Named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine, CAITLIN TRAINOR is the artistic director of Trainor Dance. She is also a member of the faculty at Barnard College/Columbia University and the founder of Dancio, providing on-demand dance classes with world-renowned teachers. Her areas of interest include reducing barriers to access in dance education, embodied interconnection, and dance as a primal force.

Trainor’s creative work ranges from irreverently neoclassical to wildly experimental, and includes dances for the concert stage, as well as for stairwells, galleries, and gardens. Her company has performed at Jacob’s Pillow and numerous regional dance destinations, as well as the World Science Festival for a project that uses dance to explain a relatively sophisticated machine learning paradigm. Dancio offers 100 streaming classes and counting, and is in use in over 50 countries on earth. Find Caitlin online at www.trainordance and www.dancio.com

www.dancio.com

Carrie Blake is a management consultant, researcher, project manager and administrator dedicated to the cultural sector. Since 2006, she has been a senior member of the Webb Mgmt team. In that role, she has directed research and analysis on more than 250 studies and plans.  Her recent research with Dance/NYC focused on New York City’s vast fiscally sponsored arts landscape and informed the City’s first ever cultural plan.

Before joining the firm, Carrie was the Associate Producer for the Office of Arts & Cultural Programming at Montclair State University (NJ) where she played a pivotal role in the establishment of Peak Performances, an ambitious new presenting, producing and commissioning program. Collaborating with innovative experimental artists from across the nation and around the world, Carrie coordinated regional, national and world premieres while establishing identity, presence, structure and policy for MSU’s new venture. 

Prior to MSU, Carrie developed and managed fundraising events and campaigns for both The Drama League, a New York City-based nonprofit committed to developing artists and audiences for the American theatre, and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (Madison, WI). She also worked in marketing for the Madison Civic Center as management prepared for expansion to what is now the Overture Center.

Carrie is a proud alumna of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business where she completed several consulting projects, including business planning and market research for arts organizations. Her graduate research focused on the university arts presenters’ multifarious existence within university and community contexts.

https://www.webbmgmt.org/team-carrie

Craig Peterson is currently the Vice President for Visual and Performing Arts at Henry Street Settlement and the Executive Artistic Director of the Abrons Arts Center, a home for contemporary interdisciplinary arts in Manhattan’s vibrant Lower East Side neighborhood. A core program of Henry Street Settlement, Abrons advocates for diverse artistic communities through educational programs, residencies, exhibitions and presentations. Previously he was the Director of Programs at NYC’s Gibney Dance (2014 – 2016); Director of the annual Philly Fringe Festival and Director of the FringeArts residency programs in Philadelphia (2009- 2013); and served in a variety of roles (including four years as Co-Artistic Director) at NYC’s Dance Theater Workshop (1994 – 2004.) He is a graduate of the Executive Leadership Program of Columbia University’s School of Business and he received a BA in Dance and Theater from Bard College.

Photo credit: Victor Gigante

www.abronsartscenter.org

Karisma Jay: True to her name, Brooklyn-native, Karisma Jay is an honors graduate of LaGuardia High School (Dance) and New York University’s Gallatin School (Performing Arts and Pre-Medicine). She is a City College Mathematics Education Master’s certificate Student. Teaching dance since the tender age of 11, she has honed her skills of working with children and adults to develop the confidence and charisma of even the shyest, youngest and/or oldest of students. She has performed/toured with prestigious dance companies such as Brooklyn Ballet, Deeply Rooted, Maimouna Keita, Creative Outlet, Asase Yaa, and Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence. Professionally, Karisma has been featured in programs aired on Netflix, BET, MTV, NBC, and VH1. In 2013, Karisma joined STOMP. In 2016, Family Circle magazine coined her a “Local Hero” and Lifetime TV featured her as a Female Entrepreneur to Watch. Most recently, she won the “Power Women in Business” award for her work as the Artistic Director and Founder of AbunDance Academy of the Arts. Annually, she writes, directs, produces and co-stars in musicals that AbunDance Academy presents. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Dance at Hunter while also teaching Dance at Hunter as an Undergraduate Faculty Member. With a mission to lead by example, she helps everyone who crosses paths with her to flourish AbunDantly. She is currently a Guest Teaching Artist at The Juilliard School and a Choreographic Apprentice with the Broadway Show, David Byrne’s American Utopia. She is a 2021 Dance Teacher Magazine Dance Teacher Award Recipient.

