Since its inception, I have been honored to be Chair of the Board of Directors of Dance/NYC. A long-standing New York Super Lawyer, I have a wide range of experience in corporate, copyright, and trademark law, with clients that/who encompass a large spectrum of the business and entertainment world, including established and new ventures, individuals, creators, and both for-profit and not-for-profit entities. I have extensive experience with contracts, licensing, digital issues, Trademark Law, Copyright Law, Intellectual Property, and all aspects of running a business. I optimize legal and business affairs for individuals, startups, and businesses of all sizes.

My goal as an attorney is to help resolve your legal and business affairs issues, enabling you to do what it is that you do best; running and growing your business/brand, acquiring deals and investors, creating and acquiring commissions, and moving forward.

My approach is to listen carefully to you to determine how we can best work together in order to accomplish your needs. I advocate and negotiate on your behalf and make sure that all of your questions and issues are properly addressed.

I take a “bird’s eye” view of your situation and work to address your legal needs. In addition, I often act as a sounding board for non-legal issues, especially those that are crucial to big-picture decisions. My focus is on you as a whole, rather than as a single legal issue.

Elissa D. Hecker Esq. is a New Yorker for Dance

eheckeresq.com

Jina Paik is Director of Advisory Services at Nonprofit Finance Fund where she heads knowledge management and serves as a senior consultant to philanthropies, nonprofits, and boards on improving how money is accessed, managed, and deployed to serve our communities. Jina is a frequent partner of advocacy and capacity-building efforts that push for more equitable distribution of funding throughout all aspects of the social sector.

A lifelong New Yorker, Jina serves as board treasurer for DanceNYC, a grantmaking intermediary and service organization that promotes the knowledge, appreciation, practice, and performance of dance in the metropolitan New York City area. She sits on the Nonprofit Excellence Award selection committee at Nonprofit New York, and was honored by the New York City Human Services Council as a Next Generation Leader. She has contributed to publications such as the Nonprofit Quarterly, Crain’s New York, New York Nonprofit Press, and Nonprofit Finance Fund’s Social Currency blog. Closer to home, Jina serves on the board of her local Parent-Teacher-Organization to advocate for the small, Title I school and its diverse school community.

Jina’s earlier career supported grantmaking operations with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Helene Fuld Health Trust, and the TCC Group. She holds an MS in Urban Policy from the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, where she earned the Joseph Kaplan award for Student Leadership, and a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University.

Jina lives in Long Island with her husband and two kids and plays in a blues band every Friday night.

After graduating from Cornell, Deborah spent 40+ years in financial services, including commercial banking, real estate finance, consumer banking, and risk management. She held several senior management positions over the years, leading both small and large teams retired in 2014 as a Managing Director and Senior Risk Manager.

Deborah reconnected with her alma mater when she was asked to join the President’s Council of Cornell Women, where she served as Chair as well as the Human Ecology Dean’s Leadership Council, where she also served as Chair. She was a Vice Chair of the Cornell University Council and President of the Cornell Club of the Berkshires, and participated on the Cornell Alumni Trustee Nominating Committee. She was honored by Cornell to receive the Frank H. T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award.

As an arts patron, Deborah has had the opportunity to support many arts organizations over the years especially dance companies and choreographers. She has often focused her attention toward female choreographers, who often don’t receive the level of resources they need to create new work. She currently serves as a Board Member of Dance/NYC, as well as a Board Member and Treasurer of New Chamber Ballet.

Since retirement, Deborah has been able to travel extensively and enjoys attending dance, music, and other arts performances. She considers it a privilege to have met so many wonderfully talented creators of art, dance, and music.

Deborah G. Adelman is a New Yorker for Dance

Ed is a retired partner of the law firm Proskauer Rose where he practiced labor and employment law specializing in representation of colleges and universities including Columbia, Yale, and NYU.  He has been a dance lover since moving to New York after law school in 1972, has studied dance history, and recently taught a course on Jerome Robbins at the New School Institute for Retired Professionals.

Edward A. Brill is a New Yorker for Dance.

https://www.miamicityballet.org/the-company#:~:text=Juan José Escalante worked with,the José Limón Dance Foundation.

Gina Gibney is a choreographer, director, entrepreneur, and the Founder, Artistic Director, and CEO of Gibney. She founded Gibney in 1991 as an arts organization dedicated to social action, and today the organization has rapidly emerged as a cultural leader operating 23 studios across two Lower Manhattan facilities. With the mission of tapping into the vast potential of movement, creativity, and performance to effect social change and personal transformation, Gibney works through three interrelated fields of activity—Company, the acclaimed resident dance ensemble; Community, a highly respected and impactful social action programs, and Center, two beautiful spaces at 890 and 280 Broadway.

Gibney is a Founding Member of the Board of Directors of Dance/NYC, serving the organization since 2012.

Gina Gibney is a New Yorker for Dance.

gibneydance.org

Kathrin Heitmann is a Vice President-Senior Analyst at Moody’s Global Project and Infrastructure Finance Team based in New York. Kathrin has extensive experience working across different jurisdictions and departments with previous assignments focused on corporations, regional governments, and non-profits in Canada and in Europe. Kathrin is a certified Financial Risk Manager and a CFA Charterholder. She studied business administration at UAM University in Madrid, Spain and holds a master’s degree in business administration from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.

Outside her regular endeavors, she finds balance in climbing and all forms of movement.

As an immigrant Kathrin is passionate about social justice, cultural diversity and advancing dance and is importance as an art form to culture, wellness and our community. People come together to dance.

Kathrin Heitmann is a New Yorker for Dance.

Martha Newton is a New Yorker for Dance.

Susan's first career began at age 17 when she joined the New York City Ballet. She danced for eight years under the leadership of George Balanchine, Peter Martins and Jerome Robbins performing numerous leading roles at Lincoln Center and major arts venues around the world. After her performing career, Susan returned to academic studies. She received a BA from Harvard College and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. At Wharton, Susan became passionate about the emerging social and educational opportunities associated with digital media and, after earning her MBA, she co-founded Time Warner Electronic Publishing, one of Time Warner's first digital media groups. She was then recruited by IBM to lead its Consumer Software Division, where she built and oversaw a $100 million e-learning portfolio. Susan went on to become a Director of IBM Corporate Marketing reporting directly to IBM's Chief Marketing Officer. In this capacity, she was of the team that repositioned IBM's brand for leadership in the digital age. Susan then became VP of Marketing Management for IBM Global Services, IBM's largest division with revenue at the time of approximately $40 billion. Currently, Susan serves as a s strategy and leadership consultant for both for profits and nonprofits in the areas of technology and artificial intelligence, digital media, venture philanthropy and cultural sectors. Susan is deeply involved in NYC's cultural sector. She is currently a Trustee of the George Balanchine Trust and a board member of Dance/NYC, The Joyce Theater Foundation and Professional Children's School.

Susan Gluck Pappajohn is a New Yorker for Dance. 

Reshma serves on the board of Dance/NYC. She is a public finance expert with 20 years of experience working on infrastructure financings for state and local governments across the United States. She has structured over $40 billion of municipal bond issues. Reshma has additional work experience in micro-finance, private equity, data analytics and e-commerce.

