MFA in Dance Faculty

Allen H. Maniker, MD, FAANS, is the retired Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.  He is a retired Professor of Neurosurgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

A diplomate of the American Board of Neurological Surgeons, Dr. Maniker has served as President of the Peripheral Nerve Task Force of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. He is the author of Operative Exposures in Peripheral Nerve Surgery as well as 48 peer reviewed papers and 18 book chapters.  He has been an invited visiting Professor at several Universities both in the United States and abroad and has made presentations both in the United States and abroad on neurosurgery and peripheral nerve surgery topics.

After graduating from the Juilliard School Department of Dance under Martha Hill he performed with the Sophie Maslow Dance Company, the Bat Dor Dance Company of Israel, The New York Baroque Dance Company and the Joyce Trisler Danscompany. He performed for one season as a guest with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Dr. Maniker then went on to receive his medical degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan.  He completed an Internship in general surgery and a Residency in Neurological Surgery at The New Jersey Medical School.

Emmanuèle Phuon is French-Cambodian and lives between Brussels, Belgium, and New York. She has performed internationally with the Elisa Monte Dance Company (1989 -1994), Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project (1995-2002), Martha Clarke (1997-1999), Joachim Schloemer (2002-2003), Yvonne Rainer (2010-2019) and has worked with an array of artists including Jacklyn Buglisi, Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Deborah Hay, Mark Morris, John Jasperse, Tere O’Connor, Neil Greenberg, Karole Armitage, Fabrice Samyn and Meg Stuart, among others.

Ms Phuon’s choreographic work has been commissioned and presented at the Baryshnikov Arts Centre, New Haven’s Festival of Arts and Ideas, Spoleto Dance Festival in Charleston, Guggenheim Works and Process, Singapore Da:ns festival, and Danspace in New York among other venues. She is the recipient of grants from the Asian Cultural Council, Fondation de France, Un Monde par Tous, the Richard Porter Leach fellowship, the Martha Duffy Memorial Fellowship at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and a 2019 Dance Research Fellowship, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Currently one of seven authorized transmitters of Yvonne Rainer’s work, she has taught workshops and set works in major exhibitions in France, Japan, China, and Sweden—most notably Yvonne Rainer’s Performative Exhibition at Shunju-za Theater (Kyoto) and Yvonne Rainer and Wen Hui: Dance Only Exists When It Is Performed at the Inside-Out Art museum (Beijing). She is currently on faculty at NYU/Tisch Department of Collaborative Arts /Open Arts and at Montclair State University. emmanuelephuon.com

Trebien Pollard is a graduate of Florida A&M University with a BS in Mathematics Education and a MFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He received training at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Florida A & M University, Florida State University, Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, and from a number of gifted teachers and choreographers. Trebien has performed with many dance companies, including Tania Isaac Dance, Nia Love, Martha Graham Ensemble, RIOULT, Pearl Lang Dance Theatre, Rebecca Stenn Co., Erick Hawkins Dance Co., the MET (Metropolitan Opera Ballet), Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Bebe Miller Company and Pilobolus. He has also worked as a guest artist with Urban Bush Women.

As a choreographer, Trebien’s work has been performed throughout United States, England and Japan. He has choreographed and toured, nationally and internationally, with RASA recording artist ‘Nomad’. Trebien has also choreographed William Electric Black’s The Hamlet Project, The Damned: A Rock Musical and Frankenstein: The Rock Musical.

Trebien appeared in Mannic Production’s feature film “Ghostlight”, starring Richard Move as ‘Martha Graham’. As well as appearing in several photography books; In My Stairwell (Mark Seliger), Twisted Yoga (Pilobolus), Body Knots and Passion & Lines (Howard Schatz).  He has been on faculty at the American Dance Festival, Queens College, Adelphi University, the University of Southern Mississippi, Goucher College, Middlebury College and Marymount Manhattan College, as well as a licensed certified GYROTONIC^®  and GYROKINESIS® personal trainer. Currently, Trebien is an Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo.

