CHRISTINE CHEN, worked in the dance world as a performer, choreographer, journalist and educator before transitioning into management. She received her early dance training at the Princeton Ballet School, then as an undergraduate at Princeton University turned her focus to contemporary dance while earning a degree in Sociology. Christine earned an MFA in dance at the Ohio State University, then began her professional career in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she danced with AXIS Dance Company, Flyaway Productions, Dandelion Dance Theater, Paufve Dance and other independent choreographers. Christine joined New York-based STREB, an "extreme action" company in 2003. Highlights with STREB include national and international tours, performances on Late Night with David Letterman and in Cirque du Soleil's production of Midnight Sun. While performing, Christine honed her arts management skills as Programs Manager at STREB and Development and Communications Manager at Flyaway Productions. After retiring from performing, Christine earned her MBA at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management while teaching dance at the university and working in Marketing at the Napa Valley Opera House. She joined American Repertory Ballet as the Marketing Director in 2009 before being promoted to Managing Director in March 2010.
STEPHEN CLAPP is a founder and Co-Artistic Director of Dance Box Theater, Inc. He has performed nationally and internationally with Dance Box Theater, CatScratch Theatre, ClancyWorks Dance Company, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and The Other Theatre. He earned a BFA in Performing Arts from Emerson College and was a founding member of the Boston based performance ensemble, The Other Theatre. Stephen moved to New York City and became a company member of the Maranao & T’boli (Philippines) dance ensemble, Kinding Sindaw. Since moving to the DC area, Stephen has had his work presented by Dance Place, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the InSeries, the Source Theater Festival, Baltimore Theatre Project, DanceBase (Edinburgh, UK), the Cultivate Dance Festival (NH), the Gooseroute Dance Festival (WV), and Alternate ROOTS (GA). He is a resident artist at Joe’s Movement Emporium and is a certified Arts-Integration Specialist. He teaches dance, theater, creative movement, leadership and is a facilitator with Alternate ROOTS. Stephen is a panelist and organizer for Dance Place’s New Releases program and is always in the process of exploring new performance work with Laura Schandelmeier. He has received multiple awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Prince George’s County Arts and Humanities Council and he is a recipient of a 2013 University Fellowship from the George Washington University in the M.F.A. program in Dance. Stephen is delighted to serve the DC area dance community as Director of Dance Metro DC.
KATIE DIAMOND, has been fortunate to be supported in her transition from stage to administration by the José Limón Dance Foundation, the inaugural Performer in Transition Fellowship in Arts Management through the Kennedy Center and Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Laura Colby at Elsie Management. She began her arts administrator work in 2010 as Program Associate of José Limón Dance Foundation, working in the areas of company management, development, and education. She joined Elsie Management as Contracts Manager in 2012 and also serves on Jessica Gaynor Dance’s advisory board. Katie holds a BFA from California Institute of the Arts and interned with Ballet Hispanico and Pentacle's Cultivating Leadership in Dance. As a dancer, Diamond was with the Limón Dance Company from 2005 to 2012. Praised for her “subtle grace” in PBS’s Eye on the Arts, Katie also worked with Mark Morris Dance Group, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and many independent choreographers including Bessie award-winning Pam Tanowitz. On faculty at the Limón Institute for several years, Katie taught nationally and abroad, adjudicated dance competitions, performed solo concerts of contemporary and classic works, and set Limón repertory throughout the United States, Europe, and South America. She is committed to giving back administratively to the art that has enriched her life.
DANA HORST began working with Lucky Plush in 2013 as part of Creative Partners, a new initiative in arts fundraising. Creative Partners, a triumvirate partnership between Lucky Plush and two other arts organizations, is a shared fundraising model that provides high-level fundraising capacity to small and mid-sized arts organizations, allowing them to focus on making more art. She comes to Chicago from the rest of the midwest, including a stop in Cincinnati for an MBA and MA in Arts Administration from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and many years in Minneapolis, where she received a BA in Theatre Arts at the University of Minnesota. While in Minneapolis, she worked for six wonderful years at the Southern Theater, where she got a crash course in great contemporary dance every evening. She soundtracks obsessively and will talk at length about Samuel Beckett with the least provocation.
