Faculty & Staff

Erin Lally (she/her) is the Director of the Dance Education Laboratory at the 92Y. For over fifteen years, Erin has taught dance in public schools, studio, and community settings, sharing her love of dance with children, educators and families. For five years she taught with Luna Dance Institute in Berkeley, CA where she served as the Family Services Manager, specializing in family dance classes and working with parents and children in the reunification process. Erin is the former Education Director of RIOULT where she led DanceREACH, RIOULT’s education outreach program. Erin was also a founding member and Dance Specialist at Bronx Charter School for the Arts in the South Bronx, NY where she created the dance curriculum and was the dance educator for grades K-5. Erin has served as a teaching artist for New York City Center, American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Hispanico, and American Repertory Ballet Company. Erin holds certificates from the 92Y’s Dance Education Laboratory, the Language of Dance (LOD), a BFA in modern dance performance at the University of the Arts, and a MA in Dance Education at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Erin believes in the power of dance to build relationships and foster community. She is thrilled to lead DEL at 92Y, making the mission of Dance for Every Child a reality. Erin loves her family dance parties with her two children, taking delight in their choreographic skills and beautiful expression.

Alexis Garay is a New York City public school teacher. She has taught for fourteen years but has been an elementary school dance teacher for the last five years in Brooklyn. She has a bachelor’s in Social Work from Syracuse University, and she participated in the NYC Teaching Fellows program to earn a Masters in Urban Education from Mercy College. While she doesn’t have a degree in dance, she has been dancing since she was three years old and has continued to be a lifelong dance student. She has taken dance classes in everything from ballet to tango. Over the last five years, she has also participated in many NYC DOE dance professional development workshops and many DEL classes that have taught her about the history of dance and how to be a more effective dance educator.

Ruby Frink (M.A. Dance Education, New York University, B.F.A. Dance, University of Minnesota Twin Cities) is a NYCDOE K-8 Dance teacher at a school in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn. She is the Arts Coordinator at her school, and the District Dance Facilitator under the direction of the superintendent’s office. Ruby is the assistant director and dance company member of Kim Elliott Dance Company; a company of dance educators. She is an alumna of New York University where she was honored to receive an award for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Dance Education. She is also an alumna of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities where she received the Daniel Shapiro Award in Dance. Ruby worked as a Pre-K assistant teacher in Chanhassen, Minnesota where she incorporated the Arts to her students and school.  This is Ruby’s first year working with DEL, she is eager and excited to learn, create, and share.

Dawn DiPasquale holds a MA in Dance Education from NYU and is a former Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance and Musical Theatre at Wichita State University, teaching modern, musical theatre and tap dance; Her work as a teaching artist in NYC public schools with 92ndStreet Y, City Center, and Together in Dance includes residencies in early childhood dance, Parents As Arts Partners and Creative After School Adventures. She is a curriculum writer and professional development facilitator for The Dance Education Laboratory and Center for Arts Learning and Leadership at the 92nd Street Y.

As a choreographer for Musical Theatre, she has worked with composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz on productions of Children of Eden at Paper Mill Playhouse (Recording, RCA Victor) and North Shore Music Theatre as well as a revival of Working at the Long Wharf Theatre, directed by Christopher Ashley. Other venues include Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera, Folly Theatre of Kansas City, Music Theatre of Wichita, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, and the College of Charleston. Her work has also been staged at Music Theatre West and The University of Michigan. As a dancer, she performed at DTW, PS 122, Circum-Arts, Riverside Church, Gowanus, Green Space, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, NYC Fringe Festival and at the Strada Facendo in Pisa, Italy. She is a grant recipient from The Kansas Cultural Trust/ Koch Foundation and is a member of SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers Union).

Hetty King (BFA, MFA, MA, CMA, RSDE, RYT200, TT®) is a native New Yorker. She has been a part of the NYC dance and performance world as a performer, choreographer, dance educator, writer and scholar since she graduated from the High School of Performing Arts in 1982. Her work has been presented in NYC and across Canada. As a performer Hetty danced in the company of numerous choreographers; Ralph Lemon and David Dorfman to name a few. Hetty has been working in the field of dance education since 2000, as a teaching artist and as a licensed NYS Dance Educator. She has worked in both public and private schools primarily with grades PreK-5, developing dance programs that focus on creative movement and student-driven choreography. As a devoted student of the late somatic movement pioneer, Nancy Topf Hetty has nurtured a deep love of the somatic arts as they relate to dance, embodiment, and the education of the whole child. Ms. King is under contract to complete Ms.Topf’s posthumous manuscript “Anatomy of Center – a guidebook to the Topf Technique®”. She is a student in the EdD Dance Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University with a focus on early childhood and somatics, and is training with Susan Bauer towards certification as an Embodiment in Education® educator and facilitator. Currently, she is a teaching artist with Third Street Music Settlement, the 92St Y, DEL, and is a member of the PreK CREATE project. She is a teaching associate at the Speyer Legacy School, a K-8 school for gifted students in NYC. King lives in Brooklyn with her husband, a theatre technician at the Metropolitan Opera, their two adopted daughters, an international High School student from China, and their cat Clyde.

Mariangela Lopez is a Brooklyn-based dance artist and educator from Caracas, Venezuela. Since 1999 she has built extensive experience teaching dance to different communities across the country and abroad, such as public schools (Pre K-12) and domestic violence, youth at risk, victims of torture, and AIDS organizations. Mariangela is the Dance teacher at Blue School ( 2’s-3rd grade), NYC where she designed the Dance Curriculum from pre-K- 8th grade. She is a faculty member at The Dance Education Laboratory at 92 street Y, where she facilitates workshops and mentors NYC Pre-K teachers. Mariangela was the Associate Director of Community Programs for Gina Gibney Dance (2002-2009) where she designed a program that brings dance to children living in shelters for survivors of Domestic Violence in NYC. Mariangela has taught as a teaching artist and has participated as a panelist for different institutions and universities in the U.S and abroad. Mariangela was a faculty member for the Certification Program at the Laban Institute of Movement Studies, NYC, and at 92 Street Y, NYC. She has taught in places such as Movement Research, Gibney Dance, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange among many others. In addition, Mariangela was the Coordinator of the Adventures in Dance Program at Ballet Hispánico School of Dance (2010-2013). She holds a BFA from the Boston Conservatory (1999), is a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies (2001), a Certified Yoga Teacher from Yoga Union, NYC (2003) and holds a Certification in Foundations of Dance Education from Dance Education Laboratory (DEL), NYC (2009). She is currently pursuing her certification in Somatic Movement Education (SME) and Infant Development Movement Education (IDME) at the School of Body Mind Center ®.

In her teaching, Mariangela applies her knowledge in Modern Dance, Composition, Improvisation, Yoga, Creative Movement, Ballet, Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Motif Writing (Language of Dance), and Somatic Movement. Her most important goal as a teacher is to provide an experience in class where each participant can feel validated as a unique individual with the ability to make choices and celebrate the joy and empowerment of Movement.

Dionisia Veronica Rigby (M.A., Dance Education, New York University, M.A., Childhood Education, Brooklyn College, B.A. Early Childhood Education, University of Hartford) is an NYCDOE K-5 Dance Teacher in an elementary school in the South Bronx. Her mother is a retired DOE teacher of 30+ years and is responsible for the foundation of Dionisia’s love for the education world. She has been dancing from the age of 9, starting at a local dance studio in her neighborhood in Brooklyn. She worked with children from the age of 17, starting with volunteer work at Little Sun People Day Care in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. After receiving her Bachelor’s and obtaining her Initial Teaching License in both Connecticut and New York, she became a K-2 Spanish teacher at a charter school. She then transitioned into a Kindergarten Teacher, teaching all subjects, at a different charter school, all while getting her Masters’s in Childhood Education and her Professional Teaching License. Her experience in the charter schools propelled her into going back to school for dance teaching. While achieving her second Masters’s at NYU she made sure she kept one foot in the early childhood education world as a part-time 3K teacher for a Preschool in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She worked as Deborah Damast’s assistant for one week during the Kid’sDoDance Summer Program in Martha’s Vineyard and traveled to Uganda to participate in the study abroad dance program. Her experience at NYU was the most rewarding experience. It is where she realized it was truly possible for her to do the 2 things she loved most in the world, dancing and teaching. Using all her teaching skills from the early childhood world and the dance education world she quickly found her way into DOE where she couldn’t be happier. She was appointed the model teacher position during her 3rd year and hopes to achieve a master teacher within the next few years. It is an honor to be working with Del and Dionisia is excited to further her learning and teaching skills through this experience.

Since 1998, Carina Rubaja has worked as a dance teaching artist for many renowned cultural organizations (including the Guggenheim Museum, the 92Y , Young Audiences/NY, Abrons Center, Dancewave, New Jersey Performing Arts Center ) in New Jersey and NYC with general and special education for two to ten-year-old students, their teachers, and their families. She teaches for the NJPAC Early Learning through the Arts program which aims to mentor teachers to integrate performing arts processes in their teaching. Last spring she made a series of videos for PreK classrooms at PS209. The same school has commissioned her a new series for this fall. She has led creative dance classes in arts integration, after-school and summer camp programs. She has conducted family workshops and professional development workshops in the U.S. and Argentina. Carina has participated in research projects and in arts in education panels as well as grant and dance curricula writing. This is her third year on the Create team. She received her dance teacher training degree in Argentina in 1988, and her Masters in Education from Lesley College in 1992. She completed the 2-year course at DEL 92Y and continuously participates in early childhood arts education professional learning workshops, fostering her love of teaching and learning.

Mary Seidman has been on the faculty of the DANCE EDUCATION LAB (DEL) since 2015, teaching public school Pre-K teachers the value and methods of dance education and its mission of “Dance for Every Child.” In other capacities, has been celebrated as a “beloved dance teacher” for many years, operating her own dance school, Keystone Dance (1990 – 1998); a teaching artist for The Guggenheim Learning Through Art Program, earning the honored “The Hilla Rebay Teaching Artist Award” in 1998. She has taught for and performed works for Young Audiences of NY, CT, and PA, NYFA, Mark DeGarmo Dance, Hunter College Elementary School, The Bank Street School for Children, among many others. Ms. Seidman earned an MS in Education at Lesley University and an MFA in Dance through Hollins University at ADF. She is currently an active faculty member of the Mark Morris Dance Center for seventeen years, on faculty at the newly opened RIOULT Dance Center, a teaching artist with Alvin Ailey AIE Program, and a guest artist at several colleges and universities. She also has taught a special needs population of people challenged with Alzheimer’s Disease. Ms. Seidman writes feature articles for Dance Teacher, Dance Magazine, and reviews for EYEONTHEARTS. She has served as Secretary of the American Dance Guild for nine years, co-producing an annual dance festival in NYC that features 35 contemporary choreographers and honors three luminaries with Lifetime Achievement Awards. Her lecture on The History and Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts has toured several colleges and universities. Her choreography and dance company, Mary Seidman and Dancers, has been described by Jennifer Dunning in The New York Times as “pure dance work with threads of emotional nuance woven into the whole.” www.maryseidmananddancers.org

Edwin Brathwaite is a certified science and dance educator teaches at Meyer Levin Performing Arts School, IS 285, for the past 20 years. A native of Barbados, West Indies, He facilitates New York Citywide Dance professional development, Arts Monday and workshops for Dance Educational Laboratory (DEL).

