We are excited to announce the addition of Kelly Mitchell and Michael Richman as the movement designers for Phantom Regiment. In this role, they will serve as the chief creators and instructors of the movement, motion and dance choreography for the full corps.

Mitchell is an alumna of Phantom Regiment and said she is honored to be back with her “home team.” She was a member of the color guard from 2007-2011, earning the DCI World Champion title with the corps in 2008. Mitchell also performed with the acclaimed Onyx Winterguard from 2011-2014, earning two WGI Independent World Championships.

She has choreographed for Bands of America finalist groups Harrison (2013), Lawrence Central (2013), William Mason (2013-2015) and Broken Arrow (2014-2015), which won the Grand National Champion title in 2015.

Mitchell has a bachelor’s degree in dance from Columbia College in Chicago. She is the color guard director at L.D. Bell High School and lives in Dallas, where she also works as a dance choreographer and instructor for several area schools in addition to her work at William Mason High School in Ohio.

Outside of drum corps and marching band, Mitchell is an active performer and choreographer. While living and studying dance in Chicago, she performed works by choreographers Peter Carpenter, Tosha “Ayo” Alston and Hope Goldman, also studying with choreographer Kate Jablonski in her professional-level summer intensive. In addition, Mitchell studied with visiting Israeli artist Doron Raz Avraham of Batsheva Dance Company for a semester-long intensive in the Gaga Movement Language and repertoire of Ohad Naharin. She also debuted a solo work by Alison Gannon, entitled “A Place Worth Keeping Elsewhere,” which was accepted into the 2016 American College Dance Association’s Northwest Regional Conference at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Richman, who is originally from Omaha, Neb., was a member of the Cavaliers color guard and later performed with Oracle Winterguard and OpusX in Denver. Richman has been teaching indoor and outdoor color guard since 2003 starting with Blue Stars and later with Blue Knights, Phantom Regiment and Madison Scouts.

Richman, who lives in New York, dances with The Seán Curran Company. He has a bachelor’s degree in dance and choreography from University of Colorado-Boulder.

While living in Denver, Richman danced for many local dance companies, including The Hannah Kahn Dance Company, 3rd Law Dance/Theater and Gabriel Masson Dance. His New York credits include CorbinDances and Project 44/Gierre Godley. He teaches part time in the dance department at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa. His collaborative dance theater, Tough Cookie Dance, was founded in 2011 with colleague Josselyn Levinson-Dustin. Tough Cookie Dance premiered at the Comedy in Dance Festival in 2012 and is a staple each year. The company was selected to premiere a new work as part of Dance New Amsterdam’s curated series Raw Material. Tough Cookie has created three half evening-length and one full evening-length works focused on the current struggles of making art in New York City.

Auditions are right around the corner. Dates and locations across the country are available. Read more about 2017 auditions here.