MMDG - Key Persons
Adrianne Lobel began working with Mark Morris in 1986 on Nixon in China. Since then she has designed his L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, The Hard Nut, The Marriage of Figaro, Orfeo ed Euridice, Platée, King Arthur, and Acis and Galatea. As a stage designer she has worked in opera, dance, Broadway, Off Broadway, and regional theater in America and in Europe for over 30 years. Some highlights (other than working with Morris) include An American Tragedy at The Met, The Magic Flute at Glyndebourne, Passion and A Year with Frog and Toad on Broadway, and Così fan tutte and The Marriage of Figaro, directed by Peter Sellars, at Pepsico Summerfare. She has been nominated for many awards and has won the Obie, the Lucille Lortel, The Jefferson, and Long Wharf's prestigious Murphy Award. For the last ten years she has been segueing into life as a painter. Both her theater and her painting work can be viewed at adriannelobel.com.
Job Titles:
- Visiting Professor at the George Washington University
Richardson has performed across North America, Europe, and Asia, in halls such as Carnegie, Severence, Wigmore, Seoul Arts Center, and Shanghai Oriental Arts Center. He has performed with many wonderful artists including Renée Fleming, Ángel Romero, Joel Krosnick, Michael Tree, Sam Rhodes, Nina Lee, Jon Kimura Parker, Pedja Musijevic, and the Miró, Juilliard, and American String Quartets. In addition to his work with the Aeolus Quartet, he has performed as a guest with A Far Cry, the NYC based chamber collective Decoda, and with the Mark Morris Dance Group. Richardson also serves as principal cellist of the New Orchestra of Washington.
Richardson has served as a visiting professor at the George Washington University, and has conducted masterclasses at universities across the country. He has served as a teaching assistant at The University of Texas, The University of Maryland, and The Juilliard School. Richardson has served on the teaching faculty of the Austin Chamber Music Center, Corcoran Chamber Music Institute, Point CounterPoint, Intermountain Suzuki Academy, and the UMD High School Music Academy. His teachers include Melissa Kraut, Richard Aaron, Joshua Gindele, Evelyn Elsing, Joel Krosnick, Neal Cary, and Jim Wilson.
Richardson plays on a cello by Samuel Zygmuntowicz, generously on loan from the Five Partners Foundation.
Allison Antoinette Bailey is a 2016 graduate of Stanford University and holds a B.A. in Human Biology with a concentration in Global Public Health. Prior to joining the Mark Morris Dance Group staff, she worked at the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund helping to secure the pretrial freedom of low-income New Yorkers and advocate for bail reform. She also worked with the New York City Housing Authority to identify areas of improvement and expansion within their Community Health Initiatives program. Allison's experience working in advocacy and public health is driven by her commitment to challenging racism, inequality, and injustice of all forms. She has always had a passion for dance and is a former NFL Cheerleader for the New York Jets Flight Crew. Allison is inspired by Mark Morris Dance Group's cultural enrichment through dance and performance, and she is excited to be joining an organization committed to promoting equity and advancing access within our community!
Amy Bauman has worked as a volunteer, Teaching Assistant, and Lead Teacher for Dance for PD and PD Movement Lab classes since 2012, and is trained to teach specialized Tai Chi classes for persons with arthritis. Amy is a retired occupational therapist, whose primary experience was in nursing home rehabilitation settings with patients who suffered strokes, underwent joint replacement surgeries, and lived with PD. Her dance background is chiefly in modern, but while living abroad in the Soviet Union in the early 1980s, she rediscovered ballet. Amy is grateful to be an integral part of the Dance for PD community, which she considers to be a second family. Favorite performance credits include Ooh! Aah! by Pamela Quinn and her role as grandma to Ezra and Benjamin.
Bianca Golden is a second generation Puerto Rican, Colombian American, interdisciplinary artist: dancer, director, producer, activist and educator. Originally from Miami, Florida, she now calls Brooklyn home. Bianca graduated from Marymount Manhattan with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance in 2009 and graduated with her Master of Arts in interdisciplinary studies at City College in 2020. Bianca has been a teaching artist for many organizations for over 10 years. She also was a company member for various social justice companies in which she toured both nationally and internationally as well as representing the US State Department and BAM as an ambassador of the Arts in South America in 2013. Bianca's passion for social justice and creating more equity within the arts, led her to collaborate with her brother and in 2013 the two co-founded GSM Creative, a production company.
