Our program is curated to inspire, educate, challenge and create.

Resident Choreographer

Sean Aaron Carmon graduated from the Ailey/Fordham BFA Dance program and subsequently joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; he performed many principal roles including Mikhail Baryshnikov’s original role in Alvin Ailey’s Pas de Duke and numerous featured roles in ballets by other notable choreographers such as Judith Jamison, Ulysses Dove, Wayne McGregor, Robert Battle, Jiri Kylian, Aszure Barton and Paul Taylor, to name only a few.

Mr. Carmon has performed as a guest artist around the world with Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY, Houston Contemporary Dance Company and more. In addition, he has been featured on Conan, the national TBS television talk show, Good Morning America, LIVE with Regis and Kelly, Lincoln Center at the Movies, broadcast nationally on PBS and he was profiled in the Huffington Post for his work as an AGMA union representative. As a musical theatre performer, Sean has been a featured performer on Broadway, regional theatre, and national tour stages across America in La Cage aux Folles (Original 2010 Broadway Revival Cast), The Phantom of the Opera, Disney’s The Lion King, Kinky Boots and Ragtime.

Mr. Carmon is a National Choreographers Initiative awardee and a YAGP Outstanding Choreographer. He won The Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Works award and has been chosen as Audience Choice Award winner on several occasions. He had the pleasure of choreographing the Indianapolis Summer Stock Stage’s production of The Prom! with direction by Emily Ristine Holloway. Sean is now a Rehearsal Director for Dance Kaleidoscope, joining Joshua Blake Carter and Liberty Harris in artistically managing, coaching and preparing the company members for their various rehearsals and performances year-round. He continues to create for Dance Kaleidoscope as Resident Choreographer and to educate dancers worldwide as a freelance teaching artist, creating critically acclaimed and award-winning works and teaching master classes for festivals, companies, studios and universities across the country and internationally.

Follow along on Instagram @hookedonsean.

Sean Aaron Carmon

Resident Choreographer

Babatunji

Babatunji is a dance artist, choreographer, and creative innovator based out of Oakland, CA. Though never formally trained as a child, Babatunji was always moving his body to the beat. At the age of 15, he discovered the art of hip hop. Following this epiphany of love, he grew up through his teens breaking and popping on street corners in Hilo, Hawai’i. After being “discovered” by a local dance instructor, he began his formal training at Center Stage Dance Alliance in various styles of dance, including ballet. This training would inevitably lead him to Lines Ballet’s Training Program, and from there, into LINES Ballet company.

For over a decade he has worked with one of the greatest American choreographers, Alonzo King. Throughout their time together Babatunji originated many roles, including the acclaimed “Lift Every Voice” solo in which he’s been blessed to share the stage with Grammy Award-winning vocalist, Lisa Fischer. As a freelance dancer, Babatunji has worked with Post:ballet, SFDanceworks, tinypistol, Ballare Carmel; as well as performed works by choreographers and artist such as Adji Cissoko, Yue Yin, Danielle Rowe, Brett Conway, Rich and Tone Talauega, David Harvey, and Mike Tyus. Additionally, his work for film includes features in Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs’ Blindspotting on Starz. Most recently he co-starred alongside Misty Copeland in her short art film Flower, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2023. The San Francisco Chronicle profiled Babatunji’s journey from street performance to the big screen.

Over the past 10 years, Babatunji has developed a unique movement language, blending his background in ballet, contemporary, breaking, and hip hop. He has choreographed for Berkeley Ballet Theater, Boston Dance Theater, Post:ballet, Trolley Dance, SFDanceworks, San Francisco Dance Film Festival, among other Bay Area companies. As a solo artist, Babatunji has performed internationally, collaborating with visual, sound, and technical artists of countless genres. His work has been seen at Museum of Dance, Lion’s Jaw performance + dance festival, København Danser, and SFJazz in collaboration with Terri Lyne Carrington. In 2015, he was awarded a Princess Grace Award, as well as a Chris Hellman Award for his outstanding achievements and promise in the world of dance. In 2022, Babatunji was featured in Dance Magazine’s “Dancer Spotlight - Making New Movement”.

Babatunji is immensely grateful to his mom for providing him with every opportunity and the guidance of her wisdom along the way.

Artists molding artists

Banyan Dance Intensive Faculty

  • Loni Landon

    Loni Landon is a Dancer, Choreographer, and Movement Consultant based in New York City. In addition to creating dances for her own collective Loni Landon Dance Project, her work is commissioned by Dance Companies and Film Directors across the country. Born and raised in New York City, Landon received her BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School. While a student at LaGUardia High School of Performing Arts, Landon was AN NFAA Young Arts Modern Dance Winner. After Juilliard, Landon performed with Aszure Barton and Artists, Ballet Theater Munich, Tanz Munich Theater, and The Metropolitan Opera.

