National Dance Institute has named TIFFANY REA-FISHER, Inc. as its Helen Stambler Neuberger Artist-in-Residence for 2023-2024. (Read the press release here.)

Tiffany Rea-Fisher is the Artistic Director of EMERGE125, a Mellon Foundation grant funded dance company headquartered out of Harlem and the Adirondacks, currently in residence at The Flea Theater. She is also the dance curator for Bryant Park Picnic Performances; the Executive Director of the Adirondack Diversity Initiative; and is the co-founder of Inception to Exhibition, a non-profit that facilitates low cost, high quality space rentals for use by artists from a variety of disciplines.

Over the course of her career, Rea-Fisher has been commissioned by the Dallas Black Dance Theater, the NYC Department of Transportation, Utah Repertory Dance Theater, and The National Gallery of Art in D.C. Her works have been seen on stage at the Joyce, the Apollo, New York City Center, Joe’s Pub, Aaron Davis Hall, Bryant Park, Red Bull Stadium, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, Chelsea Factory, and New York Live Arts. She has worked extensively with fashion designers to present their works, including for events and films with Louis Vuitton and Paola Hernández. Among Rea-Fisher’s more recent accomplishments is the premiere of her 2022 Dance Theatre of Harlem commission, Sounds of Hazel, celebrating the life of the classical pianist, singer, Hollywood star, and trailblazing activist Hazel Scott.

Rea-Fisher has become a go-to choreographer for major theater directors, including Carl Cofield (Best Director, N.A.A.C.P) and Saheem Ali (New York Theatre Workshop, Public Theater). As the resident choreographer with the Classical Theatre of Harlem, she has contributed to their productions of Macbeth, The Three Musketeers, A Christmas Carol In Harlem, Antigone, The Bacchae, and Seize the King. Following her 2022 choreographic contributions to the company’s Twelfth Night, for which The New York Times suggested she should have been nominated for a Tony Award, Rea-Fisher’s choreography was most recently seen at The Public Theater’s 2023 Delacorte production of The Tempest as part of their Public Works program.

Rea-Fisher is a COHI member of the International Association of Blacks in Dance, an Advisory Board member of Dance/NYC, a Bessies Award Selection Committee member, and a proud member of Women of Color in the Arts. Rea-Fisher was the first dance curator for the interdisciplinary arts organization The Tank, where she now sits on their Board of Trustees, and served for many years as the Director of the Lake Placid School of Dance. She is a 7-time consecutive AUDELCO award nominee, a 2022 Toulmin Fellow, an National Dance Project Award winner, a Creatives Rebuild New York Awardee, a John Brown Spirit Award recipient, and was awarded a citation from the City of New York for her cultural contributions.

Rea-Fisher is much sought out as a lecturer, speaker, and policy contributor on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts. She subscribes to the servant leadership model and uses disruption through inclusion to influence the culture of her work with her company, in dance education, and all of her many satellite projects.

She will be working with NDI children and Teaching Artists throughout the year, setting choreography on NDI Advanced Teams dancers, leading NDI Collaborative workshops, and connecting with the NDI families, audiences and staff through performance and community events.

To learn more about Tiffany Rea-Fisher and EMERGE125, click here.

National Dance Institute named LayeRhythm Productions, Inc. as its Helen Stambler Neuberger Artist-in-Residence for 2022-2023.

Led by Founder/Artistic Director Mai Lê Hô, LayeRhythm highlights freestyle dance and music voices under-recognized in the traditional performing arts landscape while providing entertainment, building community, educating audiences in cultural history, preserving the legacy of street & club dance forms, transforming individuals’ relationship to music & dance and supporting emotional & social well-being. LayeRhythm is dedicated to risk-taking improvisation and interactive audience engagement through performances and events.

