Igal Perry, Founder and Artistic Director of Peridance Contemporary Dance Company and Peridance Center, is a world-renowned choreographer, ballet master, and dance educator. Mr. Perry's elegant choreography, often in collaboration with contemporary composers, has been described as "blessedly inventive" (Jennifer Dunning, NYTimes). 

His works have been set on prestigious companies and performed at renowned festivals including Florence Dance Festival and Invito Alla Danza (Italy), Batsheva and Bat-Dor Dance Companies and the Karmiel Dance Festival (Israel), Ailey II and Complexions Contemporary Ballet (NYC), Companhia de Danca de Lisboa (Portugal), and Alberta Ballet (Canada). This year his new work Infinity will be set on the San Jose Ballet. 

Born in Israel, Igal Perry began his dancing career with Karmon, a folk dance company. He later joined the Bat-Dor Dance Company, where he worked with leading teachers and choreographers including Alvin Ailey, Benjamin Harkarvy, John Butler, Rudi Van Dantzig, Inesse Alexandrov, Paul Sanasardo, and Lar Lubovitch. Upon arriving in the United States, Mr. Perry joined Dennis Wayne’s Dancers as ballet master and choreographer. During that period, he staged John Butler’s work for the NYC Opera, the Opera of Munich, Caracas Ballet, and Teatro Alla Scala in Milan, where he also directed the world premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s opera Paradise Lost. From 1981-1982, Mr. Perry headed the ballet department at Jacob’s Pillow. In 1983, he launched his dance school, Peridance Center, now one of New York City’s leading dance institutions. A year later, he founded Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, for which he has choreographed over 50 works, with performances at BAM, The Joyce Theater, and City Center. 

In addition to his daily class at Peridance, Mr. Perry serves as guest faculty/choreographer at The Jacob's Pillow Festival, The Ailey School, and Marymount Manhattan College. Since 1995, Mr. Perry has served as a guest teacher at The Juilliard School, where he staged his Intimate Voices and Mourning Song. His international teaching engagements include Scapino Ballet and Het National Ballet (Holland), Laterna Magica and the National Ballet (Prague), Architanz (Tokyo), The Royal Ballet of Sweden and Balettakademien (Sweden), the National Ballet of China, and the Kwang-Ju City Ballet Company (Korea).

Yue Yin is a choreographer, founder and artistic director of YY Dance Company and the creator of FoCo Technique™. She began her training in Chinese classical and folk dance in Shanghai, China at the prestigious Shanghai Dance Academy and completed her MFA in dance at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2008. In 2018, Yin founded YYDC, a non-profit contemporary dance company dedicated to the teaching, production and performance of her original choreographic work. Yin’s work embodies her signature FoCo TechniqueTM, which fuses elements of Chinese classical dance, folk forms, ballet and contemporary vocabulary. Yin utilizes this technique in training and creative process to achieve a textured and grounded physicality in energetic, complex and nuanced choreography. 

Yue Yin was the recipient of the 2021 Harkness 

Promise Award. This prestigious award recognizes her innovation in choreography and education. She was the winner of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago 2015 International Commissioning Project, the 2015 BalletX Choreographic Fellowship, and the Northwest Dance Project’s 5th Annual Pretty Creatives International Choreographic Competition in 2013. Yin’s work has been commissioned from acclaimed companies as well as other companies and organizations such as Gibney Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, Oregon Ballet Theater, BalletMet, Boston Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet, Limon Dance Company, Alberta Ballet, Balletto Teatro di Torino, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, Juilliard School for Dance, USC Kaufman School of Dance, Tisch School of The Arts, Rutgers University, Point Park University, West Michigan University and more.Description text goes here

Marco Goecke completed his ballet training in 1988 at the Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung Ballet Academy in Munich as well as at the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague, where he received his diploma in 1995. Engagements followed at the Berlin State Opera and Theater Hagen. There, in 2000 Goecke created his firstchoreographic work, entitled Loch. Several choreographic works followed for the Noverre-Society with dancers from the Stuttgart Ballet, and an invitation to the New York Choreographic Institute. In July 2003 Goecke won the Prix Dom Pérignon in Hamburg with the piece Blushing, danced by the Stuttgart Ballet. 

