Crew

CREW: The people who make it happen.

 

Juan Michael Porter II

Artistic Director. Founder. Producer.

Juan Michael was born in Mobile, Alabama. He has spent his life traveling all over the world collecting and recreating stories with talented artists. As a performer he has worked with H.T. Chen & Dancers, NYCOpera, Michael Mao Dance, The Martha Graham Dance Company, Balasole Dance Company, and Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company.  Additionally he has worked extensively with such acclaimed artists as Yasuhiko Fukuoka, Yvonne Ng, Autre Ne Veut, William Hooker, Isaiah Sheffer, Bird Mask, Rose Marie Guirard, Yung Yung Tsuai, and Pascal Rekoert. His work has been commissioned and presented by Nimbus Dance Works (2016 Choreographic Residency), Creative Concept Productions, Dixon Place, Sangre de Cristo Art Center (Guest Artist in Residence), 3rd Ward, The Fresh Fruit Festival (Best New Play Award; 2011), Chen Dance Center (newSteps Commission 2013), and Webster Hall.

Juan Michael is also a leading dance critic for Broadway World, The Huffington Post, & The Dance Enthusiast. He is Artistic Director and Co-Founder of The Moving Beauty Series, the former Director of Dance of Webster Hall’s Quarterly Art Soirée, and the former Regional Coordinator of The New York City Road Runners Foundation.

He founded The Moving Beauty Series with Timothy Jackson Arbon so that he could work with and present artists in a way that would leave all parties with a feeling of awesomeness. He continues to develop new work that challenges and inspires audiences to see the world differently and always with the belief that art can be both provocative and commercially viable.

 

Lakey Evans-Peña

Artistic Partner. WMAAC Founder.

Lakey Evans-Peña, born in Reading, Pennsylvania, discovered her passion for dance as a little girl. After earning her BFA in Dance from The University of Arts in Philadelphia, Lakey moved to New York, where she received a scholarship to The Ailey School and soon afterwards an invitation to join Ailey II, where she danced for three seasons. Lakey has danced with Donald Byrd/The Harlem Nutcracker, City Opera, and freelanced with numerous choreographers including Ron Brown, Nathan Trice, Eleo Pomare, Vernard Gilmore, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Kevin Wynn, Cecelia Marta, and Milton Myers.

As a member of the Ailey family, Lakey discovered her zest for education through the Ailey’s National Outreach Program with Arts In Education, which allowed her to travel across the country and engage an incredibly diverse spectrum of different people. Over the past 20 years, Lakey has been on the teaching faculty of The Ailey School (including Ailey Camp and a Horton instructor with their partnership with Professional Performing Arts School/PPAS), The American Dance Festival (teaching and resetting Mr. Ailey’s Escapades & Isba works), Hollins University, Ballet Hispanico, Peridance, and as a guest teacher for Broadway Dance Center and NYU Tisch. For the past 3 years Lakey has been the adjudicator with Melanie Person on the audition tour for the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program and The Ailey School’s Summer Intensive.

She is a CPT specializing in pre/post-natal fitness, TRX, Pilates Mat, and Functional Stability -Postural training. She was a contributor and featured artist in The Method Series, a dance/pilates fitness fusion DVD collection.

Lakey founded Williamsburg Movement and Arts Center to help individuals of all backgrounds discover their inner artist and dancing spirit. Her mission is to develop and sustain dance.

 

Mickey Hoelscher

Director of Media.

Mickey Hoelscher is a Photographer and digital artist from Downey, California. He received his BFA in Fine Arts with a concentration on Photography from the University of Utah where he was awarded the Emma Eccles Fine Arts Scholarship (the only photographer ever to be awarded this two year award). At the UofU he met a lovely dancer who inspired his love for dance as a photography subject.

Mickey became the photographer for The Moving Beauty Series after brilliantly shooting the Inaugural Kick-Off pARTy for The Series at Webster Hall in NYC. Since then he has gone on to collaborate with The Moving Beauty Series on numerous events. Mickey was appointed Director of Media for The Moving Beauty Series in 2014.

Besides serving as the photographer of Mari Meade Dance, Mickey is also the Founder and Director of NYCreative Photography and Marketing. 

Mickey continues to work as a freelance photographer and as a photography teacher.

© 2017 MOVING BEAUTY SERIES | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Advertisement