New York Times Critics’ Pick – Monica Bill Barnes & Company – In Residence!

Monica Bill Barnes & Company will be teaching various day classes for both General Education and Dance students – doing what the arts do best!  Supporting community by building human connections and professional skills in creative and collaborative learning environments.

Dancer, Flannery Gregg, will also be working with Dance & Performance Studies majors by night – setting, Wish You Were Here, a piece from the company's own professional repertory.  

Sending a special shout-out to the RWU dance majors who were selected by audition to work with the company:

• Ella Belsky:  Freshman Dance major.
• Holly Grenier:  Sophomore Dance and Environmental Science dual major.
• Sophia Mallico:  Senior Dance major and Psychology minor – with specialization in Global Communications.
• Temple Nightingale:  Junior Dance major and Psychology minor.
• Holly Saunders:  Sophomore Dance major.
• Alana Wyzanski:  Senior Dance and Education Studies dual major – with minors in Psychology and Sports Studies.

The dancers will perform Wish You Were Here, in Dance Theatre Company’s Spring 2025 concert series, May 8 – 11 at RWU’s Performing Arts Center.

Reserve Your Tickets

If you have questions about RWU’s Dance and Performance Studies Program, Dance Theatre Company, or our audition process – please contact Professor Cathy Nicoli at cnicoli@suzhuan-sh.com – and look below for more information about Monica Bill Barnes & Company and their visiting teacher, Flannery Gregg.

Monica Bill Barnes is a dancer and choreographer. Since MBB&CO’s founding in 1997, her choreography has been seen in many places, such as New York City’s Bowling Green public fountain, on stage at Carnegie Hall, throughout the galleries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and in Greta Gerwig’s film “Little Women.” The company has been presented in over 50 cities and internationally in venues ranging from The Kennedy Center to the Sydney Opera House in a collaboration with Ira Glass in Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host. Barnes began collaborating with Robbie Saenz de Viteri in 2013 at which point the company adopted the motto of “bringing dance where it doesn’t belong.” Recent collaborations include a national tour of The Running Show; a site specific show in a mall - Days Go By; and two online works created during the pandemic - Keep Moving and It’s 3:07 Again. The company just presented a three week run of their new show, Many Happy Returns at Playwrights Horizons in January 2025.

Flannery Gregg is a performer and movement director based in NYC. She has rehearsal directed and performed in Monica Bill Barnes & Company’s productions of The Running Show, Day’s Go By, Keep Moving, It’s 3:07 Again and Many Happy Returns. She has also worked alongside Barnes as associate choreographer/dancer on the Greta Gerwig directed film “Little Women.” Flannery has worked as a movement director for NYU, staging student performances at the Barclays Center, Radio City Music Hall, and NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. She was the assistant choreographer to Sam Pinkleton on the Broadway musical Natasha Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 and the associate choreographer to Sonya Tayeh for Sing Street, a new musical. She is thrilled to be performing and teaching with MBB&Co.!