Reshma's professional expertise is complemented by her extensive community leadership. She serves as Chair of the Manhattan Community Board 6 (CB6) budget committee and is a member of CB6 Environment and Parks Committee. Reshma is board co-chair of Chhaya Community Development Corporation which serves the Queen's neighborhoods of Jackson Heights and Richmond Hill.

Reshma is an elected District Leader serving New York's 74th Assembly District Part D. In this capacity she works with local elected officials to address community issues and leads voter outreach efforts.

For nearly 20 years, Reshma has been a volunteer with Sakhi for South Asian Women spearheading the creation of a scholarship program for survivors of domestic violence and Sakhi's economic empowerment program. Reshma is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Reshma Patel is a New Yorker for Dance.

Photo Credit: Michael Krautter

Christopher Pennington is Executive Director and a trustee of The Robbins Rights Trust and a Director and the Treasurer of The Jerome Robbins Foundation. In addition to serving on the board of Dance/NYC, he is on the board of the Natalie Lunn Technical Theater Award of Bard College. Before being hired by Jerome Robbins to manage his home office, he held various positions in the publishing companies of R. R. Bowker and Random House.
 

Alice Sheppard trained with Kitty Lunn and made her debut with Infinity Dance Theater. After an apprenticeship with AXIS Dance Company, Alice became a core company member and toured nationally and taught in the company’s education and outreach programs. Since becoming an independent dance artist, Alice has danced in projects with Ballet Cymru/GDance, and Marc Brew Company in the United Kingdom. In the United States, she has worked with Marjani Forté, MBDance, Infinity Dance Theater, and Steve Paxton. Alice is the founder and artistic lead for Kinetic Light, a project-based ensemble working at the intersections of disability, dance, design, identity, and technology to create transformative art and advance the intersectional disability arts movement. A USA Artist, Creative Capital grantee, and Bessie Award winner, Alice creates movement that engages intersectional disability arts, culture, and history to challenge conventional understandings of disabled and dancing bodies.

Alice Sheppard is a New Yorker for Dance. 

https://kineticlight.org/

Eduardo Vilaro is the Artistic Director & CEO of Ballet Hispánico (BH). He was named BH's Artistic Director in 2009, becoming only the second person to head the company since its founding in 1970, and in 2015 was also named Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Vilaro has infused Ballet Hispánico’s legacy with a bold brand of contemporary dance that reflects America’s changing cultural landscape.
Mr. Vilaro’s philosophy of dance stems from a basic belief in the power of the arts to change lives, reflect and impact culture, and strengthen community. He considers dance to be a liberating, non-verbal language through which students, dancers and audiences of all walks of life and diverse backgrounds, can initiate ongoing conversations about the arts, expression, identity and the meaning of community.

Born in Cuba and raised in New York from the age of six, Mr. Vilaro’s own choreography is devoted to capturing the Latin American experience in its totality and diversity, and through its intersectionality with other diasporas. His works are catalysts for new dialogues about what it means to be an American. He has created more than 40 ballets with commissions that include the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Grant Park Festival, the Lexington Ballet and the Chicago Symphony.

A Ballet Hispánico dancer and educator from 1988 to 1996, he left New York, earned a master’s in interdisciplinary arts at Columbia College Chicago and then embarked on his own act of advocacy with a ten-year record of achievement as Founder and Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago.

https://www.ballethispanico.org/

Shannon Zhu is Director and Senior Counsel at ViacomCBS. Her practice mainly focuses on cutting-edge digital media, marketing technology, and advertising transactions. She regularly counsels businesses on their deals and helps to strategically balance innovation with best practices. Prior to her current role, Shannon was in-house technology transactions, marketing, and privacy counsel at Equinox Holdings, Inc.

Outside of the office, Shannon is an active member of several bar associations and has held leadership positions in multiple organizations, including the IP Committee of AABANY, the Emerging Companies Committee of the NYCBA, and the Digital Media Section of the Entertainment Arts and Sports Law Committee of NYSBA. She participates in various philanthropic activities and is a youth mentor with iMentor.

Shannon is also an accomplished artist and dancer, having performed across national stages. You can regularly find her on tv and film production sets. In her spare time, Shannon takes dance classes, produces music videos, and creates mixed medium paintings.

Shannon Zhu is a New Yorker for Dance. 

Alejandra Duque Cifuentes (she/her) is a nonprofit leader and advocate working to advance a more just, equitable, and inclusive arts and cultural ecology by developing measures that arts workers, businesses, and organizations can thrive. Her work is of particular significance to individual arts workers who have been historically under supported, including BIPOC, immigrant disabled, and low-income artists as well as small-budget art making organizations. She brings 15+ years of experience and expertise in strategy, general management, fund development, community organizing, arts education, professional development, and artistic production. Her professional and educational background encompasses business, creative, and civic realms, including a BA from Columbia University School of General Studies in theater directing and an early career as a theater artist, stage manager, and arts educator. She moves with ease and intelligence across sectors, issues, and among diverse stakeholders, from managing internal staff and teams to engaging community and philanthropic partners, artist constituencies, donors, and the general public. She is known for her ability to get results and draws on her deep community relationships to drive accountable collaborations based on trust and data. Through her work on cultural policy, Alejandra has earned appointments to Mayor-Elect Eric Adams’ Transition Committee on Parks, Arts & Culture and A Better Contract for New York’s Joint Task Force. As a result of her leadership during COVID-19 pandemic, she was named 2021 Crain New York's Business Notable in Nonprofits & Philanthropy. She sits on the boards of Nonprofit New York and New Yorkers for Culture and Arts, and is a member of the leadership council of Creatives Rebuild New York. 

In December of 2022, Alejandra transitioned out of her role of Executive Director at Dance/NYC setting in its place a significant structural shift for the organization aimed at creating a more democratic leadership structure for the organization’s future. As a summation of her work and commitment to the sector, she established ADC Consulting, a boutique arts consultancy firm, in order to equip mission-driven organizations to create long-term cultural impact through fundraising, grant making, advocacy, research and organizational change. After being a proud Queens resident for 17 years, she has set new roots in the pacific northwest in the greater Seattle area of Washington state. She identifies as a white, immigrant, latina woman, who believes healthy communities need a strong arts and culture sector and is committed to anti-racist practices that ensure artists can thrive in the United States.

Photo by Jennyroso Photography

www.consultingadc.com

Jody Gottfried Arnhold, MA, CMA, Founder of Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at 92Y, is a luminary in dance education and an advocate for dance. She created DEL in response to the need for a practical and focused dance pedagogy program. Through DEL, Jody aims to inspire and prepare teachers to work with children and teens. She continues these efforts as Executive Producer of the NY Emmy nominated documentary, PS DANCE!: Dance Education in Public Schools, to raise awareness and advocate for her mission, Dance for Every Child.

Teaching dance in NYC public schools for more than 25 years, has provided Jody with the experiences that continue to guide her dance education efforts including supporting the dance program at the New York City Department of Education, creating the Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program at Hunter College, and serving as the visionary benefactor behind the Doctorate in Dance Education at Teachers College Columbia University. Jody supports and champions many NYC dance companies including Ballet Hispanico where she is Honorary Chair. She also supports and mentors countless dance teachers many of whom now lead the field.

