2026 EMBODIED DECISION-MAKING THINK TANK: PARTICIPANTS
Organizer: JoAnna Mendl Shaw, The Equus Projects
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JOAN BRADFORD
Joan Bradford is a choreographer, dancer, arts administrator, and teaching artist proudly born, raised, and still residing in The Bronx. Joan earned her BFA in Dance and minor in Theatre from Long Island University with awards in choreographic achievement and has since collaborated with Sydnie L. Mosley Dances, Alexandra Beller, Alethea Pace, MizantyMoves Dance Works, liryan movement, KamrDANCE, Praevado Dance Collective, and Mise en Danse throughout the tri-state and in residencies through Temple University, Penn State, Wilson College, Middlebury College, Dance Place, Double Edge, The Iron Factory, Gibney Dance, and Lincoln Center. Joan has shared her choreography at venues including Symphony Space, Triskelion Arts, Socrates Sculpture Park, Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture, Hunter College's Kaye Playhouse, The Old First Reformed Church, Atlas Studios, The Ritz Theater, Arts on Site, The Tilles Center, Pepatián: Bronx Arts ColLABorative, BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance) and The Knockdown Center. Joan has completed choreographic residencies with Lost Dog Dance Theatre in Lewes, England, with the Dancing Futures Residency presented by Pepatián and BAAD! under the mentorship of Sydnie L. Mosley and Alexandra Beller,and was a Fellow with the University Settlement’s Performance Project. Currently, Joan is a Wildlife Theater Performer The Wildlife Conservation Society at The Bronx Zoo, Co-chair of the Dance/NYC Junior Committee, Teaching Artist with the Bronx House Weinberg Senior Center, and Bronx Dance Fund Grantee. Joanbradford.com
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ROBIN COLLEN
Robin Collen (PhD, MS, CMA) is completing her 26th and final year on the faculty at SUNY Potsdam where she has served as the chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance and Associate Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. During her tenure she has taught modern dance, ballet, dance history, Pilates, yoga, improvisation, choreography, Laban Movement Analysis, and pedagogy. As a member of the New York State DanceForce she has been funded to support NY artists in dance residencies since 2013. Since 2015 she has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Dance Education where a recent endeavor was editing a special issue titled Mental, Emotional, and Physical Health and Wellness of Dancers https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15290824.2023.2233394. Robin is investigating next steps after retirement and plans to continue her study, practice, and teaching of yoga.
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JOEY COLUMBUS
Joey began his dance training in the Chicagoland area with Forum Dance Theatre under the direction of Eddy Ocampo. In 2016, he graduated from The Alvin Ailey/Fordham University BFA program with honors. During the summer months, Joey studied on scholarship at The School at Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Program, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and Springboard Danse Montreal. Upon graduation, he joined RIOULT Dance NY where he toured domestically and internationally. He has performed as a soloist for Company XIV in their productions of Queen of Hearts and Nutcracker Rouge, directed by Austin McCormick. He has been a member of The Metropolitan Opera’s Ballet Company since 2017 and continues to perform in several notable operas such as Aida, Samson et Dalila, and Don Giovanni. Joey joined the Limón Dance Company in 2019 and performs soloist roles in the repertory including the Burden Bearer in Psalm and Orpheus in Orfeo, among others. While in the company, he has performed works by acclaimed choreographers such as Aszure Barton, Kayla Farrish, Kate Weare, and Raúl Tamez. Joey has performed at Vail International Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, American Dance Festival, and the esteemed Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. He is currently a teaching artist for the Limón Institute.
GRACE COOPER
Grace Cooper (she/her) is an NYC based dancer and interdisciplinary artist. She holds a BA in Dance and English from Colorado State University. She is a company member with The Equus Projects and Alpine Artist Collective. She has also performed with HOLDTIGHT, IMPACT Dance Company, and Control Group Productions. Her work is deeply engaged with her identity as a queer woman, and the position of the self within the human and more-than-human world.
SHANA CORRADA
A dancer/teacher/choreographer/director) , Corrada is a graduate of the University of South Florida Dance Department, trained at Alvin Ailey and with Joe Goode Dance Theatre, San Francisco. Her teaching primarily is in the magnet school system, where she was the first middle school teacher to complete the ABT® National Training Curriculum Certified Teacher Program, Primary through Professional (Level 7). She has taught and choreographed for lorida Atlantic University, University of Tampa, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg College, Patel Conservatory and Blake Performing Arts High School kept her in communication with educators at all levels of training. She co wrote the state tests for dance in the public school system including Middle School Dance Final Exams and Ballet 1, High School Final Exam and was instrumental in the creation of Race to the Top (RTTT) Art Assessments for the State of Florida. She is the founder and director of DANCE RISING TAMPA. Her passions include riding. As an equestrian, she schools her own German Riding Pony, Cornelius, in dressage. She is a regular equestrian competitor.
