Sarah Campbell Smith, Esq., LEED AP

Vice President

 

Sarah Campbell Smith is a senior attorney with the law firm of Akerman Senterfitt admitted to practice in both the State of Florida and Washington, D.C.  She advises clients on a variety of matters related to environmental law, including the redevelopment of contaminated properties (brownfields), green energy and climate change, and the environmental liability associated with corporate transactions.  Sarah is a U.S. Green Building Council LEED® Accredited Professional who works on green and sustainable development issues.  Sarah has been passionate about dance since she was a young child.  In high school she was a member of, among other dance teams, the Key West Conchettes and she trained with the famous Kilgore Rangerettes.  Sarah has also been an active volunteer through her membership in the Junior League, and she supports the community through philanthropy as a Miami Art Museum Contemporary and United Way Young Leader.

Arturo Rodriguez

Treasurer

 

BIO COMING SOON!

Malik S. Benjamin

Secretary

 

Malik S.Benjamin is a professor and assistant chair at Florida International University's College of Architecture + the Arts.  However, his love for the arts didn't begin there.  As a child and young adult, Malik studied classical and jazz piano.  In addition, he attended both the Ailey School and the Dance Theatre of Harlem School in New York, where he studied ballet and tap.  Malik holds a professional architecture degree from Cornell University and dual graduate degrees from the University of Miami in design and technology.  He is thrilled to be a part of the Dance Now! family, and hopes to offer his administrative, design and technology skills to Dance Now! while the company fulfills his hunger for beautiful dance.

Sheila Baumgarten

Capital Campaign Consultant

 

For over 30 years, Sheila has been engaged in not-for-profit and arts management, focusing on fund development and expanding community constituencies for mid-sized organizations. For five years she served as a Program Officer for the Koret Foundation, San Francisco, where her portfolio included the arts, the Jewish community, and capital building projects. In San Francisco, she worked with the Museo ItaloAmericano, A Traveling Jewish Theatre, The New Pickle Circus, the Oakland Symphony Orchestra, and Dance Through Time; in Santa Cruz, with Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Tandy Beal & Company, Temple Beth El, and Santa Cruz Hillel.  She came to non-profit management after a decade of professional service in urban and regional planning including five years with the Santa Cruz County Planning Department.

 

Sheila’s volunteer participation includes numerous roles in the Jewish community. In Santa Cruz, she was a founding advisor to the Commission on the Status of Women, the Japanese Cultural Fair, and, over the years, served on various committees of the Cultural Council and on the Board of Advisors of the Louden Nelson Community Center. In San Francisco she was on the founding committee for the Bay Area Celebrates National Dance Week and for four years chaired the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee, producing the Committee’s annual awards ceremony, “The Izzies,” for three years. She represented Koret Foundation on the Arts Loan Fund of Northern California Grantmakers, on the steering committee of the Arts Education Funders Collaborative, and on various grants panels.

Karen Crew, Esq.

Senior Legal Counsel, Northern Trust

 

Karen Crew is a Florida native currently residing in Coconut Grove. She is the Senior Legal Counsel for Northern Trust, N.A. and handles corporate and banking matters for the Bank in the Southeastern United States. She is a member of The Florida Bar, the New York State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Prior to moving to Miami, she practiced in New York with a large mult-inational firm, and attended the New York University School of Law, where she was Article and Note Editor for the NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy. She attended college at the University of Central Florida, where she graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in English Literature.  Karen is actively involved in local political and civic affairs, and became involved with community arts through Dance Now! Ensemble when she first moved to Miami in 2003. She has been an active supporter of the dance company ever since.

Robbie Easton

 

Robbi has been a Key Biscayne resident for the past 16 years.  She earned a B.S. in Communications from the University of Miami, where she also served on the UM Diving Team, and was a member of the US Diving team.  She is Vice-President of the Key Biscayne Athletic Club. Robbi is married to Eddie Easton and is the mother of four boys. Robbi has served on the DNE board for three years.

