MOBBALLET FOUNDER AND CURATOR

THERESA RUTH HOWARD is the founder and curator of MoBBallet (Memoirs of Blacks Ballet) a digital platform that preserves, presents, and promotes the contributions, and stories of Black artists in the field of Ballet. MoBBallet’s first digital installation And Still They Rose: The Legacy of Black Philadelphians in Ballet was funded by Knight Foundation in the first year of its founding.

Ms. Howard is a former ballet dancer and journalist. She began her Ballet training at the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts under Marion Cuyjet, at eight she began training at Pennsylvania Ballet School, and made her professional debut at the age of 12 with the Philadelphia Civic Ballet Company. She has performed with Dance Theater of Harlem, Eglevsky Ballet, and was a founding member of Armitage Gone! Dance. As a writer, her work has appeared in: OneWorld, The Source, Pointe, Expressions (Italy), and Opera America, and Tanz (Germany) Magazines. Currently she is a contributing writer for Dance Magazine.

In July 2019 she was invited to be a Jacob’s Pillow Scholar in Residence where her PillowTalk “Remembering Arthur Mitchell” with founding members of the Dance Theatre of Harlem current Artistic Director Virginia Johnson and former Soloist and Ballet Mistress Gayle McKinney broke attendance records and received a standing ovation, the first in Pillow history.

Ms.Howard is a leader in the world wide conversations surrounding diversity in Ballet and is sought after diversity strategist and consultant internationally. She assists arts organizations to better understand, design and implement Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs and initiatives. She works closely with Artistic and Executive, school directors, and board members of Ballet and Opera organizations to help shift the culture of both classical forms.

In partnership with the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) Ms. Howard was instrumental in the organization of the first annual audition for Black female ballet dancers at their 2015 conference in Denver. For three years she co-facilitated the audition as well as the dialogues on diversity in ballet with the 15 major Ballet organizations in participation.

She has she curated and moderated Pacific Northwest Ballet Beyond Ballet, a Town Hall a conversation investigating aesthetics, diversity, equity, and the efforts to redesign arts institutions.

She is a member of the curatorial team of the Dutch National Ballet’s bi-annual conference Position Ballet, which convenes over 40 European and international companies to discuss: Heritage, Identity, Diversity, and the culture of Ballet. She has twice served as one of its keynote speaker on the topics of Diversity (2017), and Culture and Leadership in Ballet (2017) respectively. She has recently been tapped to curate their 2019 Black Achievement Month celebration in October. In July 2019 Ms. Howard curated The Royal Opera House’s inaugural Young Talent Festival 2019, Symposium Exposure, Access and Opportunity: Exploring the Cultural Barriers to Ballet Training.

Presently she is a member of the Design and Facilitation Team of The Equity Project: Increasing the presence of Blacks in Ballet a three-year initiative, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation which has assembled a cohort of 21 North American Ballet companies into a learning community to address the issue of the lack of diversity in the field.

She has been a mentor for many of the young men and women that she has taught over the years. “The only way to make the world a better place, is to be better people in it!”

MOBBALLET TEAM

 

CHANDRA MOSS-THORNE began her dance training at the School of Cleveland Ballet under the direction of Daniel Job and Nicole Sowinska.  Chandra attended Butler University graduating with a BA with honors in Dance Pedagogy. Chandra was a company member with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and The Cincinnati Ballet.  As a professional ballet dancer Chandra delighted audiences in many leading roles including Beauty in David Nixon’s Beauty and the Beast, the Lead Pas de deux in Nils Christie’s Sync, Principal in Butler’s Carmina Burana, Choleric in Balanchine’s Four Temperaments, Fairy Godmother in Morgan’s Cinderella and Lead Mazurka in Franklin’s Coppelia.  Her repertoire also includes works by choreographers Stanton Welch, Val Caniparoli, Kirk Peterson, Arthur Mitchell, Robert Garland and Geoffrey Holder.  Chandra had the privilege of working with numerous Repetiteurs from the Balanchine Trust including Bart Cook, Victoria Simon, Elyse Borne, Susan Hendl, and Suzanne Farrell.  Chandra has performed with the Washington and Cincinnati Operas. Most recently she performed in Philadelphia at Temple University and The Performance Garage.
As a teacher, she has been on faculty at Goucher College, Towson University, Bryn Mawr College, Cincinnati Ballet Academy and as a guest teacher at numerous schools around the country.  Chandra was the coordinator for CincyDance! the outreach program of the Cincinnati Ballet Academy developing programming and teaching classes. Currently she is a Visiting Artist at Stockton University and a Lecturer in Dance at Swarthmore College.

