Welcome to the
montrose international
screendance festival
located in Chicago, USA
MEET THE TEAM
The Montrose International ScreenDance Festival (MISDF) in Chicago was founded by Dawn Schultz, Ph.D., and Alia Montijo, MFA, interdisciplinary artists whose careers span performance, scholarship, creative research, and education. With a shared commitment to advancing the field of dance in all its dimensions, they established the MISDF as a platform dedicated to expanding the resonance of dance on film. Through this initiative, they seek to demonstrate the unique way movement drives narrative and amplifies storytelling possibilities, heightening the impact of dance and the reach of dance on film.
Dawn Schultz is a multidisciplinary artist and educator with a Ph.D. of Art and Design from Liverpool John Moores University and an MFA in Choreography from Jacksonville University. Her current research investigates methods that merge visual art and choreography through Score reading and improvisational movement tasks. In analyzing various modalities one can engage with to design works, Dawn empowers movers in celebrating their ideas to explore personal creative voices.
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Dawn is an educator with the Ocean Township School District and Monmouth University, and sits on the board of Dance on Camera. For more information, please visit: https://www.dschultzdance.com/
Alia Montijo is a Chicago-based performer, choreographer, educator, and arts leader. She holds a BFA from The Ohio State University and an MFA from Jacksonville University. Her performance career includes work with Dance Avondale Collective, The Joel Hall Dancers, Thodos Dance Chicago (guest artist), Inaside Chicago Dance, and Eisenhower Dance Detroit, as well as collaboration with visual artist Nick Cave on Here/Hear and Filmmaker Jesse Charbonier in Stormy Weather Rhapsody.
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Alia is the Founder and Executive Director of Dance Avondale and serves as Producer of the Montrose International Screendance Festival in Chicago. A former Artistic Director of Noumenon Dance Ensemble (2014–2018), her choreographic work has received national and international recognition, notably from the Venice International Art Festival. As a Filmmaker, her films have received national and international recognition, such as from the Toronto Contact International Dance Festival and Dance/Media Japan. She is a 2025 Civic Actor Studio inductee at the University of Chicago and a 2023 DCASE Individual Artist Program grantee. Alia is currently on the faculty at Loyola University Chicago and serves on the board of Dance on Camera.
For more information, visit aliamontijo.com.
MEET THE 2026 ADJUDICATORS
Tami Whatcott is a choreographer, educator, adjudicator, and multidisciplinary artist whose work spans dance, sport, education, and the natural world. She holds a BFA in Modern Dance and a BS in Dance Education from Utah Valley University and has performed with companies including Diavolo, Joel Hall Dancers, Noumenon Dance Ensemble, Myriad Dance Company, and the Utah Flash Dancers. Her choreography has earned awards and national titles throughout the United States, Europe, and South America, and she has created work for the Russian, Italian, Finnish, Colombian, and Greek National Teams.
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Tami's career has taken her around the world, including living and working in China as a choreographer, educator, and event producer. She currently collaborates with the International Cheer Union and national federations to develop dance team education programs and has adjudicated prestigious events including UDA College Nationals, Dance Worlds, ICU World Championships, and NDTC.
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Outside the dance world, Tami is an encaustic and natural history artist. A beekeeper and avid mountain forager, she creates miniature assemblages using botanicals, bones, stones, insects, and naturally deceased bees from her hives. Her work explores themes of life, death, transformation, and the beauty found in unexpected places. Whether evaluating dance films or preserving the delicate architecture of a bee's wings, Tami is drawn to stories of movement, transformation, and connection.
Nejla Yatkin is an internationally acclaimed choreographer, dancer, filmmaker, and educator whose career spans over four decades. A 2023 Guggenheim Fellow in Choreography, Princess Grace Fellow, National Dance Project Awardee, and National Performance Network Creation Fund recipient, she is recognized for creating emotionally resonant works that explore memory, identity, transformation, and cultural connection. Named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch,” Yatkin has created commissioned works for companies including Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, The Washington Ballet, Modern American Dance Company, and Mandala Arts among many others, while maintaining an extensive international solo performance career.
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Since 2007, Yatkin has also been creating dance films that extend her choreographic vision beyond the stage. Her first major film, The Wall, created as part of The Berlin Wall Project, was officially selected for the festival Dance Camera West. Subsequent films include the short documentary Dancing Around the World, chronicling her year-long global project across 20 countries, and Witches Cradle, a poetic dance film inspired by Maya Deren’s unfinished work of the same name. Her films have received awards and official selections at dance-on-camera and film festivals around the world, reflecting her ongoing commitment to exploring movement through cinematic storytelling. In addition to her filmmaking practice, Yatkin frequently serves as a juror for Dance Camera West, supporting and championing the evolving field of dance on camera. For more visit www.ny2dance.com
George Ellzey Jr. (2025 & 2026) is a Telly Award-winning director and screenwriter based in Chicago. His acclaimed short Cottage Grove (AMC+ & VTV) and experimental film SWITCHIN(NBC5, OTV) have screened at festivals like Athens International, Tallgrass, and Black Harvest. As founder of Cottage Grove Productions, he spotlights overlooked narratives through emotionally rich, socially driven stories. George is developing his debut feature, Closed Mouths, continuing his mission to inspire healing and change through film.
PAST ADJUDICATORS
Jessica Gillespie (2025) is a multifaceted actor, publicist, and community alchemist working at the crossroads of media, memory, and movement, helping communities shape how they are seen and remembered. Her work aims to tell and support stories that make people feel seen, especially those that have historically been erased, silenced, and misrepresented. Jessica has led the publicity efforts for local documentary films and media projects that examine the historic injustice that shaped the city of Chicago and the beauty, resilience, and fierce love of communities fighting for change. Jessica has reviewed peer-reviewed films and participated as moderator and panelist for Essence Film Festival in New Orleans, Black Film Symposium, and XL Film Festival, and covered the red carpet at Chicago International Film Festival, interviewing featured filmmakers and directors for TheTribe.com. Jessica moves where stories live—between shadow and spotlight, memory and movement—helping truth shine and new futures take root. Her acting film credits include major supporting roles in Pictures Only (Amazon Prime), Primary Positions (Amazon Prime), and Three Dates to Forever (Amazon Prime, Hulu, Peacock), as well as co-star roles on TV drama The Chi and the iconic procedural Law & Order.
Angelica Burgos (2025) is of Dominican-Armenian heritage. She has an M.F.A. in choreography, a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Mary’s College of California, and is an ABT Certified teacher. Over the 16 years of her performing career, she danced with the Joffrey Ballet, the Sacramento Ballet, Ballet Hispanico under founder Tina Ramirez and in the West Side Story on Broadway in 2010. She has worked with artists such as Pedro Ruiz, Margo Sappington, Ramon Oller, John Clifford, Annabelle Ochoa Lopes, Val Caniparoli, Trey McIntyre, Septime Webre, Dwight Rhoden, Graciela Daniel, Sergio Trujillo and Ron Cunningham
MEET THE 2026 SPONSORS
