Adult Program Head
Faculty, School Administration, The Washington School of Ballet - Northwest Campus, Washington School of Ballet, Adult Program Faculty
With a life commitment to diversity and excellence in concert dance, Miya has been a Producing Executive/Artistic Director, teacher, choreographer, arts and diversity advocate, and urban planner. Since l984, faculty at WSB, under the tutelage of Mary Day; former Director of Dance at Georgetown University, Ballet Mistress at Catholic University, faculty at George Washington University, Joy of Motion Dance Center; in CA, at Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet; Marin Dance Theatre, San Domenico Prep School, East Bay Center for the Performing Arts; and in El Salvador, at La Escuela Nacional de Danza Dance Morena Celarie, former Director of Dance at La Universidad Jose Simeon Canas (La UCA), Founder of El Teatro de Danza Contemporanea de El Salvador (El Salvador’s first professional repertory dance company), and their School, The Center for Leadership and the Arts.
Miya and her company, DC Contemporary Dance Theatre (one of DC’s first multicultural dance companies), served as cultural ambassadors representing the United States for a ten-year world tour sponsored by the State Department and the Sister Cities Cultural Exchange Program. Her work has been presented at The White House/President Obama, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institution, Dance Place, the Central American Olympics, La UNAM/Mexico City, Ministry of Education in El Salvador, the Cleveland Clinic’s Art & Medicine Institute, Santa Clara University, University of San Francisco, Tri Beca Center, among others. As an urban planner, she served on DC’s Mayor’s Task Force for Arts & Economic Development, in the redevelopment of the Gallery Row, and Lincoln Theater-14th St. Arts Districts; a Public Service Fellow to the Maxwell School; an Arts Fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts; and with 35-year track record in local to international arts funding.
Originally trained by Alvin Ailey, Martha Graham, Erick Hawkins, Merce Cunningham, Gloria Contreras, Gene Hill Sagan and Kevin Iega Jeff, with a BA in Urban Studies from Barnard College, and an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Miya is known for her passion and commitment to adult training, for bringing together diverse communities through dance, and her work in social justice and the arts.