Conferences
NYSDEA Virtual Mini Conference Series 2020-2021
Beyond Buzzwords: Tools for Dance Educators
- How can Dance Educators actively address culturally responsive and anti-racist pedagogy in their curriculum?
- How can Dance Educators pivot to successful blended learning, hybrid, and in-person teaching models?
- How can Dance Educators best utilize technology for in-person and remote teaching?
- How can Dance Educators develop a toolbox of best practices for remote teaching?
- How can Dance Educators address social-emotional learning and trauma with their students?
- How can Dance Educators keep themselves creative, positive, and healthy in the current teaching climate?
NYSDEA is going virtual for the 2020-2021 school year with a series of mini conferences. Every other month, two presentations will be offered on a Saturday afternoon. Join us for as many as you can. Each individual session is $10 for NYSDEA members and $15 for non-members. CTLE credit is available upon request by contacting secretary@nysdea.org. Zoom links will be emailed the day before your session.
Make sure to register for the session you wish to attend by selecting the correct time.
Register for spring sessions here:
(See presenter biographies by clicking on their names)
SPRING SESSIONS
May 22, 2021
2:00pm-3:15pm Eastern Time
Paula J. Peters
New Ways of Knowing: Using Culturally Responsive Teaching and Anti-Racist Frameworks to Reimagine Dance Curriculum
Paula J. Peters
Paula J. Peters (MFA) is an Assistant Professor of Dance at SUNY Fredonia. Her teaching, choreographic, and performance research explores the African Diasporic roots of jazz dance aesthetics, and pedagogy methods which serve all types of learners. Her choreography has been presented at Men In Dance, Cornish Dance Theater, the University of Washington, American College Dance Association and the International Dance Day in Byblos, Lebanon. She has presented original research at Dance Studies Association, New York State Dance Education Association, and National Dance Education Organization. Prior to entering Academia, she danced with Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle for 14 years, performing and restaging works by choreographers of national prominence. In all these instances, Ms. Peters’ in-practice, choreographic, and traditional scholarship, focuses on empowerment of populations across the span of human diversity through the power of dance.
The United States has gone through a pivotal shift in national awareness that the country is, and has always been, one that has multiple histories and stories that have not been equally told. This change has shed light on who has been left out of curricular content in dance education. In response, educators have an opportunity to empower students to be aware of, and responsive to, the complexities of the intersections of history and culture. By revamping our ways of teaching and assessment to include culturally responsive engagement with students, and anti-racist ways of framing coursework, we can empower students to become the next leaders in shaping equitable educational policies.
I will present my pedagogy methods in theory and movement modality courses in higher education. These approaches include: 1) Involving students in the process of learning by engaging them to recognize and celebrate the realities of their lived experiences; 2) Building readings, videos, movement exercises, and student-led conversations into lesson plans to discuss dance without privileging one form over another; 3) Assessment methods which include student voices when determining the requirements and processes of evaluation. Additionally, this session will include dialogue with participants.
These approaches are designed to help students better understand how their stories are equally valuable, and how those stories fit into the greater narrative of dance as an art form with no one “pinnacle” genre. From this session, educators will gain strategies for providing students with new frameworks for knowing and assessing themselves within the shifting landscape of dance advocacy, making, and doing.
3:30pm-4:45pm Eastern Time
Nimisha Mahiyaria
The Impact of Dance Improvisation on Trauma Healing
Nimisha Mahiyaria
Nimisha Mahiyaria is an international dancer, dance educator & author based in the Tri State Area. She is the recipient of the O1 Visa: Alien of Extraordinary Ability and is empaneled in the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India as an outstanding modern dancer. Nimisha is the lead dancer and collaborator for Brick By Brick Dance, a modern dance company that explores social issues using original movement, film and journalism. Nimisha’s performances have been reviewed by The New York Times, Dance Magazine, NJ Arts, Broadway World, The Stewardship Report etc. Nimisha is also an international yoga teacher. She is the founder of Hum Yoga, a non-profit organization that spreads the benefits of yoga and meditation to all, especially the disadvantaged populations of our communities. Nimisha graduated with a B.F.A in Dance and a B.A. in Public Relations from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. She is currently pursuing a masters degree in Dance Education from New York University.
