Chet Walker, Nikki Feirt Atkins and Ellenore Scott Set for The Dance Enthusiast's Broadway Series

The Dance Enthusiast, leading an exuberant revolution in dance communication through awareness, celebration and integration of dance with stories following artists at work, is pleased to host its next installment of Enthusiastic Events!, Dance: Broadway Stage and Screen.

Designed to complement the organization's mission of service - engaging, educating, and creating new media discussions to support the work of the NYC dance community, the initiative transports The Dance Enthusiast's online audience out of the virtual world to events that offer real-life connection with artists.

Next month, rooted in the themes of dance in Broadway, film, and television, the organization will welcome Chet Walker, Director/Choreographer (Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, Astaire Award winner, Tony nominee PIPPIN); Nikki Feirt Atkins, Founder/Artistic Director of American Dance Machine for the 21st Century; Ellenore Scott (SYTCD, CATS Broadway Revival) and dancers from American Dance Machine for the 21st Century. This one-of-a-kind evening will take place Tuesday, April 12, 2016 at 6:15 p.m.

"The Dance Enthusiast is more than a website," explains founder Christine Jowers. "We are a community connector bringing top-tier artists together with traditional and new audiences to celebrate and support the significance of this art form. Rarely do audiences have access to meet and share stories with great artists. With our Enthusiastic Events!, we are happy to provide a 'living room of sorts' for an artistic, yet informal, highly informative, yet fun meeting. "

Now in its third iteration, past Enthusiastic Events! have welcomed artists and art leaders like the Martha Graham Dance Company, Valerie Green, Curator of the Museum of FIT and noted designer Reid Bartelme, along with filmmaker Lucija Stojevic, Flamenco dancer Sonia Olla, David Leventhal, former Mark Morris dancer currently the founding teacher/Program Director for Dance for PD®, The Brooklyn Ballet, Hip Hop artist Chrybaby Cozie ,visual artist Hu Bing and visual art curator, Cheryl McGinnis. Enthusiastic Events! welcome audiences and distinguished guests to converse and mingle before and after the presentations over drinks and hors d'oeuvres. The emphasis is on helping audiences feel "at home" with dance and introducing them to dances' importance and larger connection to the world.

Enthusiastic Events! are generously funded in part by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and are made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council empowers artists by providing them with networks, resources, and support, to create vibrant, sustainable communities in Lower Manhattan and beyond

Dance: Broadway Stage and Screen will take place on Tuesday, April 12, 2016. Drinks and hors d'ouevres will begin at 6:15 p.m., with performances and panel conversation to follow at 7:00 p.m. The evening will conclude with mingling and dessert.

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center is located at 280 Broadway, with the entrance at 53A Chambers Street in lower Manhattan. Gibney Dance is near City Hall Park and accessible by the R, W,J.M,Z, A,C,E,4,5,6,1,2,3 trains.

Tickets to this Enthusiastic Event are $30 and can be purchased online at http://dance- enthusiast.com/features/view/Bway-Stage-Screen.

ABOUT THE GUESTS:

Chet Walker: Director/Choreographer - Multi-Award Winning Director/Choreographer Chet Walker has garnered acclaim onstage in theaters across the globe, as well as in television, film, music video and all commercial media. Chet was recently nominated for a Tony, and is the winner of the Outer Critics Circle, Fred & Adele Astaire and Drama Desk Award, for choreography in the current revival of Pippin. Chet is also well known as Creator and Co- Choreographer of the Tony - and - multi-international-award-winning Fosse. Chet has directed and choreographed original new musicals with unwavering success, as well as having mounted extraordinary recreations of classic musical productions in close collaboration with shows' original creators. His original works range from Cirque Du Soleil, to original dance pieces created for Compania Internacional de Teatro Musical, the international Jazz/Musical Theater Dance Company which he co-artistic directs in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Jacob's Pillow where he serves as Director of the Jazz/Musical Theater Program. Performing on Broadway since the age of 16, Chet has appeared most prominently in the musicals of Bob Fosse. Chet choreographed and directed La Cage aux Folles in Brazil, Jazz On Jazz in Norway, and Triumph at the Las Vegas Hilton. In 2011, his company participated in a Creative Development Residency at Jacob's Pillow to re-create and document Cole Technique. Subsequently, Heat Wave: The Jack Cole Project premiered at New York's Queens Theatre in May 2012.

