is a creative technologist and movement practitioner based in San Francisco, USA and Bangalore, India. Her work largely involves integrating movement and technology to create multifaceted immersive performance environments. With formal training in Bharathanatyam and Contemporary dance, Varsha has been a dancer for Nritarutya, an Indian Contemporary dance company in Bangalore, India. She is also a founding member of Driven Arts Collective, a California-based collective where she has developed works such as CELSO, Khora, and Digital Milk, which explores themes of digital futures co-authored by humans and AI-driven emerging technologies. These pieces have been presented at CounterPulse, SAFEhouse Arts, and ODC in San Francisco, supported by grants such as the CLTC. Her academic work and research based on data capture and analysis of vernacular movement have been presented at multiple conferences including MOCO and CHI

is the Associate Chair of the Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance at Wayne State University. Her most recent work on the Decoding Digital Bodies project critically examines how human movement—especially dance—shapes the code, metadata, and digital archives of Boston Dynamic’s Spot robots and Choreography SDK. Her media design practice includes the development of haptic/sonic performance systems for artists such as BAIRA MVMNT PHLOSPHY and Brother(hood) Dance! She has presented work at CPR (Brooklyn), OT301 (Amsterdam), Currents New Media Festival (Santa Fe), Scotiabank Nuit Blanche festival (Toronto), and Phoenix Art Museum. She’s published in the Journal of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, Politics of the Machine proceedings by the British Computer Society, and the International Conference of Movement and Computing proceedings, along with several chapter contributions. She’s been invited to present research at UToronto’s BMO Lab for Creative Research, UMichigan’s Performing Arts Technology Seminar Series, Harvard’s Digital Futures Consortium, and UPenn’s Price Lab for Digital Humanities.

is a PhD candidate in the Intelligent Robot Lab at Brown University working with Professor George Konidaris. His research is focused on developing new ways to allow robots to reason and plan effectively in complex environments. He got his undergraduate and masters degrees in robotics engineering from WPI. In recent years he has leaned more into his artistic side using robots, developing dance performances on the Boston Dynamics Spot platform at the Robotics and AI Institute (formerly Boston Dynamics AI Institute), at the Smithsonian with Catie Cuan and Eric Rosen, and at the Innovation Showcase at Brown University.

is a movement artist specializing in dance theatre, contemporary partnering, floor-work, and aerial arts. He combines his love for research, activism, and movement all his creative research. Elijah’s current work examines how social patterns and systems influence social norms and cultural formation. He received his BFA in Dance from Wayne State University in 2024 with a minor in Anthropology.

Elijah is currently working with the Decoding Digital Bodies as a performer and researcher. He also choreographs and performs with Dance Uprising in Ann Arbor, MI and works at Ann Arbor Aviary as an aerialist. Elijah co-presented with Jessica Rajko at NYU Tisch’s and the Joyce Theater’s symposium on leadership, advocacy, and technology in dance and movement-based practices, and he has worked on numerous projects in and around Detroit, MI. He was heavily involved in Wayne State University’s student run company Dance Workshop, where he took on the roles of Executive Director, choreographer, and performer. Elijah was the research assistant for Detroit Dance Theatre’s Devil’s Shoestring, and he is in the final stages of his National Pilates Certification, with a focus on hypermobility.

is a robotics researcher, engineer, dancer, and interdisciplinary explorer investigating how embodied movement can inform intuitive human-robot interaction. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Human to Robot Lab at Brown University, advised by Professor Stefanie Tellex. Her work integrates robotics, cognitive science, and choreography to develop systems where robots interpret and respond to human gestures and language in dynamic, collaborative environments.
Ivy holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. During her time at CMU, she was deeply involved with the Iris Lunar Rover project—the first American student-built rover to head to the Moon. Designed to demonstrate lightweight, low-cost robotic exploration, Iris represents a milestone in student-led space robotics. Ivy contributed first as a systems engineer working on validation and verification, and later as the Media & Creative Lead, helping shape the team’s public-facing identity through design, storytelling, and archival work that bridged technical innovation with creative expression.
With a background that spans engineering labs and dance studios, Ivy approaches robotics as a site of embodied inquiry. She is especially interested in how movement can serve as a shared language between humans and machines, and how interdisciplinary frameworks can expand the way we imagine and design future interactions.