He is currently facilitating professional development for Connected Arts Network (CAN). Edwin has published several dance unit studies in the annual New York City Department of Education (DOE). He authored and presented a unit entitled Roots of Tap Dance: Soul Rhythms in The Dance Educational Laboratory (DEL) Tracing Footsteps: Honoring Diverse Voices Through Dance History in NYC, grades 6-8 Curriculum – Module 2, funded by The New York Community Trust and the New York City Department of Education. 

In January 2022, Edwin coauthored and presented Hip Hop: Cultivating Vision and Voice for the Tracing Footsteps Curriculum series two, Grades 6-8 curriculum – Module 2. 

He has been honored in his community with several awards. One of which is the Meyer Levin Intermediate School 285 Distinguish Educator Award, and a Citation from Senator Roxanne J. Persaud of the 19th Senate District, honoring and recognizing his exceptional contribution to the community he services.

Margaret Mary a lifelong dancer and educator, is a Dance Specialist and chair of Performing Arts at Brooklyn Friends School. Her teaching connects creative dance with classroom studies in an innovative curriculum that includes body awareness, improvisation, composition, cultural dance forms, yoga and folk dance. Outside of school she facilitates teacher training workshops and mentors NYC Pre-K teachers through the Dance Education Laboratory at the 92nd Street Y. Underlying all of her work, Margaret believes that participatory dance experiences foster joy and self-expression, connect us with one another and bring us together as a community.

This is me…

Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York City, Clara Bello is personally drawn to Caribbean music and culture. She was raised dancing many Latinx and Caribbean dance styles, but came to develop her passion for Salsa in college. She trained at Santo Rico Dance School and was one of the founding members of Yamuleé Dance School. She has performed with Bajarí de Yamuleé, Yamuleé Dance Company, and La Magia Dancers.

As an immigrant and woman of color, Clara is greatly troubled by the current state of our nation. She is doing her part by continuing the fight from inside the classroom and entering into dialogue with others outside. Clara volunteers in church initiatives to help marginalized members of her community, including missions to various parts of Latin America. In late 2014, she also participated in the Dove ‘Love Your Curls’ Campaign to raise awareness about the impact of the explicit and implicit social messages we send our children, even with something as “simple” as hair. She is raising her daughters to love people and celebrate differences. She is praying for peace in our global community. While fun-loving and adventure-seeking, Clara also has come to appreciate the miracle of silence and stillness. She is interested in learning more about sustainability practices and how to be a better human.

This is my work…

Clara is the full-time Dance Educator and Arts Liaison at Dos Puentes Elementary School, in the heart of Washington Heights. Since 2006, she has been teaching elementary and middle school students as a literacy intervention teacher, classroom teacher, and dance educator. She holds a B.A. in French, a Master’s in Bilingual Childhood Education, 30 credits in Dance Education, and a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership. Clara is a DEL graduate and Arnhold New Dance Teacher Alumna. She holds the following New York State licenses: Common Branches, Bilingual Extension, Dance, School Building Leader (SBL) and School District Leader (SDL) licenses.

Clara is a member of the NYCDOE Office of Arts & Special Projects (OASP) Dance Transition Team and a Facilitator for the OASP and Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at the 92Y. Current and previous projects include work as a Reviewer for the Arnhold Dance Curriculum / Unit Review Program and Tutor for the Arnhold Dance Teacher Tutoring Program. She was part of the NYCDOE Dance Curriculum Writing Team (2015) and contributed to the revision of the New York City Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts – Dance (2015). She was also a Proctor and Scorer for the NYCDOE Arts Achieve Dance Assessment (2010-2013). Clara is a current member of the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO).

Clara’s passion lies in her love of social dances for their ability to bring people together from different walks of life and for the pure joy they bring to the communities that embrace them. Her dance program blends her passion for the humanities with principles of creative movement with curricula taught primarily in Spanish. Clara is interested in exploring relationships between the arts and issues of equity, human rights and social justice, language learning (of all kinds), academic achievement, social-emotional learning, interdisciplinary learning, curriculum development / implementation, formative assessment, community building, and best practices for establishing and maintaining a positive and challenging learning environment. She enjoys collaborating with other educators, mentoring teachers, and learning about different cultures.

Barry Blumenfeld, MA, RDE, has been a dance educator for 20 years in a wide range of environments. He has worked as a teaching artist in NYC public schools in residencies ranging from “Math Dance” and “Reading Dance” to teaching children in a mental institution via videophone. He has also taught in private pre-schools and studios. Barry was an adjunct professor at American University, in Washington, DC, where he also taught at-risk youth in a housing project as part of a HUD grant and deaf college students at Galludet University. Barry is currently on the faculty of Friends Seminary School in Manhattan where he has built their dance program over the past 13 years. He is also an adjunct professor at New York University. He holds a BA in Psychology and an MA in Dance from American University and is a graduate of Dance Education Laboratory of 92nd Street Y; a certified Level 1 Teacher of Language of Dance®; a certified yoga instructor; and a Registered Dance Educator. Barry serves on the board of directors of the New York State Dance Education Association and is the Artistic Director of TAPFUSION, a dance company combining modern dance and tap.

Andrew Chapman is a performer with site specific and immersive theater company Third Rail Projects as a cast member of their critically acclaimed show Then She Fell. Andrew is the director and founding producer of the Mobile Dance Film Festival; the first and only film festival to screen dance film shot solely on mobile devices.  

Tina Curran, PhD, MFA, is a member of Dance Education Laboratory faculty at the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center since 2003.  She is a life-long student and evolving practitioner of Laban Studies including Labanotation (Directing from Score), Language of Dance® (LOD Certification Specialist) and Laban Movement Analysis (DEL Foundations teacher).  As an artist, educator and scholar, Tina explores and develops approaches using Laban Studies and dance legacy to promote dance literacy an integral component of dance practices. Tina is an Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Theater and Dance where she is co-developing a BFA in dance education leading to state teacher certification.  She is a cofounder, with Ann Hutchison Guest, of the Language of Dance Center (USA) which aims to promote dance literacy through the practice, appreciation and research in dance.  Tina has served as a consultant to the New York City Department of Education Office of Arts and Special Projects,where she first participated in the writing of the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance and subsequently collaborated in the design and facilitation of professional development workshops for NYC dance educators.

Frederick Curry MA, CMA, is an Assistant Professor in the Mason Gross School of the Arts Dance Department. He is also on faculty at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. He serves on the Board of Directors of the National Dance Education Organization, the Professional Advisory Committee of the Dance Notation Bureau, and is a proctor/adjudicator for the NYCDOE Arts Achieve dance performance assessments. In New York, he danced with Nancy Zendora and Rod
Rodgers, among others, and performed leading roles in The Vengeance of Mami Wata by Rose-Marie Guiraud, and 
Owl in Love by composer Jon Deak. His choreography was presented at
 Dixon Place, the American Dance Guild Performance Festival, Merkin Concert
 Hall and La MaMa, and he was a 2006 U.S. State Department Cultural Envoy to Uganda.

Deborah Damast (BFA Dance, SUNY Purchase, MA Dance Education, NYU, DEL Certificate) is Associate Professor and Program Director of Dance Education at NYU Steinhardt where in addition to teaching, she is Artistic Director of concerts, Kaleidoscope Dancers, and the Uganda study abroad program. Deborah is the Past-President of the New York State Dance Education Association, has served on the boards of NYSDEA, NDEO, Dance Education in Practice Journal, and Peridance Contemporary Dance Company and is a member of the NDEO Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access IDEA committee. She is on faculty at LREI/Little Red Schoolhouse, Dance Education Laboratory, and The Yard and has directed programs at Peridance, Steffi Nossen, Harvey School Cavalier Camp, The Yard Kids Do Dance, OBT Exposed, Deborah facilitates Professional Learning for teachers through the NYC Department of Education, 92Y DEL, and PKFCC Pre-K for all and has contributed to the NYC Blueprint for the Arts, Dance and the DEL Early Childhood model.  She has presented at numerous conferences and festivals including at NDEO, NYSDEA, ACDFA, CUNY, Kymabogo Music Education in Uganda and her choreography has been shown at over 40 venues in NYC including Ailey Citigroup, Peridance, World Financial Center, Riverside Church, Judson Church, Symphony Space, Cooper Union, 92Y, 14St Y, Skirball Theatre, and internationally in Japan, Uganda, Korea, Italy, and Canada. Deborah has taught for the Education Departments of Oregon Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet and has written curriculum for Peridance, Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, DEL, NYCB, and the NYC DOE. Deborah is a recipient of the 2009 NYU GSU Star Faculty Award, the 2010 NDEO Outstanding Dance Educator Award: Higher Education, and the 2020 Dance Teacher Magazine Award for Higher Education. She participated in Motion Capture studies at NYU, collaborated with Music and Music Technology, and at NYU was a co-recipient of grants for Dance Literacy and Data Literacy, Professional Development, and the 2020 Diversity Innovation grant. Deborah is thrilled to return to facilitate another workshop at DEL with colleagues and collaborators from Uganda and the United States.

Crystal U. Davis, CLMA, is an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Maryland, College Park. For over twelve years she has worked in education from teaching dance and other movement modalities in public and private educational settings, to facilitating training for educators and childcare providers, to supervising dance education courses and certification programs. She obtained her B.A. in Comparative Religion from Emory University, M.F.A in Dance from Texas Woman’s University, M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University, and C.L.M.A. from Integrated Movement Studies.  Her performance, choreographic, and ethnographic research has been presented at international and domestic venues, and her published work on implicit bias in dance has been published in the Journal of Dance Education and in the Palgrave Handbook of Race and the Arts in Education.

Diane Duggan, PhD, BC-DMT is a NYS licensed psychologist, board certified dance/movement therapist and dance educator. She began teaching dance in 1972 and has worked as a dance therapist since 1973. She conducted a therapeutic dance program in a New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) special education high school for adolescents with emotional and learning disabilities from May 1992 through August 2013.  Her students performed in Lincoln Center, Central Park, South Street Seaport, St. Mark’s Church, NYU’s Frederick Lowe Theater, and the Apollo Theater.

Dr. Duggan began teaching at the graduate level in 1976. She has taught in the Dance Education M.A. program at New York University since 1994 and choreographs for the annual New York University Distinguished Faculty Concert. From 2005-2015 she created and taught a popular course in strategies for working with students with emotional and behavioral disorders in the Special Education M.A. program at New York University.  She has taught in the 92^nd St. Y Dance Education Laboratory and Dance Therapy programs since 2006. She previously taught for eight years in the Hunter College Dance Therapy M.S. program and in graduate programs at Adelphi University, Long Island University, and Hofstra University.

From 1997 through 2006 Dr. Duggan created and taught professional development in positive behavior support and functional behavior assessment for NYCDOE staff in special education and general education programs throughout New York City, including a three-day intensive workshop for dance educators. She consulted on serious behavior challenges in schools throughout the NYCDOE and developed plans to address them. As a Senior Trainer of Life Space Crisis Intervention she taught educators how to prevent and manage student crises.

Dr. Duggan is co-author of Dance Education for Diverse Learners: Special Education Supplement to the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance. She has published several articles and book chapters on her work. Her book, Out here by ourselves: The stories of young people whose mothers have AIDS, was published in 2000 by Garland Press.

She served as Communications Chairperson on the Board of Directors of the American Dance Therapy Association from 1976 to 1980.  She was the co-executive producer for the ADTA’s 1982 film Dance Therapy: The Power of Movement and was the Dance Therapy Program Chairperson for the 1985 Joint Creative Arts Therapy Conference.

