volunteer spotlight
March 2010
Brian Austin
1. how did you first stumble upon Dance Parade?
When dance parade was first starting up, I was asked by a fellow member to give some creative aid to dance parade and I have been involved ever since the beginning.
2. what is your current role in Dance Parade?
Creative Emcee.. I mean.. Director.
3. what is your favorite style of dance to watch?
TAP!!!! House, Hip hop, Salsa, ballroom and Belly Dancers
to participate in? Have teacher, will participate. But id love to learn how to tap!
4. what is your dance background?
no formal training what so ever. I have been going to club and have participated in a few choreographed dance routines with my cousin since I was in high school. But house music is where the heart is.
what projects are you working on in the future?
5. if you could share the stage with anyone in history famous or not, living or deceased, a trained dancer or not, performing a routine choreographed by yourself...who would it be? Gregory Hines
6. what does the Dance Parade slogan "one parade, many cultures" mean to you?
It's the joining of all cultures with there different styles and flavors to come together a groove as one element… showing their colors and culture through the art of dance and costume.
7. what does this year’s campaign slogan "UNITED WE DANCE" mean to you?
United we dance just adds the emphasis of all nationalities coming together in newyork and expressing themselves through the art of body movement.
8. if you could pick a Grand Marshall for this year's parade....who would it be? It's a toss up.. if we can go legendary.. id say debbie allen
9. part of volunteering has a lot to do with strong leadership skills and major teamwork skills....if you were to pick a volunteer of the month...who would you choose? There are so many talented individuals in dance parade. But Chauncey has been putting in some hard work with the social networks, blogs, and facebook.
10. if you could pick another country to hold a Dance Parade and Festival....which would it be?
South America or Africa
11. volunteering at a non profit organization can at times be daunting and frustrating with limited personnel and limited funding....what is it that keeps you coming back for more and more?
I feel that I am doing this for an amazing cause. The idea of dance has much more to offer than simple eye candy and entertainment. It teaches, it encourages, it inspires, and it forms community. So for every hour that I spend a day doing creative's for dance parade as well as joining in team meetings and more, I know that when we complete our goal in putting together not only a successful parade, we are planting a seed in New York that will grow into a strong beautiful tree with its roots spread far and wide. Yes.. it feels good.
12. describe your most special memory from Dance Parades past?
Leading the Parade in dance parade 2009 holding up the dance parade banner with fellow Volunteers… Priceless.
13. what salesman pitch would you use to attract a new volunteer into the cult that is Dance Parade?
"do you got groove? Well I got something for you… dance parade! Join me and my team to help put groove back into New York!"
14. when it comes to constructing a campaign creative for an non profit or for any organization for that matter...can you give us maybe five major steps involved ending with number 6 being "delivering the final product". tell us a little about each step and which ones you enjoy and which ones you don't.
yes. 5 simple steps.
1. Attention. You need to grab your target audiences attention with the design. Some can use imagery, in this case someone dancing our a group of people dancing.. full color posters showing the dance moves etc. or the text, strong clean and to the point text that say.. DANCE.
2. Able to keep the consumers Interest. People need to know about the event and how it can help them out.
3. next it to tempt them with the third which is the Desire… So in this case we have to give some examples of what is going on… emphasis… More elements of dance, words that describe what is going to be at the event. Etc.
4. Action action action! after all is said and done people want to know how they can be apart of dance parade.. how they can donate, or attend… so your web address or phone number or some form contact is a must!
5. are you satisfied?… well.. its like giving someone a pie with no filling.. Lets give it the works with a scoop of ice cream to make sure that the graphic was successful on all levels.. in this case.. what was advertised was delivered and your consumer is happy.
6. there is no 6. I use one hand to hold a pencil and create.. I hold a pencil with one hand and one finger… crazy?
15. what would be your dream creative multimedia exhibit or experiment to add to the Dance Parade presentation....? stage setup....internet interaction etc.....
I’d like to do a 9 commercial add campaign featuring different genres of dance..with the 9th one being all forms of dance in one commercial promoting the event for the last month..
January 2010
DJ McDonald
How did you first stumble upon Dance Parade?
How many years have you been involved?
I forget how exactly i first stumbled on the Parade. I probably got an email. I’ve been involved since the very first year when i danced down Broadway to Washington Square with the Dance Manhattan Float. In 2008, i volunteered day of Parade as a spacer and danced behind the Bolivians in front of a ballet school from the Bronx. One of the ballet girls, i would guess about 10 or 11 years old, held the school’s banner with a slightly older and bigger boy. I kept teasing her with my dancing and she kept rolling her eyes until i finally got a smile out of her with my unrelenting foolishness. That convinced me of the irresistible nature of the parade's mission and appeal.
