Miya Hisaka Silva

As producer, director, teacher, dancer, choreographer, arts educator and city planner, Miya Hisaka has worked in El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, France, Italy, England, Jordan, Thailand, China, Canada and throughout the United States.  She is the former Founder/Director of the DC Contemporary Dance Theater, Washington's first multicultural dance company.  The Theater was selected to serve as cultural ambassadors representing the United States to the world for over a decade sponsored by USIS and the Sister Cities Cultural Exchange Program. Her work has been commissioned by the Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institution, Dance Place, The International Human Rights Festival and the Central American and Caribbean Olympic Committee. She was originally trained by Alvin Ailey, Martha Graham, Eric Hawkins and Merce Cunningham, Gloria Contreras, Gene Hill Sagan and Alex Martin. Later, she worked intensely with Rod Rodgers, Jason Taylor,  Kevin Jeff, Lloyd Whitmore, Adrain Bolton among others.  Ms. Hisaka holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Columbia University and an M.P.A. from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs/Syracuse University.  She served on Washington, D.C. Mayor's Task Force for Arts and Economic Development; as a Public Service Fellow to the Maxwell School; as an Arts Fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts; and is the recipient of five NEA and seven D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities grant awards.  She is also the recipient of the Washington, D.C. Mayor's Arts Award in 1986, and the Latin American Cultural Center/Ministry of Education of El Salvador's Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2003.  Ms. Hisaka is former faculty at the Washington School of Ballet, George Washington University, New York University, University of Toronto, and for over a decade in El Salvador at the National School of Dance "Morena Celarie", former Director of the dance program at the Central American University José Simeón Cañas, and creator of El Centro para Liderazgo en las Artes.  Currently, Ms. Hisaka serves as Director of El Teatro de Danza Contemporanea de El Salvador, and on faculty at Georgetown University.