http://www.abundancearts.org

Paul is an established leader in the field of real estate, with more than 30 years of development, brokerage, and nonprofit consulting experience. Paul’s expertise is shaped by a breadth and depth of experience in real estate both in New York City and across the country and is proven by his strong record of realizing complex projects. Paul’s insights and creative approaches bolster the expertise of Denham Wolf’s diverse staff, bringing to bear a high level of technical excellence for every client.

denhamwolf.com

Randi Berry, Executive Director IndieSpace/Indie Theater Fund
Randi is an indie theater maker with an arts advocacy and commercial real estate background. She is the co-founder of Wreckio Ensemble Theater Company, The Indie Theater Fund and IndieSpace. Randi has worked on over $11B in commercial real estate transactions and has created programs resulting in thousands of artists receiving funding, free real estate consulting services, rehearsal space and opportunities for professional growth. Select awards include: NYIT Indie Theater Champion, The Ellen Stewart Award, Indie Theater Person of the Year, member of the Indie Theater Hall of Fame and a Citation for Service by the New York City Council.

Key Expertise - alternative funding models and real estate structures/partnerships, coalition building.

Photo credit: Benjamin Spradley

www.indietheaterfund.org

Ryan Gilliam (Executive Director, FABnyc) is an artist and cultural organizer with 40 years history in the Lower East Side of NYC. She has created over 100 original performance projects with local youth, collaborating with them as director, designer, and playwright at Downtown Art. She is a co-founder of FABnyc which was launched to fight the displacement of a dozen cultural and community group on East 4th Street and now works across the LES to strengthen community access and participation in arts and culture through public art projects, artist commissions addressing local concerns, and a member network of 45 cultural organizations.

www.fabnyc.org

Valerie Green has been an active dancer, choreographer and teacher in the New York City dance community since 1995. She created her own company, Dance Entropy in 1998, adding a permanent company home in 2005 called Green Space. To date Ms. Green has created 41 dances and 10 evening-length works. Her choreography has been seen throughout NYC and has also toured to various venues throughout the US. Internationally, Green has toured to Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, France, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, India, Italy, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Cuba both as VG/DE’s artistic director and an individual teaching and performing artist. As a teacher, Green integrated classical modern technique with her own somatic based movement practice to develop an individualized style called Dance Your Frame. She also leads movement workshops for non-dance populations rooted in the philosophy that all bodies can benefit from dance. Please visit www.DanceEntropy.org

https://www.danceentropy.org/

x (they/themme) is a TRANSdisciplinary artist, choreographer, and curator. x has presented installation, painting, video, and live performance in Detroit, MI; Budapest, HU; Ithaca, NY; and NYC (including Dixon Place, Judson Church, Satellite Art Club, Honey’s Bar, and Starr Bar). They founded the artivist collective, {amdpc}, which operated from 2019-2021. With {amdpc}, x directed, choreographed, produced, and performed as a soloist in their original protest-production, The Contemplative Garden: Nature is Healing (10 Rajas, 11 Feathers, and a Dozen White Kelly’s) in October 2020 at Le Petit Versailles Garden as part of Allied Productions, Inc. 2020-2021 season. Recent notable accomplishments include: City Artist Corps grant, LiftOff Residency at New Dance Alliance, Fellowship with The Performance Project @ University Settlement, and Needing It-a queer performance residency-with Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX). As a curator, x is concerned about diversity and the empowerment of artist-humans of systemically marginalized identities. x’s first publicly curated exhibition, “who is me?”, was on view at the Tompkins County Public Library in 2018, focused on the intersectionality of artists who had multiple marginalized identities; additional curatorial credits include, co-curator with Stigma Unbound for “delicate wash cycle”, the virtual festival fundraiser, “Soft Pallette”, and the January 2020 web gallery, “VIRAL: A Contagious Kiss, a Transmittable Video” presented by Visual AIDS.

https://x-itsjustx.com