Alumni Panelist Bios
Celebration Weekend 2022
May 7, 2 – 3:30pm
Center for Art and Dance, room 305
Dustin Haug
Dustin Haug grew up in southern Minnesota and attended St. Olaf College. Although he was very active in the dance department and spent a good deal of time studying chemistry, he earned a BA in Visual Art in 2000. He moved to Seattle, WA after graduation and began working with KT Niehoff’s Lingo Dance Theater in 2002, creating and performing in several evening-length works, including Speak to Me, Relatively Real, and Inhabit. In the summer of 2007, Dustin moved back home to Minnesota.
Locally, he has shown his own work at The Walker Art Center’s Choreographer’s Evening, Zenon’s Dance Zone, Choreographer’s Evening at the Ritz, Bryant Lake Bowl, and SPCPA’s Evening of Dance. He has also had the pleasure of working with numerous local choreographers such as Body Cartography Project, Rosy Simas Danse, Patrick Scully, Maggie Bergeron and Dancers, and Chris Schlicting. Dustin joined Mathew Janczewski’s ARENA DANCES in 2013 to help create and perform the evening-length work The Main Street Project. He has performed in numerous repertory works since, and most recently developed and performed in the new, interdisciplinary performance of Thermal, which premiered at the American Swedish Institute in March of 2022.
Beyond his work with ARENA, Dustin has taught modern dance and contact improvisation at Zenon Dance School since 2008; as well as dance, chemistry, and physics at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists.
Erin Scheiwe Rockwell
Erin Scheiwe Rockwell, a Professor of Dance and MFA Program Director at Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi, holds an MFA from California State University, Long Beach and a BA in dance from St. Olaf College. She is certified in Pilates with BASI and is a Master Instructor with Balanced Body. Her choreography has been presented around her home state of Colorado and across the U.S. from Los Angeles to New York City. Erin is co-founder and co-director of Front Porch Dance, a contemporary dance collective established in 2008. Her artistic interests lie mainly in creating and performing dance works for both stage and screen.
Ariel Nereson
Ariel Nereson, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Dance Studies and Director of Graduate Dance at the University at Buffalo – SUNY. She is the author of Democracy Moving: Bill T. Jones, Contemporary American Performance, and the Racial Past. Her research focuses on the intersection of embodiment, racialization, and movement-based performance. She has published widely in venues like Dance Research Journal, American Quarterly, Theatre Survey, and others. She is the Book Review Editor of Theatre History Studies and sits on the board of the American Theatre and Drama Society. Ariel is also a choreographer and dramaturg.
Ash Hazen
Ashley R.T. Yergens is a dance artist based in Brooklyn, NY. His choreographic work explores the assimilation of trans identities into American popular culture and what events led Time Magazine to mark 2014 as the ‘Transgender Tipping Point’. Visually, his performances unapologetically cross-contaminate references, aesthetics, and performative boundaries found in commercial and avant-garde dance, social media (YouTube and Instagram), stand-up comedy, and queer nightlife. As a performer, you can spot him as an extra in the FX docuseries A Wilderness of Error, dancing next to Carly Rae Jepsen and Dev Hynes in the “Better Than Me” music video, or go-go dancing at queer clubs throughout NYC. Outside of dance, Yergens is known as Ash Hazen: a certified EMT-B, physical therapy technician, current health sciences student, husband to Dr. Alexes Hazen, and father of two cats, one dog, six chickens, and a dove. You can contact this person at mxashhazen@gmail.com.
Gail Gustafson
Gail Gustafson has a diverse career. She performed and toured internationally with inspired choreographers until 2000. She is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst, Therapeutic Pilates Instructor, and Tellington Touch Practitioner. She is an ordained Buddhist meditation teacher with an international sangha who studies via courses, private consultation, and retreat. Gail is an off-ice movement specialist for US and International figure skaters. 2022 marked the 4th Winter Olympics in which her clients competed. She moved to MN in 2021 and opened Northfield Center of Balance. (northfieldcenterofbalance.com) She is a Master Gardener and a Chen Tai Chi practitioner.
Jose Richard Aviles
Jose Richard Aviles is a multimedia artist, Urban Planner, and Social Worker based out of Los Angeles. As a former organizer, and a current artist, Aviles is interested in the intersections between space and justice, laughter and resistance, and the magic of the stage. Currently, Aviles is promoting their first published collection of poems, Semilla and developing a new poetry EP, “La Carta Que Nunca Envie” , an homage to Juan Gabriel and the countless lovers that are hidden in the lyrics. “Lo que se ve no se pregunta” – Juan Gabriel
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