Tag: dance teacher awards

2023 Dance Teacher Award Honoree Sheila Barker Continues the Legacy of Her Mentors Through Jazz

The 2023 Dance Teacher Awards will take place on Thursday, August 10 at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture in New York City, and you’re invited! Click here to buy tickets. Sheila Barker is vivacious, filled with a magnetic energy and infectious laughter. It’s no wonder that the popular jazz teacher at Broadway Dance Center and […]

Ana Marie Forsythe, Dance Teacher’s 2023 Awardee of Distinction, on Why Lester Horton’s Technique Continues to Inspire

The 2023 Dance Teacher Awards will take place on Thursday, August 10 at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture in New York City, and you’re invited! Click here to buy tickets. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Ana Marie Forsythe has been teaching for most of her life. Now 79, she first taught dance […]

Announcing the Winners of the 2023 Dance Teacher Awards!

The Dance Teacher Awards provide an integral opportunity to recognize dance educators making a mark in their communities. Over the past 20 years, the long list of awardees has grown to include luminaries ranging from Judith Jamison to Stephanie and Bo Spassoff to Earl Mosley to Katherine Dunham. This year, we’re excited to add five […]

Kay Mazzo, Dance Teacher’s 2022 Awardee of Distinction, on Preserving Balanchine’s Legacy

Kay Mazzo has been a symbol of strength and grace in the ballet world since she made her debut with Jerome Robbins’ Ballets USA, while a teenager, in Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun. George Balanchine hired Mazzo into New York City Ballet shortly thereafter. Her extreme delicacy, musicality and sense of style inspired Balanchine to […]

Risa Steinberg, Dance Teacher’s 2022 Awardee of Distinction, Keeps Raising the Bar

Risa Steinberg has been teaching for many decades. But she still finds it terrifying: “It’s an enormous responsibility, and I take it really seriously,” she says. “I don’t mind being terrified.” To say that Steinberg takes teaching seriously almost feels like an understatement. For instance, prior to a recent class for the Limón Company, where […]

Dance Teacher Award Honoree Yvonne Gutierrez: Force of Empowerment and Connection Through Spanish Dance

Yvonne Gutierrez, heralded flamenco, salsa and Spanish dance artist and educator, has built her reputation as an ambassador for creative connection in the arts. With her dedication to bringing tradition forward while fostering standards of inclusion and outreach, she continues to raise the bar for dance education. Gutierrez, a New York native based in the […]

Dance Teacher Award Honoree Ana Nery Fragoso Is a Master at Creating Community

Ana Nery Fragoso’s guiding philosophy is collaboration. Whether she’s teaching elementary school children, leading professional-development workshops for educators, or mentoring future teachers as director of the Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program at Hunter College in New York City “building community and cooperation is a constant in my pedagogy,” she says.  Fragoso’s passion for education was […]

Dance Teacher Award Honoree Kristine Elliott Uses Ballet to Promote Diversity and Social Change

“Ballet has opened doors for me all of my life, serendipitously perhaps,” says San Francisco–based ballet teacher Kristine Elliott. As she speaks by phone, Elliott is preparing for the arrival of three boys from South Africa who will be participating in a summer intensive with Alonzo King LINES Ballet, an opportunity she is coordinating through […]

Nominate an Educator for a Dance Teacher Award!

Know some extraordinary dance educators? Nominate them for a Dance Teacher Award! Every year, we recognize excellence in teaching by honoring outstanding dance educators for their contributions to the field.  We’re currently accepting nominations for the 2022 Dance Teacher Awards, and are looking for dance educators who: Have a unique or outsized impact on their […]