Meet the Artists
Current & Recent Collaborators
Middle Child works on a project-by-project basis with a rotating set of collaborators ranging from dancers to musicians to writers & beyond.
Heather Dutton (she/they) is a queer, Brooklyn based dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist. Dutton’s work has been presented at ODC Theater, Triskelion Arts, Here Arts Center, Flushing Town Hall, Dixon Place, Arts on Site, the Tank, and more. She has danced for Andrew Schneider, Cinthia Chen, Elizabeth Dishman, Yeujia Low, Megan Flynn, Natalie Gotter, Freespace Dance, and Grounded Aerial Dance Company. Her work often explores themes of identity and intimacy, and always looks for ways to laugh while grieving. She is especially interested in playing card games and what is going on in her friends lives.
Abigail Linnemeyer (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based freelance performer invested in her improvisation practice and drawn to work that calls on partnering and athleticism. She is currently working with Andrew Schneider, Alex Schmidt, Same As Sister, Brendan Drake, and Portia Wells. In recent years, she has worked on projects with m i c c a, Michelle Thompson Ulerich, VALLETO, Johnnie Cruise Mercer/TheREDprojectNYC, Kayla Farrish, Kinesis Project Dance Theatre, Elizabeth Dishman, Megan Flynn, Natalie Gotter, Mark Dendy, Grounded Aerial Dance Company, and Cinthia Chen.
Madeline (Mads) Mellinger (she/her) is a postpartum doula and dance artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Born and raised on a multigenerational goat dairy farm in Pennsylvania, Madeline’s work in both the doula and dance world is focused on community and the pursuit of collaboration and reciprocity. She is currently working with Jennifer Monson / iLand Dance on their latest project, “move thing.”
Emory McAlpine (he/they), is a queer dancer and visual artist based in Philadelphia. He is most excited by work laden with dynamicity and physicality, while maintaining a collaborative space for process, introspection, and story-telling. He has had the opportunity to train with BigKids, Doug Verone and Dancers, Rodney Murray, Eleone Dance Theater, and others after graduating from Goucher College in 2023. Emory hopes to continue using their multi faceted queer identity to inform each space they enter, though at the end of the day, they really just want to make something meaningful, or melancholy, or silly, or stupid, or really anything at all.
Julia Finegan (she/her) is word-fond, zealous, making a big noise. Residing in Philadelphia, she works as a gardener and a teacher-of-big-noises-to-small-children. As an artist, she is curious about what it means for work to be responsive: to community need, to time, to physical boundaries, to gentleness, to poking and prodding. She plays (play verb 1: to engage in sport or recreation 2: to emit sounds) the harp, the guitar, the community choir, and the harmonium. Julia loves a list. She loves things that feel like Church without being Church. She loves you.
Syl Fisher (they/them) is a Philly based songwriter who aims to alchemize grief, and channel rage, love, and the general bewilderment of the human experience through tender yet absurdist songwriting. Their songs blissfully lift you into space and softly land you back down to Earth. As a practicing somatic therapist, Syl centers the experience of the emotional body in their art.