SOFIA KLASS is company manager, dancer and teaching artistfor Invertigo Dance Theatre, a contemporary dance company that blends wit, playfulness, live music, intense
physicality and bold theatricality in Los Angeles, CA. A choreographer and movement teacher, Sofia holds a B.A. in dance
from UCLA’s World Arts and Cultures Program. Her career within Invertigo has been two-fold: artist and administrator. She has helped to produce many shows over the years and has been instrumental in the creation and continuation of Invertigo’s outreach programming which provides local weekly dances classes for people living with Parkinson’s disease. Sofia has big dreams for Invertigo. She hopes that the Institute for Leadership Training will help her to grow in order to meet the demands of an expanding dance company. She is striving to become a stronger community leader who shares and collaborates with her peers so that LA can truly become an established dance city.
ATHLEEN KLEIN is the founding Director of Dance at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida. For the past thirty years, she has also
served as the Executive Director of Klein Dance, Inc. which operated a thriving school for dance, a small alternative performing space, and the Klein Dance Company. She has also been active in the training of the school's 300 students and is well known in South Florida for her ability to reach her student's highest potential through discipline, grace, imagination and accomplishment. . She received all of her professional dance training with a multitude of various artists in New England. She was employed by the School of Hartford Ballet in Connecticut while attending a rigorous teacher training program and dancing a demanding performance schedule. She has an extensive background in dance technique, pointe and partnering, ballet theory, kinesiology, dance history, music theory and most important for her students, child psychology and pedagogy. Prior to her engagement at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Kathleen ran the dance department for Palm Beach Community College (Lake Worth, FL) for six years and also taught dance technique and dance history courses at Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, FL). Kathleen completed her PhD in Global Leadership at Lynn University in 2004.
CHRISTINE STONE MARTIN is Manager of The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, the Kennedy Center’s own ballet company. As manager, she oversees daily operations of the company including budgets, touring, contracting, and personnel. For over ten years, the highly lauded company has been performing works by Ms. Farrell’s mentors, Balanchine, Robbins, Bejart. Most recently the company celebrated its 11th season and toured internationally to Muscat, Oman. As manager of dance programming, Stone Martin programs dance artists on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. The Millennium Stage features free performances 365 days a year including a broad range of music, dance, and theater artists. Stone Martin has expanded the dance programming to include regional and national artists. In addition, she manages the local dance commissioning project, a program which supports the local dance community by nurturing the creation of new work. Each year commissions are awarded to local dance choreographers to create a new work to premiere on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage and streamed worldwide on the Kennedy Center’s web site. Prior to joining the Kennedy Center, Stone Martin managed for Houston Ballet and the Washington Ballet. She also held positions with Georgetown University Hospital and Joy of Motion Dance Center. Ms. Stone Martin is a performing artist and a proud member of the DC dance community. She began her training at the school of the Richmond Ballet, and continued training in modern dance under her mentor Billie Lepczyk. She holds an MA in Performing Arts from American University. She has performed with Tzveta Kassabova, Gesel Mason, Starr Foster, Ann Halligan Donahue, Francisca Morand, and was a company member of Daniel Burkholder/The Playground for seven years. As a dance educator, she teaches modern dance throughout Virginia and the DC metro area.
The orchestration of EDWARD MCPHERSON'S positive attitude, passion for problem solving, and desire to be in front of the curve blend his analytic strengths with a natural sense of innovation. Business Manager of the Midland Festival Ballet, Edward oversees the organizations operations under a $500,000 budget. His administrative work benefits from the insight that a performance career affords. Working first under season contracts, he later transitioned to project based work. His performance experiences ranged in size and scope greatly (Ballet West, National Choreographers Initiative, Utah Festival Opera), and Edward was fortunate to observe a variety of dance organizations at play before becoming directly involved in arts administration.In post-performance life Edward has embraced exploration. He transitioned from performance to administration while dancing at the Sacramento Ballet. Edward directed an in-school ballet program (in parallel with a modern program) for middle and high school students at Saint Mary’s Hall, an independent college preparatory school.Under Edward’s leadership, the Midland Festival Ballet has continued to mature: Nutcracker revenues have increased 76%, an annual growth rate of 10% has been
realized, the organization secured its largest grant in 20 years, school and performance attendance numbers are at their highest levels ever, and the organization is preparing to conduct its first national search for an Executive Director. Edward maintains a trajectory that allows for the development of experience across a wide array of platforms.