Blaire Reinhard is thrilled to be joining the MMDG Music Ensemble in The Look of Love. Her voice and original compositions have been featured in hundreds of TV shows, films, radio spots, and commercials, with credits including Feel the Beat, So You Think You Can Dance, The Friend, Inside Amy Schumer, Dance Moms, The Young and the Restless, One Life to Live, Lincoln Heights, The Voice, Silver Bells, High School Musical, The Namesake, Cow Belles, and The Merry Gentleman. She has also worked as music supervisor on series including Younger and Chappelle's Show. For over a decade, she has managed and directed the Blaire Reinhard Band, performing as lead vocalist and keyboardist at events around the greater New York City area (blaireband.com).
Job Titles:
- Community Engagement Manager and Faculty Liaison
Calvin A. Rollins II, a Dallas, Texas native, is the Community Education Programs Manager at Mark Morris Dance Group. In this role, he coordinates the cultivation of community partnerships, events, general inquires, and the development of individualized residencies in schools, and community-based institutions. He attended Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. In 2005, he was one of Ebony's Top Black High School Students for Seniors That Are More Than Book Smart and was selected for a panel discussion covering the importance of arts and education at the Department of Education in Washington D.C. He pursued his dance studies at Southern Methodist University and graduated with a B.F.A. During this time, he worked
as a teaching artist at Big Thought and numerous community engagement programs. Afterwards, he moved to New York City, where he began working with The Fresh Air Fund in teaching and administrative roles.
Calvin is a certified Pilates Mat and Apparatus instructor. He also received a certification through the New York City College of Technology and is a Physical Therapist Aid. He works with individuals to strengthen and align the body through function movement, and injury prevention.
Carol Alvarez is from Queens, New York. They started training in competitive ballroom dance at the age of eight and then started ballet training at the age of fourteen in a small studio in Astoria. Carol realized their love for dance and decided this is what they wanted to do. They went on to train at the Joffrey Ballet School full-time on scholarship. They also received training at American Ballet Theater summer intensive, Ballet Hispánico, and Alvin Ailey. Carol still performs locally in small companies throughout New York City.
Colin Fowler (Music Director) began his musical study at the age of five in Kansas City, went on to study at the Interlochen Arts Academy, and continued his education at The Juilliard School, where he received his Bachelor of Music in 2003 and his Master of Music in 2005. While at Juilliard, he studied piano with Abbey Simon, organ with Gerre Hancock and Paul Jacobs, harpsichord with Lionel Party, and conducting with James dePriest and Judith Clurman.
A versatile musician and conductor, Fowler works in many areas of the music scene in New York City. He is a veteran conductor and keyboardist of many Broadway shows, including Jersey Boys, In the Heights, Wicked, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. As a classical soloist and collaborative artist, he has performed and recorded with many world-renowned musicians and ensembles, including Deborah Voigt, Renée Fleming, The Knights, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has arranged and conducted for numerous TV and film productions, including Yellowstone and Greta Gerwig's Little Women.
He began to collaborate with the Mark Morris Dance Group in 2005 and has performed over 60 pieces with the company on almost every keyboard instrument possible, including the harmonium and toy piano. He has conducted performances of Mozart Dances, Acis and Galatea, The Hard Nut, and L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, and helped edit and create over 15 videodances with Mark Morris during the pandemic. Hailed by The New York Times as "invaluable" and "central to Morris' music," he was appointed Music Director in 2013.
Job Titles:
- Contributor to the New York Review of Books
Darryl Pinckney is a long time contributor to The New York Review of Books and the author of two novels, High Cotton and Black Deutschland, and three works of non-fiction, Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature, Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy, and Busted in New York and Other Essays. He has adapted texts and written for Robert Wilson's productions of The Forest, Orlando, Time Rocker, The Old Woman, Letter to A Man, Garrincha, and Mary Said What She Said.
He has been a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, and a visiting professor at Harvard University, Yale University, and Columbia University, and writer in residence at Skidmore College, The New School, and New York University.
