Angelica DeLashmette Hurst is a current MFA in dance, choreography track candidate in her second year at the University of Iowa. She is a hybrid artist that specializes in Hip-Hop/street dance forms, contemporary dance, contact improvisation, and somatic practices and techniques. Previous to pursuing her graduate studies in dance, she was a Seattle-based professional dance artist and educator whose creative work and projects encompassed being a director and producer, choreographer, performer, and teaching artist. She was the artistic director and producer of enROOT Dance Festival and Converge Dance Festival, and created new works with her project-based dance company, DeLashmette Dance Projects from 2013-2018. DeLashmette Hurst’s creative work has been presented in the renowned Seattle International Dance Festival and other festivals and productions in the Pacific Northwest. She has made numerous new works during her graduate studies and has engaged in research projects that have received grant funding. She is an Iowa Arts Fellow and a teaching assistant in the Department of Dance. She sees dance as a powerful art form that benefits and builds communities with the capacity to challenge, inspire, and involve individuals intellectually and emotionally. It is in its capacity to connect with others and develop empathy that dance has had its most profound influence in her life. DeLashmette Hurst is a Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst (CLMA) and a Registered Somatic Movement Educator/Therapist (RSME/T).