Board of Directors
Anabella Lenzu
President
Originally from Argentina, Anabella Lenzu is a dancer, choreographer, scholar & educator with 35 years of experience working in Argentina, Chile, Italy, and the USA.
Lenzu directs her own company, Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama, which since 2006 has presented 400 performances, created 15 choreographic works and performed at 100 venues, presenting thought provoking and historically conscious dance-theater in NYC.
As a choreographer, she has been commissioned all over the world for opera, TV programs, theatre productions, and by many dance companies. She has produced and directed nine award-winning short dance films and screened her work in over 200 festivals both nationally and internationally.
As an educator, she has been teaching in more than 50 institutions, including universities, professional dance studios, companies, festivals, and symposiums in the USA, Canada, Ireland, Egypt, Australia, Panamá, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, London, and Italy.
In 2023, Anabella received the National Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Independent Sector by NDEO (National Dance Education Organization) and in 2022, the Innovative Dance Educator Award by NYSDEA (New York State Dance Education Association), acknowledging her work as a dance educator who develops innovative pedagogy in the dance field, groundbreaking teachings that have a significant impact on dance, as well as an established record of exemplary leadership on the state and national level in USA.
Lenzu has written for various dance and arts magazines and published her first book in 2013, entitled Unveiling Motion and Emotion. Her second book, Teaching Dance through Meaningful Gestures, was published in 2025. www.AnabellaLenzu.com
Ara Fitzgerald
Vice President
Ara Fitzgerald is a choreographer, improvisor, writer, performer and educator. Known for solos with original text, she revels in collaborations with photographer/filmmaker, Peter Cunningham, composer, Wall Matthews, Clare Byrne, Paris based choreographer, Martha Moore, and the honor to perform reconstructions of work by renowned dancer/clown, Lotte Goslar. She was a member of Daniel Nagrin’s improvisation company, The Workgroup, The Entourage Music and Theatre Ensemble, performed with Pat Catterson, Jamie Cunningham, created dances for her own company and contributed choreography to theater productions on and off Broadway. A graduate of Connecticut College (BA) and Wesleyan University (MALS), she taught at Connecticut College, The O’Neill Theater Center’s National Theater Institute, Hartman Conservatory and Trinity Square Conservatory before serving until 2017 as a director of dance and theater at Manhattanville College. When she told her grandmother, a retired vaudevillian band leader, that she was going to pursue modern dance, her grandmother replied, “A modern dancer is just a vaudevillian with an education.”
Ara also serves on the board of The Mystic Paper Beasts. She and Stuart Pimsler edited and complied Martha Myers’ memoir, Don’t Sit Down. Ara’s pieces and drawings make a leap from stage to page, in her new book, Slow Dancing Is Easy, Scripts for Solo Performer. https://www.arafitzgerald.com
Sue Bernard
Secretary & Bare Bones Curator
Sue Bernhard is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher, who has shown work internationally and in many venues in NYC. She has created dances for The Juilliard School, Marymount Manhattan College, Purchase College, National Ballet Moderno de Guatemala, LIU, The Yard, Convergence Dancers and Musicians, Invernadero Danza, and others. In collaboration with award-winning videographer Penny Ward, she has created video/dance performances. Their piece Boundaries and Exposures was featured at the Conference on Dance and Technology at Simon Fraser University.
Sue Bernhard was a member of the Jose Limon Dance Company and Anabelle Gamson Dance Solos, and recently performed in the film “Golden” by Patricia Chen. She has taught internationally: Limon technique, dance composition, improvisation, and contemporary and Limon repertoire, and is on faculty at Purchase College. Sue has studied for many years with renowned scholar and meditation teacher Paul Muller-Ortega, founder of Blue Throat Yoga, and is an authorized teacher of Neelakantha Meditation.
