Meet the Artists of
Blackbird DanceCompany
Aliesha
Bryan
Founder and Director
The work of multidisciplinary performing artist Aliesha Bryan (she/her) emerges from a rich tapestry of movement incorporating Flamenco and Spanish dances, dances of the African diaspora, contemporary styles and somatic-based movement approaches. She is proud to have placed first in the NYS Flamenco Certamen, a milestone that ushered in her creative movement journey. Her performative work includes choreographic commissions and site-specific creations, including the conception and production of the first iteration of The Message, presented during the BlaktinX Performance Series at BAAD! Theatre, and its second reiteration at the Arts on Site Blackbox theatre. Aliesha has appeared on stages ranging from international festivals to more intimate venues, including Peña La Platería, The Hemispheric Institute and the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the African American Museum in Philadelphia and the Victoria Flamenco Festival in British Columbia. She is an advocate for social change through healing, and has been featured on BBC Podcast, The Reset, in Dance Magazine, and in Camille A. Brown’s series entitled Social Dance for Social Change. She is also the founder of Blackbird Dance Company and its Development Lab, a group of determined artists who endeavor to create powerful work that addresses pressing questions, always holding fast to the healing potential of art.
Georgia Dahill-Fuchel
Artist of the Company
Georgia Dahill-Fuchel is a professional dancer and music engineer based in New York City. She recently earned her BFA from The George Mason University School of Dance, where she was honored with the Excellence in Choreography Award.
Georgia’s choreography has been commissioned by notable artists including Chris Bloom, Starla Edwards, Victoria Santaguida, Anna Rice, Carlos Martinez, and Easton Nguyen. She also composed original music for her own works, “X, Why?” and “Dust, Suspended,” which were selected as the closing pieces for both the Fall and Spring “New Dances” performances at George Mason University.
Her performance credits include the GMU School of Dance Annual Gala, where she danced in Hope Boykin’s powerful work “Running to and Toward.” Georgia also understudied a duet excerpt from Alejandro Cerrudo’s “Silent Ghost.” As choreographic assistant to Christopher d’Amboise, she contributed to the creation of “Everything is Clapping,” a heartfelt tribute to Jacques d’Amboise, performed at City Center’s Celebration of Life Memorial. Her work on this project included detailed music study and memorization.
Georgia’s training began at the prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts, and she spent ten formative years at Ballet Hispánico, including eight in the pre-professional program, where she received the organization’s first Citizenship Award.
In 2022, Georgia expanded her artistic perspective abroad at the renowned ImPulsTanz Festival in Vienna, Austria, returning energized and eager to further her work in music and dance. After completing a season with Ballet Hispánico’s Pa’lante Scholars program, she joined the flamenco company BlackBird Dance.
Georgia is now actively freelancing as a choreographer and music engineer, while in her 2nd season with BlackBird Dance, continuing to fuse her talents in movement and sound in collaborative, innovative work.
Qi Yang
Artist of the Company
Born and raised in Guangzhou, China, Qi Yang was trained as a classical ballet dancer fromage 4 to 16. Later in adulthood, Qi discovered Flamenco and started her first lesson with RyanZemeño and Alex Rozo in 2016. Since 2017, Qi has been traveling extensively to participate inflamenco workshops across the globe, and she is a regular participant at Festival FlamencoAlbuquerque as well as Festival de Jerez, studying with various professional flamenco artists. In2023, she was accepted as one of the finalists in Flamenco Certamen USA and she was the 1stprize winner at Estudio level. Currently, Qi resides in Fairfield, CT and has recently joined theBlackbird dance company under Aliesha Bryan. In addition to her current Flamenco training withFanny Ara, Xianix Barrera and United Flamenco, Qi has also started contemporary dancetraining under Lorena Cobos at Broadway Dance Center.
Ferdinand Ruiz
Artist of the Company
Freddy Ruiz was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. His dancing started with the latin sounds in new york. Growing up he enjoyed dancing hip hop, house, freestyle and Salsa.
IN 2002 he started training in NY style Mambo which led to his afrocuban dance training there after. He has performed with Yamulee and Santo Rico salsa schools in NYC and abroad. His Mambo training was under the direction of Thomas Guerrero and Osmar Perones. He has also trained with Oyu Oro and Omi Oriki Odara afro cuban dance companies based in New York. His Afro-cuban instructors were Pupy Felix Insua and La Mora. His Flamenco classes started with Jose Molina in 2009 to improve his columbia dance posture but caught the flamenco bug. Freddy continued his flamenco training with various NY instructors and in 2014 started Tablao classes with La Conja, Jose Moreno and Pedro Cortez. Shortly after, Freddy began working on flamenco palos which led him to perform the Certamen USA competitions and Tablao Abierto sessions by Flamenco Vivo with live music. Freddy has also performed with Sonia Olla's student performance group. In 2019 Freddy Ruiz was selected for the Jacobs Pillow Flamenco and Spanish dance program .This program involved intense training with Irene Rodriguez director, Carmen Lesdesma, Carmela Greco. In 2021 Freddy continued his Tablao training with Nelida Tirado in her student Tablao sessions with live music. Currently Freddy is
continuing his flamenco development and is involved in most Tablao classes in NYC.Freddy will continue training in his flamenco-Afrolatin dance forms as he continues his dance
journey.