Horton-Ailey with Lakey Evans-Peña
This fall, the Springfield College Dance program invites the community to join in virtual events led by guest artists using dance as a platform and lens to discuss racism. Classes will consist of both movement and discussion.
All classes and discussions will be accessible via Zoom.
ID: 939 8624 2373
Horton-Ailey with Lakey Evans-Peña
Wednesday, December 2
11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. EST
Thursday, December 3
4:30-6 p.m. EST
Lakey Evans-Peña received her undergraduate degree from the University of the Arts and, after receiving a full scholarship, continued her dance training at The Ailey School. She was invited to apprentice and dance with Ailey II under the direction of Sylvia Waters. During the national tours with Ailey II, she began teaching the Horton technique through the company's many lecture/demonstrations and outreach programming. She has performed in Donald Byrd’s The Harlem Nutcracker in three national tours; in Byrd’s work Carmina Burana for the New York City Opera; and in the works of many dance artists, including Ron Brown, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Milton Myers, Eleo Pomare, Hope Clarke, Kevin “Iega” Jeff, and Vernard Gilmore. Peña served as a group leader for New York City Ailey Camp and as a teaching artist for Ailey Art-in-Education and Community Programming, beginning in 1999. She has served as a guest artist/artist-in-residence at Hollins University, New York University Tisch, Montclair State University, STEPS, Peridance, Ballet Hispanico, and the American Dance Festival where she restaged two of Alvin Ailey’s works, Isba and Escapades.
She has been teaching Horton at The Ailey School for more than two decades and has taught in the Junior Division, the Professional Performing Arts School program, and the Professional Division. Peña also has served as a teacher and adjudicator on the national audition tours for the Ailey/Fordham Bachelor of Fine Arts program and the Ailey Summer Intensive for the last 10 years. At her dance studio, the Williamsburg Movement & Arts Center which opened in 2009, she has shared dance with thousands of students in daytime residencies and after-school programming. In 2013, she founded WMAAC Residencies 501c3 (now WRArts), a nonprofit organization providing quality performing arts programming in the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area. She served as the lead teaching artist for the Ailey Dance for Active Senior pilot program conducting two, 10-week residencies in two New York City senior residential living sites. In 2019, Peña assisted Ronni Favors, rehearsal director for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, in the staging of Mr. Ailey’s Memoria, performed by The Ailey School Professional Division students in concert with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for the 2019 City Center season. Currently finishing her Master of Fine Arts degree at Montclair State University, she is conducting research of Lester Horton’s life history and the development of his technique. For her recent thesis concert, she restaged and danced Horton’s 1948 duet, The Beloved, as well as choreographing three new works for the performance.
For more information, contact Sarah Zehnder, director of dance, at szehnder@springfield.edu.
