Darion Smith (Artistic Director)
Darion Smith is the artistic director and cofounder of Jansuphere Dance Company (JDC). Smith’s choreographic works have been presented throughout the United States and abroad in Spain and Mexico. Smith fuses different dance genres, incorporates visual art and interactive set designs and life size props to focus his artistic vision. His works are made in collaboration with award winning musicians and composers. He has worked to maintain his vision for JDC, since its founding in 2007, as a platform for collaborative exploration, providing opportunities for professional dancers, and community engagement through performances, workshops and masterclasses. In 2018, Smith was the Artist in Residence at the Pacific Lutheran University and most recently the recipient of the 2020 Mark Ryder Original Choreography Award.
Smith is an assistant professor of dance at the Howard Community College, teaching theory and technique to dance majors, non-dance majors, and community member students. He is also the director of the Howard County Community Dance Festival, which offers masterclasses and performance opportunities to the Howard County Dance Community. He creates choreographic works for the HCC Dance Concert Season with students and professional artists. Smith is on faculty at the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Preparatory Dance Program where he teaches boys ballet to students aged 8-18. He has been a guest faculty at the Washington School of Ballet and has taught at the American College Dance Association, Northwest and Mid-Atlantic North Regional Conferences.
Smith is a graduate of the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany. He studied ballet at the Bolshoi Academy in Moscow. Smith began his professional career with the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s, Dancing Through Barriers Ensemble and continued to diversify his professional credits with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet at Lincoln Center, Buglisi Dance Theatre, New York Theater Ballet, and other professional dance companies. During his time at the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Smith taught for their education and community outreach programs. After twelve years in the professional field, Darion returned to academia as a graduate teaching fellow to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oregon.
Danielle Genest Konicheva (Co-Founder)
Danielle Genest Konicheva is co-founder and and former Associate Artistic Director of Janusphere Dance Company. She began dancing professionally at the age of 17 when she joined Hartford Ballet under the direction of Kirk Peterson. She then went on to become Principal Dancer with New York Theatre Ballet and most recently Island Moving Company. Danielle has appeared as a guest artist with various companies both nationally and internationally including Ballett St. Polten, Cadence Dance Project, Providence Ballet Theatre, Spindle City Ballet, and Connecticut Concert Ballet among others. She is also Co-Artistic Director and resident choreographer for Part of the Oath Dance Theatre in Rhode Island. Danielle’s choreography has been commissioned by New York Theatre Ballet, Tallahassee Ballet, Festival Ballet Providence, Island Moving Company, Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance, Salve Regina University, and Texas A&M University. Her work has been showcased at Hartford Ballet Arts Exclusive, the Elan Awards in New York City, and the 10th International Ballettmeeting in Austria.
Danielle was recently awarded the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowship Merit Award in Choreography. In addition to her choreographic and performing career, she has been teaching ballet at Ballet School New York, Newport Academy of Ballet, and Providence Ballet. Danielle currently resides in Newport, RI with her husband, Petar, and their sons, Niko and Rafael.
Dancers
Alison Bartels grew up in San Antonio, Texas where she trained at The Ballet Conservatory of South Texas under the direction of Marieli Guardiola Pope. She graduated in 2019 with a BFA in ballet from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music. While training at the University of Cincinnati, Alison performed soloist and featured roles such as Queen of the Dryads in Don Quixote, Shade 2 in La Bayadere, and was a featured dancer in Jose Limon’s A Choreographic Offering. Alison was a company member on Bowen McCauley Dance Company in Washington D.C. from 2019-2021 where she performed featured soloist and ensemble roles at The Kennedy Center and DancePlace. Most recently, Alison danced with Virginia National Ballet for their 2021-2022 season.
Misei Daimaru started her classical ballet training under the direction with Tomotake Nakamura in Tokyo, Japan. She graduated from TOHO GAKUEN College of Drama and Music. After moving to New York City in 2005 she continued her studies at the Alvin Ailey School. As a professional dancer Miss Daimaru hasperformed in New York City and on tour with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Sunhwa Chang / Ko-Ryo Dance, Janusphere Dance Company, Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company and Callince Dance. In addition, Misei teaches ballet and contemporary dance at the Silva Dance Academy and Yumiko Ballet in New York City and Long Island, NY.
Steven Jasso was born and raised in the central coast of California. For the past 10 years he has been performing across the country working for State Street Ballet, Opera Santa Barbara, PCPA, Western Slope Concert Series, Santa Barbara Dance Theater, and is now delighted to perform with Janusphere's. YAY! When he's not performing you'll find Steven skydiving, fire breathing, practicing jiu-jitsu, or reading.
Kathryn Mortellaro began their ballet training at the Frederick School of Classical Ballet in Frederick, MD. Between the ages of 11 and 13, they trained at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB) under the instruction of Marcia Dale Weary. From ages 13 through 15, Kathryn worked exclusively with Davit Karapetyan, Vanessa Zahorian, and Theresa Crawford at the Pennsylvania Ballet Academy and attended Houston Ballet Academy’s summer intensive on full tuition and housing scholarship at 15. The following school year, they trained at San Francisco Ballet School’s level 6 year-round program under the instruction of Tina LeBlanc and performed as a student with San Francisco Ballet. From ages 16 to 20, Kathryn was a ballet instructor at Vibe Performing Arts in Gettysburg, PA. Kathryn spent 2 semesters in Montgomery College’s Dance Company, performing repertoire by Alice Howes. After receiving a Dance Talent Scholarship, Kathryn transferred to Towson University in the Fall of 2023 where they are working towards a B.F.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography and a B.S. in Psychology.