 

 

 

CHRISTIAN VON HOWARD is the Artistic Director of the VON HOWARD PROJECT, a contemporary dance company based out of New York City. As an international artist, he has worked with many dance artists such as Doug Varone, Fernando Bujones, Douglas Becker, Germaul Barnes, Daniel Gwirtzman and various others. Christian is a Fulbright Specialist (2019-2021) and a NJ State Council of the Arts Choreographic Fellow (2006) and his choreography has been produced in various venues across the globe including Germany, Japan, Bulgaria, Colombia, Chile, South Korea and in the states at Dance Theater Workshop (now New York Live Arts), Joyce SoHo, Dixon Place, the Ailey Citigroup Theater amongst others. His guest artist teaching/residency highlights include the American Dance Festival, Dance It! Festival (Bulgaria), Peridance Dance Center, and the Korean Dance Festival. Christian is a 2013/2014 recipient of the Distinguished Achievement in Teaching Award from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts where he was part of the teaching faculty in the Department of Dance & Choreography from 2008 to 2014. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre & Dance at Montclair State University and concurrently teaches at the Alvin Ailey School in NYC where he has been on faculty since 1998. Christian serves as the Northeast Regional Director of the American College Dance Association. He holds advanced degrees in Performance and Choreography from the School of Classical and Contemporary Dance at Texas Christian University and from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.

 

ANDREA (ANDI) YANNONE – had spent 27 years in the cultural arts sector in San Francisco before relocating to Albuquerque, NM in 2021. Andi worked at San Francisco Ballet from 1995-2001 and from 2011-2021. She was promoted to the position of Director of Education and Training at San Francisco Ballet in 2015, establishing the new department and all functions, including oversight of SF Ballet School administration, its student residences, and all education, community, and engagement programs for youth, families, adults, and school children, as well as strategic planning and board relations as a member of the senior executive management team. She was instrumental in establishing diversity, equity, and inclusion planning both within her department and organization-wide, raising DEI to a strategic priority. Just prior to leaving SFB in 2021, an 8-year partnership with the SF Conservatory of Music came to fruition with the opening of the Bowes Center Student Residence, giving SFBS students ages 13-19 a state-of-the-arts accommodation, just steps from SF Ballet School.  From 2001-2011, she held three positions at the San Francisco Symphony in the Education and Electronic Media departments, culminating with designing and launching the acclaimed Community of Music Makers program.  Her career in arts administration in San Francisco began in 1994 when she was the program director for The Hills Project, an afterschool arts program for underserved youth in the SF Western Addition neighborhood, which was a model for private-public partnerships—one of the first such collaborations in San Francisco—involving the SF Unified School District, the SF Department of Children, Youth and Families, and the SF Ballet, SF Symphony, SF Opera, and SF Museums of Fine Arts. Andi has gained a wealth of experience in partnerships and collaborations, program design and development, and strategic planning from her career in arts administration and education. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute, with additional graduate studies at Ithaca College and the Florida State University.  She had performed as a professional musician for several years before shifting to the administrative side of the arts and education.  Andi is currently working as a consultant in the arts sector, and she is a board member of the Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program (NM) and Postpartum Support Center (Marin County, CA).  Andi’s hobbies include hiking, bass fishing, and cooking.

 

FACULTY/ MENTORS/FACILITATORS

 

