DANCE EDUCATOR
Dedicated dance educator of 30 years, Michelle Manzanales, is a co-founder of the Latinx Dance Educators Alliance and Director of Ballet Hispánico’s School of Dance in New York City. Ms. Manzanales is committed to creating an environment where all students are inspired to explore movement, feel supported in their individual dance journeys, and draw meaningful connections between dance and their lives.
Manzanales has co-presented for the New York State Dance Educators Association, ARTs + Change, and the National Dance Education Organization conferences, Questioning TODO: A Latinx Inquiry of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, a direct response to the historical and continued exclusion of Latinx contributions and experiences in the dance field.
Founded in 2021, the Latinx Dance Educators Alliance (LXDEA) is a movement, a mobilization of comunidad, that counters dominant, exclusionary practices prevalent in dance pedagogy, curriculum, scholarship, and spaces across the field.
In direct response to the historical and continued erasure of Latinx/e contributions and experiences, LXDEA connects dance educators through the Alliance, provides a curated database of Latinx/e centered resources through the Oasis, and promotes Chicana/Latina feminist practices of plática, testimonio, and convivencia to shape learning experiences for dance educators in community.
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