Tariq Mitri, Program and Operations Manager
A Palestinian-American dancer, choreographer, and teacher based in Seattle, WA, Tariq Mitri was born in Abu Dhabi and raised in Portland, OR. He earned his BFA in Dance Performance from the California Institute of the Arts in 2015. His contemporary performance career spans Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle, working with over twenty five choreographers and companies including: MADBOOTS Dance, Kate Wallich + The YC, WHYTEBERG, Joseph Hernandez, and Beth Twigs. From 2019–2021, Mitri served as Rehearsal and Co-Director of the Brooklyn-based company HEIDCO. A longtime Dance Church teacher (2017–2024), he also held roles as Training and Program Manager, shaping national programming from 2020–2023. His choreography has been presented by International Dance Festival New Orleans, On The Boards, CO—, Velocity Dance Center, and Friends of Waterfront Seattle. He was a 2024 recipient of the Body Space Time Residency through the University of Washington, and is a 2026 Centrum Foundation Emerging Artist Resident. Tariq is the co-founder of Dance Class Seattle. 

Symone Sanz, Marketing Manager
Symone is a dance artist versed in performance, improvisation, and choreography based in Seattle. She holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has enjoyed creating work with Heather Kravas, The Seattle Project, Cherdonna Shinatra, and zoe|juniper, among many others. Symone inspires euphoria in her Dance Church® classes and supports the Seattle dance community through her work in arts administration.

Julia Sloane, Grants Specalist
Originally from North Carolina, Julia Sloane is a queer, multifaceted artist with a love for experimental performance. Sloane received a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts in 2015; since then, she has worked professionally with Dayna Hanson, Heather Kravas, Peggy Piacenza, Cherdonna Shinatra, and Kate Wallich, among other projects. Her own work has been presented in Northwest NextFest and Trigger: New Dance Happenings, as well as in multiple self-produced dance films. Most recently, she co-produced and performed in Dayna Hanson’s latest short film. Sloane currently resides in NYC, working as a freelance dance artist, producer, grant writer and Pilates instructor.

Aaron Butler, Technical Director
Aaron Michael Butler is a percussionist, composer/sound artist, and educator based in Seattle, WA. As an advocate for contemporary music, his concerts regularly feature new commissions from emerging composers as well as modern classics and overlooked works from the 20th and 21st centuries all with a concerted effort to represent the diversity of voices in contemporary classical and experimental music. 

Recent performance highlights include presentations at the 2022 Percussive Arts Society International Convention; premiere performances of Michael Gordon's Field of Vision at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, PS21, and Mass MoCA; and performances with The Harry Partch Instrumentarium and Luciano Chessa's Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners. As a composer he has worked closely with choreographer Ani Javian and presented their collaborative work the earth is old, we are ancient at NPAK in Yerevan, Armenia in 2022. Other commissions include choreographer Travis Gatling, filmmaker Chris Lange, Bristol-based potter Steve Carter, the Ohio University Wind Symphony, and the Cincinnati Soundwebs project.

Catriona Urquhart, Programs and Facilities Coordinator
Catriona Urquhart (she/her) is a lighting designer and stage manager based in Seattle, WA. Originally from Denver, CO, she received a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts in 2020. She currently coordinates 12 Minutes Max at Base and works on the tech team at Theatre Off Jackson. Catriona's freelance work has included projects with Miguel Gutierrez, Dayna Hanson, Scott Shoemaker, Kyrin Grey, Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam, and the Stay Up Late Show. 

Akoiya Harris, Events Coordinator
Akoiya Harris is a movement artist based in Seattle Washington.  Her work uses a queer Black gaze to explore ways communal and personal stories can be interwoven into dance works. She has collected oral histories on behalf of Wa Na Waris Seattle Black Spatial Histories Institute, and Black Collectivity. Akoiya has also participated in the Black Embodiments Studio Arts Writing Incubator.  As a choreographer, she has shown work at the Seattle Art Museum, Wa Na Wari, On The Boards, Friends of the Waterfront, Velocity Dance Center, The Moore Theater, and more. Akoiya is a founding member of Black Collectivity, a group that explores memory and culture through embodied responses. Following a matriarchal lineage of teachers, Akoiya is a dance educator working with youth at Ailey Camp and Pacific Northwest Ballet. She has also performed with Spectrum Dance Theater, Will Rawls, Zoe|Juniper, Third Rail Projects, The Congregation, and SoloMagic. She is a 2023-2024 Base Resident Artist.

Dayna Hanson, Co-founder & Executive Director
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Dayna Hanson has been active as a choreographer, director, filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist since 1987. A 2026 Creative Capital Awardee, MacDowell Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, United States Artists Fellow and Artist Trust Arts Innovator Awardee, Hanson’s work has been presented in venues and festivals throughout North America and Europe. With Gaelen Hanson, she co-directed dance theater company 33 Fainting Spells from 1994 – 2006, creating six critically acclaimed, evening-length, touring works. Her debut feature film, Improvement Club, premiered in Narrative Competition at SXSW in 2013. She wrote, choreographed and directed an episode of HBO's TV series, Room 104.