Lara Seefeldt is a native of Seattle, Washington and is a classically trained dancer with several years of professional ballet and contemporary dance experience. She trained as a scholarship student at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School (as well as many other esteemed schools) and studied privately with former New York City Ballet principal dancer, Stephanie Saland. Lara is a former member of Seattle’s Spectrum Dance Theater, Quorum Ballet of Portugal and Whim W'Him. She has also performed with Peter Schaufuss Balletten in Denmark, Seattle Dance Project, Seattle Opera, Fifth Avenue Theater and in numerous Verlaine and McCann Presents productions. This is her second season with House of Verlaine.

Photo by Ernie Sapiro

Tory Peil grew up in Ashland, Oregon where she studied under Sylvia Bolton, with summers on scholarship with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Alonzo King's LINES ballet and The Northwest Professional Dance Project.  Tory has been a principal artist with St. Louis Ballet and Spectrum Dance Theater.  In addition to dancing for Whim W'Him, she performs in burlesque productions at The Triple Door, Teatro ZinZanni and other venues throughout Seattle as well as solo performances at Seattle Opera and 5th Avenue Theater.

Photo by Nigel Cooper

A professional dancer, Paris Original is poetry in motion and exudes the graceful elegance of balletic beauty. As a founding member of the internationally-recognized male burlesque troupe, Mod Carousel, and a three time Burlesque Hall of Fame award winner, Paris calls on his experience in dance and theatre to craft his unique style of burlesque. He has danced for such companies as the Evergreen City Ballet, Spectrum Dance Theater, and Coriolis Dance Collective. He has also been featured as a guest artist with International Ballet Theatre, Ballet Northwest, and many other regional companies.

Hannah Simmons, a Boston native, is a graduate of Bennington College where she received her degree in Mathematics and Dance. While at Bennington, she had the privilege of spending several months with The Forsythe Company (Frankfurt, Germany) through an educational exchange. Hannah was company member with the José Mateo Ballet Theatre in Boston before she relocated to the West Coast. Since moving to Seattle, she has had the privilege of performing with Verlaine & McCann Present, Coriolis Dance, and Julie Tobiason, among others. Her own choreographic work has been supported by Velocity’s Bridge Project, Arts Incubator at Cornish Playhouse, and Artist Trust.

Photo by Ernie Sapiro

Natascha Greenwalt is a Walla Walla native, having left the rolling hills to pursue a dance degree. In 2005 she graduated magna cum laude from Cornish College of the Arts as a Kreielsheimer Scholarship recipient. She has had the pleasure of performing with many local companies including Ballet Bellevue, DASSdance, and Spectrum Dance Theater before embarking on the adventure of creating Coriolis Dance with Christin Call. She has been awarded residencies at Studio Current, Open Flight Studios and was a Creative Resident at Velocity Dance Center. It’s been her honor to perform works by notable choreographers including Donald Byrd, Zoe Scofield, Jason Ohlberg and Twyla Tharp, as well as served as a commissioned choreographer for Ballet Bellevue, Whitman College, Western Washington University, and as a guest for the Cornish College of the Arts BFA performances. Natascha is a certified GYROTONIC® instructor at the GYROTONIC® Movement Center, as well as a ballet instructor at Westlake Dance Center, and a guest instructor for Whitman College SDL, the Montana Dance Arts Association, DANCE This and Velocity Dance Center’s Strictly Seattle.  Natascha is thrilled to be an inaugural member of House of Verlaine!

Photo by Ernie Sapiro

Thomas Phelan received his BA in Performing Arts from Colorado State University. After that he spent two years dancing for Alaska Dance Theatre before moving to Seattle where he began working with Whim W'Him. Since living in Seattle, Phelan has had opportunities to perform with Ballet Bellevue, Olympic Ballet Theatre, International Ballet Theatre, Alana Rogers, The Robbie Turner Revue, and The House of Verlaine.

Photo by Bamberg Fine Art Courtesy of Olivier Wevers and Whim W'Him

Holly Hodson received her training at the Evergreen City Ballet School and studied with former Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer, Wade Walthall. She also attended Summer Dance Intensives at American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey Ballet in New York City. She has performed with Seattle Opera and as her burlesque persona Dreamy Tangerine for The Atomic Bombshells and Verlaine & McCann Present.

Christin Purcell studied at Washington Academy of the Performing Arts, Kirov Academy of Ballet and London Studio Centre.

