Faculty
Lakey Evans-Peña
Lakey Evans-Peña (owner and artistic director) has been dancing for most of her life. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, she began like many of her students taking dance lessons as a little girl as a means to channel energy. Luckily passion found her and never let go. She continued studying dance through her teens, eventually earning a BFA in dance from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Upon moving to New York, Lakey received a scholarship to the Alvin Ailey American Dance School and subsequently she was invited to join Ailey II. She has also performed with Donald Byrd/The Harlem Nutcracker, City Opera, and freelanced with many amazing choreographers. Participating in the outreach programs for these companies, she was able to teach all ages and levels throughout the country.
Lakey has been on the teaching faculty of The Ailey School, The American Dance Festival (both teaching and setting Ailey repertory), Hollins University, Ballet Hispanico, and Peridance. She has also been a guest teacher at Broadway Dance Center and NYU Tisch.
As a certified fitness trainer, she was a contributor and featured artist of The Method Series, a DVD and TV workout series fusing dance, strength training, and Pilates. After becoming a mother, Lakey realized the challenge of maintaining her own fitness, which inspired her to create the Williamsburg MightyMamas- a strollercise class that addresses both the physical and mental transitions of post pregnancy.
In search of a way to combine all of her passions the Williamsburg Movement & Arts Center was born. She and her husband opened the center to encourage and stimulate both children and adults creatively and physically, and to provide a place for individuals and families to thrive!
Karen E. Gersch
Karen E. Gersch's love of circus and art began as a child, inspired by the small tented shows that passed through the rural areas of her home in Rockland County, NY. She won a fine arts scholarship to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn when she was 16. Minoring in theatre, she pioneered the school's first independent study program in order to learn mime and juggling. A prolific artist, Karen received a BFA with Honors from Pratt in 1973. She then studied ballet with Diana Byer of New York Theatre Ballet, and circus arts with Moscow Circus acrobat Nina Krasavina.
Karen was the first Producing Clown of Great Adventure Amusement Park in NJ and was a solo performer for the private parties Warner Bros. Records threw their recording artists. At the height of Jim Henson's award willing HBO Show "Fragglerock", she played Merkle, an acrobatic fraggle.
A founding member of both the Big Apple Circus and Vermont's Circus Smirkus, Karen has toured with one-ring and three-ring shows throughout the U.S., Canada, and France. In 1981, she co-founded Acrobrats, Inc.- a non-profit physical arts theatre co. specializing in educational and family shows. For the past 28 years, Acrobrats has developed a myriad of successful programs for young people's concerts with philharmonic orchestras, medieval festivals, and school and library assemblies. They have been featured on t.v., in film and on MTV music videos.
Karen is presently the Artistic Director and Ringmistress of the CIRCUSundays Series- an acclaimed circus variety show now in its 13th season aboard the historic Waterfront Museum Showboat Barge in Red Hook. Since its founding in 2001, she has been the principal acrobatics trainer and chorographer for Amazing grace Circus!, based in Nyack, NY.
She is excited at the prospect of inspiring a new generation of young folk through circus and physical comedy skills, and to helping Lakey & Rick Peña launch their dream studio!
Stephanie Brown
Stephanie began her life in dance at the age of 3. She studied at the Joffrey School in their prestigious trainee program, was on scholarship for a summer at The Dance Theater of Harlem and gained the mentorship of Madame Gabriela Taub- Darvash who has trained numerous dance professionals of note. She attended Laguardia High School for the Performing Arts when she placed second in NFAA’s National Arts and Talent Search as the only representative from NYC.
Stephanie worked in video and toured with music groups such as PM Dawn, Monie Love, En Vogue, and Salt-n- Pepa. She’s honored to have been a member of Donald Byrd/ The Group for 10 years, as well as one of the original company members of Complexions. She has assisted in the re-staging of Mr. Byrd’s, Dance at the Gym, and had the honor of restaging Mr. Byrd’s Burlesque, on the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She has served as choreographic assistant to Mr. Byrd for a work on the Cincinnati Ballet and works regularly with the Spectrum Dance Theater either as a coach or in the capacity of reconstructing old works of Mr. Byrd.
Stephanie is an ACE certified personal trainer and has had the pleasure and the honor of working with Lakey Evans- Pena over the years both as a colleague in dance and as an employee of hers with FitBodies. For one year she served on faculty for Dance Theater of Harlem for their Dancing Through Barriers program and as a substitute for their children’s ballet classes.
She served on Broadway as the Dance Captain for Oprah Winfrey’s, The Color Purple, as Associate Choreographer for the First National Tour of The Color Purple, and was a part of Disney’s, The Lion King on Broadway. She looks forward to participating in this wonderful vehicle of possibility and growth for all involved but really looks forward to the kiddies!!
Aimee Cox, PhD
Dr. Aimee Cox has been dancing and recording people's stories since a very young age. She began her dance training at 5 years old and started interviewing family members and neighbors as inspiration for oral history narratives, short stories and novellas in her early teens. From middle school through high school, she studied classical ballet on scholarship at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music's (CCM) professional program affiliated with the Cincinnati Ballet. While an undergrad at Vassar College, she spent a year continuing her professional dance training in New York City: one semester studying on scholarship at the Dance Theater of Harlem and another as a scholarship student at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center.
Upon graduating from Vassar College in three years with honors, Aimee was invited to join Ailey II/The Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble. During her two-year tenure at Ailey II Aimee toured nationally and internationally performing works by Alvin Ailey, Eleo Pomare, Kathy Posin, Nathan Trice and Ronald K. Brown, and taught master classes in community, university and dance school settings.
