Renae Williams Niles is currently the director of dance presentations at the Music Center of Los Angeles County, one of the three largest performing arts centers in the U.S.  In her current role, she oversees all facets and staff of the dance program, including programming, box office, marketing, and education/outreach.  Major accomplishments under her direction have included the lead commission of David Michalek’s Slow Dancing, a large-scale video installation that continues to tour the globe; the co-presentation of Matthew Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands with Center Theatre Group; and the co-commission of Merce Cunningham’s reconstructed Roaratorio to have its world premiere in Walt Disney Concert Hall June 2010. She also produced the Music Center’s first simulcast in collaboration with the LA Philharmonic.
 
Prior to joining the Music Center, she was director of grant programs for the L.A. County Arts Commission, responsible for its annual allocation of over $2M and implementation of its first online application system and the first Grantee Impact Report.  While at the Commission, she also served on the artist selection panel for the Commission’s Ford Amphitheatre.  She has worked with the Lula Washington Dance Theatre as company manager and with Grand Performances at California Plaza in the areas of programming, fundraising, marketing, board/office management, and advocacy.  She has served as a board member/vice president of development for the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles.  She currently serves as board member/treasurer for the Western Arts Alliance, a regional membership organization for touring and the performing arts.  She also serves on the board of the Culver City Cultural Affairs Foundation.  Williams Niles has been a panelist for the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the Irvine Foundation and Dance/USA, the Gerbode Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (dance and presenting categories), the California Arts Council, and many local/regional arts agencies.  She has attended, by invitation, the 2003 and 2006 National Dance Presenters Leadership Forum at Jacob’s Pillow.

Williams Niles holds a B.A. in Public Relations from the University of Southern California.

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