Amy Love Beasley holds a B.A. in Studio Art from the College of Charleston and a M.F.A in Choreography from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She brings her experiences as an artist, choreographer, and performer in the field to her teaching. Beasley has had the good fortune of performing across the country for many influential choreographers, including John Gamble, Susan Haines, Gerri Houlihan, BJ Sullivan, Sean Sullivan, Talani Torres, and Jan Van Dyke. Her own work has been performed at several universities, the North Carolina Dance Festival, UNC School of the Arts, Art-o-Matic in Washington, DC and through Triskelion Art’s Waxworks and the Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, NY. Beasley’s research in dance making and education merges her studies and considers how visual art making and processes intersect with dance making, training, and performance. Inspired by her Yoga practice and teaching, her research in each classroom looks at how mindfulness intersects with learning, moving, and self agency. Before joining the faculty at North Carolina State University, she was on faculty at Elon University, UNC Greensboro, Wake Forest University, and the UNC School of the Arts’ Summer Intensive.

Autumn Mist Belk earned her B.A. in studio art and dance from the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!) and her M.F.A. in dance choreography from the University of Maryland. She also has over 600 hours of yoga pedagogy training and a personal yoga practice spanning more than 15 years. Autumn founded and served as artistic director of the multimedia dance group Code f.a.d. Company from 2008-2020, collaborating with a strong core of dancers, musicians, and artists for over 50 performances across those 12 years. Autumn’s choreography has been presented throughout the United States and in Hallein, Austria, as part of the international artist festival Schmiede. Autumn also directs FAD: Film-Art-Dance Festival, which includes curating Screendance in Schools – educational programs of dance films complete with lesson plans and learning objective-driven activities for K-12 classrooms. Her own dance films have been screened in festivals around the world, and she has been chosen to participate in artist residencies (making dance films) in Scotland, Italy, Iceland, and Austria. Autumn was honored to be selected as the 2016 winner of the National Dance Society’s Dance Promotion in the Community Award, as an inductee into NC State’s Academy of Outstanding Teachers in 2015, and as a Distinguished Undergraduate Professor by NC State in 2023.

Zach Law Ingram (Dallas, TX) Zach Law Ingram is from Miami, Florida, and graduated from the New World School of the Arts in New York City. During his formative years of dance training, Ingram attended the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Miami City Ballet, and The Ailey School in New York City to study several dance techniques: Classical Ballet, Horton, Graham-based Modern, Jazz, West African, Dunham, and Hip-Hop. Ingram started his professional career with Alvin Ailey’s Second Company (Ailey II) and later became a founding member of Space T.U. Embrace project. Ingram has received numerous choreographic and artistic awards, including a Gold Medalist Award for the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts (NFAA) and the U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. 

Throughout Ingram’s professional performing career, he has danced with the following companies: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Armitage Gone!, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Lion King Las Vegas, Lion King on Broadway, and Walt Disney World’s Festival of the Lion King. In addition, he has collaborated with and performed works by Alvin Ailey, Dwight Rhoden, Alonzo King, Martha Graham, Judith Jamison, Twyla Tharp, Karole Armitage, Earl Mosley, Troy Powell, and Peter London.

As a dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Ingram strives to innovate the boundaries of traditional dance techniques by merging the strengths and dimensions of Classical Ballet and Contemporary movement. Ingram has set works on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Lion King Las Vegas, Ballet Noir, Dance Black Dance Theatre ll, and numerous dance studios nationwide. As of 2014, he has toured and performed in Tokyo, Paris, London, Scotland, Freeport, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Milan, and the United States. In addition, he has served on faculty with numerous prestigious programs such as Southern Methodist University’s collegiate B.F.A. Dance Program and Joffrey Ballet School.

Tara Z. Mullins is a Teaching Professor in the department, where she directs the State Dance Company, teaches courses, facilitates the Master Class Series, 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 also created Against the Railing, a digital platform and mixed media dance piece that tells the immigration stories of the NC State community. 

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.

Kassandra Taylor Newberry is an Atlanta-based choreographer whose concert and theatrical work has been performed throughout the United States, Canada, Austria, Chile, Germany, and Italy. Dance Informa describes her unique choreography as “blend[ing] undeniable technique and form with sharp, decisive steps.” Mrs. Newberry’s work has been honored as an eleven-time recipient of RDA’s “National Choreographic Recognition: Best Choreography” Award, four-time recipient of Project Tier’s Outstanding Choreography Award, the National Choreography Intensive’s “Choreography Connection” Award, Youth American Grand Prix’s “Outstanding Choreographer”, and the Monticello Choreography Award. Multiple works have been selected to be performed at The Kennedy Center as a part of the national American College Dance Festival as well as the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, MS. She has had work commissioned by Point Park University, CONCEPTS Choreographic Showcase (Winston-Salem), State Street Ballet (Santa Barbara), NC State Dance Program, Southeast Alabama Dance Company, and other regional ballet companies. In 2012, she was commissioned to create a dance flash mob on 2,000 dancers which was performed in Montreal, Canada.

Mrs. Newberry danced professionally as a founding company member of Winston Salem Festival Ballet, Dance Theatre of Pittsburgh as well as Pillow Project Dance Theatre. Upon graduating magna cum laude with a BFA in Dance from Point Park University, Mrs. Newberry joined the trainee ensemble at Alonzo King’s LINES Contemporary Ballet in San Francisco before becoming ballet mistress for the Salt Lake Ballet Conservatory, the High Point Ballet, and Winston Salem Festival Dance Center. She has taught at numerous summer programs, including Alonzo King’s LINES summer intensive, Commercial Dance Intensive, and the National Choreographic Intensive, where she was also the Assistant Director of Operations. In 2013, Mrs. Newberry was named the Assistant Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer for Roswell Dance Theater in Atlanta, where she resides with her husband and kids.

Christa Oliver is an Associate Teaching Professor in the department and the Director of the Panoramic Dance Project. Before 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 the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in England. 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 Periera, Robin Lewis, and Dominique Kelly. 

Demonstrating her leadership and expertise in the performing arts, Christa served as the dance captain on the national tour of the acclaimed musical The Color Purple. Her 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, Christa has published work in the open-access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal the Dancer-Citizen and has showcased her talents in Hollywood films, such as  James Cameron’s “Avatar” and Tim Allen’s “Crazy on the Outside.”

Matthew Shields (Houston, TX) Canadian raised and Texas grown, Shields’ career includes a multitude of dance industry experiences to draw from and share with his students. A natural entertainer, Mr. Shields has over a decade of dance company experience spent working with Tapestry Dance Company. He spent over six years touring and performing with Postmodern Jukebox and has been featured in numerous theater productions and in jazz and supper clubs. Along with his performance career, Shields has directed, written, choreographed and collaborated for multiple productions and various dance companies. His tap classes are fun, upbeat, athletic and educational.

LilyGrace Wolfe is a 2022 NC State graduate and current employee in the Department of Performing Arts and Technology. As a student at NC State, she received the 2022 NC State Performing Artist Award for her work as a member of the State Dance Company. She has since returned to the stage to perform with her fellow company alumnae to perform Amy Love Beasley’s work in the 2023 and 2024 NC State Dance Faculty Concerts.

As a young dancer, LilyGrace had the joy of training under Kassandra Taylor Newberry from 2009 to 2011. Assisting the State Dance Company in bringing Newberry’s piece, There It Is, to the stage has been a true privilege, and she is grateful to Kassandra, the State Dance Company, and her colleague, Tara Z. Mullins, for the full-circle experience.