Hallie Hunt
Co-Artistic Director, Choreographer, and Dancer
Ali Mckeon Pineo
Co-Artistic Director, Choreographer, and Dancer
Jen Cox
Executive Director and Dancer
Click on a Dancer’s name to read their bio.
Photography by Island Vibe Studios,
with the exception of Ali McKeon Pineo (by Ajja DeShayne) and Karli Jo List (by Dillon Vado)
Hallie Hunt
Co-Artistic Director, Choreographer, and Dancer
Hallie Hunt is from California where she was raised with her loving family on a houseboat in a slew off the San Francisco Bay. Hallie is a dancer, choreographer, educator and movement researcher, she has lived and worked on Maui for the past ten years. She is a Co-Founder and the Artistic Director of Adaptations Dance Theater where she also serves as resident choreographer and a dancer. Hallie received her early training with Western Ballet, Ballet San Jose and Lines Ballet school. She went on to study with Summer Lee Rhatigan at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance.
Hallie has performed professionally with Ballet San Jose (San Jose, CA.) under Artistic Director Dennis Nahat and Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet (San Francisco, CA), CRAFT Dance Series and The Ali McKeon Dance Project (Palo Alto, CA).
She performed and toured extensively with The Foundry (San Francisco, CA) under Artistic Directors Alex Ketley and Christian Burns. While dancing with The Foundry Hallie completed art residencies at Ucross Art Residency in Wyoming, Santa Fe Art Residency in New Mexico and Headland Center for the Arts in Marin, California. In addition to concert dance she also has performed in multi-media, film and site specific works. Hallie had the pleasure to dance with Artship Dance Theater (Belgrade,Serbia) under Artistic Director Slobodan Dan Paich. While with Artship Hallie had the opportunity to teach and serve as a cultural liaison to high school art programs in Belgrade. Hallie has worked with choreographers Dennis Nahat, Alonzo King, Alex Ketley, Christian Burns, Gregory Dawson, Ali Mckeon, Nathaniel Hunt, Amelia Couture, Sarala Dandekar, Akari Ueoka, Florian Lochner and Alice Klock of Flockworks and Mark Kanemura. She has performed work by William Forsythe set by Thomas McManus and work by Jiri Kylián set by Glenn Edgerton.
Hallie teaches at Alexander Academy of Performing Arts on Maui and has enjoyed opportunities to teach at Maui Academy of Performing Arts and Seabry Hall’s dance program. She believes in the power of dance to change lives and loves sharing movement and ideas with the youth on Maui and beyond.
You can find her making dance work, baking healthy treats and playing with her dog, Captain.
Ali McKeon Pineo
Co-Artistic Director, Choreographer, and Dancer
Ali McKeon Pineo is a former dancer with Menlowe Ballet and an independent choreographer. She is the founding director and choreographer for CRAFT Dance Series (est. 2015). Over the course of her professional career, Ali has performed work by Donald McKayle, Robert Moses, Gregory Dawson, Alex Ketley, Amy Seiwert, Jodie Gates, and others.
Before moving to Maui, Ali was an active member of the larger Bay Area community participating in various independent projects with filmmakers, fashion designers, and other choreographers. She served on the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee and was invited as a guest lecturer and senior mentor at Stanford University and West Valley College, where she set original works on the students at both institutions. Every summer, she would return back to Maui to perform with and choreograph for Adaptations Dance Theater.
Her formal education includes a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Dance from Stanford University (2011) and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of California, Irvine (2014). She has studied with master teachers such as Kristine Elliott, Diane Frank, Muriel Maffre, Tong Wang, Diane Diefenderfer, Jodie Gates, and Loretta Livingston. She has received awards in the academic and dance field including the Louis Sudler Prize in the Performing and Creative Arts, the UC Institute for Research in the Arts Grant, Stanford Award of Excellence, and the UC Irvine Graduate Fellowship.
In 2015, she founded the Ali McKeon Dance Project and its annual project CRAFT Dance Series. The project's mission is to cultivate a collaborative, high-stakes, time-sensitive environment in order to produce works that are instinctive and raw; and at the same time cohesive, imaginative, grand. For more information about this project, please visit www.craftseries.org.
Jen Cox
Executive Director and Dancer
Jen began her relationship with dance by taking ballet on the tile floor at Lincoln International Academy in Santiago, Chile. After emigrating to the United States, she grew up in the dance/drill team world within the great state of Texas. Jen attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she earned a B.A. in Communication Studies and Latin American Studies, a varsity letter as a Division I rower, and danced with on-campus modern and hip-hop groups.
Upon graduating, Jen began her steady yet varied career working for nonprofits and small businesses in the arts, youth development, the environment, and mental health. She trained and performed with the urban contemporary dance company Loose Change in San Francisco before moving to Maui in October 2011. Having met the ADT co-founders while taking class at Alexander Academy of Performing Arts, Jen joined ADT as a board member and Bring it Home cast member in 2016, and assumed the role of Executive Director in October 2018.