He has been awarded fellowships from the Whiting and Guggenheim foundations and is a recipient of a Harold D. Vursell Award for Distinguished Prose from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Job Titles:
- Vice - Chair of the Board
MARK MORRIS, praised as "the most successful and influential choreographer alive, and indisputably the most musical" (The New York Times), was born on August 29, 1956, in Seattle, Washington, where he studied with Verla Flowers and Perry Brunson. In the early years of his career, he performed with the companies of Lar Lubovitch, Hannah Kahn, Laura Dean, Eliot Feld, and the Koleda Balkan Dance Ensemble. He formed the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) in 1980 and has since created over 150 works for the company. From 1988 to 1991, he was Director of Dance at the Thé tre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the national opera house of Belgium. In 1990, he founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Morris is also an acclaimed ballet choreographer, with twenty-two works commissioned by ballet companies worldwide.
Noted for his musicality, Morris has been described as "undeviating in his devotion to music" (The New Yorker). He began conducting performances for MMDG in 2006 and has since conducted at Tanglewood Music Center, Lincoln Center, and BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). In 2013, he served as Music Director for the Ojai Music Festival. Morris also works extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, English National Opera, and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, among others.
He was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation in 1991 and has received eleven honorary doctorates to date. He has taught at the University of Washington, Princeton University, and Tanglewood Music Center.
He is the subject of a biography, Mark Morris, by Joan Acocella (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), and Marlowe & Company published a volume of photographs and critical essays entitled Mark Morris' L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato: A Celebration. Mark Morris: Musician-Choreographer, by musicologist Stephanie Jordan, was released in 2015. Morris's memoir, Out Loud, co-written with Wesley Stace, was published in paperback by Penguin Press in October 2021.
A Doris Duke Artist, Morris is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and has served as an Advisory Board Member for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. He has received the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society, the Benjamin Franklin Laureate Prize for Creativity, the International Society for the Performing Arts' Distinguished Artist Award, the Cal Performances Award of Distinction in the Performing Arts, the Orchestra of St. Luke's Gift of Music Award, and the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award. In 2015, Morris was inducted into the Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Morris opened the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, New York, in 2001 to provide a home for his company, subsidized rental space for local artists, community education programs for children and seniors, and a school offering dance classes to students of all ages and levels of experience with and without disabilities.
ELISA CLARK is an award-winning artist, educator, and administrator who trained at the Maryland Youth Ballet prior to receiving a B.F.A. from The Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy, with guidance from Carolyn Adams. She first performed with Mark Morris Dance Group in 2005, remained a full-time company member through 2011, and frequently returned as a guest performer, company teacher, and stager through 2024, when she was appointed Rehearsal Director. In addition to MMDG, she has been a featured company member with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and Monica Bill Barnes & Co, a guest artist for Buglisi Dance Theater, and has performed with Nederlands Dans Theater and the Metropolitan Opera in works by Jiri Kylian and Crystal Pite respectively, amongst others. Elisa was also a founding member and company manager for Robert Battle's Battleworks Dance Company and has served as Battle's artistic assistant for over two decades. As an educator and mentor, she has been on faculty at the School at Jacob's Pillow, Princeton University, University of the Arts, American Dance Festival, Move NYC, Steps on Broadway, Marymount Manhattan College, and at Bard College in partnership with Gibney Company, to name a few, and has taught company class for MMDG, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Ballet Hispanico, Gibney Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. She is currently on the ballet faculty at the Ailey School, Gibney, and the Mark Morris Dance Center. Elisa is a répétiteur for both Battle and Morris' works, and is also a Princess Grace Award Winner and a Certified Life Coach.
Job Titles:
- Director of Dance Center Operations
Elizabeth Fox joined MMDG just months after the company opened the Dance Center in 2001. Since its inception, she has managed Capital, Program, and Operations budgets as well as Human Resources, IT strategic planning, and Dance Center operations. She oversees the Finance, Operations and Facility Departments. As 2nd in command she plays an integral role in the organization's long-range planning and growth management. She works closely with the Executive Director Nancy Umanoff and has helped lead the organization though 6 capital expansions, staff growth from 6 to 67 full-time equivalents and overseen growth of the operating budget from $3m to nearly $8m over the past 15 years. She lives in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn with her daughter and husband and enjoys walking to work every day. She is the Assistant Treasurer of her Co-op Board and Treasurer of her Neighborhood Block Association. She has volunteered for MOMA, Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and World Music Institute. She holds a BA in Finance with a Minor in Art History from the University of Georgia and an MA in Business from the University of Wisconsin-Madison - Bolz Center for Arts Administration. In June 2015, she graduated from the esteemed CORO Leadership New York program and considers it to be the most formative professional development experience in her career thus far.
