Brian Lawson

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Brian Lawson is a dance performer and educator who began dancing in Toronto, Canada. In 2005, he spent a year at Codarts in Rotterdam and subsequently began his degree at SUNY Purchase. He graduated summa cum laude from Purchase in 2010 with a B.F.A. in dance performance and received the President's Award in Modern Dance.

Brian worked for Douglas Dunn and as a member of Dance Heginbotham before  becoming a member of the Mark Morris Dance Group in 2011. With MMDG he had the great pleasure of touring the United States and the world performing Morris' dances.

Brian left MMDG to earn his M.F.A. from the University of Washington, where he graduated in 2020. Lawson enjoys teaching dance to diverse populations and has given masterclasses at Purchase College, NYU Tisch, and the American Dance Festival among others. He has taught ballet classes to the Jose Limon Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, and at Gibney Dance. 

At present, Lawson serves as an assistant professor of dance at Skidmore College. His artistic research is collaborative in nature and focuses on queering the ballet canon (with Adele Nickel) and exploring queer masculinities (with Aaron Loux.) He also engages in pedagogical research with regards to contemporary balletic practices. Brian is currently a member of Pam Tanowitz Dance, which he rejoined in 2019, and continues to dance with MMDG.

Aaron Loux

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Aaron Loux is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and writer based in New York City. He encountered modern dance as a child at the Creative Dance Center in Seattle, Washington, which led to seven years of performing with Kaleidoscope Dance Company. He then trained at Cornish College Prep Dance and Seattle Theater Group's DANCE This... before attending the Juilliard School, where he earned his BFA in 2009. For twelve years, Aaron was a celebrated member of the Mark Morris Dance Group, appearing in the New York Times' "Top Male Dance Performances of 2014." He has also performed with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Merce Cunningham Trust, Cornfield Dance, Christopher Williams, Billy Smith Dance, Charlotte Bydwell, and Janie Brendel & Friends. His own choreography has been presented at the Juilliard School, the Vision of Sound festival, and in the Works & Process Artists Virtual Commissions series at the Guggenheim. Aaron teaches dance to adults of diverse backgrounds, including beginners, professionals, and dancers living with Parkinson's disease through the Dance for PD® program. He leads company classes for MMDG, Gibney Dance, the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and the Paul Taylor and Limón dance companies. Aaron's dance writing appears in the September 2023 and January 2024 issues of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, published by MIT Press. He is currently pursuing a B.A. in American Studies at Columbia University and is an adjunct choreographer and instructor in ballet at Marymount Manhattan College. After appearing in the Men in Dance Festival 1998 with Kaleidoscope and in 2014 performing a work by Mark Morris, Aaron is thrilled to return to the festival with his friend and collaborator, Brian Lawson.