KAREN BROWN

Ballet Technique

KAREN BROWN spent 22 years traveling around the world as a principal ballerina, featured artist, master teacher and lecturer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) under the direction of legendary founder, Arthur Mitchell. From the inception DTH’s Kennedy Center Community Outreach Residency in Washington, D.C., she was a master teacher and adjudicator for the groundbreaking and innovative community-focused program. Ms. Brown’s immediate transition from active performer with DTH was to the Director of Education at the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education (ABCDE). Her background as a master teacher includes teaching classes and workshops at colleges, universities and dance schools throughout Eastern and Western Europe, North and Central America, the Pacific Rim, Egypt, and South Africa. Ms. Brown has been certified as an ABT® Teacher in Pre-Primary through Level 7. She is certified in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of the Vaganova Syllabus with John White in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She is also certified in Reinforced Motor Function for Ballet Application (RMF) founded by Sean McLeod and has recently founded the En Pointe Plus Dance Mastery Institute (EPP), a division of Karenina, Inc. (founded in 1997) offering coaching sessions for dancers utilizing new computerized motion analysis technology and accelerated learning techniques. Prior to joining the University of the Arts (UARTS) in Philadelphia as Assistant Professor of Dance (2007 – 2013), Brown served for six years as Artistic Director of Oakland Ballet Company in California (2000 – 2006). 

Throughout her career, Ms. Brown has received numerous awards, including New York Institute of Dance and Education Harriet Tubman Freedom Award in 2010 and the New York Dance and Performance Award or the “New York Dance and Performance Award or The Bessie; for Sustained Achievement in Performance” as a company member with Paradigm, Dance Legends in Concert (NYC) in 2018. She has been an Executive Director for Garth Fagan Dance in Rochester, New York and a Guest Artistic Director of Ballet Wichita in Wichita, Kansas where she and black choreographer Sean McLeod set a new Nutcracker Ballet on the company. In celebration of Juneteenth 2020, Ms. Brown opened the Karen Brown Coaching Studio dedicated to renowned ballet dancer, close friend, former dance colleague and benefactor, the late Mel A. Tomlinson and the studio also honors the legacy of the late DTH founder Arthur Mitchell. In fall 2020, she was hired as a new Assistant Professor of Ballet at the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory.

TRACEY FRANKLIN

Horton Technique

TRACEY FRANKLIN, a Chicago native, began her training at the age of 16 at Joseph Holmes Dance Theater. In 1999 she became a graduate of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Certificate Program. In 2000, Franklin got her first contract as a company member of Dallas Black Dance Theater, where she danced for four years. In 2004 she returned to Chicago and became a company member of Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, where she danced for 12 years. Ms. Franklin was also the Dance Education Director for Deeply Rooted Dance Theater from 2021-2023. Ms. Franklin is currently the Department Head and Horton technique instructor at The Chicago High School for the Arts. 

MICHELLE RAMBO

Hip-Hop Technique

MICHELLE RAMBO’S energetic teaching style has been going for 16 plus years, in the styles of hip hop, jazz/funk and contemporary. She holds bachelor’s degrees in Fine Arts Dance Performance from the University of Central Oklahoma and Kinesiology from East Central University. Michelle has choreographed for the Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre and well-known professional Race Dance Company located in Oklahoma City, OK. She has taught at the American College Dance Association at Southeast Missouri State University and Anderson Indiana University. She is the Director of The Dance Effect assistant program plus instructor with The Dance Effect Intensive/competition organization. Michelle teaches at numerous dance studios in the OKC area and has taught consecutive years for the professional Dallas Black Dance Theatre Summer Intensive in Dallas, Texas. Michelle’s talents have been showcased during the pre-game performance for the Oklahoma City Thunder and at Disney World in Orlando, Florida and countless other stages. Currently, Michelle has been focused on teaching, traveling and judging for several dance competitions. She continues to spread her energy, knowledge and her love for teaching master classes to everyone who appreciates the art of dance.

ZACH LAW INGRAM

Jazz Technique

ZACH LAW INGRAM is from Miami, Florida where he graduated from New World School of the Arts. He is a National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts (NFAA) Gold medalist and U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Ingram trained with The Ailey School, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Miami City Ballet, to name a few. Ingram went on to join Alvin Ailey’s second company (Ailey II), and soon became a founding member of Space T.U. Embrace project. Ingram has danced with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Armitage Gone! Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Lion King Las Vegas, Lion King on Broadway, and Walt Disney World’s Festival of the Lion King. He has performed works by Alvin Ailey, Dwight Rhoden, Alonzo King, Martha Graham, Judith Jamison, Twyla Tharp, Karole Armitage, Earl Mosley, Troy Powell, and Peter London.

An innovator and choreographer, Zach has set works on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Lion King Las Vegas, Ballet Noir, Dance Black Dance Theatre II and numerous dance studios throughout the nation. He began his own company, 6 o’Clock Dance Theatre, a non -for profit organization, were he serves as founding and Artistic Director of 6DT, since in January of 2014- present, based in the heart Dallas, TX.

During the 2021-2022 academic year Zach will be teaching dance classes at Southern Methodist University, including men’s class, partnering and advanced ballet. He will also be setting a new work on the students there in Spring 2022.

T. AYO ALSTON

West African Technique

T. AYO ALSTON teaches and practices a signature theatrical style of West African drum and dance culture that captures the strength and power of women and community.

 Ayo is the Founder, Executive Director, composer, choreographer and playwright of Ayodele Drum and Dance, a performance training organization created for women to affirm their self-confidence and strength. Through Ayodele, Ayo produces and presents annual sold-out concerts, dance conferences, collaborative workshops, lectures, community classes, young women’s rites of passage programs and a host of other community engagement initiatives.

 She has performed, educated, fostered community, and created artistic work from a foundation of traditional African cultures fused with contemporary dance styles. This 2018 3Arts and 2022 USA Artists Fellowship Awardee prides her queered, afro-diasporic work in cultivating supportive and healthy communities.

 Ayo serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia College Chicago and dance faculty at Chicago High School of the Arts, where she is codifying and building the voice of African dance in the world of academia. She also has developed dance curriculum that are thriving in prestigious Chicago schools, such as Jones College Prep and Walter Payton College Prep.

Ayo is skilled playing the d’jembe and dundun drums; flaunting her unique DunDance Style. Ayo also composes music on African instruments, such as the Kalimba, Balaphone and Krin drums, resulting in her role as an actress and composer/musician for Meis Julie at Victory Gardens Theater and for The Lion King JR. musical in Illinois.

 Throughout her career Ayo has taught, choreographed, and performed at schools and universities locally and nationally, in African and Brazilian countries, as an independent artist with companies and organizations, such as Dance Africa, Drum Cafe West, Ballet Bagatai of Guinea, Les Amazons de Guinee, and Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago.

 Ayo is a Level II certified ASA! fitness instructor, full of vibrant colorful energy, sharing her artistic experience with others. As Ayo passes on her artistic experience and excellence to others, she honors, respects, and expresses gratitude for her own teachers, Ancestors and those who have blessed and supported her path.