HOUSTON BALLET

LAUREN ANDERSON- Native Houstonian Lauren Anderson danced with Houston Ballet from 1983 to 2006, performing leading roles in all the great classical ballets, appearing across the world to critical acclaim, and in the process, becoming one of Houston Ballet’s most beloved stars. In January 2007, Anderson assumed her new role in Houston Ballet’s education department where she teaches ballet classes at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy, conducts master classes at area schools, and lectures to students on dance and her historic career as one of America’s most distinguished African-American ballerinas. She trained exclusively at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy from the age of seven. She joined Houston Ballet in 1983 and in 1990 became the first African-American to be promoted to principal dancer at Houston Ballet – and one of the few African-American ballerinas at the head of a major ballet company anywhere in the world. In addition, Anderson received the Special Jury Award at the 1990 International Ballet Competition as well as the International Critics Award in Chile. Ms. Anderson has performed across the globe as a guest artist. Anderson danced leading roles in all of the classical ballets. Her contemporary repertoire included works by George Balanchine, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Christopher Bruce, James Kudelka, Trey McIntyre, and Stanton Welch AM. Anderson created the title role in Ben Stevenson’s Cleopatra, and her performance as Cleopatra received accolades from international critics. Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times compared her to the great Italian actress Eleanora Duse, and Christine Temin of The Boston Globe pronounced her “a powerhouse in interpreting the role that Stevenson created on her. “In April 1999, Anderson was featured on the cover of Dance Magazine. She has also been featured in the People and Pointe Magazine; as well as on the television programs “A&E Breakfast With the Arts,” “CBS News Sunday Morning,” and the game show, “To Tell the Truth.” Ms. Anderson has been honored by various organizations and received numerous awards. She is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. In the spring of 2016, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture awarded her with a permanent exhibit. In 2017, she received the Texas Medal of Arts Award for her contribution to the dance world. In fall of 2021 was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. Most recently, a production chronicling her life, Plumshuga: The Rise of Lauren Anderson premiered at Stages Theater.

 

CAROLINA BALLET
DEBRA AUSTIN (Ballet Master, Founding Member) received a scholarship to the School of American Ballet when she was 12 years old. Four years later, George Balanchine personally invited her to join New York City Ballet. Praised by The New York Times for her ability to “levitate…and remain suspended in the air,” Ms. Austin danced many principal roles with New York City Ballet in works choreographed by Balanchine, including Symphony in C, Divertimento #15, and Ballo della Regina, in which Balanchine created a solo for her. She also danced lead roles for Jerome Robbins in The Four Seasons, Interplay, and Chansons Madécasses, which he created on her. She later joined the Zurich Ballet in Switzerland, where she danced principal roles (many with Rudolf Nureyev) in works by all of the major choreographers, including Myrtha in Heinz Spoerli’s Giselle. While there, she toured throughout Europe. After her return to the United States, she joined Pennsylvania Ballet as a principal dancer under Artistic Director Robert Weiss and danced roles in Swan Lake, Coppélia, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Giselle, and La Sylphide.

 

 

 

 

TROY BROWN, Dancer, teacher, mentor, and an inspiration to a new generation of dancers, Troy Brown got his start in dance at the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet, which was founded in 1941 by Doris W. Jones and Claire Haywood to teach classical ballet to young dancers of color in Washington, D.C. He went on to attend the School of American Ballet in New York City under a full scholarship and graduated from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C.
In his professional career, Troy performed with the Chicago City Ballet under the direction of Maria Tallchief, Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Baltimore Opera, the Washington Performing Arts Society, and the Washington Opera. Troy exudes remarkable insight and invaluable artistry in all of his work. Dedicated to encouraging and guiding his students in the world of classical ballet, Troy has mentored young dancers to go on to The Kirov Academy of Ballet, Maryland Youth Ballet, Joffrey Ballet School, Bolshoi Ballet, The School of American Ballet and the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. Among his students was ABT Company member Courtney Lavine. Troy currently teaches, choreographs and performs throughout the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area.

 

 

GIORDANO DANCE CHICAGO (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

ERICA LYNETTE EDWARDS trained at the Salt Creek Ballet School, School of American Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and Ruth Page Foundation. She joined The Joffrey Ballet after being one of the first dancers in the Arpino Apprentice program. She wasThe Joffrey Ballet’s Director of Community Engagement. After departing Joffrey, Erica Lynette Edwards went on to Found Cultivating Better Tomorrows, where she is a Lead Facilitator

Erica is an accomplished consultant and public speaker who champions change to advance social justice. With diversity, equity, and inclusion as the core foundation of her work, she transforms visions into reality. After a rewarding 15-year career as a ballerina at The Joffrey Ballet and five years as the Director of Community Engagement, she founded Cultivating Better Tomorrows. Through this consulting company Erica reshapes the dynamics of performing arts communities to produce environments where all can thrive. Highly skilled in delivering consistent success and effective change, she is passionate about facilitating results driven conversations and workshops focused on reflection and knowledge building. Her visionary leadership has earned her many honors and opportunities, including speaking on national panels, giving a TEDx talk, and being selected as a member of Crain’s Chicago Business “40 Under 40.” By developing shared understandings, Erica inspires communities to make the world a more just place.

