Super Dance Day

Biographies

Steven Messina moved to North Carolina from South Florida, where he became enamored with Cuban music and dance. After studying popular and folkloric dances with some of the best teachers in the country, including Marisol Blanco, Neri Torres, Juinier Quintero, and Carlos Ramirez, he began sharing the material via weekly classes in Charlotte, Greensboro, and the Triangle. Concurrent to the effort of growing classes and developing a local Cuban dance community, he curated a YouTube channel focused on detailed, quality, entertaining tutorials in Cuban dance, as well as semba from Angola.  He's traveled to teach workshops and is looking forward for a return engagement here at Duke.

Anthony "Ay-Jaye" Nelson Jr. is a Durham, North Carolina-native performer, dance educator, arts-activists, and organizer of healing and "self-work" spaces. Dancing in earnest from fifteen years on, Nelson's career has led him to seek training in a variety of styles, building his repertoire in contemporary, ballet, modern, hip-hop and jazz, and refining his focus in a personal style that blends these traditions. With over a decade of dance theatre experience, Nelson has performed with renowned choreographers in the Triangle and beyond, has been an artist-in-residence for Carolina Performing Arts at UNC, a featured UNC-Wilmington Fellowship Artist, has taken stage at Jazz at Lincoln Theatre and Dixon Place in New York, and has been awarded the North Carolina Arts Councils' Artist Support Grant Award, in support of his work. Ay-Jaye embodies the freedom of expression by trade and a facilitator by process and execution. He currently works as an independent and collaborative performer, making socially conscious work.

Nicole Thomas, affectionately known as “Pinky,” is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and humanitarian with roots based in St. Louis, Missouri. Nicole recently relocated to Durham. As an educator, Nicole has taught all levels of technique and choreographed for mainstage productions in public and private institutions for over 20 years. Nicole received her B.F.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she was a visiting guest instructor. Her teaching credits also include serving as a guest instructor, choreographer, and rehearsal director for an array of organizations and theatre companies such as the Katherine Dunham Center for the Performing Arts and Humanities - East St. Louis, National Cultural Foundation – Barbados, The St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre, Webster University – St. Louis, Washington University – Danforth Campus, Missouri Historical Society, Debbie Allen Dance Academy, InnerVision Dance Theatre, Banyan Haitian & Cuban Dance Company, STAGES St. Louis, Spirit of Angela African Dance & Drum Company, Kaatsbaan International, Dance St. Louis Spring to Dance Festival, and St Louis Hoofers Club. She has presented as part of the National Dance Education Organization’s conference and holds a K-12 teaching certification and is an advanced instructor of Dunham Technique.

“My role in this life is to share the knowledge and gifts learned throughout my life thus far; through dance I share my inner emotions and feelings; through my teachings I educate” – Katherine Dunham