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.

Take a look at our past conferences below...

NYSDEA 2020 Winter Conference

What an amazing conference in collaboration with Hunter College - Dance at Hunter and the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) in celebration of their 25th anniversary! Thank you to all who attended our weekend of workshops, classes, networking, and performances. Our next conference will be a series of online mini sessions. Hope to see you then!

Photo credit: Becca Vision NYC

February 1-2, 2020
CUNY Hunter College
Dance Department
930 Lexington Avenue
6th Floor
Thomas Hunter Hall
New York, NY 10021

Hunter transparent background

Saturday February 1, 2020
Dani Criss & Kendra Ross: Circles through the lines - African Diasporic rooted practices within American Education
Kay Gayner & Jerron Herman: The NDI DREAM Project - Strategies for Creating Innovative Choreography for Children With and Without Disabilities
Naomi Goldberg Haas & Magda Kaczmarska: Dances for a Variable Population and the Older Adult Dance Artist
Pearl Marasigan: Exploring Equity in the Dance Classroom - A Case Study
Gibney (Amy Miller): Hands are for Holding
Hannah Park & Allison Pagano: The Embodied Self in Dance - Finding a Voice Through Communication, Collaboration, and Creative Thinking
Paula J. Peters & Catherine Cabeen: Dance Pedagogy Methods to Inspire Leadership and Responsible Citizenship in Future Dance Educators
Emad Salem & Alyx Maglio: Dancing to Connect - How Dance Connects Us in New York and Beyond
JoAnna Mendl Shaw: Multi-Sensory Listening = Relationship & Leadership

2020 NYSDEA Conference Schedule

Click here for Conference Schedule

Presenters Biographies
Click on presenter name for full description.

Catherine Cabeen

Catherine Cabeen (MFA) is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Marymount Manhattan College and a repetiteur for the Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. She has received support for her choreographic work from The Washington State Arts Commission, The Mellon Foundation, and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, among others. She has been on the faculties of the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, Cornish College, University of Washington, and Middlebury College. She has received commissions from Donald Byrd’s Spectrum Dance Theater, Seattle Art Museum, Gallery Galleon in Vieques PR, the Visa2Dance Festival in Dar Es Salaam, and Alsarab Dance Company in Byblos Lebanon, among others. Cabeen is a former member of the Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (1997-2005).

Dani Criss

The Artist is a multidisciplinary artist, artistic educator, and community organizer driven by her roots and studies of the African Diaspora. Her work is filled with educational, energetic, and liberating experiences for all, rooted in research and cultural pedagogy. She’s a facilitator and teaching artist for Cumbe: Center of African and Diaspora Dance, Mark Morris Dance Center, Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, among others. Visit www.danicriss.com for more information.

Kay Gayner

Associate Artistic Director of NDI and currently serves as Artistic Director for the NDI/China Project in Shanghai and the NDI/Lebanon Project in Beirut, training teachers in the NDI pedagogy and overseeing the development of NDI’s partner programs in both countries. Kay is an NDI Master Teaching Artist and was named the 2009 Teacher of the Year. With Agnes McConlogue Ferro, Kay serves as co-creator and co-director of the NDI DREAM Project (Dancers Realize Excellence through Arts and Movement): an inclusion-based dance program that focuses on augmenting movement potential through partnerships, collaboration and choreography. Kay and Agnes were recently named New York One's New Yorkers of the Week.

Naomi Goldberg Haas

Founded Dances for a Variable Population (DVP) in 2005 to promote strong & creative movement among adults of all ages and abilities. DVP’s program MOVEMENT SPEAKS® has served 4500 older adults in NYC since 2009. Goldberg Haas received LMCC President’s Award for Performing Arts (2014), served on the Age Friendly Media, Arts & Culture Working Group (2015–2018) and received the DANCE USA 2019–20 Fellowship for Artists addressing Social Change. dvpnyc.org

Jerron Herman

Interdisciplinary artist, primarily working in Dance. He is also a writer, moderator, and advocate for the arts; he has served on the Board of Trustees at Dance/USA since 2017. Jerron has also shot for Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive, consulted for a Nike-sponsored project, and was profiled in Great Big Story. He has been a principal member of Heidi Latsky Dance since 2011. In 2018 he was a visiting artist at Marlboro College, a finalist for the inaugural Apothetae/Lark Play Development Lab Fellowship and was also nominated for a Fellowship in Dance from United States Artists. His latest solos include Many Ways to Raise a Fist for the 29th Anniversary of the ADA at the Whitney Museum, Phys. Ed. at Gibney, and Relative – a crip dance party – for the disabled-led festival I WANNA BE WITH YOU EVERYWHERE at Performance Space New York. Jerron studied at Tisch School of the Arts and graduated from The King’s College. The New York Times has called him, "...the inexhaustible Mr. Herman." jerronherman.com

Magda Kaczmarska

Teaching artist and creative aging advocate based in New York City. She received her MFA in Dance Performance & Choreography from the University of Arizona and her BS in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics. Kaczmarska co-founded Evolve Dance~West and developed a subsidiary Dance for PD program in Arizona following training with Mark Morris Dance Group. She received the NDEO Professional Development Scholarship (2019) and leads training and programming for DVP. www.magdakaczmarska.com

Alyx Maglio

Has been working in alternative education for over ten years working for institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Wyckoff House Museum, and the Brooklyn Historical Society among others. She received dual Master’s degrees from NYU in museum education and ancient Egyptian linguistics, and has a lifelong love of her home city of New York and education. She is thrilled to help Battery Dance expand their education outreach.

