Amos Machanic, Jr. is currently a Teaching Artist for Ailey Arts In Education & Community Programs. Mr. Machanic studied dance at the New World School of the Arts and continued his training at The Ailey School where he was a fellowship recipient. Machanic was a member of Ailey II and joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1996. During his years with the company, Amos had the pleasure of traveling across the globe. In 2010, he performed at the White House tribute to Judith Jamison and now enjoys being a freelance artist and teacher.
Nasha Thomas oversees AileyCamps and designs the national outreach for Ailey’s Arts In Education & Community Programs department. As a primary liaison between Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation and the national arts-in-education community, she plays a central role in working with local communities to develop and run AileyCamps across the U.S., as well as managing and teaching national residencies, workshops, and master classes, which reach over 1,000 young people each year. Ms. Thomas has led Ailey Arts In Education programs everywhere from public school classrooms, to Lincoln Center Plaza, to Gracie Mansion, to the White House. Chosen by Alvin Ailey, Ms. Thomas danced with the Company from 1986 to 1998. In 1980 she received the prestigious Presidential Scholar of the Arts award. Ms. Thomas is a graduate of New York’s High School of the Performing Arts and Southern Methodist University.
Cedric J. Greene (Boston, MA) is currently a Teaching Artist for Ailey Arts In Education & Community Programs. Mr. Greene began his dance training at the Boston Arts Academy and OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center before studying intensively on full-scholarship at The Ailey School. Cedric continued his training and graduated from the University of the Arts in 2010 whilst having the opportunity to perform works by Louis Johnson, Zane Booker, Anthony Burrell, and Roni Koresh amongst others. Post-graduation, Cedric has performed internationally in musicals such as A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls, Memphis, and The Scottsboro Boys. Cedric has been a teaching artist with AileyCamp for over six seasons and is Currently a teaching artist with the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation. His passion for performing still thrives today and hopes to perform on Broadway in the near future.
A native of Jersey City, NJ, Freddie Moore’s professional career as a dancer, master teacher and choreographer began with his formal dance training at The Ailey School. After graduating from the school’s Certificate and Merit Scholarship programs, he went on to being a featured artist with Ailey II, Donald Byrd/The Group, Forces of Nature, Gallman’s Newark Dance Theater, and Blue Mercury Dancing Company. During his distinguished 36-year career, Mr. Moore has amassed credits in musicals, national television shows, music videos, and documentaries. Mr. Moore’s innovative choreography has received national and international recognition. His career as a master teacher has traveled him across the United States as well as to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. A noted Master of the Modern Horton technique, Mr. Moore conducts artist-in-residence workshops in public and private schools. He has developed performing arts curriculum for schools and community-based programs and he works with churches around the world to develop liturgical dance ministries. A recognized community leader, he has received many honors for community service including commendations from the NAACP, the New Jersey Senate, the National Black Police Association, the Jersey City Community Outreach Team, and the Public Advocate for the City of New York. Mr. Moore is currently the Rehearsal Director for Ailey Student Performance Group (ASPG), Ailey Certificate Program Advisor and a faculty member at The Ailey School, Restoration Youth Arts Academy, Hudson Repertory Dance Theater as well as the Founder and Artistic Director of Footprints Dance Company.
Ronnie D. Carney is a native of Newark, NJ and began his dance training with Alfred Gallman while studying theater at Arts High School. As an actor, Ronnie worked with The Whole Theatre Company and The Hole In-The-Wall Theater House and interAct Theatre Company. He graduated from the University of the Arts with a BFA in dance performance. During a short performance career he performed with Ballet South Project and Douglas Dunn and Dancers. After, Carney turned his focus to dance education and began teaching at Newark’s Arts High School in 1998. Thereafter, he has taught for The Joffrey Ballet School, ABT’s Summer Arts Institute, The Mill Ballet School and NJPAC. In 2003, he earned his MA in Dance Education from NYU and was published in the Journal of Dance Education, which led to him presenting in conferences across the US. This is his eighth year as co director of AileyCamp Newark.
Brother Jerome Hunter is a master dancer, national & internationally known choreographer and drummer who has merged several dance disciplines such as traditional Africa dance, Brazil, Caribbean, as well as North America, to create a unique fusion that is synonymous with LaRocque Bey, and has been performing these dance styles for over 40 years.
Mr. Hunter has studied at the LaRocque Bey school of Dance Theatre for over two decades. He is currently the Executive and Artistic Director as well as the chairman of the board at the Institution. LaRocque Bey School of Dance was established in 1960 and is one of the oldest African American Cultural Institutions in New York State and across the United States.
Mr. Hunter has studied a multiple dance disciplines, such as:
African, Tap, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Lindy Hop, Swing, Ball room, to name a few.
He has studied with Master teachers worldwide and performs domestically and internationally on stage productions and film. Mr. Hunter has worked with such artists as Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Delfonics, Savion Glover, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, George Clinton, Phylicia Rashad and many more. Mr. Hunter recently toured Great Britain as a choreographer and performer of the play “Tap Fusion” with choreographers from the Broadway play River Dance; as well as worked with several artists in the Broadway play “Fela” currently on Broadway. Mr. Hunter has also received several Proclamations from the Mayor’s, Senator’s and city Councilman’s office of New York city, New York State as well as the Bronx Counsel for The Arts..
