COMPANY DANCERS & TEACHING ARTISTS

Anna Bauer is a choreographer and dancer living in Austin, Texas. Since graduating with her BFA in Dance from Sam Houston State University in 2021, she has danced for the Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company while maintaining a personal focus on choreography. Events across Texas and beyond have been kind enough to include her pieces in their lineup: most recently Austin Dance Festival, Barnstorm Dance Festival, RAD Fest Midwest Dance Festival, Texas Dance Improvisation Festival, and various local concerts produced by Austin artists. She has also had the opportunity to complete choreographic residencies with WhirlWind Dance Company, Bellingham Repertory Dance, and Keshet Makers Space Experience. 

Celeste grew up dancing in the Texas Hill Country and studied dance at Marymount Manhattan College. Her training includes Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s P.A.R.T.S summer school in Brussels, ImPulsTanz in Vienna, Hubbard Street Dance in Chicago, Alonzo King LINES Ballet in San Francisco, and Sidra Bell’s MODULE Satellite in Austin. She is grateful to have participated in collaborative choreographic residencies with Agora Artists at Arts Mission Dallas, PWNW Alembic in Portland, and Keshet Maker’s Space in Albuquerque.

Celeste has been invited to dance internationally, travelling across Europe with Joe Alegado (Alvin Ailey, José Limón Dance Company) to teach in Italy, Spain, Austria, Czech Republic, and Hungary. Since moving back to Texas in 2019, she has danced with long-standing Austin-based contemporary dance companies ARCOS and BLiPSWiTCH, as well as independent choreographers Anna Bauer, Pearl Bhatnagar, Alexa Capareda, Jairus Carr, Emily Rushing, Sanchita Sharma, and Carissa Topham-Fisher.

Celeste is the co-founder of Preheat Fest, a screendance festival that started in her east Austin backyard in 2022. As a filmmaker, Celeste has been creating experimental dance films in collaboration with Olivia Camfield since 2018, with screenings at the Camden International Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and the ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival.

In addition to working as a professional dance artist, Celeste is a part-time culinary cinematographer.

Jairus Carr is a local dancer, choreographer, and artist who has been in the Austin area since 2007. With a B.S. in Business Management from WGU which has served him very little, Jairus has trained and danced with many persons and companies in the Austin Area—to name a few: Early Era Collective, Blue Lapis Light, Jennifer Sherburn, and, of course, Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company. Jairus’s work and choreography have been showcased at many events across Texas. Jairus continues to explore movement, choreography, and every medium he can make time for, all in Austin, TX.

Cara Cook grew up in Woodstock, Georgia, and received her training from the Georgia Ballet School. She went on to perform with the Georgia Ballet’s professional company for its 2012-2013 season. Cara studied Anthropology and Dance at Oberlin College and graduated in 2017. She also trained at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and American Dance Festival. In Austin, Cara has performed in works by Chaddick Dance Theater, Early Era Collective, and Jahna Bobolia. She has been a member of Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company since 2018 and has loved every minute of it.

Outside of the dance studio, Cara is a patient care coordinator at Mind Body Physiotherapy where she helps people discover how PT can help them live pain-free lives. Cara is constantly challenged, inspired, and delighted while working with Kathy and the other company members and feels so lucky to be part of the KDH fam.

Lisa del Rosario is a multifaceted artist - dancer, teacher, choreographer, and Feldenkrais Teacher®. She teaches at Ballet Austin, Austin Feldenkrais®, and often creates dances on her own whim. Lisa is a 2nd generation Filipina American-born Texan, a UT Dance alumni, and has been dancing professionally in this great city of Austin for over two decades. Clare Croft of the Austin American-Statesman referred to her as “One of Austin’s most thoughtful performers.” In 2002, Lisa resided in the Philippines and danced for the Philippine National Folk Dance Company.

For the last 10 years, she’s been regularly dancing for dance maker Alyson Dolan and worked with many others including Ellen Bartel, Andrea Beckham, Kevin Briggs, Jeffery Bullock, David Chao, Amy Cone, Errin Delperdang, Jennifer Hart, Magdalena Jarkowiec, Daniel Llanes, Sharon Marroquin, Rosalyn Nasky, Erica Saucedo, Andee Scott, Ellen Stader, Yacov Sharir, Lindsey Taylor, Lauren Tietz, Matthew Young and companies including Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre, BLiPSWiTCH, Blue Lapis Light, DA! Theatre Collective, Emily & Sandie Productions, KDH Dance Company, Moving Voices, Performa/Dance, Ready Set Go, RubyRico Productions, Sharir + Bustamante Danceworks, Sheep Army, and Yellow Tape Construction Co. She is honored and thrilled to join the upcoming KDH ‘24-’25 Dance Season. Lastly, Lisa has a deep passion for the somatic arts and regularly practices and cultivates the mind-body connection with Feldenkrais®, Continuum, and Authentic Movement and offers this as a service to her clients and the Austin community.

Love Muwwakkil Estes is a freelance performer, teacher and choreographer based in Austin, Texas.  Receiving her BFA from UNC Greensboro (2005) and MFA in Dance and Social Justice from UT Austin (2023), Love has choreographed and performed ReSourced:  Portals of Possibility. 

Other choreography credits include Let Them See, But You Could Have Held My Hand and A Recipe For Action.  With an extensive background in performing and teaching, some highlights of her career include serving as rehearsal Director and company member for Urban Bush Women, dancer for Houston Grand Opera world premiere opera Intelligence, HAIRSPRAY with Royal Caribbean, contemporary pole dance company The Pulse project, rehearsal director with Gesel Mason Performance Projects and Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade History of Popular Music. Recently selected as a resident artist for The Big Medium + The Line residency,  Love is excited to continue imaging new worlds through the moving body.

Carissa Topham Fisher has been an enthusiastic KDH company member since way back in 2010. During her time as a company dancer over the last decade (plus) she continues to define, refine and then redefine who she is as a mover and creative thinker. Her goal as an artist is to be intentional with her choices, and prioritize the how and the why, over the simple what. Carissa is also a Pilates teacher at local studio Shape Method, where she enjoys applying her love for dissecting movement in a very practical and functional way. She has choreographed several works with dance pal Emily Rushing which have been seen in Austin Dance Festival, this most recent Dance Carousel, and in their own show, “SMORG”. Carissa holds her BFA in dance from the University of North Texas, and her Pilates certification through STOTT Pilates. When she’s not in the studio, you can find her at home doing the mom thing with her adorable/amazing family, or in any local thrift store buying up all the goodies.