Juan Antonio Mata began his studies with the dance pianist Adela Mascaraque, completed his degree at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid, expanded his improvisation abilities in Jazz at the School of Creative Music in Madrid, and works for the SGAE in computer-music and musicology. He started his career at the dance school "Pilar López" under the direction of Ana González and at the School of the Ballet Nacional de España accompanying the international master Aurora Bosch.

During ten years he was a Faculty member of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC); and obtained his Phd. "cum laude”, with his thesis "Analysis, Study and Musical Proposal for Dance".

He has played and composed for RTVE, Telecinco, the "Ensemble Español" of Northeastern Illinois University of Chicago, the feature film “Rotas", or the ballet of Carmen Roche, among others. He has worked as dance pianist for Ballet class, Character Dance, Spanish Dance (Bolero School, Stylized Dance and Flamenco), and Contemporary Dance in: the Víctor Ullate Ballet, the "Alicia Alonso" Dance Institute, The Ballet Nacional de España, The Russian Masters Ballet Camp, The Central School of Ballet, the English National Ballet School, The Swedish National Ballet School, and The Compañía Nacional de Danza de España.

Mariana Palacios is Spanish pianist, composer, filmmaker, and performer. She grew up studying music & dance and this is shown in her interest in inter-relating both fields. After finishing the superior studies of piano and dance, she started to work on the connections between music and different arts. For the last twelve years, she has specialized in playing for dance classes and creating music & dance films. Currently, she is creating YouTube videos with content about how to play for ballet classes. Take a look at her channel: www.youtube.com/marianapalaciosizaguirre

Stephanie Schroedter has been active in dance studies and musicology. She worked as a research assistant at the University of Salzburg’s Department of Musicology while completing her PhD and became afterwards a research fellow at the University of Bayreuth’s Department for Music Theatre Research. For her second monograph (“habilitation”) entitled Paris qui danse. Bewegungs- und Klangräume einer Großstadt der Moderne (Movement and Sound Spaces in a Modern City, published Würzburg 2018) she received a “venia legendi'' for musicology and dance studies from the Freie Universität Berlin. She organised several conferences on the intersection between music/theater and dance/theater, published internationally on this topic and gave talks on conferences in Europe as well as in the US and Canada. Currently she is Co-Chair of the “Music and Dance Study Group'' (MDSG) of the American Musicological Society (AMS). Her current research project on interrelations between music/sound and dance/movement in performances of the 20th/21st-century (supported by the German Society for Academic Research/DFG)  will be continued within her professorship for “Theory of Music and Movement” at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (mdw), which she started in spring 2021.

Manjunan Gnanaratnam, a multi-Instrumentalist, technologist & theorist works as an interdisciplinary artist within all contexts of Modern, Post-Modern, Contemporary and Experimental Dance. He follows the lineage established by Dance Musician Louis Horst, followed by John Cage, Pia Gilbert, Lucia Dlugoszewski, Robert Ellis Dunn, Katherine Teck and others through a maximum engagement format of a comprehensive, symbiotic relationship with dance, engaging with, inspired by, and contributing to all aspects of this complex, evolving relationship and practice. With an extensive 35+ year career which includes 13 evening length compositions and over 70+ individual compositions for dance, many experimental sessions with Dance & master sessions with some of the leading choreographers in the US, he  has authored papers on music and dance, developed methodologies on 21st century multidisciplinary directions in dance, including The Open Source Dance Methodology, The APTAR Process, The John Cage Parallel, The Optimum Creative Dialog Phenomenon in Music and Dance during live interactions, conclusions from his research identifying a direction in Music that is specific to Dance and continues his current work on physical computing methodologies and multidisciplinary identities in dance and music. He has served as a panelist on the subject of music and dance for IGMID, NASD, NDEO, DSA, SEAMUS, SPARK and others and currently serves a member of the Performance and Ephemeral Sustainabilities research group at Brunel University, London, UK, and is a member of the Board of Directors, Earthdance, Plainfield, MA and been a member of IGMD since 1990/91.

“ His thinking reaches deeply into the vast potential of Sound and Movement possibilities- all the while mysterious and provocative. From Loie Fuller's Fluttering Skirts to Edison's Light and Sound Inventions, we have come a long way"- 

Janet Mansfield Soares-  Dance Scholar/Historian. 2020

On his comprehensive conclusions identifying a direction in Music specific to Dance-                       

"........worthy of John Cage"  - Katherine Teck, Dance Music Scholar/Historian. 2019.

Karen MacIver was the first musician who has worked extensively in Dance to collate and document the rules for improvisation in Ballet Class. She published her 3-part eBook 'The Art of Class' in 2019 and it has been a bestseller for musicians in Asia ever since.

Karen has been teaching young musicians coming into this unique career for 14 years and originated the Masters of Music post at Scottish Ballet, ratified by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. So far, 24 musicians have come through this course with most going onto a full time career in Music for Dance. 

