Omega Dancers
Maggie Galvin began her work with Omega and her journey into motherhood simultaneously. Her first performance at 5 months pregnant in 2017 - for the Good Friday Service at St. Ignatius Loyola under the direction of Becky Reuter - and subsequent virtual offerings during her pandemic pregnancy as well as many offerings in between. Dancing with Omega has provided grounding, support, and joy in the transitional moments.
Maggie owns and operates SoulHug Movement, an arts and education organization that brings together multigenerational communities through movement for increased social support, physical function, and joy. She is a certified Infant Developmental Movement Educator (IDME) through Body Mind Centering®, holds her MSW from Fordham University, her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and has taught yoga, Pilates, and dance since 2010. Maggie has two lovely sons and has been astounded by the way developmental movement crosses the barriers of age in a way that can support all moving humans. She looks for ways to incorporate the principles of safety, curiosity, and agency into all of her classes. In 2021, Maggie co-founded Woodside Arts Collective as a way to bring art from her vibrant community in Woodside and Sunnyside to the neighborhood’s open spaces. In July 2022, Maggie was chosen to participate in Creatives Rebuild NY’s Artist Employment Program with local organization, Woodside on the Move where she created the multigenerational dance curriculum for Littles and Laters. You can follow her on socials @soulhugmovement or find her on the web www.maggiegavin.com for more information and full class offerings.
Apollonia Holzer has been celebrating life through movement and dance in multiple churches and spiritual events in Austria and New York for over 35 years. As a former nun for over 14 years, she feels blessed to have had the opportunity to dive deeper into a spirituell world. Her work as a dancer and choreographer reflexes her spirituell world and expresses the profoundness of life and being and bring you in touch with your own self. Apollonia has extensive experience as a holistic life and body coach. Through her training in various techniques, such as Shiatsu, Cranial Sacral, Pranahealing, and multiple dance techniques, she touches people in many different ways. To her, creating a healing space is a way of allowing every being to heal itself, allowing them to enter and be in a space of wholeness.
Kaoru Ikeda, originally from Japan, is a dancer, choreographer, and dance educator based in N.Y.C. She started dancing with Omega after being invited by her ballet teacher and friend, Martha Chapman (co-director of Omega), at Trinity Institute 2017: Water Justice at Trinity Church in N.Y.C. Kaoru holds a B.A. from Nihon University College of the Arts in Japan, Dance program, and an M.F.A. in Dance from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where she attended as a Rotary Foundation International Ambassador Scholarship Student. After completing her studies, she performed and presented her choreographic works internationally for over two decades. Kaoru founded the dance company "MoustacheCat Dance," focusing on forgotten Asian and Asian American immigrant history in the U.S. to fight against prejudice through dance. Her projects have been awarded grants several times. Recently, she has expanded her focus to dance education to pass on her experiences, share the joy of dance and creation, and support the community through dance. Kaoru has been teaching a creative dance class at a private school and has been actively advocating dance education. She attended a national dance teacher's conference as a panelist. Kaoru always delights in dancing with Omega, where she enjoys dancing and loves to serve the community.
Maki Kitahara is an award-winning professional dancer, choreographer and instructor from Japan. She was nominated for “The New Face Award” as a contemporary dancer by The Agency For Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan and performed many dance pieces in principal roles, both in Japan and internationally. She officially started her NY-based professional dance career in 2017. Her first U.S. achievement was performing at Whitney Museum of American Art. Since then, She has been working with several dance companies on various dance/art projects in NYC and Japan. She also collaborates/creates with professionals from other arts fields frequently. She joined a shoot as a dancer for the Italian Art Magazine “Lampoon”, performing as a lead role dancer in a short narrative film, titled “Migration” which has been screened in more than 10 countries and won 3 awards at film festivals. In addition to her artistic career, she is passionate about teaching as well, for all ability levels and ages. Currently, she is a faculty member/guest artist for Leggz Dance in Long Island and an assistant/interpreter for Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) which is one of the biggest ballet competitions in the world. She has been assisting for YAGP judges from all over the world and for YAGP’s piece, “Grand Defile”. She is also a certified instructor of Melt Method and teaches how to care for our bodies. She joined Omega Dance Company in 2017, and she has been grateful to be one of the Omega dancers.
Arielle McKeever began her dance training at the School of American Ballet in New York City. In 2010, she continued training at American Ballet Theatre’s JKO School and from 2016 trained with Leslie Browne (former principal dancer of American Ballet Theater) at The School at Steps. Over the years, Arielle has performed in many productions including at Lincoln Center with New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre; as well as participated in a variety of summer intensives which include: Pennsylvania Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, and American Ballet Theatre. Arielle went on to receive her BA in Dance Performance and BBA in Marketing from Loyola University Chicago, where she became the first student to graduate with a dance and business honors double major. At Loyola, she has had the opportunity to dance in a variety of repertoire including: Bind, Bound, Bond; Coppélia; Chapters in the Revolution; Missa Gaia; Sketches from Chronicle; Viva Vivaldi; and Water Study. She uses her voice beyond movement and was awarded the LUROP Social Justice Fellowship by the university for her independent qualitative and quantitative research on The Facilitation of Ableism in Dance Audience Members as 1 out of 100s of applicants. Upon graduating from Loyola, Arielle reconnected with Omega which she grew up watching. She became a professional dancer with the company in 2022, continuing to use dance as a form artistic and spiritual expression.
Aliyah Miller began dancing with Omega through Omega co-director, Martha Chapman, who invited her to dance in 2020. Aliyah started dancing at the age of 7 at Peace Baptist Church where she was trained as a liturgical dancer. A native of Stone Mountain, Georgia, she graduated with her BA in theatre & performance with a concentration in dance from the illustrious Spelman College in Atlanta,Georgia. While at Spelman, she became a member of the Spelman Dance Theatre as well as The Spriggs Burroughs Drama and Dance Ensemble where she studied and performed theatre, contemporary modern, West African movement, jazz, hip hop, ballet, improvisation and choreography. Also while at Spelman, she continued doing liturgical dance as a member and then leader of Movements of Praise dance ministry of Sisters Chapel. She also had the opportunity to train and work with acclaimed artist Dianne McIntyre, Aku Kadogo and Ntozake Shange. In addition to dancing professionally, Aliyah is currently an associate teacher at Poly Prep Lower School in Brooklyn.