Mutual Dance Theatre
Email: communications@mutualarts.org
Phone: 513-494-6526
Website: mutualdance.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CINCINNATI, OH, MARCH 11, 2026 — Mutual Dance Theatre (Cincinnati’s resident Modern Dance company) will premiere four new, invigorating works at Modern Mix ’26, May 1-2, 2026 at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. The closing performance of Embrace: A Season of Connection will explore human connection through choreography by four innovative artists, each choreographing on MDT for their first time: Joshua Ishmon (Chicago), Shane Ohmer (Philadelphia), Nat Wilson (New York), and Sirui Liu (Cincinnati), whose involvement marks MDT’s first-ever artistic collaboration with the Cincinnati Ballet.

From works by a Broadway-touring dance captain with television credits to an artist in the thick of New York’s edgiest Contemporary Dance, Modern Mix ’26 promises a wide variety. The enchanting mix  is the end to Mutual Dance Theatre’s 25–26 season, which also featured the first regional presentations of guest companies Deeply Rooted Dance Theater (October) and Yue Yin Dance Company (February).

 

CINCINNATI BALLET’S SIRUI LIU JOINS MODERN MIX ’26 CHOREOGRAPHY COHORT

The first true artistic cross-over between the Cincinnati Ballet (est. 1958) and Mutual Dance Theatre (est. 1972 as Contemporary Dance Theater) was forged by Mutual Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Jeanne Mam-Luft and Cincinnati Ballet’s new Artistic Director Cervilio Amador.

“I’m always eager to provide opportunities for our dancers to enhance their careers,” says Amador. “I’ve recommended Sirui as a choreographer for this program because it presents a fantastic platform for her to express herself and showcase her artistic voice as a creator.”

“This year, Modern Mix, like the rest of our season, is driven by connection first and foremost,” says Mam-Luft. “This lineup represents such a high caliber of national talent: it’s truly a privilege to support both the choreographers and the performers. Through Sirui’s collaboration, it also establishes a new relationship between Cincinnati’s two largest dance organizations — we couldn’t be more ecstatic for our first leap together of hopefully many.”

“It’s an honor to have the opportunity to create new work for Mutual Arts Dance Theatre,” says Liu who is remarkably in her 15th year with Cincinnati Ballet. “I’m thrilled to work with Mutual’s talented and passionate dancers and eager to discover what we can create together!”

 

ABOUT THE MODERN MIX ’26 CHOREOGRAPHERS

Sirui Liu brings a world-renowned career in ballet and contemporary performance. Liu joined the Cincinnati Ballet in 2011 and rose to Principal Dancer in 2017. Her accolades include gold medals at the Taolibei National Dance Competition (2009) and Beijing International Ballet Competition (2010), and recognition as one of Dance Magazine’s “Top 25 to Watch” (2017). Her global performance career includes appearances with Hong Kong Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, international galas in Mongolia and China, and a 2025 tour of Lady White Snake at the Lincoln Center. She has worked with leading choreographers including William Forsythe, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Justin Peck, Ohad Naharin, Alexander Ekman, Trey McIntyre, and many others. Cincinnati audiences most recently saw Liu as Odile and Odette in Swan Lake.

FUN FACT ABOUT SIRUI LIU: In kindergarten, Liu evaded a drawing class to attend dance, instead.

Joshua L. Ishmon was a performer and former rehearsal director with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater for many years. The Chicago-based artist brings a powerful lineage of modern, classical, and African-American traditions to the cohort. Ishmon founded Deeply Rooted’s Emerging Choreographer’s Showcase and has danced with companies across the U.S., including Winifred R. Harris’ Between Lines, Seamless Dance Theater, Ballet Chicago, and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, where he performed in the Bessie Award-winning cast of Donald McKayle’s Rainbow Round My Shoulder. Ishmon, who was voted Chicago’s “Best Choreography” (Chicago Reader, 2017) and listed as a Breakout Contemporary Dance Artist by Newcity, is also a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist, a 3Arts Make a Wave artist, and founder of Production: COLORS.

FUN FACT ABOUT JOSHUA ISHMON: Ishmon is a fan of manga and used to produce a podcast on Japanese graphic novels.

Shane Ohmer, a Cincinnati original now living near Philadelphia, has performed on world stages from Chicago to Montréal and holds numerous television credits. His extensive dance credits include River North Dance Chicago, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, alongside touring musicals such as Flashdance, Phantom of the Opera, and Rock the Ballet. Ohmer has worked for New York Fashion Week, Armani Exchange, and GQ, and has appeared in global media coverage across Europe.

