Brinda Guha identifies as a non-disabled, caste-privileged, cisgender and queer South-Asian American, and is a Bessie-nominated artist based in New York City with roots in the Jersey shore and Kolkata. Her base of training is in Kathak (Malabika Guha; Ashimbandhu Bhattacharya), Manipuri (Kalavati Devi; Bimbavati Devi), Flamenco (Carmen de las Cuevas; Dionisia Garcia) and hybrid contemporary vocabularies (various). In 2010, she co-founded Kalamandir Dance Company, a contemporary Indian dance ensemble.  She's choreographed for several national stages and self-produced original feature-length dance productions which earned her artist residencies at Dixon Place (2018) and Dancewave (2019) to continue to develop work. Brinda is represented by CESD Talent Agency, directs Kalamandir of NJ dance school, is on faculty at the Ailey Extension, is a co-founder and lead artist in multicultural percussive trio, Soles of Duende, and is pursuing freelance artistic direction, performance and arts education. She continues to train in Kathak, Manipuri and contemporary dance. As a producer and curator, her vision to allow art and activism to collide was realized when she created Wise Fruit NYC in 2017, a seasonal live arts installment dedicated to the feminine divine and honoring select women-led organizations. She is also the lead researcher and curator of NCCAkron’s How People Move People Podcast, Season 4, works at ADC Consulting as a consultant for production & marketing, and works as the Senior Producing Coordinator for Dance/NYC, a dance service organization rooted in values of JEI and serving the NYC metropolitan arts worker constituency.

www.brindaguha.com

Hastings (she/her) is a communications strategist and creative leader with more than a decade of experience amplifying the impact of arts and nonprofit organizations. Originally from Memphis and now based in Harlem, she brings both a dancer’s perspective and a strategist’s vision to her work.

Since joining Dance/NYC in 2022, Hastings has advanced to Senior Manager of Communications, leading the department’s overarching strategy, voice, and creative direction. She oversees storytelling, digital engagement, and brand management efforts that expand the organization’s reach and reinforce its role as a vital advocate for equity, sustainability, and community in the dance field.

A consummate creative, communicator, and cultural witness, Hastings views her work as an extension of her artistic practice. Though she no longer performs, dance remains rooted in her identity—informing her values, her leadership, and her belief in the power of movement to connect people and ideas.

Prior to Dance/NYC, she served as Communications & Membership Manager at St. George’s Society of New York and held communications roles with Broadway Dance Center, New Ballet Ensemble, and Scarabeus Aerial Theatre. Hastings holds degrees from Vanderbilt University and King’s College London. Outside of work, she enjoys travel, food, DIY projects, and anime.

hhill@dance.nyc

Madalyn Rupprecht is an arts administrator born in Baltimore and now based in Brooklyn. They hold personal artistic practices in dance, fiber arts, and music radio, with a creative interest in queer ecologies, desires, and ultimately, utopias.

As a dancer, Madalyn has performed works by Abby Zbikowski, Alwin Nikolais, Fredrick Earl Mosley, Kathleen Kelley, and Martha Graham, among others. As a choreographer, she has been selected to present her work at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Bridge for Dance’s Uptown Rising Performance Series, the Post/Future Performance Festival, and Bailar al Sol International Dance Festival in Puerto Rico. Most recently she was in residence at MOtiVE Brooklyn.

Madalyn works at the intersection of many roles of support that arts organizations often need (ful)filled, including as a(n): administrator; marketer; producer; production coordinator; and grant writer. She has worked with Soles of Duende, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Michelle Tabnick PR, Proteo Media + Performance, and Eryc Taylor Dance. In addition to their work with Dance/NYC, they are the Managing Director of postmodern dance company Kyle Marshall Choreography. Over the past five years, they have overseen the company's growth from a fiscally-sponsored group to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that tours internationally while remaining rooted in local community engagement, building internal infrastructure and sustainable support systems for the company along the way. They are committed to advancing equity in the arts, serving multiple years as a panelist for NYC’s Department of Cultural Affairs’ Cultural Development Fund. Madalyn graduated magna cum laude from Montclair State University with a BFA in Dance and a BA in Journalism.

mrupprecht@dance.nyc

Maya Suess is a performer, educator, and arts administrator. Before joining Dance/NYC Maya served as the Grantmaking Manager of the Artist Communities Alliance, the culmination of her work in the field of artist residencies. After having served as Managing Director at Flux Factory for five years–an artist-run residency space in Long Island City Queens–she worked as the Director of Fellowship and Public Programs at apexart in Lower Manhattan. Prioritizing arts administration and programming grew out of a love of organizing, working with, and understanding the needs of arts workers.

