About the Footprints Experience

Footprints is an opportunity for students to gain real-world professional company experience. Those chosen to perform in a Footprints piece will intensively study the work of an influential choreographer for the full four weeks and mimic the experience of working in a professional company environment. Footprints works are fully produced in the ADF main stage performance series during the last week of the festival.

Footprints rehearsals are held Monday–Friday, 2:00–5:30 pm, with additional weekend rehearsals, costume fittings, and tech rehearsals as needed. Due to a full schedule, students participating in Footprints are limited in participation in drop-in classes and other performance opportunities at the festival. This is one of many possible experiences available to ADF students; we encourage students to consider and explore all options!

2025 Footprints Choreographers

Ravid Abarbanel

Ravid Abarbanel is an Israeli/Portuguese dancer, choreographer, and teacher based in Barcelona. She graduated from The Maslool Professional Dance Program, Codarts University of the Arts in Rotterdam, and holds a B-Dance degree from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Among her works are Underneath, ALIZA, WildHome, HomeLima, Home NC, UPROOTED, Thoughts about leaving, and Freeze IT. Currently, she is working on a new creation called: The art of a structure.

As a teacher, Ravid has developed a class methodology based on her ongoing research about HOME. Meet the Floor is dynamic Floorwork technique and Happy Body is an improvisational-based class which she teaches worldwide.

As an Artist and Choreographer, Ravid reworded the Best Performer Award at the Masdanza Dance Festival 2022, the Best Performer Award at the 15M Festival 2023, and received a full scholarship to DanceWEB and American Dance Festival (ICR). She also received the 3rd Choreography Award at the International Dance Competition in Stuttgart, and the best performer award at the Barnes Crossing SoloDuo, Cologne, Germany. Over the past decade, Ravid has been exploring through her creations the subject of home and its ability to change over the years. She is fascinated by the endless research of different perspectives on the body, architecture, and the delicate relationship between House and Home.

Michelle N. Gibson

Choreographer, Cultural Ambassador, Healer, Professor, Mother, and Performing Artist, Michelle N. Gibson, also affectionately known as Mz. G, received her BFA in Dance from Tulane University and her MFA from Hollins University/American Dance Festival at Duke University. Gibson’s teaching and chorographic practice comprises all genres of the African Diaspora, Contemporary Afro Modern, Afro Funk, Jazz, and her own New Orleans Second Line Aesthetic. Her current projects involve sharing her aesthetic and New Orleans culture through a series of workshops she’s coined The New Orleans Original BuckShop, LLC.

In 2024, Gibson’s work Takin’ it To The Roots was featured in New York City at The Joyce Theater during the Jazz at the Joyce American Symposium with the American Dance Platform. She also premiered a new work on Chicago’s premiere afro-contemporary company, Red Clay Dance Company, entitled Her Womb: Crucified, Conceived, Crescent, Congo… The Gathering. She was the resident artist in Wales, London with the African cultural organization Laku Neg, Indianapolis, IN with the first Black dance festival—Neon Black Dance Festival, Lawrence University, WI, and the Ohio State University to set work on their prestigious dance department. She partnered with CaraMia Theatre Company’s 5^th Annual International Theatre Festival, Yemaya Flamenco, as director and performer, and hosted her 4th annual Culture, Brass, and Jazz in the Park Festival as a partnership between The New Orleans Original BuckShop and ArtsBridge Powered by Toyota, a community arts program of the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, TX.

In addition to being a 15-year faculty member with the American Dance Festival, Gibson also served on the dance faculty at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas for four years. Currently, she serves as a Professor of Practice in Dance at Southern Methodist University.

Tú Hoàng

Tú Hoàng, a Vietnamese-born movement artist, began his career as a ballet dancer with the National Opera and Ballet of Vietnam. After joining the Swiss Cinevox Junior Company in 2007, he moved to Europe, where he has danced with prominent companies in Germany and the Netherlands. Now based in Rotterdam, Tú Hoàng is the founder and artistic director of Hangtho Creatives and a house choreographer at Korzo Theater. He combines ballet, modern dance, kung fu, tai chi, and hip-hop to create a unique style and has developed the “Framework” dance method. His choreography reflects his Vietnamese heritage and European experiences, winning multiple prestigious competitions such as the Copenhagen International, Hannover International, Masdanza.

Audition Process

Applicants interested in auditioning for Footprints will receive an email from the ADF School with audition instructions. All audition materials must be completed by April 17 to be considered. Auditioning is optional and only available to full-time students.

• Each Footprints work has individual requirements for audition materials and will be outlined in the Footprints Audition document that will be sent by the ADF School
• You can be considered for any Footprints piece, but you may only participate in ONE if selected for multiple works.
• You will have the opportunity to rate your interest in the pieces you are auditioning for.
• If you are accepted into a Footprints piece and agree to participate, you must commit to attending all classes/rehearsals and participating in the cumulative performances.