ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Eleanor Bearss
Eleanor Bearss has been dancing since 2005 and never plans on stopping willingly. She attended college at Ohio Wesleyan University majoring in Political Science and Dance. She finds influence from her queer, southern roots. She would like to thank her Mother, Father, Rashana Perks-Smith, Uncle Robert Fichter, Aunt Nancy Fichter and all her dancers for their continued support.
Lily Bella Hammons
Lily Hammons is a dedicated dance artist and educator in Columbus, Ohio, where she performs with Whirlwind Dance and presents her own choreography at festivals and showcases. Originally from Salt Lake City, Lily is a recent graduate of the University of Utah where she earned a BFA in Modern Dance and a BS in Business Marketing with a management minor. During her studies, she worked with distinguished faculty and choreographers, deepening her commitment to both performing and creating new work.
Now entering her second season with Whirlwind Dance, Lily continues to explore movement as both artist and educator, always seeking new ways to connect and collaborate through dance. Inspired by time spent outdoors, spontaneous adventures, and a love of reading, she brings a sense of curiosity and wonder to her artistic practice—finding magic in movement and in everyday life.
Alicia Hann
Alicia is a dance educator, performer, and choreographer based in Columbus, OH. She began training in early childhood focusing heavily on ballet, later receiving a BFA in modern dance performance and choreography from Ohio University. Alicia fell in love with modern and contemporary dance forms because of their endless possibilities for creative physical expression. She has been grateful for performance opportunities across the midwest, notably with Hixon Dance Company, Doma Dance Theater, StilGo Dance + Tech, Columbus Modern Dance Company, Perennial Movement Group, and HOMING. Alicia’s choreography has been featured in Hixon Dance’s Frontiers, Cleveland Dance Festival, Columbus City Dance Showcase, with Honora Dance, The Movement Mission, and CoMo Dance Company. Alicia has been a dance educator for over a decade and continues to teach various dance techniques and improvisational forms in studio, community, conference, and university settings. Alicia hopes to be able to foster an appreciation of dance as a physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual pursuit. In addition to dancing, Alicia enjoys her urban vegetable garden, backpacking with her husband, and cuddles from her rescue dogs.
Grace Koenig
Grace Koenig is a passionate interdisciplinary artist, working across dance-making, architecture, and film. With experience in concert and competitive dance in Cleveland, Ohio, Grace pursued her education at the Ohio State University. There, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and Bachelor of Science in Architecture.
While at OSU, she studied in ballet, contemporary, and West African styles, supported by an international study abroad tour to Bahia, Brazil with the Department of Dance. Her cross-disciplinary education led her to curate exhibitions and festivals, engage in research based choreography for the stage, and choreography for the camera.
Grace currently dances in Columbus with XClaim Dance Company, contributing to the company’s repertoire. With a passion for teaching, she has designed the modern dance curriculum at XClaim Centre for the Arts and is pursuing a Pilates teaching certification. She is also the co-founder of a dance videography company, Blue House Productions, with a mission to aid in the preservation of dance history through video documentation and editing practices.
Maggie Liang + Yinqi Wang
Maggie Liang and Yinqi Wang are two Chinese-born and Columbus-based choreographers and dancers. They both graduated with a BA in Philosophy from New York University Shanghai, and recently received their MFA in Dance from the University of California-Irvine. Their collaborative works have been selected to be presented at dance festivals in the United States and China, including Austin Dance Festival (Texas), Contemporary Dance Choreography Festival (Florida), 92NY Future Dance Festival, Dumbo Dance Festival (New York), and Guangdong Modern Dance Festival (Guangdong, China). Their works often explore themes of power dynamics, intimacy and violence, folklore and mythology.
Joel K. Linebach + Bird Thurman
Joel K. Linebach is an emerging artist based in Northeast, Ohio.He obtained his MFA from Case Western Reserve University. He was the recipient of the 2021 Lily Dreyfuss Memorial Award, the 2022 and 2023 Kathryn Karipedes Scholarship for Modern Dance, the 2024 Naomi Wolin Award for New Directions in Dance, and a 2023 Baker-Nord Center Graduate Research Grant. Linebach has performed full works by Larry Keigwin, Janice Rosario, Pam Tanowitz, Pascal Rioult, and Bill Wade and excerpted works by Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Yin Yue, Ronald K. Brown, and Mark Morris. As a choreographer, Linebach loves combining visceral artistry with technical complexity, creating work that resonates with audiences and promotes dialogue on everyday topics. He is heavily inspired by his polymer science background and continues working on finding ways both contemporary dance and polymer science can interweave and bridge together. Linebach is currently a company member with Inlet Dance Theatre. www.joelklinebach.com
Bird Thurman is a company member with Inlet Dance Theatre and Deno Dance Company. They hold a minor in dance from Purdue University, where they were deeply engaged in the dance community. At Purdue, Bird served as President of the Purdue Contemporary Dance Company, President and Director of XSeries Dance, and Vice President of the Contact Improvisation Club. Their diverse leadership roles reflect a commitment to both artistic growth and community building, shaping them into a versatile and dynamic performer. Primarily a modern dancer, Bird has a vast history with many styles, from ballet, jazz, tap, and contemporary, to contact improv and nontraditional partnering. Their love of physics spills into their dance space, especially during partnering, as the human body can do amazing things with the right mechanical advantage.
