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YDI is unique in offering students direct mentorship with working professional dancers.

Rather than camp counselors, students are paired with mentors who have studied dance in higher education, and are now working in the field as performers, choreographers, organizers, and educators. Mentors provide oversight and safety by living in the dormitory with the students and accompanying them to classes, meals and all evening and weekend activities. Students meet with their mentors one-on-one during daily lunch-time check-ins, and in small groups during nightly hall meetings.

Mentors

Emilia Bruno, Director of the YDI Mentorship Program

Originally from Lake Zurich, IL, Emilia Bruno (they/them) is an Italian-American, queer movement artist and educator based in College Park, MD. Their performance credits include Shapiro & Smith Dance, Zenon Dance Company, Slo Dance Company, as well as recent collaborations with Charlotte Richardson-Deppe, Tristan Koepke, Kendra Portier/BANDportier, Mary Kate Ford, Brit Falcon/Falcon Dance, and Rebecca Steinberg. Emilia is a core collaborator with Tristan Koepke, regularly creating and performing new works over the last two years. In addition to their performance work, Emilia works as an arts administrator for Mariclare Hulbert Consulting, supporting the communication, marketing, and public relations efforts of nationally renown dance artists and organizations. Emilia’s relationship with the Bates Dance Festival began in 2018 as a mentor for the Young Dancer’s Intensive. They have held this role for four summers and are thrilled to be returning this year as the Director of Mentorship. Working with this program continues to nourish and deepen a dedication to non-competitive, supportive learning environments for aspiring artists and LGBTQIA+ youth. Emilia received their BFA in Dance and BS in Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and will soon begin their graduate studies as an MFA candidate in Dance at the University of Maryland, College Park in the fall of 2024.

Aryanna Allen

Aryanna Allen (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based dancer, choreographer, teacher, and arts administrator. They attended Emory University, where they performed works by Kendra Portier, Dafi Altabeb, George Staib, and Gregory Catellier. Throughout her freelance career, Aryanna has choreographed and performed in many festivals like the Alabama Dance Festival, Modern Atlanta Dance Festival, and Modern Moves (NYC). They have performed works by Mark Caserta, Marco Palomino, Yoshito Sakuraba, and Christian Denice. Currently, they dance with Kinesis Project, RogueWave, and KTCO. They serve as Administrative Manager for MBDance, Administrative Director for Lyrric Jackson Dance Company, and work as Research Assistant for T. Lang Dance. Aryanna has a passion for teaching and has led classes in modern, contemporary, ballet, jazz, and tap, ages 7-18, for studios across the east coast over the past 5 years. This will be their second year as a YDI Mentor and they could not be more excited for BDF 2025!

Cecilia Benitez

Cecilia Benitez is a freelance dancer, choreographer, educator, and artistic administrator based in Miami, Florida. She earned her BFA in dance from Point Park University  and studied abroad in Madrid, Spain at the Conservatorio de Danza Superior “María de Avíla”. Currently, she dances for Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre and Adele Myers and Dancers while teaching, dancing, and choreographing for Syncopate Collective. Her dance films have been featured in both ScreenDance Miami and the 305 & Havana International Improv Fest. Her choreography has been commissioned by Miami Light Project’s “Here and Now” program, Miami DanceMakers, Pioneer Winter’s “Grass Stains”, Bistoury Physical Theatre and Film, and Mutual Dance Theatre based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Most recently she worked as assistant choreographer and rehearsal director for Forklift Danceworks production The Way of Water. She is also a 2024- 2025 Koubek “En Residencia” artist. When not dancing she teaches at various public schools around Miami- Dade County serving as a guest artist and choreographer. She is the lead teacher at the Dennis C. Moss Center for their kid’s contemporary and adult ballet programs. Her favorite pastimes include reading, biking, writing letters, and making/ sharing Cuban coffee!

Kai A. Cole

Kai A. Cole is a Jamaican dance artist and dance educator based in Kingston, Jamaica. Her journey in dance really began at age 14 at BEAM Jamaica, and has now yielded multiple years of training, performance and professional experience in a variety of classical, contemporary and Afro-Caribbean Folk forms.

In 2023, Kai graduated from the Edna Manley College School of Dance, with a BFA (Hons) in Dance Performance and Choreography. She now teaches dance “full-time…part-time” at various institutions across Kingston.

With a persistent desire to train and perform, she seeks out all opportunities to move, appearing in numerous freelance projects (BREATHE, Fuel), and participating in classes and intensives with Plié for the Arts Jamaica, CDT Jamaica, Backhaus Dance and the Debbie Allen Dance Academy.

Kai’s favourite things about dance are its ability to calm her spirit and her mind, and the community it has afforded her with like-minded individuals who share a passion and love for the arts.

Heather Dutton

Heather Dutton (she/they) is a Brooklyn based queer and gender fluid dance theater artist driven by a deep fascination with human nature. Their multidisciplinary approach to movement calls on their background in theater, comedy, creative writing, and a range of dance techniques. She strives to tackle complex concepts in logical and digestible ways, with an eye toward simultaneously challenging and entertaining audiences. She was a recent artist in residence with American Dance Festival and is preparing to share work at Flushing Town Hall and ODC Theater. Their work has also been seen at Arts on Site, Here Arts Center, Dixon Place, LPAC, the Tank, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and more.

Laila J. Franklin

Laila J. Franklin is a multidisciplinary dance artist based in Massachusett and Pawtucket land | Boston, MA. Her work explores kinetic imagination through the juxtaposition of virtuosic and intimate performances. She is interested in meta-commentary, deconstruction, and bits, approaching themes surrounding the human experience with complexity, nuance, curiosity, and humor. Her work extends from lineages of traditional and experimental Black, queer dance makers, with a particular interest in the collision of postmodernist creation frameworks and story ballet.

Laila’s work has been commissioned by Brown University and Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and presented by Public Space One, Loculus Collective’s Sideways Door Festival, and Movement Research at The Judson Church. Her credits as a performer include projects with Ruckus Dance, Haus of Pvmnt, Miguel Gutierrez, Dr. Christopher-Rasheem McMillan, Jennifer Kayle, Melinda Jean Myers, and Stephanie Miracle. She was recently featured as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” of 2024. Laila holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Iowa, a BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance from The Boston Conservatory, and is a proud alumna of the dance department of Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC.

Lauren Linder

Lauren Linder (she/her) is a choreographer, educator, and writer based in Iowa City, IA. Lauren’s choreography mines the space between the dancing body and the writing body. Through attention to softness, syntax, play, and gesture, Lauren’s work problematizes hierarchies of movement and traces relational ambiguities. Prior to relocating to Iowa, Lauren danced in Seattle, WA. Her performance credits include the Pat Graney Company, Alice Gosti, the Three Yells under Veronica Lee-Baik, Petra Zanki, Melinda Jean Meyers, and Stephanie Miracle. 

Lauren is an MFA candidate in Dance at the University of Iowa. Lauren also holds an MA in Multilingual Education, a B.F.A. in Dance and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Iowa. Lauren is a teaching artist with the UI Youth Ballet and the director of Combined Efforts Dance, a dance company that facilitates purposeful collaboration between dancers with and without intellectual disabilities.