National Dance Project/Partners: Hub Sites & Advisors
Hub Sites
The term Hub Site has been given to 10-12 individuals from presenting organizations around the country who have extensive knowledge of the dance community and have taken a leadership role in developing new dance work within their communities. Hub Sites meet as a committee three times a year, together with National Dance Project Advisors, to review proposals, make funding recommendations, and discuss program policy. Selected by a committee, Hub Sites serve for two-year terms and may be re-appointed. Hub Sites also advise artists in final proposal preparation, consult in tour development, present work when possible, and occasionally serve as Presenter Partners in the development of dance projects.
Current NDP Hub Sites:
Celesta Billeci UC Santa Barbara Arts and Lectures (Santa Barbara, CA)
Since August 2000, Celesta has overseen one of Southern California’s premier programs of performing arts, films, and lectures. She was President of California Presenters (2001-02) and Board Member and Chair of the Professional Development Committee of the Western Arts Alliance (2000-02). Since becoming Director, Celesta has taken Arts and Lectures in new directions, including collaborations with community arts organizations, outreach to a variety of socioeconomic and ethnic communities, and the commissioning of new works. Prior to her current position, she was Director’s Associate for UCLA Live, one of the country’s largest and most diverse performing arts programs. She has 15 years experience as a dance instructor and has won numerous awards during her dance career.
Bridgette Kohnhorst
Cultural Programs Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
Since 2002, Bridgette Kohnhorst has been at the helm of Great Performances at Vanderbilt (University) as curator and producer, and as Director of the Sarratt Art Gallery for the office of the Dean of Students. In addition, she began programming the Vanderbilt’s Speakers Series (VUSC) including the university’s historic political symposium IMPACT in 2006.
Before joining Vanderbilt, Bridgette was founding Arts Education Director at the Bologna Performing Arts Center in Mississippi where she was a departmental recipient for the Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts for Cultural Leadership for the state.
At Vanderbilt, Bridgette has served as a U.S. delegate and guest of numerous international consulates including Holland, Israel, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan among others. Bridgette was nominated to the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Board in 2008.
She is a New York-trained dancer and published poet who holds degrees in English and Dance Performance from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Bridgette formerly worked at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Cory Baker
Director of Performing Arts Scottsdale Cultural Council (Scottsdale, AZ)
Cory Baker began her career with the Scottsdale Cultural Council in 2000 working in audience development for the organization’s three divisions: The Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Scottsdale Public Art Program. She currently serves as Director of Performing Arts. The Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts has a 30-year history as a multi-disciplinary presenting institution, and dance has always been at the heart of its programming. Since its inception, the Scottsdale Center for the Arts has been dedicated to the creation of new work and has commissioned work from Momix, Bella Lewizky, Urban Bush Women, and others. Cory serves on the Western Arts Alliance board, where she sits on the Strategic Planning Committee and is co-chair of the Mentoring and Networking Committee. She is a member of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, California Presenters, Dance/USA, and the Arizona Presenters Alliance.
Margaret Lawrence
Director of Programming Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH)
Since 1995, Margaret Lawrence has been Director of Programming at the Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, one of the original prototypes of American campus-based performing arts centers. There, she curates a program of over 50 annual visiting artist events, including the commissioning of new works. A former board member of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters and a Trustee of the Vermont Arts Council, she has served on panels for the Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Vermont arts commissions and as consultant for Creative Capital. Artistic Advisor for the Japan Society in New York, she has represented New England in Australia, Japan, Cambodia, China, Uzbekistan, Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia; and has taught professional workshops in Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgisztan, and throughout the US. Her double BA is from the University of California, Berkeley in Anthropology and Humanities. She has worked in presenting, education, and marketing for the Hult Center (Eugene, OR), Life on the Water (San Francisco), and the Marlboro Music Festival (VT). Under her artistic leadership, the Hopkins Center was named a pilot site for the Center for Creative Research and is an awardee of the first Creative Campus Innovations Grant Program, a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Anna Glass
Managing Director 651 Arts (Brooklyn, NY)
Anna Glass has been involved in the performing arts as both an artist and arts administrator for over ten years. Anna is currently the Managing Director of 651 ARTS, a presenting/producing arts organization dedicated to celebrating the breadth of the African Diaspora. Her professional affiliations include the Editorial Board for Inside Arts magazine, National Resource Council for the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography and founding member of the Next Generation of Arts Administrators (NGAA). After receiving her Jurist Doctorate from the University of Dayton School of Law, Anna became the Artist Representative for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) - a company she performed with for three years (DCDC2). In 2003, Anna was named a Vilar Fellow participating in the John F. Kennedy Center's Vilar Fellowship for Arts Management. She is also a licensed attorney in the State of New York.
