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Board Officers & At Large Members

Miriam Giguere

Board President

Dr. Giguere directed the dance program at Drexel University from 1992-2015, before becoming Department Head for Performing Arts in 2015. She teaches academic dance classes in 20th Century Dance History, Dance Pedagogy and Dance Criticism and Aesthetics, alongside studio courses in modern dance. Also in this capacity, she directs the Drexel University Dance Ensemble, a 55 dancer company, and FreshDance, a freshmen only company of 35 dancers, both of which perform two professional caliber dance concerts each year at the Mandell Theater.

Dr. Giguere graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania earning both a BA in psychology and an MS in education in four years. She earned her PhD in dance from Temple University, where she was awarded the Emerging Doctoral Scholar award. Her dissertation was recognized nationally by the American Educational Research Association with their 2009 National Dissertation Award for Arts and Learning. Her research has been published in Research in Dance Education, Arts Education Policy Review, Journal of Dance Education, Arts & Learning Journal, International Journal of Education and the Arts, Selected Dance Research Volume 6, and Public Scholarship in Dance. Dr. Giguere was the keynote speaker for Dance Education Conference 2010, Singapore, an invited presenter at the Dance and the Child International conferences in Taiwan in 2012, and in Copenhagen in 2015. She has also served on the board of the National Dance Education Organization. Miriam is an associate editor of the journal Dance Education in Practice where she writes a regular column entitled “Dance Trends”. Dr. Giguere is also a peer reviewer for the Journal of Dance Education, the Journal of Emerging Dance Research and the author of the textbook Beginning Modern Dance, published in 2013 through Human Kinetics.

Monica Frichtel

Board Treasurer and Advocacy Committee Chairperson

Dr. Monica J. Cameron Frichtel graduated with a BA in Dance and a minor in Spanish from the University of California, Irvine. She earned an EdM (with a dual emphasis in culture and education) and a PhD in dance from Temple University, where she was awarded the Promising Dance Educator and Emerging Scholar Awards. Her dissertation research investigated student engagement through critical and phenomenological pedagogical practices. She continues to study teaching and learning in and through dance, with a particular focus on socially-just practices. She regularly presents at the National Dance Education Organization’s conferences, has had work published in the Journal of Dance Education, and has written chapters for several books.

Dr. Frichtel is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance in the Department of Theater and Dance at the University of Delaware. She taught at Temple University from 2005-2023, and has also taught at Rutgers University and Bryn Mawr College. She teaches undergraduate, graduate, and doctorate level courses in teaching, learning, and assessment, as well as classes in dance and diversity, dance in culture and society, and dance as art. She serves as the treasurer and chair of the advocacy committee for the Pennsylvania Dance Education Organization.

Karen Clemente

Board Secretary & Social Justice Committee Co-Chair

Karen Clemente is a Professor of Dance and the Dance Program co-director at Ursinus College. She previously founded and then directed the Eastern University Dance Program for twenty-two years. Additionally, she is on the teaching staff at the Feet First Dance Center in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, where she was the co director for over thirty years. Dr. Clemente has worked with the Pennsylvania State Department of Education in the development of dance curriculum guidelines and academic standards for arts education. Her research interests include: kinesthetic learning across the curriculum; dance improvisation and autobiography; dance and spirituality; and most recently, 1920’s-40’s era jazz and tap dance artists. She has both a master’s and a doctoral degree in Dance Education from Temple University. She was the 2009 Outstanding Dance Educator in Higher Education awarded by the National Dance Education Organization and a 2010 recipient of the Creative Hands and Voices Award by the Neighborhood Interfaith Movement in Philadelphia.

Katie Moore-Derkits

Board Communications Director/p>

Katie Moore is a dance artist and arts administrator. She has attended dance intensives with Burklyn Ballet Theatre, South Carolina Summer Dance Conservatory, LEVY Dance, and T. Lang Dance. She also completed Philadanco's summer training program and was a member of Philadanco's second company, Danco2 (D2). Katie received her BFA in Dance and minor in business studies from Temple University in 2016. At Temple, Katie was elected as the Boyer College of Music and Dance representative for the student board of campus recreation. Katie is also the recipient of the Rose Vernick Scholar Award, the Boyer College Alumni Award, and was elected to Who's Who in American Universities and Colleges. In 2019, she joined the board of the Boyer College Alumni Association. She is currently a member of Emerging Arts Leaders:Philly and has served on grant panels for United Way, The Picasso Project and The Philadelphia Cultural Fund. As well, Katie is a graduate of the Arts + Business Council for Greater Philadelphia's CreativeXchange program and was recently elected as the Communications Director of the Founding Board for Pennsylvania Dance Educators Organization (PaDEO). She is also a part of the Percy St. Project, a community organization dedicated to bringing better infrastructure, visibility and programming to S. Percy St. in South Philadelphia through the power of art. Katie became the Business Development Manager of Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers in 2016 and was promoted to Business Director in August 2018.