Pearl Marasigan

After earning her Bachelor’s degree in dance from Hofstra University, Pearl Marasigan danced for various choreographers and served as director of HalloHallo Dance. Pearl has been a faculty member at Bard High School Early College Manhattan since 2006, first as an adjunct and teaching artist and now as a NYC DOE dance educator and co-chair of the arts department. In 2017, Pearl earned her Masters in Dance Education through Hunter College’s Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program. As part of the Bard curriculum, she spearheaded the creation and implementation of new dance courses, including "Moving Identities in Contemporary Dance,” which celebrates choreographic voice and the movement modalities of historically disenfranchised peoples. When she’s not teaching or dancing, Pearl devotes a great deal of her time to training the African-Brazilian martial art of capoeira.

JoAnna Mendl Shaw

Dance educator and choreographer JoAnna Mendl Shaw brings her somatic practice of Physical Listening and Inter-species Research LABS into colleges, conservatories and immersive community-based creation projects. Former faculty at Juilliard, Tisch and Ailey, Shaw now tours with her company, The Equus Projects, throughout the States and Europe.

Gibney

Amy Miller an NYC-based dancer, choreographer, educator and advocate. Formerly with the Ohio Ballet, she was also a founding member and artistic associate of Cleveland-based GroundWorks DanceTheater. Now Co-Director and a performing member of Gibney Dance Company, Miller also focuses on Gibney’s Community Action initiatives through facilitating movement workshops with survivors of trauma, conducting both local and international trainings for artists interested in engaging in social action, developing healthy relationship workshops for young people and raising awareness about the role of the arts in violence prevention.

Allison Pagano

Has been teaching locally and abroad in dance, somatics and haling for the past twenty years. She is a creator of the Embodied Dance Project which utilizes dance training as a healing art form and performance as personal growth. She holds an MFA from Montclair State University and certifications in healing, yoga, nutrition, the Simon Method of Teacher Training and Body Mind Dancing. She is currently a faculty at Iona College and Manhattan College.

Hannah Park

An Assistant Professor and Director of the Dance Program at Iona College, NY, where she also serves as the artistic director of the residential dance ensemble. Her current research interests encompass dance and creative processes—the application of Laban Movement Analysis, Bartinieff Fundamentals, and somatics in dance education, integrated arts education, and community engagement. She holds a PhD in dance education from Temple University, an MFA in dance performance and choreography from Tisch NYU, and a BFA in dance performance and choreography from the SUNY Purchase, and she is a somatic practitioner certified in Laban Movement Analysis and Body Mind Dancing.

Paula J. Peters

An Assistant Professor of Dance at SUNY Fredonia. Her teaching and choreographic research explores the many facets 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, University of Washington, MuCCC, American College Dance Association and International Dance Day Festival, Lebanon. She has presented original research at Society for Dance History Scholars, Popular Culture Association, Dance Educators Association of Washington, and National Dance Education Organization national conferences. Prior to entering academia, she was a principal member Spectrum Dance Theater (1991-2005), performing and restaging works by choreographers of national prominence.

Kendra Ross

A dancer, teaching artist, community worker and arts administrator from Detroit, MI. She is the Senior Program Manager for Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance and works for Urban Bush Women’s B.O.L.D network where she co-teaches dance workshops, is faculty for their annual Summer Leadership Institute and co-facilitates community engagement workshops. Kendra also founded the community-building arts platform in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn called STooPS. Learn more at kendrajross.com

Emad Salem

Oversees Battery Dance’s finances and operations, global programs, and monitoring and evaluation. His previous experiences include advising and consulting NGO’s, multilateral organizations, and governments on public diplomacy, capacity development, education development, research methodologies, and strategic development. During his tenure at Battery Dance, Emad has led Company tours of South America, Europe, Africa, and China. He has lectured on the social impact of the arts, cultural diplomacy, evaluation, and arts administration at universities around the world and has spoken at conferences and symposia hosted by the Foreign Policy Association, World Policy Institute, 92Y, and the USC-Annenberg School of Communication, among many others.

Sunday February 2, 2020
Quamaine Daniels: FLEXN - Pathway to Freedom
Ann Biddle: Civics & Dance Education
Deborah Damast & Andrea Markus: African Dance – From the Continent to the Classroom
Catherine Gallant: Isadora Duncan – A Movement for Freedom
Megan Minturn & Kimani Fowlin: DEL for ELLs - Culturally Responsive Pedagogy for English Language Learners

2020 NYSDEA Conference Schedule

Click here for Conference Schedule

Presenters Biographies
Click on presenter name for full description.

