NELLIE BLY

producer

Desmond Confoy is an executive producer of film and theater based out of Princeton, NJ.

He has produced award-winning short films that have premiered globally through his production company Raucous&Quill.

Among other live theater projects, he produces a recurring short-form performance in New York City.

He’s worked as a commissioned writer for film, a teaching artist with Hudson Valley Shakespeare, and a film editor.

He received his BFA from SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Theater.

Choreographer, co-creator

Jill Echo holds a BFA and MFA from Purchase College and has been active in the New York City dance community for over thirty years.

She has performed with Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater, Pearl Lange Dance Company, Janis Brenner & Dancers, Sue Bernhard Dance Works, Cortez & Company, Risa Jaraslow, Karla Wolfangle and Wil Swanson, among others and began performing with Takehiro Ueyama as a founding member and Associate Director of TAKE Dance in 2004.

Jill was also founding member of Taylor 2 and a member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company.

Jill’s master classes in technique, repertory, improvisation, partnering, choreography/composition an movement for actors are essential components of the TAKE Dance residency programs. She has taught at Alvin Ailey/Fordham BFA Program, Long Island University CW Post, The Joffrey School, New York University, Randolph College, West Virginia University, Perry Mansfield, International Summer Dance i Burgos, Spain, Skidmore College, the University at Albany and for the American Academy of Ballet among others.

She has held the positions of Adjunct Professor of Dance at Purchase College, Adjunct Instructor at Vassar College, Movement Instructor at Michael Howard Acting Studios in New York City and is presently teaching Movement for Actors and Interdisciplinary Movement Theatre in the Theatre Conservatory at Purchase College.

Jill’s choreography for concert dance and/or plays has been done for TAKE Dance, Strangemen & Co, Skylight Music Theatre, Saratoga Opera, Circo Fantazztico and she has been choreographing for Universities across the United States for the past 20 years.

She has restaged the works of Takehiro Ueyama and Kazuko Hirabayashi for dance programs in the United States and Abroad. Television credits include appearances on PBS Alive From Off-Center, Dance in America and American Masters.

Jill’s master classes in technique, repertory, improvisation, partnering, choreography/composition and movement for actors are essential components of the TAKE Dance residency programs. She has taught at Alvin Ailey/Fordham BFA Program, Long Island University CW Post, The Joffrey School, New York University, Randolph College, West Virginia University, Perry Mansfield, International Summer Dance in Burgos, Spain, Skidmore College, the University at Albany and for the American Academy of Ballet among others.

She has held the positions of Adjunct Professor of Dance at Purchase College, and Adjunct Instructor at Vassar College, and is presently teaching Movement for Actors in the Department of Theatre Arts and Film at Purchase College and at the Michael Howard Studios in New York City. Jill holds a BFA and MFA from Purchase College.

She has restaged the works of Takehiro Ueyama and Kazuko Hirabayashi for dance programs in the United States and Abroad. Television credits include appearances on PBS Alive From Off-Center, Dance in America and American Masters.

writer/director

Frank Winters is a playwright, filmmaker, and performer based out of Brooklyn, New york.

He was a founding member of The Strangemen Theatre Company. Their plays have been workshopped and produced Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, Playwrights Horizons, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Theatre Row, The Wild Project, The Flea, 59E59 Theaters, Royal Family Theaters, the 133rd Street Arts Center, as part of the Red Bull Theatre Company’s 2023 Short New Play Festival, to say nothing of attics and basements, colleges and high schools, parks and train stations across the country.

He was a recipient of the Clifford Odets New Play Commission and the first-ever new play commission from Marquette University. Selections from his work have been featured in multiple editions of Lawrence Harbison’s The Best Women’s Stage Monologues. His play, To Distraction, was one of the Top Ten Bestselling Plays at the 2023 United Solo Theatre Festival and his adaptation of A Christmas Carol was the focal point of a fundraiser that helped cancel over $1,000,000 through RIP Medical Debt.