Dr. Duggan is currently an Arnhold Mentor for beginning dance educators and is on the editorial board of the National Dance Education Organization journal Dance Education in Practice. She is a member of the Dance/NYC Task Force on Dance and Disability. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York State Dance Education Association in 2016.

Daria FItzgerald (M.A., Dance Education, New York University, B.A., Theology, Sacred Heart University) is a New York State certified dance teacher and early childhood educator. Daria created the dance program for and teaches at Learning Through Play Pre-K Center, a NYC DOE pre-k and 3-k center in the Bronx. She writes curriculum for The Yard’s MAKING IT program for public and charter schools and previously interned in their KidsDODance program. She occasionally guest lectures at New York University.  While in graduate school, Daria founded the Steinhardt Dance Education Association and was selected as the graduation banner bearer for the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions. In 2016 and in 2017, Daria received the New York State Dance Education Association’s graduate student scholarship. She served as the Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Directors of the National Dance Education Organization from 2017 – 2018. Daria participated in New York University’s Dance Education study abroad program to Uganda, under the directorship of Deborah Damast, which sparked her interest in cross-cultural pedagogy and learning through play. Daria recently went back to Uganda to research children’s games which she and her colleagues presented at the National Dance Education Organization’s annual conference. She enjoys expanding her knowledge of dance and education through attending professional development opportunities (particularly at DEL), taking dance classes, and occasionally performing in various venues across NYC.

Catherine Gallant, MFA (choreographer) has been creating work for more than 30 years. Ms. Gallant’s work often explores themes of chance, doubt and the body as a source of comfort and torment. She was the assistant director at 92Y Harkness Dance Center from 1994-96 just as DEL was beginning. She has presented work at 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, WestFest and most recently at Inwood Hill Park sponsored in part by the Partnerships for Parks. Catherine is also the director of Dances by Isadora which, since 1989, performs, teaches and collaborates with dancers throughout the world, most recently at Jacob’s Pillow’s Inside/Out Series and with French choreographer, Jerome Bel on his new work, Isadora Duncan which Ms. Gallant will perform in June 2020 at the River to River Festival. She began her study of the technique of Isadora Duncan in 1982 with Julia Levien and is currently on the Duncan Archive Committee and contributes regularly to site: duncanarchive.org. Catherine is a full-time NYCDOE dance educator at PS 89 in Manhattan. She and her students were featured in the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary, PS DANCE! Catherine is on the faculty of the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL). Ms. Gallant is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory and holds an MFA in Dance from Temple University.

Shakia Barron is a choreographer, performer, and dance educator whose work is rooted in the African Diaspora, focusing on Hip-Hop, House and other African diasporic dance forms. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at Mount Holyoke College. She graduated with her MFA in Choreography at Wilson College, she holds an Associate’s degree in dance and psychology from Dean College, a Bachelor’s in liberal arts from Westfield State University, and she received the National Dance Institute’s teaching artist certificate in 2009. She graduated with her MFA in Choreography at Wilson College, she holds an Associate’s degree in dance and psychology from Dean College, a Bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Westfield State University, and she received the National Dance Institute’s teaching artist certificate in 2009. Her other dance training includes the Bates Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, and Pioneer Valley’s Performing Arts Charter School.

Barron has choreographed and directed more than 50 Hip-Hop, modern, African and lyrical works that have been performed at Trenton Educational Dance Institute, Rider University, the Princeton School of Ballet, Bates Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow. She has performed for numerous Hip-Hop events and has opened for concerts by Fat Joe, Jadakiss, 112, Charlie Baltimore, and Kima from “Total” and Omarion. In 2005, she choreographed a Hip-Hop number for the Celtics/NBA half-time show. Barron has toured nationally and internationally, dancing with Face Da Phlave Entertainment and Illstyle and Peace Productions. And recently, she made a guest appearance with Rennie Harris PureMovement. Her recent work titled “Concourse” was performed at Jacobs Pillow in October 2021.

As a dance educator, Barron spent four years teaching at the Bates Dance Festival and taught community classes at Jacob’s Pillow. Barron is a DEL faculty member who has facilitated multiple professional Development workshops around the integration of Hip-Hip dance and history in the curriculum. Her work titled “Our House” was selected to be performed for Community Day at Jacob’s Pillow in 2019. Barron was also the 2019 Arthur Levitt Jr. ’52 Artist-in-Residence at Williams College. Prior to joining Mount Holyoke College Dance Department as a full-time tenure track faculty, she served as an adjunct at UMASS Amherst, Smith, Amherst and Connecticut colleges.

Megan J. Minturn, MA, RYT is a New York-based dancer, educator and choreographer.  She loves sharing her passion for movement. Her company of investigators/choreographers/dancers, MJM Dance, performed at the 92nd St. Y, New York’s Dance New Amsterdam, HERE Arts, Dixon Place, NYU’s Frederick Loewe Theatre, Miami University of Ohio, the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Stand4 Gallery and Ailey’s Citigroup Theatre among others. They investigated and performed their first evening length performance, “Monopoly: The Landlord’s Game” in April, 2017 to two sold out audiences at Mark Morris Dance Center.

Megan dances with Bessie Award winning, Joya Powell’s Movement of the People Dance Company and Catherine Gallant/DANCE. With Joya Powell and Catherine Gallant she has performed at venues including Jacob’s Pillow, Lincoln Center, St. Mark’s Church, BAM, La MaMa, throughout the tri-state area, and internationally. Megan has performed the works of Mabingo Alfdaniels, Frederick Curry, Carolyn Webb, Dianne Duggan, Deborah Damast, Rainy Demerson, Saya Hardako, Jacques Heim, Jenny Brown, and Charles Ahovissi.    

Megan teaches at the Brooklyn International High School.  Her students have performed throughout New York City.  In 2016, Megan was awarded the New York State Dance Education Association’s Outstanding K-12 Educator of the Year and in 2015 Education Update’s Outstanding Educator of the Year at NY’s Harvard Club. She was a guest artist teaching movement and improvisation in NYU’s Graduate Music program for four years.  Megan worked with the ARTery teaching Dancing Classroom’s ballroom dance to 5th graders, Charles Ahovissi’s African Culture Connection performing and teaching West African dance, the Diavolo Project: Nebraska dancing and teaching athletic contemporary dance, and participated in a Kennedy Center funded Teaching Artist Initiative. She has taught and written curricula with Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Little Red Schoolhouse Summer Program, The School at Peridance, Notes in Motion, Action Arts at Columbia University, and HB Studios.  She has led workshops and sat on panels at the National Dance Education Organizations annual workshops (2012-2016) and has written curricula and mentored new dance teachers with the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Arts and Special Projects. 

Megan received her 200 hour Yoga Alliance Certification at Sonic Yoga in New York City.  Most recently, she studied dance and dance pedagogy in Havana, Cuba at Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, received the Don Quixote Grant (2019) to study dance with Rosangela Silvestre in Salvador, Brazil and is a Fund for Teachers Fellow (2019). Megan holds an MA in Dance Education from New York University.  

Felice Santorelli (EdM Dance Education, BFA Dance and Choreography) is a full time dance educator at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in Western Massachusetts. Santorelli’s teaching experience ranges from K-12 to higher education and in various styles of dance. Santorelli designs dance curriculum that blends skill-building in technique, creative dance making, improvisation, and dance history, and draws connections between dance and the world and other art forms. Santorelli is the Artistic Director Catalyst Dance Company, offering mentorship to student choreographers whose work has been celebrated at the National and Regional High School Dance Festivals. At PVPA she also leads the DEL PVPA dance mentoring program, established by DEL Founding Faculty Ann Biddle with generous support from the Arnhold Foundation. Santorelli is featured in the upcoming film PS Dance! The Next GENeration made by Nel Shelby to be premiered in 2021. Santorelli co-facilitates workshops for the DEL at Jacob’s Pillow program, leading professional development for dancers and dance educators (DEL Essentials, Dance for Social Justice, and the Delving into Dance History series). Additional work includes Pilot Teaching for the National Core Arts Standards for Dance as well as contributions to various curriculum writing projects, including a contribution to Ann Biddle’s “The Essence of Cool: West Side Story” for the NYC DOE.

John-Mario Sevilla, BA, MA, MFA, hails from Maui, and is the Director of 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center and Director of Dance Education Laboratory.  He also teaches at New York University Steinhardt. John-Mario has danced in the companies of Pilobolus, Rebecca Stenn, From the Horse’s Mouth, Daman Harun, Erin Dudley, Lisa Giobbi, Nikolais and Louis, Shapiro and Smith, Janis Brenner, Anna Sokolow and Bill Cratty. John-Mario also performed with juggler Michael Moschen, film animator Laura Margulies, drag artist Sherry Vine, poet John Unterecker and Navajo sandpainter-healer Walking Thunder. John-Mario’s choreography has appeared in New York City at LaMaMa, NYU Steinhardt, Movement Research at Judson Church, 92Y Tribeca, Dance Theatre Workshop, Columbia University, ABC No Rio, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, The Asia Society, Bronx Academy of Art and Dance, as well as at universities throughout the country. He was the Director of Education at New York City Ballet. He hails from Maui, is a dance student of Betty Jones and has studied the hula with Kumu Hula June Ka‘ililani Tanoue and Hōkūlani Holt. He has a MA in Dance and Dance Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an MFA in Dance Performance from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Randi Sloan has taught in and chaired the dance department at The Dalton School in NYC for the past 25 years.  She has fostered a program that is known as a destination for ‘thinking dancers.’  The program focuses on developing kinesthetic awareness, problem solving, creative exploration, and nonlinear thought.

Randi defines her role as a collaborator and resource and designs the curriculum so that students take ownership of their choreography.  Students draw upon dance from diverse traditional and contemporary cultures.  In addition to the core modern dance curriculum, the dance program at the Dalton School incorporates ballet, jazz, African dance, hip-hop, yoga, tai chi, capoeira, Greek, and Native American Dance.  Creative movement is seen as the basic essential mode of instruction, rather than as a vehicle for performance.  Student choreography is presented at the school’s annual dance concert. The students decide on a group common theme (for example; visual art, poetry, text, dreams, containers, fairy tales) that serves to unify the group and provide a structure for each student’s individual dance.  Through the year-long creative process, students evolve as choreographers, clarifying their thinking about movement as art.

In addition to teaching at Dalton, Ms. Sloan is an adjunct professor at New York University in the Steinhardt School of Dance Education. She has served as consultant and teacher of dance pedagogy for the New York City Department of Education.  In prior years, Randi Sloan taught as guest artist in residence at Oakland University, Wayne State University and Milan.

Taryn is originally from Wisconsin where she received her BS in Dance, English Literature, and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She moved to New York to study at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and earned her MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography. In 2010, Taryn co-founded Summation Dance with Sumi Clements, and is the Executive Director and Associate Artistic Director. She has produced and performed in Summation’s annual NYC seasons at Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC), Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), and Judson Memorial Church, among others. She has shown her own choreography at BAC, Danspace at St. Mark’s Church, Judson Memorial Church, Rutgers University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Loyola Marymount University, and Peridance. Taryn has toured nationally with Summation, choreographed and facilitated large-scale DEL Movement Sentence Choirs, and taught master classes and set repertory at universities across the country. She has also been involved in projects with GERALD CASEL DANCE and Laura Peterson Choreography and performed the works of Andrea Miller/Gallim Dance and Sydney Skybetter/skybetter & associates. Taryn is a Full-Time Instructor of Dance at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. For more information visit: tarynvanderhoop.com

Krishna is the director and teacher of Dark Room Ballet, a pre-professional dance curriculum designed for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired people, the only course of its kind in the English-speaking world. Krishna holds a Masters of Education from Hunter College, a BA from Barnard College, and multiple certifications from the American College of Sports Medicine with a focus in biomechanics. Dark Room Ballet has been featured in USA Today (Green Bay Gazette, North Jersey News), BLOOM magazine, Speak Out for the Blind podcast, Eyes on Success podcast, and on Bloomberg Quicktake news.

