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
ADMINSTRATOR / DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
SARA PROCOPIO is a Brooklyn-based dance artist, educator, and arts manager. As a founding company member and Artistic Associate of Shen Wei Dance Arts from 2001-2012, her work with Shen Wei included originating roles in ten works with extensive national and international at renowned venues and festivals throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States. From 2012-2019 she performed extensively in the work of choreographer and media artist Jonah Bokaer with global appearances at the BAM Next Wave Festival, Brisbane Festival, Lyon Biennale, and the National Theater of Serbia. She has also performed in the work of Meredith Glisson, Laura Gutierrez, Madeline Hollander, Gina Milovan Kohler, Paul Lazar and at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2022 premiere of The Hours, directed by Phelim McDermott and choreographed by Annie-B Parson. Sara’s teaching practice has led her to facilitate workshops, organize intensives, and stage repertory at renowned institutions and festivals throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and the U.S. She has been on faculty at University of the Arts since 2011 alongside guest teaching engagements at youth programs, high schools, colleges, and universities including Connecticut College, Middlebury College, Hollins University, Marymount Manhattan College, Paolo Grassi, Rutgers University, University of Michigan, and UNCSA. Throughout her performance and teaching career, Sara has provided administrative support in the areas of management, finance, grant writing and research/development to many artists and organizations. She was an Arts Management Fellow through a program of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, in conjunction with the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Professional Development Program and has served as a Tour Coordinator for international dance and music artists invited to visit the U.S. by the State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs. Currently, Sara works with MoBBallet, Big Dance Theater, Ballet Hispánico, DeVos Institute for Arts Management, and Hélène Simoneau Danse.
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.
FACULTY/ MENTORS/FACILITATORS
BALLET WEST
KATLYN ADDISON-
is from Ontario, Canada. She joined Ballet West in 2011 and was promoted to Demi-Soloist in 2014, to Soloist in 2016, and to First Soloist in 2018. In 2016, Katlyn was the first black principal ballerina to perform the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in Willam Christensen’s The Nutcracker, and Katlyn again made history in 2021 when she became Ballet West’s first black female Principal Artist. Also in 2021, Katlyn was awarded the Performing Arts Fellowship Award by the Utah Division of Fine Arts & Museums. Katlyn began her professional ballet training at the age of ten with the National Ballet School of Canada and continued her training with Quinte Ballet School of Canada, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, and the Houston Ballet Ben Stevenson Academy. She joined Houston Ballet’s corps de ballet in 2007, and in 2008, she was awarded the Sarah Chapin Langham Award at Youth America Grand Prix and was invited to perform at the prestigious YAGP Gala the same year. With Ballet West, Katlyn has performed Tatiana in Cranko’s Onegin, Juliet in Smuin’s Romeo & Juliet, and lead roles in Sklute’s Swan Lake, Balanchine’s Prodigal Son, Stevenson’s Dracula, Fonte’s Carmina Burana, and many others.
Katlyn has also worked to find her choreographic voice. In 2015, Katlyn was chosen to choreograph The Hunt for Ballet West’s Choreographic Festival Program. She was again selected to create new works for the festival in 2018 (Hidden Voices), 2021 (Eden), and in 2024 (Andromeda). She has created new ballets for the Utah Arts Festival (Unnamed, 2019), the Ballet West Academy, the University of Utah Dance Department (Saint-George, The Composer, Frenchmen, and Creator, 2020), the Kansas City Ballet (Sanctuary, 2022), Ballet Jorgen (There Were TWO, 2022), and Ballet Des Moines (Outside of US, 2024),
n 2015, Huffington Post named Katlyn as one of the top “26 black female dancers you should know,” and she has regularly been featured in Pointe and Dance Magazine. She danced and acted in Miu Miu’s Woman’s Tales, a short film that premiered at the 2017 Venice Film Festival and appeared on the Prada Miu Miu website. In 2019, Katlyn performed for attendees of the 68th United Nations Civil Society Conference, dancing the role of Mother Earth in The Way of the Rain – Earth Movements – A Symphony for Ballet with choreography by Emily Adams. Throughout the fall and winter of 2019-2020, Katlyn performed the principal/soloist roles at the Scottish Ballet in Glasgow, Scotland, including Tituba in Helen Pickett’s The Crucible and Snow Queen, choreographed by Christopher Hampson, Artistic Director of Scottish Ballet. In June of 2022, Katlyn was featured in “Reforming the Narrative” at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., where she performed a lead role in a new ballet created by renowned choreographer Donald Byrd. Most recently, she performed Gerald Arpino’s Ruth, Ricordi per Due pas de deux in the Arpino Centennial Celebration.
