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DeKalb School of the Arts

Dekalb County Schools

Dance

RECENT DEPARTMENT HIGHLIGHTS

PRODUCTIONS
  • Premiere Weekend- Dance Repertory Company
  • Nutcracker in a Nutshell. Featuring DSA alumni and dancers from DeKalb Elementary School of the Arts
  • Dance Concert
  • Senior Fine Arts Seal Solo Presentations
  • Spring Ballet
  • Senior Choreography Concert 
SPECIAL EVENTS
  • Afterschool Flamenco Classes 
  • Afterschool ballet, pointe classes and pointe shoe fittings 
  • Weeklong residency with Shonica Gooden, in partnership with Dance Canvas, Inc. 
  • Nutcracker Outreach Performances 
  • Regional High School Dance Festival in Madison, Wisconsin
  • College Recruitment and Master Class- LaRoche College, Brenau University
  • Second Annual DCSD Dance Showcase 

PARTNERSHIPS

  • Dance Canvas 
  • A Traves Flamenco Arts 
  • Oglethorpe University 
  • Columbia Senior Residencies at Forest Hills  

DANCE GROUPS

  • After School Ballet
  • Dance Reperatory Company
  • De Phi (not sponsored by the dance department)
  • Krucial  
  • Tapped Out

COURSES OFFERED

  • Dance Technique- Ballet, Modern, Jazz
  • Dance Appreciation
  • Dance Repertory Company

STATE OF THE ARTS REPORT

Read all the details of last year's dance activities in the State of the Arts Report!



   



  
  


FACULTY

 Anna Dunn

DSA Ballet Mistress 

Anna Dunn, RAD RT, has worked as the DSA Ballet Mistress since 2006. She also serves the school as the Community Arts Liaison connecting DSA with opportunities in the broader community and working with students and staff to advocate for the arts. Dunn received her Master’s in Arts Administration in 2014 from Goucher College and her Bachelor’s in Dance Education in 2005 from Winthrop University. She is proud to be certified with the prestigious Royal Academy of Dance in London, England and recently began her Ed.D. degree in Teacher Leadership at KSU. In addition to teaching at DSA, she is the Education and Outreach Coordinator for Dance Canvas, connecting the public and private schools in Metro Atlanta with dance curriculum to resources in the community. Dunn was the founding president of the Dance Educators of GA Society, Inc., the state affiliate chapter of the National Dance Education Organization, creating networking and professional development opportunities for dance educators across the state. Still addicted to the adrenaline of live performances, she also enjoys stage managing productions for local companies several times a year.

 

Dominique Saunders

Hip Hop, Contemporary, Jazz

Dominique Saunders is a native from The Bronx, New York and has been a dancer and choreographer for 15+ years. She entered DSA as the Hip-Hop, Contemporary and Jazz dance educator and was appointed as the Director of DSA's Dance Repertory Company (DRC). Dominique holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Theatre from The University of NC at Greensboro, and a Master of Arts in Dance Education: Teaching in the Professions from New York University. After receiving her Master's from NYU, she transitioned to Atlanta in 2018 and has worked professionally earning her IMDB credits including but not limited to: the Super Bowl LIII, STAR (Season 3), Little Women: Atlanta, Music Videos ft Davido, Tory Lanez and more. In addition to dancing, choreographing, and educating, Dominique has a strong background in fitness and wellness, obtaining her Yoga Certification (RYT 200) and currently being a Mega-reformer Pilates and Barre Instructor. Dominique is heavily active in the dance and fitness community and is always looking to bridge the gap between dance and wellness as she is in pursuit of her PHD in Physical Therapy and Certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy. 

ADJUNCT FACULTY

Angela Harris
DSA Pointe Instructor
Angela Harris is the Executive Artistic Director of Dance Canvas, Inc., a career development organization for emerging choreographers. A graduate of The Baltimore School for the Arts, Angela trained at Dance Theater of Harlem, School of the Hartford Ballet & Eglevsky Ballet. She attended City College of New York, earning a B.A. in Journalism, while training at Steps on Broadway. Angela danced professionally with The Georgia Ballet, Columbia City Ballet and Urban Ballet Theater. Choreography credits: The Georgia Ballet, Ballet Lubbock and Oklahoma Arts Institute. Theater choreographic credits: Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Song & Dance and the Suzi award winning Bridges of Madison County (Aurora Theatre). Angela was an Inaugural National Visiting Fellow at the School of American Ballet. She received a SDCF Observership and worked with Tony Award winning, Susan Stroman, on the Broadway Lab of Little Dancer. Angela has developed dance programs for recording artist, Usher's New Look Foundation, and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, and has taught on the dance faculty at Dekalb School of the Arts and Oklahoma Arts Institute. She received the National Emerging Leader Award from Americans for the Arts/American Express. Angela is currently on faculty at Emory University and Spelman College.
 
Jeffery Duffy
 
Mr. Duffy received his BFA from The Juilliard School. He has instructed dance locally, nationally, and internationally. Consultant at New York University’s School of Professional Studies, Pebblebrook High School, Braswell Arts Center in Basel, Switzerland; MOVE(NYC), Spelman College, Atlanta Ballet School, Lou Conte Dance Studio, DanceMakerz of Atlanta, Central Gwinnett High School, and Eglevsky Ballet. National Tours: Charles Lee in HAMILTON (Hollywood Pantages Theater); Ensemble Swing: HAMILTON (CIBC Theater); Choreographer: First Deep Breath (National Black Theater) written by Lee Colston. Fight Choreographer: The Color Purple (Byers Theater). TV and Film: A Jazzman’s Blues (Netflix), Fox New Year’s Party with Steve Harvey. Princess Grace Fellowship Recipient; Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Certified GYROTONIC® Instructor.

La'Toya Jackson 
LA’TOYA PRINCESS JACKSON is a writer, performing artist, dance and music researcher, and historian on African American performance. She is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University and Harvard University. With a focus in black performance studies, her specialized research is on Blacks in ballet and dance history, the Black ballet aesthetic, and Black female identity in contemporary music and pop culture. Intersecting studies in the Harvard Dance Program, the Department of Music, and the Theater, Dance, Media department at Harvard, her interdisciplinary focus includes the study of music, dance, and performance. As a graduate student at Harvard, she engaged in performance research under the direction of senior faculty in the Theater, Dance, Media department. She wrote her thesis on the history of classical black ballet companies in the United States entitled Black Swans Shattering the Glass Ceiling: A Historical Perspective on the Evolution of Historically Black Ballet Companies from Katherine Dunham to Arthur Mitchell. She also presented a critical study on black female identity and misogynoir in popular music and culture in which she researched the musicological impact of black female artists in contemporary pop culture. She graduated from Harvard University in 2019 with a Masters Of Liberal Arts degree in Dramatic Arts from the Harvard Extension School. She has worked as a professional in the ballet field with Boston Ballet and has operated ballet outreach programs in the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta and Boston. She was also the Residence Artist for Harvard College's First Year Arts Program for four years and a choreographer in the Pathways to Performance program at MOBBallet’s 2022 symposium. She is the writer and producer of Vanity Lane, an original fairytale that highlights the beauty within the African diaspora. The full-length ballet debuted at Harvard University in 2018. She was also the historian for Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet and presented her research at the inaugural MOBBallet Symposium. In 2023, she founded LaPrincess Ballet Co with the goal of providing quality ballet training and access to BIPOC dance.