Choreographer: Francine E. Ott

Rehearsal Director: Kara Pawlowski

Performers: (State Dance Company directed by Tara Z. Mullins) Ellie Garr, Amanda Geddie-Garcia, Athena He-DeMontaron, Maggie Heppner, Marlena Lackey, Lili Lloyd, Rachel Morris, Anna Nguyen, Lee Reinstein

Music: The Earth Prelude by Nicholas Ryan Gant; Open My Eyes by Sondae; Distant Rolling Thunder and Steady Rain by Nature Sounds; Unnatural Wind With Throbbing Undertone by Nature Sounds;  Calming Rhythmic Cicada Calls by Nature Sounds by Nature Sounds; Music Edited by Francine E. Ot

Lighting Design: Joshua Reaves

Choreographer: Jordan Henze (student choreographer)

Performers: Jordan Henze and Maggie Heppner

Music: Like Real People Do, Instrumental by Hozier

Lighting Design: Joshua Reaves

Choreographer: Tara Z. Mullins

(State Dance Company directed by Tara Z. Mullins)

Soloist: Anna Nguyen

Angels: Ellie Garr, Marlena Lackey, Rachel Morris

Music: Straight Archive by Nick Mullins

Lighting Design: Joshua Reaves

*This piece will be part of the State Dance Company Concert April 9 and 10. All pieces in that concert are based on the novel The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende.

Choreographer: Cailee Bennett (Creative Artist Award Winner)

Soloist: Marlena Lackey 

Performers: Lili Lloyd, Ellie Garr, Amanda Geddie-Garcia, Maggie Heppner, Michelle Morris, Rachel Morris, Anna Nguyen, Lee Reinstein

Music: In Pursuit by Justin Hurwitz and ABBOT

Lighting Design: Joshua Reaves

Choreographer: Kara Pawlowski (student choreographer)

Performers: Eleanor Bond, Marlena Lackey, Michelle Morris, Rachel Morris, Anna Nguyen

Music: Valarie by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Any Color You Like by Pink Floyd

Lighting Design: Joshua Reaves

Costume: Kara Pawlowski

Choreographer: Hailee Patel (student choreographer)

Performers: Molly Bradford, Ginevieve Cunningham, Jordan Henze, Julia Sondee

Music: Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood by Nina Simone, Escape Artist by Zoë Keating 

Lighting Design: Joshua Reaves

Costume: Hailee Patel

Choreographer: Rachel Morris (Creative Artist Award Winner)

Performers: Ellie Garr, Amanda Geddie-Garcia, Maggie Heppner, Lili Lloyd, Anna Nguyen, Kara Pawlowski, Lee Reinstein

Music: Ólafur Arnalds, Woodkid, Chance Peña, Poem by Zoe Branch

Lighting Design: Joshua Reaves

Costume: Rachel Morris

*This piece explores the concept of friendships and relationships in young adulthood that seem to have an expiration date. It examines the feeling of watching everyone around you find their “person” but always being the one left behind.

Choreographer: Megan Moss

Performers: (Panoramic Dance Project directed by Christa Oliver) Alison Austin, Kiara Antonacci, Eleanor Bond, Ava Clymer, Joshua Dodoo, Rilynn Duncan, Alexa Hadley, Cailyn McAllister, Amelia Mitchell, CJ Patterson, AK Stipanov, Olivia Thomas

Music: Libertango by Genaro Desiderio Ensemble

Lighting Design: Joshua Reaves

Costume: Megan Moss and Christa Oliver

Megan Moss is an accomplished dance artist, choreographer, and educator with over 30 years of experience in the performing arts. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Film at Texas State University, where she teaches ballet, jazz, modern/contemporary, conditioning, and yoga for dancers. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography from Texas State University and a B.S. in Exercise Science from Brigham Young University. 

Megan’s performance career spans classical ballet, contemporary dance, and musical theatre. She began her training in Salt Lake City with Mountain West Ballet Company, performing featured roles in The Nutcracker and La Fille Mal Gardée over nine seasons. As a member of the BYU Cougarettes, she earned two NDA national championships with a team known for its precision jazz and hip hop. Her professional performance credits include work with TY&Co (Austin), Chadash Contemporary Dance Company (Denver), The King and I at Hale Center Theatre (SLC), and ensemble/dance captain in Zilker Theatre’s Legally Blonde in Austin. As a choreographer, Megan has created dozens of original works for stage and screen, including full-length musicals such as Singin’ in the Rain, Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, My Fair Lady, The Addams Family, and The Drowsy Chaperone. She is co-director of Merge.3, a national dance consultation company that supports studios, teachers, and students preparing for competition in studio settings through choreographic mentorship and artistic coaching.

