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2012 Institute for Leadership Training Mentees

CHERYL BURNS, Company Manager for Island Moving Co. in Newport, RI has an eclectic background in business, theatre & dance. She holds her MFA in Theatre (Management). Cheryl has been a non-profit consultant in the areas of strategic planning, operations and fund development. She is also a choreographer and dance educator. Her newest project involves creating a group that educates the community about the importance of keeping and increasing arts education in the public school curriculum and creates a new education model to train local artists on how to become certified arts educators.	EVELINE CHANG is the Program and Marketing Manager at the Center for Architecture Foundation, a New York City nonprofit that promotes public awareness of architecture and design through youth and adult education programs. Formerly, she served as Director of Educational Programming at Pentacle and Special Projects Manager at Joffrey Ballet School. Previous to moving to NYC, she was the Graduate Advisor for UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures and held positions at Harvard University, The Kennedy Center, and the British Council. She has also taught in public schools for ArtsBridge America and worked with arts festivals in California, New York, and the United Kingdom. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, Eveline went on to receive degrees in Dance Performance and Art History from the University of California, Irvine and a Masters in Cultural and Creative Industries from King’s College London. Eveline is a 2010 Access Dance/USA Scholar and currently serves on the Dance/NYC Junior Committee and Emergency Fund for Student Dancers Advisory Board.
ELLEN CHENOWETH started working with the Dance Exchange in 2009 and was involved in the leadership transition that took place in 2011 as founder Liz Lerman passed on the reins of the organization to the new Artistic Director, Cassie Meador. Ellen is currently Managing Director of the Dance Exchange. She started her career in arts management at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and also worked at the American Dance Festival. She has been a speaker at national conferences such as Americans for the Arts and Dance/USA. She graduated with honors from Rice University and holds an MA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University. In the DC area, Ellen worked with Dance/Metro DC’s Forward Five program for emerging choreographers and co-organizes a crowd-sourced arts funding initiative called Kitchen of Innovation. She also serves on the Takoma Park Arts and Humanities Commission. At the Dance Exchange, Ellen oversees the curation of a weekly series of events and enjoys building partnerships on a local, national and international level.	MARCIA DE LA GARZA is the Executive Director of New York International Ballet Competition (NYIBC). Marcia came to the position of Executive Director of NYIBC after serving the organization in distinct positions for several years. Prior to that, she was Dance and Music coordinator at Espacio Cultural Metropolitano (METRO) in her hometown of Tampico, Mexico, where she was responsible for international programming, special projects, concerts, workshops, residencies, conferences, ballet galas and tours. In the inaugural year of METRO, Marcia served as Executive Producer of The Nutcracker, the first ballet production of its kind for the city of Tampico. She received ballet, musical theater, and jazz dance training in Mexico and the United States, and is the former Studio Manager of Stardancer Tampico. During her college years, she did musical theater with the prestigious Theater Group of the ITESM System. Marcia is a Board Member of the International Dance Committee of the International Theater Institute (ITI), the World Organization for the Performing Arts founded by UNESCO and international theatre experts in 1948. She is also Vice-President for the North America region of World Dance Alliance-Americas. Marcia holds a B.A. in business administration from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) and an M.A. in arts administration from Teachers College, Columbia University.
MARLANA DOYLE, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, of the Houston Metropolitan Dance Company is originally from Massachusetts and graduated from Point Park University in 2001 with a BA in Dance. Marlana has been dancing with the Houston Met for the past ten years and was a major part of the Met’s reorganization in 2003. As the Artistic Director, she has tried to keep the diversity and versatility of the dancers and choreographers a part of the overall artistic vision of the Company. She and the Company are members of Dance Source Houston, Association of Performing Arts Presenters and Dance USA. Marlana has represented the Houston Met Dance Company by attending both Annual Conferences for Arts Presenters and Dance USA as an Emerging Leader for the last four years. She has also served on many grant and organizational panels for the Houston Arts Alliance. She has also helped book National tours for the company in New York City, California, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Indiana, Michigan and Louisiana as well as recently having the company being invited to Jacob’s Pillow this summer in Massachusetts. While directing the Professional company is her main focus, Marlana also fills in her time Directing Houston Met Too Youth Company, choreographing, teaching and judging in Houston and throughout the United States.	CHARD GONZALEZ is originally from San Diego. He received his BFA in Dance Performance from SUNY Purchase and MA in Dance Studies from Laban Centre London. In the USA he has danced with Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company and Douglas Dunn and Dancers. Upon moving to Europe Chard danced in Italy with ALDES, Company Blu and Compagnia Virgilio Sieni Danza and in the UK with Cathy Seago, Rosemary Butcher and Jonathan Burrows. And after four years of pursuing a PhD at Laban, Chard decided to return to the USA to continue his life’s work. Chard currently resides in New Orleans and is a member of the dance faculty at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He is the Artistic Director of Chard Gonzalez Dance Theatre, which was founded in 2009 shortly after performing at the inaugural New Orleans Fringe Festival. Since then he has won three Big Easy Classical Arts Awards for his choreography.
