CEREMONIALS Cast and Crew

Blythe (Dancer)

AK Blythe (she/they) serves the Washington, DC arts community as a multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer. They are currently the Multimedia Design Manager at The Phillips Collection, America’s first modern art museum. With over a decade in the arts non-profit sector, Blythe crafts heartfelt storytelling underpinned by whip-smart design thinking. Blythe has performed with many DC-area dance companies and independent artists, including: Heart Stück Bernie, Taffety Punk, Spacetime Dance, Britta Joy Peterson, UpRooted Dance, Extreme Lengths Productions, RebollarDance, Human Landscape Dance, Nancy Havlik’s Dance Performance Group, ClancyWorks Dance Company, and DancEthos.

Their dance films have been featured in the Dance Place Dance on Film Festival, 38th Annual Choreographer's Showcase, CAPITOL Dance & Cinema Festival, FROSTBITE International Indie Fest, and Dumbo Film Festival. Blythe’s photography has been featured in The Washington Post, Financial Times, Washingtonian, Eater DC, The Brooklyn Rail, and East City Art.

 

Joey Rauch (Dancer)

Joey Rauch (he/they) is an Iowa-born, DC-based dancer. Joey went to Duke University, where he double majored in Public Policy and Dance, studying under the mentorship of Sarah Wilbur and dancing in works by Michael Kliën, Andrea Woods-Valdez, and more. While at Duke, Joey co-founded Embodiment Contemporary Dance, a student-led contemporary and improvisational group where they choreographed multiple works and facilitated classes for the group. In DC, Joey regularly dances at Dance Place and has regularly participated in the NACHMO DC Festival. Day-to-day, Joey works with national philanthropies on strategic planning, partnership, and research efforts.

 

Sydney Goldston (Dancer)

Sydney Amira Goldston (she/her) is a contemporary dance artist based in the Washington, D.C. area. As a performer, she has danced in works by Mark Caserta, Lionel Popkin, Brendan Drake, Shanice Mason & Jamison Curicio, and Angel Ramirez. She is a member of Robert J. Priore’s Compania Medusa, performing in venues including The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Dance Place DC, Dance Loft on 14th, and the Peabody Dance Festival. In collaboration with fellow artist Elan Robinson, Sydney has cultivated and deepened her choreographic practice. Their work, grounded by the rain, has been presented at Atlas Performing Arts Center, Dance Place DC, and the Baltimore Black Dance Festival. Most recently, they were selected as New Releases Commissioned Artists for Dance Place's 2025–26 season. Individually, Sydney has the pleasure of creating a new work on Albert Einstein High School students for their 2026 Spring Dance Concert. She views dance as physical and conceptual research, using movement to challenge expectations, reflect societal intricacies, and embrace radical self-expression. A 2024 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, she holds a B.F.A. in Dance Performance & Choreography and a B.S. in Criminal Justice. During her time at VCU, she performed works by Trebien Pollard, Autumn Procter Waddell, Scott Putman, Judith Steel, and guest choreographer Stefanie Martinez. In her senior year, she was awarded Outstanding Dancer and Outstanding Choreographer awards. Alongside VCUDance faculty, her movement language has been shaped through experiences with Gibney Dance Center, Doug Varone & Dancers, Sidra Bell Dance New York, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, YYDC, and Henny Jurrièns Studio. Instagram: @sydneyyamiraa

 

Joey Schuman (Dancer)

Hailing from Baltimore, MD, Joey Schuman is a dancer, musician, and multidisciplinary artist. Joey graduated from Baltimore School for the Arts and the George Mason University School of Dance (BFA), and has garnered additional training with companies such as Pilobolus, David Dorfman Dance, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Vim Vigor. He has danced internationally in Italy and The Netherlands, and has collaborated with and performed works by artists such as Robyn Mineko Williams, Bill T. Jones, Sara Shelton Mann and Jesse Zarritt, Doug Varone, and Christina Robson, among others. Recently, he starred as Wes in Iron Crow Theatre’s The View Upstairs, and was praised by BmoreArt Magazine for his “irresistible sincerity.” Joey’s music project, Jem Wilde, was deemed “electric” by the Washington CityPaper, and has brought him to perform both solo and with his band at numerous venues. Joey also loves bees, and has been known to befriend them.

 

Javi Padilla (Dancer)

Javier Padilla is an interdisciplinary movement based artist from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

They earned their BFA in Dance from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and an MFA in Dance from the University of Maryland, College Park. As a performer, they have danced professionally with Falcon Dance and Summation Dance in New York City, experiences that shaped their understanding of physical storytelling and ensemble collaboration. They have been fortunate to share their choreography across the United States and Puerto Rico, including at Dance Place (DC), Jacob’s Pillow (MA), Judson Memorial Church (NYC), Gibney Dance (NYC), Teatro Victoria Espinosa (PR), and Bellevue Center for the Performing Arts (WA). Their work has been supported by residencies through Mana Contemporary (Jersey City), the New Jersey Emerging Choreography Award via Dance on the Lawn Montclair, the Lift Off Development Residency at New Dance Alliance (NY), and twice by the CUNY Dance Initiative Residency through Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture in the Bronx.

