2026 Visiting Artists
Natalie Gotter (she/her) is a dance performer, choreographer, filmmaker, educator, researcher, and Director of Training Programs at Bates Dance Festival. She received her MFA in Modern Dance with certification in Screendance and Gender Studies from the University of Utah and BA in Communication, Music, and Dance from Tulane University. Dance offers her a way of engaging with socialization of the physically gendered body and questioning human limits, whether inherent or self-imposed, with dance offering physical and somatic insight of possibilities. Her practice centers dance as a liberatory practice of community building and reclaiming of social identity. Natalie has taught at the University of Utah, Westminster College, Utah Valley University, Salt Lake Community College, Weber State University, and most recently was an Assistant Professor and co-Director of Dance at Muhlenberg College, where she designed and co-taught dance and science workshops for Youth-in-Probation, received her certification in the Inside-Out prison abolition teaching program and was awarded the 2023 Muhlenberg Center for Teaching and Learning Teaching Award for Community Engaged Coursework.
As a performing artist, she has been a featured and ensemble dancer in works by Florian Alberge, John Allen, Michaela Cannon, Juan Carlos Claudio, Ashley Creek, Michael Crotty, Katherine Desimine, Jeffrey Gunshol, Earl Mosley, Fiona Nelson, Dat Nguyen, Gabrielle Revlock, and Beverly Trask. She was also a featured dancer in the Alwin Nikolais Centennial Celebration in 2011. Her choreographic works have been presented in New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis, including multiple evening-length self-produced and collaborative research based concerts; and collaborative commissions for Megan Flynn Dance Company, Flatlands Dance Theatre, Cat+Fish Dances, Tipping Point Dance Company, Tanner Dance Company and Performing Dance Center. Her screendance works have been featured at the Going Dutch Arts Festival (Chicago), PA Dance Educators Conference (Philadelphia), Red Rocks Dance Festival (St. George), Screendance in the Landscape (Oban, Scotland), and she received the Audience Favorite Award at the Utah Dance Film Festival (Salt Lake City) in 2018.
Originally from Lake Zurich, IL, Emilia Bruno (they/them) is an Italian-American, queer movement artist and educator based in College Park, MD. They are a core collaborator with Tristan Koepke/Big Boy Dance, regularly creating, developing, and performing company work since 2023. Additional performance credits include Kendra Portier/BANDportier, Shapiro & Smith Dance, Zenon Dance Company, Slo Dance Company, Brit Falcon/Falcon Dance, and MK Ford. In addition to their performance work, Emilia holds the role of Associate Director of the Young Dancers Intensive at the Bates Dance Festival after serving as the Director of Mentorship for this program from 2023-2025. Education and mentorship for aspiring youth artists is a core value of their continued work and desired impact on the dance field at large. Emilia also works as an arts administrator for Mariclare Hulbert Consulting supporting the communication, marketing, and public relations efforts of renown dance artists and organizations. Emilia received their BFA in Dance and BS in Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and is a current MFA candidate in Dance at the University of Maryland, College Park.