May 15 & 16, 2026 | 7:30pm
Leila Gordon Theatre at Reston Community Center
2310 Colts Neck Rd.
Reston, VA 20191
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE:
2 Companies. One Collective Voice. Echoes brings together Motion X Dance Company and Festival Ballet Virginia in a raw, moving evening of contemporary dance. Rooted in the vulnerable truths of the human experience, each piece explores themes of mental health, hope, and resilience—and the lasting impressions they leave behind. Don’t miss this thought provoking evening of free expression through movement!
Leila Gordon Theatre at Reston Community Center
2310 Colts Neck Rd.
Reston, VA 20191
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE:
2 Companies. One Collective Voice. Echoes brings together Motion X Dance Company and Festival Ballet Virginia in a raw, moving evening of contemporary dance. Rooted in the vulnerable truths of the human experience, each piece explores themes of mental health, hope, and resilience—and the lasting impressions they leave behind. Don’t miss this thought provoking evening of free expression through movement!
Featured Choreographer: Stephanie Dorrycott,
Artistic Director
ARMOR (2025)
ARMOR explores the metaphorical shield we construct to hide our deepest mental health struggles. The piece opens with a high-energy section set to driving string music, capturing the relentless pace of daily life that often masks our inner battles. As the music fades, the dancers' interactions shift from detached and impersonal to raw and vulnerable, revealing glimpses of the emotions hidden beneath the surface.
The work culminates in a poignant group section, symbolizing resilience and the shared strength found in connection with others who face similar struggles. ARMOR is a powerful exploration of coping and finding connection, offering a reflection on the courage it takes to let others see behind the shield.
Fate of Choice (excerpt from the 2020 evening length work)
Fate of Choice is a multimedia collaboration with Lindsay Benson Garrett that explores the tension between free will and fate. This excerpt features striking video design by Garrett, followed by choreography that embodies the pull of inevitability through movement. It asks: how much of our lives are shaped by our own choices, and how much is predetermined?
Artistic Director
ARMOR (2025)
ARMOR explores the metaphorical shield we construct to hide our deepest mental health struggles. The piece opens with a high-energy section set to driving string music, capturing the relentless pace of daily life that often masks our inner battles. As the music fades, the dancers' interactions shift from detached and impersonal to raw and vulnerable, revealing glimpses of the emotions hidden beneath the surface.
The work culminates in a poignant group section, symbolizing resilience and the shared strength found in connection with others who face similar struggles. ARMOR is a powerful exploration of coping and finding connection, offering a reflection on the courage it takes to let others see behind the shield.
Fate of Choice (excerpt from the 2020 evening length work)
Fate of Choice is a multimedia collaboration with Lindsay Benson Garrett that explores the tension between free will and fate. This excerpt features striking video design by Garrett, followed by choreography that embodies the pull of inevitability through movement. It asks: how much of our lives are shaped by our own choices, and how much is predetermined?
Featured Choreographer: Megan Castro
Guest Artist bio:
Megan Castro is a freelance dancer and choreographer currently living in Utah. She is a graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts and has had the privilege of studying through the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company journey program in Israel. She has created works for Salt2 in Salt Lake City and recently completed a choreographic residency in Rome. Megan is passionate about improvisation and uses it to continue to develop her own unique movement language that is ever present in her works. Megan will be creating a brand new work on Motion X Dance this season and was selected through an application process among 47 other applicants.
Piece Description:
The Concept of Worth (premiere)
To define effort, to measure labor, to label worth. Within this piece I wanted to dive in to the various forms of how we understand, categorize, and place value on what it means to “work hard”. The work found in mental, emotional, and physical labor. To reflect upon the ways we put worth in each of these, often based on how tangible and visible they are to us. How the pressures of proving ourselves, based on what we have to show for it, holds a weight we all quietly carry.
Through movement and relation to intensity and softness the dancers unveil that effort is found and grasped in many ways. That sometimes the most powerful and strongest moments are the ones unseen to the eye but felt in the mind and body.
The intentional effort of letting go and simply being.
Guest Artist bio:
Megan Castro is a freelance dancer and choreographer currently living in Utah. She is a graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts and has had the privilege of studying through the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company journey program in Israel. She has created works for Salt2 in Salt Lake City and recently completed a choreographic residency in Rome. Megan is passionate about improvisation and uses it to continue to develop her own unique movement language that is ever present in her works. Megan will be creating a brand new work on Motion X Dance this season and was selected through an application process among 47 other applicants.
Piece Description:
The Concept of Worth (premiere)
To define effort, to measure labor, to label worth. Within this piece I wanted to dive in to the various forms of how we understand, categorize, and place value on what it means to “work hard”. The work found in mental, emotional, and physical labor. To reflect upon the ways we put worth in each of these, often based on how tangible and visible they are to us. How the pressures of proving ourselves, based on what we have to show for it, holds a weight we all quietly carry.
Through movement and relation to intensity and softness the dancers unveil that effort is found and grasped in many ways. That sometimes the most powerful and strongest moments are the ones unseen to the eye but felt in the mind and body.
The intentional effort of letting go and simply being.
PAST PERFORMANCES & EVENTS:
2026
2016
2015
2014
2026
- Small Plates Choreography Festival | Our City; Their Show
- Richmond Dance Festival | Fate of Choice excerpt
- Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival | Mind x Motion: Premiere of ARMOR & Stress Scale (Washington, DC)
- National Dance Day | John F. Kennedy Center (Washington, DC)
- Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival, Premiere of POLYSCOPE (Washington, DC)
- Inhale Performance Series, Turning Point (Philadelphia, PA)
- Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival, World Premiere of The Fate of Choice (Washington, DC)
- 36th Annual Choreographer's Showcase, Turning Point (College Park, MD)
- Charlotte Dance Festival, Comme je Suis (Charlotte, NC)
- SPRING | 4, Motion X Dance DC Resident Company Performance (Washington, DC)
- Mid-Atlantic Choreographer's Showcase, Comme je Suis (Richmond, VA)
- Capital Movement presents, CommUNITY Showcase, Comme je Suis (Silver Spring, MD)
- Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival: Breaking Barriers (Washington, DC)
- Joy of Motion Dance Center presents, SPLIT with Uprooted Dance (Jack Guidone Theater, Washington DC)
- Children's National Medical Center: Outreach performance (Washington, DC)
- ProMotion X: A fundraiser to ensure artist compensation (Metropolitan School of the Arts, Alexandria, VA)
- DC Dance Summit, Hosted by Dance Metro DC at the Dance Loft on 14 (Washington, DC)
- Three to See: Artists Collaboration Project, Hosted by Motion X featuring Company Danzante & Donald Knaack (The Junkman)
- Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival: Concrete Devotion with Other Works
2016
- TEDx Herndon: performed an excerpt of Altered Archives
- The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts: Presented on Millennium Stage
- Capital Fringe Festival: Concrete Devotion
- The One I Feed Dance Benefit, Concrete Devotion excerpt
- Atlas Intersections Festival: Altered Archives
- DANCE: DC Area New Companies Experience, performed Concrete Devotion
2015
- Capital Fringe Festival: Altered Archives Premiere
- TEDx Herndon: performed Anamnesis & Catch
- Atlas Intersections Festival: Commissioned site specific work, Two People Met
2014
- NYC10 Dance Showcase: performed Catch (New York City, NY)
- Joy of Motion Dance Project: Released