Ariane Michaud / Host
Ariane Michaud is a producer whose work focuses on building and strengthening communities that support the arts and advance social justice. Her passion for dance has led her to diverse roles within the industry, including serving as a producer for DANCE NOW NYC, a communications specialist for JUNTOS Collective, and the North American Tour Manager for Wang Ramirez. Over the past decade, Ariane has also operated as an independent consultant, providing invaluable support to individuals and nonprofit organizations in the realms of strategic planning, production, and project management. Ariane is thrilled about her recent appointment as a Production Specialist at Brown University, where she will further expand her contributions to the Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces (CRCI) and the Dances with Robots Podcast.
Ariane Michaud has shoulder-length curly hair, arched eyebrows, and expressive eyes. She wears a sleeveless black top and small hoop earrings. Her poised and confident expression is captured against a neutral background.
Sydney Skybetter / Host
Sydney Skybetter is a choreographer. Hailed by the Financial Times as “One of the world’s foremost thinkers on the intersection of dance and emerging technologies,” Sydney’s choreography has been performed at such venues as The Kennedy Center and Jacob’s Pillow. He has lectured at SXSW, Yale, Mozilla and the Boston Dynamics AI Institute, and consulted for The National Ballet of Canada, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Hasbro, and The University of Southern California, among others. His work has been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and a Creative Capital “Wild Futures” Award. He is a Senior Affiliate of metaLAB at Harvard University, a frequent contributor to WIRED and Dance Magazine, the Founder of the Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces and the podcast, “Dances with Robots.” Sydney serves as the Faculty Director of the Brown Arts Institute, is an Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, and was the first choreographer at Brown University to receive tenure.
Sydney is a white man with brown hair and glasses, wearing a white collared shirt and staring intensely into the camera.
Kate Gow / Creative Producer
Kate Gow is an archivist and designer of digital spaces. Her work revolves around memory, the body, and how we interact and perform with technology. She graduated as valedictorian from The Boston Conservatory, pioneering the Conservatory's first emphasis in Dance & Technology. In her sixth year with CRCI, she is moved to be documenting the conference that unveiled to her the power and significance of artistic intelligence. You can find her in performance and behind the scenes as a Senior Professional Services Consultant at Quadient.
Kate is a mixed-race Japanese woman with brown, straight hair wearing a tank and pushing a strand of hair behind her ear while looking into the camera.
Kamala Sankaram / Music Commission
Praised as “one of the most exciting opera composers in the country"” (Washington Post), composer Kamala Sankaram moves freely between the worlds of experimental music and contemporary opera. Recent commissions include works for the Glimmerglass Festival, Washington National Opera, the PROTOTYPE Festival, and Creative Time, among others. Kamala is known for her operas fusing Indian classical music with the operatic form, including Thumbprint, A Rose, Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers, and the forthcoming Jungle Book. Also known for her work pushing the boundaries of the operatic form, recent works include The Last Stand, a 10-hour opera created for the trees of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, Only You Will Recognize the Signal, a serial space opera performed live over the internet, Looking at You, a techno-noir featuring live datamining of the audience and a chorus of 25 singing tablet computers, all decisions will be made by consensus, a short absurdist opera performed live over Zoom, and The Parksville Murders, the world’s first virtual reality opera. As a performer, Kamala has been hailed as "an impassioned soprano with blazing high notes" (Wall Street Journal). A frequent collaborator with Anthony Braxton, she has premiered his operas Trillium E and Trillium J, as well as appearing on his 12-hour recording GTM (Syntax) 2017. Other notable collaborations include Meredith Monk’s Atlas with the LA Philharmonic, The Wooster Group’s LA DIDONE (Kaaitheater, Brussels, Edinburgh International Festival, Rotterdam Schouberg, Grand Théâtre de la Ville, Luxembourg, St. Anne’s Warehouse, NY, REDCAT, Los Angeles),and the PROTOTYPE Festival’s production of her composition THUMBPRINT (Baruch Performing Arts, NY, REDCAT, Los Angeles). Kamala is the leader of Bombay Rickey, an operatic Bollywood surf ensemble whose accolades include two awards for Best Eclectic Album from the Independent Music Awards, the 2018 Mid-Atlantic touring grant, and appearances on WFMU and NPR. Awards, grants and residencies: Jonathan Larson Award, NEA ArtWorks, MAP Fund, Opera America, HERE Artist Residency Program, the MacDowell Colony, and the Watermill Center. Dr. Sankaram holds a PhD from the New School and is currently a member of the composition faculty at SUNY Purchase.
Kamala is a woman with short hair, posing with her arms folded across an accordion. She has a short, styled haircut and delicate earrings, and is wearing a garment with flowing sleeves that drape over the instrument.
Martin Nuñez-Bonilla / Photography & Videography
Martin is a visual media specialist, social media strategist, and public speaker based in New York City. He currently works for the National Basketball Association as a video editor. He also created MEN CRY, an unscripted video series and digital platform that seeks to explore authenticity and emotional honesty beyond gender norms.
Noor Kaffarani / CRCI Program Coordinator
Noor Kaffarani is a Wayne State University Bachelor of Science dance graduate and an Arab American performer. During her time at Wayne State, Noor has been a part of many diverse repertoires and dance companies, including her time with To Sangana African Dance Company and Dance Workshop. She has also served as a movement constructionist and performer for Dance Workshop, where she co-choreographed as well as performed in their evening-length work, RITUAL BEING. Noor has worked with various guest artists and faculty, including Joshua Peugh in his work "PINK," Amy Miller in her work "Suerza," Karen Prall, Lisa LaMarre Wilmot, Jessica Rajko, Dr. RAS Mikey Courtney, and Hannah Andersen to gain an all-encompassing and foundational movement vocabulary. In 2024, Noor was a Copperfoot award recipient from Wayne State University for her solo work “Meeting Grounds.” presented at their Spring Dance Concert. She has set work within studio dynamics across Michigan, and most recently on Company Six. She serves as a company member for Detroit Dance Collective where she deepens her training and understanding of movement. From her unique experience, she has cultivated a unique and aware lens in which she informs her pedagogical methods and artistry.
Noor is pictured wearing a black square neck top with two silver necklaces. Her long black hair falls behind her shoulders as she looks up at one hand.
Photo Credit: Erika Ruch
Rishika Kartik / Production Associate
Rishika Kartik is a "creative activist," disability advocate, and Student Associate at CRCI. Her work centers around using art, design, and technology to create a more accessible, ethical, and equitable world. As the founder of “Touch and Create Studios” and the “Vision of the Artist's Soul” project, Rishika champions museum accessibility and creates tactile art experiences for blind people nationally. She is a sighted member of the National Federation of the Blind and a board member of Mirror Image Arts, a nonprofit that disrupts the school-to-prison pipeline through participatory theater. She enjoys teaching, learning, and doing educational research at the Bedny Lab at Johns Hopkins and the American Foundation for the Blind. Rishika is a 2022 US Presidential Scholar, a Coca-Cola Scholar, a Live Más Scholar, a TEDx speaker, and the recipient of multiple arts grants. At Brown, Rishika is also a 2023 Royce Fellowship recipient, Studio Lead and accessible designer for Design for America, and the Chief Arts Coordinator for Brown Arts and Politics. Creating her own major in “Disability and Design,” she believes accessibility unlocks new ways of thinking, connecting, and experiencing the world
Headshot of Rishika Kartik, a young Indian woman with dark skin, brown eyes, sparkly eyeshadow, a large smile, and curly black hair. She is wearing white tassel earrings and a white blouse with ruffles. The background is a faded dark grey with faint white lines.