GINA HOCH-STALL is the Director and Choreographer of RealLivePeople(in)Motion, a Philadelphia-based dance company, and together they have created two evening-length works, ‘Backstories’ and ‘the evolution of this moment.’ RealLivePeople(in)Motion have performed at the Chi-Movement Arts Center, the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, the Please Touch Museum and <fidget> space, as well as at the Latvian Society, where they are in residence. Pre-RLPiM, Gina made many dances that were performed at the Athenaum Theater (Chicago), the Bonnie Bird Theater (London), Conwell Dance Theater (Philadelphia) and other venues. Gina is passionate about dancing every single day and has been taking major organizational and administrative steps to create and support more consistent dance classes in Philadelphia. She also performs with Jennifer Morley/figments, JoAnna Mendl Shaw/Equus Projects, and Daniele Strawmyre/ReadySetGo. Gina holds a BFA in Dance and a BA in Psychology from Temple University, as well as a Diploma in Dance Studies from the Laban Centre for Contemporary Dance. She has received support from the Temple University Diamond Scholarship Program, and commissions from the Please Touch Museum and, most recently, from the Latvian Society of Philadelphia.	SHAYNA KELLER is a Los Angeles based choreographer and arts administrator. Since earning her BA in Choreography and Performance from Wesleyan University, she has had the pleasure of collaborating with sound artists and filmmakers to create work for the outdoors, the stage and the screen. Her work has been presented in venues such as Movement Research at the Judson Church (New York), Counterpulse (San Francisco), Joshua Tree National Park’s Indian Cove Amphitheatre (29 Palms), Anatomy Riot (Los Angeles), Highway 62 Art Tours (Joshua Tree) and Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts. Shayna began working with the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles in August 2011 and serves as the organization’s current Managing Director. Having spent time in a variety of nonprofit arts settings, she has become a strong advocate for the vital role dance plays in human expression and cultural evolution.
MICHAEL MIZARANY is the Associate Artistic Director for the San Diego-based MALASHOCK DANCE and teaches advanced modern dance at THE MALASHOCK DANCE SCHOOL. Michael studied dance at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and then joined The Modern America Dance Company (MAD/CO) in 1986. After three seasons with MAD/CO, Michael relocated to Los Angeles to join Loretta Livingston & Dancers and, in 1996; Michael joined the internationally renowned Bella Lewitzky Dance Company for their final season of touring. He has also served as a guest artist with such companies as Yorke Dance Project, Francisco Martinez Dance Theater, and Los Angeles Chamber Ballet. Michael has been nominated a record seven times for the Lester Horton Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance, winning the prestigious award in 1995 and 1996 for his solos TIN SOLDIER and BUMP IN THE ROAD, respectively. Additionally, Michael was nominated for a Regional Emmy Award for his portrayal of the misogynistic antagonist in John Malashock’s dance film THE SOUL OF SATURDAY NIGHT. He has danced in venues across the nation, including Orange County Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center in New York City and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Michael has choreographed extensively, and his works are in the repertory of such companies as MAD/CO, San Diego Civic Dance Company, Michigan Dance Collective and Malashock Dance. Recently, his male duets, FAR FROM EDEN and LET ME INTO YOUR SKIN, premiered at Diversionary Theater’s DANCE/THEATER event to much critical acclaim. Most recently, Michael produced Malashock/RAW which was presented at the La Jolla Playhouse in October.	