 

Amanda Hameline (Dancer)

Amanda Hameline is a choreographer, dancer, projection designer, and producer. She has presented evening-length work and split-bills in venues across New York City including Kestrels, Coffey Street Studio, 3AM, CPR-Center for Performance Research, National Sawdust, Dixon Place, Triskelion Arts, and Martha Graham Studio Theater; and in Berlin at Lake Studios and Cordillera. She has also developed site-specific pieces for a variety of non-traditional performance spaces such as Christie’s New York, Pace Gallery, the Chelsea Hotel and in Miami at RAW Pop Up and The Moore Building. Her film work has been featured in the Triskelion Dance Film Festival, ScreenDance Miami, and Exquisite Frame (Dance Place in DC). She is also the co-founder of the NYC-based production company Amanda + James. (www.amandahameline.com / www.amandaplusjames.com)

 

Drew Scammell (Dancer)

Originally from upstate New York, Drew Scammell (he/they) now lives in Washington, DC, and dances/choreographs across the DMV area. He has danced with Compañia Medusa, Angel Ram Dance, the Effervescence Collective, Capitol Movement, the Rae Grey Dance Collective, and various individual choreographers. He has also worked extensively with Kyoko Fujimoto, Annika Dodrill, Will Miller, Zachary Frazee, Caitlin Mahon, Cynthia Williams, and Bill Evans. He graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 2018 with degrees in Physics (B.S.), Mathematics (B.A.), and Dance (B.A.). Alongside Levi Coy and Dylan Lambert, he is co-director of ThimS Dance Company (IG: @thimsdancecompany). He most recently has shown work at Dance Place’s New Releases showcase, B&B Collective’s Ten Tiny Dances, Kinetics Dance Company’s inaugural Community Dance Festival, Small Plates NOVA, Transformations Dance Festival, and Howard Community College’s Dance Showcase. Outside of dance, Drew worked at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) from June 2019 to May 2026, contributing to their mission of advancing science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. Come this fall, he will begin pursuing his M.F.A. in Dance at the University of Maryland. (IG: @drewscamms)

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Scott Monnin (Lighting Designer)

is a Lighting Designer from Granville, Ohio. They like to do work that centers identity and technology and are excited for their work on an upcoming new opera Making it Click that will focus on the intersection of technology, the self, and how it shapes our interactions with each other. They are particularly interested in exploring the intersections of gender and sexuality with technology and live performance art, as with works like Playing Wolves, which explore the intersection of live and virtual performance and have allowed them the chance to light virtually and in person simultaneously as well as explore virtual production at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts as one of their inaugural research fellows. This interest has accumulated in their thesis: “The Influence of Theatrical Design on the Formation of Gender and Sexuality Identities.”

They love how live theater gives an unique space for collaboration, interaction, mess, and the ability to directly confront audiences to achieve meaning in ways impossible to replicate through other media. 

Currently, they are based out of NYC & DC where they do both Design and Associate Design work, both locally and globally. They are on Tour as the Relighter for Dead as a Dodo, where they are excited to travel across the United States, bringing life to puppetry from Phoenix to Boston, as well as designing for several dance shows for American University and Peabody Institute. 

Recently, they graduated with an MFA in Theater Design from the University of Maryland, and previously earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics and English from Ohio State University. In grad school, they have been happy to expand their skills from theater into Dance and Opera, as well as working with new technologies for performance. They have been excited to work with shows like Dance² that have integrated robots and live audience feedback with dance. 

Selected recent Lighting Design Credits include Playing Wolves at Tepou Theatre in Auckland for New Zealand Pride, Dance² at the PRAx Center for the Arts in Corvallis, OR, The Creeps at Playhouse46 in Manhattan, Islander national tour as Associate/American relighter at various venues, and Rocky Horror at Pendragon Theater in Saranac Lake.

As an Associate last summer, they worked with Punchdrunk for Sleep No More‘s transfer to Seoul, Korea, and are excited to continue their exploration of immersive dance.

Outside of their own design, Scott has worked as an Associate/Assistant in several theaters in both Washington DC and New York: Signature Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theater, Roundhouse Theater, Onley Theater, Wolf Trap Opera, City Center, Playhouse46, and Theatre Row.

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Maryn Chambers (Stage Manager)

Maryn Chambers is a Washington, DC–based dance artist, choreographer, and stage manager currently pursuing dual bachelor’s degrees in Public Health and Dance at The George Washington University, where she is a Corcoran Scholar for Dance. She has worked as a stage manager, lighting technician, scenic assistant, and production assistant for numerous dance and theatrical productions at GWU and with organizations beyond the university.

 

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