Emily Arden Jones is a performer, choreographer, and teaching artist from Louisville, Kentucky. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Ohio State University, where she studied Dance and Arts Administration. Her work transfers from stage to film and has been shown at the San Francisco Film Festival, Istanbul Fringe Festival, and on stage at New York Live Arts. She is enthusiastic about the collaborative community at MMDG and is thrilled to be joining the Operations team.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Corporate Counsel for Labor & Employment at Starbucks Coffee Company
Estela Díaz is corporate counsel for labor & employment at Starbucks Coffee Company. Prior to joining Starbucks, she was a litigation partner at an international law firm. She represented companies and individuals in a variety of criminal and regulatory investigations involving state and federal government authorities. She also conducted internal investigations involving allegations of misconduct against senior executives of public companies and other organizations.
Estela previously served as a trial attorney at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's New York district office, where she litigated individual and class actions involving discrimination and harassment.
Estela lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.
Job Titles:
- Events and Operations Manager
Job Titles:
- Maintenance
- Maintenance / Production
James Luksa is a true Brooklynite, born and raised in Sunset Park. He is a proud supporter of the VFW Hall Post 1357 Sunset Park, where he regularly volunteers to support our veterans. He loves all types of music and dance and looks forward to being part of the MMDG family.
James Seely began his career as a founding employee of Carta, the leading financial technology platform in the US for private companies and venture capital firms to issue, manage, and track their equity. Over the course of his seven years there, James scaled and led a number of strategic business units, from client onboarding and customer success to marketing and product strategy. In his subsequent role as the Head of Go-to-Market for Syndicate, a blockchain infrastructure technology, he oversaw and managed all sales, marketing, and customer operations across the organization. James now serves as the Head of Customer Experience in London for Ledgy, the market leader in equity management software across the UK and Europe.
Originally from Seattle, James was first introduced to the work of Mark Morris in 2005 during a performance at the Meany Center for the Performing Arts. After moving to Brooklyn in 2018, he attended a performance of "Grand Duo" at the Mark Morris Dance Center and has continued to be a fan and supporter of the Mark Morris Dance Group in the years since. James lives with his wife, Colleen, and their miniature dachshund, Wallace, in Notting Hill.
Job Titles:
- Director of Artistic Engagement
Jessica Loyola, a Brooklyn native with a B.A. in Latin American Studies from New York University, brings nearly two decades of nonprofit HR experience to the Mark Morris Dance Group. Her expertise spans sectors inclusive of reentry services, social services, and healthcare. Her commitment to employee well-being is reflected in her approach to tailoring solutions and valuing individuality while being in tune to organization's needs. She looks forward to contributing to the success and growth of MMDG.
Jillian Marzziotti, originally from Westchester NY, is a graduate of William & Mary where she received her BA in Accounting while minoring in Dance. Recently, Jillian graduated Summa Cum Laude from the NYU/ABT Master's program in Dance Education. She is thrilled to be joining the Mark Morris Dance Group and pursue her passion for arts administration.
Job Titles:
- Director of Technical Production
Jolie Curtsinger is an American theater, film, television actor, and producer. She is the Artistic Director of InProximity Theatre Company, and founding producer of Project W Theater Festival, an annual reading festival highlighting female playwrights, directors and theater professionals.
Jonathan Finlayson is an accomplished trumpeter, composer, and band leader. Named a rising star by DownBeat magazine, Finlayson has been an integral part of the creative music scene in New York since relocating in 2000. He is widely admired for his ability to negotiate cutting-edge material while bringing a strong sense of individuality and verve. Finlayson has garnered critical acclaim and recognition for his three recordings as a leader with his group Sicilian Defense. He has also received much recognition for his contributions as a sideman with cutting-edge artists such as Steve Coleman, Henry Threadgill, Steve Lehman, and Mary Halvorson.