Dance improvisation has tremendous potential to help individuals heal from traumatic mental and physical experiences. Movement improvisation motivates students to move openly allowing authentic self growth and development to take place with the help of organic movement. Dance improvisation exercises are based on freedom of spontaneous movement and impulsive decision making. Freedom to make decisions on how the body moves without judgement or self-dialogue interference allows individuals to break free from habitual movement patterns and repetitive thought processes. Viewing movement as a form of meditation, we can observe that students move through space in a fluid manner that gradually becomes impulsive and free over time. Dance Improvisation enables students to explore new and creative ways of self expression while encouraging self acceptance, trust & healing.
Past Virtual Mini Conference Sessions
March 13, 2021
2:00pm-3:15pm Eastern Time
Allegra Romita and
Nancy Wanich-Romita
Allegra Romita (MA, EdM, CMA) is the Program Administrator in the Dance Education program at NYU Steinhardt. Allegra is co-creator of Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action. Together, she co-authored Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action for Dancers and Functional Awareness and Yoga: An Anatomical Guide to the Body in Reflective Practice. She has presented on the Functional Awareness approach worldwide from New York City to San Diego, from Florence Italy to Hong Kong China. She has presented her research at ACDA, NDEO, IADMS, and the Somatics and Dance Conference. Allegra graduated from the University of Michigan with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Movement Science. She received an MA in Dance Education from NYU Steinhardt and an EdM in Motor Learning and Control from Teachers College, Columbia University. Allegra is Artistic Visioning Partner of Sydnie L. Mosley Dances. Allegra is a certified yoga teacher and teaches at BYP and Heatwise in Brooklyn, NY.
Nancy Wanich-Romita (MFA, RSME, M.AmSAT) is a keynote speaker, dance educator, somatic practitioner. Nancy is co-creator of Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action. Together, she co-authored Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action for Dancers and Functional Awareness and Yoga: An Anatomical Guide to the Body in Reflective Practice. Ms. Romita is Senior Lecturer at Towson University, director of Alexander Technique Midatlantic Teacher Training & co-founder of Functional Awareness® (www.functionalawareness.org). She is former Artistic Director of The Moving Company from 1993-2001. Her research has been presented at the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science, NDEO, CORPS de Ballet International, AmSAT ACGMs, & Alexander Technique International Congress.
Functional Awareness® Approach to Breath: Embodied Anatomy as Resource for Practices in Empathy and Inclusion
The session advocates a position that dance educators are poised to foster empathy and practices of inclusion by honoring individual differences. We hope to empower people to discover optimal and efficient breath patterning, with and without a mask through anatomical visualizations and reflective practice. Functional Awareness® integrates creative investigations while imparting valuable information of embodied anatomy, self-care, and movement function. The session provides activities and strategies for breathing within synchronous online or in-person settings. The presenters propose that honoring diversity in anatomical structure elicits enhanced body awareness and self-advocacy. The cueing and communication strategies disseminated during the session are influenced by the work of Dermott McDermott, in active listening and peer feedback skills, Mary Whitehouse’s authentic movement® practices, and current research on student agency and growth mindset by the Harvard research team of Ronald Ferguson et al. Lesson ideas are applicable for kindergarten through higher education. The session investigates the Functional Awareness® values of acceptance, discovery learning, assessment with non-judgment, self-advocacy for making dances through the explorations in embodied anatomy.
3:30pm-4:45pm Eastern Time
Michelle Manzanales and
Kiri Avelar
Michelle Manzanales is a choreographer and dedicated dance educator of nearly 30 years originally from Houston, Texas. Before being named Ballet Hispánico’s School of Dance Director in December of 2016, Michelle was in the midst of her seventh season as the company’s Rehearsal Director & Artistic Associate. She currently serves on the National Association of Schools of Dance’s (NASD) Committee on Ethics, has served as a juror for the Nebraska Arts Council, Individual Artist Fellowships, and was honored to be part of a round table planning dialogue supporting Carnegie Hall’s major education project ‘All Together: A Global Ode to Joy.’
Her choreography “…isn’t just about one girl’s experience; it applies to everyone, of any gender, and of any culture,” said CriticalDance of Ms. Manzanales’ work. Recent commissions include Paul Taylor Dance Company, Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 75th anniversary Gala, and Ballet Hispánico.