Rosemary Battista

Professional Development Committee Chair

Rosemary Battista is the former Director of the Capital Area School for the Arts Charter School Dance Program where she served in that capacity for eighteen years. She is also the former Artistic Director of the Harrisburg Dance Conservatory, and its pre-professional company, the Harrisburg Dance Ensemble. Over the past years, she has been a performer, master teacher, and choreographer in the areas of classical and contemporary ballet, classical jazz, and in particular, modern dance. Due to her strong desire to promote the education of dance, she has provided workshops for independent dance studios, elementary and high school students as well as Magnet Arts Programs. She has also served as an adjunct professor at Harrisburg Area Community College and as an annual judge for Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts. Administratively, she has served on the Board of Directors of Harrisburg Ballet, Regional Dance America Northeast, and the Regional Dance America National Board. She is currently a member of the PADEO Board serving as the Professional Development Chair and also is a member of the Advocacy Committee. She holds a Bachelors of Science degree and teaching certification in the area of Dance from the Pennsylvania State University and has pursued credits toward her Masters degree in education. Ms. Battista’s choreography in ballet and modern dance has been commissioned by professional companies such as Ballet Theatre Pennsylvania, Bravo!Dance, Harrisburg Ballet, and Western Ballet Theatre of Puerto Rico and also has been chosen for performance through Regional Dance America’s Festival adjudication.As a supporter of life long learning through movement, Ms. Battista is dedicated to advancing dance education on all levels.

Antoinette Coward-Gilmore

Social Justice Committee Co-Chair

A native of Philadelphia, PA, Antoinette M. Coward-Gilmore is Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of DANSE4NIA, a performing arts organization that serves as the home to professional, project-based dance company Phoenix Danse, youth dance company Nia-Next and arts education/ performing arts training program Danse4Nia Conservatory. During her youth, Antoinette began her dance training in 1985 at The New Freedom Theatre founded by the late John E. Allen Jr. and the late Robert E. Leslie Sr. and under the dance direction of Patricia Scott Hobbs. She continued her studies at the Franklin Learning Center with Master Lester Horton Technique Teacher, the late Faye B. Snow.

Coward-Gilmore proceeded to hone her skills as a dancer at Pennsylvania Governor’s School of the Arts and in the training program of the Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO.) and was the last generation of the Leon Evans Jaye Allison (LEJA) Dance Theatre Company. Antoinette later earned a BFA in Dance from the University of the Arts and a MA in Dance Education and Performance from the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University. Both institutions graduating with high honors and appearing on the Dean’s List. While attending NYU, Coward-Gilmore toured nationally and internationally with Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Company and was a guest artist with the Rod Rodgers Dance Company.

A founding company member of Philadelphia’s Eleone Dance Theatre, Coward-Gilmore’s other performing credits include lead dancer, dance captain of New Freedom Repertory Theatre for the productions of Black Nativity, Cooley High, Purlie and Lazrus Unstoned, original dancer/ choreographer for Mo Beasley’s Love Stories and Urban Erotica that appeared in legendary theatres and clubs like Don’t Tell Mama, Joe’s Pub, the Cutting Room, Aaron Davis Hall Blackbox Theatre and New Jersey Performing Arts Center, a guest artist with JUBA Dance Theatre, guest artist in Ballethnic’s Leopard Tales, guest artist with Melissa Vaugh’s Shaka Zula and on screen appearances in independent films, commercials and motion pictures.

Coward-Gilmore is a seasoned choreographer who has choreographed for various performing arts organizations, university dance departments, professional theatres and dance companies including University of the Arts, Drexel University Fresh Dance and Dance Ensemble, Coppin State Dance Ensemble, Greer Reed’s Summer Dance Intensive, The Philadelphia Theatre Company, Camden Repertory Theatre, recording artist Kashiash, MIA Academy, Prince Music Theatre’s Rainbow Company/ Youth Arts In Action.

Coward-Gilmore is a certified New York State Dance Educator and former teaching artist for the Kimmel Center of the Performing Arts Dance In Schools Program and Philadelphia Orchestra. Additionally, Antoinette is a seasoned instructor having taught at Harlem School of the Arts, Norfolk State University (as Director of Dance), as well as University of the Arts, Coppin State University, Grambling State University, Temple University, Montgomery County Community College, and Cheyney University.

Currently, Antoinette is Adjunct Faculty in Dance at Drexel University and Pilates, ballet barre, water aerobics instructor at the Ray & Joan Kroc Center Salvation Army. Notably, Antoinette is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the Actor’s Equity Association, Women of Color for the Arts, Dance Scholars Association, the International Association of Blacks In Dance, Collegium of African Dance On The Diaspora, and she serves as co-chair for the Social Justice Committee of the Pennsylvania Dance Education Organization (PaDEO).