In May 2023, Jen completed her Master's in Public Affairs at the Goldman School at the University of California, Berkeley. Jen considers the performing arts to be an essential tool to cultivate the empathy and the conversations necessary to effect lasting change, and believes ADT to be a powerful agent to engage audiences in this way within the greater Maui arts community.
Cady Cox
Choreographer and Dancer
Cady Cox, originally from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, began her training at Dancers’ Workshop with Babs Case and BJ Hanford. She has participated in many summer workshops abroad, including Limon, Alvin Ailey, Hubbard Street and Ballet West.
Cady holds a BFA in Dance Performance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA, a Diploma in Dance Studies from the Laban Dance Conservatory in London, UK and a 200-hour Hatha Yoga Teacher Certificate from The Movement Center in Portland, OR. Dance company credits include Cornish Dance Theatre, Agniezka Laska Dancers, Northwest Dance Project: Launch 5, and Contemporary Dance Wyoming.
Cady, her husband Kyle, and their beloved chihuahua Kita moved to Maui from Jackson Hole in 2017 and are the proud owners of Pauwela Beverage Company, a kombucha tea and water kefir brewing company in Haiku-Pauwela.
Cady is so excited to be living on Maui, and dancing with ADT!
Katie Whiticar
Choreographer and Dancer
Katie Whiticar (née Istvan) is a dance and fitness professional from Maui, Hawaii. She teaches dance at Carden Academy and at Maui Academy of Performing Arts (as an Alumni), where she teaches group classes, private lessons, and choreographs for competition. Katie co-choreographed Henosis, a piece set on and performed by ADT at ArT=Mixx Maui, in February 2020 and choreographed a SEED film in 2021.
Before her return home to Maui from Los Angeles in 2018, Katie performed around the country with dance companies: Keith Johnson/Dancers (SLC), Kathleen Helm & Dancers (NY), The Assembly (OC), Rebecca Lemme|Acts of Matter (LA), and Cirque du Soleil (HI). She continues to perform off-island, traveling to New Mexico and Los Angeles with contemporary dance company, Rebecca Lemme|Acts of Matter. Katie received her B.A. in Dance from California State University Long Beach as a scholarship recipient (2015) and trained at the San Francisco Conservatory and Movement Invention Project NY. Alongside performing, Katie co-founded and co-choreographed, 0.0 Series, immersive pop-up art events in Long Beach, CA, which incorporated a collaborative cross-blend of visual artists, dancers, and musicians. In addition, she taught and choreographed at the Millikan High School Dance Department, as well as led in-studio workshops for other professional dancers.
Complimenting her dance career, Katie found a passion within the fitness and wellness industry. She completed teacher training in both Yoga and Barre. Katie received her Yoga teacher certification from Brynn Rybeck: True Flow Yoga and her Barre instructor certification at The Studio Seal Beach, where she taught Barre, kids hip-hop, and Yoga. In addition, she taught Barre at BarreWell Fitness Studio in Mission Viejo, CA. Having a vision of her own, Katie co-created and taught a series of workshops that included Barre Night, a live DJ and workout event, and Kreative Sculpt, an invigorating workout paired with post-workout hors d'oeuvres and local boutique social shopping. Currently, on Maui, Katie is continuing to teach Barre and Yoga classes through online platforms, such as Keep Dancing Maui.
Katie’s dance and fitness career has led her to a deeper appreciation and understanding of movement as a connective language that promotes genuine transformation and healing. It brings us closer to ourselves and to the community around us.
Karli Jo List
Dancer
Karli Jo List was born and raised in Los Angeles, California where she participated in figure skating, springboard diving, soccer, track and field, and musical theatre, visual arts, and music. She began dancing at 14, falling in love with dance’s perfect blend of arts and athletics.
Karli Jo completed her BFA in Dance with a minor in Anthropology from Chapman University in 2020. During college, she worked with choreographers such as Jenny Backhaus, Ido Tadmoor, and Dwight Rhoden, Anthony Thomas, and Jacques Heim. After college, she continued training in Greene technique with her teacher Sean Green.
She currently teaches and choreographs at Momentum Dance Maui and Alexander Academy of Performing Arts. Growing up around personal training and bodywork, Karli Jo is especially passionate about both teaching and learning movement fundamentals and corrective exercise. She loves to collaborate with her students through choreography; encouraging them to develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills to create works unique to them.
Karli Jo is a multi-faceted artist; she is a passionate singer/songwriter, tie-dye enthusiast, and movement maker. Her primary focus; however, is in the healing arts as a massage therapist and reiki practitioner. She currently works out of Ashiatsu Maui in Paia and is the proud owner of her private practice Integrate Bodyworks LLC. Karli Jo believes in using the power of imagination to facilitate the opening of bodies, hearts, and minds to their highest potential.