Meet the Dancemakers

  • Michelle Fricker is a dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist originally from Phoenix, Arizona. Her early training began with Christina Hampton and Arizona Youth Ballet, and she has furthered her development through intensives with Ballet West, Ballet Arizona, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, BalletX, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet.

    In 2024, Michelle graduated summa cum laude from the University of Arizona with a BFA in Dance, performing works by George Balanchine, Thang Dao, and faculty including Sam Watson, Christopher Compton, and Lorin Mathis. She is currently in her second season as a company artist with Ballet North Texas, where she has performed leading roles in a diverse repertoire.

    Michelle maintains an active freelance career, appearing in projects such as Fever’s LED Sleeping Beauty, Agora Artists’ Seeds, and House of DIFFA to name a few. As a choreographer, she has created and restaged multiple original works in academic and professional settings and was commissioned by Ballet North Texas to choreograph for the Trainee Showcase in Spring 2025.

  • Meagan Cobb is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and visual artist from Olive Branch, MS. She graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi, where she earned her BFA in Dance Performance & Choreography, as well as a minor in psychology. She served as Vice President of the Student Dance Organization and has trained professionally in ballet, modern, and jazz. Meagan was a member of USM’s Repertory Dance Company from 2020-2023, where she grew her performing and choreographing experience. She then went on to become a company dancer with Tennessee Ballet Theater in Memphis, TN. She has presented her choreography in site-specific and concert venues at USM and in collaborative works with Tennessee Ballet Theater. Meagan is currently an artist in the DFW area. 

  • Niki Davis-Vohs holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Minor in Dance from the University of Texas at Arlington. There she studied ballet, jazz, modern, improvisation and performed and choreographed for the Maverick Dance Company. She has presented work at the American College Dance Association and Big Rig Dance Collective Co-Op. Post-graduation, she has performed with Danielle Georgiou Dance Group, Big Rig Dance Collective, and Artists Sans Frontières. Niki holds the belief that, in addition to aesthetics, art should have a perspective and enact story telling.

  • J'Maica Frame-Cabell is a self-taught movement artist whose dance journey began through recreational and street dance in Wichita, Kansas. The opportunity to utilize higher education as a resource awarded J'Maica the opportunity to continue her dance journey at the collegiate level as a member of the Barton Cougar Dance Team, an inaugural member of Barton Dance Theater at Barton Community college, and eventually a member of the nationally ranked and respected Valdosta State University Red Hots Dance Team. As her journey and career as a dance professional continues, J'Maica looks forward to participating and advocating for accessibility to dance resources in low-income and minority communities like that of which she was raised in. 

  • Tessa Salomone holds an MFA in Choreography from Trinity Laban Conservatoire and a BFA in Ballet from TCU. They received their early training from Fort Bend Academy of Dance and later studied year round at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC and the Joffrey Ballet School in NYC. While a company member with PDX Contemporary Ballet, she had the opportunity to develop and present her first commissioned work. Post-performance career, Tessa has facilitated choreographic workshops with iMEE blank | SLATE and The Playing Fields, and presented their work in Dance Source Houston’s Mind the Gap. In 2024, she was an Aimed Dance Emerging Choreographer Fellow at Lamar University. A recent transplant, Tessa is currently on the dance faculty at Dallas College. Their choreographic research examines how dance, as an embodied form of testimony, can heighten the ability to form a connection of kinesthetic empathy between performers and audiences.

  • Marlee Fleisher is a choreographer, dancer, and creator. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Marlee is an alumnus of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and Adelphi University. She currently serves as the artistic director of her dance theater company, Meat Market Productions. In addition to her company, Marlee works as a freelance artist, performing, choreographing, teaching, filming, and creating digital content with multiple organizations across the DFW area. Marlee’s choreographic work is shaped and influenced by her local peers and collaborators as well as her research in multiple artistic and academic fields outside of dance.  She is interested in creating work that is challenging but accessible to a broad audience.