Olga Granda-Scott

 

Olga Granda-Scott is the Director of Design and Marketing at Alhambra(Antiques) in Coral Gables, where she curates exhibitions of antique, vintage, and contemporary works of art and design.  Olga grew up in Miami where she began her training in classical ballet, later graduating from the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton.  Her performance experience includes the lead role in Miami City Ballet's The Nutcracker and while studying at the School of American Ballet in New York she was selected to perform in the Royal Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty at the Metropolitan Opera House.

 

After spending more than a year studying art history and languages in France and Italy, Olga went on to Davidson College to earn her Bachelor's degree in Religion. An active supporter of the local cultural arts scene, Olga looks forward to returning to the performing arts arena through her involvement with the Dance Now! Ensemble.

Michelle Kates

 

Michelle was born in Peru to Mexican and Cuban parents and was raised in Miami, FL. Michelle studied creative Advertising with a minor in Marketing at Florida International University. She has worked for four years at Richemont Luxury Group doing Marketing for IWC watches in Latin America and Caribbean.

 

Michelle also has a history in the arts. She was a gymnast as a child, then transitioned into dance doing ballet, modern, jazz and hip hop for over 7 years. Her passion for the arts is what attracted her to Dance Now Miami, and she is very excited to join the board and give back to the community of the arts.

Tiffany Hill

Advisory Board

 

Tiffany Hill is the former Executive Director of the Dance Institute of Washington, one of DC’s largest African-American arts institutions.  She has also served as the Artistic Director of the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood where she was responsible for developing, coordinating and growing the Center’s performing arts season.  In November of 2008, Ms. Hill appeared in Southern Living magazine for her work as the producer of OceanDance, south Florida’s premiere outdoor dance event.  Over the years, Ms. Hill has been selected to serve on several grant review panels for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, State of Florida, Miami-Dade County and the City of Hollywood. She has also had the pleasure to have served as a board member and advisor for several non-profit organizations and festivals including the Cooperative Farm Initiative for Haiti, Dance Now Ensemble, Florida Dance Association, Women’s International Film Festival and the Miami Dance Festival.

 

Ms. Hill has more than 15 years of dance-related experience. Having studied various forms of African and Latin dance, she has performed and competed on stages across the US, including the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  As an avid arts enthusiast, her resume includes both volunteer and professional experience with several dance studios, community theaters and festivals throughout Washington, D.C. and south Florida.  After earning her B.S. in Business Administration from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, she spent several years in the corporate sector before finding her passion within the arts community. She currently resides in the DC metro area and continues to support the arts through various endeavors.

Michael Uthoff

Advisory Board

 

Michael founded and directed the Hartford Ballet after dancing with Jose Limon and the Joffrey Ballet, as well as other dance Masters at Juilliard. Uthoff left the Hartford Ballet after a 20-year tenure to direct Ballet Arizona from 1992 to 1999.

 

Since then he has choreographed and taught throughout United States and abroad, including The New World School of the Arts, Regional and National High School Dance Festivals, Interlochen, and Goucher College. He recently created L'Histoire du Soldat on Andanza of Puerto Rico for the Casals Music Festival and created a new work for the Zig Zag Ballet of Connecticut.

 

In March 2003, the Michael Uthoff DanceTheatre debuted in Arizona. Uthoff also serves as advisor to the Directorate of DNE.

 

Photo: Harumi Abe

Harvey J. Burstein

Advisory Board

 

Harvey J. Burstein, has had a life-long interest in and involvement with the arts. Carrying out the traditions of his family, as Executive Director of the Burstein Family Foundation, he has supported cultural and social justice activities both in South Florida and in his home town of Chicago for many years. He has long-term associations with a number of theaters in both places, including Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater, its main stage named after his father, as is New Theatre's, and he has produced a number of plays in Miami and Chicago including Jon and Juan's Wedding; The Trouble with Peggy and Big Wind on Campus. He is the Chairperson of the Miami Beach Arts Trust and Co-Chairperson of the board of directors of New Theatre.