Jody serves on the Advisory Committee for Arts Education at New York City Department of Education and was Co-Chair of the Committee that created the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance K-12. She is on the Board at 92Y, Hunter College, Harkness Foundation for Dance, and on the Advisory Committee of Dance/NYC. She has received National Dance Education Organization’s Visionary Award, Education Update’s Distinguished Leader in Education Award, and Teachers College Distinguished Alumni Award. Jody has received the Floria V. Lasky Award, Dance Films Association’s Dance in Focus Award, and the New York State Dance Education Association Outstanding Leadership Award. She has been honored by Lincoln Center Education, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Jose Limon Dance Foundation, and Dancewave. 

Karesia Batan is a Queens-based producer, dancer, and choreographer who founded the annual Queensboro Dance Festival (QDF) in 2014. Throughout her freelance dance career in NYC, she became increasingly compelled to the importance of community strength building among artists and audiences through dance, and recognized this uniquely complex need in Queens. Every summer, QDF presents about 25 all Queens-based dance companies of diverse cultures and styles, touring various indoor and outdoor public venues across Queens to make high-quality, local dance accessible to thousands of residents. In addition to QDF, Karesia has also established Queens-based programs DANCE SHORTS film screenings, and the Site Moves series in the LIC Arts Open. QDF has been acknowledged for its community impact in the first ever Create NYC Cultural Plan released in 2017 as part of a space and accessibility case study, and was a 2018 honoree of the Queens Pride organization with a Proclamation from the New York State Comptroller's Office Thomas P. DiNapoli and certificate from NYC Public Advocate Letitia James. In 2019, QDF was named the Best in Arts & Humanities with the Long Island City Game Changer award with certificate recognition from Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan.

http://www.queensborodancefestival.com

Sita Frederick is a choreographer, performer, arts administrator and teacher based in NYC. After graduating from Swarthmore College, Frederick performed with Bessie-winning choreographers Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Urban Bush Women and Merian Soto, co-founder of Pepatian. In 2003, Frederick and visual artist José Miguel Ortiz co-founded Areytos Performance Works, a multidisciplinary performance company that presents innovative contemporary dance-theatre rooted in Caribbean traditions and the principles of social justice. Frederick then produced a body of work reinterpreting Afro-Cuban, Salsa and modern in "Maletumba II," "What Do You Dance On?", "Sirenas" and "Bembé, Salon, y Calle". Her newest series explores the convergence of Gaga and Guloya, two African-based Dominican traditions and the politics of black identity in the Dominican Diaspora, with site-specific "Comparsa G" and work-in-progress "Batey y Macorix: Senderos de Carbón/Carbon Pathways," presented by the Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund. Frederick has received support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, Bronx Action Lab, Puffin Foundation, Aaron Davis Hall’s Fund for New Work, Harlem Dance Foundation, and Swarthmore College. Presenters of her work include Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center/Kumble Theater, Aaron Davis Hall/Harlem Stages, Pregones Theater, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Pepatian@Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Congress on Research in Dance, the University of Texas in Austin, Cornell University, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, among others. In May of 2012, Frederick completed an MFA in New Media Art and Performance at Long Island University, Brooklyn. She is currently the Director of Community Engagement Programs at Lincoln Center Education.

https://www.sitafrederick.com/

Leah Krauss joined the Mertz Gilmore Foundation in 2009 and is currently the senior program officer for Dance and Special Projects. The Dance Program provides operating support for contemporary dance presenters located throughout the five boroughs and makes discrete investments to advance the dance field by improving conditions for individual artists. In addition, Leah is currently co-chair of NY Grantmakers in the Arts and an advisory board member for Dance/NYC. Prior to Mertz Gilmore, Leah was senior program officer at the New York Community Trust, where for 12 years her areas of responsibility included arts and culture, arts-in-education, and historic preservation. Additional experience in the arts includes five years at the Arts and Business Council where she recruited, trained and placed business executives as pro-bono management consultants with nonprofit arts organizations. Leah graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in art history from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from University of Pennsylvania Law School. For three years, she practiced bankruptcy law and also served with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in Philadelphia. 

https://www.mertzgilmore.org/

Artist-activist and educator, produces experiential dance works with her collective SLMDances, organizing in communities for gender and racial justice. Sydnie was recognized by NYC Mayor de Blasio for using her talents in dance to fuel social change and received a Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer. To develop her newest work, PURPLE: A Ritual In Nine Spells, Sydnie/SLMDances has received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities in Place, MAP Fund, Harlem Stage Fund for New Work, Mertz Gilmore Late Stage Stipend, UMEZ Mertz Gilmore Seed Fund for Dance, Hi-ARTS Sky Lab Residency, and the Black Spatial Relics Microgrant. This follows a multi-year development residency through Lincoln Center Education as the Manhattan Community Artist in Residence. Further Current Funding/Recognitions: Dance/NYC Dance Advancement Fund, Black Art Futures Fund, and LMCC Creative Engagement Grant. Sydnie earned her MFA in Dance from the University of Iowa and her BA in Dance and Africana Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University. Sydnie performs as a guest artist with Brooklyn Ballet, has danced with Christal Brown's INSPIRIT, and sits on the Dance/NYC Advisory Committee.

https://www.sydnielmosley.com/

Tiffany Rea-Fisher (Executive Artistic Director, EMERGE125) is an NDP Award winner, 2021 Toulmin Creator, 2022 Toulmin Fellow, a John Brown Spirit award recipient and was awarded a citation from the City of New York for her cultural contributions. She subscribes to the servant leadership model and uses disruption through inclusion as a way to influence her company's culture. She has extensive experience in choreographing and curating concert dance. As a choreographer, Tiffany has had the pleasure of creating numerous pieces for her company as well as being commissioned by Dance Theater of Harlem, Dallas Black Dance Theater, NYC Department of Transportation, Utah Repertory Theater, The National Gallery of Art in D.C., and having her work performed for the Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg. Her works have been seen on many stages including the Joyce, the Apollo, Joe's Pub, Aaron Davis Hall, and New York Live Arts. Tiffany was the first Dance Curator at the interdisciplinary arts organization The Tank where she now sits on their Board of Trustees. She also curates the Bryant Park Dance Summer Series providing free art access to thousands while exposing upcoming and established artists to a wider audience. Her professional affiliations include being the Vice President of the Stonewall Community Development Corporation, an Advisory Board member of Dance/NYC, COHI member of IABD, and a proud member of Women of Color of the Arts.

