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Photo by Rob Best
Jenise Akilah Anthony, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, is an international dance educator, choreographer and performing artist well-known for her African Diaspora dance work. She is an Assistant Professor at SUNY Brockport and serves as the Artistic Director of the Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble. With her recognition and passion for traditional and contemporary African-based work, Ms. Anthony founded Jenise Anthony Dance/Echoes of Africa, an international dance collective that reflects the heartbeat and energy of African culture through concert and community performance. Ms. Anthony has studied intensively with multiple native dance and drum masters from Guinea, Senegal, Mali and the Ivory Coast. With her expertise in Afro-Caribbean and Traditional/Contemporary African dance forms, she has presented her creative work at worldwide conferences such as ACDA, World Dance Alliance Assembly, UTEP, COCO Dance, Trinidad and the Dance Africa Festival. Ms. Anthony prioritizes cultural exchange and passionately focuses much of her work on providing equitable, inclusive spaces for the community to engage in shared cultural experiences through movement.
For more information visit https://www.jeniseanthonydance.com/
Madeline Jazz Harvey is a dance educator, choreographer, and performer specializing in classical and contemporary ballet. She began her performance career at age fourteen as an apprentice with Charlotte Ballet, under the direction of Patricia McBride and Jean Pierre Bonnefoux. She attended summer intensive programs on full scholarship at Chautauqua Institution, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and The Juilliard School. In 2010, Madeline joined Carolina Ballet Theatre where she served as a principal dancer, resident choreographer, and outreach coordinator for five full-time seasons. Highlights include performing the role of Giselle, Alonzo King’s Map, Dwight Rhoden’s Beatle Juice, and various works created for her by artistic director Hernan Justo. She also performed as a guest artist with companies including Repertory Dance Theatre, American Repertory Ballet, Olney Ballet Theatre, and Colton Ballet Company of Augusta. Madeline is currently a member of Judy Bejarano’s IMPACT Dance Company.
Madeline has been teaching and choreographing since 2006 in a variety of community and collegiate settings. In 2007, she was the youngest recipient of the New York Choreographic Institute Fellowship Award. Human connection and vulnerability drive her choreographic process. She values collaboration and is honored to have co-created works with composers, musicians, visual artists, and members of the National Organization for Parents of Murdered Children (South Carolina Chapter). Madeline’s choreography has been featured in concerts and festivals across the nation including as part of the Regional Ballet Association and American College Dance Association. She has taught year-round for Charlotte Ballet, Davidson College, and DanceArts Greenville, and seasonally for Repertory Ballet Academy, Springfield Ballet Company, and Canyon Concert Ballet, among others. In addition to guest teaching, she has created original works for UNCC, Davidson College, Converse College, Furman University, and Tampa University. She is honored to have served as a répétiteur for Mark Diamond, Jerri Kumery, Shaun Boyle, and Bryan Arias.
Madeline holds a BA and Professional Training Certificate in Dance from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and an MFA in Choreography from Jacksonville University. She was appointed as Instructor of Ballet at the University of South Carolina in 2015 and became Assistant Professor of Dance at Colorado State University in 2017. She is credited with the development of ShapeX, a program designed for children with Type II Diabetes. Sponsored by grants from General Electric and the Greenville Heath System, this curriculum promotes health and nutrition through movement-centered activities. Madeline’s research investigates play as a paradigm for choreographic process. Recent projects examine the artistry of parenting through dance. Her dance film, Embodiment, was featured as part of Screen Dance Miami (2020) and the Horsetooth International Film Festival (2019). She is currently working in collaboration with psychologist Zeynep Biringen to develop dance interventions for enhancing emotional availability and attachment from pregnancy through postpartum.
Named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" of 2019, Tanya Chianese is the Artistic Director of contemporary dance company ka·nei·see | collective. Named after the phonetic combination of “can I see?” and Tanya’s Italian last name, the company creates vitalizing and accessible contemporary dance that promotes finding humor, appreciation, compassion, awareness, and most importantly perspective in our modern existence. In the five years since the company’s inception, Chianese's choreography has received two awards, five residencies, fourteen festival invitations, five tours, four commissions, and endorsements by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Elizabeth Warren surrounding her social justice dance work addressing sexual harassment and assault.
In addition to her work as a choreographer, Tanya has performed professionally throughout the United States and parts of China as a freelance dancer. Most recently in the Bay Area she has performed with Kristin Damrow & Company, Rogelio Lopez & Dancers, Garrett + Moulton Productions, and Paufve | Dance. She has taught at ODC/Dance, LINES Ballet, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Roco Dance, Berkeley Ballet Theater, San Francisco State University, and City College of San Francisco, among others. An advocator for dance outreach, Tanya traveled to Guatemala as guest choreographer with JUNTOS Collective in 2018 to perform and teach daily workshops across the country; she taught ballet to visually impaired adults and children in Oklahoma City, OK through a grant funded by Devon Energy in 2010; she directed the Kids on Track outreach program of the San Francisco Trolley Dances in 2012; and she co-taught free dance classes in low-income after school programs in Los Angeles, CA in 2006. In 2018 she was named by San Francisco magazine as "100 Artists Putting the East Bay on the Map," and was honored to be the guest speaker at San Francisco State University’s 2017 Graduation Ceremony. She is the Summer Program Director at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, and has worked as an administrator for Oklahoma City Ballet and other non-profit organizations. Tanya holds a BFA in Modern Dance and BA in Art History from the University of Oklahoma.
"Whether her topic is hard-hitting or abstract, Chianese draws you along a story arc with a sense of theatrical composition that's rare among choreographers more than twice her age." -Dance Magazine, Jan 2019
For more information please visit http://www.kaneisee.org
IG: @kaneisee
FB: @kaneisee