He is currently an instructor at the Juvenile Justice Commision, the state of New Jersey, four private, and charter schools in the New York, New Jersey school system; teaching discipline through dance, spreading his cultural message as well as teaching skills for life to all students he comes in contact with.
Tony Award winning Debra Martin Chase is an entertainment industry icon and trailblazer as the first African American female producer to have a deal at any major studio—EVER. She is also the first African American woman to produce a film that grossed over $100 million. To date, her films have grossed over a half billion dollars at the box office.
Chase’s work has garnered Academy, Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, BET and NAACP Image Award nominations and Tony and Peabody Award wins. Her company, Martin Chase Productions, currently has an overall deal with Universal Television, a division of the NBCUniversal Television Group and previously had one with The Walt Disney Company from 2001 to 2016. Prior to that, Chase ran Whitney Houston’s BrownHouse Productions from 1995 to 2000 and Mundy Lane Entertainment, Denzel Washington’s production company, from 1992 to 1995.
She currently executive produces The Equalizer TV series starring Queen Latifah for Universal Television and CBS. On the film side, Harriet received Academy Award nominations for Cynthia Erivo for Best Actress and for Best Song. Chase produced three beloved multi-film franchises—The Princess Diaries, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and The Cheetah Girls. She also produced Sparkle, Just Wright, Courage Under Fire and The Preacher’s Wife. True Spirit debuted on Netflix in February 2023 on the Top 10 lists in the U.S. and 58 countries. She produced, with Lena Waithe, a documentary on the iconic Mary Tyler Moore which will debut in 2023.
In 2022 Chase co-produced, in partnership with Marc Platt, the Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize winning musical A Strange Loop which won Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Book. She is also produced the Broadway revival of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog which starred Tony nominee Corey Hawkins and Emmy winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and was directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon.
Her other television credits include the Emmy Award winning Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Lifetime’s Missing, Disney Channel’s musical Lemonade Mouth, the Academy and Emmy Award nominated and Peabody Award winning documentary Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream, Lovestruck and Zoe Ever After.
Chase graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Mount Holyoke College and the Harvard Law School. Prior to entering the entertainment industry, Chase practiced law at several major law firms and Fortune 500 companies in New York City and Houston.
She serves on numerous boards including B&G Foods, Bridge Investment Group, New York City Ballet and Second Stage Theatre.
Deborah Q. Belfatto is the creator of “Let’s Talk: Women’s Health & Wellness,” an all-day gathering about women’s well-being and living healthy first held in the fall of 2022 and slated for a second year on October 21, 2023. Hundreds of women enjoyed a full day of inspiration, knowledge, support, insights, expertise, and camaraderie that included two plenary sessions, two panel discussions and six break-out sessions on a variety of topics pertaining to the eight pillars of wellness and featured a bevy of experts, physicians, and medical and wellness professionals as well as wellness and luxury brands. The first iteration of “Let’s Talk” raised over a half million dollars “from scratch” and attracted women from across the NY metro area to attend via an organic social media campaign and word-of-mouth.
Diagnosed with breast cancer over 30 years ago at the age of 33, Deb came to understand—as she moved through the long road of diagnosis, treatment, recovery, and survival—that she was surviving because of her access to the right resources, connections, and relationships. She was able to obtain the best care possible. To make a difference for women in New Jersey for whom life-saving breast health care, screening and treatment support services were out of reach geographically, financially, or emotionally, Deb launched the Susan G. Komen North Jersey Affiliate in 1997 along with co-founders Kathleen Hubert-McKenna and Lisa Herschli. They introduced the gala fundraiser that would become Komen North Jersey’s signature Pink Tie Ball®. In 2008, Deb proudly cut the ribbon at the Affiliate’s first Susan G. Komen North Jersey Race for the Cure at Branch Brook Park in Newark, NJ, attended by more than 7,500 people. Komen North Jersey—now 25 years old—has awarded over $16 million in local community grants to non-profit organizations and over $7 million has been directed to national research programs in pursuit of new techniques, and more effective treatment options.
Deb relinquished the role of Executive Director in 2013. During her tenure, she was identified by New Jersey Life magazine as one of 40 New Jersey People that “those in the know, know,” and received the New Jersey Institute for Nursing’s “Exceptional People Impacting the Community” Award. Shape Magazine honored her with its “Circle of Life” Award for her dedication to the fight against breast cancer as a life-threatening disease, and NJBIZ recognized her as one of New Jersey’s “25 Women of Influence.” Deb was the recipient of the Junior League of the Oranges and Short Hills “Woman of Vision Award,” and Rotary International’s “Jean Harris Award.”
Deb served as chairperson of the (sold-out) Inaugural Gala for the Dominican Nuns of Summit Capital Campaign. She has served on the National Eating Disorders Association’s (NEDA) Board of Directors, chairing many of their key events, and on the Board of Directors for the Foundation of Trinitas Regional Medical Center.
With Deb’s second diagnosis and cure of breast cancer in 2021, Deb’s knee-jerk reaction to her survival when she once again had access to top healthcare was to create the Let’s Talk event. For her efforts, she was awarded the Beacon of Light Award from the YWCA Northern New Jersey.
Deb now serves as a Trustee of Women@NJPAC–a leadership arm of the NJ Performing Arts Center and co-chaired the (sold-out) Annual Spring Luncheon & Auction three consecutive years and now enjoys a leadership role on the Executive Committee.
Fair to say…when Deb is in, she’s in.