SARAH FRANCE
Sarah France is a multi-disciplinary artist from Pittsburgh, PA who has extended her lifelong fascinations with movement and creativity into working as a professional figure skater, dancer, choreographer, aerialist, visual artist, author and musician. She attended the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Minneapolis, MN where she studied visual arts and dance, and holds undergraduate degrees in art history and biochemistry from Augsburg College and the University of Minnesota. She began dancing at age three, eventually studying and performing with Ballet Arts Minnesota, Minnesota Dance Theatre, Jawaahir Dance Company and Zenon Dance Company. A figure skater since age eleven, Sarah is a US Figure Skating triple gold medalist in ice dancing and skating skills, six time US Open Professional Figure Skating Championships competitor, and is internationally regarded for her deep knowledge of skating skill development and choreography. Sarah currently serves as the director of outreach, a professional ensemble performer, master edge class instructor and choreographer for the Ice Theatre of New York. She began dancing with The Equus Projects in 2024.
JENNY GREENOUGH
Jenny-Marie Greenough, LAc, RYT. Jenny-Marie is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and spent the first part of her professional career as an officer in the Navy and then as a Program Manager for the Naval Sea Systems Command. She returned to school to study acupuncture
And is a graduate of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine with an M.S. Traditional Oriental Medicine and a Licensed Acupuncturist.
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MATT HENLEY
matthew.henley@tc.columbia.edu
Matthew Henley, PhD, MFA is Associate Professor of Dance Education and Affiliated Researcher in the Arnhold Institute for Dance Education Research, Policy & Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. Henley’s research describes and measures the cognitive, social, and emotional practices associated with dance education. Henley's interests include enactive cognition in the arts, developmental and neuroscientific approaches to embodied knowing, research methods for pedagogy, and the pedagogy of research methods. Henley danced professionally in New York City with Sean Curran Company and Randy James Dance Works. Henley earned his doctorate in Educational Psychology: Learning Sciences from the University of Washington, and M.F.A. in Dance from the same institution. He is an Associate Editor of Journal of Dance Education and the co-editor of Dance Research Methodologies: Ethics, Orientations, and Practices.
Scholarly Interests: embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive approaches to cognition in dance; dance as a cultural technology for developing situated ways of being and thinking;kinetic research methods; and pedagogy of research methods
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JESS MICHAL
Jessica Michal is a dance artist based in the New York/New Jersey. She earned her BFA in Dance Performance from Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts in May 2021. Jess works is the movement director of 530DancePhotography, co-produces the interdisciplinary collaborative music and dance festival known as When Waves Collide and teaches dance and yoga at numerous local studios in Central NJ. Jess started as a company member with The Equus Projects in 2022
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ROBERTA SAMET
Roberta Samet, she/her, lives in Brooklyn, on Lenape land. She is a long time dancer, psychotherapist, practitioner of Maitri Breathwork and an anti racist organizer. She originally studied dance with Alwin Nikolais/Murray Lewis and Charles Moore in New York City and performed with Tuffy Finley in San Francisco. She is currently performing with The Equus Projects and Alma Dance Company.
HANNAH SWARDON
Hannah Schwadron (MFA, PhD) is Associate Professor of Dance at Florida State University where she teaches the cultural politics of performance and directs the Arts in NYC domestic study semester program. Schwadron is author of The Case of the Sexy Jewess: Dance, Gender, and Jewish Joke-work in US Pop Culture (OUP, 2018 and winner of the de la Torre prize for best first book), and essays in Shofar, Liminalities, PARtake Journal, Choreographic Practices, Dancer Citizen, International Journal of Screendance, American Perspectives in Dance, and Oxford Handbooks of Jewishness and Dance, Dance and Politics, and Dance and Music. Her recent co-edited volume with Marta E. Savigliano entitled Funny Moves: Dance Humor Politics (OUP 2025) broadens the resistive scope of dance humor modes in ten original essays from Pakistan, Argentina, Germany, Trinidad, and the US/Mexico border. She is Artistic Director of Structures for Change, a direct-action dance, song, and story ensemble most recently offering improvisation and performance workshops at the Leon County Youth Detention Center, and co-founder of the Tallahassee Bail Fund which pays bail for people who cannot afford it and moves in partnership with them and their loved ones to plug into needed services upon release. She serves as President Elect of Dance Studies Association with whom she has been coordinating programming in defense of academic freedom while working to support the organization's members facing the most precarity whether because of contingent status or outright censorship of research and teaching content.
MADELYN WANSONG
Madelyn Wansong (she/her) is a New York City based dancer/artist. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Madelyn began her dance training at Dance Project and continued as a pre-professional company member with Center of Creative Arts (COCA). In May 2022, she received a BFA in Dance from University of the Arts (UArts) under the direction of Donna Faye Burchfield. While at UArts, she had the opportunity to perform works by Doug Varone, Merce Cunningham, Jordan Lloyd, and Kim Bears-Bailey. Now freelancing in New York, she is currently a company member with Alessandra Corona Performing Works and has performed works by Jelani Taylor, Mystical Feet Company, John Passafiume, and Augie Sherman. Madelyn joined Equus Project in 2024.