2025 Intensive Faculty - Ethan Krischbaum

Ethan Kirschbaum (he/him) is originally from Oakland, CA, and began his

dance career as an apprentice with the Savage Jazz Dance

Company while still in high school. Traveling to New York City to

attend the Ailey School/Fordham University B.F.A. program,

Ethan graduated summa cum laude with departmental honors in

dance performance. While in his junior year, he joined Hubbard

Street 2, dancing and teaching workshops around the globe while

concurrently completing his degree. He has performed with the

Santa Fe Opera, and danced internationally including Canada,

Mexico, Holland, Germany, Israel, Switzerland, Luxembourg,

France, and Russia. In 2011 Ethan moved to Saarbrücken,

Germany to dance with Donlon Dance Company at the

Saarländisches Staatstheater under the direction of Marguerite

Donlon. Until its abrupt closure, he was on faculty at the Lou

Conte Dance Studio since 2012 and was named the Scholarship

Mentor, delegating scholarships to promising pre-professional and

early career artists. After completing five seasons with River North

Dance Chicago, Ethan was certified by the Ailey School to teach

all levels of the Horton Technique and is a freelance artist

performing at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, choreographing locally,

and teaching nationally as a guest to dance studios and university

programs alike. He joined the faculty of The Chicago Academy for

the Arts in 2022 as the Director of Modern Dance as well as the

faculty of Hyde Park School of Dance. Ethan is proud to be the

founder of Chicago Movement Collective and director of the Claire

Bataille Legacy Program, continuing to provide a home for

talented and passionate pre-professional dancers.

2025 Intensive Faculty - Braeden Barnes

Braeden Barnes (he/him) is a Chicago-based director, choreographer, and teacher with over 15 years of experience creating dance works. He performed professionally with companies including BalletMet, Joffrey Ballet Chicago, Billy Elliot the Musical, and Visceral Dance Chicago, and has worked with renowned choreographers such as James Canfield, Danielle Agami, and Lucas Crandall.

His choreography has been presented nationally and internationally, earning top awards at REVERBDance Festival and YAGP. Braeden has created work for companies like Cirque Du Soleil, Nevada Ballet Theatre, and A&A Ballet, among others.

In 2020, he founded Symbiosis Arts, a multidisciplinary dance nonprofit producing performances in Chicago and Denver and commissioning innovative artists. He also serves as Co-director of Visceral Encore, a company for dancers over 35.

2025 Intensive Faculty - Marc Macaranas

Marc Macaranas (he/him) is a dance artist and educator whose creative practice includes performance, choreography, and media design. He has performed across North America and Europe with companies that include Mordine and Co. Dance Theatre, Lucky Plush, Rubberband, Khecari, The Seldoms, DanceWorks Chicago, Luna Negra Dance Theatre, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, Big Boy Dance, and others. As a choreographer, his work been performed in the repertories of Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, The Big Muddy Dance Company, and DanceWorks Chicago. He holds a BA in Dance from the University of California, Irvine and an MFA in Dance from the University of Iowa. He is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Northern Illinois University where he serves as Dance Program Coordinator in the School of Theatre and Dance.

2025 Intensive Faculty - James Gowan

James Gowan, from Phoenix, AZ, began dancing at the age of 16 at

Tempe Dance Academy. He graduated with a B.F.A in Dance from Point

Park University. James has danced as a company member with Texture

Contemporary Ballet, River North Dance Chicago and DanceWorks

Chicago. He joined Alonzo King LINES Ballet in 2015. He has danced

many principle roles during his tenure in the company working closely

with King on new choreographies. Gowan has taught around the world

as part of the company’s outreach program. Since retiring from stage in

2023, James opened Energy Center Chicago. A fitness studio located in

East Garfield Park. He is also currently a free-lance dance artist and is a

certified trainer in the GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® methods.

2025 Intensive Faculty - Lucas Segovia

Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lucas Segovia began dancing at the age of 16. Just three years later, he joined Ballet Argentino as a Soloist under the direction of the legendary Julio Bocca. He was soon promoted to Principal Dancer and was the only performer, alongside ballet star Manuel Legris, to dance a solo in Bocca’s farewell performance—an event attended by over 300,000 people and broadcast live on national television.

Lucas has been a company member with The Washington Ballet, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company (under Christopher Wheeldon, with residencies in New York and London), and The Joffrey Ballet. Over six seasons with the Joffrey, he performed nearly the entire repertoire as a Soloist and Principal Dancer.

He has danced works by renowned choreographers including George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Christopher Wheeldon, Wayne McGregor, Alexei Ratmansky, William Forsythe, Val Caniparoli, Yuri Possokhov, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, among many others.

In addition to his classical and contemporary dance career, Lucas has appeared in musical theater, starring as Bernardo in West Side Story at Drury Lane Theatre, touring with the Broadway production of An American in Paris, and performing the role of Dream Curly in Oklahoma!.

