soundHI
Choreography by Alexander Jones
Created in collaboration with the original 2018 cast and current cast
Music: “Behind the Curtain” by Wax Tailor and “Hajnal” by Venetian Snares
Costume Design: Hilka Standridge
Rehearsal Director: Kirsten Standridge
Dancers: Tara Barekat, Heidi Brewer, Justin Brock, Shanira Delgado, Talia Demps, Antonio Hernandez, Esophia Higgins-Wilkins, Sam Kedziora, Evan Smith, and Kirsten Standridge
Originally premiering at The Palladium in 2018 as part of the St. Pete Present performance, soundHI was projectALCHEMY’s first-ever work. In this reimagined restaging, the piece returns with fresh vision, continuing to explore the duality of pleasure and chaos born from our relationship with sound—especially through the lens of radio and media broadcast.
Choreographer and projectALCHEMY Executive Artistic Director Alexander Jones draws inspiration from the birth of radio in the 1920s, a time when audiences first experienced the immediacy of news, music, and narrative in real time. What once sparked wonder and imagination now echoes in our media-saturated world, where the rapid processing of information blurs the line between reality and fiction.
Structured like a fragmented radio transmission, soundHI invites the audience into a world where:
Radio theatre blurs into real-time crime.
Music offers moments of levity.
News spirals into chaos.
And at the center is The Host—the unseen voice pulling the strings and guiding the static.
Jones would like to extend deep gratitude to the original 2018 cast for their foundational contributions to this work: Kirsten Standridge, Deisha King, Esophia Higgins-Wilkins, Ethan Barbee, Caitlyn Elie-Gowan, Kedrick Pasley, Kei Mason, Daniel Esteban Mendez, and Sadie Lehmker. Their artistry and imagination helped bring soundHI to life.
Tonight, surrender to the sound.
Step into the frequency.
Let yourself be guided through a journey of ecstatic resonance and unnerving interference.
Tune in to the noise. Find the signal.
Tara Barekat
Tara Barekat, born and raised in Tampa, Florida, is currently pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Criminology at the University of South Florida. Her academic focus reflects a deep interest in understanding the justice system and the societal factors that influence crime and behavior. In addition to her studies, she embodies a strong passion for the performing arts. Tara is enrolled in dance classes at Hillsborough Community College, where she is honing her skills in modern, contemporary, and ballet techniques. Through these courses, she has also been introduced to choreographic tools and improvisational skills that have expanded her creative expression and approach to storytelling through movement. Dance provides an outlet for her individuality, complementing her academic pursuits in a unique way. Tara is committed to further developing her artistic voice while continuing to explore the complexities of the criminal justice field. She believes in the value of a well-rounded education and sees the intersection of art and criminology as an opportunity to contribute to both fields in thoughtful and innovative ways. As she moves forward, Tara hopes to merge her passions to inspire positive change and bring a creative perspective to her community.
Heidi Brewer
Heidi Brewer, born + raised in the Pacific Northwest and University of Washington alum, has worked as a dance artist in Seattle, NYC, Los Angeles and St. Petersburg since 2001. Her own work has been shown at Pieter and Highways Performance Space in Los Angeles, and at The Studio at 620, The Palladium, Savant on 2nd and Sarasota Contemporary Dance in Florida. She founded the LAYERS platform in LA to produce 3 workshops between 2017-2018, and returns to LA periodically to work with Pennington Dance Group. Heidi has taught dance classes for the Sarasota Ballet and masterclasses for Sarasota Contemporary Dance, and currently teaches community class in St. Pete. She toured The Invitation Situation, a collaboration with choreographer Jeanine Durning and performers Clare Croft, Andee Scott and Mary Williford-Shade in Sarasota, Chicago and Denton, TX, with the next stops in Houston and Detroit this spring. She performs regularly with projectALCHEMY in St. Petersburg, and is a Certified Pilates Teacher through the Kane School & kinected in NYC, where she also works as the Communications Director. She is a Pilates Instructor, Oov instructor & Kane School teacher trainer at Body Center St. Pete, where she co-directs the Pilates certification with Shila LaGrua. She and her husband Will are proud cat parents to Penny.
Justin Brock
Justin Brock, a recent graduate of Harrison School of the Arts, received his training at Highland School of Dance in Lakeland. He has attended workshops and intensives with MODAS Dance, Florida Dance Arts, and Florida Southern College among others. His performances over the years include The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Alice in Wonderland, and The Sleeping Beauty. Justin is the 2024 recipient of the Betsye Kay Finch Performing Arts Foundation and is currently continuing his training as a dance major at Hillsborough Community College, as well as working on choreography opportunities such as “effeminate”, “Arboreal Cover”, and “Travelers”.
