Rachel Barker is a choreographer, educator, dancer, and pilates instructor from SLC, Utah. For the past two years, her creative pursuit has been raising her first child—navigating motherhood and other life pursuits while loving her baby fiercely. Rachel has served as an Assistant Professor of Dance at Brigham Young University and University of North Carolina Charlotte, in addition to other teaching appointments in higher ed, public schools, dance studios, and community centers. Her dance film work has garnered international acclaim (Dance Camera West Festival, Red Rocks Film Festival, Alfred Lambourne Award, The Utah Review, Mexico City Videodance Festival, and more). Her choreography has been commissioned by Repertory Dance Theater, Bellingham Repertory Dance, Tanner Dance, and presented at the Repertory Dance Theater Regalia, Red Rocks Dance Festival, Breaking Ground Festival (AZ), Dixon Theater (NYC), Seattle International Dance Festival, and various university dance departments. Rachel curated and produced the Superwomen concert at the Rose Wagner Theater in 2022.

Brandin Steffensen (BFA University of Utah, MFA University of Washington) makes dances that engage performers’ choreographed and spontaneous bodies. His works have been presented at The New Museum, Dance Theater Workshop, La MaMa, and The Tank. His performance credits include Ririe Woodbury Dance Company during their Alwin Nikolais years, Liz Gerring Dance Company, Brian Brooks Moving Company, Tamar Rogoff, Tiffany Mills Company, Big Man Arts, and Christopher Williams Dance. He played MacDuff at The McKittrick Hotel’s acclaimed immersive Sleep No More and originated the role of Doctor Kellogg for Emursive’s groundbreaking Life and Trust. He teaches dance technique and improvisation with a focus on ensemble thinking. His research is concerned with understanding place through social intervention. His praxis Pentamode is based on archetypes of relationship and has found its home within many dance artists’ processes. He and his family are thrilled to call Utah home since July 2025.

Ai began dancing at the age of four in Tokyo, Japan, where she received several national dance awards. After coming to the U.S., she earned a BFA in Modern Dance at the University of Utah. Following graduation, Ai apprenticed for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in New York City, and danced professionally with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company for eight seasons in Salt Lake City between 2000 and 2008. In 2009 she danced her way to New Zealand, where she acquired a Master of Creative and Performing Arts degree. Throughout her career, Ai has enjoyed teaching students of all ages and abilities, both nationally and internationally. In the state of Utah, she has served as Adjunct Faculty at Utah Valley University, taught creative dance for the University of Utah’s Tanner Dance, as well as modern dance technique for the Ballet West Academy. She is thrilled to have returned to Ririe-Woodbury in 2014 as Education Director, and looks forward to an adventurous future with the company.