Teaching Artists

Lia Lewis is a native of Queens, New York. She began her early dance training in the Ailey School's Junior Division as a scholarship student and is a graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts. She has also spent summers training with institutions, including the French Academie of Ballet and Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Through her training, she has performed works by Martha Graham, Frederick Earl Mosley, Christian Von Howard, Cindy Salgado and others. She is also an early childhood educator, serving as an assistant teacher in dance education and child development and also holds experience in ABA therapy and methods of social emotional learning.

Hello! My name is Antoinette Robinson Williams. I have had the pleasure of being a preschool teaching assistant for the past three years. I have also found joy in teaching dance at the Jamel Gaines Creative Outlet Dance Theater Brooklyn to children within the age range of 4 to 13 for the past 8 years. My love for children began with the birth of my wonderful son, Raymond who I’ve doted on for 13 years (so far). I feel that every child needs unconditional love and I am beyond glad that I am able to give it to them. Between you and me, they give it right back in spades and that warms my heart.

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Percussionist and Composer Rasaan 'Talu' Green's performances include ones with Fela! on Broadway, the Brooklyn Nets, Soutsatzka the Musical, and MAZE, along with band collaborations with Ms. Patti Labelle, Ms. Lauryn Hill, The Roots, Aloe Blacc, and Estelle. Green has performed globally in Africa, North America, Australia & New Zealand, and Europe. He is a resident musician with Resura Arkestra and provides musical arrangements for dance companies and master workshops throughout New York City. He holds a BFA in music from Long Island University.

Rose Barbantan is from the village of Barbentane in the South of France. She began training in classical ballet, jazz, and contemporary dance at the Regional Dance Conservatory in Avignon, France. As a finalist in the Youth America Grand Prix in Paris, she met Annarella Sanchez, the Director of the International Conservatory of Dance in Portugal, and at the age of 15 moved to Portugal to pursue her desire to dance. In Portugal, she performed in Got Talent Portugal, and in the Youth America Grand Prix in New York. At age 16 she began training in the Graham technique at the Paris Marais Dance School with Maggie Boogaart and soon moved to New York to attend the Certificate Program at The Ailey School. While in her final year in the Certificate Program, she performed “Memoria”, staged by Rehearsal Director, Ronni Favors, alongside the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Company and Ailey II, at New York City Center. As a member of the Ailey Student Performance Group she has worked with choreographers such as Brice Mousset, Patrick Coker, and Hollie Wright. In addition to dance, Rose is quadrilingual in French, Portuguese, Spanish, and English, and her distance education by CNED allowed her to obtain her Bachelor's Degree Literary baccalaureate diploma. She is a graduate of the Certificate Program since May 2022. Now Rose is currently working with Jamel Gaines Creative Outlet, Shift dance company, Accent Dance Company, and she was a part of « Table of Silence » 2022 with Jacqulyn Buglisi Dance Theater.

Valériane Louisy Louis Joseph is a French Caribbean native of Nanterre, France where she began her artistic training. She studied at The Ailey School and graduated from the Certificate Program in 2018. She joined Ronald K.Brown/EVIDENCE, A Dance Company in 2018 and performed on some of the most renown stages in the US. Valériane built her career as a part of the dance ensemble of The Lion King in Paris for the season 2021-2022. In addition, she has been coaching and teaching the many styles she has studied and apprehended so far in her career.

Amina Konaté is from La Rochelle, France, where she began dancing at the age of 5. She studied at the Conservatoire of Music and Dance of La Rochelle. After she graduated from high school in 2019, Amina joined the Rudra Béjart School, in Switzerland. Two years later, she headed up to New York, to attend the Ailey School. She spent the last summer dancing in Philadelphia as a Philadanco 2 (D/2) member as well as in Brooklyn, with Jamel Gaines Creative Outlet. Currently, Ms. Konaté is a freelance dancer and has already had the opportunity to learn and perform works by Maurice Béjart, Julio Arozarena, Tancredo Tavarez, Janice Rosario, Christopher Huggins, Jeroboam Bozeman and Jamel Gaines.

Rayan LECURIEUX-DURIVAL is a professional dancer from French Guiana, France, who started with the Ballet Technique (Vaganova and Cecchetti Method) then Modern (Horton and Graham) and Jazz techniques. In French Guiana, he trains in 3 schools: The conservatory of Guyana EPCC, The conservatory of Larivot, and ADACLAM. He went to Paris and joined the Rick ODUMS School training institute by video audition. He studied there for 2 years and successfully passed his Technical Aptitude Test. After a long process of audition videos, Rayan was accepted at The Ailey School (part of the multi-award-winning and historic Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre) and becomes a scholarship holder for 3 years. Rayan is an accomplished Dance Instructor instructing master classes all over French Guiana, Paris, and the United States where he is sharing his knowledge of the Horton technique in depth at The Ailey School.