    Landon is a Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Winner And A NYFA Finalist in CHOREOGRAPHY. As a sought after choreographer, her work has been commissioned by Keigwin and Company, BODYTRAFFIC, James Sewell Ballet, Whim Whim, LEVY DANCE, The Juilliard School, American Dance Institute, Northwest Dance Project, Groundworks Dance Company, Hubbard Street, BalletX, Ballet Austin, SUNY Purchase, NYU, Boston Conservatory, and Marymount Manhattan College. Her company has performed at The Joyce Theater, Pulse Art Fair, Jacob's Pillow, Insitu Dance Festival, southampton Arts Center, Odc, Greenwood Cemetery, Bryant Park, Beach Sessions in Rockaway Beach and Guggenheim Works and Process Series.

  • Babatunji

    Babatunji is a dance artist, choreographer, and creative innovator based out of Oakland, CA. Though never formally trained as a child, Babatunji was always moving his body to the beat. At the age of 15, he discovered the art of hip hop. Following this epiphany of love, he grew up through his teens breaking and popping on street corners in Hilo, Hawai’i. Over the past 10 years, Babatunji has developed a unique movement language, blending his background in ballet, contemporary, breaking, and hip hop. In 2015, he was awarded a "Princess Grace Award", as well as a "Chris Hellman Award" for his outstanding achievements and promise in the world of dance. Most recently, in 2024 he was awarded the "Dance & Movement Award" by the Gerbode Foundation. goes here

  • Sean Aaron Carmon

    Sean Aaron Carmon was a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater — performing major solo and leading roles — from 2011-2018. On Broadway and North American tours, he has performed in La Cage aux Folles, The Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Kinky Boots and Ragtime. A celebrated emerging choreographer, he has received awards and recognition from esteemed institutions and organizations such as the Palm Desert Choreography Festival, Youth America Grand Prix, National Choreographer's Initiative and Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Works. He is currently the Rehearsal Director and Resident Choreographer for Dance Kaleidoscope in Indianapolis, Indiana while continuing to choreograph and educate globally. Follow along on Instagram @hookedonsean.

  • Choreography Fellow

    Choreography Fellow

    We are currently within the application process and look forward to announcing our selected 2026 Choreography Fellow soon.

  • Branndi Lewis

    Branndi Nicole Lewis is a South Florida–based choreographer, educator, and cultural curator known for her dynamic, movement-rich work blending contemporary, modern, and African diasporic influences. She is a 2023 Jacob’s Pillow Ann & Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellow, a 2025 Carmel Dance Festival Choreography Fellow, a 2024 Choreography Resident with The Black Artists Dance Collective, a 2025 Dance Lab New York Choreographer, and the 2026 Western Michigan University Choreography Competition winner.

    Following a seven-year tenure as dance faculty at the Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, her work has since been commissioned by Ballet Florida, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: The Ailey School, Marymount Manhattan College, George Mason University, Spelman College, the University of Florida, and more.

    Branndi is the Co-Founder of Banyan Dance Festival, South Florida’s first-ever dance festival, and the Founder of GroundedWPB. A graduate of the University of Florida and a 2016 cohort member of The Ailey School’s Horton Pedagogy Program, she continues to push the field forward through bold work and a deep commitment to community, access and artistry. 

  • Lauren Carey

    Lauren is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she received a Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in 2011. While attending The Juilliard School Ms. Carey had the privilege of dancing works by Bronislava Ninjinska, Stijin Celis, Larry Keigwin, Ohad Naharin, Jose Limon, and Alexander Ekman. Ms. Carey earned a Master of Arts degree, from New York University majoring in "Teaching Dance in the Professions” with a concentration in American Ballet Theatre Ballet Pedagogy and is a certified teacher by the American Ballet Theatre's National Training Curriculum in all levels. Ms. Carey served as the Modern Technique teacher on faculty at the nationally recognized Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton from 2016 to 2024. It was a dream of hers to return home to South Florida and reinvent a staple in the community that means so much to so many people, Ballet Florida.

    In 2019 Ms. Carey was honored to receive the Randolph A. Frank Prize Award through the Palm Beach Symphony. As Artistic Director, Ms. Carey continues to focus her work on supporting the professional artists of the company, providing the highest quality of dance education through The Academy of Ballet Florida and promoting a positive and diverse community representation through performance and collaboration with various artistic mediums.