Kimberly Bartosik/daela, bLUr

Choreography & Direction by Kimberly Bartosik in collaboration with the performers

Performed by Burr Johnson, Joanna Kotze, Ashley Merker, Jacoby Pruitt, and Donovan Reed, with young artists River Bartosik-Murray and Ari Yul Barash

Music | Sivan Jacobovitz

Lighting & Set Design | Roderick Murray

Costume Design | Harriet Jung

Production Manager | Emily Vizina

International Development | Nicole Birmann Bloom

Company Manager | Kierra Nguyen

Contract Manager | Joshua Bristow

Kimberly Bartosik (artistic director) is a choreographer, performer, educator, and writer. She is a 2024 National Dance Project Production Grant (NDP) recipient from New England Foundation for the Arts; a 2025 New York State Council on the Arts/NYSCA Support for Artists Award grantee with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and a 2025 Harkness Foundation for Dance Project Grant recipient. Other recent awards include: the Doris Duke Foundation Performing Artist Recovery Fund in the New York Community Trust; Bessie Award Honoree for Outstanding Production; Ragdale Foundation Fellowship; Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography; Virginia B. Toulmin Women Leaders in Dance Fellowship at Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU.

Bartosik’s work has been commissioned and presented by BAM Next Wave, L’Alliance New York, Crossing the Line Festival, New York Live Arts, Bates Dance Festival, Torn Space Theater, American Dance Festival, LUMBERYARD, American Realness, Abrons Art Center, Gibney, Danspace Project, The Kitchen, La Mama, and others. She has toured to Supersense: Festival of the Ecstatic (Melbourne, Australia), Bratislava in Movement (Slovakia), Wexner Arts Center, Dance Place, American Dance Festival, The Yard, MASS MoCA/Jacob’s Pillow, FlynnSpace, Bates Dance Festival, Columbia College, Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté à Belfort, Festival Rencontres Chorégraphique Internationales de Seine-Saint Denis, Artdanthe Festival, Church, Mount Tremper Arts, and others. bLUr performances mark her debut at MCA Chicago!

Her work has also been supported by National Dance Project (NDP) Production & Touring Grant and Community Engagement Fund from New England Foundation for the Arts; MAP Fund; Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography/ MANCC; Jerome Foundation; FUSED (French-US Exchange in Dance), a program of the New England Foundation for the Arts in partnership with The Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French American Cultural Exchange; Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, USArtists International; Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artists and Emergency Grants; Creative Arts Initiative (CAI); American Dance Abroad; and New Music USA, Live Music for Dance. Bartosik was an inaugural participant in the 2024 International Choreographers Retreat, organized by Montréal Danse and c.a.t.a.m.o.n Dance Group and was a 2022 United States Artists Fellowship nominee.

As a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for nine years, Bartosik received a Bessie Award for Exceptional Artistry. She is currently an Advisor for The Ailey School/Fordham BFA Program and teaches at SUNY/Purchase and the Merce Cunningham Trust.

Ari Yul Barash (lighting design assistant) is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist and musician attending the Cooper Union School of Art where he is studying painting, sound design, sculpture installation, and performance. Yul Barash performed as a drummer at the Apollo Theater, Shapeshifter Lab, Nublu, and more.

River Bartosik-Murray (lighting design assistant) is a sophomore at The Cooper Union School of Art where he studies art of many mediums including sculpture, painting, and film. Bartosik-Murray has performed in Jerome Bel’s Gala, Thierry Thieû Niang’s To the Heart, and works by his mother, Kimberly Bartosik, I hunger for you, through the mirror of their eyes, Fanta, and The Encounter.

Nicole Birmann Bloom (international development) is based in New York and worked from the late 1990s until 2023, as Coordinator, then as Program Officer, Performing Arts, at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, now Villa Albertine. She took care of the development of projects by artists and companies from France coming to the United States, the organization of curatorial trips and multiple meetings, fostering a rich dialogue between the two countries. She also coordinated two bilateral grant programs: FUSED (French-US Exchange in Dance) and FACE Contemporary Theater. Since 2024, Birmann Bloom has worked as a consultant helping artists from both sides of the ocean. After training in contemporary dance and in special education, she worked in the public and private sectors, specifically in international relations.

Sivan Jacobovitz (composer) lives in NYC. Dance collaborations include: Shamel Pitts’s Marks of RED, BLACK HOLE – Trilogy And Triathlon, Touch of RED (Bessie Outstanding Choreographer Honoree), and MENAGERIE (with Gibney Company); Kimberly Bartosik’s blUr (currently touring), I Hunger For You (BAM Next Wave), and Through The Mirror of Their Eyes (Bessie Outstanding Production Honoree); Guggenheim Works & Process with Kimberly Bartosik/Matthew Ritchie; and ASSEMBLY with GREYZONE.

Burr Johnson (performer) currently dances with Kimberly Bartosik/daela and The Trisha Brown Dance Company. He has performed with John Jasperse Projects (2010–16), Shen Wei Dance Arts (2009–17), Marina Abramović/GIVENCHY, Ryan McNamara, Netta Yerushalmy, Boris Charmatz, Isabel Lewis, Christopher Williams, Sally Silvers, Bill Young, Jack Ferver, Moriah Evans, and The Merce Cunningham Trust for Night of 100 solos: LA. He is a 2020 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award honoree for individual performance in Kimberly Bartosik’s through the mirror of their eyes. His choreographic work has been presented through Abrons Art Center, Danspace Project, The American Dance Festival, GIBNEY, Works and Process at the Guggenheim Museum, and The Alvin Ailey School.

Harriet Jung (costume designer) is a costume designer and cocreative director of Reid & Harriet. She has collaborated with choreographers including Kyle Abraham, Justin Peck, Christopher Wheeldon, and Pam Tanowitz, with works presented by New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and The Royal Ballet. Her work extends beyond the ballet stage to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, and The Museum of Arts and Design. Her Off-Broadway credits include Did You Eat? (2025) at The Public Theater, and her Broadway credits include Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ (2023) and Illinoise (2024).

Joanna Kotze (performer) has been dancing with Kimberly Bartosik since 2009. She is the 2025/2026 Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA) at New York Live Arts, a 2025 NDP Finalist, a 2024 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant to Artists recipient, and a 2013 Bessie Award winner. Her work has been supported by numerous foundations and extensively presented in New York and across the US. She has taught all over the world and been supported by residencies throughout the US and Europe. Joanna also dances with Stacy Spence, and has worked with Wally Cardona, Annie-B Parson, Donna Uchizono, Tendayi Kuumba, Kota Yamazaki, Netta Yerushalmy, Sam Kim, the Metropolitan Opera ballet, Daniel Charon, and others. She is originally from South Africa and has a BA in Architecture.

Ashley Merker (performer; she/her) is a Brooklyn-based dance artist, and teaches GYROTONIC® and Pilates. She is originally from Denver, Colorado, and a current member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company. She earned her BFA from The Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase where she performed works by Kimberly Bartosik, Hannah Garner, Aszure Barton, Martha Graham, Trisha Brown, Adam Barruch, and Doug Varone. She also studied at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth and performed work by Rhiannon Newton. Since graduating, she has danced and collaborated with Buglisi Dance Theatre under the direction of Jacqulyn Buglisi, Doug Varone and Dancers, Emma Cianchi, Claude Johnson, Nicole Fuentes, and Jody Oberfelder. Merker is thrilled to be a part of Kimberly Bartosik’s bLUr.

Roderick Murray (lighting designer) has designed lights for dance since 1989 working with artists around the world including all of Kimberly Bartosik’s work, and for Ralph Lemon, Benjamin Millepied, Yanira Castro, Sekou Sundiata, Wally Cardona, Kathy Westwater, NYCB, ABT, Lyon Opera Ballet, Balletto di Roma, Dortmund Ballet, Grand Ballet de Genève, and many others. He cofounded Open Culture Works. Murray performed for nine years with Circus Amok and is currently the Director of Production for Beth Morrison Projects.

Kierra Nguyen (company manager) is a Brooklyn-based dance and visual artist from Seattle, WA. She completed a double major in Dance and Studio Art from Oberlin College in 2020. Alongside her movement practice and duet-in-progress with collaborator and friend Emily Young, you can also find her working for the Janet Fish Foundation.

Jacoby Pruitt (performer; he/him) is a New York City–based performer, choreographer, and teaching artist. A member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company since 2021, he also collaborates with Sean Curran Company and Kimberly Bartosik/daela. His performance credits include Ailey II, Company XIV, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and film/TV work such as In The Heights, Alternatino, and Good Morning America. He is a graduate of New World School of the Arts (Miami, FL) and earned his BFA from NYU Tisch. Pruitt is a Bessie Award winner and Martha Hill “Young Professional” Award recipient. He is also on year round faculty at The Joffrey Ballet School.

Donovan Reed (performer; (they/them), a New York City–based performer and teacher, earned their BFA in Dance from The University of the Arts. During their time in college, they became an artist in residence at Die Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany, and participated in an independent artist program with the Pennsylvania Ballet. They’ve been a guest artist in collaboration with Bare Dance Company, Meredith Rainey, Helen Simoneau, Limón Dance Company, and Mayte Natalio. Reed was a company member with A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, and in 2024, they were recognized as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch.” Reed is currently collaborating with Kimberly Bartosik and GALLIM.

Emily Vizina (production manager) is a Brooklyn-based dance and theater freelance artist. Vizina, also known as Viz, works as a stage manager, production manager, electrician, and everything in between. Viz received a BFA from Ohio University in Dance Choreography and Performance, as well as a BA in Psychology. Viz has had the pleasure of working at dance venues including New York Live Arts, Baryshinkov Arts, Chelsea Factory, Chocolate Factory, and Jacob’s Pillow, as well as touring with Faye Driscoll’s Weathering, Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, and Kimberly Bartosik’s bLUr. When not at the theater, Viz can be found crocheting, admiring nature, or binge watching TV.