Elyse is a dancer, choreographer, producer, studio owner, and dance teacher. She has performed professionally for the last 15 years, working with Donna Jewell, Madrone Matysiak, Rebecca Huppenthal, J. García Dance Company, and Pilar Leto. Elyse was an invited dance fellow and guest soloist in Carmel Dance Festival's 2024 Choreography Fellowship, where she presented her solo work, ‘Run For Your Life’, and danced in new works by Savannah Dunn and Ja'Moon Jones. She was 1 of 8 choreographers selected out of over 550 worldwide submissions for the 2024 SOLOCOREOGRAFICO Festival in Frankfurt and Friedrichshafen, Germany. Elyse has also performed in Lawine Torrèn’s ‘HANNIBAL’, the largest site-specific contemporary theater piece in the world, in Sölden, Austria.

Elyse’s choreographic work has also appeared in Albuquerque’s SHIFT and Contemporary Dance festivals, a project for National Water Dance, and showcases throughout Albuquerque. She choreographs in multiple styles, and performs in her own work. In 2022, Elyse received a Resiliency Residency grant through the City of Albuquerque’s Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, and she was a 2023 Keshet Makers Space Experience artist-in-residence.

Elyse and creative partner, Madrone Matysiak, comprise a production company called RigorMortis Productions. Their current project is an evening length work featuring master improvisor, Donna Jewell, flamenco dancer, Kayla Lyle, founder of The National Institute of Flamenco, Eva Encinias, and cellist, Caitlin Fahey Crow. RigorMortis produces concerts, festivals, and site-specific, immersive community dance experiences.

Elyse is the executive director of Studio Sway, a community hub for independent and freelance dance artists, where she offers workshops and intensives, facilitates improvisation experiences, and hosts performances. She teaches contemporary jazz, Cunningham technique, and two classes of her own design, called ‘ballet•esque’and ‘QP’. She has guest taught for New Mexico Ballet Company, Keshet Dance and Center for the Arts, The Public Academy for Performing Arts, Albuquerque Dance Connect, Carmel Dance Festival’s Choreography Fellowship, Dance Theatre Southwest, and SOLOCOREOGRAFICO.

Elyse has 34 years of dance training and experience. She has studied extensively in jazz, ballet, Graham, Limón, and Cunningham techniques, West African dance, Afro Cuban dance, and improvisation. She was a scholarship student at The Merce Cunningham Studio in New York City in 2005 and 2006. Her training also includes study in gymnastics, circus arts, martial arts, Pilates, Gyrotonic, Gyrokinesis, Feldenkrais, yoga, and Butoh. Her most influential teachers include Johanna Cubra, Loren Fletcher, Patricia Dickinson, Celia Dale, Joanne Emmons, Rujeko Dumbutshena, Hristoula Harakas, Pilar Leto, Bea O’Neall, Donna Jewell, Najla Gilliam, and Dustin Maxwell.