Our Team
We bring different perspectives to the table, but we’re united by a love for purposeful work, thoughtful design, and real connection.
Emily Saba
Piece 1Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
Dancers: Anna Satre, Isabella TenPas, Camilla David, Carrigan Dock, Ella Potocnik
Title: The Hands that Never Move
Music Credit: Time Stands Still (Grant Steller), Monotony (Grant Steller), Every Living Breathing Moment (Grant Steller), Time (Pink Floyd), The Windmills of Your Mind (Gunter Kallman Choir)
Bio: Emily Saba began her dance training at River Valley Dance Academy, where she studied a variety of dance styles for 12 years. She continued her pre-professional training at the University of Missouri–Kansas City as a student in the Conservatory of Dance before returning to Minnesota to dance as a trainee with Crash Dance Productions. In the summer of 2025, Emily joined 8:20 Dance Company and has been performing in their works ever since. Emily currently shares her passion for dance as a teacher and choreographer, inspiring the next generation of dancers through both technical training and creative expression. Emily is excited to step into the role of choreographer with 8:20 Dance Company for Vigil!
Piece Description: Time Stands Still — My piece explores the panic and cyclical nature of hypervigilance and anxiety. It reflects the way constant awareness—an endless search for subtle clues and hidden cues—can pull us away from the present moment, drawing us deeper into an unrelenting cycle. As our attention becomes consumed by what might happen, we lose sight of the life unfolding before us. The work asks whether recognizing this cycle, and confronting the time and potential it has consumed, becomes a catalyst for growth and release—or whether that awareness simply becomes another part of the cycle itself.
Allison Durham
Piece 2Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
Dancers: Grace Gatewood, Clara Douglas, Ophelia Baker, Allison Wheeler
Title: April Showers
Music Credit: “Sister Golden Hair” (America), “Winter Woman” (RAYE), “Conceited” (Lola Young), “Jayden” (Claire Rosinkranz), “To Love Somebody” (Holly Humberstone), “Veronica’s Apology” (Melt)
Bio: Allison Durham is a dancer, choreographer, dance educator, and director from the border of Illinois and Wisconsin. Currently, she is a company dancer for Concerto Dance by Jolene Konkel and dance instructor at Prairie School of Dance. Additionally, Allison has choreographed pieces for 8:20 Dance Company and The Rejects Cohort (Corpus Dance Works) as well as several musicals and cabarets for Millikin University, Pipe Dreams Studio Theatre, Buffalo Community Theater, and Northern Starz Center for the Performing Arts. As an artist, Allison has an affinity for new works and early career establishment; she draws inspiration from the human experience, how we love, communicate, and evolve with one another.
Piece Description:
I. Rain Rain
II. Go Away
III. Come Again
IV. Another Day
When it rains,
It pours...
But when you love yourself,
Your whole self,
Through the clouds,
The sun will shine.
Hannah Litzinger & Xinia Anderson
Piece 3Preferred Pronouns: She/Her (for both)
Dancers: Xinia Anderson, Nathan Barker, Jess LaKosky, Hannah Litzinger, Ella Potocnik, Drew Prachar
Title: Epiphany
Music Credit: The Tradition by Halsey/ You Should See Me In A Crown by Billie Eilish/ All For Us by Labrinth
Bio: Xinia and Hannah met at Concordia St. Paul University through the annual production of Spring Into Dance. Though they have participated in pieces as dancer and choreographer in the past, this is their first time working as collaborators! This is also their second summer performing with 8:20 and they are so excited to be back and working with such talented and hard working dancers!
Piece Description: This piece explores hyper awareness brought on by a systematic awakening. We follow one dancer, newly awakened she tries to wake the others. Through the process of pulling the others out of the system she grapples with reality; trying to maintain a strong sense of self-awareness as to not fall back into the system, pushing her into a state of psychosis.
MiKayla Scherping
Piece 7Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
Dancers: Ella Potocnik, Carrigan Dock, Phoebe Sohn
Maddie Murphy
Piece 4Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
Dancers: Clara Douglas, Isabella TenPas, Phoebe Sohn
Title: Withheld to Bestowed
Music Credit: Saturn by Sleeping At Last
Bio: Maddie Murphy (she/her) began her dance training at the age of five at Cultivate Dance Collaborative in Waconia, MN, where she studied ballet, modern, jazz, and tap. During her senior year of high school, she was an Apprentice dance member with 8:20 Dance Company performing Pieces of Me (2024), and later with the modern-based dance company Mosaics Co. (2025). Maddie is attending the University of Northwestern in St. Paul, minoring in Dance, and has been actively involved in UNW Dance Theater the past 2 years. She choreographed her first showcased piece in UNW’s Dance Theater Show; Juxtapose in Spring of 2026. As a young dancer and choreographer, she is beyond grateful for 820 Dance Company, and it has given her a safe space to dance and to create!
Piece Description: This piece explores the universal desire to be seen, known, and accepted. Through moments of rejection, vulnerability, and connection, the dancers reveal the courage it takes to reach out and the deep longing for genuine relationships. At its core, the work reflects our deepest desire is to be fully known, witnessed, and loved.
