Princeton seniors Ethan Arrington (left) and Paige Sherman in rehearsal of a new contemporary ballet work by Matthew Neenan for the annual Spring Dance Festival. Photo credit: Jon Sweeney.
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- The Lewis Center for the Arts' Program in Dance at Princeton University presents the Spring Dance Festival: Threshold, a dance concert (April 4-5, 2025) premiering five works and featuring seniors in the dance program. The concert will include a new group piece by senior Kate Stewart and a contemporary solo work by Adam Littman Davis; a new solo work choreographed by guest artist Tamisha A. Guy performed by senior Madison Qualls; a new solo work by faculty member Davalois Fearon performed by senior Moses Abrahamson; and a new contemporary ballet duet choreographed by guest artist Matthew Neenan performed by seniors Ethan Arrington and Paige Sherman.
Performances are on Friday, April 4 at 7:30pm and Saturday, April 5 at 2:00pm & 7:30pm at the Hearst Dance Theater in the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton campus. The Hearst Dance Theater is an accessible venue with wheelchair and companion seating in the front row. The April 4 performance will be open-captioned. Performances are free and open to the public with tickets available through University Ticketing.
“Crystalline,” choreographed and performed by senior Adam Littman Davis, is a solo contemporary dance study in self-possession and liberty, beginning in extended silence and concluding with a variation on the second movement of Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata No.21 (Op. 53), played by Vince di Mura, the Lewis Center’s resident music director and composer.
Littman Davis, a New York City native, is studying philosophy and pursuing minors in cognitive science and dance. A graduate of Houston Ballet Academy and Joffrey Academy of Dance, Littman Davis trained in their youth with The School of American Ballet, Festival Ballet Providence, Miami City Ballet, Manhattan Youth Ballet, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. At Princeton, they have performed in works by Justin Peck, Caili Quan, Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener, and Stephen Petronio. Their repertory experience also includes works by Crystal Pite, Jiří Kylián, Christopher Bruce, Stanton Welch AM, Nacho Duato, John Neumeier, and Katlin Bourgeois. Littman Davis served as artistic director of the student dance group diSiac Dance Company in 2024 and has choreographed multiple original works during their time at Princeton. After graduation, Littman Davis will attend Yale University to pursue a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Psychology.
“Base of Joy” by senior Kate Stewart is an exploration of the resilience, effort, and perseverance required to sustain joy. Through a fusion of different dance styles and music, the piece delves into the tension between struggle and pleasure, revealing that joy is not merely felt, but is earned, fought for, and continually rediscovered. The work is performed by Stewart along with Emma Cinocca ’27, Isabel Matthews ’26, Maddy Mejia ’26, Aunyae Romero ’26, Braeh Simon ’26, and Olivia Taylor ’26.
Stewart, from Denver, Colorado, is majoring in the Department of Art and Archaeology’s Practice of Art track with a concentration in film and is pursuing a minor in theater and music theater in addition to dance. Before attending Princeton, she trained in ballet, hip-hop, jazz, modern, tap, West African, and contemporary dance at Cleo Parker Robinson, Colorado Ballet, and Dance Institute, which she represented in national competitions from 2017 to 2021. At Princeton, Stewart has performed in works by Raja Feather Kelly, Davalois Fearon, Omari Wiles, and Larissa Velez-Jackson. She has choreographed for several Lewis Center musicals including Paivapo ’76 by Tanaka Dunbar Ngwara and A Life Worth Living by Jeffery Chen, and she has worked as choreographer for the Princeton Playhouse Choir since 2024. Stewart is a member of the student group eXpressions Dance Company.
Lecturer in Dance Davalois Fearon has choreographed a new solo work to be performed by senior Moses Abrahamson. “Fragmentation” explores the tension between stillness and motion, presence and absence, as the dancer moves through the ruins of a world left behind. Created in response to Kay Sage’s painting The Instant, this solo work navigates shifting forms and incomplete movements, blurring the boundaries between structure and decay. Through movement, it grapples with the act of rebuilding—piecing together remnants of the past to construct something new, yet never whole.
Abrahamson is a senior from Berkeley, California, studying art history with minors in African American studies and dance. Before college, he trained primarily in classical ballet with Berkeley Ballet Theater’s Studio Company and attended summer intensives at Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet Academy, the Royal Danish Ballet, and the Royal Ballet School. At Princeton, he has performed in original and adapted works by Yue Yin, Raja Feather Kelly, and Fearon. Abrahamson is a member of the student group eXpressions Dance Company, for which he previously served as publicity chair and choreographed several stage, workshop, and audition pieces.
Fearon is a choreographer, dancer, and educator, known for using her art to address complex social issues such as water rights and white supremacy. She has performed in venues such as the Joyce Theater and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Fearon’s immigrant experience deeply influences her unique movement vocabulary and dance-making approach. Her career includes 12 years with the Stephen Petronio Company, and she has received several awards, including a 2017 Bessie Award. In 2016, Fearon founded the Davalois Fearon Dance Company. She has created works for the Bronx Museum, Harlem Stage, and Barnard College and is currently working on commissions for the Stephen Petronio Company and Carnegie Hall.
