Bios

Rachael Lincoln is a dance-maker, performer, and educator with an affinity for long-term collaborations. She has been practicing Contact Improvisation for nearly three decades and continues to learn through its endless invitations to curiosity, listening, and discovery. Rachael has been a dancer and associate director with BANDALOOP since 1998, performing site-specifically on vertical surfaces and in traditional theaters around the world. She continues to create and perform duets with her longtime collaborator Leslie Seiters and practices, performs, and teaches with AVID, a Seattle-based ensemble improvisation collective. Rachael holds an MFA from UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures and is a Professor of Dance at the University of Washington.

Aaron Swartzman has been drawn to embodied play since his earliest dance classes at Seattle's Creative Dance Center. That lifelong curiosity led him to Contact Improvisation, Capoeira Angola, and a wide range of movement practices that continue to shape his work as a dancer, teacher, and lifelong student. Formative influences include LINGO dancetheater, UMAMI Performance, and AVID, who he has danced, performed and taught with for over a decade. Aaron is deeply grateful to the many teachers, students, and collaborators who have influenced his practice and is committed to carrying those lineages forward with sensitivity, generosity, and playfulness.