Danielle Buttgereit
Music Credit: World on Fire by Klergy, Start a War by Klergy and Valerie Brussard, Will You Fight by Klergy and BEGINNERS, and Survivor by 2WEI and Edda Hayes
Bio: Hi my name is Danielle and I am a local Twin Cities artist. I graduated from Concordia University with a major in Theatre and a minor in Dance. Dance is something that I had an interest in at a young age but wasn't able to touch until my first year at CSP and it quickly became one of my most favorite ways to be creative and to share artistry, joy, and movement with others. I am so grateful for this opportunity and experience with 8:20 this summer, and for my extremely dedicated and talented dancers and everyone involved with the show!
Piece Description: This piece deals with observation of the community and world we are currently living in. There are a lot of, to say the least, intense things happening in the world around us and directly to our community. While there is a lot of fear and scariness, there is also a deep presence of love and support. This piece takes a look at all of these things going on and delves in to where we all find ourselves in this situation, the actions we choose to take, and what we long to find at the end.
Piece 5Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
Dancers: Xinia Anderson, Julia Jacobson, Jess LaKosky, Hannah Litzinger, Camilla David, Drew Prachar
Title: Wishing Well
Music Credit: Fragments - yeule, Evangelic Girl is a Gun (instrumental) - yeule, DIM Fade - Yves
Bio: Allison Wheeler is a choreographer, performer, and dance educator based in Minneapolis, MN. Allison graduated with a BFA in dance from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities where she trained in a wide variety of dance genres and worked with artists such as HIJACK, Dr. Ananya Chatterjea, Souleymane Badalo, BRKFST Dance, Shapiro & Smith Dance, Erin Thompson, Carl Flink, Taja Will, and Limón Dance. Emerging into her professional career, Allison worked with artists such as Mathew Janczewski’s ARENA Dances, Novel Dance Company, Flyover Contemporary Dance, Heidee Lynn Alsdorf, Arcelia Rivera, and 8:20 Dance Company. Allison is also a member of Cider Dance Team, a K-pop dance based performance group. Allison’s choreographic works have been presented at The Momentary and The Medium in Northwest Arkansas and Red Eye Theater and Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis, MN. In addition to choreographing and performing, Allison is currently on the teaching staff of Chaska Dance Center and Inspire Dance Studio.
Piece Description: Have we become observers instead of participators in our own lives?
Piece 6Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
Dancers: Addie Guenther, Carrigan Dock, Cierra Dailey, Emily Saba, Jack Fischer, Nathan Barker, Nate Gehrenbeck-Miller
Allison Wheeler
Title: half life
Music Credit: Leaving for now - Theo Haber, Hallmark - The Broken Social Scene
Bio: MiKayla Scherping is a Twin Cities based dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She earned her BFA in Dance from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2024. Since graduating, she has performed with Collide Theatrical, Black Label Movement, Little Tanz Theatre, Time Track Dance, and 820 Dance Company. MiKayla is thrilled to begin her second season as a company member with Concerto Dance by Jolene Konkel. Beyond the stage, MiKayla is a certified Pilates instructor, where she is passionate in helping people of all ages move and feel their best.
Piece Description:
Program Note:
Everyone carries grief differently. It comes and goes on its own schedule, appearing when least expected. Having accepted that healing is callous when it becomes the new normal. It becomes my shadow, lingering behind everywhere I go. Never truly going away, but changing alongside as I move through life. With every death, do I become wiser or do I just become more comfortable with the discomfort? Swimming in the grief, realizing the only option is to push through. The pain softens with time, but the shadow still lurks behind as I grieve half his life.
A special thank you to Ella for helping me put my thoughts into words, to Spencer for your music editing magic, and especially to my dancers for making my vision come to life.
Adrienne Guenther
Title: The Pendulum Swings
Music Credit: Gemini by Snarky Puppy, Bitches by Louis Cole, Sam Gendel, November Early by Jacaszek, Yeye by Mosoo
Bio: Adrienne Guenther (She/Her) is a movement artist, teacher, and choreographer based in Minnesota. Adrienne approaches art making through exciting and generous movement that values the longevity of the artists embodying it. Through her work, she questions how people are interconnected to each other and the environment in which they inhabit.
Piece Description: The Pendulum Swings is a piece that culminated from ongoing questions around Community. To me, it is a research project into how we can learn to hold space for ourselves and each other in order to cultivate the community that is already around us.
Piece 8Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
Dancers: Jack Fischer, Julia Jacobson, Grace Gatewood, Anna Satre, Allison Wheeler, Cierra Dailey, Ophelia Baker, Clara Douglas
Clara Douglas
Piece 9Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
Dancers: Jack Fischer, Nate Gehrenbeck-Miller, Ophelia Baker
Music Credit: Darling, Darling, Darling... (Remastered) - Chapelier Fou, Old Man - Neil Young
Bio: Clara Douglas is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, with degrees in Dance and Arts Management. Originally from Northern Wisconsin, she grew up dancing for multiple studios in the Northland. Clara has since relocated to the Twin Cities. She has completed two summer shows with 8:20 and is super excited to be on the choreography team for this one! Clara is using this post-grad time to get more involved with the dancing scene in the Twin Cities as well as getting into the art event promotion and marketing world.
Piece Description: This is an exploratory piece on human connection. What are we without it? What will we become if we keep letting differences define us? Are we already becoming that?