Glade

Lauren Borchard is a dancer, yogi, and historian in the Washington, D.C., area.

She completed her 200-hour Yoga Alliance training at Tranquil Space in 2008 and has also been teaching modern dance, jazz dance, and Intro to Dance classes since 2002 at area studios.

She has danced with a variety of D.C.-area choreographers and several companies, including The Playground and CrossCurrents Dance Company, and is pleased to be a part of Glade Dance Collective!

Sylvana Christopher is a D.C. native, performer, choreographer and teaching artist. She is committed to bringing dance into people's lives as a means for expressing the inner self through physical motion. Her choreographic work has graced several spaces including The National Museum of African Arts, Museum of the Americas, The Phillips Collection, Jack Guidone Theater, The Atlas Performing Arts Center, Gallaudet University, Howard Community College and The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage. With several choreographers and musicians, she presented 5 by 5 in 2016 at St. Columba’s Church.

Christopher believes in building community through dancemaking and used that belief to co-found Glade Dance Collective in 2009 with dance advocate Betsy Loikow as well as Dancing Rogues with Sara Herrera and Hayley Cutler. A graduate of The Washington School of Ballet, Christopher earned a BFA in Dance Performance & Choreography from The Ohio State University in 2002 and her diaspora research extends to the Caribbean, France and Senegal. She has performed with Open Circle Theater, In Series and danced works by Michelle Ava, Meisha Bosma, Holly Bass, Lucy Bowen McCauley, Rita Jean Kelly Burns, Nancy Havlik, Kate Jordan, Kelly King, Assane Konte, Sarah Ewing, Gesel Mason, Natty McCube, Erica Rebollar, Juan Carlos Rincones, Melissa Saint Amour, Samantha Sobash, Erin Tunbridge and Cynthia Word.

SylviDances recently premiered 3 dances at Baltimore Theater Project in 2018: ash, a response to her fear of nuclear winter, Charades with DancEthos about volleys between dominant world leaders, and Who by Joan Nicholas-Walker reflecting on the many roles a woman plays in her lifetime. Then She Fell, created by Maggie Lockhart and Christopher for 5 by 5, was reset on Howard Community College Dance Company and selected for Dance Place’s New Releases Choreographic Showcase.

You can catch Sylvana teaching for Joy of Motion Dance Center Atlas, The Washington Ballet @THEARC, Word Dance Theater at Dance Loft on 14, and Rainbow Dance with Inner City, Inner Child. She has also taught for Wolf Trap, City Dance, Washington Performing Arts, Dance Place and Sitar Arts Center.

Betsy Loikow (she/her) is a native Washingtonian who began studying dance as a child at the Washington School of Ballet and as a member of Rima Faber's Primary Movers. She graduated with a BA in film and political science from Vassar College (NY). She completed her Certification in Movement Analysis through the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in 2015. Betsy works at the National Dance Education Organization, and she has worked on both local and national electoral campaigns in the US and abroad. She is always looking for new ways to combine art and activism. A co-founder of Glade Dance Collective and NACHMO DC, she has performed and shown choreography extensively throughout DC, Maryland, and Virginia, as well as in NYC and at the Minnesota Fringe Festival.

Amity Pope is a dancer, yogi, mentor teacher, and social justice advocate in her home community and workplace.

She enjoys taking modern and jazz dance from Helen Hayes at Joy of Motion Dance Studio and has been since 2010.

As a child she studied under Sandrea Woolfork and Amber Wilson with Footsteps, a D.C.-area dance company, and is pleased to be a part of Glade Dance Collective!

Samantha Sobash is a performer, choreographer, and arts manager based in Washington, D.C. She holds a BFA in Dance Performance from Chapman University and a MA in Arts Management from American University.

In D.C., she has performed as a company member of ACW Dances and Glade Dance Collective, as well as a guest artist of DanceEthos.

Samantha has most recently collaborated with spoken word in a variety of contexts, from comedians to poets, in order to discover how movement can further convey human experiences. When not in the studio, Samantha geeks out about coffee as Head Roaster at Zeke’s Coffee of D.C. You can view her choreography here.

Stephanie is a native of Syracuse, N.Y., where she trained at Liverpool School of Dance. From the ages of 3 through 18, she studied ballet, tap, jazz, and lyrical and was an award winning member of their competition team. She also participated in community theatre in high school and college.

She was introduced to modern dance at SUNY Oswego through Cheryl Wilkins-Mitchell where she received her B.A. in Human Communications. After moving in late 2007 to the D.C. area, she jumped into the dance scene and added hip hop among the styles of dance she would train and perform in.

Sarah Raker (she/her) is a Texas native who has always been dancing. After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in anthropology and psychology and a modern dance minor, she moved to DC and soon joined Glade Dance Collective. Over the past 8 years with Glade, she has performed throughout DC, Maryland, and Virginia as well as in NYC, including showing evening-length works at Capital Fringe, Dance Place, and Atlas Performing Arts Center. She is also a public opinion researcher at a strategic communications firm. When not rehearsing or working, she can often be found listening to live music around DC or hanging out with her cat, Luna.