Nikki Feirt Atkins, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of American Dance Machine for the 21st Century, is a dancer and an M.D. Nikki studied ballet at the Garden State Ballet, New Jersey Ballet and at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York as a trainee. In addition, she studied Graham, Horton, East Indian dance (Bharatanatyam), jazz with Matt Mattox, Luigi and Betsy Haug with whom she performed. Of note, Nikki studied with Lee Theodore, founder of the original American Dance Machine. After a brief career as a professional dancer, Nikki went on to obtain her B.A. Magna Cum Laude in biology and performing arts at New York University. She subsequently earned her M.D., completed her residency and fellowships at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell and Columbia and become a practicing pathologist and researcher at Columbia University Medical Center. While working as a part-time pathologist in private practice, Nikki became the Director of New Artistic Programs and Outreach at the Joffrey Ballet School. She subsequently worked with Mr. Chet Walker on several projects including the early stages of The Jack Cole Project. In February 2012, Nikki founded the American Dance Machine for the 21st Century. American Dance Machine for the 21st Century: A living archive of great American musical theater choreography whose mission is to create and promote a professional resident dance company to present significant stage and film musical dance works with the integrity to which they were created, to entertain, educate and inspire audiences with historical accuracy of style and technique.

Ellenore Scott: Choreographer/Performer/Master Teacher - Ellenore Scott is a New York-based professional dancer, master teacher and choreographer. As a dancer, Ellenore was both a finalist (Season Six) and All-Star (Season Eight) on hit television show So You Think You Can Dance? In 2014, Ellenore was named one of the Top Hottest Young Choreographers by DanceSpirit Magazine. Ellenore performed for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, Dancing with the Stars, The Ellen Show, Smash, and Glee. She has also performed as a featured background dancer with Janet Jackson during 2010. Ellenore teaches internationally and nationally with numerous universities, performing arts schools, and dance conventions. She is currently on permanent faculty at Broadway Dance Center and The Ailey School in New York City. She was commissioned to set work on Glow Dance Company in Stavanger, Norway, Harvard University and Urbanity Dance in Boston. She has also choreographed music videos for recording artists Henry Santos, Emergency Tiara and Norwegian singer Sondre Lerche. Ellenore is currently the Assistant Choreographer for the Broadway Revival of Cats. She was also the Associate Choreographer for several NYMF productions including Volleygirls, Academia Nuts and Cloned! She is the Founder and Artistic Director of New York City based contemporary dance company, ELSCO Dance and Executive Producer of The Breaking Glass Project, a nationwide program to help mentor and nurture emerging female choreographers. For more information about Ellenore and her, visit www.ELSCOdance.org and www.BreakingGlassProject.org.

Founded by Christine Jowers in 2007, The Dance Enthusiast, an extension of the nonprofit Moving Arts Projects, is a vibrant, engaging digital news site and arts service organization that brings the best of NYC dance writing, reporting, and communications to national and international audiences.

Its mission is threefold: to serve the dance community by sharing its stories and news; to offer audiences unique access to the compelling dance companies and moving artists of New York City and the world; and, to invite audiences, artists, and writers into a conversation about dance. New media work, as well as offline initiatives illuminate, educate and inspire audiences to understand the deep value inherent in dance. The Audience Review Initiative allows dance audiences to share their experiences of performance on a friendly, open forum.

The Dance Enthusiast's founding editor-in-chief, Christine Jowers, with an ever growing team of dance journalists, is devoted to creating and nurturing dance enthusiasts - people passionate about dance, its artists, and the world we share.