A former grant panelist for the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, Philadelphia Cultural Fund and the Philadelphia Arts and Education Partnership, Coward-Gilmore was honored as one of Philadelphia’s Leading Women/ Movers & Shakers in the Arts, recognized as an outstanding artist by the Pennsylvania Pan Hellenic Council and recently awarded the Community Award by the Women of Color of the University of Pennsylvania. Coward-Gilmore was awarded 2nd runner up in the 2021 WURD Black Women Entrepreneur and Leadership Pitch Party, serves on the board of directors of Danse4Nia and is currently a member of the 2022 cohort of doctoral students in dance research of Texas Woman’s University currently standing with a 4.0 grade point average.

Tamara Swank

Membership Committee Co-Chair

Tamara Swank teaches undergraduate dance technique courses as well as dance kinesiology and teaching of dance. TaMara has been teaching dance for over twenty-five years and has developed multiple dance programs. She was the Artistic Director and founder of Studio 22 Performing Arts Center, the founder of SHUDA, the Seton Hill University community dance program and assisted in the development of the Seton Hill dance major and minor. She holds a Master of Science Degree in Exercise Science and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Dance. She has been commissioned to create choreography for children’s programs, high school dance companies, university dance programs and musical theatre productions. TaMara has taught master classes for festivals and conferences including the National and Regional High School Dance Festival and Fete de la Danse summer intensive. As dance faculty at Seton Hill University, she has choreographed more than forty pieces for dance concert productions and musicals. Her choreography has been selected to perform at the Baltimore Dance Invitational – Professional Dance Showcase in Baltimore, Maryland and the 30th Annual Jazz & Tap Festival in Virginia. TaMara also has a list of original works including, “The Seven Deadly Sins” dance concert and “EleMental Revolution”, a dance theatre production produced in collaboration with theatre colleagues. She has published articles in journals such as Dance Education in Practice and Journal of Dance Education. TaMara currently serves as an At Large board member and co-chair of the membership committee for PaDEO, the Pennsylvania Dance Education Organization. Her conference presentations include, Collaborative Culture in Education, in collaboration with education faculty at ACRES National Conference, Tucson, AZ, the Early Childhood Institute Annual Conference, Grove City, PA, and the NDEO National Conferences in Chicago, IL and San Diego, CA.

Joe Nickel

Fundraising Committee Chair

Joe Nickel has been professionally working in the entertainment & dance industry since 2005 as a dancer, educator, and choreographer. As performer and choreographer, he’s worked with Paramount’s Kings Island, Nickelodeon, Busch Gardens, Norwegian Cruise Lines, CD Entertainment in Shanghai, American Eagle Outfitters, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, Value City Furniture, ABC Family, and Netflix on their new series “Archive 81”.

As a dance educator, Joe is fortunate every year to work with dancers of many ages and levels at various studios and dance programs throughout the country. In addition to teaching at multiple community dance studios, Joe currently is an Adjunct Professor at Seton Hill University. He also co-hosts “Joe and Michelle’s Dance Podcast” with former Radio City Rockette, Michelle Tolson, and is the Founder & Creative Director of Thrive Dance Experience, a one day dance convention.

Joe enjoys mentoring young performers and encourages them to use their art form as a vehicle of expression and purpose.

Toni Duncan

NHSDA Liaison

Toni Duncan has a BA in Dance and a BS in Marketing from DeSales University and a MA in Dance Education from the University of Northern Colorado. She has taught at Feet First Dance Center in Phoenixville since 1998, and has been a full time dance faculty member at the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School’s Center for Performing and Fine Arts in West Chester since 2011. She has been thesis editor for the University of Northern Colorado’s MA in Dance Education program since 2017. Toni is an active member of the National Dance Education Organization, participating as a mentor in their teacher mentorship program, serving on several award selection committees, and a 3 time presenter at the National Conference starting in 2017. She has presented original modern dance works at the 2013 and 2015 PA State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, Eastern District Conference. She presented her integrated arts lesson plan What’s Your Angle? Lessons Learned from Mixing Geometry and Dance at the Philadelphia Dance Project’s Dance TAG workshop series in March 2020. Toni is PADEO’s National Honor Society for Dance Arts (NHSDA) liaison and the founding chapter sponsor for NHSDA at the PA Leadership Charter School’s Center for Performing and Fine Arts.