Shanira Delgado
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Shanira started dancing at the age of 13 and graduated from the University of South Florida with her Bachelor in Fine Arts with a concentration in Modern dance performance and a General Business Administration Certificate. Upon graduation, she moved to New York City where she performed work alongside SammyJ Dance. Most recently she was performing with Water Street Dance Milwaukee, an Ensemble member in Rudolph the Red Nosed-Reindeer, and worked on a Salsa Partnering Team.
She has been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with a variety of choreographers, and international artists in the field. She has been in works by Morgan Williams, Leandro Damasco Jr., Madison Hicks, Kim M. Saunders, Leila Henry, Charles Anderson, Michael Foley, Bliss Kohlmyer, and Andee Scott. She also had the fortuity to perform in many settings both nationally and internationally.
In 2019 she attended the Dance in Paris summer program through USF in which she was immersed in the culture and Parisian lifestyle, as well as the diverse dance scene. Here, she continued to work on her craft. This experience provided new avenues of learning, understanding and creativity to spur. This lended itself to new choreographic exploration, in which she decided to merge two parts of her identity into one. She found her long term choreographic goal, merging the two styles into one and challenging the audiences' expectations of what dance is and when it happens.
Talia Demps
Talia Demps has a BFA in dance with a concentration in modern dance from the University of South Florida. She is a company member and artist with Project Alchemy dance in St.Petersburg. She is also a youth and adult dance teacher throughout the Tampa Bay Area.
Antonio Hernandez
Antonio Hernandez is from Fort Myers, Florida. After graduating from Lehigh Senior High School Center for the Arts and training at Footnotes Dance and Music Studio, he moved to the Tampa area and continued his dance training at Hillsborough Community College (HCC) for the next three years under Program Director, Christina Acosta. He’s been a part of numerous student choreography and faculty showcases choreographed by Jessica Williamson, Helen French, Richard Ploch, Julie Harlan, Sea Lee, Christina Acosta, Bianca Russell, and Sarah Walston Phillips. He recently attended Stewart Owen’s DELVE Intensive in the summer of 2024 under co-directors, Gavin Stewart and Venessa Owen. After HCC, Antonio joined Atlas Modern Ballet and performed numerous projects in their second and third seasons. He is now a project based dancer and has been or is currently a guest artist for Coastal Ballet of Florida, Bailey Grayson, Sarasota Contemporary, Tampa City Ballet, and ProjectAlchemy. He also is a resident choreographer for Break the Mould Dance Company and a contemporary and ballet instructor at Tampa Bay Rhythmics. While getting his associate’s degree in dance, he additionally has been studying the art of motion media.
Esophia Higgins-Wilkins
Esophia Higgins-Wilkins, a Florida native, earned her BFA in Modern Dance from the University of South Florida and an MBA in Sports Business from St. Leo University. She began her career with Shoes at the Door and is now a project-based artist with projectALCHEMY, founded by executive creative director, Alexander Jones and The Parks Institute, founded by John Parks . Her passion for dance and travel led her to India, where she performed with SHIAMAK Davar’s Bollywood company and taught Western dance forms in the apprentice program. She continues exploring cultural dance as a company member of the Spinning Canvas Bollywood troupe founded by Shivali Vyas. Combining her background in athletics and movement, Esophia has trained NFL clients, integrating dance into sports performance. As a choreographer, she blends spoken word and movement to tell compelling stories and continues to engage in freelance performance opportunities with local and international artists. Her most cherished role, however, is her residency with her toddler—where their living room performances blend dance, music, with an abundance of love and joy!
Sam Kedziora
Sam Kedziora grew up dancing competitively which inspired her to peruse a degree in dance. She graduate from USF with her BFA in modern dance studies and a minor in psychology in the spring of 2022. She spent the summer after graduating studying abroad with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Ga’aton, Israel, B12 Research or Die in Berlin, Germany, and spent a month in Paris, France taking classes from local artists. In 2023, Sam moved to Chicago, Illinois to work as a performing apprentice with Trifecta Dance Collective and as a company member with Solarium Dance Company. Now in Tampa, Florida she works as a company member with projectALCHEMY and REVolutions Dance Company. She also find herself in gigs for local Tampa Bay choreographers such as Corinne Hidar and Bailey Johnson Grayson. Over the span of her dance career, Sam has had the privilege to learn from and work with choreographers such as Morgan Williams of Waterstreet Dance, Alice Klock and Florian Lochner of FLOCK, Braden Barnes of Symbiosis Arts, and her astounding professors including Bliss Kholmyer, Jeanne Travers, and Michael Foley. Sam looks forward to her future in dance and is excited to keep training and performing in Tampa Bay!