🌟 Karen describes herself as a Musician working in Moving Image, which embraces her work both in dance studios and in film 🌟

Owen Rockwell, DMA, is Director of Music for the Belhaven University Department of Dance where he leads a staff of dedicated musicians - together, they provide live accompaniment for all dance technique classes offered on campus. “Doc Rock” uses an assortment of drums, keyboards, electronic looping/sampling, and his voice to create rich aural soundscapes. His experience includes playing for Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Tap, West African (Guinea, Ghana), as well as Afro-Latin/Caribbean dance forms. Additionally, he composes music for dance performances and teaches the course, “Rhythmic Awareness for Dancers. He also serves in the Department of Music teaching private percussion lessons.

In 2019, Dr. Rockwell created the Minor in Dance Accompaniment at BU, a program of study designed for students with a musical background to learn to make music with and for dancers. He participated in the 2nd annual Mark Morris Dance Group Dance Accompanist Training Program in New York City, further solidifying his interest and commitment to guiding dancers and musicians through the process of discovering effective co-teaching and learning strategies for music within the context of the dance technique class. 

Dr. Rockwell received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Percussion Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and later the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Percussion Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Southern Mississippi. He is an active member of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance where he serves as Membership Director. In 2015 he received a Performing Arts Fellowship through the Mississippi Arts Commission/NEA. 

yaTande Whitney V. Hunter, PhD (he/him/his) is a Chicago-born and bred, artist/culture worker, committed to activating #cultureascatalyst. A BLACK SEED Native (art, activism, and community driven-apparatus) and new Philadelphia resident, his work centers around nurturing and cultivating individual and communal spirit through dance-performance, education and curation. yaTande’s choreographic and performance art works have been presented through Kumble Theater, La Mama, Grace Exhibition Space, Panoply Performance Laboratory, Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival and in the streets of NYC, Chicago and Detroit. He has worked in performance with Martha Graham Dance Company, Rod Rodgers, Reggie Wilson, Martha Clarke, Fiona Templeton, Daria Faïn and Robert Kocik, John Jesurun, Kankouran West African Dance Company, Yass Hakoshima and others. He has also directed performance collectives under Hunter Dance Theater and Whitney Hunter [Medium], was a Movement Research Artist in Residence (2013-15), a founding member/curator of Social Health Performance Club, and is currently co-creator of Denizen Arts with his life partner, theatre artist, Jude Sandy. His academic degrees include: B.F.A in Theatre Arts/Dance (Howard University), M.F.A in New Media Arts and Performance (Long Island University), and Ph.D. in Art Theory, Aesthetics and Philosophy (Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts). yaTande currently serves as Assistant Professor of Dance and Coordinator of the African Diaspora Dance Series at Temple University. [www.whitneyhunter.com]

Adam Vidiksis is a composer, conductor, percussionist, improviser, and technologist based in Philadelphia whose music often explores social structures, science, and the intersection of humankind with the machines we build. Critics have called his music “mesmerizing”, “dramatic”, “striking” (Philadelphia Weekly), “notable”, “catchy” (WQHS), “magical” (Local Arts Live), and “special” (Percussive Notes), and have noted that Vidiksis provides “an electronically produced frame giving each sound such a deep-colored radiance you could miss the piece's shape for being caught up in each moment” (Philadelphia Inquirer). His work is frequently commissioned and performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia in recitals, festivals, and major academic conferences. Vidiksis’s music has won numerous awards and grants, including recognition from the Society of Composers, Incorporated, the American Composers Forum, New Music USA, National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and ASCAP. His works are available through HoneyRock Publishing, EMPiRE, New Focus, PARMA, and SEAMUS Records. Vidiksis recently served as composer in residence for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and was selected by the NEA and Japan-US Friendship Commission to serve as Director of Arts Technology for a performance of a new work by Gene Coleman during the 2020 Olympics in Japan (now summer 2021). Dr. Vidiksis is Assistant Professor of music technology at Temple University, President and founding member of SPLICE Music, which includes the annual Institute, Academy, and Festival, a Resident Artist at the Renegade Theater company, and a founding member of the Impermanent Society of Philadelphia, a group dedicated to promoting improvisation in the performing arts. He performs in SPLICE Ensemble and the Transonic Orchestra, conducts Ensemble N_JP, and directs the Temple Composers Orchestra and the Boyer College Electroacoustic Ensemble Project (BEEP). He produces real-time generative improvised electronic music (a.k.a 4EA, Circadia). [www.vidiksis.com]

Katherine Teck. Formerly a studio musician for classes in ballet and creative dance, Katherine Teck also taught courses in music for undergraduate and graduate dance students in New York City. Her own training included a master’s degree in composition plus a certificate in arts management. She has authored five books on music for theatrical dance, including Appreciating Ballet's Music (available FREE at: https://www.appreciatingballetsmusic.com, released in 2021. A founding member of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance, she has received the Louis Horst Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Music and Dance, and she lives in Virginia near historic Colonial Williamsburg.