Gibney Expands Artistic & Programming Leadership

Gina Gibney, Founder, Artistic Director, & CEO of Gibney, announced today three new appointments within the organization, furthering her vision for the organization and its commitment to utilize the vast potential of movement, creativity, and performance to effect social change and personal transformation.

Each appointment will deepen and expand Gibney's work across its three pillars: Company, Community and Center. Founder Gina Gibney continues in her role as Artistic Director and CEO of the Gibney organization and will guide and direct the newly appointed leaders. The appointments are effective immediately.

Gibney Company Director Nigel Campbell has been appointed the inaugural Gibney Center Artistic Director, and in this new role will oversee the Center's performance, residency, digital media, exhibition, engagement and rental programs. Gibney Company Director Amy Miller will become Gibney's first Director of Engagement, leading the organization's commitment to artistic and community collaboration, exchange, and excellence. Gilbert T Small II, who joined Gibney in 2020 as Curatorial Director of Training and Company Rehearsal Director, has been promoted to Director of Gibney Company and will advance the vision, integrity, and dynamism of the Company through practices, programs, and performances.

Gina Gibney said, "These appointments help realize the ongoing transformation of the Gibney organization and will buoy our work across the field. The talent, skills, and experience that Nigel, Amy, and Gilbert have each brought to Gibney have contributed greatly to our institutional strength and artistic achievements. Each is an extraordinary leader, and the Board and Staff join me in expressing gratitude for their taking on these new roles, which will further Gibney in supporting the creative process of dance makers, providing access to top-notch training for dancers, and using movement as a form of advocacy and expression for those impacted by domestic violence."

As the first Gibney Center Artistic Director, Campbell will serve as chief curator of Gibney Center's annual performance season and residency programs, creating a cohesive and integrated programming plan. As part of his role, Campbell will ensure a diverse cultural and aesthetic perspective in programming and will leverage and synthesize opportunities for artists that are central to Gibney's mission and space, including presenting, residencies, curation, digital media initiatives, training, and rentals.

"I am humbled and honored to be named Gibney Center Artistic Director," said Campbell. "I have been a proud member of the Gibney community for over seven years, first as a dancer with Gibney Company, and for the last five years as Company Director. I have a fierce commitment to supporting artists, creating platforms, building bridges, and cultivating greater diversity and equity in our beloved field. I look forward to working in close collaboration with the organization and the community to ensure that Gibney continues to be a place where artists can explore, take risks, and radically share."

As Director of Engagement, Amy Miller will cultivate and curate Gibney's programmatic partnerships with nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. Gibney currently partners with an array of organizations to collaborate on sharing the organization's unique model and key initiatives such as Moving Toward Justice, the Bard + Gibney Partnership, Move to Move Beyond, and Hands are for Holding to provide services and resources, such as Training, Education, and Professional Development. In her new role, Miller will steward the expansion of the organization's Moving Toward Justice platform, providing a supportive curriculum for activating arts-based social justice projects aimed at addressing gaps in the field. Amy's deep knowledge of and experience with the variety of Gibney partners over the years, combined with her leadership experience, will ensure the quality of Gibney's longstanding partnerships and open new possibilities to meet the needs of our time.

"Gibney Company has been my home for over 10 years-a decade alongside Gina, Nigel, and an extraordinary group of artists, movers, and shapers," said Miller. "I now have the opportunity to focus on extending Gibney's culture of artistic excellence and social transformation even further by deepening reciprocal learning opportunities with colleges and universities across the country. This work will be deeply co-created with many incredible folx along the way and it will involve amplifying necessary voices who are already doing great work across our field. I couldn't be more excited to get started."

As Gibney Company Director, Gilbert T Small II will advance the artistic vision, social integrity, and excellence of Gibney Company, working closely with Gina Gibney. In collaboration, they will curate work that challenges Gibney's Artistic Associates and advances the vision and stature of the Company. As Company Director, Small will also contribute to strategies that bring new connections, resources, and support to the Company.

Small said, "I am honored to be able to co-lead this company of beautiful dancers with Gina, and to usher them into the next phase of their artistry. As the Company Director, I will be driven by the possibility of the future and I look forward to what is to come."

Princess Grace Award Winning Artist, Director, and Entrepreneur Nigel Campbell was born and raised in The Bronx, New York. He began his early training at Creative Outlet Dance Theater and received his B.F.A. from The Juilliard School. While a student at Juilliard, Campbell joined the Metropolitan Opera Ballet as a soloist. After graduating, he danced full-time for the Saarlandisches Staatstheater under the direction of Marguerite Donlon, Luna Negra Dance Theater under the direction of Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani under the direction of Adolphe Binder and performed as a guest artist with Kyle Abraham's A.I.M. Campbell joined Gibney in 2015 as an Artistic Associate performing with Gibney Company (then Gibney Dance Company). He became Co-Director of Gibney Company in 2017, working alongside Gina Gibney and Amy Miller during a period of significant growth and transformation.