Kiri Avelar, MFA, is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, scholar, and activist. Her teaching philosophy is centered around culturally responsive pedagogy, student voice, and reflection, challenging students to own their learning experience, take risks, and believe in greater, diverse possibilities both inside and outside the classroom.She currently serves as Deputy School Director and teaching faculty for Ballet Hispánico in NYC and is a 2020 Jerome Robbins Dance Division Research Fellow for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Her scholarly research Descubriendo Latinx: The Hidden Text in American Modern Dance looks at the absented presence of Latinx holding an integral role in shaping the foundation of modern dance in the United States.
www.kiriavelar.com
Questioning
Todo: A Latinx Inquiry of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
As dance educators, we are charged to think critically and consistently on our practices. In the wake of a resurgence in the BLM movement, we have the more visibly-pressed opportunity to re-center values in our classrooms, speaking to the real ways in which students are craving diverse and inclusive learning styles, which resonate with their identity/experience. We in return learn in partnership alongside them and from them.How can we implement palpable change to our inherited, eurocentric systems of education within the U.S.? Centering the student in lesson planning and curriculum design is no longer optional. We hold the responsibility of responding to the cultura (culture), hence, this approach of questioning todo (everything)- a critical, foundational step to a more equitably just field. Putting these ideals into action and identifying how they show up every day in our work are at the forefront of CRP in 2020.The session will be led by two NYC-based Latina dance educators and social justice arts advocates. With personal, lived experiences of 20 plus years teaching in the field, both in the U.S./Mexican borderlands and NYC, the presenters’ work will center around mestizaje, a lens of intersecting teaching practices stemming from a place of multiple identities, taking an autoethnographic approach in discussing personal identities, how these identities are visibilized in our teaching artistry, and how identity is emanated in our classrooms.Using these examples as a catalyst for introspection, the goal is to provide a safe space to navigate the uncovering of implicit bias, and to inspire idea generation for developing teaching tools that will activate a practice of CRP.
January 16, 2021
2:00pm-3:15pm Eastern Time
Nicole Ohr
Nicole Ohr is a professional tap dancer/choreographer/teacher based in NYC. She has had the opportunity of performing with choreographers such as Felipe Galganni, Jared Grimes, Max Pollak and Tamii Sakurai, and is a current member of Germaine Salsberg’s Les Femmes and Cole Collective (which she is Artistic Director of). As a choreographer, her choreography has been presented in various dance festivals in NYC. Nicole is also the producer of Dance Astoria, a dance festival held annually in Astoria, Queens at the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden. As a teacher, Nicole teaches all ages and various styles of dance. She is a certified ATDF Certified Tap Teacher (levels 1 and 2) and is currently teaching throughout the tristate area, including studios and organizations such as the American Tap Dance Foundation, The School at Columbia, Broadway Dance Center, Rioult Dance Center and Steps On Broadway. Currently, Nicole is in the MA program for Dance Education at Hunter College.
Tap Dance for Multiple Learners
This tap dance workshop focuses on Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences and how this theory could be applied in teaching tap dance. Unlike many other dance forms, tap dance is not only based on movement, but also sound. This workshop will teach tap technique while incorporating ideas from Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Tap technique can be taught through many lenses such as visual-spatial (steps), linguistic-verbal (saying the steps out loud), Intrapersonal (relating the body to other objects in space), logical-mathematical (understanding how notes fit into a bar of music), musical (hearing and understanding rhythms) and bodily-kinesthetic (how to use the body in space to execute different tap steps and rhythms). This lesson will be composed of an introduction, warm up, rhythm exercise, technique exercise and a combination. It is important that we as teachers, understand how our students learn best and use methods of teaching which best suit their learning styles.
3:30pm-4:45pm Eastern Time
Dr. Diane Duggan
Dr. Diane Duggan, PhD, BC-DMT, Dance Educator, Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist and Licensed Psychologist, has worked with students with disabilities since 1973. She provided psychological counseling and ran a dance program for students with emotional and learning disabilities in the South Bronx for 21 years. Her students performed in Central Park, Lincoln Center, South Street Seaport, St. Mark’s Church, and the Apollo Theater. Diane has taught in the NYU Dance Education Master’s program since 1994. She teaches in the 92Y DEL and Dance Therapy programs and is an Arnhold mentor for new dance teachers. She provides professional development for teaching artists at dance companies including Alvin Ailey, Ballet Hispanico, and Dance Theater of Harlem. She has published her work in professional journals and books and co-authored Dance Education for Diverse Learners. She is on the Dance/NYC Task Force on Dance and Disability and received a NYSDEA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
Healing Our Students with Trauma-Informed Dance Education Strategies
Most of us have taught children and youth affected by trauma in the past, whether we were aware of it or not. Our students’ trauma was often caused by conditions such as abuse, neglect, loss, economic deprivation, and systemic racism. What is different now is that we are experiencing the confluence of several serious, collective, nationwide traumas. These overlapping trauma-inducing conditions consist of a deadly, unchecked pandemic; a severe nationwide economic crisis; and upheaval over recognizing, addressing and rectifying the long history of racial injustice in our country. It is unique to the present situation that everyone is affected, not just selected individuals or groups. Multiple traumas magnify each other, creating a synergistic effect. Trauma has serious short term and long term debilitating effects on physical and mental health. It can compromise learning by affecting attention and memory.