Guest artist Tamisha A. Guy has choreographed “BeComing,” a new solo work to be performed by senior Madison Qualls that asks the question: How do you know if you’re on the right path in life, when that path is more like a river, flowing and shifting, sometimes calm and sometimes wild?
Qualls is a senior from Baltimore, Maryland, majoring in Near Eastern studies and pursuing certificates in Arabic language and culture and the history and practice of diplomacy, along with a minor in dance. Prior to college, Qualls trained at Morton Street Dance Center and joined her high school's dance company, Blue Allegro. At Princeton, she has performed original works by Ronald K. Brown and Shamel Pitts and has danced in the independent original senior projects of Jonathan Golden, Isabel Kingston, and Sophie Main. Qualls is a member of two student dance groups on campus, Bodyhype Dance Company and Princeton University Ballet.
Guy, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, began her formal dance training at Ballet Tech under the direction of Eliot Feld, then at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and SUNY Purchase College as a double major in dance and arts management. She has performed works by William Forsythe, Bebe Miller, Doug Varone, Merce Cunningham, Pam Tanowitz and Mark Morris. In 2013, she joined the Martha Graham Dance Company and in 2016 was both selected as one of Dance Magazine's Top 25 to Watch and received a Princess Grace Award. In 2017, she was named one of the Best Dancers of the Year by Dance Europe, and she received the 2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Dance. Guy has taught masterclasses in Hawaii, London, Berlin, Haiti, Colombia, Minneapolis, Arizona, and Dallas. She currently dances with A.I.M under Kyle Abraham and is on the dance faculty at Barnard College.
Hearst Choreographer-in-Residence Matthew Neenan has created a new contemporary ballet duet, “Contest,” for seniors Ethan Arrington and Paige Sherman. Noting that nothing is ever wrong with a little healthy competition between peers, Neenan shares that this combative yet friendly duet between two equally matched colleagues pays homage to Dvořák’s frisky and vibrant “Piano Trio No. 2 in G Minor.”
Arrington is a senior pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering with a minor in dance. Originally from San Francisco, he began his ballet training at San Francisco Ballet before continuing at Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, Washington, where he graduated from the pre-professional program. He has performed works by Helgi Tomasson, Christopher Wheeldon, and George Balanchine, and has completed intensives at the School of American Ballet and Houston Ballet Academy. At Princeton, Arrington has danced in works by Justin Peck, Amy Hall Garner, Ronald K. Brown, Yue Yin, and Steven Petronio. He is an active member of Princeton University Ballet, where he has also choreographed multiple original works.
Sherman is a senior from New York City majoring in molecular biology with a minor in dance. Before college, she trained in the pre-professional program at Steps on Broadway focusing primarily on classical ballet but also training in Horton technique, contemporary, and jazz styles. In addition, she has attended intensives with the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and Ballet Academy East. At Princeton, Sherman has performed in works by Justin Peck, Amy Hall Garner, Caili Quan, Bill T. Jones, Yue Yin, and Stephen Petronio, as well a new work based on Mark Morris’ choreography staged by dance faculty member Tina Fehlandt. Sherman is a member of two student dance groups, Princeton University Ballet and eXpressions Dance Company.
Hailed by the New York Times as "one of America's best dance poets," Neenan began his dance training at the Boston Ballet School and with noted teachers Jacqueline Cronsberg and Nan Keating, later attending LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts and the School of American Ballet in New York City. Neenan danced with Pennsylvania Ballet (now Philadelphia Ballet) from 1994-2007, where he danced numerous principal roles in the Balanchine and contemporary repertoire and was resident choreographer from 2007-2020, creating 20 ballets. In 2006, Neenan co-founded BalletX with Christine Cox. BalletX has toured Neenan's choreography globally to venues such as New York City Center, The Joyce Theater, The Kennedy Center, Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts, The Vail International Dance Festival), and Jacobs Pillow Festival, among many others. He has created world premieres for the New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Ballet West, Nashville Ballet, BodyTraffic, USC Kaufman School of Dance, and The Juilliard School, among several others companies and institutions. He has received numerous awards and grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, The Pew Charitable Trust, The Choo San Goh Foundation, The Independence Foundation, and four fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
The Program in Dance, now in its 54th year, has grown to include five full-time and nine adjunct faculty and offers 23 different courses serving more than 400 students each year with a curriculum that includes introductory courses, courses suited for dancers at the pre-professional level, as well as courses in dance studies and interdisciplinary contemporary practices. Seniors earning a minor in dance undertake a course of study and performance, co-curricular classes, technical hours, and an independent project such as choreographing a new work, performing a new or repertory work by a professional guest choreographer or faculty member, or a work of dance scholarship. Threshold represents these seniors’ work in pursuit of the minor. They are joined by four other seniors who presented or are presenting original choreographic works in other performances this semester: Tierra Lewis, Sophie Main, Clara Toujas, and Faith Wangermann.
Visit the Lewis Center website to learn more about this event, the Lewis Center for the Arts, and the more than 100 public performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts, lectures, and special events presented by the Lewis Center each year, most of them free.
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