University Press, 2019) won a special citation from the 2020 de la Torre Bueno© First Book Award Committee of the Dance Studies Association. The book has been hailed as “an invaluable addition to the scholarship on Bharatanatyam.”

Some of his honors and recognitions include a Guggenheim Fellowship (2024), a Jacob’s Pillow Lab Residency (2024), Wesleyan’s Provost Research Award (2023), a National Dance Project Grant (2022) for his upcoming creation Rowdies in Love, an Eldred Family Choreography Nomination (2021), two Mellon Foundation Grants (2021 and 2023, with Krishnan as co-recipient with Professor Lionel Popkin and SADA: South Asian Diasporic Dance Artists), and the Eramus Mundus Residency Award (2015). He is also the recipient of a Bessie Nomination for Outstanding Performance (New York City, 2013); the Bessie Schoenberg Choreographic Residency Award (2013); the Desi Canadian Achiever Award (2011); a Dora Mavor Moore Nomination (2009) for Best Choreography (Theater) and several grants from Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Bank of Montreal and Laidlaw Foundation.

Ivy Boudreau is a poet, movement, visual, and textile artist, and arts administrator transplanted from the woods and fields of the Midwestern US to the cityscapes of Washington, DC. This is her first performance with the DC-based artistic collective Chitra.Moves, and she’s honored to have been part of the process in a variety of ways. 

Ivy earned a Bachelor of Arts in Dance at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point with an emphasis in modern dance and improvisation, and received opportunities to present her work and research at the UW System Faculty College and UWSP College of Letters and Sciences Symposium. Since graduation, she’s continued her exploration of these forms and added self-directed studies in dance for the camera and the culture and movement of American street dance forms.She believes that movement is the one thing that unites not only all of humanity, but the entire universe, and that thread of connection and possibility is the core of her interest in dance. 

Although movement has been a vital part of Ivy’s artistic process for years, writing is her first love and has seen her through many seasons of life. She self-published a poetry book Thoughtwater (2022), was the co-founder of a poetry open mic in partnership with Create Portage County that is still going strong seven years later, and regularly shares essays, poetry excerpts, and other creative writing on her Substack Sing Me a New Song. Ivy typically explores themes of connection, liberation, truth, and the metaphysical realm in her writing.

Janae Michaela Witcher is a dynamic and expressive artist whose movement bridges technique, storytelling, and spiritual depth. With over 24 years of dance training and a decade of professional performance experience, she brings versatility and authenticity to every stage she steps on. Janae’s foundation spans ballet, lyrical, liturgical, contemporary, jazz, modern, hip hop, house, waacking, voguing, South Indian, and West African dance.

Her journey began with Praises of Joy Dance Ensemble, Zion’s Daughters Dance Ensemble, and the Bishop McNamara High School Dance Program, and later expanded through her studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she earned a minor in Dance and Choreography. As a professional dancer, Janae has performed with celebrated collectives and institutions including AftaShock DC, Natetion, Chitra.Moves, ICONS Choreographic Institute, Arts Centric, the Dance Institute of Washington, and the First Baptist Church of Glenarden’s Christmas Production.

Janae’s choreographic voice has been featured by Zion’s Daughters Dance Ensemble, Inspire Dance Collective, and 3M Dance Where Jesus Is Lord. Her performances have graced stages such as Baltimore Center Stage, the Little Theatre of Alexandria, Atlas Performing Arts Center, and Dance Place.

Passionate about using movement as a vessel for connection and empowerment, Janae continues to cultivate her artistry through performance, choreography, and mentorship, inspiring others to find freedom and purpose through dance.

Malik Gomes Cruz is an arts administrator, performer, and community curator dedicated to shaping vibrant futures for Black and Queer communities through rhythm and ritual. A Boston native and graduate of American University, Malik brings experience from institutions like Dance Place, where they’ve coordinated residences and performances, supporting artists across career stages. As a dancer, Malik has performed in works by Chitra Subramanian, Nailah Randall-Bellinger, Ronya-Lee Anderson, Kevin Carroll, Anastasia Johnson, and Birtta Joy Peterson. They are a 2019 American University Frederick Douglass Scholar and 2022 Summer Artist recipient, now thrilled to step into the textured world of Village Stories.

Patrick Crowley, PhD, is an applied theatre facilitator and dramaturg expanding his creative practice into the world of dance. Before dramaturging Chronicles of Nina with Project Charma at the Kennedy Center, he directed political solo performances and new works, and collaborated as a deviser with youth from around the globe. His standout projects include ‘Capers and Meena’s Dream with Anu Yadav, as well as Making Peace in Old Village and I Am, I Will with the International Theatre Project: Rwanda. He currently teaches performing arts at the Maya Angelou Academy.