Kimberly Giannelli is a seasoned public relations professional with extensive earned media experience and a robust network of press influencers spanning across various industries, including arts, culture, society, social justice, and fitness. Throughout her career, she has successfully led accounts through strategic PR campaigns, resulting in notable cover stories and placements in prestigious outlets such as The New York Times, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Vogue, CBS Sunday Morning, Inside Edition, NPR, Good Morning America, and TODAY.
In 2019, Kimberly founded The PR Social, building upon a decade-long administrative tenure at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and her background as a professional ballet dancer in New York City and beyond. Notably, she co-founded the iHeartDance initiative in 2020, orchestrating over 15 sold-out performances amidst the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, which raised over $120,000 for the dance community and underscored the transformative power of the arts. Demonstrating her commitment to social impact, Kimberly recently organized a fundraiser to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine and facilitated the journey of twelve young actors from a bomb shelter in Lviv to New York, spearheading a northeast tour of performances to raise awareness of the profound impact of war on children.
With a relentless dedication to her craft, Kimberly continues to champion brands and causes with diligence, creativity, and unwavering commitment to excellence.
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing and Communications
Job Titles:
- Interim Director of Development
The mission of the Mark Morris Dance Group is to develop, promote, and sustain dance, music, and opera productions by Mark Morris and to serve as a cultural resource to engage and enrich the community. Propelled by Core Values of community, access, excellence, and creativity, MMDG is committed to ongoing work on inclusion, equity, and diversity to ensure its programs are welcoming and accessible to all. See our Commitment to Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access.
Lily Khan, originally from Pennsylvania, is a recent graduate of Hofstra University where she received her B.A. in Dance Performance. While pursuing her degree, she was granted the opportunity to work with dancers from a variety of backgrounds both in the studio and in administrative roles. She is passionate about making dance education accessible and is thrilled to be joining the education department at MMDG!
Lily McAteer (She/Her) graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in Dance Performance from Fordham University/The Ailey School and has taught with The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center, New York City Ballet, and Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation. Previously, she worked in a development capacity with The Mirror Theater in Greensboro, VT, helping realize the Highland Center for the Arts, designed by architect Hugh Hardy. Lily is also a classical vocalist and her original music, created in collaboration with her husband, Charlie, has been featured in Time Out New York.
Job Titles:
- Vice - Chair of the Board
Job Titles:
- Director of Facilities and Capital Projects
Job Titles:
- Dancer Social Media Liaison
Mica Bernas, originally from Manila, Philippines, received her training at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Dance School. She later joined Ballet Philippines as a member of the corps de ballet and rose up the ranks to Soloist. While at Ballet Philippines, she also studied at De La Salle University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Organizational Communication in 2006. Upon graduating, she moved to New York and joined Carolyn Dorfman Dance. She was a guest artist with the Limón Dance Company and worked with Karole Armitage, Gallim Dance, Marta Renzi, and Connecticut Ballet. As an educator, she has taught all levels of dance, including after school programs, pre-professional, and master classes. She has taught at the Limón Institute and formerly ran the dance program at BIMA at Brandeis University. She joined MMDG as a company member in 2017.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Toigo Alumni Endowment Board and Chair of the Audit, Finance & Investment Committee
- Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Manulife Investment Management
Onay Payne (she/her) is a Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Manulife Investment Management ("Manulife IM"). Ms. Payne is responsible for driving the strategy and development of ESG/Impact investment capabilities across the Manulife IM platform. Ms. Payne partners with Manulife IM's investment, asset management and investor relations teams in screening investments; identifying risks and opportunities with respect to ESG/Impact; optimizing portfolio construction; enhancing asset performance; maximizing returns; and establishing performance benchmarking for ESG/Impact. Ms. Payne serves on Manulife IM's Global Real Estate Leadership Team.
Prior to joining MIM, Ms. Payne was the Managing Director of Real Estate at Lafayette Square, a national investment platform focused on achieving risk-adjusted returns for investors while positively supporting people and communities in overlooked places and underserved markets.
