2025 NCI CHOREOGRAPHERS
Natasha Adorlee is an Emmy Award-winning choreographer, filmmaker, composer, and educator based in San Francisco, CA. A first-generation Asian American woman, she was the final Artistic Fellow with Amy Seiwert's Imagery. She began choreographing in 2016 while building a distinguished dance career with Robert Moses' Kin, ODC/Dance, Kate Weare & Co., and the San Francisco Symphony. After winning more than ten international awards for her acclaimed 2018 short film Take Your Time, she quickly became a sought-after filmmaker, choreographer, and composer.Natasha studied at SUNY Purchase before graduating from UC Berkeley, after which she was invited to join ODC/Dance. As a performer, she has danced an extensive repertoire and contributed original choreography, sound design, and artistic direction to over 20 ODC/Dance repertory works.
Beyond her work with the company, she has created more than 20 original dance-based works spanning stage, film, and immersive performance. Her recent commissions include pieces for Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Works, Kansas City Ballet, Richmond Ballet, BalletX, Ceprodac (Mexico), Kawaguchi Ballet (Japan), Ballare Carmel, Ballet22, and Imagery. Additionally, she has created original works for Pixar Animation Studios, Oculus, National Geographic, and The New Yorker magazine.
Natasha founded Concept o4 to develop multimedia dance-based experiences that promote greater accessibility to the arts. In 2024, she received the Grand Prize at the Palm Desert Choreography Festival for Blooming Flowers and the Full Moon and was awarded an NEA Grant, a Dresher Fellowship, and a Jacob’s Pillow Choreographic Fellowship. Currently in a prolific creative period, Natasha shares her expertise in movement and film through Dance on Camera workshops and serves as an Artistic Advisor for Ballet22.
Glenn Edgerton has enjoyed an international career as both a dancer and director. He spent 11 years with the Joffrey Ballet, performing leading roles in both classical and contemporary works under the mentorship of Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino. His repertoire included masterpieces by John Cranko and Sir Frederick Ashton, as well as works by groundbreaking choreographers such as Twyla Tharp, Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Paul Taylor, and Laura Dean.
In 1989, Edgerton joined the renowned Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), where he immersed himself in its innovative repertory for five years. Following his retirement from performing, he became the Executive Artistic Director of NDT 1, leading the company for a decade and presenting works by Jiří Kylián, Hans van Manen, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Mats Ek, Nacho Duato, Jorma Elo, Johan Inger, Paul Lightfoot, Sol León, and many others. From 2006 to 2008, he directed the Colburn Dance Institute at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, CA, while also teaching at UCLA and CalArts. In recognition of his contributions to the arts, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA.
Edgerton joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago as Associate Artistic Director in 2008 and was appointed Artistic Director the following year, a role he held until 2020. Under his leadership, the company achieved worldwide recognition while nurturing the next generation of dancers and choreographers. Many of these artists, including Alejandro Cerrudo, Rena Butler, Robyn Mineko Williams, Penny Saunders, Emilie Leriche, Alice Klock, and Florian Lochner, have since become leading voices in the dance world. I
n the fall of 2020, Edgerton joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK, as an instructor, specializing in ballet with an emphasis on the works of Jiří Kylián and Gerald Arpino. In 2022, he was invited by American Ballet Theatre to teach company class and stage Jiří Kylián’s iconic Sinfonietta. He continues to teach at the University of Oklahoma, where he is now an Associate Professor of Ballet.
Originally from Woodcliff Lake, NJ, Morgan Sicklick received her early training at the Irine Fokine School of Ballet. She graduated summa cum laude from Butler University in 2013 with a BFA in Dance Performance and a minor in Marketing, performing works by Paul Taylor and Nacho Duato.
Throughout her time at Butler, she earned multiple performance and academic awards, including a Butler Summer Institute Research grant in 2012. In August 2013, Morgan became an inaugural member of Kansas City Ballet’s (KCB) Second Company. Her repertoire at KCB included works by Michael Pink, Victoria Morgan, Septime Webre, George Balanchine, Todd Bolender, Devon Carney, and Anthony Krutzkamp. In July 2015, she also performed with Moving Arts. Later that year, Morgan joined Wonderbound in Denver, CO, under the leadership of Garrett Ammon and Dawn Fay. She has since originated over 20 roles in works by Ammon and Ballet Master/Assistant to the Artistic Director, Sarah Tallman. In 2017, she performed with Wonderbound at the Vail Dance Festival.
As a choreographer, Morgan has created works for Wonderbound, various dance schools, and independent artist collectives, as well as setting an original piece on KCB’s Second Company. Most recently, she choreographed for KCB’s 2024 production of New Moves and created a work for New Paradigm Dance Theater’s participation in the 2025 Regional Dance America MidStates Festival.
In addition to her performance and choreographic work, Morgan has extensive experience teaching ballet, pointe and pre-pointe, repertoire, and contemporary movement and partnering to students of all ages. She currently serves as Board Secretary for New Paradigm Dance Theater and previously sat on the Board of Directors for Kabbalah Experience, a nonprofit organization focused on adult spiritual education.
Makino Hayashi is a choreographer based in Portland, OR. Born in Kumamoto, Japan, she began her ballet training at Kumamoto Ballet Studio. She later moved to the U.S., dancing professionally with Colorado Ballet from 2002 to 2008 before joining Oregon Ballet Theatre (OBT) in 2010, where she performed primarily soloist and principal roles. After an accomplished career, she retired from OBT in 2023.
Throughout her career, Makino has guested with several companies in both the U.S. and Japan. Since 2014, she has been choreographing and teaching ballet and contemporary dance at all levels. Her most recent work, The Message 2024, had its world premiere in June 2024 as part of Oregon Ballet Theatre’s Made in Portland program. Her other choreographic works include The Rose (2023), What Do You See… (2018), and Brothers and a Sister (2014), all created for OBT. What Do You See… was performed at Women Choreographers PNW in May 2024 and Union PDX in 2022.
In addition to her work with OBT, Makino has choreographed Inside Voice for Boulder Ballet’s New Moves in Boulder, CO, and Seven Wonder for Oregon Origins Project II in Portland, OR, both in 2023. In 2021, she created KIZUNA as part of Ten Tiny Community Healing Dances, a city arts program in Portland. Her 2019 piece, Black Earth, was performed throughout Oregon as part of In a Landscape: Classical Music in the Wild with pianist Hunter Noack and later featured in the 2020 SzólóDuó choreographer competition in Budapest, Hungary.
Looking ahead, Makino will choreograph a new work for Nevada Ballet Theatre in the spring of 2025. Her piece Footprints, performed by the Inspire Dance Centre senior group, placed in the Top 12 at the YAGP Huntington Beach, CA competition. Additionally, Be You was featured in OBT2’s Raw Pieces of Eight performance in 2021.
As a dancer, Makino has performed works by renowned choreographers such as Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Matjash Mrozewski, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Nicolo Fonte, Helen Pickett, Jennifer Archibald, Rena Butler, and Christopher Stowell. She has also guested with Washington Ballet (DC), Festival Ballet (RI), State Street Ballet (CA), and Okamoto Ballet (Fukuoka, Japan).
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