In early 2022, Katlyn was included as an honoree in Microsoft’s virtual interactive museum, The Legacy Project, and she was also featured in the Utah Black Chamber’s book Black Utah: Stories of a Thriving Community.
Katlyn is involved in many passion projects and is dedicated to using her platform to give back to her community and to help raise the voices of other minority artists. Katlyn has volunteered her time for: the Redlining Project, an initiative drawing attention to injustices created by red lining voter districts; Ballet West’s I CAN DO Program; Curly ME, which supports young girls of color; Morning Star Middle School and Ridgewood Elementary School, both in Ontario, Canada; and she also serves on the board of directors for the Utah Black Artist Collective.
ANJALI AUSTIN– is a distinguished interdisciplinary artist whose career includes thirteen years of performing with the critically acclaimed Dance Theatre of Harlem. A movement artist, she has performed classical, neo-classical, and contemporary works by prominent choreographers, and choreographs nationally and internationally. Ballets she has performed include Billy the Kid, Swan Lake (Act II), Serenade, Flower Festival, Dougla, Concerto Barocco, Prince Igor, Paquita, and Frankie and Johnny – in which she held a vocal role. Also to her credits are PBS television specials Fall River Legend, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Creole Giselle. She augmented her career with training and studies in GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® methodology and is a Specialized Master Trainer with over 30 years of experience in the system. Ms. Austin is a Professor in the School of Dance at Florida State University, holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College, was a 2017 Fellow at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University, and conducts lectures on the history and legacy of Black classical ballet dancers. Currently she serves as Past-President of CORPS de Ballet International, Inc. and is Chair of the School of Dance at Florida State University.
ALAN BARNES- After completing his studies in dance, Alan Barnes performed with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company as well as the renowned Dance Theater of Harlem in New York. He later became a principal dancer at the world famous Frankfurt Ballet under the direction of William Forsythe and soon began assisting in the development of many of Forsythe’s seminal works. His work as a dancer has been honoured many times. In addition to his various engagements, he collaborates frequently with other contemporary choreographers such as Pascal Touzeau and David Dawson. He is also a regular choreographer at the acclaimed Alvin Ailey Dance Center and the emerging Francesca Harper Project.
Alan Barnes works as a choreographer and dancer in Frankfurt am Main and New York
TOWSON UNIVERSITY
CAROLINE ROCHER BARNES trained at the Conseravtoire de Montpellier in France, the Rudra Béjart Art School in Switzerland and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York. In 1999, Mrs. Rocher Barnes joined the Dance Theater of Harlem under Arthur Mitchell’s mentorship, was promoted to soloist in 2000, and then principal dancer the following year. Her professional career extends to the Bavarian State Ballet in Germany, the Lyon Opera Ballet in France and Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet in San Franscisco. In 2001 Mrs. Rocher Barnes was named “25 to watch” in “Dance Magazine.” She has taught at several dance institutions nationwide, and abroad, and is part of the Alonzo King Lines Summer Program faculty.
Mrs. Rocher Barnes is a member of the Kennedy Center Dance Council that advises on the content of the ballet series offerings and serves as ambassador for the center’s dance programs to young performers, schools and the local community. Mrs. Rocher Barnes holds a certification in the Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis® expansion systems and the Progressing Ballet Technique®. She is an ABT® Certified Teacher who has completed the ABT® Teacher training intensive in pre-primary through level five.
Mrs. Rocher Barnes graduated Summa Cum Laude from Saint Mary’s College of California with a B.A. in performing arts. She holds an MFA in dance from the University of Maryland, College Park.
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.
MOUNTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY
KAI DAVIS – trained at The Ruth Page School of Dance under the late and great Larry Long in her hometown of Chicago, IL. She also studied at The Lou Conte School of Dance along with full summer scholarships to The Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet and The Joffrey Ballet.
Kai’s professional career began in 1996 with The Boston Ballet. During her five seasons there she performed corps and soloist roles in many of the Vaganova classics including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, Giselle, and La Bayadere. Kai also worked with Ballet San Jose for two seasons where she performed Balanchine roles like Polyhemnia in Apollo and the jumping girl in Who Cares.