Last year i joined the Outreach Committee and served as Dance Police captain on the day of the Parade, overseeing the issuing of tickets to spectators not dancing during the Parade and Festival.
What is your current role in Dance Parade?
I serve as the chair of the Staffing and Volunteer Committee and i will recruit, enlist, seduce or persuade you by puckish charm and/or persistence, as you prefer.
What is your favorite style of dance to watch? To participate in?
I like to watch any kind of dance in which the dancers fully engage themselves, no matter what their level of skill or presentation. That makes me want to participate, which i do at almost every opportunity. I have been known to be a regular at Midsummer Night’s Swing and other types of dance events around the city. I’ll try anything, and more than once, though i'll be the first to admit that the results ain’t always pretty.
What is your dance background?
What projects are you working on in the future?
I first discovered dance as a kind down the street with the teenage Bowen girls who used to put on the Supremes and dance in their bedroom. But i didn’t really get bitten until, at the age of 19,my girlfriend at the time dragged me to my first live concert dance performance in Boston. The second show i saw included Alvin Ailey’s "The River" to music created for the piece by Duke Ellington. It blew me out of the theater and changed my life forever. Right then and there, i decided that my career as a college (jayvee) hockey player had come to an end, and pappa found a brand new bag.
Within five years i had founded my own professional contemporary dance and theater company, which i led for 15 years before going freelance. Currently, i feel honored to be working with five other performers on "Nameless forest," http://mappinternational.org/programs/view/215 a creation of the NYC based choreographer/director Dean Moss in collaboration with the Seoul-based sculptor and poet Sungmyung Chun and with photojournalist Mike Kamber, visual artist Gandalf Gaván, composer Stephen Vitiello, and lighting designer Vincent Vigilante. The piece will be unveiled in stages before its full premiere at the Kitchen, NYC in May, 2011.
As a choreographer/director, i like to work with large groups diverse in ethnicity, age and physical discipline. So running with your fantasy i’d like to throw Sappho, Socartes, Siddhārtha Gautama, Cleopatra, Mary Magdalene, Ghengis Khan, Rumi, Caedmon, Fa Mu Lan, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Murasaki Shikibu, Hildegard von Bingen, Geoffrey Chaucer, Dante Alighieri, Caludio Monteverdi, Leonardo DaVinci, William Shakespeare, Galileo Galiliei, Sour Jauna, Saartjie Baartman, Voltaire, David Hume, Arthur Schopenhauer, Abraham Lincoln, Emily Dickinson, Sojourner Truth, Walt Whitman, Liliʻuokalani, Émile Zola, Anne Frank, Rabindranath Tagore, Gandhi, Edith Piaf, J. Robert Oppenheimer and his brother Frank, Roy Campanella (in his wheelchair), Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, John Coltrane, Martin Luther King, Jr., Che Guevara, Bobby Kennedy, Roberto Clemente, Josephine Baker, Frida Kahlo, Nina Simone, Maurice Richard, Ella Fitzgerald, Dith Pran, Mordechai Richler, Mother Theresa, Christopher Reeve, Frank McCourt, Jacques Derida, Galway Kinnell, Seamus Heaney, Leonard Cohen, Jennifer Johanos, Torvill and Dean, Yoshiko Chuma, Uchechi Kalu, Shivika Sinha, Stephen Hawking, Lorry Francois, and my mother (in her wheelchair) onstage together. Glad you asked.
If you could pick a Grand Marshall for this year's parade....who would it be?
Among the living? Bill T. Jones, Beyonce, Rob Marshall, Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama, DJ Rekha and/or Stephen Hawking. (we usually feature several).
A major part of volunteering has a lot to do with strong leadership skills and major teamwork skills....if you were to pick a volunteer of the month...who would you choose?
For those qualities? Mia Hamm, Hilary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and/or Harry Reid. Within our group: Barbara Anglisz and/or Brian Austin (guess you’ve been nominated, guys).
If you could pick another country to hold a Dance Parade and Festival....which would it be?
China. Then, after they have time to recover, Haiti.
Volunteering at a non profit organization can at times be daunting and frustrating with limited personnel and limited funding....what is it that keeps you coming back for more and more?
Well, since you put it that way, it must be the challenge. And the shared sense of struggle. Not to mention the dancing.
And finally...What would you say to attract a new volunteer to help out with Dance Parade?