Gloria McLean
Treasurer
Gloria McLean is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher, and the artistic director of LIFEDANCE offering workshops and performances. She is based in NYC and Andes, NY at Squid Farm, a center for dance and sculpture shared with her life partner Ken Hiratsuka. Gloria became well-known as a leading dancer and rehearsal director for the renowned Erick Hawkins Dance Company from 1982 through 1993, when she left to focus on LIFEDANCE. Critically acclaimed for her roles, she is a major exponent of this important Modern Dance Legacy. She is equally recognized for her own choreography with LIFEDANCE/Gloria McLean & Dancers which has been presented in US and internationally, and was called by NYTimes critic Jennifer Dunning “… “An intelligent, witty and sensuous choreographic voice.” LIFEDANCE is a creative movement practice that builds on the Hawkins Technique as a base for somatics, technique, composition and performance. McLean was the President of the American Dance Guild from 2012 to 2024 where she supported our mission of offering a “window to the past” and a “doorway to the future” of dance.
Dyane Harvey-Salaam
Board Member
Dyane Harvey-Salaam is a BESSIE award nominee (2019) and winner (2017), dance educator, choreographer, certified Pilates instructor and board member of the American Dance Guild. She is a founding member and assistant to director Abdel R. Salaam, of The Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Company, and has appeared nationally and internationally with concert dance companies including: The Eleo Pomare Dance Company, Joan Miller’s Dance Players, Chuck Davis Dance Company, Walter Nicks Dance Company, Otis Sallid’s New Art Ensemble, George Faison’s Universal Dance Experience, Dance Brazil, and The Repertory Dance Theatre of Trinidad and Tobago. Commercial appearances include The Wiz(Broadway and original film), Timbuktu!, Spell #7, Your Arms Too Short to Box With God (Paris, France Company), AileyCelebrates Ellington (CBS Special), Free To Dance (PBS Special). Most recently she served as guest artist in Sydnie L. Mosely’s Purple A Ritual In 9 Spells, produced at Lincoln Center and Dance Place in Washington, D.C. Her choreography for Black Theatre companies has earned her AUDELCO Awards for Oya the Dance Drama, and Great Men of Gospel, and The United Solo and Broadway Berkshire Awards for Becoming Othello a Black Girl’s Journey. Other awards include: A.I.R. Living Legends Award from Miami Dade Community College, Distinguished Woman Award from the Harlem Arts Alliance and the Harlem Chamber of Commerce. Aspects of her life have been recorded for the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library Jerome Robbins Dance Division’s Oral History Project, and The Dance Historian Is In, a presentation highlighting the life and careers of Eleo Pomare, Joan Miller and Talley Beatty. Her published article, “Making Movement as an Act of Listening, Riding with the Muse” as part of the CLAJ Special Edition dedicated to the legacy of collaborator, Ntozake Shange, as well as “The Goodness of Sweet Honey In The Rock” in the anthology “Good Is Powerful beyond Measure”. As an educator, she teaches and designs courses at both Princeton and Hofstra Universities, sharing her philosophy about the dance of life itself.
Francesca Todesco
Board Member
Francesca Todesco is a New York-based dancer, choreographer, and educator, serving as the Artistic Director of Dances We Dance/Performing Ensemble. Of Swiss-Italian origin, Francesca moved to NYC in 1998, where she trained extensively in the Sokolow, Humphrey-Limón, and Duncan techniques, honing her expertise in performance and dance education. She credits her formative training to influential teachers such as Jim May, Catherine Gallant, Betty Jones, Fritz Ludin, and Gail Corbin.
In 2000, Francesca joined Catherine Gallant/DANCE & Dances by Isadora, performing and teaching Isadora Duncan's works internationally. She danced with various NYC-based choreographers, including Deborah Carr Theatre Dance Ensemble and Rae Ballard’s Thoughts in Motion. From 2003 to 2019, Francesca was a principal dancer and managing assistant with the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble, where she continues to assist with archival work and the reconstruction of Anna Sokolow’s repertory.
Dedicated to education, Francesca created a Historical Modern Dance workshop series, inviting master teachers to share their knowledge, and directed a children’s program, Every Little Movement, for over a decade. She is a sought-after teacher and coach, recently working with groups in London, Paris, and Athens.