In the 2005/2006 season, Marco Goecke was appointed Choreographer in Residence at the Stuttgart Ballet, and it was there in December 2006 that he created his first narrative ballet The Nutcracker, which was later also filmed for the ZDF Theatre channel. From 2006 to 2012 Goecke also held the post of Choreographer in Residence at the Scapino Ballet in Rotterdam. Since the 2013/2014 season, he has been Associate Choreographer at the renowned Nederlands Dans Theater. Between 2019 and 2023, he was Artist in Residence with Gauthier Dance Stuttgart and served as Artistic Director of the State Ballet Hannover. 

Goecke has received several international awards, including the Culture Prize of the State of Baden-Württemberg in 2005, the Nijinsky Award in Monte Carlo in 2006, the Choreographer of the Year in the critics’ survey by the magazine Tanz in 2015, and the Dutch dance prize Zwaan, as well as the Italian prize Danzadanza for the best choreography of the year in 2017. 

In 2022, he was awarded the Jiří-Kylián-Ring and the German Dance Prize.

The book Dark Matter (Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg), published in 2016, offers a concise overview of his oeuvre. 

His most recent successful works include the full-length piece A Wilde Story, based on the life and work of the author Oscar Wilde, for the Staatsballett Hannover, and In The Dutch Mountains for the Nederlands Dans Theater, created in 2023.Description text goes here

Mike Tyus is an acclaimed dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and creative director from Los Angeles, California. For more than 15 years, Mike has performed and created internationally, captivating audiences through his unique fusion of circus theater, acrobatics, ballet, and Greco-Roman wrestling. As a performer, he has starred in Cirque Du Soleil’s IRIS and KOOZA, joined Pilobolus Dance Theater, and appeared in works by Ryan Heffington, Philippe Decouflé, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. He has also been a contributing choreographer and performer for Emursive Productions’ LIFE & TRUST and Associate Choreographer for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s immersive MASQUERADE on Broadway. 

As a choreographer, Mike has created notable works, including Holy for Le Ballet Opéra de Avignon, Stoned for Conflux Dance Theater, as well as commissions for SuperBlue Museum, The Broad Museum, LA Dance Project, Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Works, and Peridance Contemporary Dance Company. Mike's films include ELSEWHERE, aired on PBS, and exhibited by MoMA. He has choreographed for FKA Twigs’ Esexua world tour, Zendaya’s Lancôme campaign, Grace VanderWaal’s tour, and music videos for Adekunle Gold and Anna Margo. 

Dedicated to education, Mike has taught at CalArts, MIT, Point Park, Utah University, CLI Conservatory, Gibney, Peridance, SALT Dance, and more. As a creative director, Mike Tyus has developed campaigns for Apple, SONY, Anthropologie, and Abercrombie & Fitch. Most recently, he served as Movement Director for a new mural commissioned by Lincoln Center for JFK Airport, to be unveiled in 2026. At the heart of Mike's mission lies community and creation, and building works that reflect and uplift the human spirit.Description text goes here

Katarzyna (Kate) Skarpetowska began dancing at age 13 in Warsaw, Poland. At 15, she became the youngest cast member of the hit musical METRO, which transferred from Warsaw to Broadway's Minskoff Theatre in 1992. After graduating from New York City's High School of Performing Arts, she earned a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School.

From 1999 to 2006, Kate was a principal dancer with Parsons Dance, performing leading roles including the iconic Caught. She later danced with Battleworks Dance Company, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company (2007–2014), and appeared as a guest artist with Buglisi Dance Theatre. Her career has taken her to renowned venues including New York City Center, the Kennedy Center, and Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre.

As a répétiteur and assistant choreographer, Kate has staged works by Lar Lubovitch, David Parsons, and Robert Battle for many of the world's leading companies, including New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Martha Graham Dance Company, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Austin, Beijing Dance Academy, Introdans, and The Juilliard School. In 2016, she assisted Lar Lubovitch in creating The Bronze Horseman for the Mikhailovsky Ballet in St. Petersburg.

Kate's choreography has been commissioned and performed by numerous companies, including Richmond Ballet, BalletX, Smuin Ballet, Alvin Ailey II, Parsons Dance, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Hubbard Street 2, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Houston METdance, and leading universities across the United States.

Her honors include being named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" (2016), a Bessie Award nomination for Emerging Choreographer (2017), BalletX's Choreographic Fellowship (2019), and selection for the National Choreographers Initiative (2021). She is also an internationally sought-after teacher, having taught at the American Dance Festival, American Ballet Theatre, School of American Ballet, Peridance, and other major institutions. Since 2017, she has served as a part-time lecturer at the University of California, Irvine.