MEET COMPANY DANCERS

River Hemming

River Hemming’s passion and love for dance began at Christian Dance Center in Cypress, Texas. In 2017, she began work as a trainee with Next Generation Ballet in Tampa, FL where she performed lead and various corps roles in Peter Starks’ Cinderella and Philip Neal’s The Nutcracker. She was also selected for the opportunity to perform a new work by Maria Konrad: “Nebula”

The next season, as a member of Vitacca Ballet Pro in Houston, Ms. Hemming performed lead and corps roles in La Bayadere and Paquita and competed in ADC/IBC where she won a full scholarship to Tulsa Ballet’s summer program and a scholarship to the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Summer Program 

She joined Tulsa Ballet as a trainee the following season, where she trained on merit scholarship with Tulsa Ballet Center for Dance Education and danced in corps and understudy roles with the company. She has also enjoyed summers with Houston Ballet Academy, ABT Austin, and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Company Experience. She is passionate about teaching dance to the next generation and is thrilled to also be a part of Uptown’s teaching faculty.

This is Ms. Hemming’s third season with Uptown Dance Company 

Deontay Gray

Deontay Gray is a native of Baltimore, Maryland where he began his journey in the arts as a musician. As a vocalist he has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Meyerhof, and Strathmore with musicians Linda R. Hall, Dr. Craig Jessop and Marin Alsop.

At the age of 19 he began his dance career and later received his B.F.A in dance from the Conservatory at Shenandoah University.  In 2015 he was featured as a choreographer and dancer presenting his work in The Royal Theatre in Winchester, England. He was invited to teach master classes in Sydney, Australia in 2016 at the Sydney Dance Company Studios as well as University of Winchester in Winchester, England.

He was featured in works at the 2015, 2017 & 2018 New York Jazz Choreography Dance Project at the Ailey Citigroup theatre and the Salvatore Capezio Theater in NYC, the 2016 VelocityDC Dance Festival at Sidney Harman Hall in Washington, DC, and the 34th Annual Choreographers’ Showcase at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in Maryland. While in Maryland he has been a guest artist with Dance n Bmore, CCBC dance company , Deep Vision, Opera in Baltimore, Ballet Embody Dance Company, CityDance, Anne Aroundel County Orchestra,and more. He has been a dancer with Christopher K. Morgan and Artists since 2016. He joined the Project C Studios dance family in 2020 where he was teacher, and choreographer. In 2022 he held the title of Artistic Director for the studio.

Deontay joins the Houston community and Uptown Dance Company in 2023.

Kaitlyn Blake

Kaitlyn Blake began dancing at Carol Ehler Dance School and from age 13 to her high school graduation she trained at Ballet Center of Houston.

While at the Ballet center, she also performed with the pre-professional company, Houston Repertoire Ballet. As a company member she performed roles such as the Dew Drop Fairy in Victoria Vittum’s Nutcracker and the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty.

Ms. Blake’s summer training included Ballet Magnificat!, Houston Ballet, Ballet Hawaii, and Tulsa Ballet. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Belhaven University and was the female recipient of the 2022 Artistic Achievement Award.

After graduation Ms. Blake spent a year teaching dance at Ballet Center of Houston and performing as an Artist in Residence with Houston Repertoire Ballet. She is excited to join Uptown Dance Company this year as a performing artist and teacher.

Morgan Dunham

Morgan Dunham is originally from Austin, TX. “I don’t remember a point in my life where I wasn’t dancing. My mother needed something for me to do while she was teaching ballet and put me in a class across the hall, and I just never left.”  

Morgan originally focused on competitive jazz and contemporary, but began focusing on ballet in order to pursue a professional career. She began her training under Meredith Dunham at ONE Academy of Dance, where she studied the Cecchetti Method from many knowledgeable teachers, including Renata Sanford, Deidre Russell, Dr. Kathleen Tenniswood-Powell, Ann Parsley, June Smith, Karla Harris, and Lee Ann King.

Morgan progressed through the syllabus and is a Cecchetti Certified Intermediate Graduate, as well as Certified Primary and Grade 1 teacher. She has also been fortunate to attend summer programs at Houston Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Oklahoma City Ballet, and the CCA Summer School. She spent a year training at Kansas City Ballet School before joining Nevada Ballet Theatre as a Trainee in the fall of 2019. She then joined Oklahoma City Ballet as a Trainee in 2020, and was promoted to Second Company in 2022. This is Morgan’s first year with Uptown Dance Centre and she is very excited for the season ahead.

 Morgan has been honored to perform alongside Cirque du Soleil and in ballets choreographed by George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Ben Stevenson, Devon Carney, Maria Konrad, Ryan Jolicoeur-Nye, Robert Mills, Benjamin Tucker and James Canfield.

 Additionally, Morgan has enjoyed creating works for dancers in the Studio Company of Oklahoma City Ballet as well as students. As well as choreography for solos and several productions at ONE Academy of Dance.