
Learn more about the artists & performers for UNITY 2020 4HEALING.

katina mcclain
Danko Productions Director and Creator of UNITY 2020
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Dance is my medicine for maintaining emotional and physical wellness. Dance allows me to think and forget about all the pain and sadness in the world. I dance to heal and to educate those in need of nutrients for the mind-body and soul. I need dance, we need to dance because the movement is what keeps us moving in life. Therefore, I choose to dance in order to keep living.
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My work methods for choreography are a mix of inspiration from others and what I feel inside. Sometimes I work alone but prefer to work with others, I have created a unique collaboration style when it comes to the production and development of pieces. This is because we don’t live in a vacuum, we need each other and so my work can’t be produced or presented as an individual.
UNITY 2020 4HEALING is my current project and it asks us to reflect on our interpersonal relationships and those within the larger community, as the citizens of the world try to make sense and survive through the Covid-19 Pandemic. The aim is to have the participants reflect on issues such as health and wellness (physical & emotional), violence, income inequities, racial and gender inequities. They will create a community dance and engage in an interactive dance with the performers of the show. My desire is to provide my audience with the ability to fully participate and be one with the performances and have the opportunity to connect to the art. We all are one and we aim to create a space for healing, connecting, and celebrating life, friendship, and love. The community is a part of our work and hope is they will feel as though they are part of the production as the other artists. We can only move forward and progress if we put the pieces together in order to become ONE.

ANNA MAYTA
Director of Mayta Fusion Dance & Co-Creator of UNITY 2020
Anna Mayta grew up in Chile and is a dance improviser, choreographer, and instructor. In November 2008, she received a certificate to teach yoga from Svyasa Swami Vivekananda Yoga University in Bangalore, India. In 2006, she was awarded a dissemination award from the Dutchess County Arts Council in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Ms. Mayta has been teaching, performing, and choreographing for over 15 years. She has developed two programs throughout this time period. One is teaching the Spanish language through movement, and the other is fusion dance, which centers on the incorporation of African, Classical Indian, Flamenco, Modern and Latin dance styles. She has traveled for her work to Bangalore, Pune, Lucknow, and Bombay in India. Additionally, she has taught for The National Ballet of Zimbabwe in Africa, in England, and in the greater Boston Area.
Anna is currently working in the Mid-Hudson Valley and directing her dance company called Mayta fusion dance based in Poughkeepsie NY.Her choreographed solos, such as “Fusion,” “Flamenco Fusion,” and “Veiled” (a metaphor for the plight of women in Afghanistan) have been performed in New York City, the Mid-Hudson Valley, Boston, and India. Anna has collaborated for many years with artists Gigi Oppenheimer and Jazz singer Maiko Hata. Recently Mayta performed in NYC a piece in collaboration with pianist O Zotique

NICK JACKSON
Owner of A.B.E. & Headlining Choreographer
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Nick started dancing at 5 years old during Family events and Talent shows. His natural passion for dance would carry through his teens where he would form his own Dance Crew Circus Freaks as Enigma and perform at open mics, charity events, and even auditioning for So You think you can Dance in 2015. He’s been teaching Hip-Hop and Water Style dance which is a combination of Gliding, Body waves, and Lyrical movements for 8 years and started teaching classes and workshops.
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Today he still Dances with his crew and goes by Nico in the dance world and runs his own Media Production company A.B.E (All Black Everything) Productions as Well as his own Dance studio, Rhythm of Water in Arlington New York, where he looks to spread his influence and inspiration everywhere he goes.

Kathryn Boland
Dance/Movement Therapist & Headlining Choreographer
Kathryn Boland is a Rhode Island-based dance/movement therapist, dance writer, dancer, and overall arts enthusiast. She began dancing at age thirteen, while also heavily involved in theater, and soon became enamored with all things artistic. She studied Dance, Theater, English, and Art History at The George Washington University and graduated with a BA in Dance. Her path then led her to yoga and Dance/Movement Therapy, attuning her to matters of trauma, power, privilege, oppression, and how those things intersect with our bodies and how they move. That rising awareness led her to political organizing and policy advocacy.
You can find her writing in various locations, but chiefly Dance Informa (danceinforma.com) and Yoga U Online (yogauonline.com). When not working or organizing, Kathryn enjoys nature, reading, comedy, music, and a cup of coffee with a good friend (socially distanced and masked these days, of course).