Dance Champions

Thelma Goldberg, tap teacher, choreographer, producer, and pedagogue is committed to bringing the best of tap to the Boston metropolitan community.

Judith Chaffee, Martha Armstrong Gray, and Dawn Kramer, are three of the founders of Boston’s prominent modern dance company, Dance Collective, which flourished for over three decades.

Fernadina Chan, a 34 year veteran of the Boston Public Schools is a choreographer and founding artistic dean and chair of the dance department of the Boston Arts Academy.

Jose Mateo, prominent  choreographer and founder of Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, School, and programs such as Dance for World Community, has worked to broaden the reach of ballet and make dance an effective force for community-building and social equity.

Adrienne Hawkins,  Artistic Director of Impulse Dance Company and Co-Artistic Director of Bass-Line Motion, whose international career as a dancer and choreographer has included rock musicals, music videos and trade show productions and whose energetic teaching and mentoring has influenced countless Boston dancers and dance makers.

Amy Zell Ellsworth, dancer, choreographer, teacher, and philanthropist, shaped the future of Boston Dance Alliance during the six years she served as president of its Board of Directors.  

Marcus Schulkind, dancer, choreographer, contemporary dance educator, and practicing acupuncturist, was a founding director of Green Street Studios in Cambridge.

Jeannette Neill founded Boston’s premier studio for jazz dance in 1979, and is cofounder of the pre-professional Boston Youth Moves troupe.

Marianne Taylor co-founded the Folk Arts Center of New England, dedicated to promoting interest and participation in the traditional dance, music, and related folk arts of many cultures.

DeAma Battle founded The Art of Black Dance and Music in 1975 with the goal of presenting and preserving the rich history of African rooted dance, music and folklore. 

Iris Fanger, dance and theatre historian, critic, and lecturer, led the Harvard Summer Dance Center for 18 years. Iris has curated museum and library exhibitions on a wide variety of dance and theatrical topics.

Jeanne Hays Beaman, who danced with the San Francisco Ballet in the 1930s, trained at Bennington with modern dance’s great pioneers, was professor of dance at University of Pittsburgh and was an early exponent of computer-generated choreography. After moving to Massachusetts, she spearheaded dance programs for a number of local cultural agencies including the Massachusetts Arts and Humanities Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts and Massachusetts Cultural Council from 1986-1992.