ABOUT US

Founder and Creative Director

Angelica DeLashmette Hurst is a hybrid dance artist who is passionate about Hip-Hop/Street Dance and Modern/Contemporary dance forms and lineages. She aims to bring awareness, education, respect, and appreciation for Black vernacular dance through her artistic practice and pedagogical research. 

Recently her creative research has  focused on Western and Afro-Diasporic dance improvisational practices that are centered in the social moving body – examining how a responsive and conversational body (the mode of call and response) is activated both in practice and performance. She aims to interrogate choreographic structures, create cooperative group processes, and identify relational approaches for choreographic development. 

Hurst sees dance as a powerful art form that cultivates shared experiences and constantly reinforces the significance of meaning-making through the body. It is in her capacity to connect, collaborate. and be in community with others that dance has had its most profound influence on her.

She is currently residing in Southern Arizona and is on faculty in the dance programs at Arizona State University, Grand Canyon University, and Scottsdale and Mesa Community Colleges. She is the creator and host of The Artist Arena Podcast, a podcast specifically for professional dance artists, students, and educators working in the dance field/industry. 

In 2022 she launched Third Space Dance Project.

Social Media Assistant

Juan Carlos Garcia Gutierrez , aka Jay, aka “the prince of chaos” was born and grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona. He found the world of dance when he was 19, taking his first classes in ballet and Hip-hop at Scottsdale Community College. 

Questioning what it means to be a dancer and feeling very intrigued by this,  Juan dabbled in SCC’s program and fell in love with dance for film, color theory, and lighting design. He also has a keen interest in the choreographic process, music composition, and social media management.  

Juan gravitated very quickly to modern floor work and breaking forms. His movement is a unique blend of athleticism and gestural work, and he enjoys working collaboratively because it allows him to utilize dancers' individual strengths without completely relying on them. His works are a blend of  contemporary with an emphasis on momentum, swing, and free flow, translating into a more release-based work.

Operations Manager

Shauna Meredith is a performer, choreographer, and movement educator based in the Phoenix area. She received her Master of Science degree in Dance Science from Trinity Laban in London, UK. This sparked her interest in dance psychology and has allowed her to work with dancers in performance enhancement and injury prevention. 

Her technique classes typically focus on efficiency and ease of movement. She also uses strength and conditioning exercises to prepare the body for the ever-increasing physical demands of contemporary choreography. 

Shauna currently serves as an adjunct faculty member and resident choreographer at Glendale, Scottsdale, and Chandler-Gilbert Community Colleges and as a faculty associate at Arizona State University. She has performed professionally for film and in live performances with MAC & Company Dance,  Rosenkrans Dans, Mary Fitzgerald, Jordan Daniels Dance, and her own company, Vital Motion.

Research & Evaluation Specialist 

Arianna's decade of experience working in higher education includes coordinating the First-Year Writing program at Carnegie Mellon University and teaching and tutoring students in writing at Valencia College.  Along with an MA degree in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon University, Arianna holds a Certificate in Grantwriting from Seattle Central College. 

Based in the Pacific Northwest, Arianna provides editing and coaching for graduate school applications and other academic writing tasks. She also writes for The Humane Space. 

Production and Technical Advisor

Angela Rosenkrans is the Dance Program Director at Scottsdale Community College in Scottsdale, Arizona.  She is also a founding member and Artistic Director for Rosenkrans Dans, which premiered in the summer of 2012. 

Angela holds a bachelor's degree in Dance from Centenary College of Louisiana and a master's degree in Fine Arts from Sam Houston State University. She has been teaching and choreographing for 25 years at colleges and dance studios in Colorado, Texas, Arizona, and Louisiana. 

Angela has also performed professionally with Rosenkrans Dans, Ormao Dance Company, Scorpius Dance Theatre, Conder Dance, 32 Flavors, and Liz Casebolt Dance.

Operations Assistant

Lauren Jimenez is originally from Brentwood, California. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts  in Dance from Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University. She also holds a minor in Film and Media Studies and a certificate in Homeland Security. 

During her time at ASU, Lauren was part of the choreographic process and performance of guest artists and professors, including Adam McKinney, Nicole Klaymoon, Michael Sakamoto, Joan Rodriguez, Taimy Miranda, Alicia Nascimento Castro, and Nicole Bradley-Browning. She has performed professionally at Taliesin West, Tempe Center for the Arts, and the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City. 

Lauren's creative work has been selected for performance at ASU’s Spring Dance Fest, Herberger Alumni Event,  and Gammage Auditorium, as well as, Tempe Center for the Arts. In 2019 she attended the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina and was selected to be in the HOT SUMMER POP UP’s directed by Mark Dendy and Kayla Farrish. 

More recently, Lauren has performed in the repertoire of Koresh Dance Company and in “Here and Now/Wet Stones” at Tempe Center for the Arts. 

Lauren has completed an Arts Administration internship with SALT Contemporary Dance and LED Boise, where she engaged in the choreographic process and performed the works of Lauren Edson and Cameron McKinney. 

This season she is on the contemporary dance faculty at Ballet Theater of Phoenix, where she works with the Imagine Dance Challenge competition.  She is also a stagehand at Tempe Center for the Arts. 

Lauren is excited to join the Third Space Dance Project team  and is inspired by its vision!