ERIN F. MITCHELL is an independent choreographer, dancer, and teacher based out of Washington, DC. She is committed to exploring innovative approaches to audience engagement, and establishing professional growth opportunities for dancers. She is a co-founder and the choreographer for the Taffety Punk Theater Company, DC. Erin danced professionally with the Latin Ballet of Virginia, in Richmond, and with Wellspring/ Cori Terry & Dancers, in Kalamazoo, MI, and has had the opportunity to tour and present work around the U.S. and Mexico. She began her work as an arts manager while at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and went on to help launch the Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (RAD Fest), in Kalamazoo, MI, as their Festival Coordinator. She has worked as Program Assistant for Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell, as the Artistic Associate and Educational Programs Director for the Latin Ballet of Virginia, and served as adjunct dance faculty at Western Michigan University. In 2009 she was awarded an Emerging Artist Grant from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo. Erin holds a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Dance and Choreography, and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Arts Management at American University.
MOLLY TERBOVICH RIDENHOUR serves as the Executive Director of the San Diego Civic Youth Ballet, San Diego’s oldest classical ballet school. Molly began her dance training at the young age of five. She graduated with an MFA in Dance at Arizona State University and has a BFA in Dance from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. Molly spent her time in school focusing on dance performance, education and administration. Since moving to San Diego in 2003, Molly has worked with Butterworth Dance Company, Keturah Stickann, Bradley R. Lundberg, Michael Mizerany, Peter Kalivas, San Diego Opera, and co-founded Stella Nova Dance Company. Before joining SDCYB, Molly worked as a freelance arts administrator coordinating events such as the annual 5X5 Modern Dance Workshop, Celebrate Dance Festival and served as the Chair of the Steering Committee for Rising Arts Leaders, San Diego’s Arts and Culture Emerging Leaders group. She continues to teach and dance professionally. One of her career goals is to become a successful leader within her organization and throughout the arts on a national level. SDCYB is a small dance organization with a lot of growing potential with good leadership and national connections. Being new to this leadership role and working full time in the arts, she recognizes there is a lot of knowledge to acquire in order to achieve this goal.
SEAN WRIGHT is the Director of Venue and Event Management at Samford University in Birmingham, AL. In that role, he directs the Leslie S. Wright Fine Arts Center. Under his guidance, the Wright Center has become the leading presenter of dance in the state of Alabama, with multiple dance performances each season, and residency activities that involve Samford students as well as the community at large. The venue is also the home of the Alabama Ballet, the state’s only professional ballet company. Wright has developed a partnership with the Alabama Dance Council to co-present the annual Alabama Dance Festival, which reaches dance consumers from across the Southeast, and is a current member of the South Arts Dance Touring Initiative. Prior to coming to Samford, Wright also held positions at the University of Alabama, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of North Carolina. Wright graduated with honors from Westminster College (MO), and has a MA from the University of North Carolina.
ERYN RENEE YOUNG is co-founder and resident choreographer of XAOC Contemporary Ballet, a New York City-based neoclassical ballet company founded in 2010. Her choreographic work has been showcased at the Counter/Pointe Series in collaboration with Norte Maar and the Brooklyn Ballet at the Actor’s Fund Arts Center, the Choreographer’s Canvas at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, NYC10: an initiative for NYC Dance Week at Dixon Place, Dance New Amsterdam, Triskelion Arts Center, Steps on Broadway, the Moving Beauty Series, the Algonquin Arts Center, Peridance Capezio Center, the Boston Conservatory, and New York University, including a solo choreography show entitled A New Era: Elements of Dance in 2009 and another in the Gallatin Arts Festival in 2012. She has provided choreographic consulting on various projects including the 2012 MashRome Festival’s production of Medea under the direction of Jimmy Ferguson. She began her dance training locally in New Jersey and has studied previously at the Boston Conservatory, Peridance Capezio Center, Broadway Dance Center, and MAX Ballet Academy in Florence, Italy. She holds a baccalaureate degree in Contemporary Ballet Choreography and Fine Art from New York University. She began choreographing in 2007 and draws inspiration from Balanchine-Stravinsky works, classical sculpture, Greek myth, Christopher Wheeldon, and William Forsythe.
