Duke Dang

Executive Director, Works & Process at the Guggenheim

Since 2003, Duke Dang has been with Works & Process, currently as Executive Director he oversees all of Works & Process’ administration and artistic programming in the Guggenheim theater and rotunda, a residency program spanning the Hudson Valley and Long Island, and additional international touring. During his tenure, the organization’s budget has tripled, and a board designated endowment fund and cash reserve were created. Works & Process programs have frequently been selected “Best of” by The New York Times and in 2019 was honored with a Bessie Award. Swiftly responding to the pandemic, in March 2020 Works & Process launched WPA Virtual Commissions, supporting over 300 artists and 85 virtual works described by The New York Times as “one of the most powerful artistic responses yet to the Covid-19 crisis.” During spring and summer 2020, Works & Process pioneered and produced the field’s first bubble residencies, where artists could safely gather to create and perform together. The residencies resulted in the first permitted live outdoor performances during the pandemic in New York, taking place in August 2020 at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park. Many of these bubble residencies culminated in filmed video performances, as part of the Works & Process at Lincoln Center initiative and were featured in the Works & Process produced docuseries Isolation to Creation, which was broadcast on WNET’s All Arts and PBS. With funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Works & Process’ bubble residencies were extended into summer of 2021, supporting 247 artists. On March 20, 2021, Works & Process produced the first ticketed in person indoor performances in New York State, after securing special guidance from the Department of Health. To bolster the spirit and recovery of New York’s cultural sector, Works & Process would go on to produce over 40 performances in Spring 2021, partnering with the Guggenheim, Lincoln Center, and NY PopsUp.

A constituent performing arts non-profit of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, for 37 years Works & Process, recently described by The New York Times as “forward thinking,” has illuminated and fostered the creative process of leading performing arts organizations and artists through new commissions and inquisitive programs blending insightful artist discussions with performance highlights. Under Duke’s leadership Works & Process was nominated for the 2021 Association for Performing Arts Professionals’ William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence and Sustained Achievement in Programming and honored with the 2021 Dance Magazine Chairman’s Award.

Prior to Works & Process, Duke worked at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Glimmerglass Festival, Sydney Theatre Company, and Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2013, Duke with his husband, helped founded and continue to serve on the steering committee of the Hudson Valley Dance Festival, benefitting Dancers Responding to AIDS a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Now in its 9th year, the event has raised over $1 million dollar to support social service organizations in the Hudson Valley and nationally.

Born at a UN refugee camp to parents seeking political asylum from the communist Vietnamese government, Duke Dang immigrated to California growing up with the assistance of Section 8 housing vouchers, food stamps, welfare, and attending Head Start. As an inaugural Gates Millennium Scholar, he earned his B.A. in Art History at Boston University, where he studied abroad in Australia, Brazil, England, India, and South Africa. At New York University he earned his M.A. in Performing Arts Administration.

Michelle Manzanales

Director of Ballet Hispánico’s School of Dance and co-founder of the Latinx Dance Educators Alliance

Michelle Manzanales is a choreographer, dedicated dance educator of 30 years, and co-founder of the Latinx Dance Educators Alliance. The Director of Ballet Hispánico’s School of Dance since December of 2016, Michelle previously led the organization’s professional company as Rehearsal Director & Artistic Associate for seven seasons. Michelle has served as a juror for the Nebraska Arts Council, Individual Artist Fellowships and as an adjudicator for the Independent Study in Choreography Showing for Ailey’s BFA program and Generation Dance Festival Houston Choreography Competition. Ms. Manzanales was also a panelist for Ballet Hispánico’s Instituto Coreográfico and the Houston Arts Alliance grants program.

Her choreography for Ballet Hispánico, Con Brazos Abiertos, described as a “savvy but deeply sincere meditation on her Mexican American background” (-Marina Harss, New York Times), premiered in 2017, and has since toured worldwide to critical acclaim including its feature at New York City Center’s 2018 Fall for Dance Festival. Manzanales’ current commissions include new works for the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Oregon Ballet Theater, and Montclair State University. She has served on the faculties of Ballet Hispánico, Lou Conte Dance Studio, University of Houston, Rice University, and has been a guest artist for the Puerto Rican Classical Dance Competition, Professional Work Sessions at STEPS on Broadway, the Joyce Master Class Series at Gibney, the Taylor School, New Orleans Ballet Association, Regional Dance America, Festival de Danza Cordoba-Youth American Grand Prix, Houston’s Kinder High School for the Performing & Visual Arts, along with numerous other dance studios, schools, and college dance programs nationwide and abroad.

