meet our TEACHING ARTIST Staff / 2023-2024 SCHOOL YEAR
For those who have no experience as a Teaching Artist and are interested in joining our team, please check our Internship Opportunity page. After one year of training as a Dance to Unite Assistant Teacher Intern, those who are a fit and are available can progress to the Lead Teacher position in our Accelerator Internship Program, which upon completion can lead to a paid position as a Dance to Unite Teaching Artist.
Femmel De La Rosa
Femmel de la Rosa has been with Dance to Unite since 2015. She started as an Assistant Teacher Intern, progressed to Lead Teacher and has been part of our Teaching Artists staff since 2017. She specializes in social Latin dance such as: Salsa, Bachata, and Merengue. She has a minor in dance with a concentration in choreography and improvisation from Lehman College. Also, she organizes and choreographs dance routines for talent shows in her Hispanic community and the school where she teaches English as a New Language during the day.
Tess McCharen
Tess McCharen has been working for Dance to Unite for 5 years now. She started as an intern in 2018 and has been part of our Teaching Artists staff since 2019. Tess is a professionally dancer in NYC, who has danced for the Limón company, White Wave Dance, Larry Keigwin, and many more. She loves teaching and sharing dance with others, especially the students she has the privilege of working with. Her favorite part of Dance to Unite is seeing the growth of the students as they learn valuable life principles through dance.
Kate Engelhart
Kate Engelhart was born and raised in Hunterdon County, New Jersey where she developed a love of dance from a young age. While training in classical ballet and contemporary at the Mill Ballet School in Lambertville, NJ, she had opportunities to dance professionally with the Roxey Ballet Company as well as participate in community outreach and diversity programs. Kate cultivated a deep appreciation for diversity through seeing dancers from around the world come together to share their art.
Kate moved to New York City to pursue a degree in Nursing and is forever grateful to have found Dance to Unite along the way in the spring of 2018. She has joined Dance to Unite’s internship programs and progressed from an assistant teacher to co-lead teacher to joining the staff of Dance to Unite as a teaching artist, trainer in the Dance to Unite Teaching Method and as the organization’s coordinator and administrator.
Kate continues her work with Dance to Unite while working full time as a Registered Nurse on an Acute Inpatient Solid Organ Transplant Unit in Manhattan. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Nursing Education. Kate hopes to combine her passions for community, education, culture, and health for the betterment and investment of youth.
Kathy Chen
Kathy moved from China to the United States when she was 14 and began her dance training in contemporary, jazz, ballet, and hip hop. While studying at NYU, she started to teach and choreograph dance for NYU Asian Fusion Dance, where she celebrated culture and diversity with a group of like-minded artists. She is currently working as a senior management consultant in IT and cybersecurity and leading the Corporate Social Responsibility team at the New York office. Joining Dance to Unite in 2020 allowed her to give back to the community outside of a corporate context. Kathy started as an Assistant Teacher Intern, progressed to Lead Teacher and has been part of our Teaching Artists staff since 2023. She is forever grateful for the opportunity to share her love for dance and cultural diversity with her students.
Gaytri Menon
Gaytri Menon was born in Mumbai, India and raised in Dubai, UAE, where she cultivated a practice in Indian Classical Dance at the age of 6. She came across Kathak in 2012 and began her training under the guidance of Guru Pali Chandra. She participated in dance workshops around the world and quickly understood that diversity enhanced every performance and choreography. She is now a student studying Economics at New York University and continues her passion for dance through Dance to Unite. Gaytri started as an Assistant Teacher Intern in 2021 progressed to Lead Teacher and has been part of our Teaching Artists staff since 2023.
brandon weber
Brandon M. Weber is a theater and film artist who is dedicated to making works that break down the stereotypes within the ethnic diaspora. Being a New Orleans native inspired him to be multifaceted in the arts and helped him obtain a BFA in Musical Theatre at The University of the Arts. In the past, he’s worked with MTV VMA's, Telsey & Co, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Actor’s Company Theatre in New York City, and Vital Theatre Company Off-Broadway in various roles (Actor, Stage Manager, Dramaturg, Producer, Social Media Coordinator, Casting Director, Assistant Director, etc.). Currently, Brandon is the CEO of his own company called Under8ted Movement, which is focused on rebuilding the community through art. Brandon joined Dance to Unite in the fall of 2023.
Cara Trinidad
Cara began dancing at 4 years old, receiving predominantly classical ballet training at Academy One Music and Dance Center in Manila, Philippines. By age 11, she was granted a full scholarship. This opened up the path to train and compete in both local and international settings. Some notable experiences being the Asian Grand Prix in 2012, and the Joffrey Ballet Summer Intensive in New York in 2015. Cara is also a recent Bachelor of Music in Dance graduate from the University of the Philippines Diliman. In her senior year, she had already started teaching at her home studio, Academy One. She moved to New York upon graduation and has since been teaching dance at various schools. She specializes in ballet classes for adult beginners and children from 2-10 years old. Dance has been Cara’s lifelong companion. She hopes to give back to the art form by spreading the joy of movement to her students. This means creating a safe space for each child to discover what dance can mean to them. Cara started at Dance to Unite in the fall of 2023.
Amell Garrison
Since their childhood, Amell Garrison has used dance to heal and express themselves. She has included new skills in her interdisciplinary creative practices such as writing, poetry, music, graphic design, film, and screen-dance. When faced with traumatic events and a developed disability, re-imagining the dance world as a nourishing, healing, and accessible space is what brought Amell to pursue a dance career.
For our Teaching Artists: click below to access our password protected Teacher Resources