Tracy Halloran (She/Her)
President
Tracy is the Founder and Artistic Director of ConteXture Dance Detroit, and the President of the Board for the non-profit organization. She earned her BFA in dance at Marygrove College and her MFA in Choreography at the University of Michigan. In 2014, Tracy was named a Kresge Fellow in Music and Dance. She has worked as a performer, teacher, choreographer, and rehearsal director in the dance world. Tracy is from and currently lives in the City of Detroit, Rosedale Park Community, and grew up taking community dance and gymnastics classes through neighborhood and city programs. She is proud of this heritage and wants to help create those kinds of experiences for others. Tracy has been a highly sought after dance artist and choreographer for over 20 years and her choreography has been seen on stages in Detroit, New York, Chicago, Orlando, Indianapolis and Las Vegas, just to name a few. As a choreographer she has won many awards and she is known for blurring the lines between dance styles by combining the movement techniques of modern, hip hop, jazz and contemporary. She uses the dynamics of motion and choreographic levels to create explosive and exciting movement phrases, which juxtapose the delicacy of human emotion. Ms. Halloran is also an accomplished teacher in ballet, modern, jazz, contemporary and flexibility and strengthening techniques. She has taught at the University of Michigan, Marygrove College, Oakland University and Wayne State University. Her students have performed as Radio City Rockettes, NFL and NBA dancers; and they have been seen on World of Dance. She has students who have performed with American Ballet Theatre, Kansas City Ballet, Zurich Ballet, Disney World’s Beauty and the Beast, Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines. They are also dancing for choreographers like Andrew Winghart, Talia Favia, and Liz Imperio. She has been an instructor all over the MidWest and is currently on faculty at Company C Dance Club in Toledo, Ohio and is a consultant for the U.S Rhythmic Gymnastics team, aiding the gymnasts and coaches in high level training to qualify for the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games. Tracy is a Jack of all trades in the dance industry but what brings her the most joy is finding ways to bring that back home to the Detroit Community she grew up in. She is dedicated to growing the professional dance community in Detroit and wants to continue to spread the art of dance throughout the City and bring the joy of dance to as many people as possible.
Bonnie Halloran (She/Her)
Office Manager
Bonnie Halloran has served as unpaid Secretary and office manager of Contexture since its establishment as a non-profit dance company in 2014. She oversees fundraising for the company, was the Project Manager for Contexture’s 2022 Senior Night Out and will serve as the Project Manager for the 2024 Senior Night Out. Halloran is a retired Lecturer of Anthropology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. During her tenure at the University she developed and taught a course that exposed mostly white suburban students to the eviction crisis in Detroit. Her students worked with Detroit Eviction Defense, a non-profit organization of volunteer community organizers. Students attended organization and community meetings, participated in protests, attended eviction hearings, passed out flyers, helped with mailings and phone calls, all working side-by-side with Detroit residents, who were mostly single, Black mothers facing the threat of eviction. This course was transformative for her mostly middle-class students, offering them personal, eye-opening experiences with how low-income African American women are victimized and overpowered by poverty, ruthless landlords, indifferent city officials, and a legal system that favors corporate banks and landlords. Also, during her time at University of Michigan, she was a leader in the union-organizing campaign for non-tenure track faculty at the Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn campuses, and was elected as the first President of the newly formed a union, the Lecturers’ Employee Organization. She served in that position for thirteen years. Having union members living in Flint, she was active in community organizing during the Flint water crisis, recruiting volunteers, checking on residents’ well-being, collecting donations, delivering and distributing a truck-load of bottled water to residents. Halloran has been active in various other Detroit based activities, serving as the president of a cooperative nursery school and of the PTA at the Detroit Open School. She did fund raising for Detroit Rhythmic Gymnastics, a program that operated out of the Detroit Recreation Department. She is currently the organizer of a Detroit based book club that focuses on race and social justice topics.
Richard Halloran (He/Him)
Treasurer
Retired Circuit Court Judge, been on the Board of ConteXture since 2014, serving as Treasurer. Served on numerous other non-profit boards as well as several State of Michigan Boards and Commissions. Current member Family Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan, Officer 2013-2017, Section Chair 2017. Created LGBTQA Section of the State Bar of Michigan, Officer 2017-2018, Section Chair 2018, current member. Member 1998-2024, Measure for Measure a non-profit chorale group receiving MCACA grants, Board Member 2004-16, President 2008-16. Member Michigan Domestic Violence and Treatment Board, 2000-2001. Chair of Wayne County Coordinating Council to Prevent Domestic Violence, 1996-2000.
