Max Villegas, Choreographer
Maximiliano Villegas (he/him) is a dance artist from Northern VA and a recent graduate of the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Media Studies. Growing up, he trained in ballet, jazz, contemporary, tap, and hip-hop under the direction of Troy Brown, Amanda Rambler, and Gloria Hampton, and gained experience performing on competition stages. During his senior year of high school, Maximiliano was accepted into BFA programs at Ailey/Fordham, Boston Conservatory, and Marymount Manhattan College. While attending UVA, he continued to perform with and choreograph for a student-run organization, Virginia Dance Company, as the first male dancer in its history. He's continued training through the UVA Dance Department with faculty including Demetia Hopkins, Katie Schetlick, and Kim Brooks Mata and outside of the University with Anna Finan. He attended Whim W'Him's Winter Intensive as a Work/Study Artist and Jacob's Pillow's Winter Intensive under the direction of Maleek Washington and trained with Washington, Tamisha Guy, Rena Butler, Mike Tyus, Luca Renzi, and Gerald Casel. Throughout his time at UVA, he's engaged in rigorous coursework surrounding issues raised in film, literature, social activism, and media businesses and how they intersect with issues surrounding race, class, gender, and sexuality. Outside of his classes, he's had the opportunity to develop his marketing and PR skills with internships at Depop and A24. Maximiliano plans to continue using concepts and issues raised in his coursework to help inform his artistry as a dancer, choreographer, and artist.
Aiden Dumitru, Composer
Aiden Aston is a composer/producer, pianist, poet, and teacher from Downstate New York now living in Midcoast Maine. Since his first piano lesson at age 4, Aiden has spent his life in consistent dialogue with music and the broader arts. In 2024, Aiden earned his Bachelor of Music in composition with concentrations in piano performance and performing arts management from the The Hartt School in Hartford, Connecticut. Since then he has worked as a multifaceted arts professional in Maine and beyond, specializing creatively in multimedia/interdisciplinary projects.
While Aiden’s music encompasses a diverse array of forms, functions, and aesthetics, his style is always recognizably his own. Over the years he has sought out and/or been selected for numerous collaborations with dancers, filmmakers, visual artists, and ethnomusicologists from around the country and world. Some notable examples include his work with dancer/choreographer James O’Gilvie, ethnomusicologist and recording artist Suhail Yusuf Khan, and the New Britain Museum of American Art. Aiden’s music derives from a deep and complex capacity for expressing emotion and distilling life experiences/happenings through art, as well as for responding to those in the art of others. This approach has seen his work premiered/performed in venues from Cannon Street Arts Center in Charleston, to the Gerðarsafn Art Gallery in Iceland, to the (formerly) Bowery Electric in NYC.
Currently, Aiden’s weeks mostly consist of composing, teaching private piano lessons, teaching general music part-time in a K-8 School, and tending to his duties as the music director and accompanist for the North Brewer-Eddington United Methodist Church. He will also be a published poet come the fall of 2026! Music will always be king for Aiden, but he is moved and inspired by countless modes and media of human expression.
Instagram: aiden.dumitru3000
Under Surveillance
Video Journal Session 02
WEEK 1
Session 01 | 5/04/2026
Session 02 | 5/06/2026
Session 03