The Dance Teacher Awards provide an important opportunity to recognize dance educators who are making a mark in the field. Since the awards’ inception in 2003, the long list of honorees has grown to include luminaries like Judith Jamison, Jacques d’Amboise, Kay Mazzo and Risa Steinberg, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. This year, we’re excited to add four more names to that group.
For 2025, our awards selection committee has chosen to honor:
- Lori Belilove, artistic director of the Isadora Duncan Dance Company, who trained as a dancer in Duncan’s direct lineage and is devoted to keeping Duncan’s legacy alive for today’s performers and audiences.
- Roger Montoya, whose New Mexico–based Moving Arts Española uses creative-arts education and hands-on mentorship opportunities to impact the lives of children throughout the region.
- Dianne Walker—aka “Aunt Dianne”—whose nurturing teaching style and unwavering dedication to tap dance’s history has inspired students for decades, and who has trained some of the best in the biz.
- Sylvia Waters, artistic director emerita of Ailey II, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s second company, who has guided countless dancers through the transition from student to young professional.
Want to know more about these remarkable educators? Click through to read the full profiles. Plus, stay tuned for more ways we’ll be celebrating our honorees in the months ahead!