Emily Pierce
Emily Pierce (they/them) is a Columbus, OH-based dancer and choreographer inspired by kinesthetic experience, (auto)biographic context, physically and emotionally challenging movement, and task-based improvisation. They seek to develop live performance and film works that unpack, connect, and create meaning to those witnessing. Pierce performed with WhirlWind Dance for their 2024-2025 season, dancing in works by Joshua Manculich, Morgan Sandlin, and Anna Bauer. Other performance credits include works by Alexandra Beller, Brian Brooks, Kelly Hurlburt, Travis D. Gatling, and John Bohuslawsky, among others.
Pierce continued to pursue their choreographic interests and creative voice during their time with WhirlWind through the premieres of their most recent solo, "BOTTLE," which investigated how stifled feelings manifest in the body, and "pockets," a quartet reflecting on impending death. Additionally, Pierce developed a series of works created to explore what it means to negotiate queer intimacy in artistic practice, the importance of trauma-informed tools and practices in rehearsal processes, and how we continue to create, maintain, and support queer communities in artistic spaces. Their work has been presented at the American College Dance Association’s East-Central Conference, as well as Cleveland Dance Fest.
Pierce holds a BFA in Dance Performance & Choreography with a Diversity Studies Certificate from Ohio University.
PRODUCTION BIOGRAPHIES
Olivia "Libby" Atley
Lighting Designer
Olivia Atley is a graduate of Bowling Green State University ('00) with a degree in Dance Performance. Her fine arts experience spans over several decades on both sides, and wings, of the stage. Olivia has been managing and lighting shows in the central Ohio area for 20 years. She finds pure joy in helping bring the vision of each artist she works with to life. Olivia is the proud mother of 2 sons (one of whom is a current BGSU student) and an 8 year old chihuahua, that resides in Columbus where she works within the field of maternal and infant health.
Grace Glowacki
Stage Manager
Grace Glowacki has been working with students in the performing arts and early childhood settings for over 10 years. Grace participated in multiple performing arts during middle and high school, before she began directing. While working for the Worthingway Arts Program, she began to help backstage with Hixon Dance Company performances. In 2021, Grace officially began working for Hixon Dance as Studio Operations Administrator. She has since become the Studio Manager. Grace’s favorite part about working for Hixon Dance, and supporting both the Education Program and the Company, is that there is always something new to learn and fun to have along the way.
Sarah Hixon
Producer
Sarah Hixon is a choreographer, dance educator, and artistic director of Hixon Dance. Ms. Hixon studied choreography with Doug Varone, Bebe Miller, David Parsons, Susan Rethorst, Vera Blaine, Susan Shields, and others. She trained at The Washington Ballet, American Repertory Theatre, and The Milwaukee Ballet, among others. She holds a BFA in Dance from George Mason University and an MFA in Choreography from The Ohio State University.
Hixon’s award-winning choreography has been presented at The Wexner Center for the Arts, The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., Joy of Motion, The Short North Stage, Playhouse Square Cleveland, The Lincoln Theatre, The Fairfax Center for the Arts, The Pivot Center, and others. She has worked with Opera Project Columbus, the Worthington Chamber Orchestra, CATCO is Kids, Vox Novus, COSI, and many collaborators throughout the region. Recent collaborative partners include The Columbus Symphony, The Movement Project, poet Maggie Smith, and composer Michael Rene Torres. She has received special commendations for her work from Congresswoman Joyce Beatty and Ohio House Representative Beth Liston.
She has taught at several universities and pre-professional schools throughout Washington, D.C., and central Ohio including the OSU Department of Dance, BalletMet Columbus, New Albany Ballet Company, Wittenberg University, George Mason University, and The Peabody Institute among others.