Mark DeGarmo, PhD, Executive Director
Phoenix Ximénez, BFA, Administrative Assistant
Louise Heit, MA, Certified Movement Analyst, DEL Certification and Assistant, Teaching Artist in Dance & Creativity. Louise has taught dance and theater to children and uses of the arts for classroom teachers in NYC since 1987. She has worked with 92nd Street Y Educational Outreach Program, Ballet Hispanico, The Center for Arts Education, City Center, DanceWave, Lucy Moses School, Marquis Studios, New York City Arts in Education Roundtable, Packer Collegiate Institute, St. Luke's Orchestra Arts Education Program, Together in Dance, and most recently with Mark DeGarmo & Dancers. Louise earned a MA in Dance Studies from the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London through a scholarship from the Bonnie Bird Memorial Fund and a BFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts. She holds a CMA (Certified Movement Analyst) from Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York. She has toured nationally and internationally with Marquis Studios, Adaptors Movement Theater and Pink Inc., and was a member of the Corner Store children's improvisational dance-theater company. Her own choreography has been presented at So Grand Studio, Broome Corner Studio, and Context Studios through the Field's Fielday.
Areas of substantive knowledge: Creative Movement, Dance-Theater Improvisation, Laban Movement Analysis, and Partnership Development.
Nuria Martinez, BA, Teaching Artist in Dance & Creativity, was born in Spain and trained in ballet at Madrid's National School of Ballet, piano, and Spanish dance. She completed studies at Laban Centre, London and Cunningham Studio, NYC. She has designed and implemented K-12 curriculums for many NYC arts education organizations, including Mark DeGarmo & Dancers. She has served as peer panelist for the Center for the Arts Education and performed with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Washington Ballet. She holds a BA in Dance Education from SUNY Empire State. Areas of substantive knowledge: Afro-Cuban, Contemporary, Northern Spanish Folk, and World Dance; Argentine Tango; Arts-Integrated Curriculum; Choreographic Composition; Classical Piano; Gymnastics; and Latin American Social Dance Forms.
Maria Mitchell, Teaching Artist in Dance & Creativity, is a dancer, choreographer, and arts educator whose dance training includes the study of Dunham, Horton, Graham, traditional African dance techniques, and dance notation at the Dance Notation Bureau. Her practical education is complemented by a conceptual approach rooted in musical collaborations. She has received awards from Meet the Composer, National Endowment for the Arts, and The Center for Constitutional Rights. She is included in Black Dance in America. She has worked in arts and dance education in Germany, Ghana, South Africa, and NYC through many arts education and social service organizations. Areas of substantive knowledge: African-American Dance, Arts-Integrated Dance Curriculum, Choreographic Composition, Dance Notation, Improvisation, Katherine Dunham Dance Technique, and Music-Dance Collaborations.
Salla Saarikangas, MA, CMA, Teaching Artist in Dance & Creativity, was trained at Balettakademien, Stockholm, and received her MA in Dance Research and Reconstruction from City College of New York. She has choreographed for and danced with professional companies in Finland, Sweden, and the US, and has taught at Tanssivintti, Helsinki; City College of New York; Connecticut College; Hope College (Ml); Queens College; and Hofstra University. She is also a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA), notator, and restager. Her restagings include works by Doris Humphrey, Helen Tamiris, Maggie Gripenberg, Andree Howard, Gertrud Bodenwieser, and Michel Fokine. Salla is a frequent guest teacher in her native Finland. She danced for a season with Mark DeGarmo & Dancers and currently works as a teaching artist for Lincoln Center Institute, the Joyce Theater, and MDDF.Areas of substantive knowledge: Aesthetic Education, Dance Research and Reconstruction, Laban Movement Analysis, and Labanotation.
Mary Seidman, MA, Teaching Artist in Dance & Creativity is Artistic Director of the Mary Seidman and Dancers modern dance company in New York. She received the Hilla Rebay Teaching Artist Award from the Solomon Guggenheim Museum's Learning through the Arts Program in 1998. She serves on the faculties of the Third Street Music School, Early Childhood Preschool Program and Mark Morris Dance Center Children's Program. From 1990-98 she founded and directed Keystone Dance, a school of modern dance for children 18 months-14 years. Ms. Seidman is a frequent guest artist at US colleges and universities. Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and Symphony Space, are among the venues where her choreography has appeared nationally.Areas of substantive knowledge: Creative Arts and Dance Therapy, Dance Education, Early Childhood Education, and Movement Composition.
Marie Baker-Lee, Dancer-Performer earned a BA/Sociology from University of California, Riverside and a BA/Theatre from University of Washington, Seattle. Her credits as a dancer in New York include performing with the companies of Mark DeGarmo, Douglas Dunn, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, Charles Moulton, Judith Ren-Lay, Gus Solomons, Jr., and Muna Tseng. Her performance with Mark DeGarmo & Dancers has received acclaim across many seasons with the company in New York, nationally, and internationally. She is also a member of The Silver River, a chamber opera by Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang. Ms. Baker-Lee has co-taught dance workshops for adult and student dancers with MDDF in El Salvador, England, and Slovenia, as well as New York. She has taught and set dances with Nancy Zendora in Petropavlask Kamchatsky, Russia and Ulan Bataar, Mongolia. She co-teaches visual arts at Green Chimneys Gramercy, a residential school for youths with alternative life styles.CONSULTANTS
Koshers & Co., CPAs
Photograph of Marie Baker-Lee by Beatriz Schiller
Photograph of Maria Mitchell by Enid Farber