Maya also works in performance art and drawing. Her creative work is in the collection of the Leslie Lohman Museum (NYC), and has been shown at the Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, Canada), The European Cultural Capital, Umeå2014 (Umeå, Sweden) among many others. She programs and emcees a quarterly performance series in the Lower East Side.

She holds a BFA in Media Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and an MFA in contemporary performance from Simon Fraser University. Born on a small island off the coast of western Canada, in unceded Coast Salish territory, today she lives and works in the Lower East side of New York City, Lenapehoking.
 

Melinda Wang comes to Dance/NYC with a wide array of experiences in social justice facilitation, social change-driven research, and advocacy and organizing. Through this work, Melinda saw the power of the arts to bring people together, move communities to action, and envision better worlds. As the Research and Advocacy Manager at Dance/NYC, Melinda is excited to build for dance workers so that dance workers can build for New York.

Outside of Dance/NYC, Melinda works with the MinKwon Center for Community Action to conduct equitable research, political education, and community outreach for New York's largest AAPI civic engagement coalition. Prior to these experiences, Melinda served as the Data and Training Coordinator at the New York Civic Engagement Role. There, Melinda bolstered the work of organizers across the state through civic engagement training, data analysis, and coalition building.

Melinda holds a B.A. in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration from Yale University. Melinda is from Southern California and enjoys good food, reading, and public parks.
 

Monica (she/they) is a Brooklyn based dancer, choreographer, educator, and community activist. They identify as a non-disabled, queer, white, femme. Having graduated Summa Cum Laude from Skidmore College in 2019, with a Bachelor of Science in Dance, Monica has spent the past five years as a freelance dancer and performance artist, sharing their craft internationally from Hungary to Ghana. As an educator, they've had the privilege of leading workshops across the tri-state area at institutions such as Gibney Dance Center and Mignolo Arts Center.

In 2020 Monica founded Wet Hairy Women to bring together a group of artists seeking to uncover and redefine raw truths of womanhood through movement and art. Since then, Monica has worked with over 200 women and allies who have participated in her annual art activist project, No Shave Wovember. Collectively, Monica has created and produced over 13 bodies of work, including their first evening length immersive dance theater production, UNTAMED.

Amidst the challenges of the global pandemic, Monica took on a role leading the largest vaccination effort and COVID-19 relief program in the NYC Metropolitan area under the T2 Program of New York Health and Hospitals. Their commitment extends beyond the stage, working to create avenues and platforms for artists to explore the nuances of bodily autonomy and gender fluidity through inclusive radical feminism and dance-making.

Nadia Khayrallah is a Lebanese-American dance artist, educator, writer, administrator, and (dis)content creator rooted equally in history and fantasy, form and groove, esoterica and common sense. 

Nadia graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Dance and Psychology. Since then, they have presented choreographic work through Arab American National Museum, Time & Space Limited, Little Island NYC, Dixon Place, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Queens College Arts Festival, Screendance Miami, YallaPunk, New York Arab Festival, and Queens Pride, among other venues. Nadia completed artist residencies at Chez Bushwick and Leimay Foundation, co-directed music videos for the artists Zahed Sultan and Alethea, and movement-directed three New York Fashion Week presentations for the designer Tara Babylon. They have performed as a company member with Gotham Dance Theater, Jonah Bokaer Choreography, and Artists by Any Other Name. Nadia is a teaching artist with Dancewave and Dancing Classrooms, working with K-12 students throughout the city. They have published writing with thINKingDANCE, Dance Enthusiast, the Huffington Post, Sukoon Magazine, and Reductress. 

Nadia spent three years on Dance/NYC’s Junior Committee, during which they co-organized the “Labor of Love?” Town Hall and the “Words We Use to Talk About Race” discussion at both the Dance/NYC Symposium and the Arts Administrators of Color Convening in DC. They look forward to reconnecting with Dance/NYC’s work as Programs Assistant.

Sara Roer (she/her/hers) hails from Waccamaw land colonially known as Wilmington, North Carolina and transplanted to Lenapehoking aka NYC in 2005 after asking to be left there on visits to grandparents for at least a decade. She currently identifies as an extroverted, non-disabled, cisgender, white queer femme. 

