Meet the Faculty
Robin Riner
Robin Riner is Professor of Anthropology and adjunct dance faculty at Marshall University. She has studied ballet, jazz, modern, West African, and hip hop dance styles for over 30 years in North Carolina, NYC, and Los Angeles and at venues including Jacob’s Pillow and the American Dance Festival. She has performed professionally across the country with companies such as the Washington Square Repertory Dance Company (NYC), GiBa in Motion (NYC), Kybele Dance Theater (LA), Bone and Fiddle Dance Collective (OH), and Jeslyn Dance Gallery (WV). She currently teaches dance at 4th Avenue Arts in Huntington, WV.
Sarah Wenstrom
Sarah Wenstrom is originally from Portsmouth, Ohio. She began her training at the age of 3 in Greenup, Kentucky and continued onto Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio; where she received her BFA in Dance. Most recently, she became certified in the basic and beginning levels of the Giordano Technique. Sarah has trained at North Carolina School of the Arts, Perri Dance, Broadway Dance Center, and Steps on Broadway. Sarah recently retired after 12 years with the Radio City Rockettes in New York City. She performed in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, New York Spring Spectacular choreographed by Warren Carlyle, & New York Spectacular choreographed by Mia Michaels. She has also performed with the Rockettes on America’s Got Talent, Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, The Today Show, Live with Kelly and Ryan, The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, The Ellen Show, Christmas in Rockefeller Plaza, The Tony Awards, and the NBA All Star Game. She has performed with artist; Christina Aguilera, Flo Rida, and Pitbull. Prior to Radio City her other performances include Promises, Promises at Stages St Louis, Aida at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, dancing all over the world for Stiletto Entertainment onboard Holland America Line’s cruise ships, and at Cedar Point Amusement Park’s Centennial Theater. Sarah has taught for the Rockettes Summer Intensive and other Rockette education classes. She enjoys teaching masterclasses and workshops throughout the country, and looks forward to working with you!
Benjamin Roach​
Benjamin Roach is a queer movement artist and educator from Gallipolis, Ohio. As a transdisciplinary artist, she works to activate the political conduit that is the body acting abnormally. His work engages the body through the unconventional, unsubscribes from everyday metrics, and materialize strategies of liberation, autonomy, and awareness. In 2018 she received her B.F.A. in Dance and Choreography from Ohio University. Since 2019 Benjamin has been a company member/ collaborator with Abby Z + The New Utility performing at venues such as Jacob’s Pillow, New York Live Arts, Wexner Center, American Dance Festival, and Saddler’s Wells Theater. Benjamin has also had the great honor of dancing for artists Momar Ndiaye, Dance the Yard, Alisha Jihn, Isa Bowser, Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre, DZ Macial, and JACKS. Additionally, she is fortunate enough to be in collaboration with Ani Javian touring their comedic and theatrical duet When The Sky Separated From The Earth (2024) across the country. Benjamin is in his final year completing his MFA in Dance at The Ohio State University where her work has been selected for the ACDA National Festival and performed in Washington D.C. He is excited to be back in Southern Ohio to learn and collaborate with the Appalachian dance community.
Robert Royce
Robert began his ballet training at Greensboro Ballet in Greensboro, NC at the age of ten. He continued to study at the North Carolina School of the Arts under numerous teachers including Gyula Pandi, Mellissa Hayden and Duncan Noble. During the summers away from NCSA, Mr. Royce attended summer intensives at Pacific Northwest Ballet, Hungarian National Ballet and School of American Ballet. At the age of sixteen Robert moved to New York to study under Richard Rapp and Stanley Williams at School of American Ballet.
Mr. Royce danced professionally for Cincinnati Ballet, Dayton Ballet, Alabama Ballet, Ballet Theater of Maryland and the newly formed BalletFleming. During his career Robert has performed principal and soloist roles in Nutcracker, Serenade, Dracula, Spring Waters Pas de Deux, Tommy, along with many others.
Mr. Royce has served as Ballet Master and a staff teacher for Alabama Ballet, Ballet Theatre of Maryland, BalletFleming and Burklyn Ballet Theatre. Mr. Royce has been training and coaching professional and student dancers for the past twenty years and has worked on many classical ballets including Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet and Graduation Ball.
As a choreographer, Robert has received the 2001 Viewer's Choice Award in the Scotsman for his Cinderella at the Edinburg Fringe Festival and a four-star review for The Little Mermaid in 2011, both with Burklyn Ballet Theater. Mr. Royce has choreographed many programs for professional companies including Carmina Burana, Gershwin and Gatsby and The Marriage of Figaro.
Robert spent the past few years teaching at many studios in West Virginia,as well as, teaching master classes and choreographing across the east coast.
Kate Hadfield-Antonetti
Living in Lexington, Kentucky, Kate Hadfield-Antonetti is the Director of Movement Continuum, now in its 15th season, the longest-running contemporary dance company in Kentucky. One of its founding mothers, she’s written, directed and worked as choreographer for the company’s 18 original productions. Currently, she’s in process for MC’s 19th show, broken golden wonder opening November 2025. In 2024, Kate was one of fourteen choreographers chosen to be part of an international cohort at Jacob's Pillow in the Curriculum in Motion Institute studying choreography as a conduit for social change and how to use movement as a way to answer a community's questions and needs. Her ten months in the Institute culminated in Kate presenting her retrospective at the 2025 Jacob's Pillow International Festival in the Doris Duke Theatre. Additionally in 2024, Kate was chosen as one of ten choreographers in the nation to present work at the Contemporary Dance Choreography Festival in Orlando, FL. In 2022, Kate created Moving North, a cost-free dance program for girls living in underserved neighborhoods providing weekly dance training and a mentorship initiative while directly addressing transportation inequity and food insecurity. Through Movement Continuum, Kate created The Forum, a collaborative multi-genre, multicultural festival cultivating a unified Lexington dance community. She works as a choreographer and instructor for universities, festivals, studios, and the public school system, desiring to evolve as an artist and servant for her community, deeply believing in Kentucky and its people. Kate is thrilled to have been invited to the Southern Ohio Dance Festival and cannot wait to share space and build relationships with the dancers!
