Meet The Creative Directors of Wildly Brave
Cylene Walker-Willis
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Jessica Murphy
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Photo Credit: Britt's Eye View
Cylene Walker-Willis is an educator, choreographer, and artist. Walker-Willis grew up in the red dirt of Konawa, Oklahoma near the South Canadian River. Growing up in the eighties she enjoyed pop music and watching MTV but she was drawn to the rhythm and soul of blues music, listening to artists like Bill Withers and Otis Redding. Walker-Willis has been teaching jazz, ballet, and various other styles for 20 years. She was classically trained in ballet by Rebecca Larimer, formerly of the Houston Ballet, and received her jazz training from Sandra Johnson. She has been in numerous productions including the Chicago Festival Ballet’s production of Cinderella directed by Kenneth von Heidecke, protégé of Maria Tallchief. Along with ballet, she also has training in contemporary ballet, Broadway jazz, contemporary jazz, tap, clogging, lyrical, musical theater, and stage set and makeup design. Currently her choreography includes contemporary-jazz and modern genres. Walker-Willis also has a passion for facilitating community dance projects. In 1998 she helped build Second Man Ministries, a local liturgical dance and drama company, as a performer. She then became its director in 1999, directing and producing plays, musical dramas, and dances until 2003. For the past four years Walker-Willis was an Artistic Director for Stillwater School of Performing Arts and The Art of Dance Company along with working as ballet coordinator and instructor for Dance Star Productions. Through her company, Brave Productions, she also produced an annual community wide version of the Nutcracker as well as performing at City of Stillwater events including “Reading Flash Mob” sponsored by the public library. Most recently she performed in the 2015 Oklahoma Contemporary Dance Festival. Cylene Walker-Willis completed her MFA in dance at Texas Woman’s University. She resides in Stillwater, OK with her supportive husband, David and their two furry babies. Click the link below for more information about Cylene's community work. |
Photo Credit: Lynn Lane
Jessica Murphy is a teaching artist curious about collaborative making. She completed her MFA in Dance Choreography at Texas Woman's University where she was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Scholarship by the Department of Dance and the Outstanding Master's Student award by the Graduate Student Council. Previously she received her MAT and BA in dance and education at Sweet Briar College. Her dance training began at the young age of four and since then she has studied modern, ballet, tap, jazz, pointe, lyrical, musical theatre, and hip hop. She has trained extensively under the mentorship of Ella Magruder (Menagerie Dance Company/ Mimi Gerrard), Mark Magruder (Menagerie Dance Company/ Beverly Blossom/ Mimi Gerrard), Sarah Gamblin (Bebe Miller), Jordan Fuchs (Jordan Fuchs Dance Company), Matt Henley (Randy James Dance Works/ Sean Curran Company), and Mary Williford-Shade (Mark Taylor/Mark Dendy). She has taught at numerous locations throughout Virginia and Texas to students with ages ranging from three years to ninety-plus. Her choreography has been showcased at the World Dance Alliance Global Summit in Canada, the South by Southwest Festival, as well as various regional festivals and university concerts. Murphy’s philosophy of education is student-centered and she is currently experimenting with ways to make her dance-making process reflective of this philosophy. More specifically she is curious about how a group of artists create work together when there is no clear hierarchical power structure or single leader to guide the process. Born and raised in Virginia, Murphy currently resides in Texas where she serves as an adjunct professor of dance at the University of North Texas, Richland College, and Collin College. Click the link below for more information about Jessica's collaborations. |
Meet the company
Jillian Adair (Performer) began her dance adventure at the age of five, after developing a serious aversion to soccer from having to watch her two older sisters play. Miss Adair has trained in the genres of ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, pointe, and modern; she is the winner of a runner up for a scholarship in ballet, jazz, and a Merit Scholarship winner through the Texas Association Teachers of Dancing convention. With nineteen years of experience, Jillian spent ten years taking lessons at Joy’s School of Dance in Waco, where she was an enthusiastic member of the dance company. She became a teaching assistant at the age of fourteen, beginning a journey that led to her career path. Jillian recently graduated from Texas Woman’s University with a BA in Dance as well as her Teacher Certification in Dance Education. She values her time with her students, and hopes to share her passion and the discipline of dance through teaching.
Photo credit: Nicole Riggs Photography
Photo credit: Nicole Riggs Photography
For Alex Brooks (Performer & Crew), the love of dance began when she was just three years old. With a total of nineteen years in training, her passion to learn and educate others has only grown stronger. Alex has a background in ballet, jazz, hip-hop, tap, contemporary, modern, ballroom, gymnastics and afro-dance. Competition dance was a major role in her life for thirteen years.
Alex began teaching dance at eighteen at Dance Prodigy Studios located in Greenville, Texas. Here she taught ages two to adult level classes. Her class styles ranged from ballet, jazz, hip-hop, afro-dance, stretch and conditioning and ballet-tap combo. Alex was also one of the studio's competition choreographers for three years and Competition Director for one year. Her duties as director included organizing and planning curriculum for the competition teams along with planning which competitions and conventions the team would attend. Alex's experience also includes set and costume design.
Alex earned her Associates in Arts degree at Collin County Community College studying dance. Currently Alex is attending Texas Woman's University and will complete her Bachelor's in Dance. During her time at TWU she has been developing her teaching strategies as well as her personal dance technique. Alex's mission in teaching dance is to make the experience for her students as inclusive as possible. She believes everyone can find the passion for dance and movement if they are guided in the correct way.