In 2003, Ms Davis was invited to join Ballet British Columbia. She performed in contemporary pieces by James Kudelka, William Forsythe & Nacho Duato. Kai was also involved in the creation process with Artistic Director at the time, John Alleyne.
After retiring from the stage in 2010, Kai moved to San Francisco to teach for the Alonzo King Lines Ballet Training Program. During her 10 years in the Bay Area, she taught ballet and pointe technique for the BFA Dance Program at The Dominican University of Marin, for the Advanced Ballet Program for Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, and company class for both Smuin SF Ballet & Oakland Ballet.
Kai now resides in Montclair, New Jersey where she is adjunct faculty for the dance program at Montclair State University and ballet instructor for the certified program at Peridance in New York.
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.
GLORYA KAUFMANN SCHOOL OF DANCE
EBONY HAZWELL FRAZIER began her dance training at The Miami Conservatory (Thomas Armour Youth Foundation) and continued on to New World School of the Arts. She was later asked to join Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) where she danced in ballets such as Apollo, Giselle, Agon, Serenade and many others. Following her time at DTH, Haswell Frazier joined Complexions Contemporary Ballet and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She has performed principal roles with those companies and the works of many renowned choreographers such as Ulysses Dove, Jodie Gates, Robert Battle, Talley Beatty and Maurice Béjart among others. She was also a member of the City Center Encores! production of The Wiz and is a cast member of the feature film Bolden!. In addition to teaching master classes throughout the country, Haswell Frazier teaches at Debbie Allen Dance Academy as well as AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts. Haswell Frazier is a graduate of University of Southern California and was a National Visiting Fellow with The School of American Ballet (SAB).
MEREDITH RAINEY is a choreographer whose work explores the human condition through movement that is emotionally grounded and architecturally precise. A former soloist with Pennsylvania Ballet and founding member of Ballet X, Rainey began choreographing while still dancing, eventually shifting his focus fully to creation and mentorship.
In July 2024, his latest work premiered at the Kennedy Center, marking a significant milestone in a choreographic career that has spanned two decades. His works have been commissioned by companies including Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Hubbard Street 2, Ballet X, Philadelphia Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, and Incolballet. He has received major support from institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the William Penn Foundation, the Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, and The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.
Rainey has held numerous residencies including Performance Garage’s DanceVisions (2023–24), MOtiVE Brooklyn (2021), and the Swarthmore Project (2006, 2010). His early recognition includes the 2002 Hubbard Street 2 Choreographic Competition and the 2011 A.W.A.R.D. Show! Philadelphia. He is a three-time Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship recipient and was honored with the Independence Foundation Artist Fellowship and the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation “Artist as Catalyst” Grant.
In addition to his choreographic work, Meredith is committed to teaching and mentoring. He has taught at Swarthmore College, Bryn Mawr College, Drexel University, and University of the Arts, where he was awarded a Dance Fellowship and Life Experience Scholarship in 2018. His work continues to shape contemporary ballet and concert dance with clarity, integrity, and purpose.
NASHVILE BALLET
LYDIA MCRAE is originally from Kernersville, NC and began her dance training at the age of 8 at the North Carolina School of the Arts. After graduating from the high school dance program at NCSA, she continued her studies with the Richmond Ballet. She has had the pleasure of performing with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, the Oakland Ballet, and Ballet Memphis. While dancing with Ballet Memphis she took online courses at UNCG and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. This will be her second season dancing with Nashville Ballet. Lydia’s repertoire includes works by Jennifer Archibald, Mark Godden, Alonzo King, Graham Lustig, Trey McIntyre, and Dwight Rhoden.
Presently is a sought after dance and wedding photographer. Stepping behind the lens was initially a natural extension of her dance career, but it quickly transformed into a necessity as she delved deeper into the art form. Every click is a chance to freeze a moment in time and translate raw emotions into visual stories.
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.
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.
His many awards, prizes, and fellowships include the Doris Duke Artist Award; Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Cornish College of the Arts; Masters of Choreography Award, The Kennedy Center; Fellow at The American Academy of Jerusalem; James Baldwin Fellow of United States Artists; Resident Fellow of The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center; Fellow at the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue, Harvard University; and the Mayor’s Arts Award for his sustained contributions to the City of Seattle. He was recently named a 2019 Doris Duke Artist Awardee.
