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2012 Institute for Leadership Training Mentors

LUCY BOWEN MCCAULEY is the artistic director, choreographer and creative energy behind Bowen McCauley Dance (BMD). Since founding BMD in 1996, she has created over 70 works ranging from lyrical ballets to highly physical contemporary pieces set to rock music. Her repertoire offers an unconventional array of genres with choreography that blends balletic lines, quirky gestures and modern dance's earthiness. Throughout her career, McCauley has received numerous awards, most recently the 2012 Pola Nirenska Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance. In 2011, Lucy was recognized as an Innovator by the Genetic Alliance for her local Dance for PD (Parkinson’s disease) program. In October 2010, McCauley received the prestigious lifetime award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance Education at the 10th Annual Metro DC Dance Awards in Washington, D.C. McCauley has taught at The George Washington University, The Washington Ballet and has been a guest teacher at ABT, the Orlando Ballet, The Kennedy Center, Georgetown University and the Escuela Superior de Música y Danza in Monterrey, Mexico. She is currently on the faculty at the Maryland Youth Ballet and Studio Body Logic. She has pioneered a unique stretch technique, Bowen McCauley Stretch, which has been featured in USA Today, Dance Teacher, and The Washington Post.	CECIL C. CONNER, JR., a native of Greensboro, North Carolina, studied at the University of Vienna in Austria; received his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and his LLB from Columbia University School of Law. He is the co-author of Skeletons from the Opera Closet. Conner joined Houston Ballet as Managing Director in 1995 and developed the company’s endowment to over $52 million (as of January 2012). In 2007, Conner led the $47 million campaign to build its new Center for Dance, the largest facility for a professional dance company in the United States, which opened in April 2011. Conner has emerged as a leader in the arts community both in Houston and nationally, having served on the boards of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in New York, the National Association for Regional Ballet, Dance USA, and the Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris County. He also served as chairman of the board of the Texas Institute for Arts in Education. He currently serves as a Trustee of the American Guild for Musical Artists (AGMA) Retirement Plan and Health Fund. A veteran arts administrator with an extensive law background, Mr. Conner came to Houston Ballet from The Joffrey Ballet in New York City, where he served as executive director from May 1992 until April 1995. He retired as Managing Director of Houston Ballet on February 15, 2012.
KADIDIA VIVIANE DOUMBIA was born in Paris (France) in 1961, and obtained the Medal of Honor at the World Dance Training in Paris in 1979. She studied with Maida Withers and Nancy Johnson at the George Washington University Dance department in Washington DC, and graduated in 1985 from Regents College (now Excelsior College) in Albany with a BS degree. Back to the Ivory Coast (West Africa), Ms. Doumbia opened a dance school and also contributed to the organization of the Dance department of the National Institute of Arts in the city capital of Abidjan. She worked and studied with Lori Belilove of the Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation in New York city, and she founded the SAKOLOLAI Dance Companyin the Ivory Coast. She is trained in Baroque Dance and the Feuillet Movement Notation System, and she also received training in the Benesh Movement Notation System at the Royal Academy of Dance in London, England. Ms. Doumbia worked as guest choreographer of the National Ballet of Mali for two years (2004-2006) and gave dance workshops at the new Conservatory of Arts in Bamako in 2006 (Mali). Ms. Doumbia is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the International Dance Council – UNESCO. She is a recipient of the 2011 Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction Award and in 2012 she received an award from the National Dance Association. Ms. Doumbia is a Doctorate candidate in Diplomacy and Education.	ANDREW EDMONSON is the Houston Ballet Director of Marketing & Public Relations. Andrew Edmonson has served as director of marketing and public relations for Houston Ballet since June 2000. In this position, he is responsible for all marketing, public relations, telemarketing, and ticketing functions for America's fourth largest ballet company. He supervises a staff of 10 employees and a $3 million annual budget for the marketing department. Under his leadership, Houston Ballet was named Marketer of the Year for 2011 in the category of performing arts by the American Marketing Association’s Houston chapter. During his tenure as marketing director, Houston Ballet has won three gold “Addy” Awards from the Houston Advertising Federation for its television campaigns. Mr. Edmonson has served as a guest lecturer in marketing for Rice University, the University of Houston, and Houston Baptist University. He currently serves on the board of directors of the American Marketing Association’s Houston chapter.
BARRY HUGHSON, a Connecticut native, joined Boston Ballet as Executive Director in June 2009 with over 17 years of arts management experience and a background rooted in the art of dance. At Boston Ballet, Hughson manages the fourth largest ballet company in the US, with a $25 million dollar annual budget, 750 employees, a world-class professional ballet company and North America’s largest ballet academy. Prior to his appointment in Boston, Hughson was Executive Director of Atlanta Ballet, where he successfully engineered the move to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, completed the sale of the Ballet’s real estate resulting in the elimination of the Company’s debt, resolved a dispute with the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, and developed the $14.8 million “Choreographing Our Future” campaign. To date, it is the most successful fundraising campaign in Atlanta Ballet’s 80-year history. Hughson’s experience includes a distinguished career in arts administration which began at the historic Warner Theatre in Torrington, CT. There, Hughson created the Warner’s acclaimed Centre for Arts Education, and led a successful $12.5 million campaign to restore the Warner Theatre’s art deco building. He went on to become the first Executive Director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet in New York City before working with the American Repertory Ballet and Princeton Ballet School in Princeton, NJ. Additionally, Hughson has a background as an award-winning dancer and choreographer who has performed the works of George Balanchine, Jirí Kylián, Choo San Goh and Antony Tudor as an artist of The Washington (DC) Ballet. He was the only American male dancer awarded a prize at the 1990 New York International Ballet Competition, and was recognized as Outstanding Choreographer at the Youth America Grand Prix Finals in 2002.	JOHN MALASHOCK brings 35 years of experience in dance, theater and film to his current endeavors as Artistic Director of Malashock Dance. John founded Malashock Dance in San Diego, after a distinguished performing career with Twyla Tharp’s in New York, where he performed world-wide; appeared in the Academy Award-winning film Amadeus; was featured in numerous television specials. Under his leadership, Malashock Dance has become one of California’s premiere dance companies and his work has been seen throughout the UD, Central America, Japan and Central Europe. Malashock has many collaborative credits to his name. He has choreographed for productions at La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe Theatre. His work has been commissioned by the San Diego Symphony, La Jolla Music Society and San Diego Opera. He has garnered four Emmy Awards for his dance films, which have aired on PBS stations nationwide. His recent collaboration with The San Diego Museum of Art, The Floating World (with video artist Tara Knight and costume designer Zandra Rhodes), was widely praised. John also teaches classes workshops throughout the year at The Malashock Dance School. A leader within the local and national dance communities, Malashock currently serves on the Board.
LAIRD RODET joined the Kronos Performing Arts Association’s management team in 1995 to raise funds for the creation, development, and presentation of new work. He began performing musical theater and modern dance at the age of 12 and, subsequently, has enjoyed a performing arts management career that has spanned 35 years. Prior to working with Kronos, he was Assistant Director of the Dance Program of the National Endowment for the Arts, Executive Director of the San Francisco Arts Education Foundation, General Manager and CEO of the Oakland Ballet Association, Executive and Producing Director of Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, General Manager of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Volunteer Coordinator for Repertory Dance Theatre, and Assistant Fine Arts Librarian at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library. He was a Mayoral appointee for San Francisco's Arts Task Force, and has served on the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences Special Merit Awards Committee, and on panels for the California Arts Council, the Arts Commission of Santa Clara County, the City of Oakland Cultural Arts Division, Nevada Arts Council, and the San Francisco Arts Commission, among others.	DEBBIE SHAPIRO is Managing Director for Headlong Dance Theater, and has worked collaboratively with the company’s founders Amy Smith, Andrew Simonet, and David Brick since 2008. Debbie oversees all administrative work for the organization, including the Headlong Performance Institute accredited through Bryn Mawr College, where she co-facilitates a weekly "Life of the Artist" seminar. Prior to Headlong, she has worked with Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre, The Library Company of Philadelphia, and Art-Reach. A native New Yorker, she began her professional career as a shoe buyer for Bloomingdales, and then followed an urge to live outside the U.S., which led her to Israel. There she explored work in community building through the arts and taught English and hip hop dance to high school students throughout the country. Debbie is a contributor to the Philadelphia-based thINKingDANCE (thinkingdance.net), and holds an MS in Arts Administration from Drexel University.

