Fall in Love with CWDT

Ray Mercer, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, has set works on various companies across the country including Philadanco, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, New Jersey Ballet, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Ballet Pensacola, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, and DRA (Dancers Responding to Aids). He has performed with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, as a guest artist with Boston Ballet, and is currently in the Broadway production of The Lion King. He is also a resident choreographer for the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program. Mercer is the recipient of many awards including a 2012 Joffrey Ballet Choreographers of Color Award, a Pensacola Ballet Choreographers Award, and he is a five-time winner of Broadway’s Gypsy of the Year Award for best onstage performance. Recently acknowledged for his choreography in The New York Times, Chicago Sun Times, and Movement Magazine, Mercer has also been commissioned to choreograph a work for the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC.

Adrienne Hurd is a native New Yorker. She studied at the Joffrey Ballet School, the School of American Ballet and The Ailey School on Scholarship. She danced with Neubert Ballet, Ailey II, and The Jamison Project. She was Ms. Jamison’s assistant for the early works. Adrienne has worked with Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison, Michael Peters, Paula Abdul, Twyla Tharp, Garth Fagan, Donald McKayle, Graciela Daniele, Jeff Calhoun, Hans von Manon, Vince Patterson, Earl Mosley, and Dance Brazil. She has appeared in numerous Broadway shows and commercials. Adrienne and her husband Lutin Tanner are choreographers for The Middle Collegiate Arts Ministry. She has taught at the University of Minnesota, St. Petersburg Dance festival, Dance New Amsterdam, and The Ailey School.