At the helm for 38 years, Nan’s leadership of Giordano Dance Chicago began in 1985 as Associate Director, and in 1993 was appointed the title of Artistic Director.  Nan was trained by her father and mentor, Gus Giordano, who created the world-renowned Giordano Technique.  Developer of the Nan Giordano Certification Program®, Nan is the world’s preeminent authority on the essence, discipline, progression, and continuance of the Giordano Technique; the vision of the NGCP® is to provide worldwide, ongoing, and in-depth access to this ground-breaking dance form.

Heather Beal (Dunham Instructor), received her B.A. in dance from Columbia College Chicago and her MFA in dance from Washington University in St. Louis.  She is a certified Dunham Technique Instructor and was a principal dancer with the Katherine Dunham Museum Children’s Workshop Performance Company from the age of six into young adulthood. She performed with the company around the United States and France. She has also performed in many productions at The Black Rep and several productions at the St. Louis MUNY.  Her Black Rep credits include Nina Simone: Four Woman, Purlie, The Me Nobody Knows, Le Freak C’est Chic, DreamGirls. Theatre credits include Ghost (Metro Theatre), and Feeding Beatrice (The Rep). College credits include: For Colored Girls… (Washington University), Little Shop of Horrors and First Date (University of Southern Indiana).  She is best known for her work #triggerwarning and Black AF, a dance critique of police brutality against Black folx in America.

Starinah “Star” Dixon is an assistant director, choreographer, and original principal dancer of world-renowned tap company, M.A.D.D. Rhythms. She has taught and performed at the most distinguished tap festivals in the country including The L.A. Tap Fest, DC Tap Fest, RIFF Dallas, Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s Rhythm World, and MADD Rhythms own Chicago Tap Summit. She’s performed internationally in Poland, Japan, and Brazil to name a few. Performance venues include Jacob’s Pillow, Kennedy Center, and the Lincoln Center. Outside of M.A.D.D. Rhythms, she’s performed as a guest with such companies as Michelle Dorrance’s Dorrance Dance and Savion Glover’s All Funk’d Up. Star is currently on staff at numerous dance studios in and around Chicago.

The daughter of two great flamenco artists, Carmen Mora and Mario Maya, Belen began her dance studies at the studios AMOR DE DIOS in Madrid. Her training in classical dance has been with Rosa Naranjo and Juana Taft. In classical Spanish dance, she has studied under Maria Magdalena, Paco Romero and Jose Antonio. In the areas of jazz and contemporary dance she has studied with Goyo Montero, Teresa Nieto, and the Alvin Ailey dance company in New York. Her flamenco teachers have included Paco Fernandez, Manolete, La Tati, El Gueito, Carmen Cortes, La Tona, and many others. Later she entered the School of the Spanish National Ballet directed at that time by Maria de Avila. After a year she decided to relocate to Seville in order to focus on flamenco. She joined the Mario Maya Company where within three years she went from being a member of the ensemble to becoming the principal dancer and repetiteur of the company. Meanwhile, she also gained experience in the tablaos of Seville, LOS GALLOS and EL PATIO. Belen left the Mario Maya Company to form her own and spent six months in Tokyo at the tablao FLAMENCO of Tokyo, together with other important artists including Yolanda Heredia, Rafael Jimenez Falo, Jesus Torres, and Alejandro Granados. Upon returning from Japan, she became the principal for the Dance Company of Andalucia. She was invited by Carlos Saura to represent the new generation of flamenco in his world-renowned film FLAMENCO. Belen’s performance in this film would become a milestone in flamenco dance as interpreted by women, opening new avenues in terms of concept, musicality, movement, and costuming. In 1996, she again formed her own company with its first production being The Goddess Within Us, with Teresa Nieto as choreographer and Emilio de Diego as musical director. The company was composed entirely of bailaoras: Yolanda Heredia, Teresa Nieto, Rafaela Carrasco, and Isabel Bayon.

CU Boulder Associate Professor Donna Mejia is the Inaugural Chancellor’s Scholar of Health and Wellness for the Crown Wellness Institute, and a member of the Theatre & Dance Department. She is also affiliate faculty for Women & Gender Studies, Ethnic Studies, and the Center for Teaching & Learning. She is the first tenured faculty globally for Transcultural Fusion Dance (TcFD), a hybrid tradition that dialogs dances of the African and Arab Diasporas with American Hip Hop and Contemporary Dance. Her 40 years of study in ethnography, yoga, meditation and somatic studies continue to be central in all that she does. This interdisciplinary work and her performances, approached through the vantage point of her multi-heritage identity, have inspired connections to many astonishing people and fields of study, taken her around the world for solo performances, instigated a life-long devotion to learning, and inspired her efforts towards upliftment of others through education. Although she has enjoyed strong artistic success, she is most proud of how her community talks, writings, performances, and advocacy work in TcFD created a cascade of decolonization actions and language in the genre. As a Crown Institute faculty fellow, she serves as Faculty Director of research programs focusing on embodiment and trauma-informed somatic additions to programming, cultural retentions and innovations, intersectionality, anti-bias and anti-racism efforts, gender equity, healing and well-being through the arts. 

M. Sheron Trotman is a tutor, choreographer, and professional artiste and is the founder, Artistic Director and Principal of Dance Strides Barbados. She was trained at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, New York. In her teenage years, she worked with Dr. Pearl Primus and started studying the Primus technique. In 1993 she worked with Dr. Sherrill Berryman-Johnson developing the dance program at Howard University and performed with Dr. Johnson’s company, Images of Cultural Artistry Inc. Also, in 1993, she started teaching the Primus technique to students at Howard University and American University. Her classes extended to dance artists and community groups in the DC area and surrounding districts. She was co-administrator on the Pearl E. Primus Video Documentation with Dr. Johnson. Ms. Trotman continues to teach the Primus technique to this day.

Elizabeth “Liza” Yntema, the Founder & President of Dance Data Project™, has been an advocate for women for decades. From Michigan Law School, where she received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Social Justice, to Volunteer of the Year at the Junior League of Chicago’s 75th Anniversary for bi partisan passage of a resolution in the Illinois General Assembly recognizing homelessness as a family issue disproportionately affecting women and children,  Ms. Yntema has devoted herself to making the lives of women & girls better.

Tracy’s unconventional career as a long-time business journalist and former anchor and reporter for FOX News and FOX Business Network serendipitously led her to her current role as a financial advisor. The diversity of people she has met over the years has provided her with insight, experience and a true ability to translate complex concepts into straightforward advice. By helping her clients build a solid financial infrastructure, Tracy can help her clients pursue their goals and plan confidently for the future.