Photo credit: Ayodele Casel

emerge125.org

Jeffrey Rosenstock is currently Assistant Vice President for External and Governmental Relations at Queens College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY). He also acts as the Executive Director of the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, an umbrella organization for the college’s cultural entities. From Kupferberg Center, Jeff oversees the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI) – a residency program that provides rehearsal and performance spaces to NYC-based dance companies and choreographers. Prior to coming to Queens College, Jeff served for 22 years as the Founding/Executive Director of Queens Theatre in the Park. Jeff also served as Producing Director of Theatre by the Sea, a renowned regional theatre in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and as General Manager of the legendary summer stock, Theatre by the Sea in Rhode Island. Jeff has served as a panelist for the New York State Council on the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and as a Board member of the Alliance of Resident Theatres (Art/NY), the Queens Chamber of Commerce and the Astoria Performing Arts Center. He currently is a board member of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation as well as the Louis Armstrong House Museum, and Houses on the Moon Theatre Company. Jeff is grateful to his wife Miledy Barahona and his three children, Nayarid, Yael and Arielle for their love and support.

http://www1.cuny.edu/sites/dance-initiative/

Christine Bruno received her MFA in acting and directing from the New School, is a member of The Actors Studio and works nationally and internationally as an actor, director, teaching artist, and disability inclusion consultant for the entertainment industry. She sits on the NY Local Board of SAG-AFTRA, is Chair of the NY SAG-AFTRA Performers with Disabilities (PWD) Committee, serves on the SAG-AFTRA National PWD and Actors’ Equity EEOC Committees, and was the Freelance Disability Consultant for the Cultural Plan for the City of New York. Christine served as Disability Advocate for the Tony Honor-winning nonprofit Inclusion in the Arts from 2005 until its closure in December 2017. Her selected acting credits include The Glass Menagerie; world premieres of Bekah Brunstetter’s Public Servant (Off-Broadway); The Maids (adaptation by Jose Rivera); The Good Daughter; musicals The Ugly Girl and Raspberry (UK tours); and her solo show Screw You, Jimmy Choo!; Law & Order, Hungry, The Homecoming: the musical, Trouble on High, the award-winning independent features Flatbush Luck and This is Where We Live.  

https://www.brunodisabilityinclusion.com/

Diane Duggan, PhD, BC-DMT, is a licensed psychologist, board certified dance/movement therapist, and dance educator who has worked with children and youth with disabilities since 1973. She ran a dance program for adolescents with emotional and learning disorders in the South Bronx for 21 years, and her students performed in Lincoln Center, Central Park, South Street Seaport, St. Mark’s Church, NYU’s Frederick Loewe Theatre, and the Apollo Theater. 

Diane has taught in the NYU Dance Education MA program since 1994 and choreographs for the annual NYU Distinguished Faculty Concert. She has taught in the 92nd Street Y Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) and Dance Therapy programs since 2006. She is an Arnhold mentor for new dance educators in the NYC Department of Education and also mentors Alvin Ailey Arts in Education teaching artists, working with students with disabilities. Diane has taught courses on dance and disability at Hunter College, Adelphi University, Hofstra University, and C.W. Post/Long Island University.  She has a PhD in School/Child Psychology from New York University and an MS in Dance Therapy from Hunter College.

Diane has published her work in books and professional journals. She is co-author of Dance Education for Diverse Learners (2009) and of “Dance and Students with Disabilities” in the 2015 edition of the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance. Diane is on the editorial board of the NDEO journal Dance Education in Practice. She is a member of the Dance/NYC Task Force on Dance and Disability and contributed to the 2015 publication Disability.Dance.Artistry. Diane received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York State Dance Educators Association in 2016.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiBmO98WUVw

Heidi Latsky Dance is a New York-based, female-run organization dedicated to the creation of relevant, immersive performance art that is accessible to all. HLD was founded in 2001 and has gone through different creative phases. Currently, the focus is on expanding into interactive technology through collaborations with entities like Google’s Creative Lab, Fashion Institute of Technology and Evolving Technologies. 

Latsky has always leaned towards a humanistic approach, with the first ten years of her choreographic career focused on evening-length works that examined aspects of humanity that deeply affected her. Her critically acclaimed DISJOINTED (2006) for instance was a trio with a Greek chorus of 25 that dealt with her mother’s long bout with illness and the repercussions of her death.

In 2006, Boston-based disabled interdisciplinary artist Lisa Bufano commissioned Latsky to create a 25-minute solo. Bufano’s vulnerability and fierceness set a new standard for all Latsky’s  dancers and ultimately the nature of her choreography. This collaboration was the catalyst for an artistic shift towards inclusivity and unconventional diversity, sparking a ten-year period of work titled The GIMP Project.

https://heidilatskydance.org/company

Simi Linton of Disability/Arts Consultancy, was formerly a Co-Director of Disability/Arts/NYC [DANT] 2016-2019. Her writings include Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity, My Body Politic, and “Cultural Territories of Disability” published by Dance/NYC. She is the subject of the documentary Invitation to Dance (Christian von Tippelskirch and Simi Linton 2016). Linton was on faculty at CUNY from 1985-1998. She received the 2015 Barnard College Medal of Distinction, an honorary Doctor of Arts from Middlebury College (2016), and was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2015 to NYC’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission, and in 2018 to the SheBuiltNYC monuments committee.  

https://www.similinton.com

Kitty Lunn is a ballet and modern dancer, disability activist, and founder of Infinity Dance Theater, a non-traditional dance company featuring dancers with disabilities and non-disabled dancers. Infinity Dance Theater, based in New York City, is committed to bringing motion and movement to a new level of inclusion by expanding the boundaries of dance and changing perceptions of what a dancer is. To this end, Kitty has developed wheelchair dance techniques strongly rooted in and growing out of classical ballet and modern dance.

https://www.infinitydance.com/

Born and raised in New York City with Caribbean parentage, Zazel-Chavah O’Garra (she, her) is a dancer, choreographer, model, educator, social worker, disability advocate and Artistic Director of ZCO/DANCEPROJECT, a physically integrated dance company. Her work has been presented in theaters, public spaces and festivals including ADA 30, WESTFEST DANCEFESTIVAL, Judson Church, Dixon place theatre, Symphony Space, Cooper Hewitt Museum, 4th International Festival of disability, ABILITIES EXPO, Theatre for the New City, as well as artist residencies at Downtown Brooklyn Arts residency, Fertile Ground at Greenspace, and ARTS4ALLFLORIDA. Zazel is the recipient of the City Arts Corp, Dance Advancement Fund, and Flushing Town Hall/NYSCA grants. In 2022, Zazel was awarded the Caribbean Impact Award which recognizes the achievements and contributions of outstanding individuals of Caribbean background who have created the most impact in their respective careers.

Before founding the ZCO/DANCEPROJECT, Zazel established a thriving career in the performing arts. Her body of work include performances on the concert stage, Off-Broadway, European Tours, national commercials and featured in runway, catalogues and Essence Magazine covers. Zazel holds a BFA from University of Michigan and an MSW from Fordham University. Zazel is a member of SAG-AFTRA, Arts and Education Committee-Board of Education and disability task force-DANCE/NYC and is represented by Gamut Talent Management.

http://www.zcogarra.com/bio.html

Elisabeth Axel, President and CEO of Art Beyond Sight and Entertainment Chair for the parade. Elisabeth is a longtime disability advocate and her creativity and dedication have been a driving force in the success of the parade these past few years.

http://www.artbeyondsight.org/index.php

Alice Sheppard trained with Kitty Lunn and made her debut with Infinity Dance Theater. After an apprenticeship with AXIS Dance Company, Alice became a core company member and toured nationally and taught in the company’s education and outreach programs. Since becoming an independent dance artist, Alice has danced in projects with Ballet Cymru/GDance, and Marc Brew Company in the United Kingdom. In the United States, she has worked with Marjani Forté, MBDance, Infinity Dance Theater, and Steve Paxton. Alice is the founder and artistic lead for Kinetic Light, a project-based ensemble working at the intersections of disability, dance, design, identity, and technology to create transformative art and advance the intersectional disability arts movement. A USA Artist, Creative Capital grantee, and Bessie Award winner, Alice creates movement that engages intersectional disability arts, culture, and history to challenge conventional understandings of disabled and dancing bodies.