Lucas has performed in over 400 cities worldwide, gracing many of the world’s most prestigious dance venues. He is a recipient of the Premio Clarín, one of Argentina’s highest honors in the arts.

Meet Jackson

Born and Raised in Brazil, Jackson began his ballet training at the age of sixteen. In 2015, he was accepted for the training program with The Joffrey Academy of Dance in Chicago where he continued developing his technique and earning the chance to perform with The Joffrey Ballet Company.

A few years later, he joined the New Jersey Ballet Company where he earned the opportunity to perform and choreograph his first ballet. Also in New Jersey, he was able to help produce a commercial which went on to winning an New York State Emmy. Since then, his choreography has also been featured in fashion and runway shows around Chicago. As a guest artist, he has performed for Chicago Repertory Ballet and Visceral Dance Chicago. Some other collaborations include the Annual Dance Divas Show supporting the health wellness of the local dance community as well as C5 Productions which has produced shows for companies such as Kraft Heinz.

Being based in Chicago, he continues his journey as a guest artist, choreographer, and teacher creating and performing for those who love the Art of Dance.

Meet Akilah

A Chicago native, Akilah Harris (she/they) received the majority of her dance training at the Joffrey Academy of Dance. They graduated from the Joffrey trainee program in 2016 and joined the scholarship program at Visceral Dance Center. Akilah joined CRB in 2017 for their 5th-year anniversary performance. After taking some time away from performing, Akilah attended the Alonzo King Lines Ballet Summer Intensive, where they danced works by Alonzo King and Maury Kerr. She worked with the Ruth Page Civic Ballet for their production of the Nutcracker, where she performed Ruth Page’s “Waltz of the Flowers” and snow scene. Akilah re-joined Chicago Repertory Ballet in 2020 and has since danced works by Mariana Oliveira, Taylor Mitchell and Mike Tyus as well as Wade Schaaf’s Sugar Plum Fairy from the Nutcracker. Akilah is excited for another season with the company.

Meet Haley

Haley Baker is originally from Enola, Pennsylvania and has been dancing since the age of three. She began her classical ballet training at Pennsylvania Regional Ballet in 2010 under the direction of Sandra Carlino. She also attended Ribbon Mill Ballet in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with individual coaching from Leslie Hench. She has attended summer programs at Pennsylvania Ballet, Miami City Ballet, the USA/IBC Dance School, and Joffrey Ballet Chicago. Baker went on to attend Indiana University and graduated from the Jacobs School of Music in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Ballet and an Outside Field in Psychology. In her time at Indiana University, Baker performed in a wide variety of works from choreographers such as George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Penny Saunders, and Mark Morris. In her senior year, Baker performed as Sugar Plum in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker and was working with Sasha Janes on the role of Cinderella in his new production of the full length classic. After graduation, she joined Grand Rapids Ballet where she danced for two seasons, performing in works such as George Balanchine’s Serenade and Christopher Stowell’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Baker is currently based in Chicago, IL, where she is teaching and pursuing freelance opportunities.

Meet Molly

Molly McGivern began her training at Illinois Ballet Theater under the direction of Susan Snider.  At 16 she moved away from Iowa for boarding school, attending The University of North Carolina School of the Arts under Dean Ethan Stiefel and Interlochen Arts Academy under Director Cameron Basden.  She received her BFA in Dance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music under Director Jiang Qi.   Senior year she had the opportunity to move to Boston as a trainee for BoSoma Dance Company, and upon graduating, was promoted to company dancer by director Katherine Hooper.  While in Boston, McGivern was also a company dancer for Tony Williams Dance Company (City Ballet Boston) under Tony Williams and SundanceX under David Sun.  Additionally she taught for Tony Williams Dance Center and Boston College.  Summer 2018 McGivern returned to the MidWest and moved to Chicago.  Prior to dancing with CRB she performed with Joel Hall Dancers under Jacki Sinclair and Esoteric Dance Project under Brenna and Christopher Tucker.

Meet Nicholas

Nicholas Hittle is currently a freelance dancing artist in Chicago, IL. He recently received a BA in Dance and a BS in Liberal Arts and Sciences for Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before studying with the Dance at Illinois, he has studied under Deanna Doty and other teachers at the Champaign Ballet Academy (CBA) along with the San Francisco Ballet School, mainly focusing on the Vaganova style Ballet technique. While at the University of Illinois, Hittle has studied in multiple disciplines under the instruction of Dance faculty including Jan Erkert, Abby Zbikowski, Dr. Cynthia Oliver, and Linda Lehovic, Dr. Kemal Nance, Endalyn Taylor and Tere O’Connor. In addition to performing Hittle also works as a choreographer. Some choreographic credits include his self-choreographed solo, vinyl historia, as part of Dance at Illinois’ Studio Dance 2 program, the Choreographer for a student-written musical Amongst the Clouds, the Assistant Choreographer of Illini Student Musicals’ production of Carrie, and the Choreographer of their production of A Chorus Line.