Quamaine “Virtuoso” Daniels

East New York native, Quamaine “Virtuoso” Daniels promotes the arts. The arts allow Daniels to use his imagination and produce beauty. Daniels’ definition of art is “art is what you feel, see, and hear; it’s your interpretation of life and who you are as a person. It’s the freedom of movement and the words unspoken.” Daniels’ creativity is enhanced through dance and it was acquired by experience and study. Daniels acknowledges dance as a way to create a series of movements to a specific musical genre but FLEXN’ is his favorite routine. He started FLEXN’ after watching a television show, Flex n’ Brooklyn on BCAT, a public access channel. After watching the show, Daniels found his calling as a dancer. FLEXN’ inspired him to take his dancing to unimaginable levels and transition from street dancer to professional dancer. Daniels also used FLEXN’ as a way to address social issues such as injustice, racism, social equality, abuse, and other personal issues. Daniels believed instead of pointing the finger, we could use different forms of art to fix these issues. Daniels also performed “ “FLEXN” (2015 production) with a dance team, D.R.E.A.M (Dance Rules Everything Around Me) Ring, organized by Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray and Peter Sellars at the Park Avenue Armory and other festivals around the world. Daniels has also been apart of the “ALPHABUS” production (Manchester international 2019) and “MAZE” (The Shed 2019). He has worked as a Teaching Artist with THE SHED (FLEXNYC) and has taken many teaching artist intensive classes to help further his knowledge. “I look forward to the ongoing impact of my dance style, continue to inspire those who love what I do, and encourage them to makes changes in their lives using and seeing art,” said Daniels.

Megan Minturn

Megan J. Minturn is a dancer, choreographer, and educator. She studied dance in Omaha, Brazil, New York, Senegal and Cuba. Her company MJM Dance performed at the 92nd St Y, Dance New Amsterdam, Dixon Place, the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, the Ailey Citigroup Theatre, Miami University of Ohio, Grounds for Sculpture and recently produced its first evening length, sold out concert at the Mark Morris Dance Center. In 2013 MJM Dance produced the Sunset Park Day of Dance generously funded by the Brooklyn Arts Council. Megan dances with Bessie Award winner Joya Powell’s Movement of the People Dance Company and Catherine Gallant Dance performing in locations including Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow, and BAM. In 2019 Megan studied dance in Brazil through the Don Quixote Fellowship and in Cuba as a Fund for Teachers Fellow. In 2016 Megan was awarded the New York State Dance Education Association’s Outstanding K-12 Educator of the Year and in 2015 Education Update’s Outstanding Educator of the Year at NY’s Harvard Club. Megan teaches dance at the Brooklyn International High School. She holds an MA in Dance Education from New York University, a BA in Philosophy from Fordham University, and is a Registered Yoga Teacher.

Kimani Fowlin

Kimani Fowlin is a dancer, choreographer, Assistant Professor of Dance and the Director of the Dance Department at Drew University. She has been on the dance faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University for over 20 years. She was recently awarded the New York State Dance Education Association’s Outstanding Dance Educator Award. Work includes performing and teaching in Russia as part of an International Festival of Dance on the Volga; performing in Ghana for Panafest; and performing in Greece with funk band Milo Z. She co-founded Boom!Beep!Bop!, a children’s dance class rooted in African Diasporic culture. Kimani is currently collaborating with actor Chuk Obasi in The Actual Dance as choreographer and director. This January she is co-organizing an immersion at the University of Utah on Dancing Around Race: Whiteness in Higher Education. This May she will be leading a group of college students on an educational and immersive experience to historic Civil Rights locations in the South: Walking and Dancing in the Footsteps of MLK.

Catherine Gallant

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

Deborah Damast

Deborah Damast has been teaching in the NYU Steinhardt Dance Education Program since 2002. She has taught technique, pedagogy, creative movement, production and choreography, and is the Artistic Advisor of the program and Director of dance concerts and of Kaleidoscope Dancers. Deborah designed and directs a study abroad program to Uganda each January. She has participated in motion capture studies with the Department of Computer Science, and Internet Arts Collaborations with faculty from Music Education. Deborah has been on the faculty of Peridance Center, New York City Ballet, LREI, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and has created creative dance videos for children, Move N Groove Kids.

Deborah’s choreography has been shown in numerous venues in NYC, Europe, Asia, and Africa. She has taught and presented at conferences through NDEO, CUNY, ACDFA, and NYU, and conducts professional development for the New York City Department of Education. Deborah was a 2008 recipient of the GSO Star Faculty Award at NYU and the 2010 Outstanding Educator Award from the National Dance Education Organization. Deborah received her BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase and her MA in Dance Education from NYU Steinhardt.

Andrea Markus

Andrea Markus (Kingston, Jamaica) is a first-year doctoral studies student in the dance education Ed.D. program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She received her MA in Dance Education from New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. She studied dance at Ballet School New York, Ithaca College, Dance New Amsterdam and The Limon Institute. Andrea has traveled to Guinea, West Africa to study dance and drumming with members of the national companies Les Ballets Africains de Guinea and Ballet Djoliba. She has performed with the Alpha Omega 1-7 Theatrical Dance Company, performing dance works by George Faison, Eleo Pomare, and more. Andrea has also danced and co-directed Magbana Drum & Dance NYC, a West African-based performance group of percussionists and dancers. She has taught dance to students in grades preK-12 as a teaching artist for Ballet Hispanico, ArtsConnection, Dancewave, New York City Ballet and Alvin Ailey Arts In Education & Community Programs. She is currently a faculty member of New York University's Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, Marymount Manhattan's Department of Dance, and the Junior Division at the Ailey School.

