facilitators

Elizabeth Sugawara (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist, teacher, movement maker, experimenter, and improviser. She is interested in facilitating experience and understanding the relationships to one another in the collaborative dance making space. Their creative practice and process spotlights generous play, patience, and curiosity with material and movement. Elizabeth is inspired by the presence of daily dances met with softness and deep listening. She currently teaches dance classes in Columbus Metropolitan Libraries- youth programs, intergenerational programs, and creative aging (60 and up) classes along with multiple populations and various experiences in the Columbus area including Memory Care classes, Dancers with Parkinson's, middle school drama clubs, teen dancers, creative dance youth classes, and undergraduate dancers at OSU. Elizabeth is a teaching artist for Perennial Movement Group. She is currently in her last semester as an MFA Dance candidate at The Ohio State University.

Laura Patterson earned her BFA in Dance from The Ohio State University with a focus on community engagement, choreography, and pedagogy. Laura currently works in Columbus, Ohio as a freelance performer, teaching artist, and choreographer. She has been a movement instructor for Columbus State Community College, BalletMet’s Trainee and Education programs, Dublin Dance Center & Gymnastics, Momentum- Excellence, Art Possible Ohio, and Perennial Movement Group. In addition to her teaching, Laura is a performer with STILGO Dance + Tech and Perennial Movement Group. She creates her own choreography under the company name Lp & dancers. Lp & dancers has presented work at the Wexner Center of the Arts, Columbus Performing Arts Center, Ohio History Center, McConnell Arts Center, Ohio Poetry Association, City Dance Showcase, Clintonville Farmer’s Market, and Whirlwind Dance. Her most recent work, alongside dance artists Emily Kilroy and Elyse Kassa, was a part of the 2023 Columbus City Dance Showcase and the 2024 Synergy Dance showing in Cincinnati.