Peter Leibold VI is a lighting and projection designer based in the Washington DC area. Peter has worked across the country at theatres including The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Ford’s Theatre Society, Sierra Repertory Theatre, Andy’s Summer Playhouse, The Spoleto Festival, and many more. Peter won the New Hampshire Theatre Alliance award for Best Lighting for his work with Orange Grove Dance at Andy’s Summer Playhouse and was a finalist for Live Design’s Design Achievement Awards, also for his work with Orange Grove Dance. See more of his work at www.peterleibold.com

Chris and Ama Law were born and raised in the DMV metropolitan area and are co-founders and co-directors of Project ChArma. They have been dancing together since high school. Combined, their expertise reflects the expanse of their training in a wide range of movement styles and foundations. Both Ama and Chris completed undergraduate and graduate studies from the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP), both receiving MFAs in dance and choreography.

Ama has decades-long training with Kankouran West African Dance Company (of which both of her parents were founding members) and completed a rigorous internship at Broadway Dance Center. Chris’ movement practice is based on principles of hip hop, roller skating, martial arts, and modern dance technique. They both dedicate their careers to the creative possibilities of intersecting dance traditions to facilitate important conversations about social change. They have taught and choreographed at various institutions including the Kennedy Center, Dance Place, Howard University, UMCP, American University, Howard Community College, and Bates Dance Festival.

Together, the Laws create work as Project ChArma, a project-based dance theater company dedicated to using art as activism; pronounced "karma" because it guides their lives. Project ChArma helped to curate National Dance Day 2023 at the Kennedy Center, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop. Follow them on IG & FB: @projectcharma or at www.projectcharma.com

Rachel Heney is a local Stage Manager born and raised in the DMV. They studied voice in Illinois and came back home to earn their degree in Stage Management from the University of Maryland. Recent Stage Management credits include The Great Comet of 1812 - PSM(George Mason University), Dialogues of the Carmelites - ASM (Wolf Trap Opera), Così fan tutte - PSM (Maryland Opera Studio). They have toured the U.S. and Europe for performance opportunities, including at the Kennedy Center. Over the last few years, Rachel has found an even deeper love for sharing stories and building community behind the scenes. They are elated to return to the Kennedy Center and to be a part of our community’s legacy.

Sarah (she/her) is a performer, choreographer, photographer & educator. Her teaching philosophy revolves around fostering spaces that invite dancers to get curious, ask questions, and investigate the line between history, body awareness, and emotional connection that dance & theater so beautifully walk. She is a former Resident Acting Company member at Barter Theatre (Abingdon, VA from 2014-2019). She’s performed at Theater J, Imagination Stage, Texas Shakespeare Festival, Southern Appalachian Repertory Company, Momentum Dance Theatre, The Kennedy Center, and Dollywood, among others. She’s danced locally with the RAMdance Collective, through the Atlas Intersections Festival, Dance Canvas, and the Transformations Festivals. She currently offers group & private classes across the region, with weekly jazz & tap classes held at Unity Dance & Movement in Bethesda, MD. 

Tenesha has been dancing since the age of four, training in ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop. A proud DMV native, she has performed extensively throughout the region and traveled across the U.S. for various dance projects. She began competing at a young age and went on to perform with her church’s dance team, her high school dance company, and a local professional basketball team. Over the years, she has danced background for various local artists and contributed to numerous collaborative dance projects across styles. Tenesha has also shared her passion through teaching at local afterschool programs and studios. She continues to study and explore various dance styles, expanding her versatility and deepening her connection to movement. Since joining Chitra Moves in 2019, she has continued to grow as both a performer and creative collaborator, blending movement, culture, and community in every performance.

Will Webb, is a seasoned filmmaker with almost a decade of experience based out of Washington D.C. He honed his craft by working with non & for-Profits, small Businesses, performing arts companies, and international opportunities.

“To me it’s more than just hitting the record button, it's about the stories that shaped our lives, and if given the sacred opportunity I can not only witness but also capture it. Whenever I pick up a camera, my goal is to always get as close as possible to capture a story that can potentially shape the world.”

Yasseen Hassan, also known as Butterfly, is an established movement artist, instructor, arts administrator, disc jockey, and community organizer based out of Washington, DC. 

Yasseen is a member of the performing arts collective Chitra.Moves, with accolades including performances at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, Dance Institute of Washington, and an upcoming performance at the Kennedy Center. They also have competed internationally, and taught movement in and around the Washington, DC metro area.

Yasseen’s artistic philosophy centers on understanding movement through the study of music. They are currently researching Black American music dating back to the blues era, as well as Moroccan and Sudanese music of their heritage, and exploring the stories of individual musicians, to deepen their connection between sound and dance. Yasseen's main inspiration in movement is from their Mom, and from studying how she danced at weddings and other social gatherings in Yasseen's youth.

Yasseen is also a firm believer that dance is a gift accessible to everyone, and strives to make this a reality through their instruction and practice.