Artists in Residence (AIR)

Kade Pyle is a trans/non-binary dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Pyle began dancing professionally in NYC in 2002, performing in the works of John Jasperse, Jennifer Monson, Faye Driscoll, Ivy Baldwin, Xavier Le Roy, and Young Jean Lee. Pyle founded Ballez in 2011. By centering the experiences of trans, non-binary and genderqueer dancers in practice and creation, Ballez demands that the form of ballet embrace the vitality of positive, inclusive change. Ballez has created four original, full-length story-ballets: The Firebird, a Ballez (2013, Danspace Project), Sleeping Beauty & the Beast (2016, La MaMa), Giselle of Loneliness (2021, The Joyce Theater) and Travesty Doll Play Ballez (after Coppélia) (2024, Chelsea Factory) and has been awarded grants from NYSCA, Harkness, Mellon Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council, United Artists, the Hodder fund, and residencies at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Gibney, MTA, BAX, Abrons and La Mama. Pyle currently teaches ballet at Eugene Lang and Marymount Manhattan Colleges, and professional dancers at Gibney Dance. ballez.org

Brian Golden is a neurodivergent choreographer based between Los Angeles and New York. His interdisciplinary practice blends dance, theater, spoken word, and object-based performance to create immersive, surreal environments. Rooted in his lived experience with dyspraxia and auditory processing disorder, his work transforms sensory experience into embodied storytelling.

Golden holds a BFA in Dance Performance with a minor in Film Production from Chapman University and an MFA in Choreography from the California Institute of the Arts, with minors in Pedagogy and Integrated Media. He is a recipient of a MAP Fund Award and is currently developing a new immersive work premiering in 2027.

He is the inaugural Research Fellow at BEMOVING and served as a teaching artist at The Broad in Los Angeles. His recent highlights include choreographic residencies with Jacob’s Pillow, Dance Lab New York, and Dance Gallery Festival.

His work has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, Jacob’s Pillow, The Joyce Theater, Battery Dance Festival, Catskill Art Space, SCI-Arc, New Century Dance Project, and the McCallum Choreography Festival.

Assaf Salhov is a New York City-based choreographer, dancer, and therapist, and the Artistic Director and Choreographer of Le Ballet Fou and creator of Cardinal Movement. He began his career with Vertigo 2 Dance Company and later studied Choreography and Performance at SEAD (Salzburg) followed by SNDO Amsterdam.

In 2015, Assaf moved to New York, where he joined Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More and created Cabaret evenings for The McKittrick Follies. He performed with Sleep No More through their closing shows in 2025. As a director and choreographer, he has developed over fifteen works showcased in Israel, Europe, and New York. With Le Ballet Fou, Assaf’s work has been presented at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Shed in NYC, LA Dance Festival, Fondation Etats-Unis (Paris), Suzanne Dellal Centre (Tel Aviv), and on international tours to Sweden, Denmark, and Spain. He also choreographed for Grammy-winning artist Silvana Estrada. Since 2024 Le Ballet Fou has been touring and performing Assaf’s newest works, the first day of hunger, The Birth of the Ghost and Feathers for Flesh.

Recent highlights include an immersive theater show at the former Beaux Arts Studios in New York City, a residency at the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium in Denmark, and performances at Movement Research at Judson Church, WestFest, and the 92NY Future Dance Festival. This spring, Assaf was commissioned to create a new work for Arena Dances in Minneapolis. He will be at Springboard Danse in summer 2026 creating work as an emerging choreographer.

Michele Byrd-McPhee is a choreographer, dancer, cultural strategist, and the founder of Ladies of Hip-Hop (LOHH), an organization dedicated to reclaiming and redefining the narrative of women and girls in Hip-Hop culture. A 2023 Bessie Award winner for Outstanding Service to the Field, her work sits at the intersection of dance, cultural preservation, and social change, rooted in the lived experience of Black and Brown women and the power of street and club dance traditions.

She is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she teaches Hip-Hop dance and street and club dance movement and culture, bringing over two decades of embodied practice into academic spaces. As a 2024–2025 Center for Ballet and the Arts research scholar, Byrd-McPhee continued to expand her Black Dancing Bodies project, an ongoing performance and archival initiative that uplifts Black women in street and club dance while preserving their stories through performance, interviews, and documentation.

Her leadership extends beyond the stage and studio through national service as a grant panelist for Works & Process at the Guggenheim, the McKnight Foundation, and more, also serving multiple years as a voting member of the Bessie Awards committee. Byrd-McPhee is currently co-director of the Dance Lab New York Hip-Hop Lab, advancing pathways for Hip-Hop artists within institutional spaces, while continuing to lead Ladies of Hip-Hop as Executive Director and Artistic Director.