ARTISTIC TEAM
JOY BOLLINGER
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Joy Bollinger is a distinguished choreographer, teacher, and répétiteur, leading Bruce Wood Dance Dallas since 2018. A veteran performer and founding member of nationally acclaimed Bruce Wood Dance Company, she danced in over 50 of Wood's ballets.
Called the “poet of dance” by dance critic Margaret Putnam, her critically acclaimed choreography includes Carved In Stone (2016), which was named the “single best dance in 2016” by Mark Lowry of the Fort Worth Star–Telegram and lauded as “deeply emotional and striking in its stillness.” Putnam of TheaterJones called it “a dance for the ages.”
D Magazine has celebrated her choreography as “highly cerebral and intuitive,” listing her among the “Women Who Make Dallas Great.” Her other notable works include Hillside (2017), In My Your Head (2019), Blue (2021), Slip Zone (2022, commissioned by the Dallas Museum of Art), Chopin in A Minor (2022, commissioned by TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND), And Heaven and Nature (2023), and SMILE (2024).
Joy's works for film include Life Interrupted (2020) in collaboration with Broadway composer Joseph Thalken, which aired on KERA's Frame of Mind; and Blue (2021) created in collaboration with Redirecting Dance and the Movement 4 Movement series. She developed the multi award-winning film Into the Gamba-Verse, released in December 2024, in partnership with LuMedia Musicworks.
In 2025, Joy premiered choreography for Verdigris Music Ensemble's SHAMS. Her commission for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was lauded as “unflaggingly imaginative.” She has also received choreographic commissions from Texas Ballet Theater for the Martha Graham Lamentation Variation Project, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and multiple universities.
Joy is described by D Magazine as “one of the most evocative and lyrical choreographers on our scene.”
Photo by Kent Barker.
MATT RIVERA
REHEARSAL DIRECTOR
Matt Rivera has spent the better part of the past 30 years dancing and performing on stages throughout the country and around the world, and off stage as a teacher, coach, and choreographer.
He began his career on the concert stage performing with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago under the direction of founding director Lou Conte, and then in New York City with the companies of Eliot Feld and Twyla Tharp, as well as The American Dance Machine for the 21st Century.
On the theater stage, Matt worked with several Broadway touring companies, including Movin’ Out, Swing! (assistant dance captain), and CATS; off–Broadway in Garden of Earthly Delights (dance captain) and Lynne Alvarez’s Romola & Nijinsky; and most recently with the Las Vegas production of MAMMA MIA! where he also acted as dance captain.
His Las Vegas credits also include Cirque Du Soleil’s Viva Elvis and acting as company instructor for NBT.
Matt is currently on faculty at several schools in the Dallas area.
Photo by Kent Barker.
KIMI NIKAIDOH
ARTISTIC ADVISOR
Kimi Nikaidoh, a Dallas native, received her training from Canada’s National Ballet School, the School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theater, and Tanju and Patricia Tuzer. She spent the first five years of her performing career as a member of the Fort Worth–based Bruce Wood Dance Company.
Kimi joined Complexions Contemporary Ballet in 2005, touring nationally and internationally with the company through 2008. While earning a degree in neuroscience and behavior from Columbia University, Nikaidoh freelanced as a performer, stager, and choreographer in New York City. She restaged works for Bruce Wood, Dwight Rhoden, and Emery LeCrone at Charlotte Ballet, Boston Ballet II, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, The Juilliard School, Marymount Manhattan College, Point Park University, and Columbia University.
Her choreographic works have been performed by Complexions Contemporary Ballet (The Joyce Theater); Bruce Wood Dance (Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Performance Series, St. Marks Church, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, Moody Performance Hall); Avant Chamber Ballet (MPH); Columbia Ballet Collaborative (Miller Theater); and Firebone Theater (Kirk Theatre).
Following Wood’s untimely passing in 2014, Kimi served Bruce Wood Dance Dallas as artistic director. She expanded the company’s repertoire with new commissions while working to increase national exposure of Bruce Wood’s legacy. She conducted the company’s first formal outreach program, initiated its popular CRAFT series, and facilitated numerous artistic collaborations with artists across the state and country.
