Joy of Motion Dance Center (“JOMDC”) today announced Steve Barberio as its new executive director. The selection was made by the Board of Directors after a comprehensive national search process undertaken following the departure of JOMDC executive director Laura Sawyer in January of this year.
“We are very excited to welcome Steve Barberio to the Joy of Motion Dance Center family,” said Heidi Thibodeau, JOMDC board chair. “Steve brings over 30 years of experience as an accomplished nonprofit executive. He has spent his career focused on arts management and education with the purpose of creating community through the arts. As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Joy of Motion Dance Center, Steve is a leader who can guide us towards further success in the years ahead with a steadfast focus on our driving principle that Dance is for Everyone.”
Barberio most recently served as the advancement director for the Keshet Dance Company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was responsible for increasing revenues to support the organization’s mission. Previously, he spent 17 years as the artistic director of Stages Theatre Company, a youth performance and education organization just outside of Minneapolis. During his tenure there, he led the development of a 37,000 square foot multi-disciplinary arts facility, an effort that spurred both community collaboration and economic development. Barberio also has produced or directed over 150 professional theater productions and presented a wide range of performing arts events that have included contemporary music, modern dance, variety shows, and cinema.
Barberio will begin at JOMDC in early March 2016. While he is transitioning to the Washington, DC area, he will work with Valerie Graff (JOMDC interim executive director), who will remain in place until Barberio assumes the executive director role full-time on April 6, 2016.
“JOMDC is the leading provider of dance education and performance experiences in the Greater Washington, DC area, and I look forward to leveraging my nonprofit arts experience to build upon the organization’s amazing 40-year legacy. I am humbled by the Board’s selection of me as JOMDC’s next Executive Director. I hope people will join me at JOMDC’s 40th Anniversary Gala on March 11,” Barberio said.
JOMDC, a nonprofit 501(c)3 charitable arts organization, is committed to building communities that dance. Thousands of children and adults participate each year in dance classes, workshops, festivals, and performances at three studio locations in the District and Bethesda, Maryland. The broad spectrum of dance that JOMDC offers to all ages, abilities, and levels includes Adult Dance Education, Youth Dance Education, Resident Companies and Resident Arts Partners, Dance Production, and Project Motion Community Outreach. JOMDC also is home to the Jack Guidone Theater and the award-winning Youth Dance Ensemble Program. Every day, through its classes, companies, concerts, and outreach, JOMDC lives its motto: Dance is for Everyone!