Ann Biddle

Ann Biddle M.A., Dance Education, Columbia University, B.A., English Literature, Kenyon College and Fulbright Scholar. Ms. Biddle has been a dance educator, staff developer, curriculum consultant, writer and choreographer for the past 30 years. She is the Founding Faculty of the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at the 92nd St Y with Jody Arnhold (1994 to present). Ms. Biddle has designed and taught numerous courses for DEL including Foundations in Dance Education, DEL Essentials, Planet Dance – Multicultural Dance Education, Dancing in Early Childhood, Dance and Nature, Teaching from Transformation to Inspiration (Tina Curran), Dance and Literacy (Barbara Bashaw), DEL: The Next Generation, the DEL Facilitators Course and Dance for Social Change.

As a staff developer and curriculum consultant, Ms. Biddle has partnered with numerous cultural organizations including: Urban Bush Women, Doug Varone, Flamenco Vivo, Jose Limon Dance Company, Ballet Hispanico, New York City Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Movement Research and Jonah Bokaer. An advisor and contributor to the NYC Department of Education’s Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance, PreK-12, she has been a NYCDOE Blueprint professional development facilitator since 2005.

Ms. Biddle has taught overseas at the National University in Costa Rica as a Fulbright scholar and at the School of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana. Additionally, she worked closely with the late Alan Lomax as a Choreometrics analyst and is currently an advisor to the Global Jukebox initiative.

As a writer, her dance teachers’ curricula and training manuals include: The Essence of Cool: West Side Story, New York Export: Opus Jazz the Film (NYC Ballet), Dance Motion USA Doug Varone and Argentinian Brenda Angiel’s Aerial collaboration, Richard Daniel’s Dances for iPhone film series, Wonderdance early childhood curriculum, Dance Making Inspired by Langston Hughes Poetry and the DEL Facilitators Training Manual. She is a frequent presenter at the annual NDEO conference and was selected to pilot the Model Cornerstone Assessments as part of NCCA. Ms. Biddle has published integrated curricular units though the NYCDOE (Dance Units Inspired by Literary Works, 2016 and The Negro Speaks of Rivers: Capturing the Essence of Pearl Primus through Photography and Poetry, 2018).

She is also a scorer for the Dance MTEL exam. Ms. Biddle was the Director of Arts Programs at the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School (PVPA) in South Hadley, MA and Director of the Dance Department from 2011-2018.

Service Organizations:

Actors Fund: https://actorsfund.org/
Dance Education Laboratory: https://www.92y.org/soa/dance/dance-education-laboratory-del.aspx
Dance/NYC: https://www.dance.nyc
Dance Parade: http://danceparade.org
Dancers Responding to AIDS: https://dradance.org
Harkness Center for Dance Injuries of NYU Langone Health: http://danceinjury.org
National Dance Institute: http://www.ndicollaborative.org/
National Honor Society of Dance Arts: http://www.nhsda-ndeo.org
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts: https://www.nypl.org/locations/divisions/jerome-robbins-dance-division

Please note that New York State CTLE Credits are available.

Hunter College - Dance at Hunter
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/dance
Sponsored by Dance at Hunter

Event Photography and Videos provided by BeccaVision
https://www.beccavisionnyc.com

Join NDEO and become a NYSDEA member now! Nysdea logos

NYSDEA 2019 Winter Conference

Thank you to everyone who attended! The conference was a roaring success. Please stay tuned for more information about our upcoming conferences.
Winter conf 2019 1

February 2-3, 2019
CUNY Hunter College
Dance Department
930 Lexington Avenue
6th Floor
Thomas Hunter Hall
New York, NY 10021

Hunter transparent background

Saturday February 2, 2019
8:00 – 9:00 - Registration
9:00 – 10:00 – Warm-up – Deborah Damast
10:10 – 11:25 – Jazz: The Elusive Frontier - Carlos Jones
11:35 – 1:05 – A Way In - Heidi Latsky
1:10 – 3:00 – Lunch/Visit Service Organizations/Annual Meeting
3:00 – 4:00 - NY State Standards – Kerrianne Cody
4:10 – 5:25 – Finding your Freedom: Popular Caribbean Dance Styles for the Studio - Careitha Davis
5:30 – 6:30 - Student Performance
6:30 – 7:30 - Reception

Sunday February 3, 2019
9:00 – 10:15 – Morning Stretch - Andrew Jannetti
10:25 – 11:40 – DEL APP - Barry Blumenfeld & Henry Holmes
11:50 – 1:15 - Panel: Resources & Access - Barry Blumenfeld, Scott Shaw, Kathleen Isaac, Kathleen Leary, Andrew Jannetti

Please note that New York State CTLE Credits are available.

Presenters Biographies
Click on presenter name for full description.

Barry Blumenfeld

(MA, BA, RDE) is on the faculty of Friends Seminary in Manhattan, is an adjunct professor at New York University and on the faculty of the Dance Education Lab of The 92nd Street Y. He holds a BA in Psychology and an MA in Dance from American University and is a graduate of the Dance Education Laboratory of the 92nd Street Y; a certified Level 1 Teacher of Language of Dance®; a certified yoga instructor; and a Registered Dance Educator. Barry served on the board of NYSDEA, and was the artistic director of TAPFUSION, a dance company combining modern dance and tap. Barry also writes the technology “Experts” column for Dance Teacher Magazine, and is the co-co-creator of the DEL DanceMaker App.