Angela Mattox
Performing Arts Curator Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA)
Angela Mattox is Performing Arts Curator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts - San Francisco’s leading multidisciplinary contemporary art center that presents bold and innovative performance firmly grounded in exploring the complex issues of our times. In 2003, Angela relocated to the Bay Area from New York to join the curatorial team at YBCA and was instrumental in revitalizing the performing arts program. From 1999–2003, she served as Program Coordinator at Arts International, a New York based organization dedicated to the development and support of global cultural interchange in the arts. In this capacity, she coordinated such national grant programs as the Artists Exploration Fund, the California Presenters Initiative, and The Fund for US Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions. She received her BA degree through the World Arts and Cultures program of UCLA.
Walter Jaffe
Co-Founder White Bird (Portland, OR)
Walter Jaffe (Ph.D., German Literature, Yale, 1979) is Co-Founder of White Bird, a dance presenting organization in Portland, Oregon now celebrating its tenth anniversary. He is a former publisher and former board member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company. A year after moving to Portland from New York City in June 1996, Walter and his partner Paul King founded White Bird to bring the best local, national and international dance companies to the city. White Bird has presented 97 dance companies to date. White Bird has co-commissioned 23 important dance works, including Trisha Brown’s Geometry of Quiet, Stephen Petronio’s Strange Attractors, and Bill T. Jones’ You Walk? Jaffe is Treasurer/Secretary of the White Bird Board. He is currently a member of the board of the Friends of the Performing Arts Center and the Advisory Board of Portland State University’s School of Fine and Performing Arts. He is a former board member of the Western Arts Alliance (WAA) and is a member of Dance/USA, Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), California Presenters and International Society of Performing Arts (ISPA), where he serves as Co-Curator of the semi-annual Pitch Session with Paul King.
Ed Noonan
Executive Director Myrna Loy Center (Helena, MT)
Ed Noonan is Executive Director of the Myrna Loy Center. The Myrna Loy Center is one of the country’s leading rural arts organization. Ed has been Executive Director for eight years and has produced several major national projects including “Geyser Land” (2003) and Project Bandaloop’s PORTAL (2005). The Myrna Loy Center was recognized for it current work by being one of 17 national organizations receiving the Doris Duke Mid-size Presenting Organization 4-year Grant. He is currently serving the fourth year of a five-year term on the National Dance Project hub site panel. He is also an adjunct professor of Film, Communication, and Performing Arts at Carroll College, where he has worked for 20 years. He is a playwright. Warren Street House, a play dealing with a group home for the developmentally disabled, was performed off-Broadway at the Harold Clurman Theater in 1994. His play Taking History won him the Montana Fellowship for the Arts. Montana Wilderness won the Matthew G Hansen Endowment in 2001. In 1998, his poetry was published in a book titled Noisy Soil: Selected Poems from the Collected Works 1980-1998. He has also published a Catholic children’s novel, Good St. Dominic’s Cat. Ed was a Christian Brother from 1967 until 1980 and taught at high schools in Chicago and East Los Angeles. He has his BA in Speech (Theater) Lewis University and his MA in Speech (Theater) from Ball State University.
Nunally Kersh
Festival Producer Spoleto Festival USA (Charleston, SC)
Nunally Kersh has served as Producer of the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC since 1995 where she produces and presents a wide range of national and international work each season. Prior to joining the Spoleto Festival, she was Associate Producer for the Lincoln Center Festival in New York City. Arts experience prior to working with Lincoln Center included serving as Director of Public Relations for Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival as well as serving as an independent consultant for a number of national and international projects. Ms. Kersh has also worked on special projects with a variety of New York-based cultural institutions including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, PS 122 and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. Ms. Kersh regularly serves on various national and state funding panels and advisory committees. Ms. Kersh received a BA in international relations from L’Universite d’Aix en Provence and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Phil Reynolds
Executive Director The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago (Chicago, IL)
Phil Reynolds began his tenure as Executive Director of The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago in 1998. The Dance Center is Chicago’s leading presenter of contemporary dance. Prior to moving to Chicago, he directed Catamount Film and Arts Company, an exemplary multi-disciplinary presenter and local arts agency in northeastern Vermont. Mr. Reynolds began his professional career at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He was also employed in New York as Executive Director of the Nikolais and Murray Louis Foundation for Dance. Phil Reynolds has served on funding panels for the The Japan Foundation, Dance Advance - a program of the Pew Charitable Trusts, Illinois Arts Council, Vermont Arts Council, Connecticut Arts Commission, and Chamber Music America. Mr. Reynolds received a BA from Middlebury College and an MFA in Arts Management from Columbia University. Phil is the father of eleven-year-old Sam Reynolds.
