Ilona Bito is a dance artist and educator living in NYC. She has performed with artists including Kathy Westwater, The Commons Choir/Daria Fain, Adi Eytan, Dawn Kintsle, The A.O.M.C./Sarah Rosner, and Sinecdoche Dance/Belinda He, and is a co-organizer of Occupy Dance. Her solo and group choreography has been presented at Glasshouse, BKSD, Outpost, Open Perform , House Fest, and TAB. She teaches creative movement, improvisation, modern, ballet, and tap to children at Abrons Arts Center, WMAAC, BKSD, and with MR's Dancemakers in the Schools. She has previously taught pre-K - 2nd grade at Pono and Freebrook Academy, completed advanced training in "Original Play", and was a member of IDEA- the Institute for Democratic Education in America. She holds a B.A. and MS. Ed. from Sarah Lawrence College, where she completed her thesis with CPE 1: "Teaching Movement: Bringing Theory into Practice in NYC Schools." Her work investigates improvisation, play, and the creative collaboration between teaching and learning.

Elise Knudson is a New York based dancer/dance-maker. Her interest in being where ideas and actions intersect has led to occasional writing and collaborations with artists of various media. She has created about thirty long and short works which have been presented around New York City, in Canada and Mexico. She holds an MFA in dance from Hollins University and has worked with Koosil-ja/DanceKumiko, Risa Jaroslow, Luke Gutgsell and other wonderful people. Elise recently set a dance on Manhattanville College students and taught Theory and Practice of Improvisation at Yale University. She is a core member of Antititled Dialogue, a collective dedicated to the practice and performance of dance improvisation. In addition to Movement Research, Elise also currently teaches with Ballet Hispanico and Little Red.

Amanda Loulaki is the Programming Director of Movement Research. Ms. Loulaki was born and raised in Iraklion, Crete. In 1990 she received a BA in Education from the Department of Pedagogy in Crete. In 1994 she received a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio and moved to New York. She has been Programming Director at MR since 1998 and programmed the Movement Research Improvisation Festival/NY from 2000-2004. Ms. Loulaki has served on panels for Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Danspace Project at Saint Mark's Church (Food for Thought), P.S. 1 Museum of Modern Art (Warm Up Series) and Fresh Tracks (Dance Theater Workshop). Ms. Loulaki has performed in the works of various artists, has shown her own choreography in New York City, Greece, Romania, Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was an MR A.I.R. in 2001-02. Ms. Loulaki received her MFA in Dance from Hollins University in August 2007. Ms. Loulaki was one of the choreographers for The Barnard Project at Dance Theater Workshop (December 6-8, 2007), and was an adjunct Associate Professor at Barnard College of Columbia University during the 2007 fall semester. She has also taught at Hunter College, DNA (Dance New Amsterdam), M.I.T, American Dance Festival, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has been a Dance Makers in the Schools teaching artist since 2000 and currently teaches in the after school program at East Village Community School.

Bessie McDonough-Thayer is a dancer and choreographer currently living in Brooklyn. Born in NYC and raised on Nantucket Island, Bessie graduated from Smith College in 2003 with a degree in dance and Italian, and has been living and working in New York ever since. She has been working at Litte Red School House (LREI) since the summer of 2009. This is her second year as the LREI Afterschool Program Coordinator, and she was previously a Core teacher for two years with the Blues. She enjoys working and collaborating with artists and friends in different fields and from diverse backgrounds.

Paloma McGregor is a Harlem-based artist and community builder. She has created performance work for theaters, outdoor stages, abandoned buildings, parks and a river. She is director of Angela's Pulse, which creates and supports collaborative performance work rooted in building community and telling bold, new stories. Paloma is currently developing Building a Better Fishtrap, an iterative performance project that examines what we take with us, leave behind and return to reclaim; the work is inspired by her 88-year-old father's vanishing fishing tradition. Part 1 of this project will premiere in May 2015 at Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. She is also currently Artist in Residence at BAX, where she is developing Part 2, a solo installation. Paloma was 2013-14 Artist in Residence at NYU's Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, where she focused on developing Dancing While Black, an initiative that cultivates platforms for process, performance, dialogue and documentation. Paloma toured internationally for six years as a dancer with Urban Bush Women and has performed in project-based work, including with Liz Lerman, Cassie Meador, Jill Sigman and Marjani Forte.