Krishna Christine Washburn has performed with many leading dance companies including Jill Sigman’s thinkdance, Infinity Dance Theater, Heidi Latsky Dance, Marked Dance Project, and LEIMAY.

Krishna has collaborated with many independent choreographers, including Patrice Miller, iele paloumpis, Perel, Vangeline, Micaela Mamede, Apollonia Holzer, and most notably with A. I. Merino, who especially created her signature role, Countess Erzsébet Bathory, and with whom she founded the artistic collective Historical Performances.

Krishna boasts several ongoing artistic collaborations, including work with wearables artist Ntilit (Natalia Roumelioti). Krishna is the Artistic Director of The Dark Room, a multi-disciplinary project with fellow visually impaired dancer, Kayla Hamilton. Krishna is also the Artistic Director of the Telephone Dance and Audio Description Game, an on-going activist screen dance documentary project with choreographer and filmmaker, Heather Dayah Shaw.

Naomi Goldberg Haas is a dancer, master teacher, choreographer, and founding artistic director of Dances For A Variable Population. Over the course of her career, Ms. Goldberg Haas has worked in concert dance, theatre, opera and film, and has collaborated with the Klezmatics, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner, Long Beach Opera, Milwaukee Skylight Opera, Disney animation, and served as resident choreographer at the Mark Taper Forum. She studied at the School of American Ballet, Barnard College, Columbia University, and holds an MFA from Tisch Dance at NYU. She began her career with the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and went on to found the successful mixed ability company Los Angeles Modern Dance and Ballet (1989 to 2004). With Dances For a Variable Population (DVP), Ms. Goldberg Haas has created site-related public performances at many of NYC’s most iconic public spaces including Times Square, Washington Square Park, the Whitehall Ferry Terminal, the New York Botanical Garden, Times Square and the High Line.

She also leads DVP’s education programs, including the organization’s free community-based dance workshops that have served over 5,000 seniors at 45 senior centers since 2009. Ms. Goldberg Haas is a leader in the field of creative aging. She presented her work with older adults throughout NYC and across the country and has published articles about her community-based dance programs MOVEMENT SPEAKS® in the national journals such as Dance Education in Practice and her work has been featured in numerous other publications and news coverage from The NY Times, Atlantic ReTHINK, WABC News, and PIX 11 TV. She has presented this work at various conferences such as National Dance Education Organization, Teachers College, Columbia University and Face to Face/NYSCA. 

In 2012, Ms. Goldberg Haas received the Gibney award for “ART + ACTION.” The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council awarded her the 2014 Presidents Award for the Performing Arts. She served on the Arts, Media and Culture Committee as appointed by the Mayor’s Office for Age Friendly NYC (2015-2018). Most recently, she was awarded a 2019-2020 DANCE/USA Fellowship for Artists Addressing Social Change with funding from the Doris Duke Foundation.

Nicholas Van Young is a dancer, musician, choreographer, and a 2014 Bessie Award recipient. He began his professional career at age 16 under Acia Gray and Deidre Strand with Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, Texas, eventually rising to principal dancer and resident choreographer. Since moving to New York, he has performed with Manhattan Tap, RumbaTap, Dorrance Dance, and Beat the Donkey; he has toured as a drummer for Darwin Deez; and he spent almost a decade performing with STOMP, where he performed the lead role and acted as rehearsal director. Young tours both nationally and internationally teaching and performing at various tap festivals, and founded Sound Movement dance company and IFTRA, the Institute for the Rhythmic Arts. He is thrilled to have found a home with Dorrance Dance, co-creating and developing ETM: Double Down, and the Guggenheim Rotunda Project, both collaborative efforts with Michelle Dorrance.

At age 14, I lost the use of my legs from polio. As a result, I was sent away to live in my father’s ancestral village of Mancellia in the Malinke Kouroussa region of Guinea. At that time, people with disabilities were considered ghosts and hidden away. The traditional musicians and griots in the Mancellia took me into their care and undertook my education in the traditional arts. All births, deaths, troubles and celebrations had been kept living in the voices of my teachers. This they passed to me.

My music derives from the traditional rhythms of Guinea. In keeping with the West African griot traditions of my homeland the lyrics are my own compositions within which I chronicle my life’s journey. In cultures where few can read or write histories are passed by word of mouth from generation to generation. African traditional music is a living art form; it speaks of present conditions.

I have performed with West Africa’s premier music and dance ensembles, including the prestigious Les Merveilles de Guinea and the Ballet African.
In Guinea 2014 I used music and dance to bring people together to educate our community and defeat Ebola. These concerts and ceremonies were broadcast by Guinean television across the country. I traveled and spoke to other communities where there was resistance and convinced them to allow healthcare workers in.

My music brought me to America in 1998 where I founded my dance company Tokounou All Ability African Dance. In 2007 I was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship, Lifetime Honors from the National Endowment for the Arts.

I currently work teaching dance/drum to children and adults with cerebral palsy in Long Island. I also run workshops with veterans in the Bronx Vet Center. I continue to perform throughout America.

Yesenia F. Selier is a Cuban-born performer and researcher, recipient of fellowships from CLACSO, Cuban Heritage Collection, the Díaz-Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection, and Tinker Foundation. Her work on Afro Cuban culture, encompassing dance, music, and racial identity has been published in Cuba, the United States, Colombia, and Brazil. She has worked alongside artists like Teresita Fernandez, Coco Fusco, Septeto Nacional de Cuba, Jane Bunnett, Wynton Marsalis, Chucho Valdés, Pedrito Martinez, Román Diaz. She produced the theater play “ Women Orishas” for Miami Cuban Museum (2013), the performance procession “Día de Reyes” at Madison Square Park (2015), the Performance “Oshun- Inform” in Washington Square Park (2016), and “Nigra Suns”, Kennedy Center (2018) and “En(CoroNa)cion (2020).

Milly Canae Weiss has been dancing and acting since she was five years old. She received her dance, choreography, improvisation, and theatre training at Ballet Arts Minnesota in Minneapolis, SUNY Purchase Dance Conservatory, and the University of Minnesota. She also studied at summer intensives with the American Ballet Theatre where she was their first deaf dancer, the Washington Ballet, and at Gallaudet University. MIlly has performed locally as a dancer with the Ethnic Dance Theatre, Voices of Sepharad, and in Leili Prischet’s Hidden Yearnings. She has been an invited guest artist and dance teacher at Model Secondary School for the Deaf and in the Minneapolis Public Schools, and has worked as an assistant teacher with Young Dance Company. Milly co-founded Creating Language Through the Arts along with two other artists, and under a Minnesota State Arts Board grant they taught children in the St. Paul Public Schools how to express emotions and make cross cultural connections through creative movement, painting, and puppeteering. As an actor, Milly has starred most recently in Aditi Kapil’s “Love Person” at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul and in Janet Preus’ “Welcome to Hell” at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. Milly is an ASL consultant and deaf interpreter with various theaters in the Twin Cities for nearly six years, such as the Guthrie Theatre, 20% Theatre, Minnesota Chorale and Mixed Precipitation Opera Company. Milly works as a teaching artist with Upstream Arts Organization, where she puts into action her belief that movement and dramatic expression can be tools for individuals to gain awareness about what is happening in their bodies and minds, and to process events in their lives. She recently moved to Charlotte, NC in 2018. Most recent works Milly did in Charlotte, NC are asl consultant for shadowing ASL Interpreters for “EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEAR” play and Deaf Interpreter for Gay Men’s Chorus of Charlotte to give an artistic perspective in ASL for D/HH audience to enjoy. Milly is excited to share her enriched experiences as a Deaf Artist with you all!

Godfrey Muwulya, master teacher and performing artist, began training as a dancer and musician in his native country Uganda at the age of 5 years. He was a member of Ndere Troupe Uganda’s cultural ambassadors to the world as a leading dancer and instrumentalist and, in 2007, he began his solo performing career. Godfrey has travelled to numerous countries including Japan, Netherlands, Germany and United States. In the United States, he has performed a the Dallas Black Dance Theater, the Kennedy center in Washington DC, Dance Africa at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) and he was featured in New York Times and Martha’s Vinyard Times through The Yard. Godfrey has collaborated with NYU study abroad program, and has performed at NYU at the Loewe Theater, Skirball Center, and Radio City Music Hall. He has taught in numerous K-12 schools in NYC in collaboration with NYU Dance Education alumni and also taught in all schools on Martha’s Vineyard through the project Making It of The Yard.

Shayla Benoit is a filmmaker, director, choreographer, producer, and actor who loves to create in a variety of mediums.

Shayla is the President and Founder of Shady Theatrics LLC, an innovative film production company that has produced multiple works for The Tony Awards, Clear Channel, New York Fashion Week, The Juilliard School, Paul Taylor Dance Company, The Broadway Collective, Dance Lab New York, and The Miami Dolphins. Additionally, Shayla is the Actors’ Equity Foundation Red Carpet Correspondent for The Tony Awards.

She has appeared at Radio City Music Hall, 54 Below, and in regional theaters across the country. Shayla can also be seen and heard on television, film, and radio. Selected credits include: Smash (NBC), Shine On (Radio City Music Hall), The Marvelous Wonderettes, Kiss Me Kate, A Chorus Line, Hello, Dolly! and she is a Back-Up Vocalist for American Idol’s Justin Guarini at venues across the country.

Shayla holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Florida State University.

Annie Hanauer is an independent dance artist based between the UK & France. Originally from the USA, she holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota. She has performed, choreographed, toured, and taught extensively for over a decade, and currently performs with long-time collaborator Rachid Ouramdane (France) and with the Paris Chamber Orchestra. She recently choreographed touring work for Mobius Dance (Leeds, UK) and the ZHdK Stage Lab, Zurich. She is currently creating her own new work around utopia, disability, and collective imagination premiering in STEPS festival 2022, Switzerland, and is creating a new project with Nic Conibere/Normal Conditions (UK). Annie has performed with Emanuel Gat Dance, Lea Anderson, Wendy Houstoun, Lucy Suggate, and Boris Charmatz, and was a member of Candoco Dance Company from 2008-2014. Annie’s choreographic work has been supported by Arts Council England, Siobhan Davies Dance, Candoco Dance Company, LAC Lugano, Teatro Danzabile, STEPS festival and The Place. She is passionate about making the dance world inclusive and accessible, and wants to disrupt the idea of a normative dancing body.

Baudilio Rivera is a professional performer, choreographer, educator and entrepreneur. Well-versed in the versatile areas of Latin rhythms as well as Hip Hop and Latin Jazz. He is based from the world’s entertainment capital, New York City! He has been defined by others as an inspirational instructor, speaker and a transcendental performer.

His positive impact has acclimated this young artist in working with many youth organizations such as, “The Bronx Arts Ensemble”, “The House of Dance”, and the “GEAR UP program of ST. John’s University” allowing him the ability to meticulously create a curriculum dedicated to instilling values, learning many of the diversities of the performing arts and most of all building leadership development among his students, overcoming all adversities through sheer discipline and dedication, and commitment.

As the Co-Director of Peak Latin Dance in New Jersey, Baudilio has vowed to take his passion for music and dance, and develop people of all ages into dancers who either dance as a hobby or soon to be professional. Catch Baudilio as a principal dancer in the new Warner Bros. production “In the Heights”.