  • Shweta Srinivasan is a Bharatanatyam artist, choreographer, and teacher based in Dallas,  Texas. Her training spans multiple lineages, including the Tanjavur bani under Smt. Gayatri  Ramaratnam, and ongoing mentorship with Dr. Lavanya Rajagopalan at Silambam  Houston. Shweta has performed widely across India and the United States at prestigious venues and festivals. Her recent work includes presenting a collaborative production for AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Elevator Project 2025 Series, a milestone that reflects her growing engagement with interdisciplinary and contemporary performance spaces. She has also performed as part of Silambam Houston’s dance ensemble at renowned venues such as Moody Performance Hall and Miller Outdoor Theatre, among others. Recognized for her expressive abhinaya and a deeply communicative performance style, she has received several awards for her artistry. Her artistic goal is to immerse more deeply in the  Bharatanatyam tradition while bringing it to global audiences, inviting viewers not only to witness the form, but to understand, question, and be enriched by its emotional,  philosophical, and cultural depth.

Meet the Team

  • (Stage Manager/Production Manager) Broadway: The Last Ship.

    Off-Broadway: Elvis People.

    Nat't Tour: Hamilton, Wicked.

    Regional: Million Dollar Quartet; Mamma Mia! (Casa Manana) Giant, Fly,The Wiz, Public Works Dallas (Dallas Theater Center) Tonight At 8:30, Light Up the Sky, Hedda Gabler (Williamstown); Evita, Dreamgirls, Peter Pan, Hello, Dolly!, The Producers, West Side Story (North Carolina Theatre).

    Eric is a graduate of UNC-Greensboro, and currently teaches technical theatre at Fort Worth Country Day in Fort Worth.

  • Kelsey Oliver, an Austin native, is a freelance choreographer, performer, and artist routinely in scrappy, maximalist, humor-struck collaborations. Trained as a dancer, KO has spent recent years dabbling in costume design and curation, styling for Performa/Dance, UT’s Fall For Dance, Frank Wo/Men Collective, Erica Saucedo, Heloise Gold, The Reverie, and many solo & duet works. She likes durational stuff, absurdist stuff, devised stuff, funny stuff, and stuff that gets soakingly athletic. She also loves her queer family with 5 fur floof children.

    Kelsey-Oliver.com | @kelsey___olivern text goes here

  • Neil Foote, a member of the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame and the C.E. Shuford Hall of Honor at the Mayborn School of Journalism, is an entrepreneur, educator, storyteller, and strategist. He is CEO of Foote Communications LLC, a public-relations, content management and multicultural marketing firm. He also is Executive Director of Frisco Marketing Strategy for the University of North Texas. He has more than 40 years of experience working in various forms of media as a journalist (Miami Herald, Washington Post), sales manager and Internet strategist (Dallas Morning News/Belo Corp.), and public relations professional (Tom Joyner/Reach Media). Foote has worked with a wide range of clients from the business world, entertainment, and nonprofits, including Ascendant Group Branding, LiquidSoul Media, Denny’s, Dale Carnegie Training, Change.org, Tom Joyner and Communities Foundation of Texas.

  • Jenny Dang (She/Her) is a Dallas based stage manager. She is very excited to be back at Arts Mission Oak Cliff with the 2025 SEEDS cohort. She holds a BFA in Theater with a concentration in Stage Management from Texas State University. Along with her passion for stage managing, Jenny’s experience spans production management and non-profit general management. Jenny is one of the founders of Watering Hole Collective, a local artist collective driven by a passion to support DFW artists in their creative endeavors. Jenny would like to thank Agora Artists, the SEEDS 2025 cohort, creative team, and crew for their collaborative efforts and for a delightful process. 

  • Caroline Hodge (Lighting Design, she/her) is a Dallas based programmer and designer who is delighted to be returning for her second year as part of the SEEDS project. Favorite credits include Every Brilliant Thing with Dallas Theater Center, The Perspectives Project with Pegasus Contemporary Ballet, Mini Movement Fest and Seeds with Agora Artists, and Young Frankenstein with Circle Theatre (as an Associate Designer). Caroline would like to thank her family and her colleagues for their support. See more of her work at CEHodgeLighting.com.

This programming is supported by