Meet The directors
CHARLY SANTAGADO
Artistic Director
Charly is a dancer, choreographer, director, writer, and curator dedicated to forging interdisciplinary connections across diverse artistic mediums and practices. Originally from Orlando, Florida, and currently based in the tristate area, she graduated with highest honors from Rutgers University in 2017 with a major in philosophy and minors in dance, music, and creative writing. The following summer, she founded a contemporary dance company called mignolo dance (mignolo.dance) with her sister Eriel. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Dance at Bennington College. Choreographic highlights include coLAB Arts’ new choreography commission, Making Moves Dance Festival, Norte Maar’s CounterPointe, Rider Dances, FAKI Festival in Zagreb, Croatia, a Kulturfactory residency in Domicella, Italy, and Altofest in Naples, Italy. Charly’s work has been produced by HERE Arts Center, Jersey City Theater Center, GardenshipArt, The Berrie Center, Dixon Place, Arts On Site, and the Metuchen Arts Council. She has won screendance awards at several international film festivals and is also a freelance dance critic and journalist. Charly was awarded a 2023 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. @charlysantagado
ERIEL SANTAGADO
Associate Artistic Director
Eriel graduated from the Honors College at Rutgers University in 2019 with a major in evolutionary anthropology and a minor in dance. She has completed Nuova X Professional Dance Program, NOD ICD Program, SHARE Intensive Paris, Hofesh Shechter Company NYC Intensive, Dance Italia Winter Workshop, Axis Connect Dance Intensive, among other training programs. Her collaborative work with Charly under mignolo dance has been presented at a wide range of national and international dance and film festivals including Altofest in Naples, Italy, KoDaFe, Triskelion’s SummerFest, Peridance’s APEX, Koresh’s Come Together Dance Festival, EXCHANGE Choreography Festival, Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, Dance on the Lawn, Palm Springs International Dance Festival, Cindedanza Screendance Festival, Thomas Edison Film Festival, Garden State Film Festival, Utah Dance Film Festival, TANZAHOi International Festival, LEEDS International Film Festival, and InShadow Lisbon Screendance Festival. Their work has been produced by HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, The Berrie Center at Ramapo College, and Gardenship Art, and they recently won Best Feature at New Jersey Film Festival for their screendance, Soldier Island. @erielgs
shout out to our collaborators, past and present!
Danielle Alvarez - Erin Ambry - Dylan Balka - Bailey Benoot - Paige Bodnar - Victoria Bond - Emory Campbell - Runako Campbell - Hayley Clark - Brian Curry / Haven & Hazard - Zoe Davidson - Erika Fawcett - Kelsey Flanders - Nathan Forster - Kristen Fry - Frances Fuller - Daniel Gall - Nicole Gallo - Laura Giannini - Anna Gichan - Vicente Hansen Atria - Kristen Hedberg - Karolina Holmstrom - Teddy Hyde - Isaiah João - Andrew Lackland - Myles Langston - Lindsey Matheis - Ishita Mili - Louisa Miller - Mikaela Morisato - Nayaa Opong - Vasiliki Papapostolou AKA Tarantism - Sophia Perone - Aanyse Pettiford-Chandler - Paul Rabinowitz - Zoe Reed-Helm - Mikayla Russo - Elaina Stewart - Harry Sukonik - Gian Torrano Jacobs - P.J. Verhoest - Nat Wilson - Henry Winslow - Emily Wohl