Assistant Professor of Theater
M.F.A. Dance, New York University 2017
B.S. Liberal Studies, West Chester University 2002

Shorter is an interdisciplinary artist with 2 over decades of professional dance and theater experience. They were a principal dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and have appeared in Broadway national tours such as: La Cage Aux Folles, A Chorus Line, Hairspray and have worked regionally at Theater Under The Stars, The MUNY, and Gateway Playhouse. As a solo artist their works have been performed at the Pompidu Centre, The Provincetown Theater, The Criterion Channel, Bam Cinema, The Houston Contemporary Arts Museum, and The 92nd Street Y.

Research Interests: Gender performance, LGBTQIA inclusion in theater and dance, dance cinema.

Dr. Derrick León Washington is a cultural anthropologist, curator, dancer, and Senior/Regional United Nations Human Rights Fellow at UN Headquarters specializing in dance, experiential education, and expressive arts of the Americas. His curatorial and dance related work have been reviewed positively by media outlets such as the New York Times, British Broadcasting Company (BBC), New York Post, UN Web TV, El Especialito, Huffington Post, and National Broadcasting Company (NBC). He first began to train in dance as a sophomore in high school. He learned the fundamentals of curating music & dance professionally at the Smithsonian Center of Folklore and Cultural Heritage. Mr. Washington curated the ground-breaking exhibition and program series, Rhythm & Power: Salsa in New York, at the Museum of the City of New York. He was able to create interactive programs where thousands of people could enjoy live music and dance with musicians such as Joe Bataan and Andy Montañez. He’s the co-editor of the book, Rhythm & Power: Performing Salsa in Puerto Rican and Latino Communities (Centro Publications). Later, Mr. Washington led an evening-length lecture/performance about the connections between mambo, jazz dances, and lindy hop at New York University and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He also helped create the arts-education organization, Urban Stomp-From Swing to Mambo. Upcoming collaborative work includes an evening length performance at Apollo Theater in Harlem. He has inserted his dance/cultural expertise in several curated UN projects, including a multi-national webinar series, the final long plenary of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) 10th Anniversary Youth Forum 2021, United Nations International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (2021), the United Nations International Day for People of African Descent (2021), a dynamic multi-agency United Nations Art Collection project at UN Headquarters, and a short film about the ‘I Still Believe in Our City’ campaign sponsored by UN Human Rights (OHCHR) and the NYC Commission on Human Rights.

A graduate of The Juilliard School, Dian Dong studied with Shirley Ubell, Vladimir Doukodovsky, Alfredo Corvino and Doris Rudko. She has worked with Anna Sokolow’s Players’ Project, Kathryn Posin, Janet Soares, Lance Westergard, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Lincoln Center Institute, the ADF 25th Anniversary Repertory Co, Walter Nicks, and the national tour of The King & I. She has taught at NYU School of Ed., Montclair State College, the Center for Modern Dance Ed. and Chen Dance Center. Ms. Dong organizes and designs the education programs for the Company’s homebased and residency programs. Most recently, Dian participated in the DEL FIT program. She has participated in the Kennedy Center’s Capacity Building Program led by Michael Kaiser, and attended the Executive Program for Non-Profit Leaders – Arts at Stanford Graduate Business School. She and H.T. Chen are the proud recipients of the 2012 Mid-Career Award from the Martha Hill Dance Fund.

Michelle Dorrance (Artistic Director/Choreographer/Dancer), founder and artistic director of Dorrance Dance, is one of the most sought after tap dancers of her generation and “one of the most imaginative tap choreographers working today” (The New Yorker). A 2016 United States Artists Award Recipient, 2015 MacArthur Fellow, a 2014 Alpert Award Winner, 2013 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award winner, 2012 Princess Grace Award Winner, 2012 Field Dance Fund Recipient, and 2011 Bessie Award Winner, Dorrance performs, teaches and choreographs throughout the world. Mentored by Gene Medler, Michelle grew up performing with the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble and has since performed with STOMP, Manhattan Tap, Savion Glover’s ‘Ti Dii’, JazzTap Ensemble, Barbara Duffy & Co, Rumba Tap, Derick Grant’s Imagine Tap!, and Jason Samuels Smith’s Chasing the Bird to rave reviews. She holds a BA from New York University, played bass for Darwin Deez, teaches on faculty at IFTRA, and is a Capezio Athlete. Michelle wishes to credit the master hoofers from whom she studied with in her youth for constant inspiration and influence.

Tina Erfer, MS, BC-DMT, NCC, LCAT, is a Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist, National Certified Counselor and Licensed Creative Arts Therapist. For over thirty-four years, she has worked as a dance/movement therapist in educational and psychiatric settings, with children and adolescents with special needs. She has served as Coordinator of the Hospital School Program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She has given numerous lectures and workshops at various agencies and universities, and has also provided many staff development and training sessions. Tina supervises and trains graduate students and entry-level dance/movement therapists. She has published on her dance/movement therapy work with children who have emotional challenges, and children with autism. Tina served for eight years on the Board of Directors of the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA); and is also past President of the New York and New Jersey Chapters of the ADTA. She is the Coordinator of the Alternate Route Dance/Movement Therapy Training Program at the Harkness Dance Center of 92nd Street Y in New York; as well as a faculty member in this program in New York City and in Montreal, Canada. She is also on the faculty of the Dance/Movement Therapy Training Program of the Inspirees Institute of Creative Arts Therapy, in China. Tina is the recipient of the American Dance Therapy Association 2015 Exceptional Service Award.

Dr. Nyama McCarthy-Brown is an Assistant Professor of Dance Pedagogy and Community Engagement, at The Ohio State University. Nyama has been an active performer, choreographer. She is also an established scholar, with articles in numerous academic publications. In 2017, her book, Dance Pedagogy for a Diverse World: Culturally Relevant Teaching in Research, Theory, and Practice was released. Currently she is developing an evolving duet about parenting a young black, male, child, that was performed in Brooklyn, and San Francisco, in 2019. Nyama teaches dance education and contemporary dance with Africanist underpinnings grounded the celebration of all movers. In addition, Dr. McCarthy-Brown is an active consultant and workshop facilitator for diversifying dance curriculum for organizations such as: San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Enrich Chicago, Dance Educator’s Coalition, Minnesota, Ohio Dance, and Rutgers University Dance Department.

Nel Shelby is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of dance through excellent documentation of live performances, high-quality production of livestreams and virtual programming, the creation of smart and engaging marketing videos, and the making of original documentaries and films covering a variety of topics in the field.

Her New York City-based video production company, Nel Shelby Productions, has grown to encompass a diverse list of dance clients. The entire team has training in movement, so they understand dance from both sides of the lens.

Nel produced and directed New York Emmy-nominated PS DANCE!, an hour-long documentary about dance education in NYC’s public schools, created with Jody Gottfried Arnhold and Joan Finkelstein and narrated by veteran television journalist Paula Zahn. PS DANCE! Had its premiere broadcast on THIRTEEN/WNET in May 2015 and has since aired on public television networks across the country. PS DANCE! Has also screened at a variety of educational and cultural panels for Dance/NYC, Teachers College at Columbia University, University of Maryland, National Dance Organization, Rutgers University, New York Historical Society, Dance on Camera at Lincoln center and more.

Nel’s half-hour dance documentary Where Women Don’t Dance featuring Nejla Y. Yatkin has had screenings at Links Hall in Chicago, Reston Center Stage in Virginia, Dance Place in Washington, D.C., Yonkers Film Festival and Jacob’s Pillow Dance. Nel has also created four short films for Wendy Whelan’s Restless Creature, and she collaborated with Adam Barruch Dance on a short film titled Folie à Deux, which was selected and screened at New York City’s Dance on Camera Festival and San Francisco Dance Film Festival.

Since 2004, Nel has served as Video Producer for the internationally celebrated Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires. Each season at the Pillow, Nel’s responsibilities include documenting aspects of festival culture in addition to its 20 mainstage dance performances, filming and overseeing documentation of more than 100 free performances and events, managing two dance videography interns and an apprentice, and educating students about the technical and philosophical aspects of filming dance.

Nel also serves as Video Producer at Vail Dance Festival where she creates short dance documentary films and marketing videos about the festival in addition to documenting performances. Her longer-form, half-hour documentary on Vail’s festival, The Altitude of Dance, debuted on Rocky Mountain PBS in May 2013.

Nel is currently co-directing No Dominion: The Ian Horvath Story with former Pacific Northwest Ballet dancer Margaret Mullin.

Nel has a long personal history with movement. She has a BFA in dance and is a certified Pilates instructor. In addition to her dance degree, Nel holds a B.S. in broadcast video. She lives in New York City with her husband, dance photographer Christopher Duggan, and their two children.

To learn more about Nel and her work, visit nelshelby.com and follow @nelshelby on Instagram.

Dr. Suzi Tortora Ed.D, BC-DMT, CMA, LCAT, LMHC, received a B.A. with honors in Child Study, along with teaching certification (K-8 and special needs preschool to 7 years), from Tufts University. She received her M.A. degree in dance therapy at New York University. Dr. Tortora received her doctorate in Early Childhood Education with a specialization in infancy development from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is an ADTR, which is the advanced level accreditation certification of the American Dance Therapy Association. She is also a Certified Laban Movement Analyst (CMA); a Kestenberg Movement Profiler (KMP); has studied Body-Mind Centering with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen; authentic movement with Janet Adler, anatomy, kinesiology and ideokinesis with Irene Dowd; and received certification in Yoga for the Special Child with Sonia Sumar. Her postgraduate continued professional education courses include Dr. Greenspan’s Infancy and Early Childhood Intervention training course, and numerous Zero-to-Three Training Institutes.

Martie Barylick, MA, CMA, teaches in the Department of Dance at Mason Gross School of the Arts in Rutgers University, supervises student teachers for the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, and is a dance education coach for the New York City Department of Education.  She has taught dance since 1975, when she helped found the PACE Program, an integrated performing arts elective program at Mamaroneck High School in Mamaroneck NY.  In 1981, that program was named by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund as one of the ten best public school arts programs in the country.  Currently in its 37th year, PACE is the most enduring non-pre-professional integrated performing arts program in New York State.  At Mamaroneck, she produced and created lighting design for 900 student-choreographed dances and was the subject of the Getty documentary “Teaching In and Through the Arts.”   A graduate of Brown University, Barylick trained in ballet, tap, modern, and contact improvisation, studying with Alfredo Corvino, Ludmilla Raianova, Tonia Shimin, Jennifer Muller, Bill Evans, Lisa Kraus, and KJ Holmes. She has also studied composition with Alice Teirstein and Susan Rethorst.

A Certified Movement Analyst, Barylick has taught at the Laban Institute in New York City, has provided professional development for teachers in New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.  She has published articles in Daedalus, Movement Studies, and the Journal of Dance Education.  A member of the National Dance Education Organization since its inception, she has presented at national conferences and served on its board of directors.

She maintains her integrated-arts identity by presenting at conferences sponsored by NYSTEA, the New York State Theatre Education Association.  And she maintains her connection to dance scholarship by reviewing and editing for the online Journal of Laban Movement Studies.