Alice Sheppard is a New Yorker for Dance. 

https://kineticlight.org/

Nicholas Viselli joined Theater Breaking Through Barriers in 1997 and is deeply humbled to continue the company's legacy, started by his predecessor, TBTB's founding Artistic Director, Ike Schambelan.

As an actor, Nick has performed in over 30 TBTB productions during the past 23 years. He has also directed several plays for TBTB and has served as the company’s sound designer, travel coordinator, administrative associate and Associate Director. He has attended nine International Theater Festivals for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Zagreb, Croatia as an actor and has served as the producer, director and key coordinator for the company during their festival appearances in 2009, 2011 and 2015 and 2019. In 2013 and again in 2017 he orchestrated, developed, produced and directed three special performances by TBTB, commissioned for the United Nations to commemorate the International Day of Disaster Risk Reduction and The International Day of People With Disabilities. In 2019, he organized and coordinated TBTB’s appearance at the United Nations’ Department of Disaster Risk Reduction’s Global Platform in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2014, he produced and coordinated TBTB's 1st visit to Japan, when the company was invited to attend both the BIRD International Theatre Festival and Japan's National Festival for People With Disabilities. In 2017 and 2018, Nick orchestrated two subsequent tours to Japan, performing in several major Japanese cities during each visit. He is currently coordinating TBTB’s 2020 International tours to Croatia, Uganda and Japan (during the 2020 summer Olympic/Paralympic games). He studied at the Royal National Theater in London with Richard Eyre, Patsy Rodenberg, Stephen Daldry, Simon McBurney, Stephen Warbeck and Sir Ian McKellan and is a graduate of Hofstra University. 

https://tbtb.org/who-we-are/company.html

Alexandria Wailes (she/her) is an actor, director, dancer, choreographer, advisor, and director of artistic sign language. She has worked on stage, in front of the camera and behind the scenes on numerous Broadway, off Broadway and regional theatres, television and film. She is a co-founder of BHo5.org and a member of the Forest of Arden company.

Ms. Wailes has spent many years advocating for Deaf and disability rights within the performing arts. She currently serves on the Dance/NYC disability task force as well as on the board of The National Theatre of the Deaf.

She received the 2020 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence as an Artist & Advocate; a 2020 Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for For Colored Girls…; a Tony Honoree for Ensemble in the Deaf West revival of Big River along with numerous nominations and accolades.

A member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA & the SDC.

Phot credit: Jeremy Folmer

http://www.alexandriawailes.com/

Pelenakeke Brown is an interdisciplinary artist. Her practice spans art, writing, and performance. She is from Aotearoa (New Zealand) and is an Samoan/Pakeha disabled artist. Recently she has returned to Aotearoa after being based in NYC for six years.
She has worked with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Gibney Dance Center and The Goethe Institute. She is a 2020 Eyebeam Artist-in-Residence. She has been selected as one of four choreographers for AXIS Dance Company’s upcoming Choreo-Lab.
In 2019 she received a Dance/NYC’s Disability Dance Artistry Award and was the curator for the Artists of Color Council Movement Research at Judson Church Spring season. She has performed and exhibited her work in the US and internationally. Her non-fiction creative work has been published in The James Franco Review, Hawai‘i Review, Apogee Journal, and the Movement Research Performance Journal issue. She is a founding member of Touch Compass, New Zealand's first mixed-ability dance company. 
She attended the National Academy School of Fine Art, Studio Intensive Program, NY and received a BA in English literature and Pacific Studies, focusing on art and literature by Pasifika artists, from Auckland University, NZ.  

http://www.kekebrown.com/

Kamala Cesar, disciple of T. Balasaraswati (Bharata Natyam, South Indian Dance), was born in Brooklyn, NY,  and is Native American (Mohawk Tribe) and Filipino. She studied Bharata Natyam (the classical dance of South India) both in the United States and in India, under T. Balasaraswati, Bharata Natyam's legendary and foremost exponent. She is one of the few American disciples carrying on the style of T. Balasaraswati in this country. Ms. Cesar has participated in programs sponsored by the American Society for Eastern Arts, the Center for World Music, Asian Traditions, The American Dance Festival, and Wesleyan University.  In 1986, she was a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Folk Art Apprenticeship.  She has performed extensively in the United Stated, Europe, and India. Ms. Cesar is the Founder and Artistic Director of Lotus Music & Dance, a not-for-profit organization that since 1989 has been supporting multicultural programs that further the understanding, appreciation, and preservation of traditional arts and the creation of new works that evolve from traditional art forms. She has produced several cross-cultural productions, including: The New York Ramayana; Eagle Spirit—A Tribute to the Mohawk High Steelworkers; Message of Peace—An Excerpt from the Peacemaker’s Journey; World in The City; Dancing Across Cultural Borders; World Dance Passport;  and Lotus—the Energy Within.  Since 2002, she has produced Drums Along the Hudson: A Native American Festival and Multicultural Celebration, Manhattan's only open-air Pow Wow celebrating Native American heritage along with world cultures and their traditional dance and drumming.

https://www.lotusmusicanddance.org/kamala-cesar

nora chipaumire was born in 1965 in what was then known as Umtali, Rhodesia (now Mutare, Zimbabwe). She is a product of colonial education for black native Africans - known as group B schooling - and has pursued other studies at the University of Zimbabwe (law) and at Mills College in Oakland, CA (dance). Lately, chipaumire has been touring "#PUNK 100% POP *NIGGA" (verbalized as “Hashtag Punk, One Hundred Percent Pop and Star NIGGA”), a three-part live performance album which had its world premiere at The Kitchen in NYC in October 2018. Her other recent live works include "portrait of myself as my father" (2016), "RITE RIOT" (2012) and "Miriam" (2012). She has been featured in several dance films and made her directorial debut with the short film "Afro Promo #1 King Lady" (2016). Her long-term research project "nhaka," a technology-based practice and process to her artistic work, instigates and investigates the nature of black bodies and the products of their imaginations. “nhaka bhuku 1” has been published in 2020 at the courtesy of Matadero Publishing House (Spain). nora chipaumire is a four time Bessie Award winner and was a proud recipient of the 2016 Trisha Mckenzie Memorial Award for her impact on the dance community in Zimbabwe. She was also nominated for a NAMA award as one of those exiled Zimbabweans making an impact on the arts at home and abroad in 2020. chipaumire is honored to include the acknowledgements of the arts communities in awards such as the Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant (2016), a Doris Duke Artist Award (2015) and a Princeton Hodder Fellowship (2014). She is currently a Fellow at Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University (2020) and an Artist in Residence at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, LMCC (2019-2021).

Photo credit: sara lando 

https://www.companychipaumire.com/

An anthropologist, writer and artist, Abou Farman is author of On Not Dying: Secular Immortality in the Age of Technoscience (2020, Minneapolis: Univ. Minn. Press) and Clerks of the Passage (2012, Montreal: Linda Leith Press). He is Associate Professor of Anthropology at The New School for Social Research and founder of Art Space Sanctuary as well as the Shipibo Conibo Center of NY.

