Benjamin Millepied’s Romeo & Juliet Suite

Courtney Conovan is an Austin, Texas native. There she spent her early years training in gymnastics and dance. Once graduating high school Courtney went on to further her education at Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College SUNY where she performed works by Jie-Hung Connie Shiau, Doug Varone, Annie Rigney, Roderick George, and Rosalind Newman. During her time at Purchase she was selected to study abroad at the London Contemporary School of Dance for a semester. In 2020 Courtney performed for Marc Jacobs in New York Fashion Week, directed and choreographed by Karole Armitage. She has worked closely with SoulEscape for numerous years, performing as a company member for Justin Giles. Courtney is currently finishing up her BFA degree at Purchase college where she is expected to graduate in spring of 2022 while recently joining L.A. Dance Project for her first season with the company.

Jeremy Coachman, born and raised in Riviera Beach, Florida, began his professional career with Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal from 2015-2022. Whilst there, he had the opportunity to work with, and perform works by Itzik Galili, Andonis Foniadakis, Ihsan Rustem, Anne Plamondon, Juliano Nunes, Barak Marshall and Wen Wei Wang. He also had the pleasure to perform in 13 countries and countless cities in that time.

Jeremy enjoys the gift of dance and expressing through other means besides speech. He continually wants to explore the possibilities and push the limits of what the body can hold in expressive communication.

Lorrin Brubaker began dancing at age 10 in his hometown of Apopka, Florida. In 2012 he was admitted into The Juilliard School, where Lorrin performed works by Jose Limon, Lar Lubovitch, Jerome Robbins, Mark Morris, Camille A. Brown, Brian Brooks, Zvi Gotheiner, Matthew Neenan, and Peter Chu. Since graduating from Juilliard in 2017, Lorrin has danced full time with BODYTRAFFIC and Jacob Jonas The Company in Los Angeles, CA. Lorrin also had the honor of performing for the Merce Cunningham Trust in “Night Of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event.” He also made a guest appearance at The Hollywood Bowl for “Romeo and Juliet,” a collaboration between the LA Philharmonic and LA Dance Project. Lorrin is currently in his first season with LADP.

Daphne Fernberger, born and raised in NYC, began her professional career with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet before moving to Europe to join Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company. As a freelance artist, she danced for the Merce Cunningham Trust in “Night Of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event,” Ersan Mondtag, Margie Gillis Legacy Project, among others, in both Europe and the United States. Daphne graduated from American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School and received her BFA from The Juilliard School. During her time at Juilliard, Daphne had the honor of performing a lead role in Pina Bausch’s rarely seen work, “Wind von West,” also traveling to Germany to perform in celebration of Tanztheater Wuppertal’s 40th anniversary. Her own choreographies include “Hellerau is Female,” “WHOLE,” a short film for the fashion brand Rentrayage, the dance film “Environment as Self,” and “The River Within.” Daphne also movement directs for other projects, collaborating with visual artists, theater productions and more. Daphne Joined L.A. Dance Project in 2021.

David Adrian Freeland, Jr. received his early dance training at LaVilla School of the Arts in Jacksonville, FL and at the Jacksonville Centre of the Arts. He furthered his dance studies at several prestigious intensive programs affiliated with The Juilliard School, Nashville Ballet, Atlanta Festival Ballet, and the Bates Dance Festival. David attended the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase College and began working toward his BFA in Dance before being invited to join Ailey II, the second company of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where he danced for three years. During this time, he performed seminal works by Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison, Robert Battle, as well as new works by Troy Powell, Dwight Rhoden, Jennifer Archibald, Amy Hall-Garner, Malcolm Low, and Donald Byrd, among others. David’s professional experience also includes seasons performing with The Metropolitan Opera and Missouri Ballet Theatre. In 2016, David joined L.A. Dance Project where he has both created roles and danced in important stage and film works by Benjamin Millepied, Kyle Abraham, Justin Peck, Ohad Naharin, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Roy Assaf, Noé Soulier, and Shannon Gillen. David is the proud recipient of a 2018 Princess Grace Award in Dance.

A native from Yokohama, Japan, Shu Kinouchi joined L.A. Dance Project in 2020. Prior to LADP, Shu danced at Houston Ballet and Tulsa Ballet. Shu trained at Mayumi Kinouchi Ballet Studio, Hamburg Ballet School von John Neumeier, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre. Throughout his career Shu has worked with world class choreographers including Benjamin Millepied, Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, Janie Taylor, Jessica Lang, Marcello Angelini, Stanton Welch, William Forsythe, Aszure Barton, Ma Cong, Nicolo Fonte, Matthew Neenan, Jodie Gates, Ronald Hynd, Christopher Wheeldon, Ben Stevenson, Connor Walsh, Oliver Halkowich, Kazuyuki Futami, Melody Walsh and many others. Shu also creates original multimedia dance works which have been displayed at galleries in NYC, curated by NFT ASIA, and at MoveMint Experience in NFT NYC.

Nayomi Van Brunt began her formal training at age 9 with Atlanta Festival Ballet under Nicolas Pacana and Gregory Aaron. In high school, Nayomi started training at Atlanta Ballet’s Centre for Dance Education under Sharon Story. After high school she began dancing with Atlanta Ballet under John McFall. Since her time with Atlanta Ballet, Nayomi has danced with New York Theatre Ballet and Wonderbound. She has had the pleasure of performing in works by Christopher Wheeldon, Val Caniparoli, Victor Quijada, Janie Taylor, Charm La Donna, Pam Tanowitz, Gemma Bond, Madeline Hollander, and Benjamin Millepied. Nayomi has had the privilege to perform at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and the Vail International Dance festival. Nayomi has walked in Hermes women’s FW21 runway show, danced in Richard Mille’s WITHIN, modeled for Rodarte’s FW21, danced for singer Remi Wolf on Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show,” and modeled for Everlane’s “Releather”campaign. Nayomi joined L.A. Dance Project in 2019.

Hope Spears was born in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida where she began her dance training before graduating from Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts. She recently graduated with her BFA in Dance from George Mason University where she performed works by Micaela Taylor, Kyle Abraham, Shaun Boyle Darcy, Christopher d’Amboise, and Hope Boykin. Hope joined L.A. Dance Project in 2023.

Audrey Sides was born in Oakland, CA and received her early dance training at the Oakland Ballet School and the Oakland School for the Arts. She went on to train at the San Francisco Ballet School and joined Ballet Austin as a trainee upon graduation. In 2019, she moved to Chicago to train with the Hubbard Street Professional Program and in 2020 was a founding member of Little Fire Artist Collective. In 2021, Audrey moved to Vancouver, BC where she worked with artists such as Daina Ashbee, Joshua Beamish, The Biting School (Aryo and Arash Khakpour), Alyssa Favero/VOLT24, and Eilish Shin-Culhane, while developing her own choreographic practice and training at Modus Operandi, a contemporary dance training program directed by Tiffany Tregarthen, David Raymond, and Kate Franklin. While in Modus, Audrey performed new works by Shay Kuebler, Nicolas Ventura, b. Solomon, Brandon Alley, Yin Yue, and Zahra Shahab. Audrey joined LA Dance Project in 2023.

Mario Gonzalez has been dancing, teaching and choreographing professionally for past ten years. He started dancing at the Marya Kennett School of Dance in Goshen, NY. Mario received his pre-professional training at Walnut Hill School for the Arts and went on to attain his BFA from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase College. Currently, Mario is a company artist at Charlotte Ballet under the direction of Alejandro Cerrudo. He has previously danced with Los Angeles Dance Project, Visceral Dance Chicago, American Repertory Ballet, and the Merce Cunningham Trust.