Monica Bill Barnes is a choreographer, performer, and the Artistic Director of Monica Bill Barnes & Company. Barnes founded MBB&CO in 1997 with the mission to bring dance where it doesn’t belong. The company consists of a team of collaborators including Anna Bass (Associate Artistic Director/Performer); Robbie Saenz de Viteri (Creative Producing Director/Performer) and designers Kelly Hanson and Jane Cox. The company has performed in venues ranging from Upright Citizen’s Brigade to The Sydney Opera House, and has been presented in more than 75 cities throughout the US and internationally.  They create and produce each work entirely from its own rulebook—dancing to radio interviews on the biggest stages in the world, hosting a weekly show in a crowded office party, or leading a choreographed exercise routine in an art museum.  Within each of these new contexts and borrowed environments, they constantly find humor in our awkward, everyday triumphs and failures.

Brian Brooks’ work seeks to understand essential forces within and around the human body through rigorous physical experimentation. A 2019 Mellon Foundation Creative Artist Fellow at University of Washington, his current research investigates the intersection of dance and immersive technologies.

Brooks recently completed a three-year appointment as Choreographer in Residence at The Harris Theater in Chicago, where he created works for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Miami City Ballet and Brian Brooks Moving Company. His New York-based company has toured internationally since 2002 with presentations by The Joyce Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Jacob’s Pillow, American Dance Festival, Lumberyard Performing Arts, and Meany Center for the Performing Arts.

Brooks has been commissioned by Damian Woetzel/Vail International Dance Festival for multiple works, including First Fall, a duet with NYC Ballet Associate Artistic Director and former Principal Wendy Whelan. Off-Broadway, he has choreographed A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2013, dir. Julie Taymor) and Pericles (2016, dir. Trevor Nunn) for Theatre for a New Audience. Brooks has created dances for The Juilliard School, Boston Conservatory, Ballet Tech Chicago Academy for the Arts, and numerous universities and repertory dance company; worked as a Teaching Artist at Lincoln Center Education; and taught at high schools and colleges, including courses at Rutgers and Princeton universities. Awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, NY City Center Fellowship and Joyce Theater Residency.

Joanna Brotman, CMA, teaches on the core faculty of the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies Certification Programs in Scotland and Israel. She also designs and facilitates movement intensives for dancers, dance educators, and dance therapists internationally. Most recently she taught Moving Our Selves in Amsterdam, ADODE: Body as Home in Warsaw, and The Laban Bartenieff Movement System in Dance Education: Pedagogy & Process in Israel. Joanna teaches Speakable Body, a workshop series at the Gibney Dance Center in New York City. She is a Part-Time Lecturer in the Masters of Dance Education Program (K-12 Certification) at Rutgers University. Joanna is certified in Evans Laban/Bartenieff-Based Dance Technique and Pedagogy and is on the dance faculty of The Dalton School, where she has been developing and implementing innovative curriculum for middle and high school students for over 25 years. Joanna’s dance writing can be found in PAJ: Journal of Performance and Art (MIT Press).

Dr. Theodore (Ted) Dimon, author of The Body in Motion, is an internationally renowned teacher of mind/body disciplines. Dr Dimon’s work on anatomy and movement is part of a larger field of research which explores human holistic design. Ted received both masters and doctorate degrees in education from Harvard University. He has written five books, including the best-selling Anatomy of the Moving Body,The Body in Motion, Your Body, Your Voice, The Elements of Skill, and The Undivided Self. The founder and Director of the Dimon Institute, he gives lectures and workshops across the US and Europe. More information about Dr Dimon’s work and The Dimon Institute can be found on the website: www.dimoninstitute.org 

Kimani Fowlin is an internationally recognized dancer, choreographer and educator. Recently awarded the New York State Dance Education Association’s Outstanding Dance Educator Award, Kimani is an assistant professor of dance and is the director of the Dance Program at Drew University. Work abroad includes performing and teaching in Russia as part of the Fifth International Festival of Movement and Dance on the Volga; performing in Ghana for Panafest; and choreographing and performing in Greece with funk R&B band Milo Z.  

To serve the youngest among us, she is co-founder of Boom!Beep!Bop! (A children’s dance class rooted in the African Diaspora).  She has collaborated with Broadway performer Nicole De Weever supporting her organization in St. Maarten, Art Saves Lives; author, activist Renee Watson; playwright Nina Angela Mercer; and international visual artist Justin Randolph Thompson. She has also performed and/or choreographed for Ronald K. Brown, David Rousseve, Adia Whitaker, Youssouf Koumbassa, Andrea E. Woods, Souloworks, M’Zawa Danz, Umoja Dance, Harambee Dance Company, Antibalis (a 15-member Afrobeat Orchestra). 

Kimani received her MFA in Dance from the University of Wisconsin. She has been on the Mason Gross Dance faculty at Rutgers University for over twenty-two years, and teaches dance residencies throughout New York City for Brooklyn Academy of Music and DreamYard Project. As an AFAA Certified Group Fitness Instructor she teaches and organizes events for Crunch in New York City.  She was the Dance Consultant for the Cathedral Arts Live Program in Jersey City and served as an advisory member for the Field Leadership Fund (FLF) in NYC. 

Kimani is currently collaborating with Daniel Burkholder on a Milwaukee funded community arts project on Race, Gender, and Parenting: Embodied Truth: Finding Ways to Move Together. In January of 2020 she co-organized and co-facilitated an immersion: Dancing Around Race: Whiteness in Higher Education at the University of Utah. Her most recent and exciting project to date is managing and co-facilitating the weekly interview series: Black Dance Stories with Charmaine Warren, dance historian, writer and producer. 

Kimani is dedicated to creating art with a purpose — social justice is at the core of her dance making. 

Anne Green Gilbert is the Founding Director of the Creative Dance Center, Kaleidoscope Dance Company, and the Summer Dance Institute for Teachers in Seattle, Washington. Anne has had a varied teaching career starting as an elementary school teacher, moving on to dance and pedagogy classes at University of Illinois Chicago and University of Washington, then teaching children’s dance classes at Cornish College and Bill Evans/Dance Theatre Seattle before starting the Creative Dance Center in 1981. Anne was an adjunct professor for Lesley University from 1994-2004. She has conducted hundreds of workshops for children and adults across the USA and abroad as well as teaching daily classes for all ages at CDC for over thirty-five years. Anne is internationally recognized for her work with young artists and the creative process. She has choreographed dances for university dance companies as well as local Northwest dance companies and Kaleidoscope. Anne is the author of four dance textbooks: Teaching the Three Rs Through Movement Experiences, Creative Dance for All Ages (1^st and 2^nd ed.) and Brain-Compatible Dance Education, two instructional DVDs (BrainDance 2003/2016 and Teaching Creative Dance), and numerous articles. Her awards include the 2005 NDA Scholar/Artist Award, the 2011 NDEO Lifetime Achievement Award, the Lawrence Tenney Stevens American Dance Award in 2014 for her work with boys and men in dance, and the American Dance Festival Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching in 2016.

Susan Gingrasso, MA, CMA, LOD Certification Specialist and Professor Emeritus (University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point), received NDEOs Outstanding Dance Educator Award in Higher Education in recognition of her ability to build relationships among disciplines and develop student-centered dance education practices. Her research focuses on how we develop dance literacy through applying Language of Dance and Laban Movement Analysis to dance education. The Associate Director for the Language of Dance® (LOD) Center, USA, Susan organizes and teaches LOD and Developing Dance Literacy courses for Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) in New York City. Susan serves as the Director of Resources Review for National Dance Education Organization and Treasurer for the International Council of Kinetogaphy Laban (ICKL).

Diane Jacobowitz, Executive & Artistic Director (BFA, Ohio State University; MFA, Connecticut College) has a distinguished career in performing, choreography and arts administration. She has taught dance to youth and adults of all ages and backgrounds for 26 years at numerous institutions. She has directed and taught at several programs including the Dance Department at Westchester Music and Arts Camp and Hunter College Dance Department. She was instrumental in establishing the Dance Major at Long Island University, where she was a professor for 9 years teaching ballet, modern, choreography, aerobics and speech. She taught and directed the middle school dance program and afterschool dance elective at the Berkeley Carroll School in Park Slope for 6 years. Diane choreographed and directed her own company, the Diane Jacobowitz Dance Theater for 15 years, during which time, the company toured, performed and engaged in residencies throughout the Northeast. Her company, DJDT performed at BAM in 1992. Diane has also performed with several prominent choreographers including Kenneth King, Marta Renzi, Grethe Holby, Kathy Duncan and Annabelle Gamson. She founded Dancewave in 1995 with the mission of  bringing dance to a broad spectrum of the city youth population, particularly to those talented dancers who lacked the means to afford pre-professional training. Her main focus has been working with young people as artists in the making and connecting them early to the rigor of high level performance and exposure to world renowned dance artists. As Executive/Artistic Director of Dancewave for the past 20 years, she has developed innovative programming to capture the talents and imagination of young dancers. Some of the programs she has developed, in addition to the Dancewave Company model, include Dancing Through College and Beyond, the Dance Career Symposium and the Kids Cafe Festival. Under her leadership, Dancewave currently reaches over 3,000 young people citywide through programs both at the Dancewave School and in partnership with over ten New York City public schools. She is currently leading the campaign for Dancewave’s capital project – the opening/launch of a brand new dance center in downtown Brooklyn in 2017.

LARRY KEIGWIN is a native New Yorker and choreographer who has danced his way from the Metropolitan Opera to downtown clubs to Broadway and back. He founded KEIGWIN + COMPANY in 2003 and as Artistic Director, Keigwin has led the company as it has performed at theaters and dance festivals around the world. KEIGWIN + COMPANY presents Keigwin’s electrifying brand of contemporary dance on a myriad of stages including, The Kennedy Center, The Joyce Theater, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, New York City Center, among others. Since his company’s premiere performance at Joyce Soho in 2003, Keigwin has created dozens of dances for himself and his dancers, as well as for Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance, Royal New Zealand Ballet, The Martha Graham Dance Company, New York Choreographic Institute, The Juilliard School, Vail International Dance Festival, and many others. His work in musical theater includes choreography for the 2011 production of the musical “Tales of the City” at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and the off-Broadway production of “Rent,” for which he received the 2011 Joe A. Callaway Award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. In 2013, Keigwin choreographed the Broadway musical “If/Then,” starring Idina Menzel.

Keigwin has designed and choreographed special events including “Fashion’s Night Out: The Show” in New York, which was produced by Voguemagazine and featured more than 150 of the industry’s top models. Keigwin also has mounted several versions of Bolero, his acclaimed large-scale community project that has been commissioned by 12 communities across the country. Keigwin has created Keigwin Kabaret, a fusion of modern dance, vaudeville, and burlesque presented by the Public Theater at Joe’s Pub and by Symphony Space. As a dancer, Keigwin has danced at the Metropolitan Opera in Doug Varone’s “Le Sacre Du Printemps” and Julie Taymor’s “The Magic Flute,” in addition to his work with Mark Dendy (receiving a Bessie Award in 1998 for his performance in “Dream Analysis”), Jane Comfort, John Jasperse, Doug Elkins, Zvi Gotheiner, and David Rousseve.  He appeared in the Broadway show “Dance of the Vampires,” the Off-Broadway show “The Wild Party” and the Julie Taymor, Oscar nominated film “Across the Universe.” He is a co-founder of the Green Box Arts Festival in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado, a multi-disciplinary festival designed to increase cultural opportunities in the region, as well as provide creative residencies to young, emerging choreographers.