Victor Quijada

Artistic Director, RUBBERBAND

In 18 years, Victor Quijada and his RUBBERBAND have not only redefined breakdance codes within an institutional context and enlivened the Quebec dance scene, but have opened the way for new creators. Armed with a technique he conceived for dancers, the RUBBERBAND Method – an electrifying vocabulary combining the energy of Hip Hop, the refinement of classical ballet, and the angular quality of contemporary dance – and some 40 creations and collaborations in Canada and abroad behind him, Victor Quijada has always continued to evolve and innovate throughout his prolific career.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, the child of Mexican parents, Victor first danced in the b-boying circles and hip hop clubs of his native city. He trained with Rudy Perez from 1994 to 1996, then moved to New York City to join THARP! After spending three years with that company and following a stint with Ballets Tech, in 1999, he came to Montreal to join Les Grands Ballets canadiens in 2000. In 2002, he founded RUBBERBAND, throwing himself into deconstructing the choreographic principles he had learned by blending them with the raw ideology of his street dance origins. His creations – numerous short works and 15 full-length productions – are distinguished by a powerful theatricality, the energy of improvisation, and certain codes of film language, the whole sculpted with an incomparable precision of movement.

For several years now, Victor has taught the RUBBERBAND Method throughout the world in workshops and internships for many dance companies, dance schools, and universities, as well as on a yearly basis: in his company’s annual workshop; at the Académie du Domaine Forget in Charlevoix every summer; and in his classes at the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance at the University of Southern California (USC). As guest choreographer, he has created new works for dance and circus companies; notably in return commissions for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Scottish Dance Theatre.

Besides his stage productions, Victor has been involved in almost a dozen dance films, as director, choreographer, or dramaturge. His short film, Hasta La Próxima, was a finalist at the American Choreography Awards in 2004. He also choreographed the music videos “Man I Used to Be” by k-os, “La Garde” by Alexandre Désilets, and Elton John’s “Blue Wonderful”. His Gravity of Center – The Movie won Best Experimental Short at the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival of 2012, among other awards, and was shown at several exhibitions and national and international festivals.

In the area of peer recognition, Victor Quijada was artist-in-residence at Usine C (2004) and at Place des Arts (2007-2011), and has won many awards, including Britain’s National Dance Award for Outstanding Modern Repertory (2003), the Bonnie Bird North American Award (2003, U.K.), the Peter Darrell Choreography Award (2003, U.K.), the International Touring Award of the Canadian Dance Alliance (2012), and two awards from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA (Choreography Fellowship, 2010; Work in Progress Residency, 2016).

In December 2017, Victor Quijada received the Award for Cultural Diversity at the Prix de la danse de Montreal and was in 2019 among the four finalists for the Charles-Biddle Prize, instigated by Culture pour tous and the Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation and Inclusion (MIFI).

Jennifer Stahl

Editor in Chief, Dance Magazine

Jennifer Stahl is Dance Magazine’s editor in chief and Dance Media’s content director. A former senior editor of Pointe, she has also written for The Atlantic, Runner’s World and other publications. She holds a BFA in dance and journalism from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she performed work by such choreographers as Karole Armitage and David Dorfman. As a dancer, she performed for California’s Peninsula Ballet Theatre, Israeli choreographer Gali Hod and Cirque du Soleil’s 25th-anniversary celebration. She has also served as a judge for Youth America Grand Prix, the Capezio A.C.E. Awards, on the panel of the New York City Dance Alliance Foundation and as an adjudicator for the American College Dance Association.

Eduardo Vilaro

Associate Artistic Director, Ballet Hispánico

Eduardo Vilaro (Artistic Director & CEO) joined Ballet Hispánico as Artistic Director in August 2009, becoming only the second person to head the company since its founding in 1970. In 2015, Mr. Vilaro added the role of Chief Executive Officer to his responsibilities. He has been part of the Ballet Hispánico family since 1988 as a dancer and educator until 1996. After completing his master’s in interdisciplinary arts at Columbia College Chicago, he embarked on his own act of advocacy, with a ten-year record of achievement as Founder and Artistic Director of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago. Mr. Vilaro has infused Ballet Hispánico’s legacy with a bold and eclectic brand of contemporary dance that reflects America’s changing cultural landscape. Born in Cuba and raised in New York from the age of six, he is a frequent speaker on the merits of the intersectionality of cultures and the importance of nurturing and building Latinx leaders. Mr. Vilaro’s own choreography is devoted to capturing the Latin American experience in its totality and diversity, and through its intersectional points with other diasporas and ability to spurn new dialogues about what it means to be an American. He has created more than 40 ballets during his career for Luna Negra, Ballet Hispánico and commissions from the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Grant Park Festival, the Lexington Ballet and the Chicago Symphony. In 2001, he was a recipient of a Ruth Page Award for choreography. Mr. Vilaro was inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame in 2016 and was awarded HOMBRE Magazine’s 2017 Arts & Culture Trailblazer of the Year. In 2019, Mr. Vilaro received the West Side Spirit’s WESTY Award, was honored by WNET for his contributions to the arts, and, recently was the recipient of the James W. Dodge Foreign Language Advocate Award. In August 2020, City & State Magazine included Mr. Vilaro in the inaugural Power of Diversity: Latin 100 list. He is a well-respected speaker on such topics as diversity, equity and inclusion in the arts. Mr. Vilaro’s philosophy of dance stems from a basic belief in the power of the arts to change lives, reflect and impact culture, and strengthen community. He considers dance to be a liberating, non-verbal language through which students, dancers and audiences can initiate ongoing conversations about the arts, expression, identity, and the meaning of community.