 

BUTLER UNIVERSITY

RAMON FLOWERS began his formal dance training on scholarship at the School for the  Pennsylvania Ballet, and later attended the School of American Ballet. Four years after joining the Pennsylvania Ballet Company, as the first male African-American dancer, he moved to Europe as a principal ballet dancer for 12 Years. He spent seven years with the legendary, internationally renowned Maurice Béjart, performing in major cities in over 60 countries on every continent. He later moved to Germany to dance with William Forsythe, director of the Frankfurt Ballet, and then to Madrid to work with choreographer Nacho Duato and the Compañía Nacional de Danza de España. He has been offered company contracts with New York City Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Basil Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, and Peter Schaufuss Ballet. He returned to North America to dance with Montreal`s Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, where repertoire encompassed pieces by all the choreographers for whom he’d danced in Europe, as well as the works of George Balanchine, which were very familiar to him because of his first training as a teenage student. He then left Canada to return to his first love for dance, musical theatre and was featured in several Broadway shows, including Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, Cats, The Lion King, The Green Bird, The Boy From Oz, and Hot Feet, as well as Broadway National Tours with Chita Rivera in The Dancer’s Life, and A Chorus Line, in the role of Richie. While living in NYC he was featured in commercials, film, and Television. Ramon teaches ballet at the American Dance Festival Summer Intensive at Duke University, as well as workshops on the William Forsythe style of movement in NYC during his time away from Butler University. He received his BA in French from The City College of New York, CUNY, and his MFA in Dance from The University of Iowa.

 

KYMERA DANCE

WILLIAM ISAAC award winning artistic director, choreographer and dancer, was born on the island nation of Antigua. He is the founder of Kymera Dance. This project-based company is dedicated to making new work in the artistic discipline of dance, collaboration within other arts & entertainment fields and the development of future dance artists. The inaugural performance for Kymera Dance was in February 2012.
He is an alumnus of The Juilliard School, The School at Jacob’s Pillow, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts, The Ailey School and Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center. Formerly a dancer with Armitage Gone! Dance as the principal male artist (Artistic Director Karole Armitage), along with Ballet de Lorraine (Artistic Director Didier Deschamps), The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Artistic Director Judith Jamison), Complexions Contemporary Ballet (Artistic Directors Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson), Alonzo King Lines Ballet (Artistic Director Alonzo King), Dance Theatre of Harlem (Artistic Director Arthur Mitchell), and The Philadelphia Dance Company “Philadanco” (Artistic Director Joan Myers Brown).
Mr. Isaac has received a Dance Lab New York Nexus Lab residency 2020, Next Festival of Emerging Artists Residency 2019, UNCSA Choreographic Institute Development Residency 2018, New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” award 2007-2008, a William Loeb award 1997, a NFAA award (Young Arts)1995, Donna Reed Festival Finalist 1995 and was the first Van Lier Fellowship recipient at The Ailey School from 1992-1994.
With his many years as an experienced teacher, he has conducted outreach and taught classes for Alvin Ailey American Dance Center (Teaching Artist), Ailey II, American Ballet Theater’s Make a Ballet program (Teaching Artist), Harlem School of the Arts, New York City Center (Teaching Artist), Columbia College in Chicago, The Door New York City, The University of Illinois in Champaign Urbana, Eglevsky Ballet, EMIA, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts, and Joffrey’s Jazz and Contemporary program.
He has worked as the assistant choreographer on the 2008 Tony award winning musical Passing Strange (later filmed by Spike Lee), and the 2015 production of El Publico (a new opera at Teatro Real in Madrid Spain based on Frederico Lorca’s play of the same title). He’s also done additional choreography for Karole Armitage’s Three Theories for the World Science Fair, and Alice Farley and legendary Jazz musician Henry Threadgill’s Erotec (The Human Life of Machines) for the Henson International Festival of Puppet Theatre.
Mr. Isaac has created work for Kymera Dance, Ailey/Fordham University BFA program, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Hofstra University, The Juilliard School, UNCSA, Philadanco’s “Danco on Danco”, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts, The Brooklyn High School for the Arts, The Joffrey Jazz and Contemporary program, The Metropolitan School of the Arts in Virginia and YAGP. Working in the commercial landscape he’s been on the creative teams for the Nike X Pedro Lourenco campaign starring Karlie Kloss and Coke Zero’s initial campaign launch for Spain and was a principal performer in Marc Jacobs Fall 2020 Fashion Show at the Park Avenue Armory.