Nicholas Gottron (He/Him)
Company Manager
Nicholas started dance at the age of 7 at Noretta Dunworth School of Dance; so, dance has been a very large part of his life. He has worked with many people in the studio and at Wayne States dance program and trained in many different styles of dance. A lot of his growth as a dancer and a person is due to the faculty at Wayne State. He has worked with professors Meg Paul, Jeffrey Rebudal, Liz Schmidt, and students Samuel Horning, and Adam McGaw to name a few. He performed works at ACDA National conference, WSU Spring Dance Concert and December Dance Concert to list a few. Nicholas Has worked with ConteXture for the past Eight years, worked two cruise ship contracts, and worked for a dance competition. He also currently works in the event sales office at The Henry Ford Museum. Assisting in booking weddings and various events in their 3 venues. He has been apart of the contexture administration since 2017. He has assisted in project management with the company. Contacting venues for hosting auditions, workshops, and working out performance schedules. He also helps with sending emails to the company and letting them know any scheduling changes as well upcoming rehearsals.He is very pleased with all of the experiences that he has been given through these years that has shaped him into who he is now. Nicholas started dance at the age of 7 at Noretta Dunworth School of Dance; so, dance has been a very large part of his life. He has worked with many people in the studio and at Wayne States dance program and trained in many different styles of dance. A lot of his growth as a dancer and a person is due to the faculty at Wayne State. He has worked with professors Meg Paul, Jeffrey Rebudal, Liz Schmidt, and students Samuel Horning, and Adam McGaw to name a few. He performed works at ACDA National conference, WSU Spring Dance Concert and December Dance Concert to list a few. Nicholas Has worked with ConteXture for the past Eight years, worked two cruise ship contracts, and worked for a dance competition. He also currently works in the event sales office at The Henry Ford Museum. Assisting in booking weddings and various events in their 3 venues. He is very pleased with all of the experiences that he has been given through these years that has shaped him into who he is now.
Kylie Vinitski (She/Her)
Administrative Assistant and Social Media Manager
Kylie Vinitski, originally from Livonia, MI graduated from Western Michigan University in April 2019 with her BFA in Dance. At Western, she had the privilege of working with choreographers Jeremy Blair, Monique Haley, Seyong Kim, and Joshua Manculich, and dancing in Kate Skarpetowska’s Tidal Intersections and Aszure Barton’s Happy Little Things (Waiting on a Gruff Cloud of Wanting). Fall 2019, Kylie moved to Chicago to dance on scholarship at Hubbard Street’s Lou Conte Dance Studio under the mentorship of Ethan Kirshbaum. While in Chicago Kylie spent some time performing and choreographing for Movementum Dance Project where her choreography was chosen to be performed at Simantikos Dance Chicago’s Chi Dance Fest and the Big Muddy Dance Company ScreenDance Fest in 2021. Kylie relocated to Metro-Detroit in 2021 where she has danced professionally with Contexture Dance Detroit and ArtlabJ and has performed at festivals such as Detroit Dance City Festival, Detroit Dance Exchange, Oakland Dance Festival, Maggie Allesee Choreography Competition, and Dumbo Dance Festival in New York City. Kylie also toured Europe with Artlabj in 2022 at the Tanzhafen Festival in Linz, Austria. Kylie has choreographed for Michigan State University's Orchesis Dance Society, Grand Valley State University's Elite Dance Club, and Suttle Dance Company. Summer 2022, Kylie won the Emerging Choreographers Project competition and created a new work on the dancers of Young Dancer’s Initiative in Ann Arbor. Kylie has had the honor to choreograph for Churchill High School’s CAPA dance program where her choreography was chosen to perform in the 2022 and 2023 Oakland Dance Festival College Showcase. Kylie is working towards her MA as a Dance Teaching Artist at Wayne State University. Through this program, she has had the honor to collaborate with the undergraduate students of Company One at Wayne State under the mentorship of Lisa Wilmot and work as a teaching assistant for an undergraduate pedagogy course under the direction of Dr. Doug Risner. Kylie is a Senior Company Dancer with ConteXture Dance Detroit moving into her 9th season, working as an Administrative Assistant for the company alongside the Artistic Director, Tracy Halloran. Through this position, she manages social media accounts, updates the company website, assists in grant writing, and writes applications for dance festivals. Kylie is now the director of the Pre-Professional Summer Program launching this upcoming season granting opportunities for artists ages 13-18 to train and perform alongside professional dance artists in Detroit.
