I am so excited to share this special episode of the Creative Impact Podcast with you! In this episode, I have the joy of interviewing various leaders in the dance community! These interviews took place live during the Project Dance Houston event in March 2024. The conversations explore the intersection of dance, worship, and community, emphasizing the importance of using dance as a form of worship and intercession. You’ll hear from Bess Trew (Enoch Contemporary Ballet), Randall Flinn (Ad Deum Dance Company), Cheryl Cutlip (The Project Dance Foundation), Jeanna Vance (Open Sky Arts Collective), and Liza Pollock (Open Sky Arts Collective). Each guest shares insights on the mission of their respective organizations, the role of beauty in art, the significance of community for artists, and the challenges of comparison, the power of worship through movement, and more!

You can watch the show on YouTube or Spotify, or listen through your favorite podcast app (ie. Apple Podcasts, Spotify). You can be sure not to miss a Creative Impact conversation by subscribing wherever you prefer to connect! We are so grateful to have you as a part of the Creative Impact community and would love it if you would share the show with your friends!

About The Project Dance Foundation:

The Project Dance Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization with the mission of providing training, networking, education and performing opportunities for dancers worldwide. We seek to make dance accessible to the public through outdoor/open air performances in prominent urban locations such as New York City, London, Sydney, Hong Kong and Washington DC. These concerts bring hope and healing to humanity and offer a positive message to those who attend. Dancers around the world gather to encourage and support one another through training, networking and performing. Our goal is to see every dancer nurtured to their fullest human potential, and by doing so, to realize a more positive and redemptive culture of dance and entertainment for the future generations.

About Bess Trew:

Bess Trew, born in Atlanta, Georgia, received the majority of her dance training at the Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland and the Tulsa Ballet Center for Dance Education in Oklahoma. In 2015 she moved to Jackson, Mississippi to join Ballet Magnificat’s trainee program and the following year became a member of their touring company under the direction of Jiri Voborsky. From 2016-2019 Bess had the opportunity to travel and perform in seventeen countries, learning to use dance not solely as an art form, but as a tool for ministry. In the fall of 2019 she moved to Portland, Oregon to dance with Instruments Ballet Company under the direction of Rebekah Atkins; in 2020 becoming the Assistant Artist Director and choreographing two original works for the company. In the summer of 2021 Bess moved to East Tennessee to start the Enoch Contemporary Ballet. Since the start of the company, she has had the opportunity to teach master classes and choreograph in various states as well as overseas, including Project Dance in Paris and Houston, Palm Beach Atlantic University, the Laois Youth Dance Ensemble in Portlaoise, Ireland, and Association Abondance in Toulouse, France.

Connect with Enoch Contemporary Ballet on Instagram or at their website!

About Randall Flinn:

Randall Flinn is the Founder and Artistic Director of Ad Deum Dance Company, established in 1994 as a Houston based professional dance company. Ad Deum has performed globally, uniquely integrating the spheres of artistry and faith, bringing redemptive hope and transcendent beauty through the vehicle of dance artistry.

Connect with Ad Deum Dance Company on Instagram or at their website!

About Cheryl Cutlip:

CHERYL CUTLIP is the founding director of THE PROJECT DANCE FOUNDATION, formed as a mission to bring hope and healing to the world through the universal language of dance. The organization got its start in New York City in 2002 and has presented 3-day dance events in over 25 cities around the globe including Canada, USA, Australia, China, The Philippines, Israel, UK, Costa Rica, Peru, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.

A native of North Carolina, Cheryl’s dance career began in Nashville, TN at OPRYLAND USA. After working on a cruise ship, living in Japan while dancing at TOKYO’S DISNEYLAND, and performing in the European tour of 42ND STREET, Cheryl moved to New York where she became a RADIO CITY ROCKETTE.Cheryl enjoyed performing with the ROCKETTES for 15 years where her duties included dance captain; assistant choreographer and spokesperson for nationally televised appearances including one-on-one interviews with Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, and Larry King. She was the co-choreographer for KICK INTO FITNESS; and choreographer for CHRISTMAS ACROSS AMERICA promotional tours, THE YANKEE PENANT PARADE and NBC’s ROCKEFELLER CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING special.

Other career credits include the Broadway National Tour of CRAZY FOR YOU and the Broadway benefit to the stars version of MACK AND MABLE starring Jerry Herman and Donna McKechnie. Cheryl also danced in the jazz company, WALKERDANCE under the direction of Chet Walker where she performed in a benefit concert for lyricist and composer, Stephen Schwartz. Cheryl currently directs a precision dance company called The Carolina Snowbelles (www.thecarolinasnowbelles.com) and operates The Space @ Project Dance, the foundation’s dance training and education headquarters in Boone, NC. She is celebrating her 28th year of marriage and has two children ages 19 and 15.

Connect with Project Dance on Instagram or at their website!

About Jeanna Vance:

Jeanna Vance received her dance training at the Grand Rapids Ballet, Houston Ballet Academy, and The American Academy of Dance. For the first decade of her professional dance career she performed with many Houston based companies and had the privilege of being a founding member of Ad Deum Dance Co. under the direction of Randall Flinn. As a young artist, Jeanna was also welcomed into Interactive Theatre Company, where she fell in love with unruly audiences and the endless possibilities that come by opening up the audience/performer relationship. Her love of story telling and a passion to share the Gospel through dance were fanned into flame during her 14 years of serving on faculty for Dance Revolution, a traveling dance convention that reaches thousands of students each year. In response to a growing desire to use dance as a tool to serve the “unseen” of society, in 2014 Jeanna founded Open Sky Arts Collective. Since it’s beginning, Open Sky has become a nation wide missional arts organization that fosters close knit artist communities who use dance to create inroads for people from all walks of life to experience the unstoppable love of God. Currently, Jeanna resides in the Dallas area, directing Open Sky Dallas, homeschooling her kids, dancing and dance-making, speaking, teaching, and dreaming of new ways to make dinner.

Connect with Jeanna and Open Sky Arts Collective!

About Liza Pollock:

Liza Pollok is the Director and choreographer for Ballet Excelsior of Houston. Liza has been dancing since the age of 5, growing up in Australia and moved to the States at 18 years old. She has been dancing for 44 years now. Before founding Ballet Excelsior of Houston, Liza danced professionally with Ad Deum Dance Company and other Houston based companies for many years. Pollok has also studied extensively with RAD, CSTD, ISTD, SCB and ABT. Liza has her certification from several of the above dance institutes and most recently with the American Ballet Theater teaching program. Liza has been dancing professionally internationally and nationally for years Traveling to Australia, South America, Mongolia, Poland, Russia, Czech Republic, China, Japan, Canada,  Greece, Bulgaria and many other nations and also inside of the USA. “I am so excited to continue this work and pour out our gifts into our community for this season of 2024 and we will also be preparing to return to Mongolia in the summer of 2025”. Co-owning Excelsior School of dance, along side her mother, Sonja Staines, whom is the founder of Excelsior School of Dance and Artistic Director to the company. It is such an honor to get to do this ministry with my mother I know we are called to “Carry His Name to the Nations”. This is our call and we couldn’t be more humbled and honored to follow His lead.

Connect with Liza on Instagram or Facebook! Learn more about Ballet Excelsior of Houston!