Photo credit: Abou Farman

https://www.newschool.edu/nssr/faculty/abou-farman/

Sabrina Fong is the Associate Director of Operations at the NYC Charter Revision Commission. She also serves the role as the Policy and Research Advisor at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), where she helps lead the office’s research and data work to inform and design immigrant inclusive policies and programs. She joined MOIA from the NYC Mayor’s Office of Operations. Prior to that, she was a NYC Urban Fellow and had also worked at the MinKwon Center for Community Action in Flushing. Sabrina graduated from the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter.

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/charter/about/commission-staff.page

Ana Nery Fragoso, MFA is the New York City Department of Education Director of Dance. She grew up in the Canary Islands, Spain, where she performed and choreographed extensively. She studied at the Alvin Nikolais Dance Lab (NYC) for two years, graduated from Hunter College with a B.A. in Dance and 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 twelve 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 since 2004, she 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. In 2017 she was a member of the NYS Dance Learning Standards writing team. Mrs. Fragoso was a faculty member of the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at the 92nd St Y from 2007 to 2014 and is currently an Arnhold Fellowship Recipient at Teachers College Ed. D. in Dance Education.

https://www.schools.nyc.gov

Felicity Hogan lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Originally trained as a painter in the United Kingdom, she relocated to the United States in 1996 and has been involved in running alternative spaces for over ten years. Ms. Hogan founded Flat (2000 – 2003) located in a Manhattan apartment which became known for its diverse, multi-cultural and experimental program and attracted national and regional press together with a following of museum directors, curators and artists.

With her recent experience in the commercial sector, working freelance for private dealers and galleries at art fairs in New York, Madrid, Miami and London, she is utilizing these broad-ranging skills by focusing her career in the area of the non-profit arts organization. Ms. Hogan’s recent experience includes working for established non-profits: the Lower East Side Printshop where she was Outreach Director (2007-8), CUE Art Foundation (2007/2008) and in her recent appointment to the position of Executive Director at Artists Alliance Inc, an artist centered 501 (c) 3 operating a residency program and art gallery/project space, Cuchifritos, which are both based on the Lower East Side, New York.

Ms. Hogan has participated as Guest Critic at International Studio and Curatorial Program, Art Omi and Location One and served as guest panelist for Dumbo Arts Center’s Survivor Workshop in 2007/8 and at Dieu Donne. A member of New Leadership Alliance she recently co-presented a panel on Social Networking for ArtTable members. In addition, Ms, Hogan has served on selection panels at Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Lower East Side Printshop and Gallery Korea, Korean Cultural Service NY. She is a member of the Curatorial Advisory Board at Bronx River Arts Center and on the Advisory Board of Culture Push.

Since the beginning of 2009 Ms. Hogan is also working as Development and Curatorial Associate for the Tuning Exhibition, "The 21st Century, The Feminine Century, and The Century of

https://www.nyfa.org/

Choreographer, filmmaker and dancer, Pontus Lidberg has firmly established himself as a creative and visionary artist, merging dance and film. As a choreographer for the stage, Lidberg has created works for dance companies including Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Semperoper Ballet Dresden, Royal Swedish Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Acosta Danza, Balletboyz and Beijing Dance Theatre, as well as for his own concert group, Pontus Lidberg Dance. Pontus Lidberg Dance has been presented by New York City Center’s Fall For Dance Festival, the Havana International Ballet Festival, the Spoleto Festival, The Joyce Theater and the National Arts Center of Canada. His work a??Sirena?? received a Villanueva Award from UNEAC, The National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, as one of the best performances presented in Cuba in 2018. His dance film, a??The Raina?? received numerous awards. a??The New York Timesa?? wrote “memorably, The Rain illustrates what filmed dance can say that staged dance cannot.” His film a??Labyrinth Withina?? won Best Picture at the Dance on Camera Festival in 2012. He was nominated for a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) in Outstanding Visual Design, for his dance and film evening a??WITHIN (Labyrinth Within)a??—created during his 2012 tenure as Resident Artistic Director of Morphoses. Raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Lidberg trained at the Royal Swedish Ballet School. He holds an MFA in Contemporary Performing Arts from the University of Gothenburg, Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts. He is the Artistic Director of Danish Dance Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark.

https://www.lidberg.se/pontus/

Alberto Lopez Herrera is a Choreographer, Wardrobe Designer & Maker, and Teaching Artist with over 30 years of experience in Mexican folk dance and story-telling. He aims to expand Calpulli Mexican Dance Company’s folk repertoire and develop productions with cross-cultural narratives. Mr. Lopez also seeks to share his knowledge of Mexican traditions in dance with younger generations via Calpulli Community.

Originally from San Antonio Chiltepec in Puebla, Mr. Lopez began his studies of Mexican folkloric dance at the age of 12 at the Centro Escolar Benito Juarez de Acatlán de Osorio. At the same time, he began to develop skills in garment making, a craft that would later compliment his dedication to dance. He completed the National Dance Institute’s intensive Teaching Artist training in New York. In the USA, Mr. Lopez was a dancer and choreographer with Grupo Folklórico de Greatneck, Don Juan Dancers, and the Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Nueva York, working with distinguished choreographers Francisco Nevarez, Daniel Jaquez, and Noemy Hernandez.

Under his Artistic Direction, Calpulli Mexican Dance Company has performed at noted venues including Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (Inside/Out Series), Wortham Center (Houston, TX), Humboldt State University, the Kingdom of Bahrain, Penn State Erie, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors, where Dance Critic Brian Seibert hailed Calpulli a “terrific company” after its performance. His choreographic works have been featured in noted venues and praised by critics at the NY Examiner, Queens Courier, and Houston Chronicle. A few months later, Mr. Lopez was named “Star of Queens” by the Queens Courier for his artistic accomplishments and commitment to community arts programming. He was also recognized by Time Magazine in the series “American Voices.” He provided artistic direction, choreography, wardrobe design, and cultural expertise for the productions “Di

https://calpullidance.org/about/staff/

Hussein Smko is a dancer, choreographer and filmmaker. He has been dancing for 16 years and choreographing dance pieces that have been in major festivals as well as written about and published in the New York Times, Dance Magazine, Dance Enthusiast, Wall Street Journal, and Kurdistan 24.

Photo credit: Dariel Sneed

Dr. Layla Zami is an academic and artist working with words, music, performance, and video. Born in Paris, France in 1985, Layla gains inspiration from a rich Jewish-Russian-German and Afro-Caribbean-Indian heritage. Her work orbits around matters of dance/performance; cultural memory/trauma; race/gender; diaspora/migration; and space-time. Layla recently obtained a Ph.D. in Transdisciplinary Gender Studies from Humboldt-University, Berlin, where she also received the Faculty's First Prize for Teaching Quality. She holds an M.A. from the Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs and was a Visiting Research Scholar at Columbia University (IRWGS) and UCSD (Department of Theatre & Dance). Her projects received awards and grants from institutions such as the MLA, German Ministry of Education, French Ministry of Youth. Layla works with dancer Oxana Chi as a musician (saxophone, kalimba, sounds), poet, actress. She performed in theaters, universities, and festivals in the USA, France, Germany, India, Martinique, Turkey, Indonesia and Taiwan. With Oxana Chi, she co-realized the documentary Dancing Through Gardens, and co-curated events such as Black Herstory Night (Dixon Place) and Moving Memory International Symposium-Festival (Technical University Berlin). An NYFA Performing Arts Boot Camp Alumna, Layla is now Assistant Producer at IHRAF and serves as a member of the Dance/NYC Immigrant Artist Task Force. www.laylazami.net

http://www.laylazami.net/

Chris Bastardi is co-founder of BARO Strategies. From infrastructure, manufacturing, and development to healthcare, gaming, and more, Chris has spent the past two decades leading or joining some of the most consequential public affairs campaigns in New York and across the nation. He has also managed electoral campaigns for both Republican and Democratic candidates at the federal, state, and local level.

