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Ms. Kent has restaged Mr. Taylor’s works for dance companies around the world including the Joffrey Ballet, the Bat Dor Company, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, La Scala Opera Ballet, Purchase College and The Juilliard School. She has also restaged works by Alvin Ailey and David Parsons.

Television appearances include several Ailey Specials and five Taylor programs for “Dance in America.” Ms Kent appears in the recent film Ailey, currently showing on American Masters on PBS.

Ms. Kent has taught at the Taylor School since its inception in 1983 as well as Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, University of Illinois, Wake Forest and New York State Summer School of the Arts and Steps. In 1992, Ms. Kent was the first modern dancer invited to teach at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow. From 2001 through its 100th Anniversary season in 2013, she was Director of Dance at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. For P-M’s New Works Festival Ms Kent commissioned original work by Robert Battle, Kyle Abraham, Camille A. Brown, Jessica Lang and Peter Chu among others.

Ms. Kent joined the dance faculty at Juilliard in 1984. In addition, she has taught and choreographed for the Juilliard Summer Dance Program, which she helped found in 1995. She retired from Juilliard in June 2021 as Dance Faculty Emerita. Ms. Kent began teaching at Steps in 2019.

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Class Description
Martha Graham founded, in 1926, what is now the oldest American modern dance company. The unique and enduring technique she developed revolutionized dance, influencing every dancemaker who followed. As it has integrated into the larger dance world, elements of it can be detected in the work of choreographers of all genres. The Graham technique teaches us to go deeply into the core, explore the torso as a primary tool of expression, to move from the inside out, and find greater depth of expression in doing so. In learning to use the pelvis, spine and core to initiate movement, as well as cultivating a deep, three-dimensional use of the back, we develop increasingly greater expressive capacities in our bodies. The movement brings heightened sensitivity and connection to our “inner landscape” as Graham termed it, and ways to manifest this through the body, resulting in deep core strength, greater expansiveness, range of motion, spatial awareness, and the ability of the body to speak with intention, authenticity and power. 

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Originally from Salt Lake City, she holds a BFA in Modern Dance from the University of Utah and grew up dancing in Children’s Dance Theatre at the University of Utah’s Tanner Dance under the direction of MaryAnn Lee. Anne Marie has taught, choreographed, and performed professionally in Utah, Colorado, Massachusetts and New York. Passionate about dance education, she has taught in public schools, as part of community outreach programs, and in-studio settings. Anne Marie is adjunct faculty at NYU Steinhardt and is a member of the current 92NY Harkness Dance Center Alternate Route Dance/Movement Therapy Program cohort.

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STEPHEN PETRONIO (Artistic Director/Choreographer) was born in Newark, New Jersey, and received a BA from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, where he began dancing in 1974. Initially inspired by the dancing of Rudolf Nureyev and Steve Paxton, Petronio was the first male dancer of the Trisha Brown Company (1979 to 1986). He has gone on to build a unique and powerful language of movement in a career than spans over 25 years.

He has received numerous accolades, including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, an American Choreographer Award, and a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award.

He has created over 35 works for his company, and has been commissioned by some of the world’s most prestigious modern and ballet companies, including William Forsythe’s Frankfurt Ballet (1987), Deutsche Oper Berlin (1992), Lyon Opera Ballet (1994), Maggio Danza Florence (1996), Sydney Dance Company (2003, full evening), Norrdans (2006), the Washington Ballet (2007), and The Scottish Ballet (2007).

His company repertory works have been set on The Scottish Ballet, Norrdans in Sweden, Dance Works Rotterdam, National Dance Company of Wales, X Factor Dance Company in Edinburgh, Ballet National de Marseille, Ballet-de-Lorraine, and London Contemporary Dance Theater.

In Spring 2009 Stephen completed an evening-length work, Tragic Love for 30 dancers in collaboration with composer Ryan Lott (aka SON LUX) for Ballet-de-Lorraine. The dance premiered in Montpellier, France June 27, 2009. He completed another new work with Ryan Lott titled By Singing Light, for the National Dance Company of Wales that premiered in Cardiff in October 2010. New projects include The Social Band, a commission for Other Shore Dance Company in New York that premiered on February 10, 2011 at the Historic Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida and Prometheus Bound, a musical for the American Repertory Theater, in collaboration with director Diane Paulus (HAIR), writer and lyricist Steven Sater (Tony award, Spring Awakening) and composer Serj Tankian (Grammy award, lead vocalist “System of a Down”), which had its premiere on March 4, 2011. Stephen is currently working on a memoir with a working title, “Notes from A Life in Motion.”

Class Description

Classes are focused on building a rigorous and intelligent movement practice. Beginning with a warm-up that guides the participants to make a muscular and skeletal connection to their unique physicality, emphasis is placed on the articulation of the spine, the opening of the joints and the direction and flow of energy throughout the body and into space. This preparation is followed by phrases and variations of movement derived from Company Repertory, addressing its unique focus on dynamic sequencing, poly-rhythmic initiations, and a sense of fearlessness within a complex architectural form.

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Ms. Maffei participated in the Beta Group and holds an Inaugural Certification from the Ailey Horton Pedagogy program which launces to the public this summer, 2025.

Ms. Maffei served as the choreographic and teaching assistant to Milton Myers from 1988-98, demonstrating the Horton Technique, teaching, and assisting in setting his work at festivals and companies throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Ms. Maffei has had an extensive performing career dancing in and directing the Maffei Dance Company and the East/West Repertory Ensemble. She performed with Milton Myers Dance Company, the Larry Richardson Dance Company, Soulskin, The New York Ballroom Company in the work of Gary Pierce and Christian Holder, East\West Repertory Dance Ensemble where she appeared in her own work and the works of Milton Myers, Lonne Moretton, Rod Rogers, William Adair, Leni Williams among many others. In 2000 Ms. Maffei premiered a solo choreographed for her by Robert Battle entitled “Infirm” for Maffei Dance Company.

As a choreographer, JoLea Maffei has premiered work at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Theatre of The Riverside Church, the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado, the Clark Studio Theater, The Tribeca Center for the Performing Arts, the Cunningham Studio, and Hofstra University and Steps on Broadway and has participated in showcases throughout NYC. In 1997 she formed Maffei Dance Company which featured her choreography and continues on a project basis.

Originally from Michigan, Ms. Maffei graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance performance from the University of Michigan where she received the Gertrude Heubner Award for excellence in dance.

Class Description
Come and discover why the modern dance technique of Lester Horton is a classic technique uniquely suited for training today’s dancer. Through the study of Horton, strength, flexibility and a balanced body can be attained without imprinting the dancer with a discernable style. In the beginning level class, we will be examining the fundamentals of this powerful technique and using them explore the anatomy, expand flexibility, solidify placement and to move through space. In Advanced/Beginning Level Horton, we focus on exploring studies and fortifications and incorporating them into choreographic phrases both in the center and across the floor. In the Intermediate/Advanced class we will reinforce familiar studies and explore the lesser-known and most challenging elements of the technique with a goal of blending them with other choreographic influences in order to explore how this technique can create a dialogue with a range of dance vocabulary. Musicality will also always be a primary focus as we work in tandem with a live percussionist in every class, every level. For the Beginning level class, no previous experience with the Horton technique is required. I approach every class as an opportunity to create a welcoming dance community!

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Photo: Tracey Allan

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