five two is a women-led dance collective that shares highly physical contemporary movement rooted in feminine perspectives. Working with early-career performers, the company seeks to create expressive, legible work that inspires conversation, imagination, and reflection among all viewers.
New York City and Philadelphia based dance artists, Olivia Passarelli and Sophie Gray-Gaillard, began collaborating in 2021 to form five two Dance Company. Olivia received her BFA in Dance from Montclair State University, and Sophie graduated with a double major in Neuroscience and Dance from Swarthmore College. five two’s work has been featured in both the 2021, 2022 and 2023 Steffi Nossen Dance Showcases, KoDaFe International Dance Festival, American Dance Guild Performance Festival, and in various showcases at Ailey Citigroup Theater, Mark Morris Dance Center, Tufts University, Briggs Opera House, the Emelin Theater, Peridance’s KNJ Theater, Arts on Site, Triskelion Arts, KYL/D’s Dance Center, Dixon Place, Green Space, i KADA Dance Center, and Balance Arts Center. five two was awarded the Directors’ Choice Award at the Spring for Spring Dance Festival in Metuchen, NJ and was selected to be a part of the SharedSpace Program at Mark Morris Dance Group. The company has taught master classes across the East Coast, most recently at Swarthmore College. This past September, they presented a full-evening of their work at The Mark O’Donnell Theater in Downtown Brooklyn. Lastly, five two Dance Company was in residence at the Dragon’s Egg in Ledyard, Connecticut.
Want to know about future shows?
About us
In the press
Read our interview: “Conversations with Sophie Gray-Gaillard and Olivia Passarelli” in Voyage Dallas Magazine
Take a look at our Broadway World press release about five two Dance Company at the Mark O’Donnell Theater
There Is Strength in the Collective: a review of five two Dance Company’s repertoire showcase
Who we are
-
Co-Artistic Director
Originally from Evanston, Illinois, Sophie Gray-Gaillard began her training at Dance Center Evanston at the age of three. She graduated from Swarthmore College with a double major in Neuroscience and Dance, and during the fall of 2018, she trained in the Victoria College of Arts’ BFA Dance Program in Melbourne, Australia. Sophie has had the privilege to perform works by Doug Varone, Florian Lochner and Alice Klock of FLOCK, Yuki Ishiguro, Olivia Sabee, Vivake Khamsingsavath, Chandra Moss-Thorne, and Amelia Estrada, among other talented artists. Additionally, she was selected to perform as a backup dancer for the feminist punk rock group, Pussy Riot. While overseas, she performed works by Rheannan Port and Rebecca Jensen and was selected to stage her original work, Throw Away, at the Strawberry Fields Music Festival in New South Wales, Australia. She has attended intensives at Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, Boston Ballet, Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, Cambrians, Hubbard Street, Doug Varone and Dancers, American Dance Festival, and b12 research or die. Sophie was awarded the 2020 Melvin B. Troy Prize in Dance for her choreography as well as multiple grants from the Department of Music and Dance at Swarthmore College. Currently, she is co-founder and co-director of five two Dance Company. In addition to dancing, Sophie is pursuing a PhD in Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
-
Co-Artistic Director
Olivia Passarelli graduated from Montclair State University with her BFA in Dance, where she performed works by Martha Graham, Bill T. Jones, Joshua Manculich, Earl Mosley, Christian Von Howard, and Stacey Tookey. Since graduating she has had the privilege of working with and performing works by Laura Halzack, Hope Boykin, Paul Taylor, Alison Cook Beatty, Jere Hunt, and Sonia Plumb. In 2020 Olivia received the Choreographic Excellence Award as part of Montclair’s graduating class and was awarded 1st Place in Salt Contemporary Dance’s Shape Choreography Festival. In 2021 she founded five two Dance Company with co-director Sophie Gray Gaillard, and they have since been featured in various festivals and showcases across the east coast, as well as self-producing multiple evening length performances. She has set their work on the Paul Taylor School Professional Division, as well as the Steffi Nossen Pre-Professional Division. Outside of pursuing her freelance performance and choreography career, Olivia is an arts administrator and teacher.
-
Dancer
Rachel Ha-Eun Lee (she/her) graduated from New York University with a B.F.A. in dance and a minor in broadcast journalism. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Rachel attended Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She is currently a company dancer for five two Dance Company and is a freelance artist in New York City, having performed in many different projects, festivals and workshops. Throughout her career, she has performed works by Grace Yi-Li Tong, Olivia Passarelli, Sophie Gray-Gaillard, Mark Morris, Chuck Wilt of UNA Productions, Banning Bouldin of New Dialect, Patricia Hoffbauer, Shamel Pitts, Mike Esperanza, Peter Chu, and more. In 2018, Rachel was in the off-Broadway production of Oklahoma!, choreographed by John Heginbotham. Outside of dance, Rachel is an artist who choreographs, photographs, illustrates, and writes for other artists, films and art publications.
-
Jalyn Gill, a Native New Yorker, is a teacher, choreographer, and performer. She began her training at Edge School of the Arts, Dance Theater of Harlem and Mark Morris as well as summer intensives at Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts and the Ailey School. Gill graduated Magna Cum Laude from Montclair State University in 2020, holding a B.F.A in Dance. As a teaching artist and choreographer, Jalyn has taught and choreographed at her high school alma mater, Brooklyn High School of the Arts where she taught Ballet, Modern and Contemporary. She has performed with up-and-coming companies such as Maliek Dance Theater as well as five two Dance Company. As an artist, Jalyn is passionate about creating a safe space for dancers, as well as projecting her inner voice through her work.
