Keola Jones (she/her) born in Glen Allen, VA, land of the Powhatan people, is a 2022 graduate of the Dance & Choreography BFA program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Keola is a movement artist, performer, researcher, filmmaker, choreographer and educator. Keola’s movement practice is deeply influenced by research of how Black bodies hold and release emotions and trauma.  She was recently an Inaugural Fellow with Johnnie Cruise Mercer’s company TheRedprojectNYC in 2022 and now works for the company. She also works as an adjunct professor of dance at The College of William & Mary and is a company member of the Leah Glenn Dance Theatre. Keolajones.com

Makeda-Lily Love-Roney (she/her/they) is a fourth-generation artist from unseated Lenape Nation land known as New York. She’s a life, body, & energy alchemist, creative, dance artist, and Body Alignment/Pilates coach. Makeda’s previously performed with BalletNext, Nimbus Dance Works and nia love | Blacksmith’s Daughter, Liz Lerman, and Debbie Allen.

She’s currently a freelance dance artist, nia love’s teaching/choreographic assistant and movement collaborator of 10 years, the Producer and Co-Host of Black Dance Stories, and an apprentice of UBW.

Makeda’s features include The New Yorker, Cake and Whiskey Magazine, A Ballerina’s Body Book, KT-LA Debbie Allen’s Hot Chocolate Nutcracker Excerpt, Ritual: Short Film, and more.