This presentation will offer information on the nature of trauma and the symptoms we may see in our students, as well as in ourselves. It will detail several important conditions and skills that are needed to address and begin to heal trauma. We will explore how dance is uniquely capable of addressing trauma on both individual and group levels. Participants will learn about trauma-informed dance education strategies and activities that promote healing and can be used with students. They will experience some of those activities via Zoom and reflect on how to adapt them for their students. The workshop will include PowerPoint lecture and discussion as well as experientials of movement activities that can be used with students.
November 21, 2020
2:00pm-3:15pm Eastern Time
Sydnie L. Mosley and
Allegra Romita
Sydnie L. Mosley is an artist-activist and educator who produces experiential dance works with her collective SLMDances. The collective works in communities to organize for gender and racial justice. Sydnie was recognized by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio for using her talents in dance to fuel social change. Sydnie is part of the Bessie Award winning cast of the skeleton architecture, the future of our worlds, curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa. Other recognitions: LMCC Creative Engagement Grant, The Field Leadership Fund, CUNY Dance Initiative, Dancing While Black Artist Fellowship, The Performance Project @ University Settlement, Create Change Fellowship with The Laundromat Project, the Gibney Dance Institute for Community Action Training, and the inaugural Barnard Center for Research on Women Alumnae Fellow. She earned her MFA from the University of Iowa and BA from Barnard College. Sydnie danced with Christal Brown's INSPIRIT. Sydnie sits on the Advisory Committee to Dance/NYC.
Allegra Romita (MA, EdM, CMA) is the Program Administrator in the Dance Education program at NYU Steinhardt. Allegra is co-creator of Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action. Together, she co-authored Functional Awareness: Anatomy in Action for Dancers and Functional Awareness and Yoga: An Anatomical Guide to the Body in Reflective Practice. She has presented on the Functional Awareness approach worldwide from New York City to San Diego, from Florence Italy to Hong Kong China. She has presented her research at ACDA, NDEO, IADMS, and the Somatics and Dance Conference. Allegra graduated from the University of Michigan with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Movement Science. She received an MA in Dance Education from NYU Steinhardt and an EdM in Motor Learning and Control from Teachers College, Columbia University. Allegra is Artistic Visioning Partner of Sydnie L. Mosley Dances. Allegra is a certified yoga teacher and teaches at BYP and Heatwise in Brooklyn, NY.
Discussions on Anti-Racist Practices in Dance and Dance Education
This session will explore tools for developing anti-racist practices and creating dance work that problem-solves social justice issues. The presenters will share practices in and facilitate discussion on decolonizing dance and dance education. If our bodies are vehicles that help us move through the world, then we must agree that our bodies are the first to bear the marks of privilege, oppression, subordination, superiority, and ultimately, power, that society imposes on us. The discussion will tackle the following questions: What is our future body? How do the freedom tools we have identified as radical ways of being and regenerating, lead us to this future body? The presenters will share who SLMDances is, what they do and how they do it. Sydnie L. Mosley Dances (SLMDances) is a New York City-based dance-theater collective that works in communities to organize for gender and racial justice through experiential dance performance. SLMDances' works engage audiences in the artistic process; our dances provoke a visceral reaction to the physicality on stage, and incite conversation toward community action. Using Mosley’s collaboratively-devised choreographies CAKE and PURPLE as examples that deal with respectability politics and women in community, respectively, we will consider how anti-racist practices can activate us to be constructive and create. The presenters will offer ways in which they are learning to decolonize their own teaching practices across age groups from toddler to elder and learning space from community center to university.
