Perceptual Motion Company Dancers:

  Natalja Aicardi

“ I breathe, I dream, I dance …” 

Natalja is an interdisciplinary artist from Italy; she’s worked as movement director and choreographer for musical theatre, new operas and children’s theatre, with the Theatre Building Chicago, Caffeine Theatre, Stockyard theatre Project and Chicago Opera Vanguard. She danced with The New Yiddish Dance Ensemble; with Theatre Un Speak Able and CocoDanceGroup, for the stage and film. In 2014 she received the DCASE “In the Works” Residency and performed her first theatre/dance/music piece with her grandfather’s music at the Cultural Center of Chicago. She Graduated in 2015 from the School for Theatre Creators. She has studied modern dance with Jan Erkert, Molly Shannahan, Kristina Fluty and ballet with Emily Stein. Natalja has also studied African dance, jazz, tap and improvisation.   

Mary Iris Loncto 

“Dance allows us to visualize our own internal worlds.”

Mary Iris Loncto is a dancer, actor, and choreographer from Ridgewood, New Jersey.  She recently graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied dance with Susan Lee, Jeff Hancock, Laura Wade, Amanda Lower, Annie Arnoult, and Joel Valentín-Martinez.  In Chicago, she has recently performed in Theatre-Hikes’ 10 Ways To Survive The Zombie Apocalypse and Collaboraction’s Peacebook festival.  In 2014, she joined Northwestern’s Jeff Hancock and the cast of Hancock’s Impolite Society at the Kennedy Center to perform in the National College Dance Festival.  She has also trained at the American Dance Festival, the Boston Conservatory, and the Joffrey Ballet School in New York.

Anelise Tatum

Anelise Tatum, a San Antonio, TX native, is a performer, choreographer and teacher.  She graduated from Point Park University with a BFA-Dance, with Honors, Cum Laude.Anelise has danced with Esoteric Dance Project and Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble and teaches at the Des Plaines School of Dance.  Her work has been shown at Trifecta’s “Emerging Choreographers” Festival, and at DanceWorks Chicago’s “Dance Chance”.

Guest Choreographer, Peggy Lamb

Peggy Lamb is a native New Yorker, is a dancer, choreographer and writer. She was a key member of the Dallas performance community for the better part of a decade, alternately playing founder, choreographer, director, dancer and collaborator in numerous projects. Her work has been performed across the country. Her background includes an MA in Dance from American University in Washington, D.C. and post-graduate work in Movement Studies. The Dallas Morning News praised her work as “pushing the boundaries of decorum and sense…” She currently lives in Austin, TX and dances with Body Shift. Studying with Anna Halperin woke up her desire to teach movement in non-traditional settings. Her deepest passion is teaching creative movement and creative writing to incarcerated women in several Texas prisons through the nonprofit organization Truth Be Told.

Guest Choreographer Harvard Vallance

Harvard studied dance with Shirley Mordine, Nana Shineflug, Joel Hall, Fred Alexson and Victor Clottey. Harvard performed with The Chicago Moving Company for Urban Gateways and the Felix Fibitch Dance Company. Harvard worked with Bill Veeck to present The Instant Replay Ballet, a dance performed for 40,000 fans in Comisky Park in 1976. In 1999 he founded The Kalamazoo African Dance Company, which has introduced West African dance and hip-hop to thousands throughout Southwestern Michigan. He teaches children’s ballet, modern and African dance.

Helene Alter-Dyche

“Dance is liberating – it’s freedom – the heart’s expression. Dance gives the soul wings to fly.”

   Helene, 86, joined Perceptual Motion, Inc. in 2002. She studied ballet with Natalie Rast, Richard Ellis  and Christine DuBoulay and taught ballet at the Ellis DuBoulay School of Dance. 

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PMI’s mission is to engage dancers of mixed generations to create inspiring and meaningful experiences that open awareness, challenge perceptions, and create community.