In 1998, Aimee began doctoral studies in cultural anthropology at the University of Michigan. It was here that she was able to cohesively integrate her engagements in dance, community organizing and anthropology in an arts activist curriculum that she shared with young people in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Detroit. After completing her doctoral coursework, she moved to Detroit and became the director of a homeless shelter for young women. While the director of the homeless shelter, Aimee developed innovative programs that challenged traditional social work models of youth education and self-care. In 2005, Aimee made three separate visits to Seoul, Korea to lecture and lead workshops on these groundbreaking arts education programs. The shelter residents helped expand and deepen the curriculum through their own interests in art and social change. The result was BlackLight. The BlackLight Project now operates out of Detroit and Newark and soon...Brooklyn!
Aimee is currently an assistant professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Rutgers University Newark. She is also a certified Stott Pilates Mat II Instructor.
Aimee is dancing for joy to be working with her former colleague and dear, dear friend Lakey in a space that is full of light, creativity and community love!
Nicky Guilland
Singer/Songwriter /Lyricist Nicky Guiland, a graduate of The New School University's prestigious Jazz Program, was introduced to singing at 12, after years of dance training. Nicole began singing to "try something new", where her curiosity lead to attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia's H.S. of Music and Art and the Performing Arts.
Shortly after college, Nicky teamed up with fellow New School and LaGuardia alum Casey Benjamin to form HEAVy, a Soul/Jazz fusion band. As a part of the duo, Nicky has released 2 albums ("HEAVy First Sessions" and "Jazzmoney"). Her music has been featured on a number of compilations and in the movie "Three Can Play that Game" and has toured extensively, supporting acts N.E.R.D., Jill Scott and Q-Tip, internationally.
Nicky, the solo artist is a frequent featured vocalist with Jazz drummer, Joe Chambers Quartet, where her vocals can be heard on his 2006 release "The Outlaw" and his 2010 release, TBA.
Nicky is currently in studio with her band recording her 3rd album and preparing for a Fall release.
Liz Thompson
Liz Thompson started her professional acting career at the age of seven and has been working ever since. Liz has been seen in film, television, and theater. She has performed on the stages of the Cherry Lane Theater, Ontological Theater, 78th Street Playhouse, Manhattan Theatre Source, The Tank, New Perspectives Theatre, The Pit, The Blue Heron Arts Centre, and the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ to name a few. She has been a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy community where she performed improv and sketch comedy. Her one-lady show,Let’s Get This Damn Thing Over With was published in 2003, followed by a sold out two month off-Broadway run. Liz is currently a member of The Silver Cats, a cutting edge sketch comedy group whose work can be seen on www.funnyordie.com.
Liz began teaching drama to children about five years ago as a visiting artist at the School Settlement Association in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. What started as a small afterschool program has since grown and Liz now works with various schools, community centers, and after-school programs all around the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Her students range in age from 3 to 18. Liz was lucky enough to be a part of some of the first programs created to introduce neighborhood kids to the theatrical arts and has since had multiple students go onto performing arts high schools. She is very excited to join the WMAAC family and continue to help the next generation find their theatrical voice.
Savannah Rupple
Savannah has been moving & grooving since the age of three. Recently relocating from her home state of Michigan, she has been performing with the New York City Jazz Choreography Project and enjoying every minute of it. While continuing her professional goals she's also pursuing her other passion in teaching. Savannah has taught and danced all over the State of Michigan and is happy to be continuing in NYC.
Josef Woodson
Joseph holds a BFA in Dance Arts from the University of Michigan and has trained at The Joffrey ballet School, and the Ailey School.He Has danced with Ailey II, Donalyd Byrd/The Group, Pomo Funk, Shadow box Children's theater, and Disney (Tokyo and Florida).
Josef has taught both children and adults all over the world in all dance techniques. Here in NYC, he was a performing arts instructor for Ailey's Art in Education program, the NYC Board of Education, and is currently an adjunct professor at Queensboro Community College.
Nicole Porter
Nicole began teaching art to young children in 1994 when she was completing her BA at the University of Colorado. Nicole’s enthusiasm for teaching children about art led her into the museum world when she began to develop and teach classes at the Denver Art Museum and The Children’s Museum of Denver. In 1998 Nicole earned a Masters of Arts Teaching specializing in museum education from The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Love brought Nicole to Brooklyn where she lives with her husband and her two young children. Nicole taught Art, Pre-K and K in the NYC Public Schools from 1998-2005. She has also consulted for the AMNH Science and Nature Program for Young Children. Earlier this year she began teaching art classes for caregivers and children in Williamsburg. Nicole is thrilled to be a member of the WMAC staff and cannot wait to see kids moving and creating works of art in the studio’s fantastic open space.
Barbara Ortiz
My LOVE for dance began at the early age of 3 years old. Born and raised in Brooklyn I was always surrounded by international rhythmic beats and it was only natural to move and groove to the beats of Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Reggaeton, Cumbia, etc. Helping manage a 35 year old family business and starting my own business there wasn’t much time to dance, but I was still looking for a hobby to keep my mind active with the dance world because that’s what I LOVE to do. After experiencing my 1st ZUMBA class I knew this was for me. Thru the practice of Zumba I began to see the pds shed, my stamina grow, but most important a joy and a new look at dance. It’s also changed the way I looked at exercise ! I’m so excited to bring this amazing class and experience to Williamsburg Movement & Arts Center & I hope everyone would have the same life changing experience I did!