Anna Glass has been involved in the performing arts as both an artist and arts administrator for over twenty-five years. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem where she co-launched with Virginia Johnson a collaborative initiative addressing racial inequity in ballet. In May 2013, she began her own endeavor dedicated to preserving and documenting the legacies of prominent Black artists and cultural institutions, and reinterpreting those legacies onto multiple platforms, including live performance. She recently produced Carmen de Lavallade’s newest solo show Life of a Legend: Carmen de Lavallade for Jazz at Lincoln Center and prior to that As I Remember It – an intimate portrait of this legendary artist, which toured across the country. Anna currently serves on the 2019-2020 Tony Nominating Committee. She is also a licensed attorney in the State of New York. Anna lives in Harlem with her husband and their daughter.

https://www.dancetheatreofharlem.org/

Lane Czaplinski: Lane Czaplinski is the Director of Performing Arts at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University. From 2002-2017 Czaplinski was the Artistic Director of On the Boards, a leading contemporary performing arts center in Seattle. Under his leadership, the organization commissioned and produced over 80 new multidisciplinary performance works and nurtured regional artists to make new works that garnered national funding and touring opportunities. One of Czaplinski’s signature initiatives, OntheBoards.tv, has expanded the audience for contemporary programming through HD-quality performance films, attracting an international subscriber base of students and arts enthusiasts. His efforts won Czaplinski several awards, including a Genius Award from Seattle’s The Stranger, and led the New York Times to declare On the Boards “one of America’s best theaters for contemporary performance.”

https://wexarts.org/

Laura Colby: Recipient of the 2016 Liz Silverstein Award for Agent-Manager of the Year, Laura Colby began her arts administrative career in New York City in the early 1980’s while dancing for several contemporary choreographers. She formed Elsie Management in 1995 specifically to provide representation to several friends at the annual APAP (Association of Performing Arts Professionals) conference. Representing a global roster of dance, theater, special projects, and outdoor spectacle, including the Emmy-award winning Manual Cinema, the iconic Trisha Brown Dance Company, and the celebrated Quebec-based Machine de Cirque, Elsie Management specializes in singular voices for the global stage. Colby served as the President of NAPAMA (2007 & 2008, North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents) and on the board of Dance/USA. She currently serves on the board of APAP in the role of Vice Chair. Since forming Elsie, Colby has represented over twenty-five performing arts touring companies from five continents, coordinating tours to over three hundred global venues. A frequently invited speaker for panels, workshops, and educational sessions, Colby co-manages the Dance Managers Collective’s annual APAP showcasing efforts at City Center the Ailey Theater with Anna Amadei (Elsie’s Vice President) and Jennifer Morris (Seigel Artists). She recently contributed to the "Creating New Futures" advocacy document and effort. She received her BFA in dance from The Juilliard School. 

http://www.elsieman.org/

Marjani Forté-Saunders is a Mother, choreographer, performer, community organizer. She is a 2020 recipient of the Foundation of Contemporary Arts Grants for Artists Award. She is one of 21 Black Womyn & Gender Non-Conforming artists curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa, now operating as the collective Skeleton Architecture, to receive the 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance. She is a 2x Bessie Award winner for her latest work Memoirs of a… Unicorn. Marjani is an Inaugural fellow of the UBW Choreographic Center, the Jerome Artist Fellowship, & the DanceUSA Fellowship, as well as a 2 time Princess Grace Foundation awardee. Her work has been incubated in residencies at MANCC, LMCC Extended Life Residency, BAX, 651 Arts, & Movement Research. Her latest work, Memoirs of a.. Unicorn recently had its international premiere in Brussels, Belgium at the Beursschouwberg Festival.  Her work as an artist and organizer is informed by years in anti-racist organizer training with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond and as a lead facilitator with UBW’s Builders Organizers and Leaders through Dance. Anchored in a steady collaboration with partner & composer Everett Asis Saunders (New Music USA Awardee), and now emerging as 7NMS| Marjani Forte & Everett Saunders), the duo has produced 7 award-winning works over the last 10 yrs. We’ve begun research and development on 7NMS|A Prophet’s Tale, that mark a visionary evolution in their collaborative process. A Prophet’s Tale has been awarded residencies at BARD College (Jan 2019), The Petronio Residency Center (Sept 2019), Baryshnikov Arts Center (Nov 2019), and The Yard (May 2020) and BAM (July 2020- potentially cancelled). 7NMS| are also founding directors of the emerging platform ART & POWER, dedicated to Black Wellness and Innovation. Humbly, she defines her work by its lineage stemming from culturally rich, historic, loving, irreverent conjurers!

https://www.7nms.com/