Megan’s work has been featured both across the U.S. and abroad, including choreography and performance at the COCO Dance Festival in Port of Spain, Trinidad. 

Megan regularly teaches master classes throughout the U.S. She is particularly known for her emphasis on movement intention, character development, and integrating storytelling into technical training. She holds additional certifications in Giordano Jazz Technique, Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT), and Yoga (RYT 200) that support her somatic and technical teaching approach. 

Megan continues to develop new interdisciplinary work and advocate for training that supports dancers as full-spectrum artists—blending athleticism, creativity, and authenticity across all stages of performance and education.

Tara Z. Mullins is a Teaching Professor in the department, where she directs the State Dance Company, teaches courses, and creates interdisciplinary projects. She also founded the Lunchbox Series, a virtual lunchtime conversation that uses dance and the arts as a springboard to delve into pertinent topics such as Arts and Public Health, Affirmative Action and the Arts, the Critical Response Process, and the intersection of STEM with dance.

While at NC State, Tara recently choreographed Resume Normal Activities, a theatrical modern dance that portrayed a school day where a shooting occurs, and was inspired by a post from a UNC student. She was invited to reset this piece on the Washington and Lee Dance Company, and was invited to perform it in the 2025 NC Dance Festival. She is currently creating The Wind Remembers, a mixed media dance piece based on the refugee stories from the novel The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende. 

Before working at NC State, Tara developed the education and service-based Z Mullins Dance Company. The company founded and facilitated such events as the Virginia Dance Symposium, which brought together high school dancers and professors from dance programs, and the Summer Dance Intensive, a ten-day program for high school and college dancers. She also planned and directed many community projects, such as Fitness, Food and FUN, a nutrition and fitness program for fifth-grade girls, and the Big Gig, a free youth arts festival in Miami.

Tara has a B.A. in dance from JMU and an M.F.A. in dance from Arizona State University, where she received the Faculty Women’s Association Distinguished Master Degree Candidate Award for her work developing arts programs for unhoused youth, as well as the inaugural Herberger College of Fine Arts Fellowship.

Christa Oliver is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Performing Arts and Technology at NC State University and the Director of the Panoramic Dance Project. Prior to joining NC State, she spent eleven years teaching in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Texas State University. Christa holds a Master of Arts in Dance Performance and a Professional Diploma in Dance Studies from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. She is also a Mellon Fellow in the School of Theater and Performance Research at Harvard University.

Throughout her career, Christa has collaborated with esteemed choreographers and dance pioneers such as Donald McKayle, Valerie Preston-Dunlop, Rafael Bonachela, Donald Byrd, Rennie Harris, Lula Washington, Victor Quijada, Christopher Huggins, Willi Dorner, Miguel Pereria, Robin Lewis, and Dominique Kelly. Demonstrating her leadership and expertise in the performing arts, she served as dance captain on the national tour of the acclaimed musical The Color Purple.

Christa’s performance experience spans several countries, having graced stages in the Netherlands, England, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Kosovo, and Mexico. In addition to her extensive stage accomplishments, she has appeared in Hollywood films including Avatar (dir. James Cameron) and Crazy on the Outside (dir. Tim Allen). Her scholarly work has been published in Dancer-Citizen, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal that explores the work of socially engaged dance artists.

Francine E. Ott, a native of New Orleans, is an artist, educator, performer, choreographer, mentor, writer, speaker, and more.  She received her B.F.A degree in Dance from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and her Masters degree in Mental Health Counseling at Nyack College. She has worked, and danced with Camille A. Brown and Dancers and Ronald K. Brown Evidence,A Dance Company, among many others.  She is currently a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Ed.D. Dance Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University.  Though her work is beneficial to many, her current doctoral research is centered on creating holistic and healing experiences through dance for black women dancers and educators who have experienced trauma, pain, and more by creating a community of support and safety for them.

Joshua Reaves began work with University Theatre in 2011 as the lighting and sound designer before being named associate director in 2014 and director in 2020. He obtained his MFA from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, his BFA from UNC-Greensboro and is currently pursuing an MBA at NC State University. Before arriving at NC State, Mr. Reaves taught at Campbell University and the University of Cincinnati. He continues to actively freelance as a lighting designer for local theatre and dance companies.