He has served as a guest educator or adjunct professor at New York University, Manhattanville College, Catawba College, and Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Purchase College. His work has been published by Broadway Play Publishing.

He received a BFA in Acting from the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at SUNY Purchase.

performer

Corinne McLoughlin is an actor based out of New York City. 

She has been in countless short films over the last couple years including The Clock Painter which has been featured at Dance with Films NY Festival and Beverly Hills Film Festival as official selections. 

Past theater has been under the direction of Jill Echo in “If You Find Yourself Missing”, a dance and spoken word piece in collaboration with Take Dance Company. 

She received a BFA in Acting from the Conservatory of Theater Arts at SUNY Purchase.

Performer

Maddie Barry is a New York based freelance dancer originally from Hampton, New Jersey.  She is a 2024 Graduate of Adelphi University earning a BFA in Dance and a minor in Forensic Anthropology, blending her passion for movement with a deep curiosity for human form and expression. Throughout her collegiate experience, she has worked with notable artists and choreographers such as Maggie Joy, Isaac Martin-Lerner, Omar Román de Jesús, and Takehiro Ueyama among others. She also attended the London Contemporary Dance School in the Fall of 2023 as part of their Study Abroad BA Dance program, and has taken part in intensive programs with Doug Varone and Dancers, Gibney Summer Study, Límon Dance, SpringboardX, and Whim W’him Seattle Contemporary Dance. Since graduating, Maddie has performed in the dynamic works of Brando Ortiz’s Ortizta Dance and Carmen Caceres’ DanceAction, appreciating their deeply collaborative creative processes. Maddie is eager to explore the intersection of dance, theater, and film, through this collaboration with other dancers, actors and filmmakers.Description goes here

Performer

Sarah Marino, a New York-based dancer originally from New Jersey, is set to graduate this spring from Adelphi University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a minor in Communications. She furthered her education last fall at the London Contemporary Dance School, exploring movement and technique from artists in Europe. Throughout her time at Adelphi, Sarah has had the privilege of working with many esteemed faculty choreographers along with renowned guest artists such as Larry Keigwin, Omar Román de Jesús, and Takehiro Ueyama. Her artistic training has also extended past Adelphi in intensives such as the Gibney Summer Study, and Whim W’him Seattle Contemporary Dance. As Sarah prepares to embark on her postgraduate journey she has begun performing work by Brando Ortiz with his company Ortiza Dance, and is looking forward to embracing new artistic opportunities within the dance community. She is passionate about blending the theater and movement world and bringing the powerful narrative of Nellie Bly to life among other talented artists and creators.Description goes here

Performer

Emily McDaniel received her BFA in dance performance from SUNY Purchase. She has continued to train and perform at international festivals and workshops in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Portugal, and UK. She has worked on various collaborations with Belgium choreographer, Helder Seabra which led her to perform and assist in Europe and Russia.

Emily has undertaken projects with Brian Brooks Moving Company (US), Kale Companhia de Dança (PT), M.A.D. Company (RU), Marcos Morau (ESP), Helder Seabra (BE/PT), Cally Spooner (UK), Kate Wallich (US), Ellis Wood (US) and Nicole Von Arx (US/CH). 

Aside from dancing, she is also a fine art model and has posed for a variety of sculptors, painters and pastel artists. Most recently, she modeled for Wiederhoeft in New York Fashion Week SS25.

Performer

Khris, originally from Kernersville, North Carolina, is a dancer and choreographer based in NYC.

She earned her BFA from SMU, and has performed world premieres by Take Ueyama, Desmond Richardson, and Laja Field, as well as in works by Martha Graham and Robert Battle, among others. Most recently, Khris worked with Take Dance Company to restage Take’s work “Heroes” at BalletX, which premiered at The Joyce Theater last year.

In addition to her work with Take Dance, Khris directs her own movement projects. Her first dance film, With Lanterns, premiered in 2024 at Arts on Site, and later that year, she completed her first choreographic residency at Moulin/Belle in Mareuil, France. Khris is currently preparing to present a new work in NYC in August 2025.

Performer