Stefanie Batten Bland is a choreographic artist who creates performances rooted in community, highlighting the delicate threads that connect us to one another and to our planet. Based in contemporary dance theatre, Company SBB constructs futuristic environments with installations ripe in poetic theatrical flavors that are emotionally driven. In 2008 while head choreographer of the Paris Opera Comique, in France under direction of Jérôme Savary, Stefanie founded Company SBB so that she might better investigate the human condition and relationships within our natural world. Her works for stage, non traditional spaces and dance cinema have performed throughout Europe, Asia and the USA. SBB also creates for gala and VIP events such as Guerlain Perfumes, Van Cleef & Arpels, Louis Vuitton, SYTYCD-Poland and for the 2012 French Presidential gala in Cannes France.
True to her name, Brooklyn-native, Karisma Jay, is an honors graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts where she majored in dance. She is a graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School where she studied Performing Arts and Pre-Medicine and is a certificate student of the Mathematics Education Master’s program at City College. Teaching dance since the tender age of 11, she has honed her skills of working with children and adults to develop the confidence and charisma of even the shyest, youngest and/or oldest of students. Dancing and performing since the age of two, she has studied at Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Ailey School (Junior Division) and has performed/toured with prestigious dance companies such as Brooklyn Ballet, Maimouna Keita, Creative Outlet, Asase Yaa, and Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence. Professionally, Karisma has been featured in programs aired on Netflix, BET, MTV, NBC, and VH1. She is the 2016 winner of The Stars of New York Dance Award and Caribbean Life’s Impact Award. In 2013, Karisma joined the company of the longest-running Off Broadway musical, STOMP. She is the Artistic Director and Founder of AbunDance Academy of the Arts with a mission to lead by example so that everyone who crosses paths with her flourishes AbunDantly.