Her "slash life" mosaic of activity has been driven by curiosity and a sense of adventure, with dance performance and arts administration as deeply rooted constants. In both the dance and administrative realms, Sara insists on collaboration for building sustainable, impactful, long term work. In this vein, she has stayed the course with Emily Berry/b3w Performance Group for over 20 years and Keith A Thompson/danceTactics Performance Group for over 16 years (earning a New York Times mention, "eloquent," in her inaugural season).  She co-founded This Body collective with longtime friend and co-conspirator Diane Tomasi over 6 years ago. She has been training in and practicing traditional Thai Bodywork for over 16 years, starting with mentor Al Turner II. She was at artistic and administrative home BAX|Brooklyn Arts Exchange in various roles for over 14 years before stepping into this Director role with DanceNYC and looks forward to cultivating roots here for years to come. 
 

sroer@dance.nyc

Carrie Blake is a management consultant, researcher, project manager and administrator dedicated to the cultural sector. Since 2006, she has been a senior member of the Webb Mgmt team. In that role, she has directed research and analysis on more than 250 studies and plans.  Her recent research with Dance/NYC focused on New York City’s vast fiscally sponsored arts landscape and informed the City’s first ever cultural plan.

Before joining the firm, Carrie was the Associate Producer for the Office of Arts & Cultural Programming at Montclair State University (NJ) where she played a pivotal role in the establishment of Peak Performances, an ambitious new presenting, producing and commissioning program. Collaborating with innovative experimental artists from across the nation and around the world, Carrie coordinated regional, national and world premieres while establishing identity, presence, structure and policy for MSU’s new venture. 

Prior to MSU, Carrie developed and managed fundraising events and campaigns for both The Drama League, a New York City-based nonprofit committed to developing artists and audiences for the American theatre, and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (Madison, WI). She also worked in marketing for the Madison Civic Center as management prepared for expansion to what is now the Overture Center.

Carrie is a proud alumna of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business where she completed several consulting projects, including business planning and market research for arts organizations. Her graduate research focused on the university arts presenters’ multifarious existence within university and community contexts.

https://www.webbmgmt.org/team-carrie

Monroe&Co is a New York City-based strategy and design studio that creates branding, websites, and print publications for non-profits, arts organizations, and growing businesses. Principal James Monroe has 15 years of experience designing and leading design projects. He is passionate about helping others learn and grow while remaining mindful of society and the environment. He believes it is important that even organizations with limited resources have access to effective communication design.

http://monroeand.co/

Jenny Novac (she/her) is a nonprofit leader, strategist, and fundraiser with 15+ years of experience in the arts and youth development sectors. She is the Founder & Principal of Novac Consulting, launched in 2023 to help mission-driven organizations grow sustainably and adapt to change.

Previously, Jenny held several leadership roles at Gibney and was Director of a $90M capital/endowment campaign at  Madison Square Boys & Girls Club, Director of Development at RIOULT Dance NY, and a consultant with DUNCH: Cultural Leadership for a Creative World.

Through Novac Consulting, Jenny has partnered with nearly 20 changemaking nonprofits. In addition to serving as Interim Executive Director for Camille A. Brown & Dancers and Dorrance Dance, she has led fundraising and strategy initiatives with Dance/NYC, Judson Commons, Long Island Arts Alliance, Ma’s House & BIPOC Arts Studio, Pentacle, Room to Grow, and Zone 126, among others.

Jenny is Board Co-Chair of MOVE|NYC| and a former Groove With Me Board member and dance teacher. She earned her M.A. in Arts Administration through UKY’s online graduate program while working in the field, and holds a B.A. from NYU Gallatin, where she designed a concentration in Writing & Performing Arts as a Catalyst for Social Change.

Headshot by Kelleigh Thompson

www.novacconsulting.com

Michelle Tabnick PR is a full-service public relations firm specializing in the arts. The company creates PR strategies with the goals of promoting the client's brand image, building ticket sales, and reaching target audiences, with specific focus on integrated marketing campaigns. Photo credit: Christopher Duggan

michelle@michelletabnickpr.com

646-765-4773

www.michelletabnickpr.com

Non-Profit Operations and Consulting (NPOC) Services is based just outside of Boston, MA and serves nonprofit organizations across the nation. They provide operations support and project management exclusively to non-profit organizations. NPOC provides a concierge based, “one-stop-shop” operations support service that is cost-effective because it affords the Non-Profit Client access to staffing support and nonprofit expertise without having to commit to the costs of staff recruitment and retention. NPOC provides both short-term support services for interim periods as well
as long-term support services in all areas of non-profit operations: bookkeeping & audit support, administrative support, central receptionist and mail handling, technology systems management and development, infrastructure and policy development, CRM management, donor gift entry management, benefits and HR administration, and communications support.

www.npocservices.com

Rila Group is committed to providing exceptional research and analytics services to businesses and non-profit organizations. Our skills and experience help us deliver insight and impact for clients through a wide range of flexible support models, providing ad hoc and ongoing analytics solutions. In partnership with our clients we can identify and capture the most value and meaningful insights from data and turn it into competitive advantages. As a fully technology agnostic firm we are able to work with our clients' preferred technologies and platforms. We strive to be the first choice for any company interested in gathering and utilizing data related to their operations.

www.RilaGroup.com