-
CAROL FOSTER
Chair -
DR. JOSIE HOOVER
Vice-Chair -
JOZANNE SUMMERVILLE
Treasurer -
DR. JULIE MULVIHILL
Secretary -
ASHANTI BROWN-DANIELS
Director -
LORI D'ORAZIO -
TAMARA HENRY
Faculty Liaison -
DR. KATE SPANOS
Director -
KRYSTAL ODOM
Ex-Officio -
DOUGLAS YEUELL
Emeritus -
MICHELLE AVA
Emeritus
Leadership Team
CAROL FOSTER
Chair
2020-Present
Special Programs Associate, International Association of Blacks in Dance
Find her on LinkedInRead Ms. Foster’s Profile Here
Carol Foster is currently a Special Programs Associate for the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BLACKS IN DANCE (IABD) and is working in the capacity as a PERFORMING ARTS READINESS (PAR) Emergency Preparedness Consultant for the performing arts (one of four in the country). More recently, she has been selected to be on the inaugural Culture Caucus for the Kennedy Center’s new wing, “The REACH.” This honor affords her a two-year residency to work and present at the new wing. She is a founding member of IABD and served on its board for many years until stepping down to take a staff position. Ms. Foster has successfully raised funds via grants and contributions throughout her arts career.
She assisted in writing IABD’s first significant grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, awarding IABD a half-million dollars. Carol Foster has committed over forty-five years of dedicated service to the arts and arts education in the District, Maryland, and Virginia area. She founded and was the artistic director of the DC Youth Ensemble, a thirty-seven-year-old young people’s performing company which performed nationally and later internationally at the “Fringe” in Edinburgh, Scotland. She was director of the Arlington Youth Street Theater, worked as Dean of Arts at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, taught visual arts in DC Public Schools, and was on staff as Adjunct Professor of Dance at the University of the District of Columbia.
Ms. Foster has personally worked as a choreographer, performer, writer, director, arts administrator, and visual artist. She has been involved with many special projects/programs related to the arts and arts education funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, the Rockefeller Foundation, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and more. Ms. Foster worked closely and tirelessly with the President’s Committee on the Arts’ Turnaround Arts Initiative during President Barak Obama’s administration. Through this effort, she was invited to bring students she trained to perform at the White House on ten occasions. She has worked with noted artists, including YoYo Ma, Kerry Washington, Alfre Woodard, Misty Copland, and Damien Woetzel (President of Julliard). She is the recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Mayor’s Art Award, the highest honor afforded artists in the District of Columbia.
Ms. Foster was also recognized in the United States Congressional Record for her outstanding work with young people and the arts. Ms. Foster was an artistic consultant for the Turnaround Arts National office housed as an affiliate program of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Foster has countless hours in community service and has provided advice and support to aspiring arts students, instructors, future company directors, arts organizations, studios, etc. Her network and resource in the Black dance community expand from coast to coast.
Her favorite quote is an old African proverb stating, “you must always proceed as though you cannot fail.”
DR. JOSIE HOOVER
Vice-Chair
2020-Present
Director of Human Resources at Wesley Theological Seminary
Read Dr. Hoover’s Profile Here
Dr. Josie Hoover is a 2008 & 2015 graduate of Wesley Theological Seminary. She is currently on staff at Wesley Theological Seminary as the Director of Human Resources & Adjunct Professor of Liturgical Dance for the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts & & Adjunct Professor of Liturgical Dance for the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts & conference facilitator and chaplain in her capacity as a liturgical dancer. With inspiration from her doctoral thesis, “Liturgical Dance as Transformative Worship: Meeting God Through Movement,” Josie teaches courses on theory and practice; embodiment; and dance as a spiritual practice. She is a contributing author to the academic resource book, “Engage: A Theological Field Education Toolkit” and the online dance magazine, book, “Engage: A Theological Field Education Toolkit” and the online dance magazine, board of the Appalachian Ministries Educational Resource Center, Inc. (AMERC) based in Berea, KY and as a mentor for RISE Together National Mentoring Network DC.