ENDALYN T. OUTLAW – Dancer, choreographer, and educator Endalyn T. Outlaw (née Taylor) is the dean of the School of Dance at UNCSA. She has held the positions of director of Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) School in New York — a company she joined in 1984, becoming a principal dancer in 1993 — and director of the Cambridge Summer Art Institute in Massachusetts. Her extensive administrative, artistic and academic career is steeped in ballet pedagogy and she has created an eclectic body of choreographic works. Outlaw excels at restaging ballets, having performed many of the classics and having worked with luminaries in the field including DTH founder Arthur Mitchell, British-American ballet dancer and choreographer Frederick Franklin, director and choreographer of LINES Ballet Alonzo King, American dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille, and director and choreographer of Garth Fagan Dance and “The Lion King,” Garth Fagan. She has performed on Broadway and stages all over the world, including as an original cast member of Tony Award-winning Broadway productions of “The Lion King,” “Aida,” and “Carousel.” Prior to joining UNCSA, she served six years at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where she taught ballet and musical theater as an associate professor of Dance. In 2020 she was appointed the Dean’s Fellow for Black Arts Research.

 

MIRANDA SILVEIRA was born in Brazil and grew up in Spain. Member of the International Dance Council UNESCO, Silveira is a passionate Performing Artist, Ballet, and Modern Dance educated. Her schooling was in The Royal Conservatory in Spain and San Francisco Ballet School, directed by Lola de Ávila. Silveira worked in Internationally renowned Ballet Companies; San Francisco Ballet, Compañía Nacional de Danza, and The Joffrey Ballet. With ten years of experience as a professional, dance took her to Europe, The United States, South America, and Asia. She’s had the pleasure to perform creations by Arai, Balanchine, Blanc, Caniparoli, Dawson, DeLuz, Forsythe, Marston, McGregor, Morris, Peck, Pita, Possokhov, Ratmansky, Robbins, Ruz, Scarlet, Thatcher, Tomasson, Wheeldon, and more that she wishes to work with in the future. Silveira is currently with the Joffrey Ballet, transitioning into Freelance dancing to continue transmitting her passion for movement while embracing an inclusive wellness lifestyle. However, her goal remains the same: to inspire and create. Silveira is a Certified Nutrition Coach, able to receive inquiries, continuing her studies with the inclusive wellness lifestyle.

 

 

 

UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL of the ARTS

MONICA STEPHENSON – In 2002, she received her first professional contract with The Washington Ballet. She went on to perform with the Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble and joined the Los Angeles Ballet as an inaugural season company member in 2006. 

After returning to New York City, Monica performed in professional musical theatre as a cast member in “Ragtime” at the Westchester Broadway Theatre and “Footloose” at the Fireside Theatre. In 2016, she completed her Master of Arts in Dance Education from New York University with a concentration in American Ballet Theatre Ballet Pedagogy and is certified in all levels of the ABT National Training Curriculum. Monica was previously a member of the Education Staff at American Ballet Theatre as both a Teaching Artist and the Project Coordinator for Project Plié, an initiative to increase diversity in classical ballet. 

Monica joined The Washington School of Ballet SE Campus as full-time faculty in Fall 2016. In 2018, Monica assumed the role of Associate Head of School SE Campus and, in 2019, became the Head of School SE Campus, where she led the faculty and staff in delivering ballet instruction at a pre-professional standard. She most recently served as the Director of Community Engagement at Miami City Ballet and is currently the Director of Preparatory Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

PATHWAYS TO PERFORMANCE CHOREOGRAPHIC PROGRAM

SPECTRUM DANCE THEATER

DONALD BYRD  is a Tony-nominated (The Color Purple) and Bessie Award-winning (The Minstrel Show) choreographer. He has been the Artistic Director of Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle since December 2002. Formerly, he was Artistic Director of Donald Byrd/The Group, a critically acclaimed contemporary dance company, founded in Los Angeles and later based in NewYork that toured both nationally and internationally. He has created dance works for many leading companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, and Dance Theater of Harlem, among others, and worked extensively in theater and opera.