FUN FACT ABOUT SHANE OHMER: Ohmer has made television appearances on Law & Order: SVU, The David Letterman Show, and ads for Dos Equis and Warby Parker.

Nat Wilson, originally from Dexter, Michigan and now based in Brooklyn, has built an international career that includes Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, ZviDance, Visceral Dance, Ballez, LEVELdance, Cocodaco, Volta Collective, and numerous independent creators. Wilson currently performs with Yue Yin Dance Company, where they are one of only two artists certified to teach Yue Yin’s FoCo technique. Their early training included time with the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company. Wilson’s new work on Mutual Dance Theatre is a blend of Wilson’s FoCo/Yue Yin influence and original contemporary movement.

FUN FACT ABOUT NAT WILSON: Wilson adopted their cat, Pau, whilst dancing in Israel and was able to bring him to the States.

Mutual Dance Theatre and Arts Centers is supported this year by: the Robert & Adele Schiff Family Foundation; the generosity of tens of thousands of contributors to the annual ArtsWave Campaign, the region’s primary source for arts funding; the H.B., E.W. & F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, N.A., Trustee; an investment of public funds from the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically; the Crosset Family Fund of Greater Cincinnati Foundation; and gifts, both large and small, from individuals like season sponsor, Karen Zaugg.

 

EVENT DETAILS

What: Mutual Dance Theatre’s Modern Mix ’26

When: Friday & Saturday, May 1–2, 2026, 7:30pm (plus, Friday post-show Q&A with artists and Saturday pre-show 7pm interview)

Where: Aronoff Center for the Arts

Cost: starts at $29 (early bird discount available for purchases by April 2, 2026)

Tickets: 513-621-ARTS or cincinnatiarts.org/events/detail/mutual-dance-theatre-in-modern-mix-26 

More information: mutualdance.org/modernmix26 

 

YOUR CHANCE TO DANCE

One of Mutual Dance Theatre’s passions is to bring audiences and artists closer together. Each of its concerts features an additional opportunity for the public to dance. For Modern Mix, the organization will host a class open to everyone, regardless of experience or dance background, to learn basics of Modern Dance and a snippet of choreography from the show: Saturday, May 2, 2026 12–1:30pm at Mutual  Arts Hartwell (8222 Monon Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45216). $16-21, pre-register at mutualdance.org/modernmix26/#movewithmutual, led by company member Evelyn Lackney.

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Photography / Assets / Links

This press release can also be found here or accessed as a Google Doc here.

Interviews with choreographers and performing artists can be arranged by contacting communications@mutualarts.org. 

Downloads for press are available here.

Video trailers will be added to the asset folder linked above by the end of March.

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About Mutual Dance Theatre and Arts Centers

Mutual Dance Theatre is the city’s longest-running Modern Dance organization and the area’s only consistent presenter of Modern and Contemporary Dance. MDT was formerly known as Contemporary Dance Theater (est. 1972 by Jefferson James) and MamLuft&Co. Dance (est. 2007 by Jeanne Mam-Luft) until their merger in 2021. Both organizations began as performing troupes, but in the early ‘90s, CDT dissolved its company and subsequently focused on presenting guest artists. The two organizations joined to create the aptly-named Mutual Dance Theatre and Arts Centers, taking enumeration from its elder half and thus celebrating its 54th season in 25-26. Mutual has honored and combined the priorities of both founding organizations: investing in a virtuosic local company with the aim of becoming a significant presence both locally and nationally, as well as the continued presentation of Modern and Contemporary Dance from across the States (and sometimes, beyond). Mutual also reaches thousands of children each year through education and its academy, as well as charity-supported outreach. Learn more at mutualdance.org.

Social Media Handles

Performances: Facebook and Instagram @mutualdance
The Centers: Facebook and Instagram @mutualartscenters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 3, 2025

Contact:
Name – Micky Sikorski, Marketing and Communications Manager
Organization – Mutual Dance Theatre
Email – communications@mutualarts.org
Phone – 513-494-6526
Website – mutualdance.org/performances

CINCINNATI, OH —

Immersive. Immediate. Unforgettable.

Returning as a season favorite, Up-Close ’25 brings audiences into the dance. Up-Close is Mutual Dance Theatre’s small-studio performance series. In this unique show, the resident company performs in the round, just inches from the audience. Every seat is front-row, every breath and step within reach.

“Breaking the fourth wall is an understatement,” marketing and communications manager Micky Sikorski told Cincinnati Magazine earlier this year, “there is no fourth wall in the Up-Close series.”