In 2015, Campbell co-founded MOVE|NYC| with Chanel DaSilva, with the mission of cultivating greater diversity and equity in the dance field and beyond. He has also served on the faculty of The Juilliard School, teaching "Essentials of Entrepreneurship in the Arts," and on faculty at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, teaching contemporary. A sought after master teacher, répétiteur, and lecturer, Campbell has set dances and given workshops throughout the United States and abroad at institutions such as The Juilliard School, USC Kaufman School of Dance, SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, Princeton University, Yale University, NYU Tisch, Boston Conservatory, Marymount Manhattan College, Ballet Hispánico, The Ballet Akademien Göteborg, No)one. Art House, MUDA Africa, and Springboard Danse Montreal, among many others.

Campbell's multi-faceted contributions to the field of dance have been recognized with numerous awards and honors including a 2019 Martha Hill Mid-Career Award, a 2011 Princess Grace Award, a YoungArts Level 1 Award, and a NAACP ACT-SO Gold Medal, and he was named a 2004 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. In 2020, Nigel joined the Board of Directors of Culture For One, a non-profit that transforms the lives of New York City children in foster care through the power of the arts.

Amy Miller is a NYC-based dancer, choreographer, educator, administrator and advocate. Originally from Ohio, her youth as a gymnast evolved into training at The Dance Institute at the University of Akron. She spent a decade at the Ohio Ballet where she performed works by a wide range of choreographers, including José Limon, Lucinda Childs, George Balanchine, and Alonzo King. She was a founding member of the Cleveland-based GroundWorks DanceTheater, where she choreographed numerous works and continues her ongoing connection as artistic advisor. Since 2012, she has been a Director and a performing member of Gibney Company, performing works by Gina Gibney, Bryan Arias, Peter Chu, and Shannon Gillen.

Throughout her decade of experience with Gibney, Miller has focused on Gibney's Community Action initiatives and has worked closely with social workers toward facilitating movement workshops with survivors of gender-based violence, conducted both local and international trainings for artists interested in engaging in social action, and facilitated healthy relationship workshops for young people to raise awareness about the role of the arts in violence prevention. Miller co-facilitates creative spaces for advocacy alongside Gibney's 'Move to Move Beyond Storytellers,' a group of survivors creating performances for audiences and performers alike to deepen our critical consciousness, witness the power of reclaiming one's agency, and move toward shared liberation. Actively moving toward co-creating spaces that value antiracism as a foundational tenet, Miller is a facilitation committee member of Gibney's internal Decentering Whiteness Working Group offering white-identifying staff members opportunities to unlearn oppressive structures, as well as dovetail energies with Gibney's Multiracial Staff Group directly addressing reducing harm to and support of our BIPOC staff and greater community.

Miller has facilitated teaching residencies at Oberlin College, Brown University, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Bates Dance Festival, SUNY Purchase and The National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron among many others. Miller is currently a teaching artist for the Bard College Dance Program/Gibney Partnership, a multi-year engagement that represents a wide-ranging vision of what dance can be in a liberal arts curriculum. She has conducted Gibney Company international residencies at Mimar Sinan University and Koc University (Istanbul), University of Cape Town (South Africa), DOCH: School of Dance and Circus (Stockholm), MUDA Africa (Tanzania) and Gisenyi, Rwanda. Miller has thrice been a Dance/USA Mentor through their Institute for Leadership Training. Miller was honored to receive an Arts & Artists in Progress "Pay it Forward" Award from Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Miller holds a BFA in Dance and is a recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for her choreography.

Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Gilbert T Small II's formal training started at the Baltimore School for the Arts. He received his BFA from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance in 2009. While at Purchase, he studied abroad at Codarts in Rotterdam, an opportunity that shifted his perspective, pushing him to investigate and explore the multifaceted nature of the art form.

Small was a leading artist with the internationally acclaimed Ballet British Columbia under the leadership of Emily Molnar. During his ten years with the company, he worked with choreographers such as William Forsythe, Crystal Pite, Medhi Walerski, Emily Molnar, and Cayetano Soto to name a few. As a senior artist with Ballet BC, he was asked to take on the role of Rehearsal Director for the company's fall 2017 season. Small is a mentor to many emerging artists here and abroad and serves as guest faculty for institutions internationally, cultivating relationships and connections across many demographics and communities.

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