Since 2015, LayeRhythm (LR) has offered NYC monthly interactive, improvisational street/club music and dance jam sessions at Meridian 23 and Nublu, as well as performances at venues/festivals such as Jacob’s Pillow, the Guggenheim Museum, Bridge Street Theater, 92NY Harkness Dance Center, NY Public Library for the Performing Arts, Movement Research at Judson Church. LayeRhythm was selected by CUNY Dance Initiative for residencies at Brooklyn College for the Performing Arts (2021-2022) and Baruch College (2022-2023). LR has partnered w/ Works & Process at the Guggenheim, 92NY, Hi-Arts, Hook Arts Media, Rolling Stone, Teatro Yerbabruja, Queens County Farm Museum, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, PotaY. LPI incorporated as a nonprofit in 2020, and has since received the support of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, New Music USA, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Dance/NYC, Club Culture Foundation.

The LR experimental platform layers extemporaneous collaborations of live musicians and freestyle dancers, working from a diverse cultural palette: hip hop, funk, soul, house music, and popping, locking, waacking, Detroit jit, Chicago footwork, krump, flexN, breaking, voguing, litefeet, and house dance styles.

LayeRhythm will be working with NDI children and Teaching Artists throughout the year, setting choreography on NDI Advanced Teams dancers, leading NDI Collaborative workshops, and connecting with the NDI families, audiences and staff through performance and community events.

To learn more about LayeRhythm, click here.

National Dance Institute named Earl Mosley as its Helen Stambler Neuberger Artist-in-Residence for 2021-2022. Fredrick Earl Mosley is Founder and Artistic Director of Diversity of Dance, which is the springboard for programs such as Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts (EMIA, a residential summer institute) held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island, Hearts of Men (HoM) a program which is designed to use dance to empower and cultivate a safe space where men of all ages can bond in a community of brotherly love, and Dancing Beyond, a benefit for Dance Against Cancer.

A part of Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance’s mission is to build a community of dance that enables each student to connect both technically and spiritually with their own art and individuality; one where they can feel safe and courageous to learn and grow in preparation for the challenges that lie ahead for them in the world of dance and life.  Mr. Mosley’s choreographic credits include the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theater Studio Company, and Dallas Black Theatre. Mosley has also choreographed for schools such as Montclair State Dance Department, The Joffrey Ballet Trainee Program, The Ailey School, Hofstra University, Marymount Manhattan College, and numerous other universities and institutions both nationally and internationally.

Mr. Mosley worked with NDI children and Teaching Artists throughout the year, setting a new version of “This is Me” on NDI Advanced Teams dancers, which was performed at NDI’s 2022 Gala and Event of the Year. In the Fall of 2022, Mr. Mosely and his Diversity of Dance company presented a community event at NDI’s Howard Gilman Performance Space to sold-out houses. The weekend featured dancers from EMDOD, Battery Dance, Kanyok Arts Initiative, and NDI Advanced Teams dancers.

To learn more about Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance, click here.

Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval was named as National Dance Institute’s Helen Stambler Neuberger Artist-in-Residence 2019-2020.  NDI’s first Artist-In-Residence, Leonardo is renowned for blending America’s tap tradition with Brazil’s rich musical and rhythmic heritage. Performing across the world at venues including Lincoln Center, the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Joyce Theater, the Guggenheim Museum, NY City Center, and other venues, Leonardo is a passionate advocate of arts education, leading workshops, classes, and lecture-demonstrations, centered on tap, body percussion, Afro-Brazilian rhythms and more.

Leonardo is a core member of Michelle Dorrance’s acclaimed company, Dorrance Dance, performing across the world at venues like the Joyce Theatre, the Guggenheim Museum, NY City Center, BAM, London’s Sadler’s Wells, Canada’s National Arts Center, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and many more. Together with composer Gregory Richardson, he directs Music from the Sole, a NYC-based tap dance and live music company that explores tap dance’s Afro-diasporic roots and lineage to a wide range of Black dance and music from jazz to samba, house, and passinho (Brazilian funk).

He worked with NDI’s young dancers as part of their artistic practice and was often seen rehearsing for his own performances at the NDI Center. Mr. Sandoval always works with live music, which is an integral component to every NDI program and performance. With Gregory Richardson and Music from the Sole, he performed in NDI’s 2020 Jacques’ Art Nest Series at the NDI Center, and in October 2022, presented a community event at NDI’s Howard Gilman Performance Space, featuring performances by Music from the Sole, and a community workshop and jam session for dancers of all ages.

To learn more about Leonardo Sandoval, click here.