Introducing Ben Usie & Lauren Hemard

Introducing Ben Usie & Lauren Hemard

Lauren “Lola” Hémard is a multi-craft artist, educator, and naturalist from New Orleans. Patterns in nature and energetic connections have been the main guiding curiosities behind her art-making. Ben Usie is a musician, songwriter, and performance artists who performs as Bruisey Peets. Usie leaned into visual arts as mental health therapy during the pandemic lockdown, thanks largely to the influence and encouragement of Lauren Hémard. Usie explores the blending of sci-fi, fantasy and existential capitalist dread with a dose of clownish whimsy.  Lauren and Ben practice turn-by-turn collaborations and encourage everyone to create art.  Who makes up your art circle?...

Introducing Macy Romero

Introducing Macy Romero

Macy Romero is a dancer, choreographer, and entrepreneur from New Iberia, Louisiana. Ever since her mom put her in dance lessons at 3 years old, she always knew dance would be a part of her life, and she is thankful that this has become her reality. Throughout her teenage years, she dedicated much of her time to perfecting her craft at dance conventions, learning from and assisting some of the most prominent figures in the dance industry. From 2014-2018, she was a Company Assistant at The Streetz Dance Convention. She was a Protégé at the convention formerly known as The Pulse On Tour...

Introducing Teri Alexander

Introducing Teri Alexander

Teri Alexander is a dance artist in the Lafayette community who recently received her BFA in Dance from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Her technical experience includes ballet, contemporary, jazz, hip hop, tap, and Pom. She has trained with various artist including Vagabondance, Salt Contemporary Dance, Millennium Dance Complex, Blakeley White-McGuire & Daniel Fetecua, Sarah Lass, Marie Broussard, Alex McBride, and more. Teri has also participated in organizations such as Ragin’ Jazz Dance Team, Dance Marathon at UL, and Chi Tau Epsilon dance honors society. Teri is currently dancing in this year’s UL performing arts dance concert “State of...

Introducing Miguel Ochoa

Introducing Miguel Ochoa

Miguel Angel Ochoa is a native of Lafayette, LA who’s performed on many local and regional stages. They graduated with their Bachelors of Arts in Vocal Performance from UL Lafayette under the direction of Shawn Roy, and they’ve graced the stage as a professional vocalist, dancer, music director, and most recently burlesque entertainer. With more than 15 years of stage experience, Miguel’s most memorable roles are Alidoro in Rossini’s opera Cenerentola with Bayview Music Festival (Bayview, MI), Marquis in Verdi’s opera La Traviata with Rapides Symphony Orchestra (Alexandria, LA), Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with American Singers’ Opera Project (Winston Salem, NC), and Monty in...

Introducing Tabby Stone

Introducing Tabby Stone

Tabitha “Tabby” Stone is currently a full time artist in Lafayette, Louisiana – a town that likes to inspire anyone interested in the arts. She’s usually seen documenting and sharing her process in hopes that it may inspire someone else some day. “I know that not every day is the same. There’s good days, bad days, and everything in between. Trying to convey that is quite the experience for me. I like to create a more colorful stylistic view of the every day while creating pieces that speak to my explorative nature. The process of a painting has always been...

Introducing MoeJoe

Introducing MoeJoe

MoeJoe is a New Iberia, Louisiana native and New Orleans resident who labels herself and dance style as Creole-Afro, specializing in the areas of folk and street dance.  Her movements and class experiences celebrate southern dance culture and empowers the individual, while fusing world diasporic movements to connect and educate about world-wide Creole culture.  She is owner of The MoeJoe Gallery in New Orleans, creator of Bounce Fitness w/MoeJoe, MoeJoe’s Bounce and Twerk Class in NOLA dance experience, MoeJoe’s Twerkout and Danceout w/MoeJoe. Who makes up your art circle? A combination of everyone. Artists, entrepreneurs, dancers, voodoo priestess, drummers, techies....

Introducing Michael Crotty

Introducing Michael Crotty

From Springboro, Ohio, Michael Crotty is Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Michael received his BFA in Dance from the Ohio State University, Diploma from CODARTS Conservatory in the Netherlands, and an MFA in Dance from The University of Utah. His theater-dances have been commissioned and produced for The Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, Columbia College, The Utah Museum of Fine Arts, California State University, and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Michael has performed and collaborated with The Montreal Symphony, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Apparel, The National Children’s Choir, and Jerome Meyer....

Introducing Carey Hamburg

Introducing Carey Hamburg

Carey Hamburg was born in Houston, Texas, but considers himself a Lafayette, Louisiana native since he moved there at the age of 4 years old. He attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now UL Lafayette) and began the study of Architecture. There he was introduced to structural design thinking, model building techniques, and a wide array of art production materials. While he left the program after three years to graduate in General Studies, Carey has continued to apply the skills and techniques he learned there through an ongoing production of art and design projects. Carey completed a certification in Commercial...

Introducing Cissy Whipp

Introducing Cissy Whipp

Mary Francis “Cissy” Whipp has been working as a performer, choreographer, and dance educator for over 40 years. She received her B.F.A. in Choreographic Design from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and her M.A. in Performing Arts: Dance from the American University in Washington, D.C.  She co-founded Louisiana’s first professional modern dance company, Moving South Dance, Inc., toured for several years with Young Audiences of New Orleans, and performed in France and Belgium with La Compagnie Louisianaise. She has taught for university dance programs at American University, George Washington University, Potsdam State University of New York, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In...

Introducing Miguel Lasala

Introducing Miguel Lasala

After teaching architecture design and freehand drawing for ten years on the universitylevel, Miguel Lasala began working with mural artist Robert Dafford in 2018. He hasworked on a wide range of projects from restoring the Clarinet mural in New Orleans tomost recently painting a 200’ long Rail Lines Map mural in Paducah KY. Aside from seeking collaborations in visual art, Miguel also has produced severaldocumentary films. Who makes up your art circle? The temptation is to start listing names, but it’s probably best to try and describe thedifferent groups that have made an impact on me. Even before I understood...