Holly Fairbank is currently an arts-education consultant for the Center for Arts Education, a nonprofit organization in New York City, and adjunct lecturer of aesthetic education at Hunter College (CUNY) and the Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY). From 1997 to 2010, she was an assistant director at the Lincoln Center Institute (LCI) at the Lincoln Center. As a choreographer, dancer, and dance educator, Fairbank has taught throughout the United States and Asia. From 1979 to 1989, she was the artistic director of Holly Fairbank & Dancers based in New York City. She has published numerous articles on aesthetic education, and her book Collection, Preservation and Dissemination of Minority Dance in China: An Anthropological Investigation of the 1980’s was translated into Chinese and published by University of Yunnan Press in China. Fairbank is also the co-founder and chairperson of the Maxine Greene Institute, an organization dedicated to preserving and advancing the work of Dr. Maxine Greene. She is currently co-editing a book on the influence Dr. Greene has had on artists, to be published in spring of 2020.

Jennifer L. Farrell’s career has spanned over forty years, most of which was spent as an ordained minister in the Uniting Church of Australia. During her time in ministry, she pursued her specialization in liturgical practices and church music. In particular, Dr. Farrell examined the worship practices of the newly formed Uniting Church, to understand and demonstrate the ritual use of space and action. Her research contributed to an often-overlooked aspect of worship: the nonverbal elements that constitute the basis of worship. Following this career, she completed a Master’s in education at the University of Wollongong (UOW) in Australia. She currently teaches English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) at the University of Wollongong College (UOWC) at UOW and heads the Centre for Language and Culture at the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD), where she focuses curriculum development and research on best practice in the off-shore delivery of university pathway programs. Her current research interest is in pronunciation pedagogy and student engagement in second-language learning.

Diana Hart graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy with a major in dance and a minor in flute. She has a sustained lifelong interest in the arts and language. After earning a BFA in dance from the Julliard School in New York City, she enjoyed a career in dance performance as a soloist in the Martha Graham Dance Company. Later, she returned to academia to earn a Master’s degree in Drid Williams’s Anthropology of Human Movement Program at New York University (1985). Subsequently, Hart co-founded the School-Age Child Care Program at PS 314 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, under the auspices of the Center for Family Life, a social-service agency. There she created free performing arts and literacy programming for children and teens during school and evening hours, as well as partnering with teachers during the school day. On returning to her home state of Michigan in 2001, she taught dance and Spanish language in Kalamazoo public elementary, middle, and high schools. She has recently retired and now actively enjoys several long-term interests, which include writing, growing food, and active participation in the vegan lifestyle by which she has lived for years.

Lynn Martin graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University in 1995 with a BA in psychology. She studied functional anatomy, Ideokinesis, and dance with Dr. Drid Williams (1975-85) and Irene Dowd (1975 to present), in addition to the function and structure of the vocal mechanism with Conrad L. Osborne (1976-94). Martin taught functional anatomy and Ideokinesis at New York University in dance education and the Tisch School of the Arts Dance Department (2000-2017). Her studies in Breathing Coordination with Carl Stough (1975-2000) led her to join the Cecilia Chorus of New York, where she has performed much of the great choral-orchestral repertoire at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. As a member of the Board of Directors of the Stough Institute of Breathing Coordination, she assisted Carl Stough with the preparation of educational videos and public presentations until Stough’s death in 2000. In collaboration with her Swiss colleague, Robin De Haas, Martin continues to teach Breathing Coordination and Ideokinesis workshops internationally, in Geneva, Lausanne, London, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. In addition, Martin and De Haas have created a training program for teachers in Lausanne. Martin maintains a private practice in Breathing Coordination and Ideokinesis in New York City.

JoAnne Page gained certification as a Benesh movement notator, following extensive training in ballet, jazz, contemporary dance, and a variety of somatic practices, including Ideokinesis. While teaching notation at the Victoria College of Arts, she completed a BA in dance teaching in 1987. She then studied with Drid Williams to gain a Master of Arts in the anthropology of dance and human movement at the University of Sydney in 1991. These studies introduced her to sociolinguistics, and she developed an interest in theater of the deaf. She completed a certificate in Australian Sign Language (AUSLAN) on route to a PhD in linguistics at the University of Sydney in 2005. Dr. Page’s doctoral research used storytelling data to examine the mixed AUSLAN-English language uses of deaf signers born to hearing parents. Inspired by Dr. Williams’s teaching, Dr. Page taught linguistics and performance studies at the university level for fifteen years before applying her skills to university administration. As faculty of arts manager and then executive manager for the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Office, she led the university academic reregistration and contributed to curriculum-transformation projects. Now retired, Dr. Page manages Zoran Kovich’s Mindful Action Studio and spends as much time as possible gardening and sewing children’s presents, interrupted by the occasional journal editing for colleagues.

Rajika Puri is a dancer-choreographer trained in two forms of Indian dance: Bharatanatyam and Odissi. She now incorporates these into her form of danced storytelling (Sutradhari Natyam) in which she sings and chants in Sanskrit (sometimes even Greek) as she narrates and dances stories from myth. Puri studied with Dr. Drid Williams at New York University (1980-83) where she was co-editor of JASHM from its inception in 1980 to 1988. Chapters of her MA thesis “A Structural Analysis of Meaning in Movement: The Hand Gestures of Indian Classical Dance” (NYU, 1983) were published in Visual Anthropology and Semiotica. In 1986, Puri left the NYU PhD program for a career in Western theater, which then led her back to performing dance. The year 1998 saw the first of several encounters between Flamenco and Bharatanatyam, and between 2005 and 2009, she devised four productions of dance theater. Puri now curates dance festivals and is renowned for on-stage preperformance lectures and terse, insightful introductions to dance presentations for the World Music Institute, Asia Society, and the Battery Dance Festival, among others. Her articles on various forms of dance and theater can be found on several internet sites, including Narthaki.com (a worldwide site for Indian dance) and ExploreDance.com.