In August 2018, she moved to Los Angeles with her husband.
Photo by Matt Kallish.
LARRY LANE
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Larry Lane first worked with Bruce Wood Dance Dallas in 2012 when Bruce Wood selected him to perform in his masterpiece, My Brother’s Keeper. In 2013, he and Wood collaborated on the production of Mistletoe Magic—a Christmas Cabaret at the legendary Venetian Room with Broadway stars Jason Graae and Elizabeth Stanley. After Wood’s passing, Lane produced Mistletoe Magic in 2015 and 2016 with Broadway stars Liz Callaway and Hugh Panaro. He also was an associate producer for June 2017’s Chasing Home, which focused on the plight of refugees around the world.
He produced the Valentine cabaret and fundraiser––Love, Bruce, starring Brent Barrett and Joseph Thalken and initiated and produced a Texas Weekend Getaway with Bruce Wood Dance to Big Spring, Texas. The weekend festivities offered Dallas patrons an opportunity to travel with the company and enjoy the rich cultural history of West Texas.
Larry brings considerable training and experience in the theater to Bruce Wood Dance Dallas. For more than 17 years he has produced cabaret shows at destination resorts across the country. He has worked with Hollywood legends Lily Tomlin, Debbie Reynolds, Phyllis Diller, Marge Champion, and JoAnn Worley, as well as Broadway legends Tommy Tune, Faith Prince, Donna McKechnie, and Rebecca Luker.
Previously, Larry worked in New York as a performer, touring in Broadway’s A Chorus Line, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Evita, and Fiddler on the Roof, to name a few. He is a graduate of the Professional Acting Program at Southern Methodist University.
Larry has a passion for practicing and teaching Iyengar yoga.
Photo by Brian Guilliaux.
TONY TUCCI
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Tony Tucci, a pre-eminent lighting designer, has been creating and recreating lighting for Bruce Wood Dance Dallas since the company’s inception in 2011.
Based in Austin, Tucci currently is resident lighting designer for Ballet Austin’s repertory; Long Center Opening; Metropolitan Classical Ballet; Washington Ballet; Houston Dance Salad; Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre; University of Texas at Austin Opera’s Turn of the Screw, Don Giovanni, La Curandera, Bastien und Bastienne, and Albert Herring. Additionally, Austin Musical Theatre keeps Tucci hopping with lighting design for Damn Yankees; Carousel; West Side Story; Annie; Gypsy; Jesus Christ Superstar; Music Man; Oklahoma; A Chorus Line; Carousel; and Sound of Music.
Tucci is the recipient of two B. Iden Payne Awards and Critics Table Awards. His extensive design résumé also includes American Ballet Theater’s Configurations with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the video, Baryshnikov, Dancer and The Dance.
Photo by Amitava Sarkar.
ERIN EARLE FLEMING
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Erin Earle Fleming is a New York City–based lighting designer whose art illuminates the human experience through inclusive storytelling. Her work encompasses opera, dance, and theater across the U.S.
Erin has worked internationally, as well as in regional, Off–Broadway, and Broadway theaters. She has designed lights for Yale Repertory Theatre, Yale Cabaret, Columbia University, Texas Ballet Theatre, Ballet Austin, PRISMA International Dance Festival, Mariinsky Theatre, Northern Lights Music Festival, Butler Opera Center, and Hong Kong Lyric Theatre, among others.
A native Texan, she holds a BA from St. Edward’s University and an MFA from Yale School of Drama. She teaches at Mississippi State University.
Photo by Ao Li.
JOHN AHRENS
COSTUME DESIGNER
John Ahrens began his career as a costume designer in New York City working with New York City Ballet and The Juilliard School. Among the many modern dance companies he has designed for are Martha Graham; Paul Taylor; Alvin Ailey; Merce Cunningham; and José Limón. In Texas, Ahrens has designed for the Dallas Ballet; Fort Worth Ballet; Ballet Austin; and Dancers Unlimited. He is pleased to work with the company dancers.
Photo by Brian Guilliaux.