Kerrianne Cody

(MA, BFA) teaches dance at PS 165, The Edith K. Bergtraum School, where she integrates creative dance and technique for performance. She began working for the NYCDOE six years ago after receiving her K-12 teaching certification and Masters Degree in Dance Education from NYU Steinhardt. Her professional responsibilities include being a board member for NYSDEA, Dance Content Advisor for CAP, NYSED Professional Development Liaison, Standards Alignment Committee member, and Arts Mondays Facilitator. Kerrianne serves as a New York State Standards Writer being part of the 2017 Dance Revision Team. Kerrianne is also honored to be a past recipient of the K-12 Dance Educator Award from NYSDEA which she received in 2014.

Deborah Damast

(MA Dance Education, NYU, BFA Dance, SUNY Purchase,) At NYU Steinhardt, Deborah serves as Clinical Assistant Professor and Artistic Advisor in the Dance Education Program, Artistic Director of Concerts and Kaleidoscope Company, and directs an annual study abroad program to Uganda. She also teaches at LREI, The Yard, and the Dance Education Laboratory, and has taught at WVU, Peridance, New York City Ballet, 92Y, Steffi Nossen, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Paul Taylor, and others. Deborah's choreography has been shown in numerous venues for the past 29 years in NYC, Europe, Asia, and Africa. She has presented at NDEO, CUNY, ACDFA conferences and conducts professional development for the NYCDOE. She was a contributing writer to the 2015 revised Blueprint for Dance and has co-written curriculum for education departments of NYCB and Paul Taylor. Deborah was a 2008 recipient of the NYU Faculty Star Award, the NDEO 2010 Outstanding Educator Award, and the NYU Steinhardt 2016 Excellence in Teaching Award. She serves on the boards of PCDC and of NYSDEA, where she is culminating her role as Past-President. She and her husband Tom presented at NDEO in NYC and she is thrilled to present with him again at NYSDEA!

Careitha Davis

(MA, BA) is currently a Teaching Artist for Alvin Ailey Arts In Education and Community Programs. Ms. Davis was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY with roots in Trinidad and Tobago. She received her BA in Media, Society & the Arts from SUNY Purchase College and her MA in Dance Education from NYU Steinhardt. Her dance training credentials includes Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, Pittsburg Youth Ballet and SUNY Purchase. She has learned from numerous New York based choreographers and dance educators and performed the works of Dianne McIntyre, Ronald K. Brown, Jemal Gaines, George Fasion and many more. As a dance educator she has taught in public schools teaching elementary and special needs students. Also, in private studios teaching SOCA and African with a cultural lens in the Caribbean to adults and pre-professional students.

Henry Holmes

(BFA) Brooklyn-based designer Henry Holmes holds a BFA in Dance and Computer Science certificate from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. They’ve been designing apps and digital experiences with the 92Y Dance Education Laboratory, GuideOne Mobile, the National Park Service and others. Their choreographic resume includes a Chez Bushwick Artistic residency with Elena Rose Light, co-direction of a play with Handan Ozbilgin for Target Margin Theatre’s Stein Lab, a senior center residency through SPARC with Hillary Rachel Ramos and two seasons of Mare Nostrum Elements’ Emerging Choreographer Series. More at syntactile.com

Carlos Jones

has a body of work that extends from the dance concert stage to theater to television and to film. His eclectic background has brought him recognition as an international artist. Concert appearances include work with such companies as: Loretta Livingston, Bethune Theatredanse, Dance Kansas City Modern/Jazz Company, and his own Carlos Jones & Company. Among his theatrical credits are Some Like it Hot, Man of La Mancha, It’s a Pretty Good Life and Sesame Street Live to name a few. Mr. Jones landed in the movies I’ll Do Anything, Dance With Me, and Uptown Girls and was featured in the television series Cybill, Howie, the Nanny, and the Drew Carey Show.
As a director/choreographer Jones is prolific. His concert works have been presented with San Jose Dance Company, Movement Source, Dance Spectrum Alaska, Adage Repertory Company, Bethune Theaterdanse, and Jazz Antiqua Music & Dance Ensemble among others. Theatrical direction and choreography include: Don’t Bother Me I Can’t Cope, Purlie, Four Guys Named José and Una Mujer named Maria, History of White Music, Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens, Reefer Madness, West Side Story, Black Nativity, She Hysteric, a one woman show with SNL veteran Ellen Gleghorne, Once Upon a Mattress, under the direction of Carol Burnet, and Hair directed by Broadway legend André DeShields. In addition, he has created dance segments for a number of video and film productions including the award-winning film short, Insurance Inc.
Mr. Jones has worked extensively in arts education and community arts programing. He was founder and director of the Los Angeles dance training facility Academy 331, Founding Artistic Director of Teen Dance Company in Palo Alto, California and served as artistic advisor to In-sync Dance Theater in Glendale, California. In addition to traditional arts programming, Carlos has also developed and implemented programs for children and youth requiring accessibility. His work in this area lead him to be the artistic associate with Bethune Theaterdanse’s Infinite Dreams. In addition, he has served as a teaching artist/artist in residence with Buffalo Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, Tapestry Charter School, Bennet Park Montessori and M.U.S.E.
Jones adds to his merits the role of author. In addition to his notable publication in Middle Schools Journal, he is a contributing author to the book Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches. He holds an MFA from the University of California – Irvine and has served on the faculties of UCLA, UC-Irvine, Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University and St. Cloud State University. Professor Jones belongs to a coveted list of SUNY Diversity Faculty Fellows and is tenured professor of musical theater and dance at SUNY Buffalo State, where he currently holds the position of Associate Dean of the School of Arts & Humanities.