Tim Van Leer
Executive Director Lied Center of Kansas (The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS)
Tim Van Leer is Executive Director of the Lied Center of Kansas at the University of Kansas. Serving the university and audiences throughout the state, the Lied Center's core value is that the arts are essential to the human experience. Tim has been involved in public events facility management and presenting the performing arts since 1968. He is a Past President of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, has held leadership positions with statewide performing arts service organizations and served the regional arts service organizations. Tim was a member of the National Task Force on Presenting and Touring the Performing Arts and is a recipient of Arts Presenter’s Fan Taylor Distinguished Service Award for his leadership and service to the field.
Advisors
Advisors are leaders from the dance field that include dancers, choreographers, managers, and presenters. The Advisors are selected by NEFA staff with input from Advisors themselves. The advisory committee is designed to provide guidance and direction to NDP as a whole, and to oversee and facilitate the process by which NDP supports the development and distribution of dance work.
Current NDP Advisors:
Alicia B. Adams
Vice President, Dance and International Programming The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, D.C.)
Alicia B. Adams is the Vice President of International Programming and Dance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She joined the Kennedy Center in 1992, first serving as Special Assistant to the Chairman, James Wolfensohn. For the past decade, Adams’ role at the Center has been producing and presenting in the international arena.
In addition to major international festivals, Adams also curates the Center’s Contemporary Dance Series and the Etcetera Series.
She has worked in the field of arts management in New York City for institutions including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Belafonte Enterprises, Inc., City Center Theater, Harlem School of the Arts and International Production Associates.
Joan Gray
President Muntu Dance Theatre (Chicago, IL)
Joan Gray is the President of Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago. She has been with Muntu since 1977 when she joined as a principal dancer. Muntu is one of the leading African dance companies in the country; and will be the first to build its own home from the ground up when its new performing arts center is completed in 2009. The Company’s repertoire consists of traditional dances from various countries, as well as more contemporary work that reflect the diverse cultures of people of African descent around the world. Joan has been in her present capacity since 1986. She is active in the local and national dance community, having served as past president of the Chicago Dance Coalition, as a past treasurer for Dance USA, and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Blacks in Dance. Joan has served on numerous policy and review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, and several state arts agencies and foundations around the country. She is a recipient of the Sidney R. Yates Award presented by the Illinois Arts Alliance and the Paul Robeson Award presented by the African American Arts Alliance. In 2002, Ms. Gray was awarded a fellowship to the Executive Program for Non-profit Leaders in the Arts at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Last year, she was honoured by the Chicago Defender as one of Chicago’s 50 Women of Excellence.
Ella Baff
Executive Director Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (Becket, MA)
Ella Baff is Executive Director of Jacob’s Pillow, an international dance festival, professional school, archives and National Historic Landmark located in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. She is from New York City and studied classical music and dance. Some of her past positions have included Program Director at Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley, which commissioned and presented work in all the arts from around the world, and Project Director for WNET public television in New York for America Dancing. She has been a consultant for many foundations, government, and not-for-profit organizations and has been invited by U.S. and international government agencies and arts organizations to be a speaker and panelist. She is currently on the Boards of MASS MoCA (Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA) and ISPA (the International Society for the Performing Arts, NY). Baff has received several awards, including the William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Ministry of Culture, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
Carla Peterson
Artistic Director Dance Theater Workshop (New York, NY)
Carla Peterson is Artistic Director of Dance Theater Workshop, since fall, 2006. She is responsible for leading the institution’s overall artistic vision and designing programming that advances dance and live performance in New York City and worldwide. From 2002-‘06, she served as the Executive Director of Movement Research (MR); while there, she received a 2005 New York Dance and Performance Award a.k.a. The Bessies in recognition of her leadership in directing MR. From 1996 – 2006, she also worked as a writer, project manager, project development advisor and fundraiser for independent artists, such as Tere O’Connor, Jennifer Monson, and Susan Rethorst, and for arts organizations, such as the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, SURDNA Foundation, Association for Performing Arts Presenters, National Performance Network, and National Association of Artists’ Organizations. From 1993–‘96, Ms. Peterson was Director of Inter/National Projects at Dance Theater Workshop. From 1988–‘93, she was Assistant Director of Performing Arts at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Ms. Peterson received her M.F.A. from The Ohio State University in 1983.
Zane Booker
Artistic Director Smoke, Lilies and Jade (Philadelphia, PA)
Zane Booker has been a member of the White Oak Dance Project, Ballets des Monte Carlo, Netherlands Dance Theatre, Chamber Dance Project, and Philadanco. He has performed as a guest artist with companies including the Opera de Monte Carlo and Jeanne Ruddy Dance.
Mr. Booker has worked with Ann Reinking and toured with Fosse directed by Debra McWaters. Mr Booker is a
2004 PCA Fellowship recipient. He is a faculty member at Howard university and University of the Arts. In
2006 he founded The Smoke, lilies and Jade Arts Initiative, a socially conscious multi-media dance theater company that promotes HIV/AIDS awareness.
