📣2026 PRINCIPAL COMPANIES AND CHOREOGRAPHERS
We’re honored to announce the extraordinary lineup of Principal Companies and Choreographers to Springboard Danse | Pittsburgh! Explore the full list below and start planning your Springboard journey.
Adam Barruch (US) @adambarruch
A.I.M by Kyle Abraham (US) @aimbykyleabraham
chuthis. (US) @peterchuthis
Crystal Pite (CAN) @crystal_pite
Luke Murphy’s Attic Projects (IRL) @attic_projects
Maxine Doyle (UK) @maxinedoyle1
S-E-D // Sharon Eyal Dance (FR) @sharoneyaldance
Sidra Bell Dance New York (US) @sidrabelldancenewyork
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (DE) @tanztheaterwuppertal
The Royal Swedish Ballet -Mats Ek (SWE) @royalswedishballet
& Shamel Pitts (US) @shamelpitts
These visionary artists will shape an unforgettable three weeks of creation, collaboration, and innovation, May 24–June 12, 2026, at Point Park University.
Dancer Video Auditions and Emerging Applications are open now — link in bio.
Live Audition registration opens December 19, 2025
We’re excited to welcome Springboard Danse back to Point Park for the second year in a row! 💃
This international summer dance program supports artists transitioning into the professional world, bringing together 135 dancers, 11 principal companies, 3 resident choreographers and 6 emerging choreographers from around the globe.
Running May 24 – June 12, 2026, Springboard Danse features talent from countries including the UK, Canada, Sweden, France, Germany, Ireland and the U.S.
More info at the link in our bio under "Springboard Danse Summer 2026" 👏
SPRINGBOARD DANSE PITTSBURGH 2026 💥
We can’t believe we are just 2 weeks away from the 26th edition of our beloved summer project! We are so thrilled to be returning to Pittsburgh for our second year and could not be more excited for this extraordinary cohort of international artists to join us. Each of them brings their unique brilliance to the project as creators, performers, and collaborators, and we are so grateful they are spending part of their summer with Springboard.
See you soon, Pittsburgh! ⏳
#springboarddanse #springboarddansepgh #springboarddanse2026
SPRINGBOARD 2026 EMERGING CHOREOGRAPHER HASSAN SYED💥
Hassan Imam Syed is a New York–born choreographer, performer, and educator whose work bridges commercial and concert dance forms. He received his MFA from Temple University and has trained extensively with Les Twins for over a decade, competing at events such as Juste Debout, Breakin Convention, and World of Dance. His choreography has been presented at ADF, NY Live Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Apollo Theatre, and the Carmel Dance Festival, where he was named a choreographic fellow. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Dance (tenure track) at California State University, Fullerton.
We can’t wait to see what Hassan brings to Springboard 2026! His ability to move between worlds makes him a truly exciting voice in the field!
SPRINGBOARD 2026 EMERGING CHOREOGRAPHER JIE-HUNG CONNIE SHIAU💥
Jie-Hung Connie Shiau is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher raised in Tainan, Taiwan. She has choreographed for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the New Choreographer Project in Taipei, SUNY Purchase College, Little Island Dance Festival, and Summer for the City at Lincoln Center. As a performer, she has worked with A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Gallim Dance, Gibney Company, and is currently performing with Brian Brooks/Moving Company, Hélène Simoneau Danse, chuthis., and Robyn Mineko Williams & Artists. She was also a Fall 2025 Artist in Residence at Baryshnikov Arts Center, and her dance films have screened at Dance on Camera and the Cyprus Dance Film Festival, where she received Best Choreographer.
We are so excited to welcome Connie to Springboard 2026 and to see the work she’ll make with our incredible dancers this summer!
📸 photo by Todd Rosenberg
SPRINGBOARD 2026 EMERGING CHOREOGRAPHER ASSAF SALHOV💥
Assaf Salhov is a New York City based choreographer, dancer, and Artistic Director of Le Ballet Fou. A graduate of SEAD Salzburg and SNDO Amsterdam, he is the creator of the Cardinal Movement methodology and has developed over fifteen original works presented internationally at venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Shed, the LA Dance Festival, and the Suzanne Dellal Centre. He has also choreographed for Grammy Award–winning artist Silvana Estrada. Recent highlights include residencies at Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium and premieres at Movement Research, WestFest, and 92Y.
We are thrilled to have Assaf joining us for Springboard 2026, and know he will bring something truly extraordinary to the project and our dancers this summer!
SPRINGBOARD 2026 EMERGING CHOREOGRAPHER MATTHEW DESTEFANO💥
Matthew DeStefano is a Brooklyn-based artist and choreographer whose subversive, in-your-face work draws from underground counterculture and political discourse, blurring the line between the obscene and the refined. His intricate, fragmented movement vocabulary is at once formal and fractured, a call for both rebellion and unity. His work has been presented at the Museum of Arts and Design, Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, Ailey Citigroup Theatre, TEMP Art Space, and in the Classic Stage Company’s production of Othello.
We are thrilled to welcome Matthew to Springboard 2026! His bold artistic perspective will push our dancers, and we cannot wait to see what he creates!
SPRINGBOARD 2026 EMERGING CHOREOGRAPHER CHLOE CRENSHAW💥
Chloe Crenshaw is a Los Angeles–born, New York–based choreographer whose work has been presented at Chelsea Factory, NYU, the Martha Graham Studio Theater, Triskelion Arts, and Theater am Aegi. A graduate of the California Institute of the Arts and The HARID Conservatory, she has created work for Whim W’Him, BalletCollective, and Houston Contemporary 2, and has performed as a company artist with GALLIM and as an Emerging Artist with Ballet BC. In 2024, she was a finalist for the Hannover International Choreographic Competition and a recipient of the ETD New Choreographer Grant.
We are excited to have Chloe with us for Springboard 2026! Her compositional rigor and artistic voice are something special, and we know she’ll create something unforgettable!
✨SPRINGBOARD 2026 GUEST ARTIST
SHAMEL PITTS (USA) 🇺🇸
A 2024 MacArthur Fellow and Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, Shamel is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans performance, choreography, spoken word, and conceptual art. Born in Brooklyn, he trained at LaGuardia High School and The Ailey School before continuing at The Juilliard School, where he received the Martha Hill Award for excellence in dance.
Shamel’s performance career includes work with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance, Ballet Jazz Montreal, as well as seven years with Batsheva Dance Company under the direction of Ohad Naharin, where he became a certified teacher of Gaga movement language.
Through his multidisciplinary arts collective TRIBE, Shamel has created a series of internationally acclaimed works, including his award-winning “BLACK series” and the emerging “RED series,” which have toured extensively across global festivals and performance spaces.
We are excited to have Shamel bringing his powerful artistic voice back to Springboard this summer in Pittsburgh.
📸 Photo by Itai Zwecker
