In the Classroom: Mariah Anton Arters

Throughout the Fall 2025 semester, artist-in-residence Mariah Anton-Arters worked with the students to help prepare them for their Winter Festival performance in which she employed a teaching technique that she had studied, known as the Cunningham Method. She said it’s a difficult technique that challenges the body, incorporating segmented body movements and utilizing uncommon timing.

“Because the work is so difficult at times, the only way to do it is to do it, you’re learning by doing,” she said. I was really impressed with their professionalism and the openness with which they approached the technique.”

“Here we’re getting professional training that you wouldn’t necessarily do recreationally outside of school,” Archie Lithgow, a senior from Long Beach, said.

“Since we’re all here for the arts, I feel like we’re all connected in different ways and helping each other grow. Having guests like Mariah come in has been very helpful,” Melanie Sangurima, a senior from Division Levittown said.

More about Mariah Anton Arters: Mariah is a New York-based artist who graduated in 2019 from UNC School of the Arts with a BFA in dance. Before her attendance there, she trained in formal disciplines under Jo-Ann Hertzman. Mariah has been privileged to perform works by Martha Graham, Charles Czarny, Ming-Lung Yang, Alexei Kremnev, Larry Keigwin, José Limón, Tim Miller, Natalie Desch, Dawn Bazemore, and Juel Lane. Most notably, Mariah was a dancer in the Merce Cunningham Trust’s “Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event” at BAM Opera House and has since continued work with them alongside Liz Gerring, Daniel Gwirtzman, Christopher Williams, and Mary Seidman while also freelancing. During her summers, Mariah attended workshops with Anouk van Dijk, Stephen Petronio, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Jessica Lang Dance, Limón Dance Company, and Rioult Dance NY. Mariah is a current dancer with Alison Cook Beatty Dance.