IVAN SYGODA joined Pentacle in 1976 after a first career teaching French and became Director three years later. He was a contributing editor to Market the Arts! (1983) and to the Poor Dancer's Almanac (1983; 1993), contributed a chapter to Dance from Campus to the Real World (Dance/USA, 2005) and has written articles for numerous arts publications. He conceived Pentacle's "Marketing from the Inside Out" workshops for emerging dance and performance companies, which grew into Pentacle’s Help Desk infrastructure mentoring project (1999-2007) and its ARC (Advancement–Reinvention–Creativity) strategic planning project (2008-2010). He directed Pentacle's National Choreography Project (1983-1988) and conceived and directed its National Dance Repertory Enrichment Program (1990-1995). He co-founded (with David White) the New York State DanceForce, of which he is currently a member. He has been a speaker and panelist on arts issues and has led workshops on arts administration for colleges, universities and performing arts service organizations here and abroad. He has been a selection panelist for many state and regional arts organizations. He is a former NEA panelist and is currently a member of the Bessie Committee (New York Dance and Performance awards) selection panel. He is a past board member of Dance/USA, a past President and board member of North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents (NAPAMA), served three terms on the board of Arts Presenters, co-chaired its 2007 Winter Conference, served on the board of the Western Arts Alliance and is a member of the New York City Arts Coalition Steering Committee. In June of 1996, he received Dance/USA’s “Ernie” award. In January of 2000, he received the Arts Presenters Fan Taylor Distinguished Service Award. He co-chaired the 2009 Arts Midwest conference in St. Paul, MN and served as a mentor for the 2011 Regional Dance Development Initiative in Minnesota. He currently serves as a consultant to the SouthArts 2009-2012 Dance Touring Initiative and will serve again in that capacity for the recently announced second cycle.