Jillian Harris

At Large Member

An Associate Professor of Dance at Temple University, JILLIAN HARRIS explores the intersections between dance, film, and new technologies. Along with teaching courses at Temple University, Jillian conducts master classes internationally, served on faculty at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), and directed the dance intensive summer program at Temple University Rome (Italy). She most recently presented at the 2023 National Dance Education Organization conference as well as at the Northeast Regional American College Dance Association conference on R.E.A.L. (Relational Embodied Active Learning), a new visual model and method she has created for embodying and transforming material. This model reflects her belief that learning is a creative act, involving problem-solving, choice-making, interpersonal connection, and enhanced awareness. Jillian co-produced Red Earth Calling, winner of the Best Narrative Short award at the 2015 Maui Film Festival, in collaboration with Flying Limbs Inc. She is the co-producer, director, choreographer, and editor for Mud: Bodies of History, a free, interactive dance film website produced in Colombia. Commissions for the stage include a collaboration with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia and with conductor Mitos Andaya. Having had a distinguished performance career as an internationally touring performer with the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company and Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, she continues to choreograph for sites both on and off the stage.

Sanaz Hojreh

At Large Member

Sanaz Hojreh is an independent consultant working in the field of arts education and nonprofit arts management supporting schools, organizations and foundations to envision and achieve their goals. Select projects include, working with the School District of Philadelphia to help implement their arts and creativity framework and their vision of shared delivery with arts partners; Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Arts Integration Project; William and Flora Hewlett Foundation arts education survey; and strategy consultant for the Arts Education Newark (formerly Newark Arts Education Roundtable).

Sanaz held the post of Director for the Newark Arts Education Roundtable (NAER), a collective impact organization designed to increase access and participation in arts education in Newark. While leading the organization she doubled the funds raised, increased engagement, and implemented an NEA grant to develop a common evaluation tool. Prior to her work with the NAER, Ms. Hojreh spent sixteen years at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, including a decade as the Assistant Vice President for Arts Education. She was responsible for leading the Center's arts training programs for youth, as well as the Passport to Culture SchoolTime and FamilyTime Performance Series. During her tenure, these programs served over a million children, families and educators.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers University, Ms. Hojreh earned degrees in Theater Arts and Business and holds a certificate from Columbia University's Emerging Leaders Program.

Frank Machos

At Large Member

Frank Machos serves as Executive Director for the School District of Philadelphia's Office of The Arts & Creative Learning. Originally from Edison New Jersey, he relocated to Philadelphia to attend the University of the Arts where he earned his Bachelor's in Music Composition and Master's in Music Education. Upon graduation, he joined the School District of Philadelphia teaching instrumental music first at Grover Washington Jr. Middle School and later at School of the Future, specializing in instrumental music and focusing on expanding innovation in music education by integrating popular and contemporary music, technology, and college and career skill development. In addition to teaching, a growing interest in partnerships and community development inspired Frank to found Limelight Arts, a community based performing arts non-profit organization focused on developing and supporting artists of all ages, abilities, and interests through culturally relevant arts instruction. Combining these experiences, Frank pursued and earned his Master's in School Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, before transitioning from the classroom to administration to serve as the School District of Philadelphia's Director of Music Education. He later accepted an expanded role as Executive Director, the position he currently holds, overseeing all aspects of Arts education in the district while serving on numerous boards and committees for cultural institutions across the city. Frank is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Creativity from the University of the Arts. Away from the office, he remains active in the Philadelphia music community as a saxophonist, performing with a variety of musicians and performing artists, covering a wide range of musical genres, and enjoys spending time with his wife and two young sons. In 2018, he was inducted into the Hall of Honors of his alma mater John P. Stevens High School, in recognition of his commitment to arts education.

Garamh Kim

Title

At Large Member

Garamh Kim (Ed.M., CMA.) is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Temple University in Dance Department. She received the Edrie Ferdun Emerging Scholar Award (2020), and her dissertation focuses on progressive dance pedagogy in higher education. Her current research interest is in the transformative experience of the teacher and students in relation to assemblage and affect theory in a dance classroom. She considers the dance classroom as an assemblage of class collaborators (teacher, student, accompanists, technologies, classroom environment, and other factors that affect the learning and teaching), and each factor has its own agency to affect each other. She is also interested in phenomenological inquiry to study the lived experience of class participants.

Garamh graduated with a Master’s Degree in Dance Education with PK-12 Dance Teacher Certification (NJ CEAS) from the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. She achieved Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) from the Laban/Bartenieff Institution of Movement Studies. Garamh majored in Dance and minored in Political Science and International Relations from Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea. While in New Zealand, she acquired the Royal Academy of Dance teaching certification.

Garamh currently teaches at Temple University as a Graduate Instructor and Adjunct. She has taught ballet courses (Ballet I, II, III, BodyMind Awareness in Ballet), dance-making courses (Creative Process, Improvisation, Dance Composition), Pilates, and theory classes such as Make Meaning in Dance. As a teaching assistant (TA), she worked in graduate courses such as Dancing Self in Community and Educational Inquiry.

Visit Garamh’s Website: garam266.wixsite.com/garamhkim