Ashayla Byrd, Washington, DC
Ashayla Byrd (she/they), supports dance communities while creating brave spaces for queer and BIPOC folks to witness and be in fellowship with one another. She serves as the Manager of Executive Affairs for the Association of Performing Arts Professionals. Prior, Ashayla served as the Presentation Administrative Assistant at Dance Place in Washington, DC. She has worked with professional artists including Tiffanie Carson, Yoshito Sakuraba, dani tirrell, and Anna María Alvarez, and she is a dance journalist with publications Dancing in the District and The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.
Ashayla was raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia and solidified her investment in the arts at Shenandoah University (SU), graduating with a BA in both Dance & English. Ashayla also served as the President of both the Sigma Rho Delta Dance Fraternity as well as the Shenandoah Conservatory Student Council.
Awilda Rodríguez Lora, Puerto Rico
Awilda Rodríguez Lora is a remarkable queer woman artist and culture manager whose transdisciplinary performances challenge prevailing notions of gender, sexuality, and self-determination. Harnessing the mediums of movement, video, and sound to explore the intricate terrain of the “economy of the body”, Awilda daringly brings the private into the public sphere as a strategy to humanize the experience of art consumption.
Born in Mexico, raised in Puerto Rico, and working across North and South America and the Caribbean, Rodríguez Lora’s performances traverse a rich tapestry of geographic histories and realities. Her work fosters progressive dialogues concerning the enduring legacies of hemispheric colonialism and the fluid boundaries of race, gender, class, and sexuality.
Awilda has been welcomed in several Artist Talks and Residences at esteemed institutions such as the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD), the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Dance Center, and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). Nominated for a US Artist Fellowship in New York, she possesses a vast academic experience and has issued several publications and catalogues.
Founding collaborator of La Rosario in Santurce, she dedicates herself to her life project; La Mujer Maravilla, while serving as the Academic Leader for the Dance Program at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan, Puerto Rico. With over a decade of experience as an artist, curator, mentor, and academic leader, she remains committed to exploring how artistic economies can be harnessed to support alternative ways of life rooted in community, creativity, and social justice.
Lori McKinney, West Virginia
After studying theater at JMU and University College, London, and experiencing life-shaping world travel, Lori felt called to return to WV, build creative community and produce events to unite and inspire change. Together with her soulmate Robert, she founded Culturefest World Music & Arts Festival and Option 22 in ’04, RiffRaff Arts Collective in ’06 and All Together Arts Week in ’09. In ’12, RiffRaff teamed with The City, a local nonprofit and the community on a downtown renaissance which yielded 50 public artworks, colorful events, dozens of creative businesses, and remarkable youth engagement; the renaissance continues. RRAC’s original multi-media production Create Your State (CYS) inspires creative community transformation through tours and an upcoming docuseries spotlighting strategies. In ’21, RiffRaff launched “We Need to Talk,”using music videos and docushorts to build bridges and stoke community dialogue, funded in part by NEA Our Town, and the work continues.
Amber Spivey, Delaware
Amber Spivey is a freelance performing artist and dance educator. She studied dance at Long Island University Brooklyn Campus in NYC, trained at the Ailey School, the Graham School, and EMIA. Amber danced professionally with PHILADANCO! II (2009-2015). She served as a presenter for Delaware State Arts Day (2023) and as a guest teaching artist at Dover High School’s Dance Program and University of Delaware’s Dance Minor. In 2023 Amber received a grant from DE Division of the Arts to study with Master teacher Ana Marie Forsythe and Ailey Company Alumni at the Horton Teacher Conference in NYC. She is a teaching artist at the Wilmington Ballet and the owner of I.AM. ART N MOTION, LLC. The company has been contracted to perform for Winterthur Museum, University of Delaware’s CPAB Gospelrama Concert (2022), the RISE Program’s 50th Anniversary Celebration (2023) and featured in Wilmington Ballet’s Deep Roots, a collaboration with Jonathan Whitney’s artist collective. Most recently, Amber was awarded the 2024 Individual Artist Fellowship as an Emerging Choreographer.
Katie Zaytoun, U.S. Virgin Islands
Katie Zaytoun’s career includes teaching artistry, nonprofit leadership, and project management. As the founding Executive Director of Dancing Classrooms Virgin Islands, she championed arts education’s transformative impact on youth through the art of social dance. After 10 years with Dancing Classrooms, she completed a master’s degree in public administration through Rutgers University (via Centro para Puerto Rico) and New York University. Upon her return to the Virgin Islands, she supported nonprofits like Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts and VI Trail Alliance. She joined ICF in 2021 as a Project Manager for the Virgin Islands Department of Labor’s Skills for Today program, where she facilitated collaborations between employers and training providers, expanding workforce opportunities across multiple industries. Even though her new chapter no longer includes full time arts program implementation, she stays connected to her love of dance by taking classes with Caribbean Dance Company of the Virgin Islands and recently completed a social dance residency at St. Croix Central High School. Katie has previously served on the scholarship review committee for the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands and through her daily work at ICF, she provides quality control for housing initiatives funded by the American Rescue Plan Act. She is honored to serve as a panelist for Mid-Atlantic Arts’ Special Presenter Initiative.