2025 Summer Intensive
Monday 7/7 - Friday 7/11
12:30 - 3:30
$300
**Competition Auditions 7/12 9:00-12:00**
Monday 7/7- RJ Lee
Style: Jumps/Turns & Jazz
RJ Lee is a multi-faceted dance artist. He is an international performer and award-winning choreographer, as well as a researcher and instructor. The emerging choreographer has presented work across the Metro-Charlotte area including Winthrop University, Loose Leaves Legacy, The SOURCE Convention (Awarded “Best In SOURCE), The BOOM Festival, Baran Dance, and most recently premiered his first Master Work” Moments of Icarus” as a student in residency at Winthrop University (2025). He joined Baran Dance in 2023 (BDU) and is currently in his second full season with the company. With Baran Dance, he has had the privilege of dancing for Bombadil’s “Moving Colors Tour”, “Winter Worx” (2023, 2024), “Homegrown” (2024), and “Big Moves: Big Ideas” (2025). At Winthrop, he performed consecutively in over twenty works as well as the SOURCE Convention (2022, 2025), and The American Collegiate Dance Association (2022, 2023, 2025). He has performed George Staib’s Master Work “Prato” in Sorrento, Italy under Staibdance, for David Dorfman as a part of the Emerging Artist Program, as well as for Martha Connerton Kinetic Works, restaging “Adrift” for The North Carolina Choreographers Residency Project (2024). He is a professional teaching artist across the Carolinas from Hartsville, SC, to Waxhaw, NC. He is on faculty at Open Door Studios, teaching Contemporary Conditioning.
Tuesday 7/8 - Channing Dayton
Style - Ballet & Lyrical Combo
Channing Dayton is a dancer and choreographer based in Charlotte, NC. She attended East Carolina University where she graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography in December of 2024. Channing was recently awarded an Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity grant, where she choreographed an evening-length work exploring how physical trauma changes the brain and body. She has performed in many student and faculty works at ECU, and served as an intern, where she connected with past alumni. Channing has also performed in festivals such as Detroit City Dance Festival, BOOM Festival, and Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, as well as with Baran Dance Company and The MARK Dance Company. Channing performed in Grand Carnivale at Carowinds, and most recently performed in an American Dance Festival Footprints piece choreographed by David Dorfman. She was selected as the student choreographer for ECU’s Fall Dance 2024 Faculty Concert. In the coming months, you can see her perform in the NC Choreographers Residency Project in May, as well as the Loose Leaves Legacy performance in June. She plans to pursue a future of dancing in a contemporary company and setting her own choreographic works.
Wednesday 7/9 - Allyson Howard
Style - Jazz & Contemporary
Allyson Howard is 23 years old from Mooresville, North Carolina. Dance has been her passion since she was 3 years old. Over the years, she has worked with numerous choreographers from all over the East and West coasts! Some include Travis & Denise Wall, Jamie Goodwin, Martha Nichols, and Allen Cooper. In 2019, she was fortunate to become a dance teacher. She has received many high overall placements, choreography and entertainment awards, and the highest scores for the pieces she's choreographed. Recently, she finished up her rookie season as a Charlotte Hornets NBA dancer, hoping to return as a veteran. Some of her other interests include spending time with family, being involved in church, and working with people with special needs.
Thursday 7/10 - Mariah Davis
Style - Technique & HipHop Combo
My name is Mariah Davis, and I've been dancing since I was 2 years old! I was trained as a competitive dancer at CC & Company Dance Complex; I took jazz, tap, ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, etc/you name it! I then became a member of East Carolina University's Club Dance Team throughout my years at ECU. Now, I'm a therapist at an eating disorder hospital in Durham with a masters in Marriage and Family Therapy, and I teach dance at CC & Company Dance Complex. I'm super excited to be a guest choreographer here at En Pointe!
Friday 7/11 - Joanna Pirnat
Style - Tumbling & Combo
Joanna is from Vernon, New Jersey. She started her training in ballet/pointe, tap, jazz, contemporary, hip hop, and acrobatics at Ziegler Dance Centre as a toddler.
Joanna continued her dance education at Hofstra University, where she graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Dance Education in 2017. She participated in the Hofstra Dance Department Faculty concerts, performing choreography by guests and faculty Bill Young, Rachel List, and Robbie Cook. Her technical training included ballet, modern, pilates, and repertory from artists including Amy Marshall, Dyane Harvey-Salaam, Karla Wolfangle, Robin Becker, Ellie Kusner, and Colin Stillwell, among others. She was also an active member of the performance clubs Danceworks, MoVoM, Hofstra Ballroom Dance, Dancers in Schools, and was a member of the university’s competitive STUNT and cheerleading teams. Joanna also participated in Teaching Dance as Art (T’DAA), Hofstra’s Dance Education club, and earned an invitation to become the head instructor of AHRC, a club that teams with special needs adults in improvisation classes and for an annual holiday dance performance.
Joanna received a Master’s degree in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling from Antioch University New England. There, she choreographed for two student-led performances, presented choreography and performed at two local conferences and arts festivals, held internships in dance/movement therapy and in counseling, and volunteered to participate in and organize annual One Billion Rising performances for raising awareness about domestic violence. While in graduate school, Joanna discovered a passion for coaching gymnastics and pursued certification through USAG.
Joanna's professional career has included performing works by Arica Brown and Ashreale McDowell with Consuming Kinetics Dance Company, working as a medical and special needs dance/movement therapist, and teaching at local studios.