Three Alumni Named 25 to Watch
DANCE magazine’s “25 to Watch” for 2025 includes three Purchase alumni.
DANCE magazine has released their “25 to Watch” and three alumni made the list—freelance dancer and choreographer Dava Huesca ’19, independent choreographer and dancer, Symara Sarai ’19, and Gilbert T. Small II ’09.
Dava Huesca
Huesca played Rumpleteazer in the summer 2024 Broadway hit Cats: The Jellicle Ball, a reimagining of the Andrew Lloyd Weber classic as a Ballroom competition, but it was the teaser clip featuring Dava Huesca front and center that went viral.
“In a pack of performers emphatically voguing toward the camera, Huesca, with a halo of curls, knee-high black boots, and powerful precision behind every move, was front and center, her bold stare meeting the lens. You couldn’t look away.”
—Siobhan Burke, DANCE magazine
Symara Sarai
Sarai is a member of Urban Bush Woman and a BESSIE award-winner for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer for 2023.
“A dangerously committed performer, Symara Sarai transfixes audiences with their self-made solos. In Blushing Cherry, presented this fall during the DANCENOW / NOW festival at Joe’s Pub, she rushed through the audience and then back onstage to whip out can-can kicks and fall into the wall.”
—Charmaine Warren, DANCE magazine
Gilbert T. Small II
Gilbert is Company Director at Gibney Company.
“‘How can we make the work more human?’ is the driving question for Gilbert T. Small II. In asking his dancers to interrogate it, the director of Gibney Company elicits rigor, athleticism, and exquisite performance quality.”
—Sydnie L. Mosley
Read more about Gilbert T. Small II.
Top to bottom: Dava Huesca / Symara Sarai / Gilbert T. Small II