Rosita Adamo
Born in Managua, Nicaragua, Adamo began her dance training with Triangle Youth Ballet at the age of five. She graduated from the Carolina Friends School where she studied under the mentorship of Annie Dwyer. She went on to be a scholarship recipient at The Ailey School in their Certificate Program, and later joined Alvin Ailey’s second company, Ailey II, in 2006.
In 2009 Adamo joined Philadanco!, The Philadelphia Dance Company, where she toured both nationally and internationally. She performed with Philadanco! for 12 years, becoming a soloist, senior member, and rehearsal assistant under the direction of the late Debra Chase Hicks and Founder Joan Myers Brown. During her career with Philadanco! she performed in Ulysses Dove’s restaged piece Bad Blood in 2014. In 2015, she was in the James Brown touring show Get On The Good Foot. She has done works by Rennie Harris, Ronald K. Brown, Christopher Huggins, Ray Mercer, and Talley Betty.
After retiring from Philadanco! in December 2020, Adamo moved to upstate New York and joined the faculty and outreach program team of 171 Cedar Arts Center in Corning. She was also an adjunct professor at Alfred University in 2022. Adamo plans to continue her love for teaching, choreographing, coaching, and making dance more accessible in rural communities.
Sukanya Burman
Sukanya Burman is an Indo-contemporary dancer, choreographer, and educator from Kolkata, India, trained in Bharatanatyam, Kathak, ballet, and contemporary dance. She holds advanced training from Kalamandalam and Rhythmosaic,and completed the Independent Training Program at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York City. She has performed and toured internationally, including as a repertory member of Rhythmosaic Dance Company and with organizations such as Navatman and the Indo-Rican Multicultural Dance Project.
She is the Founder and Executive Artistic Director of Sukanya Burman Dance in Jamestown, NY, where she leads programming and curates platforms like Art in Flux and the Jamestown Dance Festival. A recipient of multiple NYSCA Individual Artist Awards, her work bridges Indian classical and Western modern forms, with a focus on memory, tradition, and cultural dialogue.
Nicolette Ferguson
Nicolette Ferguson joined the dance faculty at The Hochstein School in 2025 after serving seven years as an adjunct professor at SUNY Geneseo and Director of the Community Artist-in-Residence program at Garth Fagan Dance. A former Principal Dancer and master instructor with Garth Fagan Dance for over two decades, she has performed and taught internationally, including at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Jacob’s Pillow, and venues across Europe, the Caribbean, and the U.S.
She teaches contemporary modern, Afro-Caribbean, and creative dance, and is also a certified yoga instructor (200 RYT). Ferguson has choreographed and taught at SUNY Brockport, Nazareth College, RIT, and the University of Rochester.
A magna cum laude graduate of SUNY Brockport with a BS in Dance and Communications and an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography, she is a recipient of the university’s Hall of Heritage Award and the Rochester Jamaican Organization Community Service and Leadership Award.
Cat Olson
Award-winning performer Cat DeAngelis Olson has worked as a professional creator, teacher, and performer for more than a decade, most notably as a principal performer in Punchdrunk’s immersive production Sleep No More (NYC). She has performed with Punchdrunk (UK), Susan Marshall Dance Company, Gallim, Spiegelworld, Gideon Obarzanek (Chunky Move), Summation Dance, Raja Feather Kelly, and for Rihanna’s Anti-Diary campaign produced by Samsung and Punchdrunk. Olson has performed at Judson Church, Dancespace Project, New York Live Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, Kennedy Performing Arts Center, Baryshnikov Performing Arts Center, and NYU Skirball Center.
As a creative director, teacher, and choreographer, Olson has worked with various performing artists in NYC, including teaching and creating for The McKittrick Hotel and the sold-out NYC run of the immersive concert Light + Space (Ariana & the Rose) at Brooklyn’s House of Yes. Her work as Creative Director was selected to be presented as part of the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center in 2019. Olson serves as the artistic director of CAT + THE COYOTE, an immersive/dance theater company located in Rochester, New York. The company made its debut at the Rochester Fringe Festival in 2023.
Olson is an Adjunct Professor in the Theater and Dance Department at Nazareth College and a frequent guest lecturer in undergraduate and graduate composition in the SUNY Brockport Dance Department. This spring 2026, she has the honor of being the Guest Artist at Rochester School of the Arts.