Andrea Markus received her MA in Dance and Dance Education from New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. She has traveled to Guinea, West Africa to study dance and drumming with the masters of the national companies Les Ballets Africains and Ballet Djoliba. Ms. Markus has performed with the Alpha Omega 1-7 Theatrical Dance Company, based in New York City, performing dance works by George Faison, Eleo Pomare, Marshall Romaine, Andy Torres, and others. She has also danced and co-directed Magbana Drum & Dance NYC, a West African-based performance group of percussionists and dancers. She has taught West African and Afro-Caribbean dance to students in grades K-12 as a teaching artist for CREATE!, Young Audiences of New York, ArtsConnection and Global Arts to Go arts-in-education programs. Ms. Markus is currently a faculty member of Marymount Manhattan’s Department of Dance and New York University’s Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions.

Dr. Mila Parrish, PhD, MA, is the Director of Dance Education and Dance Teacher Certification at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Parrish is nationally and internationally recognized for her work in dance pedagogy, educational technology and interdisciplinary instruction. Prior to joining the UNCG Department of Dance, Parrish was an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina and Arizona State University where she served as Director of Dance Education, oversaw dance education courses and coordinated K-12 dance teacher certification program. She also serves as Special Guest Faculty with the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at 92Y.

Parrish is the 2011 recipient of the SCDA Dance Advocacy Award and the 2012 Faculty Advisor Award from the University of South Carolina. She established numerous service and community engagement initiatives including; Dancers Connect a free community dance program for middle and high school students, iDance AZ and iDance SC a standards-based curriculum delivery system of dance instruction using videoconferenced technologies, Embodied History reconstruction initiatives, Magellan undergraduate scholarship, and Hip Hop for Hope, Jazz it Up, Evolving Dance through Connectivity, Movement of Inspired Minds professional development programs.

Prior to her career in higher education, Parrish was a professional dancer and choreographer in NYC, performing with modern, ballet and theatre companies, most notably, The Jean Erdman Theater of Dance, with whom she toured nationally. Her company, Koshin Dance Theater has been presented at various NYC venues including DIA Center for the Arts, PS 122, the Morningside Dance Festival and St. Mark’s Church. She also worked in public and private schools as a Program Director, Teaching-Artist and Teacher-Collaborator for BOCES Arts, Creative Arts Laboratory, ArtsBridge America, and the ABC Schools program.

Mila received a BFA in choreography and performance and K-12 Teachers Certification from the University of Michigan; an MA in Dance Education from Columbia University in New York and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in Art Education. She is a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies in NYC with publications on Labanotation, Motif Writing and enhanced movement cognition. She has served on the board of the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) as the Director of Technology, the Dance Notation Bureau (DNB), the Journal for Learning in the Arts (JLTA) and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Dance and the Child International (DaCi) as the Newsletter Editor.

Parrish is a leader in the dance education community offering professional development courses, seminars and workshops throughout the US and in Canada, China, Finland, Brazil, Greece, Portugal, and the Netherlands. Her research and publications have established new trends in movement technology, integrated curriculum, and teacher training in the digital arena. Recently, Parrish gave the Keynote Address on Dance and Technology at the Taipei Dance Education Research Consortium in Taipei, Taiwan.

JoDe Romano began her professional dance career at the age of 3. She is a graduate of and former instructor at the High School for the Performing Arts, Houston Texas and has appeared as a featured dancer in The Houston Grand Opera’s production of Carmen.

JoDe has also danced in the Franco Zeffirelli production of Carmen at the New York’s Metropolitan Opera before former President and Mrs. Clinton. Starring Placido Domingo and Maria Benitez, this version of Bizet’s classic was broadcast on the PBS series “Live From Lincoln Center” and toured Japan. Excerpts from this production were also part of the Met’s 3 Tenors Gala 2000.

For over 20 years, JoDe lived. studied and performed Spanish dance in Spain and Japan, and was a soloist and choreographer for the José Greco Dance Company. Previous to her work with Mr. Greco, JoDe danced flamenco as part of The Charo Show in Las Vegas with Jerry Lewis and others.

JoDe’s professional credits include her choreography of The Broadway Workshop production of Rita Hayworth- Hollywood Goddess. She has also taught workshops at The Alvin Ailey Studio and Ballet Hispanico. In addition, she has choreographed numerous zarzuelas (traditional Spanish operas) and the mixed media dramatic presentation, Picasso’s Guernica, at The Thalia theater in New York. JoDe performed at the “Sing for a Cure” benefit at the New York’s Richard Rodgers Broadway Theater with special guest Mike Wallace, which was held to raise funds for research into Lou Gherig’s disease.

Currently, JoDe conducts Spanish dance and castanet classes for adults at 92Y and is a graduate of DEL. JoDe was recently a guest teacher at Hunter college in New York City and developed and taught a DEL workshop. She also teaches at Studio Maestro and Steps in New York City, as well as other locations throughout the NY metropolitan area and has been featured on the Dr. Oz show teaching a castanet workout. She is available for performances, lecture demonstrations, and workshops, and has completed a series of instructional DVD’s on castanet and flamenco movement techniques. JoDe has also produced and played castanets on her Spanish Classical Piano and Castanets CD.

EDUARDO VILARO (Artistic Director & CEO) joined Ballet Hispánico as Artistic Director in August 2009, becoming only the second person to head the company since it was founded in 1970. In 2015, Mr. Vilaro took on the additional role of Chief Executive Officer of Ballet Hispánico. He has been part of the Ballet Hispánico family since 1985 as a dancer and educator, after which he began a ten-year record of achievement as Founder and Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago. Mr. Vilaro has infused Ballet Hispánico’s legacy with a bold and eclectic brand of contemporary dance that reflects America’s changing cultural landscape. Born in Cuba and raised in New York from the age of six, he is a frequent speaker on the merits of cultural diversity and dance education.  

Mr. Vilaro’s own choreography is devoted to capturing the spiritual, sensual and historical essence of Latino cultures. He created over 20 ballets for Luna Negra and has received commissions from the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Grant Park Festival, the Lexington Ballet and the Chicago Symphony. In 2001, he was a recipient of a Ruth Page Award for choreography, and in 2003, he was honored for his choreographic work at Panama’s II International Festival of Ballet. Mr. Vilaro was also inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame in 2016 and was awarded HOMBRE Magazine’s 2017 Arts & Culture Trailblazer of the Year. In 2019, Mr. Vilaro was the recipient of the West Side Spirit’s WESTY Award, was honored by WNET for his contributions to the arts, and most recently, was the recipient of the James W. Dodge Foreign Language Advocate Award. 

Rachel Anne Wurman is the Administrative Associate for the LODC, USA. She is certified in stage two Language of Dance (LOD) fundamentals as well as certified through Dance Educators of America and is a DEL Foundations graduate. Ms. Wurman taught, directed, and choreographed for Frank Sinatra School of the Arts and her classes were featured on NBC’s Weekend Today, CNN, Univision, and Tavis Smiley. At Sinatra, she taught musical theatre dance techniques, dance and musical theatre histories, and motif writing for the Dance Department. She also directed the Musical Theatre Program for two years and choreographed for this program for three years.

Ms. Wurman has served as the Manhattan Dance Coach for NYC Teacher Effectiveness in the Arts since the programs inception. In the past, Rachel was on the Framing Committee for NYC TE/Arts, led NYC DOE Professional Development as a Facilitator in Dance, and proctored/adjudicated the NYC Department of Education (DOE) Arts Achieve dance assessments. She served as the E-communications board committee member for the National Dance Education Organization for 2 terms. Rachel proudly received the first ever New York State Dance Education Association K-12 Award in 2014. This master teacher is one of only four whose curricula was selected and purchased by the 92nd Street Y’s Dance Education Laboratory in partnership with the NYC DOE to mentor new dance teachers on curriculum planning and writing.

While at NYU, Rachel performed and taught with the Kaleidoscope dance company and performed at numerous NYU Concerts. She was Co-President for the Student Chapter of NDEO and was awarded the first ever NDEO Student Scholarship in 2004.  Rachel was chosen teaching assistant to Dr. Rima Faber and research assistant to Dr. Edward Warburton. Upon graduation, Rachel was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Dance Education Graduate Program award. After graduation, she directed and developed the curriculum for the PS 163 dance program for which she was featured in The New York Times.

Her professional career began after graduating from Syracuse University when this actor, singer and dancer performed and choreographed for many theatres in Pennsylvania and Upstate New York, including Salt City Center, Salt Works, The New Works Festival at City Theatre and the Penn Avenue Theatre for The Club, named best choreography of 2000 by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. She performed in R&B artist Michael Ashanti’s music video, appeared in numerous commercials and television shows, and earned her SAG/AFTRA card. Rachel completed Luigi’s Technique and Style intensive and the Simonson Method of Teacher Training. Ms. Wurman is currently implementing her curriculum, and working as Dance Educator and Choreographer for the dance program at PS 11 in Manhattan.

Nicole Wolcott  is a choreographer, teacher and performer based in Brooklyn, NY and the Co-Founder and Education Director for KEIGWIN + COMPANY. Called “One of today’s finest dance comedians and a knockout dancer,” by the New York Times, Nicole has enjoyed a long career with dance companies, rock bands and video artists around the country and been the subject of a feature article in DANCE TEACHER magazine.  Some of the highlights of her career are dancing for the Metropolitan Opera, being a featured dancer in Across The Universe an oscar nominated feature film directed by Julie Taymor and being the Associate Choreographer for the original Broadway production of If/Then starring Idina Menzel in 2015.  Nicole also enjoys directing the KEIGWIN + COMPANY Summer Intensive at The Juilliard School each year.  Wolcott’s own choreography has been performed in New York City at a range of venues from The Joyce Theater to CBGB’s. Currently she is touring her evening length solo titled PaperPieces. Quinn Baston of Offoffoff.com says, “Nicole Wolcott’s PaperPieces is/are all over the place literally and emotionally, but that is somehow perfect.” 

Growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar earned her B.A. in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and her M.F.A. in dance from Florida State University. In 1980 Jawole moved to New York City to study with Dianne McIntyre at Sounds in Motion. In 1984 Jawole founded Urban Bush Women (UBW) as a performance ensemble dedicated to exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change.  

She has created over 34 works for UBW, as well as for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and others. Her collaborations include Compagnie Jant-Bi from Senegal and Nora Chipaumire. Her company has toured five continents and was selected as one of three U.S. dance companies to inaugurate a cultural diplomacy program for the U.S. Department of State in 2010.  

 She is the founder of UBW Summer Leadership Institute, founding Artistic Director and Visioning Partner of UBW and currently holds the position of the Nancy Smith Fichter Professor of Dance and Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor at Florida State University. Jawole received a 2008 United States Artists Wynn fellowship and a 2009 fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial. Jawole received the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and honorary degrees from Tufts University and Rutgers University. Jawole received the Dance Magazine Award in 2015 and the Dance/USA Honor Award in 2016. Recently, Jawole received the 2017 Bessie Lifetime Achievement in Dance Award for her work in the field. 

Dr. Barbara Bashaw, Ed.D., CMA  is the Graduate Director of Dance Education and Dance Teacher Certification at Mason Gross School of the Arts and the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University as well as the Director of the Rutgers Summer Dance Conservatory and advisor to the Rutgers/American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School satellite division.

Bashaw first began working as a teaching artist for the 92Y School Partners Program in 1996, and then began teaching workshops and intensives for the Dance Education Laboratory in 1997. Between 1999 and 2002 she co-taught the DEL Foundations course with founder, Jody Arnhold. She continues to teach summer intensives for DEL. 

