Podcast

Megan Slayter is a dance educator, administrator, historian, and lighting designer at Western Michigan University where she is an Associate Professor of Dance and the Acting Associate Director of the School of Theatre and Dance.  Her ongoing collaborative research with dance historian Jessica Lindberg Coxe, has resulted in the reconstruction of four dances by modern dance pioneer Loïe Fuller. “Fire Dance”, “Night”, “Lily of the Nile”, and “La Mer” have been reconstructed and commissioned for performance by universities, dance companies, and art museums across the country. “Fire Dance”, “Night”, and “Lily of the Nile” are featured on the DVD documentaryLoïe Fuller: Dancing in the Light Fantastic available through Dance Horizons. A DVD of Slayter and Lindberg’s reconstruction process for Fire Dance was produced in 2003 by John Mueller is available through The Dance Film Archive.  Slayter and Lindberg are founding members of Dancestry, a coalition of artists who seek to put the work of Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan, and Erik Hawkins in conversation through live performance and community engagement.  The inaugural Dancestry concert at the Long Center in Austin, TX in 2015 received critical acclaim from the Austin Critics’ Table including nominations for Best Dance Concert, Best Dancer: Jessica Lindberg Coxe, and Best Lighting Design: Megan Slayter.  As the resident dance lighting designer at Western Michigan University, Slayter has designed for new works by esteemed guest artists including Peter Chu, Gabrielle Lamb, KT Nelson, Nelly von Bommel, Ron DeJesus, Lauren Edson, Eddie Ocampo, and Autumn Eckman; and reconstructed designs for works by Gerald Arpino, George Balanchine, Robert Battle, Frank Chaves, Lou Conte, Ohad Naharin, David Parsons, Anthony Tudor, and Doug Varone.  She is an elected representative to the Board of Directors of the American College Dance Association (ACDA) where she serves as the East-Central Regional Director.  She also serves as a site evaluator for the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD).  She received her MFA in Dance with an emphasis in lighting design from The Ohio State University and her BA in Dance from Western Michigan University.

Alana Marie Urda is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Amalgamate, where she pursues using dance for a purpose through her choreographic works, documentaries and company events. Urda has envisioned and produced a range of distinguished dance events, charity projects, and educational workshops with Amalgamate. Her repertoire has been celebrated in renowned NYC venues and tours both nationally and internationally. Commissioned for numerous projects, she has set choreography on dancers across the states and presented work at Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Series, Boston University, BBKings, Sant’Angelo in Vado, Italy, Brunei, Asia, The Times Center, Ailey Citigroup, and Merce Cunningham Studio. With a BFA in dance from FSU, she is Assistant Director of The Trinity School After School Program, a Teaching Artist at New York City Center and The Events in Orlando, FL. Her extensive freelance highlights include choreographing for Lily Chiam’s debut album concert in Brunei, Asia and Off-Broadway productions, Angels, the Musical / Duke Theatre, Dear Mr. Rosan / 777 Theatres, and Into the Woods Jr./ The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater. She has worked with artists such as Peter Kalivas, Ronnie Demarco, Suzanne Farrell, Dan Wagoner, and Jawole Zollar. As an entrepreneur and philanthropist, she continues to create dance events that involve community engagement and provide more job opportunities for dancers. On days off, Alana can be found at the nearby park playing baseball with her husband and two energetic boys.

Diane Coburn Bruning is an award-winning choreographer who has worked with dance, theatre and opera companies throughout the U.S. and abroad and is the Artistic Director of the acclaimed Chamber Dance Project in Washington, D.C.

Diane’s many fellowships, grants and awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a two-year fellowship from The National Endowment for the Arts, two fellowships New York Foundation for the Arts, the McKnight National Fellowship, Sundance Film Institute Fellowship, grants from Meet the Composer, Harkness Foundation, New York State Council for the Arts, The Carlisle Project, Strauss Fellowship Virginia Arts Commission and a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Choreography. Diane has worked with Atlanta Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Boston Ballet, Juilliard Dance Ensemble, American Repertory Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Joffrey II, Nashville Ballet, Ballet Chicago, Ballet Memphis, Daghdha Dance (Ireland), Magdeburg Ballett (Germany), Minnesota Ballet, St. Paul Ballet, Chautauqua Ballet among many others.  She has worked in theatre and opera with Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Studio Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, Pittsburgh Opera, Washington National Opera and Glimmerglass Opera among others. She collaborated with theatre director Matt Torney on a work with T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” to great acclaim and  they are working on a new project for 2022.

Diane founded Chamber Dance Project, dancers & musicians in New York in 2000.  She re-established it in Washington, D.C. with the first season at the Kennedy Center in 2014 to critical and audience acclaim. Committed to contemporary ballet with live music, the company comprises outstanding professional ballet dancers and a resident string quartet and commissions works from major choreographers and composers.  A Resident Company at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Chamber Dance Project is in its seventh season in Washington having received major foundation and corporate grants including recently, the D.C. Arts Commission and Bloomberg Philanthropies.  National touring is planned to begin in 2021.

Diane pivoted Chamber Dance Project in summer 2020 to the creation of five new dance films created and screened throughout the country.  She created her own film, A Single Light with film director David Hamilin with all the company dancers working in their own homes.  These and other new films by Chamber Dance Project are to have their premiere live screenings at Kennedy Center in Fall 2021.