3:30pm-4:45pm Eastern Time
Kathleen Leary and
Jennifer Eberhardt
Kathleen Leary is originally from Omaha, NE, and is embarking on a second career as an informal educator after her successful first as a costume designer for theater, dance, and film. Kathleen began her journey as a dance educator four years ago when she was hired as the Dance Education Coordinator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She loves creating dynamic tours, interactive games, and thoughtful discussions so that particularly K-12 audiences share in her excitement for dance history. When she is not empowering students through an arts-based curriculum, she loves exploring NYC.
Jennifer Eberhardt is the Special Collections Librarian for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She holds advanced degrees in library science (archives specialization) and music history. At the Dance Division, her work focuses on helping researchers in the Special Collections Reading Room, exhibitions, outreach, & preservation.
Resources at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the Library for the Performing Arts
This presentation outlines materials that are available online at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library with and without a library card. Teachers will learn about the history of the Division, and how they can schedule a virtual visit with a Dance Division staff member during this year
September 26, 2020
2:00pm-3:15pm Eastern Time
Olivia Mode-Cater
Olivia Mode-Cater, EdM. is a veteran dance educator with experience in all teaching settings: higher education, PK-12 schools, and private studios. Olivia served as the Director of Dance Education at Hofstra University for 2 years. During that time, Hofstra's dance education program was recognized as one of the Top 30 Dance Programs in the US for their high quality dance teacher preparation training. Olivia has also created two Pk-12 dance programs in NJ and presented on dance education at national and regional conferences. She also has been published in Dance Studio Life Magazine and on Dance-Teacher.com. Lastly, she is the Founder and CEO of Dance ED Tips, a company that creates resources and online courses for dance teachers. Dance ED Tips has supported over 1,500 dance teachers around the world. It was ranked the #2 dance teacher website to follow in 2019 and they have been featured on Dance Teacher Magazine, News 12 NJ, KnowBox Dance Podcast, and the Business of Dance Podcast.
Technology Tools for Dance Teachers
During this session, attendees will learn about a variety of technology tools that can be used for dance education. Participants will be introduced to both websites and apps that can facilitate dance instruction and assessment for in-person, online, and blended learning. Some of these include FlipGrid, Thinglink, Nearpod, Loom, and much more. The presentation will cover key features of each technology tool, applications in dance education, dance pedagogy examples, hands-on practice, and pricing options. Participants will leave with a greater understanding of their options and with a range of ideas to implement technology in their dance teaching practice.
3:30pm-4:45pm Eastern Time
JoAnna Mendl Shaw
JoAnna Mendl Shaw has been teaching embodied learning in conservatories, colleges, elementary schools and in communities throughout the States and in Europe. Her performance works for stage, rural and urban landscapes with her company the Equus Projects often brings dancers and horses into shared landscapes. Shaw’s teaching focuses on solo and shared somatic practice, compassionate leadership and creating community. During COVID Shaw and Equus company dancers have developed and taught virtual workshops that draw participants into active embodied experiences. Shaw has taught on faculty at NYU/Tisch, Juilliard, Ailey BFA Program, Marymount, Princeton, Mount Holyoke and Montclair State.
Embodied Practice of Physical Listening in the ZOOM Space
A Physical Listening workshop presented in the virtual ZOOM space that guides participants through a trajectory of multi-sensory guided experiences, engaging with visual, aural and tactile perception with the specific goal of exploring how embodied thinking helps to Define the ASK: What do I want my audience to see; my students to get; my client to experience. We use the ZOOM platform to transport workshop participants into a school classroom, onto a grassy lawn, into a dance studio, and out into a pasture.
Presenters Biographies & Class descriptions
Click on presenter name for full description.
Alison Deleget, MS, ATC
Ms. Deleget is a certified athletic trainer and PMA-certified Pilates instructor who brings over 15 years of clinical experience to the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries.
A former ballet dancer, Ms. Deleget graduated with a BS in Ballet and MS in Athletic Training from Indiana University. Ms. Deleget specializes in manual therapy and is a Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner®. At the Harkness Center Ms. Deleget provides onsite athletic training services to professional dance companies, schools, and Broadway shows.
Harkness Center for Dance Injuries at NYU Langone Health Workshop
This 3-hour intensive workshop for dance educators on evidenced-based dance injury prevention and dancer wellness. The intensive will begin with a participatory warm-up and explanation of principles behind a healthy warm-up.