JOZANNE SUMMERVILLE
Treasurer
2020-Present
Lead Business Financial Management Analyst, Naval Seas Systems Command (NAVSEA)
Jozanne S. Summerville is ready to take on the challenges faced by Joy of Motion. A native of Stafford, Virginia, she graduated from Sweet Briar College with degrees in Mathematics and Economics and a Minor in Dance. She went on to earn an MBA from University of Maryland, College Park. Her background is in manpower, financial and cost analysis for the US Navy. Recently, she accepted a position with DoD to focus on improving estimating and reporting of the taxpayers’ cyber security investments. She has danced with Joy for over 16 years, as a student, performer, work-study, proud dance aunt and youth instructor. She seeks to be a champion for the dance art form and see Joy of Motion regain the thriving role it plays in our community, by spurring collaboration and balancing fiduciary responsibility to unite key stakeholders during these times of global crisis and cultural awareness. She has a passion for people and creating opportunities for them to produce at their best, allowing space for talent and creativity. This is her way of giving back to instructors and studio staff that have given so much. Jozanne now lives with her girlfriend and two rescue cats in a proudly renovated home in NW DC.
DR. JULIE MULVIHILL
Secretary
2020-Present
Visit her websiteJulie Mulvihill is interested in how we communicate, contribute, and shift roles as we create possibilities and decisions in making dances. Each dance making moment may ask different responses from its makers, creating a dialogue of shared experience. Dance making practices profoundly inform Julie’s ideas shared experience. Dance making practices profoundly inform Julie’s ideas about teaching and learning, which in turn impact her research. Julie holds a PhD in Dance Theory and Practice from Texas Woman’s Univeristy and a teaching certification in the Alexander Technique from Chesapeake Bay Alexander Studies. Julie has studied, practiced, taught, performed and made all kinds of movement in all kinds of ways with all of people.
ASHANTI BROWN-DANIELS
Director
2020-Present
Native Californian, Howard University alum. They came from a family of dancers and began their love affair with dance at two years old. Joy of Motion has helped in the continuation of their love even though the reality of adulthood. They are a real estate management professional and event coordinator by day, a dancer 24/7.
TAMARA HENRY
Faculty Liason
2020-Present
Tamara Henry is a dancer, musician, and artist who started her dance career at the age of four in Tuckahoe, New York. After moving to Wheaton/Silver Spring, Maryland, she continued her studies at Peter’s Studio of Dance. In college, Henry studied dance at the University of Maryland, danced with the University of Maryland Dance Team, and danced with the Morgan State University Modern Dance Ensemble. While earning her undergraduate and master’s degrees, she was the dance coordinator and choreographer for Morgan State and Bowie State marching band dance lines. Henry loves performing, choreographing, and has taught various styles of dance throughout the DMV area, including ballet, tap, jazz, salsa, and poms. At Knock on Wood Tap Studio, she was a member of its Resident Company Step Aside for eight years, had the chance to study with several renowned tap dancers, and learned salsa rueda/casino. In 2009, she founded and became the director of Artistic Rhythms Alliance/ARA Tap. In 2010, she began producing A Holiday SpecTAPular, an annual tap show that brings over 100 tap dancers from the DMV area together for a festive holiday concert. She is the director of Body Rhythms Dance Camps and Competitions, was a High School Pom & Dance Team Coach and county competition director, and enjoys judging local pom/dance competitions. Henry has had the opportunity to perform at several venues including: the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, BlackRock Center for the Arts, Publick Playhouse, Dance Place, Montgomery College, the Jack Guidone Theater; tap festivals in Austin, Chicago and New York; and at the Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Marvin Hamlisch.
DR. KATE SPANOS
Director
2020-April 2021
Coordinator of Marketing and Communications, School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at University of Maryland, College Park
Kate Spanos, Ph.D., is a dancer, educator, scholar, and arts administrator with a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of her work. She is an Irish dancer (MA Irish dance performance, University of Limerick), with experience in a variety of other percussive dance forms, as well as Brazilian movement forms including capoeira, frevo, and samba. Her scholarship focuses on “dances of resistance” and social change through dance, especially in Brazil, Ireland, and the Eastern Caribbean (Montserrat); she was a postdoctoral Fulbright scholar in Recife, Brazil in 2018. She is an adjunct instructor at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she teaches courses in dance ethnography and subversive cultures, which highlight the power of the arts to build and enact change for communities around the world. She is the marketing and communications coordinator for the University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, where she amplifies the artistic and scholarly work of faculty, students, and staff. She is also co-founder and president of EducArte, a Maryland-based non-profit organization with a mission to create educational cultural arts programming and to open spaces for cultural expression by artists and their communities on their own terms. Kate has been a student at Joy of Motion since 1999.
KRYSTAL ODOM
Director, Ex-Officio
2020-Present
Interim Executive Director, Joy of Motion Dance Center
DOUGLAS YEUELL
BOARD EMERITUS
Executive Director, 1989-2014
Executive Director, Atlas Performing Arts Center
More information coming soon!
MICHELLE AVA
BOARD EMERITUS
Founder
Dancer, Choreographer, Movement Therapy, Empowerment Coach
More information coming soon!
