Hailed as a choreographer “with an imagination so exuberant that one could not be sure how one movement led to the next” and “not only inventive but heart-rending,” Jennifer Hart has been commissioned by Ballet Austin, Ballet Austin ll, Ballet Nouveau Colorado (now Wonderbound), James Sewell Ballet, Minnesota Dance Theater, The Walker Art Center’s Momentum Series, The McKnight Fellowship for Dancers, Metropolitan Ballet Project, University of Kansas, University of Massachusetts, Lawrence Ballet Theatre, Halcyon Dance Project in San Francisco, and Merick Strategies for its production of Leonard Bernstein's “Mass” and “Icons of Broadway Holiday Spectacular.” In July, 2022, Hart was one of four choreographers selected for National Choreographers Initiative.

In 2011, Hart was awarded a New York City Ballet Fellowship and won third place at the Saint-Sauveur International Choreography Competition. She received second place at Ballet Nouveau Colorado’s choreography competition, and was one of three winners of the University of Kansas’ competitive choreography competition. She was chosen three times to present work at Ballet Builders, New Choreographer’s on Point in NYC. She was commissioned by University of Massachusetts in the fall of 2013; the work was chosen for the National College Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center, June 2014.

In 2014, she formed Performa/Dance with Ballet Austin dancer Edward Carr. Performa/Dance launched its inaugural show. Ignite: Three Works, in June, 2014. Her work for Performa/Dance was awarded four Austin Critics Table awards for Best Short Work (“On Truth and Love”and "Camille: A Story of Art and Love"), Best Choreographer  ("Fellow Travelers" and “Murmuration"), and Best Dance Concert (Ignite: Three Works). Along with her work in concert dance, she has choreographed and performed cabaret shorts for nightclubs and television, and has begun working in video. She recently choreographed and co-directed the epic Bernstein's Mass, a work involving 300 performers.

She trained at Minnesota Dance Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. Her performing career includes Minnesota Dance Theater, Ballet of the Dolls, and L.A Chamber Ballet, as well as independent choreographers. She choreographs for Ballet Austin’s apprentices and Fellowship recipients, teaches full-time in the academy and apprentice program, and serves as Curriculum Supervisor of the school where she sets syllabus and leads training for academy teachers.

Growing up in Pittsburgh, Carr received his first twelve years of ballet training at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater School. After graduating high school he continued his training at Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto, and had the privilege to work with choreographers including James Kudelka, Toer van Schayk, and Rudi van Dantzig.

Carr moved to Austin in 2006 to attend Ballet Austin’s trainee program, and joined the main company in 2008 after a season as an apprentice. Since joining Ballet Austin, he has been featured in Stephen Mills’ Light / The Holocaust and Humanity Project, premiered as Beast in Mills' Belle Redux, and has been featured in work by George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Lar Lubovitch, Pam Tanowitz, Pontus Lidberg, Nicolo Fonte, and Jennifer Hart. Carr appeared in visual artist Rodney McMillian’s film Untitled (neighbors), part of McMillian’s first solo exhibition Against a Civic Death at The Contemporary Austin.

Carr first worked with Hart in 2007 on a piece that would later be performed in NYC with Ballet Builders.  The two have worked together every summer since, developing an especially productive professional relationship that fostered the inception of Performa/Dance in 2014.

Alexa Capareda received her early classical ballet and contemporary dance training at the Philippine High School for the Arts in her native Philippines. After moving to Texas, she trained professionally at Ballet Austin. She continued dancing in Canada at Ecole Superieure de Ballet Contemporain de Montreal before joining Mario Radacovsky’s Balet Bratislava in Slovakia, where she had the privilege of performing Jiri Kylian’s Falling Angels and Six Dances. She began exploring her own choreography before leaving Europe, winning 3rd prize at the 2013 Festival of Choreographic Miniatures in Serbia. 

Alexa joined Ballet Austin’s artistic staff and Academy faculty in 2015. As Rehearsal Director for Ballet Austin II and the Butler Fellows, she has restaged ballets by Stephen Mills, Nelly van Bommel, Nick Kepley, Thang Dao, and Jimmy Orrante for Ballet Austin II, has assisted guest choreographers Alexander Anderson and Joshua Manculich with their commissioned works, and has created original pieces for BAII and the Butler Fellowship Program. Maria and the Mouse Deer, her new ballet for BAII based on Philippine folk stories, was awarded a Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Alexa is an artist and Assistant Director with Jennifer Hart's Performa/Dance. She has co-produced and performed with Frank Wo/Men Collective and has worked with ARCOS, BLiPSWiTCH, Jennifer Sherburn, and Magdalena Jarkowiec. Her work has been featured in collaborations with sound artists/musicians Steve Parker, Brent Baldwin, Henna Chou, Lynn Lane’s Transitory Sound and Movement Collective, Austin Camerata, LOLA Austin, and visual artists Tom Suhler and Susan Scafati. She has been commissioned by Houston Contemporary, Columbia Repertory Ballet, and ZACH Theatre, and has presented work at the Blanton Museum, Big Medium, Austin Dance Festival, Barnstorm Dance Festival, and Fusebox Festival.

In 2017, Alexa received an Austin Critics Table Award for Excellence as a Dancer. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English (with High Honors), and a minor in Theater and Dance from the University of Texas at Austin.