Alex began teaching dance at eighteen at Dance Prodigy Studios located in Greenville, Texas. Here she taught ages two to adult level classes. Her class styles ranged from ballet, jazz, hip-hop, afro-dance, stretch and conditioning and ballet-tap combo. Alex was also one of the studio's competition choreographers for three years and Competition Director for one year. Her duties as director included organizing and planning curriculum for the competition teams along with planning which competitions and conventions the team would attend. Alex's experience also includes set and costume design.
Alex earned her Associates in Arts degree at Collin County Community College studying dance. Currently Alex is attending Texas Woman's University and will complete her Bachelor's in Dance. During her time at TWU she has been developing her teaching strategies as well as her personal dance technique. Alex's mission in teaching dance is to make the experience for her students as inclusive as possible. She believes everyone can find the passion for dance and movement if they are guided in the correct way.
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Ashton Caulfield (Performer)
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Emily Chappell (Performer)
Ryan Chappell (Crew)
Aurora Farnham (Performer & Crew) spent her formative years in the dance studio and on stage performing. She began college as a dance major before switching majors to accounting. She now fondly enjoys the title of dancing accountant and does most of her dancing around the house to entertain her daughter Ember and her husband Scott. Aurora is a mother, wife, daughter, Jesus lover, dancer, accountant, CPA, CIA, podcast fanatic, board game lover, and yogi.
Megan Hardy (Performer) has loved dance from a young age! She grew up training mainly in classical ballet. In high school she fell in love with modern dance and performed on her school’s Performing Dance Company. As a senior, she was honored to be her school’s dance representative for the Utah state Sterling Scholar program. She went on to earn a B.A. in dance from Brigham Young University, and enjoyed choreographing and performing with BYU’s Dancensemble. A highlight of her university experience was studying Chinese contemporary dance and Chinese folk dance at the Beijing Dance Academy. Since graduating, she has spent the last 10 years teaching creative children’s dance, social dance to church groups, educational movement classes to homeschoolers, and zumba dance fitness to her community. While living in Kansas, she had the opportunity to participate in a youth dance festival in Kansas City, and choreographed and performed an original duet for a local arts festival. She is living in Stillwater, OK with her husband and 3 boys and they are all big OSU fans. She is currently working on her M.S. of Marriage and Family Therapy, and hopes to incorporate movement and therapy throughout her life. Her favorite form of personal therapy: dance!
Precious Harris (Performer) began her dance training at the Grand Prairie Fine Arts Academy where she was a 2014 inaugural graduate. Upon graduation from high school, she attended Mountain View College where she choreographed her own works and performed with the Mountain View College Dance Company, Darrell Cleveland, and a local dance company called Pie in the Sky. These companies range in style from contemporary modern dance to aerial dance.
Precious is currently attending Texas Woman's University where she is pursuing a degree in Dance Studies with a minor in teacher certification. During this time, she has performed with TWU International Dance Company, at the American College Dance Association, as well as the TWU Black Box Theater and Margo Jones Hall. During this time her choreographic works have also been showcased in TWU's dance concerts. Outside of her life as a student, she is currently working at the Movement with Purpose dance studio, a program where they partner with school districts to bring dance and other art forms to a diverse body of students in the form of an after-school activity. She is currently working and choreographing to explore and experiment with the relationship between dancers and musicians in a shared space.
Precious is currently attending Texas Woman's University where she is pursuing a degree in Dance Studies with a minor in teacher certification. During this time, she has performed with TWU International Dance Company, at the American College Dance Association, as well as the TWU Black Box Theater and Margo Jones Hall. During this time her choreographic works have also been showcased in TWU's dance concerts. Outside of her life as a student, she is currently working at the Movement with Purpose dance studio, a program where they partner with school districts to bring dance and other art forms to a diverse body of students in the form of an after-school activity. She is currently working and choreographing to explore and experiment with the relationship between dancers and musicians in a shared space.
Molly Hart (Performer)
Martha Hernandez (Performer) was born and raised in Miami, Florida. Martha has danced with Rhapsody Movement Company at Tarrant County College Southeast campus, performing at American College Dance Association and with Cholorock Dance collective performing in the Denton, Texas area at their Annual Shows Collecciones de Cholorock and Vida de Amor. She has also choreographed for Tarrant County College South campus. Her goals in life include performing for different dance companies in large cities like Los Angeles and New York City as well as traveling around the world to experience different dance styles. Ms. Hernandez hopes to support her extended family through her dancing so they can retire. Martha wants to broaden the minds of dance hopefuls as well as non-dancers to experience not only the physical benefits of dance, but the mental and cognitive awareness it can bring to everyone.
Kelsey Kersgieter (Performer)
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Christion Sloan (Crew)
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Emily Wells (Performer) has danced since she was 4 years old. She has studied Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Pointe, and Hip Hop. She has competed in dance competitions across Oklahoma with her solos and group dances. She was the captain of the dance team for 6 years. She is also the current President of the Oklahoma State University's Tap Company.
Mackenzie (Mack) Wickstrom (Crew) is from Oklahoma City and is a sophomore at Oklahoma State University studying Human Development and Family Sciences with a minor in Human Resources Management. Mack loves spending time with friends and being apart of Camp Cowboy which allows her to make many meaningful friendships! She is so excited to be a part of Wildly Brave and looks forward to meeting new people and promoting the arts more and more throughout Stillwater!!!
