Recent Past Dance Critics Association Board Members
Lori Ortiz
Carmel Morgan began her dance training in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she became a founding member of the Tennessee Children's Dance Ensemble, the country's only professional modern dance company using artists 8-17 years of age. She toured extensively with the company, performing at such diverse venues as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; the 1985 World's Fair in Tsukuba, Japan; the Piccolo Spoleto Festival; and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. While living in Memphis, Tennessee, she danced with the modern dance collective Project: Motion and also performed with the modern dance improvisation troupe Breeding Ground. In addition, Ms. Morgan served on the board of directors of Dance Works, Inc. (an organization dedicated to providing an affordable, accredited dance education to economically disadvantaged children in Memphis) and the Bravo Leadership Council (a program of the Greater Memphis Arts Council to introduce young professionals to the region's rich cultural offerings and encourage them to actively pursue and support the arts). She began working as a freelance dance critic for Ballet~Dance Magazine, an online publication available on the criticaldance.com website, in February 2007. Since arriving in Washington, D.C., in August 2007, she has become the assistant editor of the local dance journal Bourgeon. When she's not dancing or writing about dance, Ms. Morgan works as an appellate attorney for the U.S. government.
Kena Herod is the dance critic for Montreal's Maisonneuve Magazine, the 2005 winner of "Magazine of the Year" from the National Magazine Awards in Canada. Originally from the United States, she holds a BA in philosophy and literature from Webster University and an MA in English from Washington University in St. Louis. Before entering university, she studied at several dance schools in Texas and also at the Joffrey Ballet School, where she was awarded two full scholarships by the late Robert Joffrey. In 2005, she received a Gary Parks Scholarship for Emerging Dance Writers and later joined the DCA board. Her work has also appeared in Dance International, Dance Magazine, DCA News and online at www.choreme.ca, the first website devoted to dance in Quebec.
Dawn Lille is trained in modern dance, ballet, Labanotation and effort/shape movement analysis. She has been a performer, director, choreographer, teacher, writer and dance historian. She holds a BA from Barnard College, MA's from Columbia and Adelphi and a PhD from New York University. Her articles have appeared in such publications as Ballet Review, Dance Chronicles, Dance Research Journal, Choreography and Dance, and numerous encyclopedias. She has written chapters in several books, most recently Dancing Many Drums, and has published a book, Michel Fokine. She served as head of the graduate program in Dance Research and Reconstruction at City College/CUNY and as Director of Education at the Dance Notation Bureau. She was the researcher and curator for the exhibit "Classic Black" at the Dance Collection of the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and was a researcher for the Popular Balanchine project. She teaches dance history at Juilliard and writes regularly for Art Times.
Joel Lobenthal studied art history at Queens College. He has written on dance since 1983 for Ballet Review, Dance Magazine, Stagebill, Playbill, Quest, The New York Times. Lobenthal is chief dance critic for The New York Sun and assistant editor of Ballet Review. Author of Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties (Abbeville Press, 1990) and Tallulah! The Life and Times of a Leading Lady (ReganBooks, 2004), he has also contributed to Costas Cacaroukas's Balanchine: Exploring a Life in Dance, the Scribner Library of Daily Life's Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, and The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian, Soviet, and Eurasian History, Bruce F. Adams, ed.
Sandra Kurtz teaches and writes about dance in Seattle, WA. She writes regularly for the Seattle Weekly, and occasionally for Dance Magazine and Pointe. Her work has also appeared in DanceView Times, Metropolitan Living, Eastside Week, DanceNet and Interchange. She began dance training with Eve Green at the University of Washington, earning degrees in theater from Reed College, dance criticism from Sarah Lawrence College and movement analysis from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies. She has taught dance history, research practice, notation, repertory and technique at the University of Washington and Cornish College. Sandi helped to found the Northwest Dance Coalition in 1983 and edited its newsletter, Dance Focus. She's served on the board of the Dance Critics Association and edited newsletters for the DCA and the Society of Dance History Scholars.
George Jackson began writing dance criticism for his college newspaper at the U. of Chicago in 1951 because, to misquote the Greek classics, "the unexamined pleasure isn't worth enjoying." Since then he has reviewed for general publications including the Washington Star, The Washington Post, The London Times, dance publications on three continents, and broadcast media. He writes regularly for Ballet Review and www.danceviewtimes.com, serves on the history/criticism faculty of the Silesian Dance Festival/Workshop's summer program in Poland and curated the 2006 Austrian dance festival in Washington, D.C.
Camille LeFevre is a freelance dance critic, arts journalist and editor, whose criticism and essays on the performing arts, music, architecture, design, business and the environment have appeared in such publications as Metropolis, Architectural Record, Audubon, Utne Reader, Dance Magazine, Minnesota Magazine, The Rake and Architecture Minnesota. She's the dance critic for the Star Tribune newspaper, and writes about dance for mnartists.org, Dance Magazine and Pointe Magazine. She's the Arts Editor of Twin Cities METRO, for which she also writes about dance. LeFevre has been researching site-specific dance for more than 15 years, and presents her research at conferences around the country (Society of Dance History Scholars, Congress on Research in Dance, Hawaii International Conference of Arts and Humanities, International Conference on Rivers and Civilization, Popular Culture Association annual conference). She's also a guest lecturer in the University of Minnesota's Dance Department, teaches theater criticism to high-school students, and is a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. Visit her website at camillelefevre.com.
Naima Prevots, Professor Emerita, American University, is the author of three books: Dancing in the Sun, American Pageantry and Dance for Export. She has also written numerous monographs and articles and currently contributes reviews to www.danceviewtimes.com. A recipient of NEA, NEH and Fulbright fellowships, Naima is a Senior Fulbright Specialist. She has also served on panels for the NEA, NEH, NIPAD, the D.C. Commission on the Arts, and the California Commission for the Arts and Humanities and consults for The Washington Ballet and the D.C. Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative. Her chapter for a forthcoming book on Alwin Nikolais will be published by Wesleyan in 2007. Awards include: Metro DC Award (2005) for Outstanding Achievement in Dance Education, Pola Nirenska Award (2001-2) for Lifetime Achievement and CORD (1999) Outstanding Publication for Dance for Export. Naima has served on the boards of ADG, SDHS, CORD and NDEO.
Lisa Traiger has been an arts writer since 1985. Currently she contributes to The Washington Post Weekend section. From 1998-2006, she wrote freelance dance reviews for The Washington Post Style section. Her pieces on the cultural and performing arts appear regularly in the Washington Jewish Week and on www.danceviewtimes.com. She has also written for Dance Magazine, Stagebill, Sondheim Review, Washington City Paper, the Washington Times, Asian Week, the Boston Jewish Advocate, the Atlanta Jewish Times, Intermission, Washington Review and Moment magazine, where she was associate editor from 1989 to 1992. In 2003, Lisa was a New York Times Fellow in the Institute for Dance Criticism at the American Dance Festival in Durham, N.C. A recipient of two Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Arts Criticism from the American Jewish Press Association, in 2004 she earned an M.F.A. in choreography from the University of Maryland, College Park. She has taught at the University of Maryland, College Park and Montgomery College, Rockville. Lisa served on the DCA Board of Directors from 1991-93 and returned to the board in 2005.