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Our Staff

Linda Mensch
Artistic Director and Modern Teacher

Linda earned her B.A. in Dance from Bard College and throughout the years studied at the Cunningham School. She also has studied Hawkins, Limone, ballet, tap and jazz. She founded the Moving Company Modern Dance Center in Warwick, NY in 1996. She has performed with Spoke the Hub Dancing at Lincoln Center, Toby Armor and the Dinosaur Dance Co., and Aileen Passloff. Her performance company, Menschwerks, has performed throughout the New York City metropolitan area, Boston and the UK. In addition to working at the Center for Modern Dance Education for over thirty years and founding the Douglas Street Dance Festival (now known as Brooklyn Arts Exchange Teen Arts Conference),  she has worked with Jaque D’amboise and has taught at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Berkley Carroll and Gowanus Arts Exchange, Nature Place, and many public and private schools throughout the tri-state area. Linda has created site specific choregraphy in Central Park, One Penn Plaza, galleries, store fronts, and stairways throughout the country and in London. She has run classes in theater programs teaching movement to actors and has been commissioned to choreograph for several theater companies. She also teaches for the Road Recovery program offering dance classes to at risk children in residential treatment centers. Since 2017, Linda has collaborated on an educational dance program with the teachers and students of the Partners In Education (P.I.E) at Sandfordville Elementary School in Warwick, NY. In 2017, she was awarded a project grant by the Warwick Foundation for Excellence in Learning and in 2018 she was a recipient of a grant from the NYSCA and Arts Mid-Hudson Decentralized Grant program for her work Sandfordville.

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Yahya Kamate
African Dance  

Yahya was born and raised on the Ivory Coast and  was a member of the National Ballet Cote D’Ivorie before moving to the United States in 1994. He has worked as a lead dancer and choreographer for several dance companies throughout the US including Kulu Mele Dance Company and The Seventh Principle. Yahya is currently an instructor at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. 

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Nina Kornberg R-DMT
Healing Dance

Nina is a registered Dance/Movement Psychotherapist based in New York City. After earning her B.A. in both dance and trauma psychology from The New School in 2016, Nina went on to earn her M.S. in Creative Arts Therapy at Pratt Institute. Upon completion of her graduate degree, Nina has been registered with the American Dance Therapy Association with eligibility to receive her New York State license. Nina’s love for the work of dance/movement therapy began with a love of modern dance at The Moving Company in 1997. Since then, she has been fortunate enough to work with a number of talented choreographers including but not limited to Robert Battle, Carolyn Adams, Danny Grossman, Ishmael Houston Jones, and Neil Greenberg. After working in The New School’s Lab for Trauma and Affective Psychophysiology under the tutelage of Dr. Wendy D’Andrea, Nina was introduced to the field of DMT. This healing work seemed to seamlessly join the creative with the clinical for her. Over the past several years, Nina has gained strength and confidence in the field while working at Woodhull Medical Center, Jacobi Medical Center, and The Family Advocacy Program. Working with adults in acute psychiatric settings as well as children and adolescents in outpatient trauma treatment facilities, Nina has gained the ability to foster trusting and valuable relationships with her patients.

Rachel Bernard
Guest Teacher 

Rachel studied Dance at Sarah Lawrence College, where she earned her BA in 2013. For years, Rachel has worked in various capacities to promote healing through the arts. She began working with Road Recovery in 2010 teaching dance to teens in crisis. In 2011, she ran week weekly writing workshops for male inmates at Valhalla Correctional Facility. In 2012, she worked with a NGO in Southern India that offered arts and vocational training to individuals with mental illness. Rachel has danced with the Moving Company Modern Dance Center in Warwick, NY since 1995. Having performed and choreographed since she was a child, Rachel has been fortunate enough to work and study with a number of talented choreographers, such as Linda Mensch, Patty Cook, Nina White, Sara Rudner, Claire Porter, Marta Renzi, Emily Devine, Peggy Gould, Merceditas Manago-Alexander, Peter Kyle and Gwen Welliver.

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Francesca Silvano
Guest Teacher 

Francesca is a graduate of the National Academy of Dance in native Rome, Italy. After attending the Covent Garden School of Dance in London, Francesca graduated from the Ailey School in NYC. She has been working with several dance companies both in the US and in Italy, as well as working as an independent choreographer. Francesca is an active dancer and teacher of the ethnic dances from her homeland, Italy, in particular the pizzica.

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Ian Wen
Guest Teacher 

Ian Wen is a performance artist from NYC. He has performed, devised, and choreographed both at home and abroad (Ukraine, Netherlands, Greece, and Mexico). Favorite projects: The Nanjing Race (Off-Bway, Abingdon), Dinner Party (The Kitchen; MASS MoCA), artcamp sexytime football (Blessed Unrest), Chrononaut Detritus (Joyce), Evil (78th Street Theatre Lab), Lullaby (The Public), Blind Sight (La MaMa; Ukraine), Joy Dietrich’s award-winning film, Tie A Yellow Ribbon, and De Novo Dance shows shut.eye, Houseguest, and Time-Space Capsule. He is on faculty at Brooklyn College where he teaches performance to both MFA and BFA acting students. Ian is the co-founder/artistic director of De Novo Dance. SAG-AFTRA/AEA. www.ianwen.com | www.denovodance.com

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