Future Dancers and Dancemakers Workshop

Pamela Pietro is an Independent Artist and Educator. She received her BFA/Dance from Florida State University and her MFA/Dance with a minor in Biomedical Ethics from University of Washington. She is an Associate Arts Professor and Associate Chair at New York University Tisch School for the Arts, Department of Dance where she received the prestigious David Payne-Carter Award for Teaching Excellence in 2012/2013. She is Director of Tisch Dance Summer Residency Festival, Tisch Dance in Berlin Program, and Future Dancers and Dancemakers. Pamela was on the faculty at the American Dance Festival from 1997-2016. As a dancer and performer, she has worked with Gerri Houlihan and Dancers; Anthony Morgan Dance Company; Michael Foley Dance; RaceDance; bopi’s black sheep/dances, Mark Haim; and Jennifer Nugent. She has international exposure throughout Asia and Europe for both her teaching and solo performance work. She was nominated for and served on the Bessie Awards Search Committee for 2019-2021. Pamela was a gold medal winner at the Asiagraph Video/Choreography competition in Shanghai, China. She has presented original research at the Hawaiian Arts and Humanities Conference in Waikiki and at an ACM Multimedia Conference in Santa Barbara. Her choreography has been presented both nationally and internationally – by Danspace Food For Thought, Danspace Draftworks, 92nd Street Y Fridays at Noon, Dance New Amsterdam, Triskelion Arts, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange in New York; Sarasota Contemporary Dance Company in Sarasota, Florida; Momentum Danza Company in Panama; dulcedanceco in Phoenix AZ; James Madison University in Virginia; La Salle Academy in Singapore; ASWARA Dance in Malaysia; Dance RoundTable in Taipai, Taiwan; The New Beijing Dance Festival in Beijing; collaboration with artist Rui Huang; and JD Festival in Korea. Pamela is a certified Pilates and movement specialist and has spent over 10 years in close collaboration with Neuroanatomist Irene Dowd.

Renee Redding Jones received her Bachelor of Science degree from Morgan State University as a Physical Education major, minoring in Dance. She continued her studies in dance at Sarah Lawrence College where she received the degree of Master of Fine Arts. As a professional dancer Renee performed nationally and internationally, with David Rousseve, Cynthia Oilver, Bebe Miller and Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, winning a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award as a featured performer in Brown’s company. In addition to dancing in the company, Renee also served as Associate Artistic Director for Evidence. Redding Jones has taught at various colleges and universities across the country, including Sarah Lawrence College and NYU/Tisch as an Assistant Arts Professor. Most recently she returned to the Drama Department at NYU/Tisch as an Adjunct Professor and continues her tenure at Atlantic Theater School where she has been on faculty since 1997. Renee is a meditation teacher, Laban/Barteneiff Certified Movement Analyst, a 200 hour Registered Yoga Teacher, an Integrated Energy Therapist, Reiki Master Teacher and a Contemplative Psychotherapist through the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science. Renee also serves as Director of Finance and Development for Black Dance Stories, a weekly YouTube series.

Jessica Mantell (she/her) is an alumna of the Academy for Visual & Performing Arts (Morris County, NJ) and received her BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts (New York, NY). Jessica's role in the arts community ranges among performance, education, administration, and event production. She has had the pleasure of learning from and contributing to the dance works of Charlotte Boye-Christensen, Ruth Clark, Randy James, Omni Kitts Ferrara, Pamela Pietro, Crystal Pite, Renee Redding Jones, Donna Scro Samori, Kensaku Shinohara, and Indah Walsh, among many others. Since 2015, Jessica has been the Program Administrator for NYU Tisch Future Dancers & Dancemakers Workshop. She has taught dance and movement classes for various communities in the tri-state area. As an arts administrator/producer, Jessica has been in creative collaboration with Dance Films Association/Dance on Camera Festival (New York, NY), Freespace Dance (Montclair, NJ), Healing Arts Initiative (Long Island City, NY), Indah Walsh Dance Company (New York, NY), Peridance Capezio Center/Peridance Contemporary Dance Company (New York, NY), project: Smith & Peluso (Jersey City, NJ), and The Power Within Healing (Parlin, NJ). While a student at NYU Tisch, she worked as a Student Ambassador, Administrative Work-Study, and she received a Media Fellowship from Tisch Dance & New Media. Since 2016, she has been serving the NYU Tisch Community as the Events Manager in the Office of the Dean. In 2020, she became a member of NYU Silver School of Social Work’s inaugural ONRAMP cohort, beginning her work towards her MSW. She is an RYT-200 student through the Yoga & Ayurveda Center.