Evan Smith
Born and raised in Florida, Evan has been dancing his whole life. Being an old competition member of Leonard's Academy of Dance, he is able to apply what he's learned as a competition member to being a studio and competition instructor. Graduating from Howard W. Blake, Evan went on to study at the University of South Florida as a Dance major. As well as being an alumni of The Chocolate Nutcracker, Evan is also a member of the United Nations of Dance Musical Performance Troupe. Evan is now a dancing with projectALCHEMY under the direction of Alexander Jones.
Kirsten Standridge
Originally from Lakeland, Florida, Kirsten Standridge’s training began at the age of six at a local studio called Highlands School for Dance under the instruction of Hayley Amis Stewart. On top of taking classes at the studio, she had also been accepted to dance at a local arts High School named Harrison School for The Arts where she had the opportunity to learn from Susan Olsen, Gloria Haigler, and Shelley Bourgeois. After graduating from Harrison, she was accepted to the dance program at The University of South Florida. While attending USF, she had been given the privilege to perform in the works of many professors and guest choreographers such as Bliss Kholmyer, Paula Nunez, Michael Foley, Yaniv Abraham with Batcheva dance company, and Alonzo King with Lines Ballet. She went on to begin her professional career with Collective Soles Dance Company in Tampa and is now a company member with projectALCHEMY working with founder/artistic director Alex Jones. Kirsten is excited to have the opportunity to continue working with Alex and looks forward to continuing her training with the company.
Alexander Jones
Alexander Jones, founder and executive artistic director of the downtown St. Pete international non profit dance+ company projectALCHEMY, is a graduate of University of South Florida, recent MFA graduate Hollins University studying dance. Jones received training from the LINES Ballet BFA Program under direction of Marina Hotchkiss. He has had the opportunity to work with Alonzo King, Bill T. Jones in Serenade/The Proposition, and Doug Varone in The Rite of Spring. He has performed in Tunisia, Africa with the University of South Florida on behalf of the American Embassy and the Tunisian Dance Federation. A native Floridian, Jones is a proud member of the Actor’s Equity Association and current performer at Walt Disney World in stage shows such as Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular, A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas, Dream Along with Mickey, Beauty and the Beast Live On Stage . He is an alumnus of ArchCore40 in NYC and works closely with choreographer Jennifer Archibald as her choreographer assistant in the Florida Dance Festival. In 2012, he choreographed and directed his first evening length work entitled First You, Then The Rest at the Studio@620 in St. Petersburg, FL. In the Spring of 2013, Jones joined Yow Dance Company and had the honor of choreographing works for the company for both Spring Into Dance and the Orlando International Fringe Festival. Later that Fall, he returned to the Studio@620 to premiere his second evening-length work, Contact. Jones participated in Project GenYes! at the Studio@620 made possible by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation premiering his third evening-length work, Uncovered: Power of the Being at the Studio@620. In 2016, Jones became the Artistic Director of Collective Soles Dance making it his mission to connect the Tampa Bay area through collaboration. The following year Alex was one of the resident choreographers at the Florida Dance Festival where he premiered his latest work behind the Front. Jones is on faculty as an adjunct professor at the University of Tampa teaching techniques classes that help students prepare for both concert and commercial stages. Community and collaboration are at the forefront of Jones’s dance works with the company, as well as in and around St. Pete. He served as the Dance Artists in Residence at the Studio@620, assisting in dance programming alongside Bob Devin Jones.
projectALCHEMY
projectALCHEMY is an international dance+ company based in St. Petersburg, Florida, engaging the dance community and local audiences through immersive interdisciplinary performances, affordable movement classes, and dance artist development opportunities. We share the artistic talent of our community through live performances and online exchanges with dance companies around the world. Our vision is to create a thriving dance+ ecosystem where high-quality dance experiences are easily accessible to artists and audiences. Following the process of alchemy, we value creating through intentional collaboration resulting in the transformation of the artists we work with and the environments we inhabit. We believe that diversity in all its forms is necessary to spark imagination, provide accessible spaces, and encourage meaningful dialogue about the intersection of the performance content and the audience experience.
