the company.
storytellers | movers | Makers of dance
badmarmarDANCE is in creative residence at NOD Theater | eXit SPACE Seattle WA. The company includes seven performance artists who are highly trained dancers, creatives, and visionaries within the field of dance. Collectively these seven movers work to coalesce in energy, offering dynamic physical technique, and artistry. Led by Artistic Director, Marlo Martin, badmarmardance, is a collective of storytellers, performers, dancers, magicians of movement, and knitters of the human experience as we see and feel it.
past, present, future
Marlo Martin
Artistic Director | Owner
eXit SPACE | NOD Theater
badmarmarDANCE
Marlo Martin is a director, choreographer, teacher, and producer in Seattle, WA. She finds fulfillment and joy in celebrating and practicing all that encompasses and defines dance. She holds a BFA in dance from Western Michigan University and recently was honored to receive the 2022 WMU Department of Fine Arts Distinguished Alumni award for Arts Education. Martin founded and currently directs eXit SPACE, a center for dance education and performance opportunities for the beginning student through professional level dancer.
While developing eXit SPACE over the course of the past 20 years. Marlo has also continued to work as a choreographer. She has created works for her own companies, oaklanDrive and badmarmarDANCE. Since moving to Seattle in 2002 her work has been presented at numerous concerts and festivals including The Bridge Project Velocity Dance Center, the High Wire Series Seattle U, 12 Minutes Max On the Boards, BASH Theater, Redd Legg Dance, A Moving Conversation The Fremont Abbey, Full Tilt, SIDF, the BOOST dance festival, the Fall Kick Off Velocity Dance Center, NEXTfest NW, Cornish Dance Theater, Bellingham Rep Dance, Strictly Seattle, and Western Michigan University Dept. of Dance.
As a dance educator Ms Martin has taught at Cornish College of the Arts, Western Michigan University, Velocity Dance Center, Spectrum Dance, various guest artists stents at PNW studios, and her home studio, eXit SPACE.
In 2016 Martin forged on to create a new artist's space called theNEST. It hosts major dance companies, workshops, classes, and events in the Greenlake neighborhood of Seattle. As a producer Marlo proudly presents the bi-annual BOOST dance festival, featuring PNW contemporary dance artists and companies alongside with the BOOSTmeUp Dance Festival for pre-professional dancers and schools. In 2021 Martin founded NOD Theater in Seattle's Capital Hill neighborhood, in the midst of the pandemic Ms Martin deepened her commitment to serving the arts & dance community and playing a vital role in its development and longevity. NOD Theater was designed for the small to mid-range sized dance company. It has a beautiful new gird, LED system, audio system, ample space for pre-show, and two beautiful studios.
Currently you can find Marlo teaching weekly technique classes at eXit SPACE while co-directing the pre-professional division, thePROGRAM and working as the Artistic Director as well as producer of events, programming, and concerts at NOD Theater. Ms. Martin is currently focusing on the development of NOD Theater in partnership with eXit SPACE and looks forward to doing her part to cultivate art, community, and positivity through dance in Seattle.
She is genuinely interested in sharing her vision and ideas through teaching and creating dance, by developing forums for the exploration and presentation of dance works, and by supporting and nurturing fellow dancers, artists, and director.
Ally
ElliotT
Sean
o'bryan
Nicole
Cardona
miranda
Chantelois
hayley
keller
bri
wilson
tyra
ROSE
Ally Elliott (she/her) is originally from Austin, Texas, and moved to Seattle at the beginning of 2022. Ally has studied ballet, modern, contemporary, solo improvisation and tap. She graduated from Texas Christian University with a dual degree in modern dance and psychology (summa cum laude). Post-graduation, Ally worked as an intensive case manager in the greater Austin area, serving children and their families with severe mental and behavioral health needs. She is currently enrolled at the University of Washington with the intent to graduate with a Masters in Social Work in 2024. Ally has worked on projects with El Sueño (Alicia Mullikin) and badmarmarDANCE (Marlo Martin), and is excited to expand her reach into the Seattle dance scene.
Sean O’Bryan is a Seattle based mover, obtaining a double degree in public health and dance from the University of Washington. He has performed for the American Dance Guild festival in NY, Men in Dance, Contemporary Ballet Spotlight, Seattle International Dance Festival, Chamber Dance Company, Stephanie Liapis Dance, The Solo(s) Project by Molly Scott, Khambatta Dance Company, joBdance., and a site-specific work at the Tadao Ando Art Centre at Chateau La Coste in France for Jennifer Salk. During his time at the UW, Sean was awarded the Evelyn H. Green Endowed Scholarship for Artistic Promise in his junior year and received the Bates Dance Festival Merit Scholarship for its summer intensive his senior year. Currently, Sean is a dancer for both badmarmarDANCE & EL Sueno Dance in the Seattle Dance Community and is working on an interactive dance media art project called Anfractuous, concept/direction by Jennifer Salk & Martin Jarmick.