-
Dancer
Currently living, dancing, and exploring in NYC and NJ, Daniel Ricardo Rocha Cartagena (he/him/his) is an enthusiastic investigator of the created universe. In May of 2021, he graduated from New York University’s (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts Dance BFA Program. Having also completed a minor in physics with a concentration in astronomical phenomena, his passion for understanding the world around him helps drive his artistic pursuits. The majority of his training prior to attending NYU came from The Mill Ballet School, under the direction of Mark and Melissa Roxey, from 2014 - 2018. Before then, his family's natural inclination toward music and dance served to demonstrate the visceral expressiveness of movement with rhythm. He has performed in classical balletic, contemporary balletic, flamenco, post-modern, musical theater, jazz, and contemporary-style works. He has collaborated with Shamel Pitts, Rena Butler, Nini Dongnier, Allyson Greene, Grace Yi-Li Tong, Garet Wierdsma, Sunhi Willa Keller, Catherine Messina and performed works by Dozje Brown at the Fall 2019 Dumbo Dance Festival and in the Ballet School of Stamford’s Spring 2019 performance of Symphonic Progressions. In the Fall of 2021 he joined the Peridance Contemporary Dance Company as an apprentice under Artistic Director Igal Perry, in January 2022 rejoined the Roxey Ballet Company as a full-time company artist, as well as Community Engagement Coordinator, and in January of 2023, joined five two Dance.
-
Dancer
Kanon Sugino (she/her) is a Japanese American dancer and choreographer born and raised in New York. After graduating from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, she graduated Summa Cum Laude from Purchase College, SUNY with a BFA in Dance and a BA in Arts Management. She has performed in works choreographed by Bill T. Jones, Jie-Hung Connie Shiau, Jesse Obremski, Norbert De La Cruz lll, Gregory Lau, Frederick Earl Mosley, Peter Chu, Darrell Grand Moultrie, MICHIYAYA, Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, and more. She has received additional training at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, New York Theatre Ballet, Earl Mosley Diversity of Dance, MOVE|NYC| S.W.E.A.T, and more. During her time at Purchase College, she took on the role of co-leader of the Conservatory of Dance’s Racial Equity Group, and was awarded the Distinguished Leadership Award for her work. As a choreographer, she has presented work at the We Belong Here: AAPI Festival, curated by Jessica Chen, as well as a split bill performance with Monica Shah, curated by Arts On Site. Her works mainly focus on the uplifting of marginalized voices and the celebration of minority groups and their cultures. She is currently a company dancer with Nimbus Dance.
-
Dancer
Emma Dulski (she/they) is a dancer, choreographer, and scribe based in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from San Francisco, Emma attended Swarthmore College where she studied Peace and Conflict Studies and danced, participating in choreographic residencies with Doug Varone and Christopher K. Morgan and creating her own original work. She also studied at SFCD, performing works by Ohad Naharin and Summer Lee Rhatigan. As a dancer and choreographer, Emma centers collaboration, joy, playfulness, and liberation as core threads of her creative practices. Currently, Emma dances with fivetwo Dance Company and continues to collaborate on new works.
-
Graphic Designer
Nick Barbaria graduated from Roger Williams University with a B.F.A. in Graphic Design Communications in 2018. He is currently the lead graphic designer at the Lower East Side Partnership - a Business Improvement District that helps improve the commerce and highlights the culture of the Lower East Side. He works directly with Essex Market and NYCEDC’s Public Market brand, as well as other institutes of the neighborhood. In addition, he has worked as a freelance designer on a myriad of projects including environmental graphics, album covers and brand creation. Nick’s artwork is inspired by the outdoors, funky typography and vintage signs.
Past Collaborators
-
Dancer
Aaron Smith, originally from Nashville, TN, began his dance training at his hometown studio. He received his BFA in Dance from Florida State University in 2021 and has now moved to New York City to pursue both choreography and performance. Aaron’s movement style is driven by very physical and technical movement that combines peculiar steps within imaginative structures. He has choreographed a duet called Relief in Tandem (2019), and an ensemble work For the sake of (2020) which included himself and seven other dancers. Both dances in their respective years were selected to be performed at the American College Dance Association’s Southeast Regional Conference. At FSU, he has performed in dances choreographed by faculty members such as Tim Glenn, Donna Uchinzono, and returning professional Franciso Graciano. Along with his training at FSU, he has attended summer and winter intensives at Paul Taylor American Modern Dance in New York. He was recently awarded the Anthony Morgan Undergraduate ChoreographicAward in Dance.
-
Dancer
Khalid Dunton was born and raised in Washington, DC/ Maryland. He began his dance training at Ngoma Dance theatre at 18 year olds and continued his training at Montclair State University where he received his BFA in Dance and a minor in Business. He is an apprentice for Carolyn Dorfman Dance. He has also had the privilege of performing works by Stacey Tookey, Bill T. Jones, Danial Shapiro and Joanie Smith, Maxine Steinman, Christian Von Howard, Earl Mosley, Daniel Padierna. Khalid has performed on numerous platforms like the Joyce Theater, Alexander Kasser Theater, Bryant Park, and New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC).