Moving Between Tongues: Choreographing Translation Project
Friday May 8, 2026
The Body Speaks: Scribing and Scoring Autoethnography
Free Performance, no tickets needed
UW-Milwaukee, Peck School of the Arts
Mitchell Hall, Studio 254
Department of Dance Student Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) Kasey Eckhardt, Paloma Kong-Ndoumbe, Elise Leonard, and Brooke Allison Parkinson collaborate with faculty mentor Maria Gillespie to present an informal showing of their choreographic research. Music performance by Paul Westfahl. They will share their dance in which autoethnography, movement, and language reveal how embodiment is an unfixed, evolving terrain offering a kinesthetic map that coexists with language. As a queer performance practice, the work plays with the constraints of language as a limb to create portals into each other’s dancing stories, and relate to each other as their dancing archives undergo translation and transfiguration.
Kasey Eckhardt
Kasey is a dancer and choreographer currently pursuing a BFA in dance performance and choreography with a minor in Somatics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The primary focus of her training growing up was in ballet/pointe, Horton modern technique, and jazz. She has worked with many UWM Dance faculty, including Maria Gillespie, Daniel Burkholder, Dan Schuchart, Gina Laurenzi, Dawn Springer, and Mair Culbreth, from whom she learned aerial ropes experience. At UWM, she worked with guest artists, Aysha Upchurch, Karlies Kelly, and David Rousseve who was brought to the department via an NEA grant culminating in a two-year process with collaboration from Milwaukee’s professional ballroom vogue dancers and the Diverse and Resilient organization. Her choreography has been presented in Danceworks MKE Get It Out There and Dance Collective, a student-run showcase. She performed professionally for Ashley Ray Garcia in the evening-length show For The Wolves. Eckhardt is interested in communication through movement that is embodied by both athletic and imaginative disciplines.
Brooke Allison Parkinson
Brooke Allison (she/they) is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee studying a dual-degree in Dance and American Sign Language (ASL). Her musical family and education provided a rich array of training in dance, oratory skills, musical theatre, musicianship, and collaborative performance. At UW-Milwaukee, they spent three years as a Student Undergraduate Research Fellow (SURF) studying dance translation under the direction of department faculty member Maria Gillespie. In performance, she had the privilege of working with guest artists Vershawn Sanders-Ward, Kade Pyle, and David Rousseve. They hope to uplift and create accessible spaces for the Deaf community, and those historically barred from experiencing the arts.
Paloma Kong-Ndoumbe
Paloma is a dancer and multi-disciplinary artist focused on performance and choreography. Paloma spent two years at the vaganova ballet academy, Manstage Academy of Dance, performing in the studio choreographed Nutcracker and Cinderella, as well as their summer program. After high school Paloma studied Dance and English at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. In both programs her focus is the performance of original works, spending time in and outside of class generating new colorful choreographic work to perform for shows, peers, and people online. During her time at the UWM dance department Paloma has been a part of choreographic works by Kade Pyle, creator of Ballez company, Gina Laurenzi, and Mair Culbreth. Each aiding to develop new skills in Paloma as a dancer. During the creation and development of each repertoire Paloma quickly gained a new skillset, atoning to her adaptability and ability to pick up skills quickly. During her time at UWM she has also worked with two of her professors Maria Soledad Gillespie and Tiffany Kadani through the student research program, assisting in choreographic creation and ballet technique demonstration.
Elise Rose Leonard
Elise is a Minnesota born artist whose curiosity drives her to create, move, write, make, shape, and more. She is especially interested in telling stories through the body, creating safe spaces for community, and incorporating different forms of language into performance and practice. She will graduate this spring with a BFA in Dance and BA in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