Heidi Latsky

(Artistic Director/Choreographer/ Performer) originally from Montreal and now based in New York City, first received recognition as a celebrated principal dancer for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (1987-1993). Her experience there profoundly influenced her style and her philosophy of dance as she developed in her own right as a choreographer for stage, theater, and film. In 2001, she founded her own company, Heidi Latsky Dance (HLD). During the fall of 2006, Latsky began an intensive period of creation with bi-lateral amputee Lisa Bufano and in 2009 she was chosen by Creative Capital Foundation as one of four choreographers nationally to receive a three-year award for her evening-length work, GIMP. Heidi’s range of work is as varied as guest lecturing at Harvard University, creating a work for high school students with learning disabilities, directing workshops in performance skills, performing in 2012’s TEDxWomen and developing new works for her contemporaries. Currently, Heidi has received international acclaim for her ON DISPLAY project - a deconstructed art exhibit that comments on our propensity to judge people by what they look like by creating a sculpture court of real people in highly trafficked public spaces. ON DISPLAY GLOBAL is the company’s annual initiative on December third for the UN’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities being presented all over the world. Latsky is an advocate for disability rights andis a founding member of the Disability Task Force for Dance/NYC. She has a BA in Psychology with Honors from Carleton University (1979), receiving the Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement and The Ottawa Ladies College Scholarship. Currently, she has been awarded grants to work on a pilot program for people with spinal cord injuries, engage with immigrant populations during the company’s residency at City College (NYC), and teach her inclusive technique MARS (mindful activation release study).

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 dance, theater, and film. She loves creating dynamic tours, interactive games, and thoughtful discussions so that audiences share in her excitement for the subject matter. Her professional passions include equity and accessibility. After a hard day of empowering students through a performing arts-based curriculum, she loves working with textiles, enjoys swimming, biking, writing, and visiting historic houses. As with theater, she wants libraries and archives to be a place where people experience some magic.

Service Organizations:
Cross-honoring all NDEO state affiliates at the Member price.

Get the member discount by joining NYSDEA/NDEO.
Join NDEO and become a NYSDEA member now!

Upstate Mini Conference

NYSDEA is hosting a one-day Upstate Mini Conference in Rochester, NY. The mini conference will take place at Nazareth College on Saturday, April 14th from 9:30am-6:00pm. You can look forward to a three-hour workshop with Harkness Center for Dance Injuries, a series of immersive classes that will be announced mid-March, lunch, and a student showcase concluding the event. CTLE credits are available for purchase.

Schedule:

9:00am Registration
9:30-12:30 Harkness Center for Dance Injuries at NYU Langone Health Workshop - http://www.danceinjury.org
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:35-2:35 Navigating Rhythm
2:45-3:45 Embodying the Navarasaas: Connecting Through Empathy & Movement
3:55-4:55 Black Ballet Choreographers Symposium & Commission
5:00-6:00 Student Showcase

Cost of Attendance:

$90: Non-Members
$70: NYSDEA/NDEO members
$40: Students

We hope to see you there!
If you are interested leading a session at this event please email your proposal to kndowdy@hotmail.com no later than Friday, March 9th. Be sure to include your name, a brief personal bio, and a session description including your preferred session duration (1 or 1.5 hours). Applicants will be notified by March 15th if they have been selected.

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

Educators & Dancers over 18 years of age.
February 24th, 2018
1pm- 4pm
NYU, Steinhardt School of Education
35 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10012
This workshop is free
CTLE Credits are available for a small fee
$10 Posters will be available for sale

Please RSVP to info@nysdea.org

NYSDEA 2018 Winter Conference

February 3-4, 2018
CUNY Hunter College
Dance Department
930 Lexington Avenue
6th Floor
Thomas Hunter Hall
New York, NY 10021
Conference 2018 postcard front

Saturday February 3, 2018
8:00 – 9:00 - Registration
9:00 – 10:00 – BodyMind Dancing – Martha Eddy
10:10 – 11:25 – Gibney Community Action - Amy Miller
11:35 – 12:50 – Dance for Parkinson’s Disease - David Leventhal
12:55 – 3:00 – Lunch/Visit Service Organizations/Annual Meeting
3:00 – 4:00 - Hula – John-Mario Sevilla
4:10 – 5:25 – Teaching students with Disabilities or Diverse Learners - Dr. Diane Duggan
5:30 – 6:30 - Student Performance
6:30 – 7:30 - Reception

Sunday February 4, 2018
9:00 – 10:15 – Warm Up and Choreography - Deborah Damast and Tom Patrick
10:25 – 11:40 – Standards Explained – Kerriane Cody and Dr. Susan Koff
11:50 – 1:15 - Movement Choir in honor of Jody Arnhold – Frederick Curry

Please note that New York State CTLE Credits are available.