CLAIRE WILLEY comes to the Institute for Leadership Training with a dedication to performance that began before she can remember. Claire began studying ballet at the age of 5, received a BFA in modern dance from North Carolina School of the Arts in 2003, and continued her studies as a scholarship student at the Merce Cunningham Studio while working professionally as a freelance dancer in New York. In 2006, Claire toured Germany, Russia, and Eastern Europe as a guest artist with the national dance company of Lithuania, Dance Theater Aura. Since returning home to California, Claire has had the pleasure of performing with Margaret Jenkins, Paige Starling Sorvillo, Peck Peck Dance Ensemble, Fact/SF, Antoine Hunter, and Janice Garrett & Dancers, among others. Claire currently works as Managing Director for Robert Moses’ Kin, where she has the opportunity to delve into the behind the scenes aspects of running a dance company and learn what it takes to bring dance to the stage. Prior to her current position, Claire worked as Operations Manager with Robert Moses’ Kin, as a House Manager at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, an Administrator at the Academy of Art University and a Registrar at the Merce Cunningham dance Studio. As a relatively new arts administrator Claire is eager to learn from those who have more experience in the field and is particularly interested in learning current best practices in organizational development, board development, marketing/audience development, and the future of arts management at large.
ROBIN STIEHM began her dance training in 1969, at the age of eight. She studied intensively at the school of the Minnesota Dance Theatre, based in her hometown of Minneapolis, MN, under the direction of its founder Loyce Houlton. In 1975 she was hired by MDT, and danced there until their demise in 1987. She then worked briefly as an independent dancer with notable choreographers such as Wil Swanson, Martine Van Hamel, and Bonnie Mathis. In 1988, she joined the premier modern company in the Twin Cities area, New Dance Ensemble (NDE), founded by Linda Shapiro and Leigh Dillard. In her six years with that company, she worked with Linda Shapiro, David Dorfman, Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller, Bill T. Jones, Donna Uchizono, Douglas Dunn, and a host of others. Robin began choreographing in 1989, while still dancing with Minnesota’s New Dance Ensemble. She founded Dancing People Company in 1994. She has received multiple fellowships from the McKnight Foundation and the MN State Arts Board. The Jerome Foundation supported her work as an emerging artist for 5 years, and in 2000 she was awarded a Bush Artist Fellowship, one of the most prestigious awards in the Midwest. She moved to Oregon in 2003, and Dancing People moved with her.This consistent financial support has enabled her to choreograph intensively for twenty-five years. In addition to the over 30 works she has created for her own Dancing People Co., Robin has choreographed for Zenon Dance, Ballet Pacifica, & the Univ. of MN Dance Dept., among others. Robin’s work has been presented in the Minneapolis area by the Minnesota Dance Alliance, the Walker Art Center, and the Southern Theater, and in Oregon by the Craterian Theater, Pacific University, Lane Community College and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Green Show. With DPC, she has taught and performed her work at international festivals in Poland, Japan, Belarus and Russia.Robin is committed to continuing her own training as well as fostering that of others. She was one of only 8 artists chosen for the Nat’l. Dance Project’s “Regional Dance Development Initiative” in Portland in 2006, and one of 6 choreographers to receive mentorship from Susan Marshall during her 2010 SUMAC workshop.As Director of DPC, Robin is working to establish a national caliber dance company in Ashland, town of 20,000 in Southern Oregon. She currently choreographs for the company and serves as both Artistic and Executive Director.	Lydia Hance is the founder and Artistic Director of Frame Dance Productions, a contemporary dance company based in Houston, TX. (www.framedance.org) Frame Dance is dedicated to bringing vulnerability to the screen and stage as well as collaboration with artists of other genres. She stretches the limits of personal space to awaken new sensibilities in her dancers and audiences. Since 2009 she has been Facilitator of Fieldwork Houston, is the Education Manager of Hope Stone, Inc., and she is a curator of Third Coast Film Festival. She graduated magna cum laude from Southern Methodist University with degrees in Dance Performance and English Literature. She trained at the Taylor School, Graham School, Tisch School of the Arts, Limon Institute and SMU.