Other topics that will be covered through lecture and movement will include:
- Dance injury etiology
- The biopsychosocial model in relation to dance injury and dance educator self-care
Recognition, management, and prevention of dance injuries, including:
- Fatigue management, cross training, and periodization
- Functional movement tasks to help understand, and educate their students about, pelvic neutral, weight shift, and limb dissociation.
Cheryl Johnson
Has performed Off Broadway, at International Dance Festivals, in Music Videos, on TV specials, in nightclubs, and in touring dance companies. In Seattle, she was the dance consultant to the Jimi Hendrix Museum: Experience Music Project and an ambassador of rhythm tap dance hosting festivals, master classes, educational programs, and creating choreography for musical theatre and the concert stage. In NYC, she was a member of Gail Conrad’s Tap Dance Theatre, Jerry Ames Tap Dance Company, and performed as a pioneer dancer for the original creation of MTV. In Rochester, she has enjoyed gigs with the likes of the Vision of Sound Concert Series, Bill Evans Dance Company, NYS Dance Force Duets Concerts, and the NYC New Mix Performance Festival. Johnson is a dance educator at the University of Rochester, SUNY at Brockport, Nazareth College, and Hochstein School of Music & Dance.
Navigating Rhythm
The purpose of this session is to illuminate the subject of rhythm-in-motion in order to learn techniques to help others express themselves better rhythmically. We will utilize feet to walk patterns, hands to play patterns, voice to vocalize patterns, and explore navigating rhythmic territory with our body as a whole.
Nitya Seshadri Vedantam, MFA in progress, MFA, BA
A graduate student of dance studies at SUNY Buffalo, is a performer-teacher-choreographer of the Indian Classical dance Bharatanatyam. She holds a diploma in Bharatanatyam from Kalakshetra and a MFA Dance from Hyderabad Central University. She is an empaneled artiste of the Broadcasting Ministry of India. She has conducted several performances, master classes and workshops across the globe, including University at Buffalo, Purdue University, Hyderabad Central University and MGI Mauritius. Her dance collaborations span across varied genres of dance including Sattriya, Chau, Kathak and Modern dance. Nitya’s research explores the mind-body connection through dance and the symbiotic links between Bharatanatyam and Modern dance. Nitya is also a certified Hatha Yoga instructor.
EMBODYING THE NAVARASAAS: Connecting Through Empathy & Movement
The presentation focuses on the sharing of basic human impulses that arise across dance forms in order to spark conversations about and uncover commonalities underlying Bharatanatyam and Modern dance. I am interested in showcasing the symbiosis between two varied art forms from an underlying place of somatic awareness, all the while providing common threads of connectivity to ourselves and the to the world we live in.
Sean McLeod
is an Executive Producer, Award Winning Businessman, and American Choreographer whose work spans more than 30 years and three continents including New York City, across the US, and internationally to the West Indies, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa. Sean is founder of Reaching for Higher Ground Consulting – a Communication, Performance, and Development Company and is Executive Producer of the Harriet Tubman Freedom Music Festival, the New York Dance Festival, and the Global Dance Initiative. He has worked with Senators and Congressmen for positive racial impact and is a Conference Designer, Fortune 500 Executive Life Coach, Mediation Expert, and Motivational Speaker that uses the arts to teach Personality and Emotional Development for Corporations and Executives. He teaches Life Skills to Teens, Parental communication skills to adults, and does Family Development intervention for public schools and universities. Sean is President of the New York Institute of Dance & Education and the winner of countless awards including the coveted Jefferson Award for Public Service to America founded by the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the New York State Liberty Award (the NY Senate's highest honor), and the NAACP Trailblazers Medal of Honor. Sean was recently inducted into the Auburn Music Hall of Fame and has personally awarded over 400 thousand dollars to established and emerging artists.
Black Ballet Choreographers Symposium and Commission Conference: Panel Discussion
A Commission And Booking Discussion, Being Seen in Todays Ballet Industry
This very useful and critical conversation helps everyone and the industry leaders understand the challenges of being a Black Ballet Choreographer and addresses the very big door of opportunity that remains closed to black people. Our mission: To create the mechanism for Black ballet choreographers to gain invitation to, and sustainability within, national level and premiere ballet companies.
“Classical Ballet at its highest level is a silver impermeable sphere. It is not that Black choreographers cannot get in the door; it is that there is no door for us to get in.” - Sean McLeod