You’re going to meet some of the most vital and creative people you will ever meet, from every corner of the globe and all walks of life. You’re going to work hard with these new found friends and compatriots to produce something amazing. You’re going to help unfold something that celebrates the diversity, excitement and imaginative possibility of life and love as it manifests now in New York City. And you’re going to have the opportunity to dance your way to a new place in your life.
---------------------------------------------------------------
December 2009
Shireen Dickson, Production Director
How did you first stumble upon Dance Parade?
How many years have you been involved?
i was out of town during the first dance parade, and I said that the next year no matter what i was going to be part of it in some way ( I put it in my calendar to look up the following year). DP combines two of my favorite things—spectacle and dancing—beyond the volunteering aspect. I figured taking on a leadership role (and I had the time) would get me directly into the action, and I was right, hooked for life.
What is your current role in Dance Parade?
currently, Head of Production
What is your favorite style of dance to watch?
To participate in?
favorite style to watch—authentic, when i can feel the performer in my body
favorite style to participate --- freestyle
What is your dance background?
What projects are you working on in the future?
I started with tap, danced w the National Tap Ensemble as a teen...Dolly Dingle Competition kid as a teen also, when i wanted to get more ‘dance’ experience...graduated from Goucher College w/ degree in dance history. I have worked w/ Dianne McIntyre since 1998, modern dance, theater, universities, etc. working w/ live jazz musicians and improv—all over the country—National Black theater festival, National Black Arts Festival, Lincoln Center, BAM, Kennedy Center, American Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, etc.
I do too much stuff. I also am involved in lots of education also, teaching, etc. I was just laid off from Streb, as their Director of Education (crazy daredevil dance co)...since then i freelance—Company Manager for Slippage in residence @ MIT (and performing @ joyce soho dec 11-13), Company Manager for Mirashayama Music which is a collection of dance companies that preserve and present American Black Dance (in schools, universities, residencies, etc). After my show next week I’m going to be a tapper in a tap video and then workshop on a jazz musical that hopefully will get some producers and run in the Spring.
If you could share the stage with anyone in history famous or not, living or deceased, a trained dancer or not, performing a routine choreographed by yourself...who would it be?
Katherine Dunham....or Josephine Baker if she wasn’t available
What does the Dance Parade slogan “one parade, many cultures” mean to you?
What does the new Dance Parade 2010 campaign “United We Dance” mean to you?
One parade stands for a symbol of unity and a common language. How many times have i been in a foreign country where my ears don’t register a dang thing (not like in France or Portugal, but like Bulgaria or Taiwan) but you don’t have to say a thing on the dance floor?
“United We Dance” represents the whole dancing in the streets thing. It’s mass mobilization, a symbol of decisive civic action by a collective of people identified and unified by their love of dancing
Considering your efforts and position this year in Dance Parade, what would you want a brand new spectator of the magic that is Dance Parade to walk away with when they go home after witnessing the Parade and Festival that follows?
the unity thing...i invite people across the spectrum of my life to the parade—my Queen’s cousins with kids, evil financial analysts, ‘round the way teens, Flatbush Rastas, all the single ladies, city workers, kooky artists—and they all are amazed at how much they enjoy themselves and the interactions they have with others.
Beyond remembering the dedication and caliber of the dancers involved, I want people to carry that feeling with them for as long as they can.
If you could pick a Grand Marshall for this year’s parade....who would it be?
Judith Jamison, Rosie Perez, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Diplo, Tommy Tune, Shane Sparks, Deborah Jowitt, Savion Glover
A major part of volunteering has a lot to do with strong leadership skills and major teamwork skills....if you were to pick a volunteer of the month...who would you choose?
Mel, no doubt!
If you could pick another country to hold a Dance Parade and Festival....which would it be?
Brazil! or China
Volunteering at a non profit organization can at times be daunting and frustrating with limited personnel and limited funding....what is it that keeps you coming back for more and more?
I love dance, i believe in the cause, i love people for the most part 
And finally...What would you say to attract a new volunteer to help out with Dance Parade?
For all of those people who like making things happen with other people who like making things happen...people who are passionate about something and self-driven...people who have an open artistic sensibility and adventurous spirit and want that to keep getting fed!
Every month, the all volunteer staff at Dance Parade New York will choose a particular volunteer to spotlight. We ask them a few questions about how they heard about Dance Parade, their background in Dance and much more. This section will give you an opportunity to learn a little bit more about one of our volunteers and understand their devotion to the group and why they keep coming back. If you’d like to become a volunteer please email DJ at for more information.