His experience includes seeing clients through crises such as active shooter situations, corporate malfeasance cases, product recalls, and criminal and civil court proceedings.

Prior to establishing BARO Strategies, Chris headed the Public Affairs & Crisis practice at Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis. There, he oversaw both proactive and reactive crisis efforts for corporations, organizations, and individuals, including politicians, celebrities, executives, and activists. While at Edelman, Chris founded and led the real estate team at the firm’s New York office.

Earlier in his career, Chris served as Director of Public Affairs and Communications for New York State Senator and Health Committee Chair Kemp Hannon (R). In that role, he supported efforts to enact statewide health policies, responded to a MRSA outbreak, and managed New York’s transition away from hospitals and toward urgent care facilities.

Chris earned his B.A. from Fordham University and his M.A. from New York University. He serves on the board of Dance/NYC and as a member of the New York City Youth Board.

Photo credit: CId Roberts Photography

Rokafella is a multi faceted Afro Latin artist who is internationally known for her Breakdance/Street Dance mastery. She co-founded NYC's only Breakdance Theater company Full Circle Souljahs with her husband street dance Pioneer and Historian BBoy Kwikstep. She is currently a Part Time professor at The New School and she offers Classic Hip hop dance classes to beginners at various studios.

www.larokasoul.com

Jeffrey Rosenstock is currently Assistant Vice President for External and Governmental Relations at Queens College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY). He also acts as the Executive Director of the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, an umbrella organization for the college’s cultural entities. From Kupferberg Center, Jeff oversees the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI) – a residency program that provides rehearsal and performance spaces to NYC-based dance companies and choreographers. Prior to coming to Queens College, Jeff served for 22 years as the Founding/Executive Director of Queens Theatre in the Park. Jeff also served as Producing Director of Theatre by the Sea, a renowned regional theatre in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and as General Manager of the legendary summer stock, Theatre by the Sea in Rhode Island. Jeff has served as a panelist for the New York State Council on the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and as a Board member of the Alliance of Resident Theatres (Art/NY), the Queens Chamber of Commerce and the Astoria Performing Arts Center. He currently is a board member of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation as well as the Louis Armstrong House Museum, and Houses on the Moon Theatre Company. Jeff is grateful to his wife Miledy Barahona and his three children, Nayarid, Yael and Arielle for their love and support.

http://www1.cuny.edu/sites/dance-initiative/

https://www.miamicityballet.org/the-company#:~:text=Juan José Escalante worked with,the José Limón Dance Foundation.

Julia Del Palacio was born and raised in Mexico City. She studied a BA in history, at the same time that she trained as a folk dancer of music from the state of Veracruz. Julia moved to New York City in 2005 to pursue a Master’s Degree and then a Doctorate in history from Columbia University. Her interest in dance and her specialization in the artistic practices, cultural policies, and musical traditions of Mexico, led her to seek work in arts administration after she graduated from Columbia in 2015. Julia now works for Kupferberg Center for the Arts (KCA) in Queens College-City University of New York, as Manager of Strategic Partnerships. She reports directly to the Executive Director and is involved in programming, fundraising, and community outreach. As part of her portfolio, Julia provides logistical and administrative support to the CUNY Dance Initiative – a residency program that offers subsidized rehearsal and performance spaces on CUNY campuses to NYC-based dance companies. Julia is also the co-founder and director of the traditional music and dance project Radio Jarocho, a collective that promotes and preserves the son jarocho tradition from Veracruz, Mexico, on the US east coast. Julia lives in Ridgewood, Queens, with her husband and baby girl.

http://kupferbergcenter.org/

Dr. Layla Zami is an academic and artist working with words, music, performance, and video. Born in Paris, France in 1985, Layla gains inspiration from a rich Jewish-Russian-German and Afro-Caribbean-Indian heritage. Her work orbits around matters of dance/performance; cultural memory/trauma; race/gender; diaspora/migration; and space-time. Layla recently obtained a Ph.D. in Transdisciplinary Gender Studies from Humboldt-University, Berlin, where she also received the Faculty's First Prize for Teaching Quality. She holds an M.A. from the Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs and was a Visiting Research Scholar at Columbia University (IRWGS) and UCSD (Department of Theatre & Dance). Her projects received awards and grants from institutions such as the MLA, German Ministry of Education, French Ministry of Youth. Layla works with dancer Oxana Chi as a musician (saxophone, kalimba, sounds), poet, actress. She performed in theaters, universities, and festivals in the USA, France, Germany, India, Martinique, Turkey, Indonesia and Taiwan. With Oxana Chi, she co-realized the documentary Dancing Through Gardens, and co-curated events such as Black Herstory Night (Dixon Place) and Moving Memory International Symposium-Festival (Technical University Berlin). An NYFA Performing Arts Boot Camp Alumna, Layla is now Assistant Producer at IHRAF and serves as a member of the Dance/NYC Immigrant Artist Task Force. www.laylazami.net

http://www.laylazami.net/

Leah Krauss joined the Mertz Gilmore Foundation in 2009 and is currently the senior program officer for Dance and Special Projects. The Dance Program provides operating support for contemporary dance presenters located throughout the five boroughs and makes discrete investments to advance the dance field by improving conditions for individual artists. In addition, Leah is currently co-chair of NY Grantmakers in the Arts and an advisory board member for Dance/NYC. Prior to Mertz Gilmore, Leah was senior program officer at the New York Community Trust, where for 12 years her areas of responsibility included arts and culture, arts-in-education, and historic preservation. Additional experience in the arts includes five years at the Arts and Business Council where she recruited, trained and placed business executives as pro-bono management consultants with nonprofit arts organizations. Leah graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in art history from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from University of Pennsylvania Law School. For three years, she practiced bankruptcy law and also served with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in Philadelphia. 

https://www.mertzgilmore.org/

Michele Mantione is a disabled dancer from New York City, who is currently dancing with marked dance project & ZCO/Dance Company. She is an artist/activist who has worked in the fields of dance, theatre, film and arts administration. As an arts administrator and advocate, she has worked with Queer Commons, DISLABELED Film Series & Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts. Her roots in modern/contemporary dance studies have culminated in obtaining a B.S. in Physically Integrated Dance from the CUNY Baccalaureate Program and is currently an M.A. Candidate in Dance Education at Hunter College. Some past performance credits include Infinity Dance Theatre, Heidi Latsky Dance, Steve Paxton, and Susan Marshall.

