Who is NDEO? Getting to Know NDEO Members
Why is NDEO membership important?
NDEO is often described as an organization 鈥渇or the members, by the members.鈥� As a membership organization, we rely on revenue from member dues to help support our advocacy work and provide the infrastructure we need to keep the organization running. We rely on our members to work with the staff to provide leadership and service that helps us fulfill our mission to advance dance education for all people. Most importantly, a strong member base is a signal to donors, funding organizations, legislatures, partners, and other stakeholders that our cause is important and our work is valued.
Who are NDEO members?
NDEO members are dance educators, dance artists, administrators, college dance students, professionals, and advocates working in diverse environments. They represent dance studios, K-12 education, professional preparation programs, performing arts organizations and academies, professional dance companies, college and university dance programs, and cultural and community programs. They collectively teach, create, and perform all genres of dance. NDEO members are diverse in age, gender, socioeconomic status, ability, and ethnicity and live in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and throughout the international community. With diverse backgrounds and interests, NDEO members create a rich community of individuals and institutions dedicated to advancing dance education centered in the arts.
Getting to know some NDEO members
In this blog series, we will be sharing updates from NDEO members about their work, practices, and accomplishments. These members replied to NDEO鈥檚 call for submissions in early 2025. Each month, we plan to share another blog post introducing more members. Five members are featured in this post: Grace Johnson-Wright, Annabelle Lenzu, Mark DeGarmo, Miranda Rubio Opsal, Tara Miller, and Olga A. Berest.
Grace Johnson-Wright
Neema Dance Collective is proud to announce the acquisition of a state-of-the-art, 16,000-square-foot facility in the heart of Ritchie Station Marketplace, marking a groundbreaking achievement in the local arts and culture scene. With this expansion, Neema Dance Collective has made history, becoming the largest Black-owned and woman-owned dance facility in Prince George's County. This historic milestone comes on the final day of Black History Month and at the dawn of Women's History Month, a powerful reminder of the resilience, strength, and creativity of Black women. Neema Dance Collective's new space will serve as a cultural hub, offering expanded resources, programming, and opportunities for dancers of all backgrounds, while continuing to empower underrepresented communities in the world of performing arts. - Grace Johnson-Wright (pictured left), Chief Executive Officer/Artistic Director, Neema Dance Collective
Annabelle Lenzu
After 11 years in the making...I am ready to share my new book with the world Teaching and Learning Dance Through Meaningful Gestures. It is the crystallization of all that I've learned and taught through experimentation. It is what I consider essential in the training of a performer as well as a dancer, and how to teach movement and dance, distilled over 35 years as dance teacher, scholar, and pedagogue across 3 continents. Teaching and Learning Dance Through Meaningful Gestures as a companion to my first book, Unveiling Motion and Emotion. My first book was a memoir in which I shared my experiences as a dance artist. Teaching and Learning Dance Through Meaningful Gestures is a deeper exploration of training and artistic realization. Teaching and Learning Dance Through Meaningful Gestures explores how technique is a philosophy and a theory, and how the body is an instrument for expression. - Annabelle Lenzu (pictured right), Adjunct Professor, NYU Gallatin, NY
Mark DeGarmo
At Mark DeGarmo Dance, our Partnerships in Literacy Through Dance and Creativity program integrates transformative dance and literacy with classroom curricula. One study showed 鈥渟tatistically significant鈥� increases in participants鈥� state reading test scores. One of our teaching artists recently saw proof of this firsthand at an elementary school in the Bronx. Callie Hatchett, an MDD teaching artist, introduces a new vocabulary word at the beginning of each class and uses movement activities to help students embody and understand it. She spends two lessons reinforcing each word before introducing a new one. Recently, Callie saw the impact of her teaching when a classroom co-teacher shared the results of an ELA simulation test. The 5th-grade class, who had been learning the word "improvising" through dance, scored 70.5% on a question about the word's meaning, compared to another class鈥檚 35%- underscoring the multidimensional impacts of dance education on student understanding and achievement. - Mark DeGarmo, Founder, Executive & Artistic Director, Mark DeGarmo Dance
Miranda Rubio Opsal
We just guided our student body through their first fully student produced show in a theater. This show was presented in partnership with the Logan Center. As a dance educator me and my peers were able to mentor our students to choreograph, schedule, costume, light, market, and stage a full show! It was an incredible opportunity for the students to get hands-on experience seeing how to make a show happen and get involved with the bigger picture of performance as more than just a dancer on stage. - Miranda Rubio Opsal, School Principal, Ballet 5:8 NFP
Tara Miller
My dance class and Dance Club performed in our first Fall Semester Dance Invitational. We invited all the cultural clubs to come and perform. The Polynesian Club and the BASU (Black African Student Union) Performed. It was an event that helps to open the door for dance on our campus. - Tara Miller, Dance and Art Teacher, Hayward High School, CA
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Olga A. Berest
Dance for Joy, an Outreach Program at the Berest Dance Center, entered its 5th year in 2025-26. It is supporting over 10 families with full time tuition, attire, costumes, and tickets to performances. Dance for Joy began in 2021 as an initiative created by Michelle Wasserman, an advanced dancer at the Berest Dance Center. This free, 10-week program was designed for children aged 8鈥�12 who could not afford dance classes. In that first season, 80% of the participating children in Port Washington, Long Island鈥攁 town where 13.5% of the population is Latino鈥攚ere from Latino families. Michelle, under my guidance, initially taught the program herself. Since graduating, Michelle鈥檚 vision has evolved into a thriving 36-week scholarship program. The original cohort of 10 students has remained with the program for four years, achieving remarkable progress, and they are now joined annually by new participants. Many graduates of Dance for Joy return as mentors. The transformative power of dance is evident and reaffirms that, when you dance, nothing else matters鈥攊t鈥檚 all about the joy and the shared passion for movement. - Olga A. Berest, Owner and Director of Berest Dance Center, NY
Join the community - become an NDEO member!
Are you ready to join the NDEO community? We are ready to welcome you! Join dance educators, dance artists, administrators, college dance students, professionals, and advocates working in dance studios, K-12 education, professional preparation programs, performing arts organizations and academies, professional dance companies, college and university dance programs, and cultural and community programs. Our community is made up of members who are diverse in age, gender, socioeconomic status, ability, and ethnicity who are teaching, creating, and performing all genres of dance. We believe that our community is made better through diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and interests - including yours! Visit our Membership page to learn more and sign up today!
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麻豆视频直播 NDEO鈥檚 Dance Education Blog听
The 鈥淒ance Education鈥� blog is brought to you by The National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), a thriving non-profit membership organization that supports YOU as a dance educator! NDEO works with and for dance educators of all backgrounds and in every setting and genre. We work for equitable and accessible dance education for all through advocacy, research, and support for the dance educators who are making a difference for their students. As a membership organization, we rely on dance educators like YOU to join us in this important work! When you become a member of NDEO, you align yourself with our vision of dance education for all. We invite you to become a part of our vibrant community that offers support, resources, advocacy, and research you need to make a difference for yourself and make an impact on our field. Now more than ever, we need to come together to celebrate and share the dynamic, affirming, community-building, transformative power of dance. Join the movement - become a member of NDEO today!
Photo credits: Grace Johnson Wright by Rodney Rice, Anabella Lenzu by Todd Carroll, Photo courtesy of Mark DeGarmo Dance, Miranda Rubio Opsal by Karina Metts, Photo by Tara Miller, Photo by Olga Berest