Donald Byrd received the 2016 James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award, which is funded by the Raynier Institute & Foundation through the Frye Art Museum | Artist Trust Consortium. The award supports and advances the creative work of outstanding artists living and working in Washington State and culminates in a presentation at the Frye Art Museum.
ARCH DANCE
JENNIFER ARCHIBALD is the founder and Artistic Director of the Arch Dance Company and Program Director of ArchCore40 Dance Intensives. She is a graduate of The Alvin Ailey School and the Maggie Flanigan Acting Conservatory where she studied the Meisner Technique. Archibald has choreographed for the Atlanta Ballet, Ailey II, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Kansas City Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Ballet Nashville, Grand Rapids Ballet, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, and Stockholm’s Balletakademien, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre and worked commercially for Tommy Hilfiger, NIKE and MAC Cosmetics as well as chart-listed singers and actors. She was the first female Resident Choreographer in Cincinnati Ballet’s 40-year history for seven years under the direction of Victoria Morgan. For 2024 Jennifer is commissioned to create works for Smuin Ballet, Washington Ballet, BalletMet and is the guest choreographer for Pathways to Performance Reframing the Narrative at the Kennedy Center. She was appointed as Movement Director for Michael Kahn’s closing season for The Oresteia at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. She was also the 2018-19 recipient’s for the CUNY Dance Initiative Residency.
Archibald’s works have been performed at venues including New York’s City Center, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Aaron Davis Hall, Jacob’s Pillow Inside|Out Stage and Central Park’s Summerstage Mainstage. Jennifer was awarded a Choreographic Fellow for Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab under the direction of Robert Battle. She is a Choreographic Winnings recipient by the Joffrey Ballet. Jennifer choreographed “Seven”, a biographical work about Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, commissioned by St. Louis based MADCO Dance Company. Her work for Stockholm’s Balettakademien “Delilah” toured Scandinavia. She is the creator of the Documentary Ballet format, where she creates works rooted in historical history bringing communities together. The Documentary Ballets are inclusive and communal projects. Breaking’Bricks honors the community of Black Wall Street in Tulsa Oklahoma produced by Tulsa Ballet and Pittsburgh Ballets produced Sounds of the Sun honoring the life of dancer Florence Waren exploring her experience during the holocaust. Documentary Ballets are theatrical engagements that evolve beyond the stage, with historical education as an integral part of the creative process.
Dance Magazine considers Ms. Archibald a major player on the college circuit Jennifer is currently an Acting Lecturer at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. In 2015, she was appointed as Guest Faculty Lecturer to develop the Hip Hop dance curriculum at Columbia/Barnard College. Jennifer is also a guest artist at several universities including Fordham/Ailey, Purchase College, Princeton, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of South Florida, Goucher College, Columbia College Chicago, Bates College, Boston Conservatory, Point Park University, Miami New World School of the Arts, South Carolina’s Governor’s School of the Arts, Ailey Fordham, Austin University, Oklahoma University, University of Missouri, Jacksonville University, and University of Alabama, and New York Tisch University. Internationally, she has taught master classes in Switzerland, Brazil, Bermuda, Canada, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden, France, Russia, Mexico, China, and Ecuador.
NETHERLANDS DANCE THEATRE
PRINCE CREDELL- is originally from Bronx, NY and began formal training at The Ailey School (as a Judith Jamison Scholar). After graduating from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, he continued his training at the San Francisco Ballet School and then joined Ailey II. Between 2002 and 2006, he worked with Alonzo King LINES Ballet and has since assisted in staging Mr. King’s works on repertory companies nationally and abroad (Charlotte Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Ballet Béjart Lausanne). During that period Mr. Credell, also received the Isadora Duncan Dance award (2006) for performing King’s work, Who Dressed you like a Foreigner?.
In the past he has also appeared as a guest artist with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Spectrum Dance Theater, and Jacoby & Pronk. By the end of 2006, Credell joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, followed by a three-year engagement with Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève. During this period, Credell danced a wide range of contemporary works.
Credell joined the Netherlands Dance Theater in 2013 where he has worked with house and visiting choreographers on creations annually. In addition to performing, Mr. Credell is a revisiting faculty member of both the LINES Ballet School and The Ailey School. His film credits include the documentary Alonzo King Goes to Venice and Shake-Off, which premiered in the Lincoln Center Film Festival (2005) and Lincoln Center Dance on Camera Festival (2008), respectively.