Diane graduated with honors from Butler University’s Jordan College of Arts and with a graduate degree from New York University. She received a post-graduate fellowship from Yale University where she studied with acclaimed lighting and scenic designers, Jennifer Tipton and Ming Cho Lee. She has served on many dance panels, advises pre-professional dancers and has been a guest artist at over thirty university dance departments.  She has taught choreography for dance majors at George Mason University. Diane and Chamber Dance Project has received grants in 2018-2020 in support of new work.

Denise Saunders Thompson has extensive experience in non-profit and for-profit, established or start-up organizations. She has advised organizations on administrative, programmatic and fundraising issues including strategic plans, policy and procedures, communications programs, budgeting and contracts. Currently, Denise is the President and Chief Executive Officer for the International Association of Blacks in Dance, a non-profit service organization and D.d.Saunders & Associates, Inc., a comprehensive fine arts advisory firm offering artist management/ representation, arts producing, consulting, and production services. She recently held the position of Professorial Lecturer at American University in the Graduate Arts Management Degree Program. In April 2015, Denise completed 17 years of service at Howard University in the capacities of Professor, Theatre Manager/ Producing Artistic Director for the Department of Theatre Arts and Manager of Cramton Auditorium. She is Co-Founder of PlayRight Performing Arts Center, Inc., a non-profit arts organization in Atlanta, Georgia, and former Business Manager for The Malone Group, Inc. a non-profit arts organization in Washington, D.C. that co-produced Black Nativity at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for six years. Denise currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Dance/USA, Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Friends of Theatre and Dance at Howard University, is a Member of Actors Equity Association (AEA) and Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA).

Freelancing in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and across the nation in production and arts management, Mrs. Thompson has held positions at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Debbie Allen Dance Academy, Alliance Theatre Company, National Black Arts Festival, 1996 Olympic Arts Festival, 1996 Olympics, Lincoln Theatre, Several Dancers Core, the Atlanta Dance Initiative, the Mark Taper Forum, the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger, Harrah’s Marina Hotel Casino as well as other numerous positions. In addition, she is a grant recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the St. Paul Companies. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in Arts Producing and Management, and a B.F.A. from Howard University in Theatre Arts Administration. Denise is the proud mother of Kellen, stepmom to Darrin, Jr., and happily married to Darrin, Sr.

Staycee Pearl is the co-artistic director of PearlArts Studios and STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos (SPdp&SS), where she creates artful experiences through dance-centered multimedia works in collaboration with her husband and artistic collaborator, Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl. In 2010, SPdp&SS debuted at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, and served as the theater’s resident dance company for three years. The Pearls proudly opened their dance/art/sound space, PearlArts Studios, in April of 2012. Since, the duo has produced several works including ..on being…, OCTAVIA, and FLOWERZ. They are both passionate about sharing resources and creating opportunities for the arts community and has initiated project-generating programs including the Charrette Series, the In The Studio Series, and the PearlDiving Movement Residency. Staycee has exhibited visual art works in exhibitions curated for SPACE Gallery, Fe Gallery, and The August Wilson Center and is responsible for the choreography of many musicals and operas presented throughout Pittsburgh between 2004 and 2018 including In “The Heights” for the University of Pittsburgh, Drama Department, Nathan Davis’ “Just Above My Head”, and the Alumni Theater Company in “Rent”. SPdp&SS recently toured Italy and New York with their work-in-progress showing of CIRCLES: Black-Grrlness on repeat in early 2020, and in the Summer of 2019, premiered both “sym” and “sol.” at their very first pearlPRESENTS Dance Festival. The festival featured works in collaboration with Island Moving Company (IMC) of Newport R.I., and Sidra Bell Dance New York (SBDNY)

Artistic Statement, Executive Artistic Director and Producer of DanceNOW[NYC]

My vision is to incite awareness of dance through non-traditional means that join artist and audience in an inspirational experience for both.

The daughter of a painter, I went to Goucher College to study visual and creative arts and graduated as the first dance major, charting the development of one of today’s most vital college dance programs across the country.  Paving my own way, I continued my career as a dancer at what was then considered ‘too late’, creating a small repertory company to sustain both my love of neo-classical ballet that I had studied at a very young age and my eagerness to explore new and contemporary movement styles.  My visual arts background and interest in design, have always led me into unusual urban spaces, inspiring my first gallery performance on Wooster Street in Soho in 1993.  The intimacy and enormous enthusiasm between the artists and audience members at this performance predicted my current artistic direction. I have worked over the past two decades to refine ways to make dance accessible and welcoming, bending the rules to offer audiences and artists a new way to experience dance that is relevant and fun.  As I move DanceNOW[NYC] into the next decade, my vision continues to encompass the untraditional, the unconventional and the unknown that has been the foundation of my personal goals and this organization for more than two decades.

As a dancer, I am aware of the enormous challenges that face performers, choreographers and companies.  As an administrator, my vision is guided by concern for the survival of today’s dance makers, particularly young artists.  I am steadfast in my commitment to provide opportunities that present new choices, stimulate creativity, advance careers, and encourage today’s dance makers to explore the untried, defy the archetypical and carve a path to uncover new means of expression.