Prior to joining Lafayette, Ms. Payne was an equity owner and Managing Director of Clarion Partners. As a Portfolio Manager, she was responsible for close to ten billion dollars in assets under management over the course of her 19-year tenure, having overseen several separate account and co-mingled investment mandates covering all major property types and markets throughout the United States. She also oversaw Clarion's Mexico platform and served on the firm's Investment and Career Management Committees. Ms. Payne began working in the real estate and finance industries in 1997.
Ms. Payne is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, from which she received an A.B. in 1997. She received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in 2003, where she was a Robert Toigo Foundation ("Toigo") Fellow. Ms. Payne is fluent in Spanish.
Ms. Payne currently serves as Chair of the Toigo Alumni Endowment Board and Chair of the Audit, Finance & Investment Committee of the Mark Morris Dance Group board of directors. She is also a member of the Urban Land Institute ("ULI"), where she serves as a Global Governing Trustee, a Vice Chair of the national Technology and Real Estate Council, and a ULI NY Advisory Board Member; the Real Estate Executive Council ("REEC"); the Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board; WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate; and the Advisory Board of Building Cyber Security.
In 2023, Ms. Payne has been recognized on the Commercial Observer's 2023 Power 100 list, featured in Bloomberg Markets Magazine and in Commercial Property Executive's Female Leaders in CRE. Previously, she was a featured contributor to Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2023, selected as a member of the Commercial Observer's 2021 Power Finance 50 list, featured in the Pace Common Ground Campaign for Gender Equality in 2017, inducted into the Toigo Foundation's inaugural "40 Under 40" in 2013, and featured in Real Estate Forum Magazine's "Women of Influence 2010."
Parker Ramsay (harp) has forged a career defying easy categorization. Equally at home on modern and period harps, he pursues his passions in tackling new and underperformed works and bringing his instrument to new audiences. Recent and upcoming performances include solo performances at Alice Tully Hall; the Miller Theatre at Columbia University; the Phillips Collection; Cal Performances; Shriver Hall; IRCAM; King's College, Cambridge; the Spoleto Festival USA; and the Center for the Art of Performing at UCLA. His recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations was praised as "remarkably special" (Gramophone), "nuanced and insightful" (BBC Music Magazine), "relentlessly beautiful" (WQXR), and "marked by a keen musical intelligence" (Wall Street Journal). His last album, released in October 2022, features The Street, a new concert-length work for solo harp and text by Nico Muhly and Alice Goodman. He has also collaborated with composers such as Marcos Balter, Saad Haddad, Josh Levine, Jared Miller, and Sarah Kirkland Snider. Alongside gambist Arnie Tanimoto, Ramsay is co-director of A Golden Wire, a period instrument ensemble based in New York. As an organist, he has performed at Washington National Cathedral, Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center, Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has presented talks, performances, and lectures on period instruments at the Smithsonian Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has been published in VAN Magazine, Early Music America Magazine, the Washington Post, and The New York Times. Raised in Tennessee, Ramsay began harp studies with his mother, Carol McClure. He served as organ scholar at King's College, Cambridge before pursuing graduate studies at Oberlin and Juilliard. In 2014, he was awarded First Prize at the Sweelinck International Organ Competition. He lives in Paris.
Randy Miles is a graduate from the University of California-Irvine with a B.A. in theater. After graduation, Randy worked professionally in the states and abroad as an actor, singer, and dancer. Settling in New York City, Randy continued to perform in theater, television, film, and in 2022 he completed his Master of Arts in Performing Arts Administration at New York University. Having transitioned from an internship with Mark Morris Dance Group, Randy is thrilled to be part of this iconic performing arts organization, and specifically to be working as a Program Administrator within the Dance for PD® (Parkinson's Disease) program.
Rima Yamazaki is originally from Japan and moved to New York to pursue her passion for the arts. Prior to joining the Mark Morris Dance Group, she worked at The Japan Foundation, New York, and UnionDocs. Rima is a filmmaker who makes creative documentary films about art, architecture, and cities. Her films have been shown at film festivals and venues around the world, including Cinéma du réel International Documentary Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the International Festival of Films on Art, among others. She has also worked for the documentary filmmaker Michael Blackwood. Rima received a BA in Social Sciences from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Japan, and a B.A. in Film from Hunter College.