Nikki Cardona is a movement artist from Chicago illinois. Holding a BFA from Columbia College Chicago, her midwest roots are sunken greatly into finding space and holding space for others and herself to be open to creating vulnerably. After graduating in 2017, her mission was to branch out of her comfort zone and challenge herself by immersing herself in new genres of dance that felt foreign and new to her. From 2018-2020, Nikki lived in Los Angeles full time, attending The American Musical and Dramatics Academy (AMDA). As her budding career continued to grow, Nikki was a scholarship recipient for the LA contemporary Dance Company's 2019 and 2021 Summer intensives, giving her the opportunity to perform as a guest artist in Genevieve Carson's work "Ebba". Nikki joined Psychopomp Dance Theater in 2019 as a performing artist and has been fortunate to teach and Assistant Direct their 2021 and 2022 summer intensives. Now in bloom in Seattle since 2021, Nikki feels she has truly found a home in the dance community here. Nikki has performed works by Dance Undercurrent, Coriolis Dance Collective, and Bad Mar Mar Dance. Nikki was granted two residencies in January of 2023 through Velocity Dance and Coriolis Dance Collective. During these two separate but simultaneous residencies, Nicole created two iterations of “These Heavy Bones” - a work that deals with the weight that depression and anxiety hold on our bodies. Nicole hopes to combine these two iterations in the future, culminating in an evening length immersive experience.
Miranda Chantelois (she/her) holds a Master's degree in Early Childhood Education from Eastern Washington University and a BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts. She has spent the past decade as a Seattle-based dancer, performer, educator, writer, arts administrator, and advocate who has performed in the works of nationally renowned artists Kyle Abraham, Sidra Bell, Amy O'Neal, and Mike Esperanza as well as dances by Bennyroyce Royon, Jason Ohlberg, Deborah Wolf, Walter Kennedy, and others. Her career as a freelance artist has taken her to the Seattle International Dance Festival, Full Tilt, BOOST Dance Festival, Strictly Seattle, 12 Minutes Max, and beyond. Miranda is proud to have danced in Marlo Martin's work for Marlo Ariz Dance Company, Take3 Dance Project, and badmarmarDANCE since 2018, and is filled with gratitude for every opportunity to perform Martin's visceral, emotional, multi-faceted choreography.
Outside of performance, Miranda specializes in dance and academic education for early childhood and in dance enrichment for people of all ages with varying support needs. Over the course of her ten year teaching career, Miranda has certified in Autism Movement Therapy®, Pilates Mat, Progressing Ballet Technique®, Youth Mental Health First Aid, and Youth Protection Advocates in Dance®, receiving additional training in physically adaptive dance, Dance for PD®, and Brain-Compatible Dance Education from programs around the country. She currently teaches for eXit SPACE School of Dance, Eastside Dance, and Pacific Northwest Ballet's Community Education Department. She is spearheading eXit SPACE's first Adaptive Dance program this fall and will be joining the Dance for All teaching team at PNB this spring – both of which provide dance education for autistic, developmentally disabled, and neurodivergent youth. A firm believer that dance is for everybody, Miranda is committed to empowering children and adult beginners to embrace their authentic, lived identities in the dance classroom and beyond. She will pursue a second graduate degree in K-8 teaching in 2024 and can't wait to see what more the future holds.
Hayley Keller (she/her) grew up as a gymnast and dancer in Grand Junction, Colorado before relocating to the PNW to continue her education in Dance and Political Science at the University of Oregon. She trained at Shawl Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley, California before finding her home here in Seattle in 2020. She has studied under and performed works set by Adam Parson, Mike Esperanza, Habib Iddrisu, Shannon Mockli, and Marlo Martin, among others, and spent three years dancing as a member of Dema, a West African Dance ensemble. Hayley seeks out community and authenticity in all parts of her life and is always working to bring those qualities to the spaces she inhabits. She is so excited to be a member of badmarmarDANCE this season!
Bri Wilson was raised in a small northern Michigan town, where she started dancing at age seven. She earned her BFA in Dance from the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program at Dominican University of California before moving to Seattle in September 2018. Since then, she has worked with Elia Mrak, The Three Yells, Beth Terwilleger + The Gray, among others. She has presented her own work at 12 Minutes Max, Full Tilt Dance Festival, LAUNCH, and Seattle International Dance Festival. This is her first season with badmarmarDANCE.
Originally from Des Plaines, Illinois, Tyra moved to Seattle in 2017 in pursuit of her dance dreams. Since her transition, Tyra has been able to work in several dance studios across the Seattle area by choreographing, performing and educating in dance. She graduated magna cum laude with honors in 2016 from Webster University with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in dance. Although her studies emphasized in modern dance, she also studied: ballet, jazz, modern, aerial, hip hop, and Thai classical dance.In addition to dance, Tyra is trained in visual art and spends her free time painting. Her paintings mostly center around the human body, movement, and dance. She is currently working at eXit SPACE as the co-director of the training program (The PROGRAM), teaches for the youth and adult dance program, and is an administrative assistant. Tyra has developed choreography through ANNONYArts (St. Louis), Artica Fest (St. Louis), RAW:Natural Born Artists (Seattle), Full Tilt Dance Festival (Seattle), and eXit SPACE School of Dance (Seattle). Tyra has had the opportunity to perform with: Catapult Dance (Michele Miller), AJnC Dance Theater (Amy J. Lambert), Gender Tender (Fox Whitney), The Three Yells (Veronica Lee-Baik), Artistry in Motion (Juju Flores) and badmarmarDANCE (Marlo Martin).