Zoë Brielle Payne is a dancer, multidisciplinary artist and educator from Belington, West Virginia. She is also the Founding Director of ZBRI, a dance ensemble based in Baltimore Maryland that performs locally and tours regionally. She received her BFA in Dance from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and is getting her MFA in Community Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art. As an Appalachian artist, her work is inspired by rural landscapes and the rich depth of social connections that stem from communal support networks. 

ZBRI, which began in 2019, is a contemporary dance company that performs in schools, community centers, and festivals to share how professional dance can connect and inspire community. In the fall of 2025, they performed in Baltimore, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and the greater DMV.

Payne is currently dancing with the Dance & Bmore Ensemble directed by CJ Philips. From 2024-2025 she danced with the West Virginia Dance Company, touring works by internationally recognized choreographers. In May 2024, she performed at The Kennedy Center as part of the Washington National Opera’s premiere of Turandot choreographed by Jessica Lang and Kanji Segawa. 

Zoë is a member of Peabody Institute’s Preparatory Dance Program’s staff, teaching ages 4- adult classes. She also teaches theatre at Sisters Academy of Baltimore and has been a long-time guest choreographer with the Augusta Youth Ballet Company. Her STEAM programming and visual art workshops take shape through her work with Augusta Heritage Center’s Folk Arts for Kids program since 2019.

David Carlton Adams is a composer, performer, teacher, and organizer trying to help make the world a little healthier and a little more whole. He is in his last year of doctoral studies at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University. His work spans contemporary chamber music, microtonality, and electronics, often blurring boundaries between composed and improvised, acoustic and electronic, rock and avant-garde. He is a co-founder of the New Uncertainty Collective and of the experimental group SALLT. When he’s not working his butt off or spending quality time with his family, he can be found at the gym, in the mountains, or overindulging ever so slightly in coffee or pizza, depending on the hour and day. 

Anna Cremers is a senior dual degree student at Johns Hopkins University and the Peabody Institute majoring in Cognitive Science and Dance, respectively. She began dancing at the age of three and has received training from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas. Anna has experience in numerous styles of dance including ballet, modern, contemporary, jazz, musical theater, and West African. She has had the opportunity to work with and perform works by Darrell Grand Moultrie, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Kevin Iega Jeff, Bernard Brown, Tiffanie Carson, and many others.

With one semester remaining before earning her BA in Cognitive Science and BFA in Dance, Anna has plans to use what she has learned during undergrad to attend graduate school to earn a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree, while continuing to use dance to entertain, comfort, and inspire those around her.

Josette Chang graduated from the University of Chicago in 2023 with a B.A. in Economics and minor in Theater and Performance Studies. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in Education at Johns Hopkins and teaches high school math as a Teach for America corps member. Outside of school, Josette is a dance educator at Morton Street Dance Center and a member of the studio’s resident company, Full Circle Dance Company. Her choreographic work is grounded in contemporary dance and draws from hip-hop and improvisational forms, with a particular interest in exploring somatic intuition outside of traditional movement vocabulary. 

Dallas Ryan is a Philly-raised dancer who started her training at Philadanco, where she built a strong foundation in ballet and discovered her love for modern dance which is still her favorite style today. She currently dances with Dance & BMore and ZBRI, exploring a mix of modern, contemporary, and jazz. She is excited to continue building her dance family in Baltimore.

When she’s not in the studio, you can find Dallas in the hospital as a medical student, bringing the same passion to her work in medicine as she does to the stage.