This year’s program features Crystal Michelle (Associate Artistic Director, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company), and Mutual Dance Theatre’s own Hannah Williamson, premiering her second Up-Close creation. Crystal Michelle’s work, Breath, Flesh, and Bone / A Manual for Lovers at the end of the world, asks how we endure the grief and joy of daily life. Hannah Williamson’s Look Thrice will explore the patterns and cycles we see in history and our own lives. Full descriptions for both of these works can be found below. 

This is a fundamentally different experience than Mutual Dance Theatre’s Aronoff shows, and it has become a fan favorite. This show sells out year after year, and quickly: Last year’s sold out during the early bird pricing period. Mutual Dance Theatre is proud to bring this unique experience to life yet again for Embrace 25-26: A Season of Connection. 

Show Blurbs 

Breath, Flesh, and Bone / A Manual for Lovers at the end of the world (2025) – Crystal Michelle 

What is love at the end of the world? How do we endure the daily demands to love and grieve, witness and testify, prosper and depart? Is survival possible? Breath, Flesh, and Bone / A Manual for Lovers at the end of the world explores these questions to create a field guide for those considering love. 

This work uses original sound design and projection to immerse audiences in a world defined by tenderness, resistance, arrival, and care. Inspired by Black feminist poetry, the work harkens to bell hooks, Toni Morrison, and Audre Lorde. 

Choreographer Crystal Michelle describes the work as “an urgent excavation” that uncovers and considers the potential futures laid before us. It offers a blueprint for choosing love while living within the raw realities of breath, flesh, and bone. 

Look Thrice (2025) – Hannah Williamson

Life moves in rhythmic cycles. Beginnings echo endings, and every step forward carries the imprint of what came before. History turns and returns, spiral-like, reminding us that the past has never truly passed. The patterns that emerge — of longing, of anger, of grief — are quietly governed by forces we cannot fully understand. Still, life continues: a sacred symmetry woven into the fabric of time itself. Think Thrice reminds us that, even in the turning, we are held by something eternal. 

This new work will be Willamson’s fourth commission from MDT, and promises to continue a theme of psychological journeys with thrilling, mysterious, and time-period elements.

Details, Tickets and More Information

Event: Mutual Dance Theatre in Up-Close ‘25
Location: Mutual Arts Hartwell, 8222 Monon Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45216
Dates: December 4, 5, & 6, and December 12 & 13
Time: 7:30pm
Website: mutualdance.org/upclose25

Tickets for this performance are available now at: mutualdance.org/upclose25 or at the Aronoff Center box office at (513) 621-ARTS or 650 Walnut Street

For the full season schedule and more details, visit: mutualdance.org/performances.

For more information about Mutual Dance Theatre and Arts Centers, visit mutualdance.org

Mutual Dance Theatre and Arts Centers’ work is made possible by: the generosity of tens of thousands of contributors to the annual ArtsWave Campaign, the region’s primary source for arts funding; an investment of public funds from the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically; and individual donors.

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About Mutual Dance Theatre and Arts Centers

Mutual Dance Theatre is the city’s longest-running and most consistent Modern Dance organization, both as a presenter and a resident company. MDT was formerly known as Contemporary Dance Theater (est. 1972 by Jefferson James) and MamLuft&Co. Dance (est. 2007 by Jeanne Mam-Luft) until their merger in 2021. Both organizations began as performing troupes, but in the early ‘90s, CDT dissolved its company and subsequently focused on presenting guest artists . The two organizations joined to create the aptly-named Mutual Dance Theatre and Arts Centers, taking enumeration from its elder half and thus celebrating its 54th season in 25-26. Mutual has honored and combined the priorities of both founding organizations: investing in a virtuosic local company with the aim of becoming a significant presence both locally and nationally, as well as the continued presentation of Modern and Contemporary Dance from across the States (and sometimes, beyond). Mutual also reaches thousands of children each year through education and its academy, as well as charity-supported outreach. Learn more at mutualdance.org.

Photography / Links

Image above available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uk1mjsp4X4t6NA3nACbvLstSxzJggmMq?usp=drive_link.

Additional images and assets available upon request to communications@mutualarts.org.

This press release can also be accessed as a Google Doc at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZSrexQv3xI-7k3RzUnw_Ok4gVTVJJHcTLTSKSNZ70PY/edit?usp=sharing

Social Media Handles:

Performances: Facebook and Instagram @mutualdance
The Centers: Facebook and Instagram @mutualartscenters