Navigation Menu
Dance/USA celebrated the 2025 Honorees at the Dance/USA 2025 Conference, June 17-20, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois.
Stoner Winslett (she/her) is the Founding Artistic Director of Richmond Ballet, The State Ballet of Virginia. During her 44 years as Artistic Director of Richmond Ballet, she built the Company into one of the most respected dance organizations in the United States with a repertory featuring timeless classics and 90 new works by 37 different choreographers, including herself. Stoner has led the Company through six seasons in New York City, its international debut in London in 2012, and the Company’s Asian debut in China in May 2015.Â
Stoner also founded Minds In Motion in 1995, a community engagement program that has provided dance education to thousands of elementary students across Virginia and beyond. She has been an active leader in the country’s performing arts community, and has served as Vice Chair of Dance/USA, President of The John Butler Foundation, and as a U.S. Delegate to the Peoples Republic of China People-to-People Exchange.Â
As a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in ballet, Stoner was part of a select group of artistic directors convened by Dance Theatre of Harlem to launch The Equity Project. She was the longest-serving artistic director and one of the few female artistic directors of a major ballet company in the United States during her tenure.
Rita Mustaphi (she/her) is a choreographer, dancer and educator in the Kathak style of Indian classical dance. She immigrated from India in 1970 and became co-founder & artistic director of Katha Dance Theatre. She is also a wife, mother & grandmother! Rita is known for her visionary approach and innovations in Kathak dance; her multi-disciplinary productions incorporating spoken word, live and commissioned music; and her utilization of multimedia production elements.
Under her vision and leadership, Katha Dance Theatre has become renowned for its genre-bending, dynamic productions; distinctive movement style; and technical virtuosity. Her detailed, intelligently crafted storytelling is recognized as being profoundly moving and effortlessly intimate.
She is a recipient of four McKnight Fellowships (2023, 1998, 1992, 1988) for choreography. She has received a Leadership award from the Council of Asian Pacific Minnesotans, a Nari Shakti Award from the Govt. of India for her work empowering women, a Lifetime Achievement award from the India Association of Minnesota and an Education award from the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in the category of Excellence in Vision. Rita strives to enhance the community by bridging diverse cultures and audiences to contribute to life’s infinite artistic expressions.
National Dance Project (NDP), a program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, received the Dance/USA 2025 Trustees Award.
Established in 1996 by the New England Foundation for the Arts, the National Dance Project (NDP) is widely recognized as one of the country’s major sources of funding and field building for dance. NDP has invested more than $51.5 million in funding primarily to support the creation and touring of new dance projects, as well as other initiatives, including production residencies and regionally focused professional development for dance artists. During its almost 30-year history, NDP has supported over 820 dance projects that have toured to all 50 states, Washington, DC, Guam, and Puerto Rico reaching more than 3.6 million audience and community members.
A native of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood, Joel Hall (he/him), with Joseph Ehrenberg, co-founded Chicago City Theatre Company in 1974. This unique performing arts organization includes the Joel Hall Dancers and the Joel Hall Dancers & Center training facility. Hall’s unique style— Urban Jazz—is based in Jazz and expresses a rich vocabulary embracing Classical, Modern, and Street dance idioms. “Jazz dance at its best,” says Dance Magazine.
Award and citations include induction into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame, “Lifetime Achievement for Service to the Field” and a “Lifetime Achievement” award from the Jazz Dance World Congress, and many others.
Jessica Leyva (she/her) is a professional dance artist, non-profit executive administrator and institutional giving consultant based in Chicago, IL. Earning a BFA from the University of California, Irvine, she quickly established herself as a leader in the local field of cultural development as a freelance grant writer and Executive Director of Chicago Dance Crash. In addition to her current role at Chicago Dance Crash, Jessica recently joined the team at Artistic Fundraising Group as an Institutional Giving Consultant.
A classically trained ballerina and contemporary dance artist, Jessica is also an active practitioner in Chicago’s street dance and popping community and has been known to grace the Crash stage when called upon. She has placed in multiple national and international popping and animation competition brackets including Out of the Shadows (Chicago), Lords of the Land (Cleveland) and Unimate (Los Angeles) and is proud to represent Chicana women in popping and arts leadership.
Â
A native of Chicago, Illinois, Jonathan Pacheco (he/him) is a dancer, arts administrator, and rising leader within the local and national performing arts industry. A member of the internationally acclaimed Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater since 2015, and the Executive Office and Campaign Manager at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Jonathan has made exceptional contributions to the excellence, diversification, and vitality of Chicago’s cultural community. Jonathan’s work with Ensemble Español is focused on the presentation, promotion, and preservation of the various styles of Spanish dance, including flamenco, folklore, classical, and escuela bolera. He has worked closely with some of the world’s most influential Spanish dance artists.
Jonathan’s numerous accolades include being recognized as a flourishing cultural leader by the publication Negocios Now in its “Latinos 40 Under 40” List, he received an Individual Artist Program Award from Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and he was named “Best Dancer” by the Chicago Reader. He is a proud graduate of Northeastern Illinois University.
Nominations for the Dance/USA Awards are accepted from the entire dance ecosystem and recognize outstanding achievements and contributions to the dance community. Final selections are voted on by the Dance/USA Board of Trustees. Learn about the the Dance/USA Awards.
Questions? Connect with us!