Bashaw holds permanent K-12 teacher certification in dance from New York and New Jersey and has worked in dozens of elementary and secondary schools as a teaching-artist with organizations such as the 92Y, ArtsConnection and the Creative Arts Laboratory. In 1999 she founded the dance program at P.S. 295, The Studio School for Arts & Culture in Brooklyn, NY. There she collaborated with young choreographers in creating social justice works and developed a dance curriculum that reinterpreted the literacy standards as an embodied frame for dance learning. Her acclaimed Choreographers’ Workshop methods and multi-school Dance Notation Pen Pal Project have been noted Dance Teacher magazine and NYC’s Best Schools.

Her research interests include embodied cognition, artistic development of children, and liberatory pedagogy. She has presented her work extensively at international and national conferences and is the recipient of the 2003 National Dance Education Organization Emerging Visionary Award.

Bashaw is the former director of the Dance Education Program at New York University and is the 2009 recipient of the NYU Steinhardt Teaching Excellence Award.  She is a founding member of NYSDEA. Currently she serves on the dance writing team for the new NCCAS national standards in dance education, a reviewer for the NYC DOE i3 assessment project, and the proctoring team for the New Jersey Career and Technical Education dance and theater exams. She is a board member of DanceNJ.

She has worked professionally as a choreographer for regional theater companies creating work for a wide range of musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof, Music Man, and The Fantastics. In 1996 she co-founded The Bridge for Dance studio on Broadway in NYC.  She has trained extensively in Limon modern, Afro-Brazilian dance, Laban Movement Analysis, Body-Mind Centering.

Bashaw has a young family with Doug Elkins, an internationally acclaimed choreographer and Guggenheim Award recipient.

Martha Eddy, EdD, CMA – Educational Consultant. Martha Eddy has taught nationally and internationally in both academic and arts institutions, specializing in wellness, perception, movement/dance, and dealing with conflict and trauma. She established The Center for Kinesthetic Education (CKE) and Eyes Open Minds – programs for children and educators, and Moving On Center’s Dynamic Embodiment Somatic Movement Therapy Training (DE-SMTT). She currently provides pre-K-12 programming and professional development through CKE. She began studies with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in 1976 and Irmgard Bartenieff in 1978.  Martha teaches these somatic courses as part of SUNY/Empire State College Masters degree program. She teaches specialized workshops on Conflict Resolution through movement and Dance, and on Brain-based Movement Assessment and Interventions.  She is co-Founder/director with Carol Swann of Moving On Center based in Oakland, CA and NY.  She and Carol Swann have been committed to developing and bringing “Social Somatics” into the educational and community realm.  Her work with violence prevention and conflict work with children in public schools is represented through Embody Peace Organization. She serves as a Senior Project Advisor for Inner Resilience’s Stress Reduction Days for teachers in the NYC.  Martha also performs periodically and co-choreographed Global Water Dances.

Ana Nery Fragoso is originally from the Canary Islands, Spain, where she performed and choreographed extensively. She attended the Alvin Nikolais Dance Lab (NYC) for two years, graduated from Hunter College (B.A. Dance /Education) and earned a M.F.A. in Choreography from Sarah Lawrence College. She has been the recipient of two grants from the Ministry of Culture in Spain and a J. Javits Fellowship award. For eleven years, Ana Nery taught at P.S. 315, a Performing Arts Elementary School in Brooklyn, where she created a dance curriculum supported by the Laban Movement Analysis framework that emphasized improvisation, technique and dance making. She was the dance specialist at the East Village Community School in Manhattan as well where she created a brand new dance program!

Mrs. Fragoso was a member of the New York City Department of Education Dance Blueprint Writing Committee and worked as a NYCDOE dance facilitator, co-designing professional development workshops for New York City Department of Education dance specialists.

She worked as a dance coach for the Artful Learning Community Grant (ALC) doing action research to develop strategies for collaborative inquiry around formative assessment practices and student learning in dance for six years and was part of the Arts Achieve team, a four-year project that developed innovative dance assessment tools and strategies.

Mrs. Fragoso has been a faculty member of the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at the 92nd St Y from 2007 to 2014. She is currently the Dance Director for the NYCDOE Office of Arts and Special Projects.

Kathleen Isaac, MA, is the Director of the Arnhold Dance Education Programs at CUNY Hunter College. She has been a leader in dance professional development, advocacy, K-12 teaching practice and dance assessment in New York City, New York State, nationally and internationally.  She authored, provided professional development for and was lead facilitator and trainer for Revelations – An Interdisciplinary Approach for the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater from 1999-2010.  She wrote Read My Hips® for the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, worked as a mentor with Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Education Director through the DELCAP program, in the creation of the Firebird Curriculum.  Ms. Isaac continues to learn about and share best practices in student-centered integration of dance and technology, student-to-student dance mentoring and interdisciplinary models of learning.  Her work with dance students in public schools for over 25 years has been featured in the New York Times, Dance Magazine, Dance Teacher, NBC News, CNN and Bravo.  Her choreography for students has been performed at Hunter College, the Alvin Ailey Studios, Apollo Theater, Lincoln Center, New York City Center Studios and at Mayor Bloomberg’s 2008 State of the City Address at Flushing Meadows Park.  Kathleen is a New York State Dance Education Association Board Member.

Jen Katz, MA, is an Early Childhood Educator, Dance Educator, and Performer in New York City.  She began her dance training at The Long Island High School for the Arts (LIHSA), where she served as a faculty member in 2002.  Jen earned a BA in Dance Performance and Choreography from the University of Maryland, College Park and a MA in Dance Education at NYU. She has also taken many courses and participated in dance education trainings at DEL. Most recently, Jen completed Module 1 of the CMA program at LIMS in NYC.  Jen has been working in early childhood for the past 9 years teaching at the 92nd Street Y Nursery School.  Committed to integrating dance into the early childhood classroom, Jen has provided professional development workshops and presentations on this topic to early childhood educators at local and national conferences including NDEO, ATIS, and Wonderplay – the 92nd Street Y’s early childhood learning conference.  In addition to teaching at the 92nd Street Y Nursery School, Jen is also involved in developing WonderDance – a multisensory, and interdisciplinary early childhood dance curriculum.  When Jen isn’t working she is either traveling, studying improv comedy, or performing with Claire Porter’s PORTABLES.  In October of 2012, she premiered a new piece called Lady Lamp at the DanceNow Festival at Joe’s Pub and won the audience challenge vote for the evening.

Michael Anthony Kerr, MA holds an MA degree from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and a B.A. degree in The Arts/Dance from the SUNY College at Buffalo. He is a NYS Certified K-12 Dance Teacher, employed by the NYC Department of Education (NYCDOE) since 1996, he is also an instructor at Rutgers, Mason Gross School of the Arts. Since 2000,Mr. Kerr has developed the dance program at New Voices School of Academic & Creative Arts; one of ten NYC public middle schools selectedas an Exemplary Site for Arts Education. In 2004-2005, he served on the curriculum writing committee of the NYCDOE Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance, Pre-K–12 and since as a professional development facilitator for middle sch ool dance educators. During this time, he also served as Chair of UFT/NYC Dance Educators and as a cooperating teacher for Columbia University Teachers College and New York University (NYU)Steinhardt Music & Performing Arts Professions Program in Dance Education. His professional experience has also encompassed teaching in the private sector, performing and choreographing in the United States and Europe. He has conducted workshops, served as a panel speaker, teaching artist and guest lecturer for venues such as Dance Teacher Magazine Annual Teacher Conference, American Dance Guild, NYU, CW Post LIU, The Dalton School, Nimbus Dance Works, NJAHPERD, Accademia Dance Center (IT), Young Dancers in Repertory and NDEO. Throughout his teaching career hehas performed for a variety of choreographers and dance companies including Maher Benham’s Coyotes Dancers, Deborah Damast & Dancers, Gemini Dance Theater, Floorplay Contemporary Dance Theater, Amy Kail, Dance Consort Mezzacappa-Gabrian and Deanna Losi whi e teaching in the Tuscany region of Italy for several years. Michael is a member ofNDEO/Dance NJ, The Field and in the process of forming his own companyDanceKerr & Dancers.

Ellen Robbins has been teaching dance since 1966. She was the resident dance educator at Dance Theater Workshop in NYC for 34 years. Robbins is a recipient of the 1993 Arts in Education Roundtable Award and the 1986 “Bessie” (New York Dance and Performance Award) for her work with children. In May 2015, she was the honoree of the LaMama Moves Gala. She has taught Dance Education at Sarah Lawrence College and has guest-lectured around the country and abroad. She has been on the faculties of the 92nd St. Y, Bennington College July Program, and with ArtsConnection, a performance arts project for public school children. She has directed the Young Dancers School at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. In the summer of 2001, Dances by Very Young Choreographerswas produced at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Doris Duke Theater. Robbins is known for her extensive repertoire of group dances choreographed in collaboration with children.

Joan Sax, M.S., is originally from New York City.  She graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in Elementary Education.  She then went on to receive her M.S. in Administration and Supervision from Teacher’s College.  Joan started out teaching at PS 75, which was a progressive school that encouraged her to develop her own voice and passions, which was always dance.  She developed the dance program at PS 75 and later at PS 3.  She took a leave of absence from teaching to attend the Laban Institute of Movement Studies in Surrey, England to further develop her love and teaching skills for dance, children, and elementary education.  Joan has been a guest lecturer at DEL since its inception and teaches courses on Art and Dance and has co-taught Foundations with Jody.  She is now a mentor for new dance teachers through the NYCDOE.

Alice Teirstein is a New York dancer, choreographer and award-winning dance educator, and is proud to be associated with DEL.  She is founding director of Young Dancemakers Company, entering its 17th season in July 2012,  a unique, free summer dance ensemble of NYC teens  dedicated to creating original choreography presented in free touring concerts performed city-wide, for audiences of over 1500 young people and adults each season.  Company members are selected annually by audition, drawn from throughout the NYC public high schools. The free project is made possible by generous foundation support.

Alice has an extensive background in nurturing creative work from teenagers. She designed and developed the dance curriculum for grades 7-12 at the Fieldston School, where she served on the faculty for over 3 decades, leading the dance program. She initiated the dance program’s Dance Out Project, bringing her students into the South Bronx public schools, and into the city’s homeless shelters where they served as group leaders in dance workshops, for which she received an award from the city’s Human Resources Administration and from NYFA.  For three years she was Co-Director of the 92nd St. Y’s Young Masters Repertory Ensemble. For many years she was on the dance faculty of the Mid-Westchester Y, where she directed the Y’s teen dance ensemble. She was recently appointed as a Teaching Artist for the Dance Theater of Harlem’s outreach program, Dancing Through Barriers.

She has led workshops for dance teachers for DEL, the NYC Department of Education Principals, NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education, and many other organizations. She has been honored as a choreographer and educator, with awards from The Pearl Theatre, The Dance Library of Israel, The Bronx Arts Ensemble, and Gina Gibney’s “Women at Work.”

As a choreographer/dancer, she has created and performed in numerous concerts produced at major dance venues in and out of New York City, including Jacobs Pillow, New York’s Dance Theater Workshop, Symphony Space, Joyce Soho, among others. She was a choreographer-in-residence for three years at The Yard, in Martha’s Vineyard. MA. Her choreography was presented annually in NYC parks as part of Midsummer Dances, a free summer concert series which she co-founded in 1984 with grant awards from NYSCA and DCA. She has performed in the works of choreographers such as Stephan Koplowitz, Janis Brenner, Jody Oberfelder, Claire Porter, and Gus Solomons, jr among others. In the past decade she and Stuart Hodes, noted Graham dancer and teacher, received highly enthusiastic press acclaim for duets they co-created and performed at major concert venues in New York.