Tessa Salomone is a queer, neurodivergent dance artist based in Houston. They recently completed their MFA in Choreography from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance in London as a Leverhulme Arts Scholar and hold a BFA in Ballet from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth where they were a Nordan Fine Arts Scholar. Tessa received her early training in the Houston suburbs from Fort Bend Academy of Dance and later studied year round at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC and the Joffrey Ballet School Trainee Program in New York City on merit scholarship. While in New York, they toured the tri-state area and North Carolina as a dancer with Ballet for Young Audiences. Tessa has danced professionally in Houston with LEON Contemporary Dance Company, Juxtapose Arts Collective, and as a guest artist with NobleMotion Dance. She trained and performed in Rome with VIVO Ballet and spent two seasons as a company member of PDX Contemporary Ballet in Portland, Oregon where she had the opportunity to develop her first commissioned work. Their current research examines how dance, as an embodied form of testimony, can heighten the ability to form a connection of kinesthetic empathy between performers and audiences.