She has toured throughout the U.K. and Germany with Images of Dance, under the artistic supervision of Dame Alicia Markova, and in classical dance galas in India.

As a Soloist with International Ballet Theatre, she has performed leading roles including "Clara/Sugarplum Fairy” and “Arabian” in The Nutcracker, “Mina” in Dracula, and “Radish” in the Northwest premier of Chipollino.

With House of Verlaine Christin has appeared as “Myrtha” in Giselle, in Tales of the Vienna Woods, and the Capulets from Juliet and Her, Romeo.

Photo by Rex Tranter

Alice Cao is a Seattle native and trained on scholarship at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School, after being selected for their DanceChance outreach program. She has performed professionally with American Repertory Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Ballet Memphis, Company C Contemporary Ballet, San Francisco Opera, and Oakland Ballet Company. Locally, she performs with ARC Dance, Seattle Opera, and Verlaine and McCann Present.  Learn more at alicelcao.com.

Photo by Al Ponce

Molly Levy is a Seattle-based dance artist originally from Berkeley, CA. She trained at Berkeley City Ballet and SF SotA and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Ailey/Fordham BFA program. Molly has performed with artists and companies throughout the Pacific Northwest and East Coast including the Seattle Opera, LED, Equus Projects, Kate Wallich’s YC2, House of Verlaine, Daniel Costa Dance, and Katie Scherman + Artists. Her work has also brought her beyond contemporary dance into live theater, working with Dacha Theater as a performer and movement director, burlesque, performing with Verlaine & McCann Present, and her own visual art.

Photo by Christopher Peddecord

Moscato Extatique is a classically trained dancer and award winning choreographer based out of Seattle, WA where he earned a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts. He’s appeared in dance works by Donald Byrd, Sidra Bell, Wade Madsen and was a member of LED Boise. Moscato is one fourth of world renowned burlesque sensations Mod Carousel, a dancer for Verlaine & McCann Present and BenDeLaCreme. He has also appeared in the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, Texas Burlesque Festival, Freezing Tassel Burlesque Festival, the Moisture Festival, as well as The Seattle & New York Boylesque Festivals

Photo by WittyPixel

Lauren Christina Slater grew up and trained in sunny Encinitas, CA., studying dance and theater with Janice Lee, Carol Mead, Jean Isaacs, Faith Jensen-Ismay, Tom Hansen, Currie Peterson, and Sue Gilson. Beginning at age 10, she attended pre-professional training programs on scholarship at The Kirov Academy, BalletMet and Pennsylvania Ballet’s Rock School, where she was also a trainee.

Obsessed with movie musicals of the 1930s-1960s, Lauren loved the expression and glamour of a performers life. The lure of LA led her to work as a professional Rave dancer, sponsored by JNCO Jeans, for almost two years. This opened up her mind of what a dance career could look like, exposing her to the worlds of club, drag and burlesque. Concurrently, Lauren graduated from UCSB with a degree in Dance and Kinesiology.

She then moved to Europe, where she performed works of William Forsythe with members of the Frankfort Ballet, as well as working with post-modern artist Anne Therese de Keersmaeker. After moving to San Francisco, Lauren was a founding member of the contemporary company LEVYdance, as well as dancing for Larry Kegwin, Monica Bill Barnes, Christopher Pilafian, Abigail Munn, Capacitor, and Monique Jenkinson (Fauxnique). She moved to Seattle with her husband Doug Major in September 2018 and is honored to be dancing with the great artists of the House of Verlaine.

Photo by Mark Coffin

Jennifer Jones, an Ellicott City, MD native, received her BFA at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA for Jazz Dance. While in Philly she performed with Philadanco, was featured on “So You Think You Can Dance” (Season 10), cheered for the 76ers Dream Team and worked with brilliant choreographers like Tommie Waheed-Evans and Gunnar Montana. Jen moved to LA in 2014 where she danced for the Clippers, performed in awards shows (Latin Grammy’s), featured in film (Ted 2, Silver Linings Playbook, Hunger Games: MockingJay, and 48 Hours to Live) and was cast in national commercials (Snapchat, XL Energy Drink, PNC Bank.) For two years, Jennifer toured as “Penny” in the National Tour of Dirty Dancing. She most recently performed in Carmen and served as Dance Captain for the Seattle Opera. She is thrilled to be living in Seattle and working with the incredible artists of House Verlaine.