In 2020, Francesca started her own dance company, Dances We Dance, collaborating with artists such as Rae Ballard, Jim May, Gail Corbin, and Annmaria Mazzini. Alongside running her company, she teaches Duncan exploration classes in Manhattan and leads regular workshops in Paris and Athens, continuing her mission to share and preserve the legacy of historical modern dance. www.danceswedance.org
Christine Jowers
Board Member
Christine Jowers is the Founder/Editor-in-Chief of The Dance Enthusiast, an independent, non-profit arts journalism site. For 17 years she has covered the dance scene and developed creative formats through which to share dance stories with global audiences. In addition to supporting artists through journalism, she has supported the writing of accomplished dance journalists as well as those new to the field.
She is the recipient of a 2022 Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Award) for Community Service and of a 2022 American Dance Guild Award for Achievement in Dance. Her work online and off has been funded by Dance/USA under the auspices of the Doris Duke Foundation and by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the Lower Manhattan Community Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Christine began dancing in her hometown of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands with the Ballet Theatre of the Virgin Islands and has continued on to an over 40-year dance career including teaching, curating, producing, and dancing to critical acclaim. She’s performed solo works and principal roles by the early proponents of modern dance as well as works created specifically for her solo concerts by contemporary choreographers and performance artists.
In addition to working on The Dance Enthusiast, Christine continues to create and exhibit her visual art in New York and Massachusetts. At the heart of all her endeavors are the values gleaned from her parents and her Caribbean heritage: commitment to curiosity, integrity, creativity, communication, and advocacy for family and community.
Columbine Macher
Board Member
Columbine Macher is a New York City based dance artist and educator. She has extensively performed with choreographers Eleo Pomare, Maxine Steinman, Ze’eva Cohen, filmmaker Kathy Rose, Susan Hefner & Dancers, Xavier Le Roy at MoMA PS1, and Simone Forti at MoMA. Her solo and collaborative works in dance and film have been presented at Center for Performance Research, The Flea Theater, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, Brooklyn Studios for Dance, Dobra Festival Internacional de Cinema Experimental in Rio de Janeiro, Austin Dance Festival, and the Film Maker’s Coop NYC.
Columbine has served on the faculties of The Ailey School, Ballet Hispanico, Long Island University, Saint Elizabeth University, Hofstra University, and as a guest artist at international academies including the Kuopion Konservatorio in Finland, Rotterdamse Dansacademie and Artez Dansacademie in the Netherlands, the Tsai Jui-Yueh Dance Foundation in Taipei/Taiwan, and the Korean National University of the Arts in Seoul. Born and raised in Germany, she trained at the Folkwang Hochschule in Germany under the direction of Pina Bausch and holds an MFA in Dance from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
As a Creatives Rebuild New York/CRNY Guaranteed Income Artist and Fellow (2022-24), she produces live events with a collective of CRNY artists, dedicated to interdisciplinary collaborations and economic justice.
Celia Ipiotis
Advisory Board Member
Celia Ipiotis is the creator, producer and host of the award-winning humanities PBS series, EYE ON DANCE. Honored with a "Lifetime Achievement" award in 2024 by American Dance Guild, Ipiotis began her professional career as a dancer, choreographer, director and videographer. Singled out for her expertise, Ipiotis lectures and served on college faculties including Rutgers University, Hunter College, Harvard, Ohio State University, New York University, Marymount Manhattan, Aegina Arts Center; sits on local, state, and national arts panels; advised WNET's "Dance in America" and led arts forums at major cultural institutions like the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, NYC Ballet, NY Foundation for the Arts, Guggenheim Works & Process and Harlem Stage.
After receiving a BFA in Dance at OSU and MA in Arts Media Studies at New School, Ipiotis secured choreographic fellowships, and held artist-in-residence positions throughout the USA. Invited to join the Bessie Awards Nominating Committee, Ipiotis is a member of the Columbia University Dance Scholars Seminars and served as a Research Fellow at Jacob’s Pillow. Articles by Ipiotis appear in various cultural publications and she manages the on-line cultural journal EYE ON THE ARTS. Ipiotis also produces public lectures coupled with EYE ON DANCE episodes for the general public, educational, and cultural institutions. Ipiotis heads the team raising tax-deductible funds for the restoration of the EYE ON DANCE archive for future generations.