Presenters Biographies
Click on presenter name for full description.

Kerrianne Cody

(BFA, MA) teaches dance at PS 165, The Edith K. Bergtraum School, where she integrates creative dance and technique for performance. She began working for the NYCDOE six years ago after receiving her K-12 teaching certification and Masters Degree in Dance Education from NYU Steinhardt. Her professional responsibilities include being a board member for NYSDEA, Dance Content Advisor for CAP, NYSED Professional Development Liaison, Standards Alignment Committee member, and Arts Mondays Facilitator. Kerrianne serves as a New York State Standards Writer being part of the 2017 Dance Revision Team. Kerrianne is also honored to be a past recipient of the K-12 Dance Educator Award from NYSDEA which she received in 2014.

Frederick Curry

(Ed.M) is Interim Graduate Director, Dance Education Program in the Department of Dance, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, where his focus is on dance pedagogy and somatics. He has taught at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, the Dance Education Laboratory at the 92nd Street Y and NYU Steinhardt in New York City. As a Laban/Bartenieff specialist, he has led workshops and presented at conferences internationally including in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, South Korea, Switzerland, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and throughout the U.S. Frederick serves as Assistant Editor for the National Dance Education Organization’s (NDEO) Dance Education in Practice journal, and served previously on the NDEO Board of Directors.

Deborah Damast

Diane Duggan

(Ph.D., BC-DMT) licensed psychologist, board certified dance/movement therapist, and dance educator has worked with youngsters with disabilities since 1973. She ran a dance program for adolescents with emotional and learning disabilities 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 Lowe Theater, and the Apollo Theater.

Diane has taught in the NYU Dance Education M.A. program since 1994 and in the 92Y Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) and Dance Therapy programs since 2006. She has taught graduate level courses on dance and disability since 1973 at Hunter College, Adelphi University, Hofstra University, and C.W. Post/LIU. She is an Arnhold mentor for new dance educators in NYC schools. Diane has a Ph.D. in School/Child Psychology from NYU and an M.S. in Dance Therapy from Hunter College.

Diane is co-author of Dance Education for Diverse Learners (2009) and “Dance and Students with Disabilities” in the 2015 edition of the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance. She is on the editorial board of Dance Education in Practice and the Dance/NYC Task Force on Dance and Disability. Diane received a NYSDEA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016

Martha Eddy

(CMA, RSMT, EdD) began dancing at the 92Y at age 8. She began teaching dance at the New School of Social Research at age 15 and was a long time instructor of the Art and Craft of Teaching Dance. Since then she has taught at NYU Steinhardt, Antioch, Connecticut Hope and Hampshire Colleges, and Teachers College/Columbia and Princeton University. She is currently on the faculty of three low residency dance departments - Montclair State University, St Mary's College in the Bay area and UNC-Greensboro. She's teaches “BodyMind Dancing” and Dynamic Embodiment SMT worldwide and certifies professionals in this work. The underlying course work - Laban Movement Analysis, Body-Mind Centering, Perceptual-Motor Development, Bartenieff Fundamentals, and Embodied Anatomy and Physiology are all linked these degree programs.

Martha is an advocate for the new fields of Somatic Movement Education & Therapy & Somatic Movement Dance Education, author of Mindful Movement the Evolution of the Somatic Arts and Conscious Action and lecturer on eco-somatics, neuro-motor & socio-emotionaldevelopment, & peace education/violence prevention. She founded Center for Kinesthetic Education to provide professional development and pre-K-12 using self-regulating movement and “healthy dancing” within NYC public and independent schools. She originally volunteered to create Moving For Life DanceExercise for Cancer Recovery in 1999. Moving For Life, Inc is now a non-profit providing free dance classes for older adults and people of all ages affected by cancer and has been featured on NPR, NY1, CNN, Fox News, the NBC Today Show and CBS News. She received the NDEO award for Outstanding Leadership in Dance Education in 2017 in San Antonio Texas.

Susan R. Koff

(Ed.D, MA, BFA) is a Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Dance Education Program at NYU/Steinhardt. Past positions: Kinesiology and Curriculum and Instruction faculties at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge; Dance and Dance Education Program in the at Teachers College, Columbia University; positions at the University of Denver, Pennsylvania State University and at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Israel.

All of Dr. Koff’s academic and service activities are in the area of Dance Education, in the US and internationally. She currently is Chair-Elect of the Board for Dance and the Child International (daCI). As a Fulbright scholar, Dr. Koff assisted with the development of Dance Education Curriculum at the National School for Contemporary Dance, Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Koff has made numerous presentations at the state, district and national level of NDA/AAHPERD (National Dance Association, and served on the Board for two years, then was a founding board member of the National Dance Education Organization. She was a Content Area Coordinator for the Research in Dance Education Project (funded through the US Department of Education). Within NY State she recently chaired the Dance Standards development team and in the past was the dance specialist for the ASSETS Project in New York State, culminating in assessments for the State Arts Standards. She led in-service professional development projects for the implementation of Arts Standards in New York and New Jersey. She serves as a consultant for the New Orleans Ballet Association to evaluate the integrated school-based curriculum.