Sarah Hillmon was born and raised in Rochester, New York. There she trained with Garth Fagan and Timothy M. Draper and was a member of the Rochester City Ballet. She graduated with a B.F.A. in dance from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she had the privilege of performing works by talented artists including Sidra Bell, Lucinda Childs, Gus Solomons Jr., and Charles Weidman. After college, she became a member of Lucinda Childs Dance Company, where she toured the world performing classic works. While in New York City, she has also had the honor to perform with artists such as Solange Knowles as well as a number of dance companies including Robert Mark Dance, Suzanne Beahrs Dance, BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance, DanceBoissiere, and the Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company. She joined MMDG as an apprentice in 2023 and became a company member in 2024.
Job Titles:
- Marketing and Digital Engagement Associate
Job Titles:
- Marketing Manager, Creative Content
Simón Willson is a Chilean-born, New York City-based bassist, composer, and improviser. As an eclectic and in-demand sideman, he has toured with a host of different artists in Europe, the United States, Canada, and South America. His wide-ranging interest in different realms of jazz and improvised music has led him to work with a diverse pool of established artists such as Dave Douglas, Ethan Iverson, Steve Cardenas, George Garzone, Jason Palmer, Rodney Green, Michael Blake, Pablo Held, Jim Black, Tim Miller, and Frank Carlberg, among many others. He also plays in bands of contemporaries such as Kevin Sun, Max Light, and Jacob Shulman. In addition to his sideman work, he co-leads the bands Great on Paper, Family Plan, and Earprint. The latter won the "best debut album" category of the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll in 2016, and Family Plan released their debut album in September 2021, due to receiving a generous grant from the Chilean government. Willson can be heard on over twenty-five records for labels such as Tzadik, Steeplechase, Newvelle, and Endectomorph, in addition to a number of self-releases.
Sloan Pearson is a multifaceted artist based in New York City. Originally from Charlotte, she began studying at Charlotte Ballet under the direction of ballet luminaries Jean- Pierre Bonnefoux and Patricia McBride. She received her BFA with a modern dance emphasis from the Point Park University Conservatory of Performing Arts. While at Point Park, Sloan was offered an apprenticeship with the August Wilson Dance Ensemble.
Sloan has danced with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Kybele Dance Theater, and Debbie Allen as a dancer in her dance ensemble - later to be featured in her Netflix Documentary. She was honored to dance with the Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company, where she was Paul Taylor's last chosen dancer. During her four seasons she worked with Ron K. Brown, Larry Keigwen, and Peter Chu, before joining his company chuthis.
Sloan has since worked with Tommie Waheed-Evans - Princess Grace Recipient both dancing and remounting his works, Holly Blakey for Puma New York Fashion Week, Yin Yue Dance Company, and the Metropolitan Opera in, "Carmen," choreographed by Ann Ye and directed by Carrie Cracknell, and most recently with Mark Morris Dance Group in Gluck's, "Orfeo ed Euridice."
Job Titles:
- Dance Center Operations Manager
Tina Fehlandt was a founding member and integral part of the Mark Morris Dance Group for twenty years, performing in over 50 works choreographed by Mark Morris. With the Group she toured the world and appeared in several television specials, most notably as "Louise" in Mr. Morris' production of The Hard Nut. She has been the subject of feature articles in Self Magazine, Dance Magazine, and Dance Teacher, and was hailed by Ballet Review as "one of the most beautiful dancers anywhere."
Ms. Fehlandt has staged Mark Morris's work at San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Royal New Zealand Ballet, English National Ballet, Royal Ballet Covent Garden, Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Washington Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf, and at Princeton University, Indiana University, New York University, Rutgers University, Marymount Manhattan College, Barnard College, Juilliard, Long Island University, and the White Oak Dance Project.
Ms. Fehlandt is a full-time Lecturer in the Program in Dance at Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts, where she teaches all levels of Ballet and Modern Dance and supervises multiple dance productions. She continues her association with MMDG teaching company class and as guest faculty at The School teaching Professional/Advanced Ballet.
Hi! My name is Wilson. I was born and raised here in Brooklyn, New York. I've been in the arts for about 12 years now. I play a few instruments. Piano, guitar and some drums are my main instruments. I also enjoy acting and dance!