Megan Hardy grew up training in classical ballet and performed, choreographed, and traveled on her high school’s Performing Dance Company. Megan was selected as her high school’s Dance Representative for the State Sterling Scholar program. In college, she choreographed and performed with the team Dancensemble, participated in the Student Dance Educators Organization, and graduated with her Bachelors of Art in Modern Dance Performance from BYU. Megan traveled abroad to the Beijing Dance Academy and studied Chinese contemporary dance and Chinese folk dance. Megan has taught many years of creative children’s dance, modern dance technique, and zumba dance fitness. Megan currently performs and choreographs for the regional company Wildly Brave, and enjoys dance on film composition, performing in local concerts and art festivals, and engaging in educational dance outreach. Megan graduated with her Masters in Science in Marriage and Family Therapy from OBU and currently works as a therapist at Calm Waters Center for Children and Families. In addition to integrating movement and body awareness into her work with clients in therapy, Megan teaches dance, yoga, and movement to grieving children and teens at Camp Courage every summer.

Jessica Murphy is a dance teaching artist with a curiosity about how groups of artists make work outside of a traditional hierarchical power structure. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance Performance and Choreography from Texas Woman's University where her thesis codified her own collaborative choreographic process, “The A.C.T.I.V.E. Process.” Prior to that she received a Master in the Art of Teaching degree from Sweet Briar College receiving dual teaching licensure in Dance Education PK-12 and Elementary Education PK-6. Her M.A.T. thesis focused on the ability of dance education to transform a student’s relationship with failure in the learning process.

Murphy’s dancing education began at the young age of four at a private dance studio studying various techniques within the genres of modern, ballet, tap, and jazz. She has trained under the mentorship of Ella Magruder (Menagerie Dance Company/ Mimi Gerrard), Mark Magruder (Menagerie Dance Company/ Beverly Blossom/ Mimi Gerrard), Sarah Gamblin (Bebe Miller), Jordan Fuchs (Jordan Fuchs Dance Company), Matt Henley (Randy James Dance Works/ Sean Curran Company), Mary Williford-Shade (Mark Taylor/Mark Dendy), Betty Jones (Doris Humphrey & Jose Limon), and Nia Love (Ballet Nacional de Cuba/ Min Tanaka).  She has taught at various schools throughout Virginia and Texas including the University of North Texas, Sweet Briar College, Texas Woman’s University, Tarrant County College, Dallas County College, Collin College, as well as several local studios to students with ages ranging from three years to ninety-plus. Previously her choreography has been showcased at the World Dance Alliance Global & National Summits, the South by Southwest Festival, the American College Dance Association, and various regional festivals.

Currently, Jessica performs and choreographs for Wildly Brave Dance Company, where she serves in the role of Co-Creative Director. Born and raised in the small town of Lynchburg, Virginia, Murphy now resides in Stillwater, Oklahoma where she serves as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance for the Department of Theatre at Oklahoma State University.

Cylene Walker-Willis is an educator, choreographer, and artist. Walker-Willis grew up in the red dirt of Konawa, Oklahoma near the South Canadian River. Growing up in the eighties she enjoyed pop music and watching MTV but she was drawn to the rhythm and soul of blues music, listening to artists like Bill Withers and Otis Redding. 

Walker-Willis has been teaching jazz, ballet, and various other styles for 25 plus years. She was classically trained in ballet by Rebecca Larimer, formerly of the Houston Ballet. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from Texas Woman’s University in 2018 where she studied Modern Dance with an emphasis on Community Engagement. Her Modern Dance training was under Sarah Gamblin (Bebe Miller), Jordan Fuchs (Jordan Fuchs Dance Company), Matt Henley (Randy James Dance Works/ Sean Curran Company), Mary Williford-Shade (Mark Taylor/Mark Dendy), and Nia Love (Ballet Nacional de Cuba/ Min Tanaka). 

Walker-Willis also has a passion for facilitating community dance projects. In 2017 and 2018 she was the logistics coordinator for TWU’s Kid’s Dance, a dance lecture demonstration where she coordinated 1300 2nd and 3rd graders from Denton ISD, buses, 50+ teachers, university students, and volunteers over the course of a 2 day event. In 1998 she helped build Second Man Ministries, a liturgical dance and drama company as a performer. She then became its director in 1999, directing and producing plays, musical dramas, and dances until 2003. For the next four years she was an Artistic Director at Stillwater School of Performing Arts and The Art of Dance Company where she facilitated various community events in Stillwater, Oklahoma.  

Walker-Willis began her directorship of dance festivals for her company Brave Art Dance in 2016 producing annual curated professional dance concerts and workshops until 2019. She then joined forces with dance partner, Jessica Murphy to create Wildly Brave Dance Company creating art with content that is edgy and provocative. Wildly Brave focuses on community based projects often collaborating with local artists and musicians. In keeping with her passion for arts-based community projects, Walker-Willis has been on the board of directors for Modella Art Gallery since 2020 where she helps create and maintain media content as well as volunteering at gallery events.