Ariarna Murphy was born and raised in Washington, DC and began her dance training at Jones Haywood School of Dance and later attended Princess Mhoon Dance Institute. She received her BFA in Dance Arts from Howard University where she also minored in Psychology. Ariarna has performed works by Amanda Standard, Ray Mercer, Ella Rothschild, Francesca Harper, and Jennifer Archibald and attended the Ailey School as an Independent Study. Ariarna is currently a member of SoundXpressed Dance Company and is thrilled to join Janusphere Dance Company.
Nikki Pfeiffer is originaly from Santa Barbara, CA, and has received awards from the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance and the city of Santa Barbara for her accomplishments in dance. In 2013, she graduated fromCalifornia Institute of the Arts with additionally training abroad on scholorship in Barcelona, Spain. Some of Nikki’s various performance experiences include dancing in works by Ohad Naharin, Twyla Tharp, Daniel Charon, Glen Eddy, and Colin Connor. Nikki Joined Santa Barbara Dance Theater in 2015 and during her two seasons with the company, she performed in works by Christopher Pilafian, Edgar Zendejas, Emily Schoen, and Joshua Beamish.
Tom Resseguier studied ballet at the Ballettschule des Hamburg Ballett, where he took his first steps into the neoclassical repertoire through John Neumeier’s style, before joining the Junior Ballet at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in 2016. There, he performed, among others, pieces by William Forsythe, Jean Guizerix, Yong Geol Kim, José Martinez and Douglas Becker.He then went on to dance for the Ballet de l’Opéra de Metz in 2018 and joined the Compagnie Illicite Bayonne under the direction of choreographer Fabio Lopez. In 2019, he started working at the Compagnie Par Terre on the creation of À Mon Bel Amour, a contemporary piece by choreographer Anne Nguyen. During this time, he also worked as a freelance dancer and actor on various other projects, including the French TV series L’Opéra and the Netflix short film Anima choreographed by Damien Jalet. Alongside his dance projects, Tom Resseguier has a passion for astronomy and earned a dual bachelor in mathematics and physics, as well as a master in astrophysics, both from Sorbonne Université in Paris.
Jacob Rice received his early dance training in Naugatuck with Barbara Hyland. He continued his training on full scholarship for 3 years at North Carolina School of the Arts and additional 2 years on full scholarship at the School of American Ballet in New York City. Mr. Rice’s distinguished career includes Virginia State Ballet, Connecticut Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Princeton Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Dance Alloy Theatre (Pittsburgh). Mr. Rice was featured in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s movie “Nutcracker: The Motion Picture” choreographed by Kent Stowell with sets and costumes by Maurice Sendak. Mr. Rice and his wife, Kimmary Williams, created a youth choreographic workshop for Scotland’s Edinburgh International Festival and were co-artistic directors of Southold Dance Theatre in South Bend Indiana. They are the founders and co-artistic directors of Central Maryland Youth Ballet. A professional ballet school and youth company in Columbia MD.
Yvonne Faith Russell started her dance journey at Green Hills School of Dance in Nashville, TN. At 10 years old, she began her formal training at Nashville Ballet and continued her education at The University of Alabama where she graduated summa cum laude with a major in dance and a double minor in English and creative writing. She manages two careers in publishing and performing arts and is the author of A Word to the Wise: Lessons I Learned at 22 and Mature & Complete: A Devotional Journal for Healing, Value, and Satisfaction in Christ. Yvonne Faith has worked both in front of and behind the camera, producing and performing in various dance films as well as music videos. In 2018, she was awarded “Best Performance” in the Dance Alabama Film Festival by an internationally acclaimed group of judges. Yvonne Faith has performed with Shackled Feet Dance, The Ramdance Movement, Aru Dell’Arte and others in her professional journey. She currently works as a freelance artist, performing both concert and film-based work in the DMV area.
Jazmine C. Rutherford received her training at Cincinnati Ballet and received her B.F.A. in Ballet Performance from The University of Cincinnati— College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). She is a recipient of the OhioDance Most Outstanding Student Award. Jazmine has danced professionally as a soloist with Ballet Pensacola and Dissonance Dance Theatre. She currently is a faculty member at Maryland Youth Ballet and the Ballet instructor for MYB's newest outreach program "MYB Extension.
Darion Smith, (Artistic Director and co-founder), is placing the innovative and compelling Janusphere Dance Company(JDC) firmly onto the American map of dance. Originally from California, Smith is now based in New York City. Since graduating from the Folkwang Hochshule in Essen, Germany, Darion has been a performing member with professional dance companies in New York City, throughout the states and abroad such as The Dance Theatre of Harlem, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, New York Theatre Ballet and Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance. As a teacher of dance, Smith has been a guest lecturer at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara City College and taught ballet and jazz dance on tour and in New York City for Dance Theatre of Harlem's educational outreach and community programs. As resident choreographer, Darion has created over ten choreographies for JDC including the company's first evening length work Sidewalk Slice!. Smith draws on his collective dance background in ballet, jazz, modern, contemporary, improvisation, flamenco and dance theater to find new and innovative ways to approach choreography and engage audience members. He has collaborated on many of his pieces with award winning composers and musicians such as Reinhold Heil, Jonathan Melville Pratt and Felix Ventouras. Smith's choreography has been presented at the Riverside Theatre, Ailey Citigroup Theater, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, and The Meeting House in Newport, Rhode Island. Most recently the company premiered Smith's newest work in New York City at La MaMa's, Ellen Stewart Theatre. As director and co-founder, Smith is dedicated to fulfilling the artistic vision behind his work and the importance of this company in the dance world of today and beyond.