Niya Nicholson is a justice driven, creatively inclined nonprofit arts leader with 8 years of advancement expertise–namely, strategic fundraising and marketing coupled with business, leadership & program development. A native New Yorker raised in Harlem, Niya studied dance at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and obtained her B.A. in 2014 from Vassar College.

Niya’s career began in 2015, supporting both nonprofits and individual artists/collectives. Prior to the public launch of MOVE|NYC| in 2015, Niya served the organization as its sole volunteer administrator and has since served as its Managing Director who is responsible for the nonprofit’s growth and thriveability, including the acquisition of its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, 11 Board of Directors, and rising from a $25K to ~$700K operating budget. Niya's prior positions include Director of Development of the José Limón Dance Foundation and previously Development Manager at Gibney, bringing 6 new high tech studios and an elevator to fruition.

Concurrently, Niya is Board Chair of MICHIYAYA Dance. Niya is also an inaugural and 5th year member of Dance/NYC’s Symposium Programming Committee and has been featured as a 2-time SMART Bar Consultant and 2018 session speaker. She was the Co-Chair for the 2017-18 Dance/NYC Junior Committee. Niya was selected as a 2018-19 Dance/USA Institute for Leadership Training mentee (9% acceptance rate) and subsequently a featured speaker at the 2019 Dance/USA Conference.

Photo credit: Lelund Thompson

https://www.movenyc.nyc/niya-nicholson

Sita Frederick is a choreographer, performer, arts administrator and teacher based in NYC. After graduating from Swarthmore College, Frederick performed with Bessie-winning choreographers Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Urban Bush Women and Merian Soto, co-founder of Pepatian. In 2003, Frederick and visual artist José Miguel Ortiz co-founded Areytos Performance Works, a multidisciplinary performance company that presents innovative contemporary dance-theatre rooted in Caribbean traditions and the principles of social justice. Frederick then produced a body of work reinterpreting Afro-Cuban, Salsa and modern in "Maletumba II," "What Do You Dance On?", "Sirenas" and "Bembé, Salon, y Calle". Her newest series explores the convergence of Gaga and Guloya, two African-based Dominican traditions and the politics of black identity in the Dominican Diaspora, with site-specific "Comparsa G" and work-in-progress "Batey y Macorix: Senderos de Carbón/Carbon Pathways," presented by the Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund. Frederick has received support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, Bronx Action Lab, Puffin Foundation, Aaron Davis Hall’s Fund for New Work, Harlem Dance Foundation, and Swarthmore College. Presenters of her work include Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center/Kumble Theater, Aaron Davis Hall/Harlem Stages, Pregones Theater, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Pepatian@Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Congress on Research in Dance, the University of Texas in Austin, Cornell University, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, among others. In May of 2012, Frederick completed an MFA in New Media Art and Performance at Long Island University, Brooklyn. She is currently the Director of Community Engagement Programs at Lincoln Center Education.

https://www.sitafrederick.com/

Artist-activist and educator, produces experiential dance works with her collective SLMDances, organizing in communities for gender and racial justice. Sydnie was recognized by NYC Mayor de Blasio for using her talents in dance to fuel social change and received a Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer. To develop her newest work, PURPLE: A Ritual In Nine Spells, Sydnie/SLMDances has received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities in Place, MAP Fund, Harlem Stage Fund for New Work, Mertz Gilmore Late Stage Stipend, UMEZ Mertz Gilmore Seed Fund for Dance, Hi-ARTS Sky Lab Residency, and the Black Spatial Relics Microgrant. This follows a multi-year development residency through Lincoln Center Education as the Manhattan Community Artist in Residence. Further Current Funding/Recognitions: Dance/NYC Dance Advancement Fund, Black Art Futures Fund, and LMCC Creative Engagement Grant. Sydnie earned her MFA in Dance from the University of Iowa and her BA in Dance and Africana Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University. Sydnie performs as a guest artist with Brooklyn Ballet, has danced with Christal Brown's INSPIRIT, and sits on the Dance/NYC Advisory Committee.

https://www.sydnielmosley.com/

zavé martohardjono is an artist and community organizer. Dance, ritual, and political education are primary languages across their performances, films, installations, and writing. They are a 2022 Bessie/New York Dance and Performance Award nominee for Outstanding Performer. Most notably, they have presented performance works at the 92Y, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, El Museo del Barrio, Issue Project Room, The Kennedy Center, and Storm King Art Center. Since 2010, zavé has lead social justice strategy within the arts, including convening artists of color, fighting censorship in the arts, and advocating for politically active QTPOC experimental artists when paneling for performance awards and residencies. From 2018-22, they were a Dance/NYC Symposium Committee member. They teach time-based practices through decolonial frameworks, most recently at Cooper Union, the New School, and UPenn. Born in Tiohtià:ke territory (Montréal, CA) in 1984, zavé primarily grew up in and now lives in Lenapehoking (NYC).

https://zavemartohardjono.com/

Rebecca Fitton is from many places. She cultivates community through movement, food, and conversation. Her work in the dance field as an artist-scholar, administrator, and advocate centers arts and culture policy, Asian American communities, and disability justice. Her practice takes shape in studios, classrooms, basements, warehouses, bars, grocery stores, rooftops, gardens, sidewalks, and streets. She has been an artist-in-residence at Center (MI), The Croft (MI), a LEIMAY Subsidized Fellow at CAVE (NY), a 2019 EMERGENYC participant (NY), and received a 2020 New Work Grant from Queens Council on the Arts (NY).

Fitton currently works as an independent artist manager for Will Rawls, in addition to providing development support for Adrienne Westwood and 2nd Best Dance Company. She is also an artistic collaborator of Westwood’s as a performer and writer. She served on Dance/NYC’s Junior Committee from 2018-2020 and was part of Dance/USA’s Institute of Leadership Training 2021 cohort. She is a member of Dance Artists’ National Collective, The Bridge Collective, and National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum - Texas. Fitton holds a BFA in Dance from Florida State University and is currently pursuing an MA in Performance as Public Practice at the University of Texas at Austin.

Photo credit: June Cheung

www.rebeccafittonprojects.com

Brittany Wilson is a Queens native who began her training at the Edge School of the Arts. She later pursued a double major in Dance and Exercise Science at Lehman College in the Bronx. Her director, choreographer, producer credits include acting Artistic Director of Herbert H Dance Company from 2014-2018.

Her journey as an arts administrator began in 2016 when she applied for Pentacle's "Cultivating Leadership in Dance" internship. The experience led to opportunities such as interning with Dance Films Association, Abraham.In.Motion and securing an Administrative Coordinator position at Bridging Education & Art Together (BEAT). In 2019 she was promoted to Program Director at BEAT, in order to create opportunities and advocate for NYC based Teaching Artists. Her passion for the arts exceeded the stage when she discovered there were more ways to contribute. This understanding led her to launch her fiscally sponsored organization, B. Wilson Producing Scholars, that benefits emerging dance producers/choreographers. 

In addition, Brittany teaches dance to children ages 5-12. She previously served as a member of the DanceNYC Junior Committee, a 2019 Queens Council on the Arts, Art Producer and as the Company Manager of ModArts Dance Collective. All of these opportunities and then some continue to inspire Brittany to support the dance community through artistic and administrative mentorship, advocacy for working artists and financially supporting aspiring dance producers. 

www.bwproducingscholars.com