David Leventhal

(BA) is a founding instructor, lead trainer and Program Director for the Mark Morris Dance Group’s Dance for PD® program, which serves as a model for classes in more than 250 communities in 24 countries. He leads classes for people with Parkinson's disease around the world and trains other teachers in the Dance for PD® approach. He has co-produced three volumes of a successful At Home DVD series for the program and has been instrumental in designing innovative projects involving live streaming and Moving Through Glass, a dance-based Google Glass App for people with Parkinson's. He is a lead partner, with scientists from Columbia and Washington University in St. Louis, on an innovative research project investigating the effects of choreography on walking speed in people with Parkinson’s.

He received the 2016 World Parkinson Congress Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Parkinson’s Community and the 2013 Alan Bonander Humanitarian Award from the Parkinson's Unity Walk. He is a founding member of the Lincoln Center Global Exchange and a Thought Leader for the 2018 Edinburgh International Culture Summit. Mr. Leventhal serves on the Board of Directors for the Davis Phinney Foundation, and as an Advisory Board member for the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Arts & Humanities Program and the Dance & Creative Wellness Foundation. He has written chapters about the Dance for PD program for two recently published books: Moving Ideas: Multimodal Learning in Communities and Schools (Peter Lang), and Creating Dance: A Traveler's Guide (Hampton Press)

Leventhal designed and teaches a pioneering dance-based elective course that is part of the required Narrative Medicine curriculum at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.

As a performing artist, he danced with the Mark Morris Dance Group from 1997-2011. He received a 2010 New York Dance and Performance Award ("Bessie") for his work with the Mark Morris Dance Group. He attended Brown University where he received a B.A. magna cum laude with honors in English Literature. He was an inaugural trainee in the 12-month Emerging Leaders Boot Camp for Arts Administrators at the New York Foundation for the Arts and was selected to participate in the American Express Leadership Academy.

Amy Miller

(BFA) is a NYC-based dancer, choreographer, educator and advocate. A former principal dancer with the Ohio Ballet, she was also a founding member and artistic associate of Cleveland-based GroundWorks DanceTheater. Now the Senior Director and a performing member of Gibney Dance Company, Miller also focuses on Gibney’s Community Action initiatives through facilitating movement workshops with survivors of trauma, conducting both local and international trainings for artists interested in engaging in social action, developing healthy relationship workshops for young people and raising awareness about the role of the arts in violence prevention. Miller has conducted Gibney Dance Global Community Action Residencies at Mimar Sinan University and Koc University (Istanbul), University of Cape Town (South Africa), DOCH: School of Dance and Circus (Stockholm), MUDA Africa (Tanzania) and most recently in Gisenyi, Rwanda. In the spring of 2015, Miller was honored to receive an Arts & Artists in Progress “Pay it Forward” Award from Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Miller holds a BFA in Dance and is a recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for her choreography.

Tom Patrick

was a valued member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1989 to 1999, originating roles in many of Mr. Taylor’s new creations of that period as well as performing featured roles in many dances such as Last Look, Company B, Syzygy, Cloven Kingdom, Speaking in Tongues, and Danbury Mix. Representing the PTDC, he has performed as a guest artist at numerous galas and festivals in the New York area and abroad. Mr. Patrick has been featured in Paul Taylor’s work in the Emmy-winning film “Speaking in Tongues” and the Oscar-nominated feature documentary “Dancemaker,” as well as other Taylor dance programs shot for Public Television. From 1999 to 2004, he performed with the Metropolitan Opera. His recent performance opportunities have been in Punchdrunk’s “Sleep No More” in NYC, and in choreographic projects with his amazing wife, NYU Steinhardt professor Deborah Damast.

After retiring from full-time performing, Tom returned to the Taylor family to direct Taylor 2 from 2004 to 2008, acted as Director of Touring for the PTDC until 2010, and now serves as Taylor’s Archival Supervisor.

John-Mario Sevilla

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

Service Organizations:

Dance for PD: https://danceforparkinsons.org
Dance/NYC: https://www.dance.nyc
Gibney Community Action: https://gibneydance.org/community-action
Dancers Responding to AIDS: https://dradance.org
Career Transition for Dancers: http://www.careertransition.org
Harkness Center for Dance Injuries of NYU Langone Health: http://danceinjury.org
Dance Parade: http://danceparade.org
National Honor Society of Dance Arts: http://www.nhsda-ndeo.org

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NYSDEA One Day Intensive for Dance Educators

Thank you to everyone who attended! The conference was a huge success. Please stay tuned for more information about our upcoming conference in February 2018. One day intensive 1

Conferences

NYSDEA Virtual Mini Conference Series 2020-2021

Beyond Buzzwords: Tools for Dance Educators

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Past Virtual Mini Conference Sessions

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NYSDEA 2020 Winter Conference

NYSDEA 2019 Winter Conference

Upstate Mini Conference

"New" New York State Standards Professional Development

NYSDEA 2018 Winter Conference

With Harkness Center for Dance Injuries and Functional Awareness