EVA WIELAND is a dancer, yogi, choreographer, and teacher who hails from Salisbury, Maryland. She has been dancing since long before she was born and remains dedicated to continually honoring the craft and the art of movement. She has a degree in Religion and Philosophy from Indiana University and a Masters in Dance and Dance Education from NYU. These days she calls Los Angeles home. She has taught Modern Dance and Dance History as an Adjunct Professor at Long Beach City College and has performed at a numerous venues around the country. In 2009 she completed a 200 hour yoga teacher training at Liberation Yoga and since then has taught yoga at studios, community centers, and high in the Himalayas. She currently performs with Ptero Dance Theatre, teaches modern for South Bay Ballet, and teaches yoga in studios in the Los Angeles area. Check out her website: www.evalotus.com.

CAROLYN DORFMAN, Artistic Director and Choreographer, known as a creator of evocative dances that reflect her concerns about the human condition, Dorfman creates“ worlds” into which the audience can enter. Her high energy and technically demanding repertory uses movement as metaphor to take audiences on what one reviewer described as “intellectual and emotional journeys.” Hailed as the consummate storyteller, Dorfman, a child of survivors of the Holocaust, has also created a celebrated body of work that honors her Jewish legacy; its trials and triumphs, its treasured uniqueness and, most importantly, its universal connections.

The Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company appears at major theaters, dance festivals, universities and schools regionally, nationally and internationally and is lauded for its artistry and exceptional arts education and community programming. The Company, described as “ingenious” (Star-Ledger) and “emotionally resonant” (New York Times), presents new and repertory works by Ms. Dorfman and, guest choreographers, and regularly commissions original scores and artistic collaborations.

A Michigan native, Dorfman received her BFA in Dance from the University of Michigan and MFA from New York University Tisch School for the Arts. She has been designated a Distinguished Artist and granted six Choreography Fellowships (most recently 2011) by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, in additional to other choreography honors and was the first artist to win the Prudential Prize for Non-Profit Leadership. A master teacher, she is a guest artist/choreographer/teacher at major universities, pre-professional and professional training programs across the U.S. She is a Principal Affiliate in Arts Education for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, is on the Artist Committee of the All Stars Project NY/NJ and serves on the Board of Trustees of The Yard, in Chilmark, MA.

GINA GIBNEY, Artistic and Executive Director of Gibney Dance, has created a repertory of over thirty works, including nine evening length projects that have been widely presented throughout the United States and abroad. She founded Gibney Dance in 1991 to create humanistic contemporary choreography and bring the possibility of dance and self-expression where it would not otherwise exist. In recent years, her work has been presented by such distinguished organizations as Works and Process at the Guggenheim Museum (New York), Danspace Project (New York), Symphony Space (New York), White Bird Dance (Oregon) the Yale Repertory Theater (Connecticut), L’Agora de la Danse (Montreal, Canada) and Internationale Tanzmesse (Dusseldorf, Germany). Gibney has received commissions from The Joyce Theater Altogether Different Fund for New Works, Danspace Project (4 commissions), DanceCLEVELAND, Groundworks Dance Theater, DanceNowNYC, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, among others. Described as a “poet of modern dance” by the New York Times, Gibney is also dedicated to bringing the power of dance – both in performance and in practice – to new audiences and communities. Committed to serving the dance community, Gibney has established Gibney Dance Center, a seven-studio facility at 890 Broadway in New York. Gibney’s Center offers space grants, affordable rehearsal space and signature programs. Gibney graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Case Western Reserve University, where she also received an MFA in Dance and Choreography under Kathryn Karipides and Kelly Holt. Gibney has served as a Dance/USA Trustee and member of the Executive Committee and currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Danspace Project and the Advisory Committee of Dance/NYC. She is a frequent panelist and speaker on the topics of dance, social action and entrepreneurship. A native of Ohio, Gibney currently resides in New York City.