Susan Pope is a retired dance educator with over 30 years of experience in K-12 schools. She is an adjunct professor and coordinator for the BA program at Montclair State University. She also supervises student teachers at Rutgers University and Hunter College. She has taught dance for the Newark Board of Education and the New York City Department of Education, where she also directed the SUMA/Children’s Aid Society Dance Company. She has danced with Rod Rogers Dance Company and Hudson City Repertory Dance Company.

Susan received her doctorate in Dance Education from Teachers College, Columbia Univ. As an Arnhold Fellow and recipient of the Susan H. Fuhrman scholarship, her research focuses on embodied pedagogy for pre-service teachers through an indigenous and Africanist lens. Along with two other Newark dance educators, Susan was awarded an ArtStart grant to create a documentary, Brick City Dance: A Renaissance Endeavor, which explores the impact of dance education in Newark Public Elementary Schools over the last 20 years. As a published author, Susan has contributed to the depth of knowledge in dance education through journals and books. Her publications include articles in Dance Education in Practice, the International Journal of AAHPERD; I DANCE BECAUSE…, a collection of stories, essays and poems about dance; and DANCING MY PRAYERS, a guide to combining movement and prayer in your devotional life. Her latest book chapter in The Loveliness Project helps elevate the voices of Black women.

Susan leads workshops for dance educators, classroom teachers, and civic organizations on creative movement, hip-hop education, culturally relevant practices, and embodied pedagogy. She is a facilitator for the Dance Education Laboratory in New York and consults through her non-profit organization, I Dance Because. Susan is a frequent presenter for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) Community Engagement Program, providing workshops for the community. She was dubbed the “elders griot” after documenting stories of prominent Black elders in Newark. She also serves on the NJPAC Dance Advisory Council. In May 2000, Susan was invited to the White House to speak at the Raising Responsible and Resourceful Youth conference. Susan spoke on the impact of dance education in the lives of her students. In 1998, she was selected to be in Who’s Who Among American Teachers. Susan served as the director of the St. James AME Church Dance Ministry for over ten years. She is a member of the National Liturgical Dance Ministry Network, National Dance Education Organization, Dance New Jersey, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Susan has a teacher’s heart and believes all teaching spaces should be filled with love, joy, and embodiment.

Claire Porter

Claire Porter, choreographer/performer/writer, known for her comedic text and movement work and her skilled teaching, has performed her work, Claire Porter / PORTABLES, in Scotland, India, Germany, Holland, England, Latvia and Korea and in the New York City area at DTW, Danspace St. Mark’s Church, PS 122, Joe’s Pub, The Kitchen, The Joyce Theater, Joyce SOHO, 92nd St. Y, Town Hall, The Bottom Line, The NY Horticulture Society, NJPAC and Liberty Science Center. PORTABLES has also showcased at the American Dance Festival, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Lucille Ball Festival of Comedy, Bates Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, Florida Dance Festival, The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theater DC, Tampa Bay Off Center Theater, Duncan Theater Palm Beach FL, Center Stage Raleigh NC, The Southern Theater Minneapolis MN and at The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard. Porter appears at fundraisers and special events and created and performed Namely, Muscles, recipient of the NYC Fringe Festival 2010’s Overall Excellence Award, at festivals, conferences, theaters, medical schools and universities. Intrigued by syntax Claire created Sen-tence performed at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater produced by DanceNow that included Falling for Prepositions, Witnessing Adverbs and Pronoun Emergency. At Montclair State University she created Sentenced to Sentences, at NYU, Having Conjunctions and at Purchase College, Out of The Question.

Porter is the recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Residency in Bellagio Italy 2016, a Guggenheim Fellowship 2013, several National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowships, New Jersey State Council for the Arts Choreography Fellowships, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Awards, NewMusicUSA Awards and Commissions from Dance Theater Workshop’s First Light Project, The 92nd St Y Harkness Dance Festival, Art Matters, Meet The Composer, VOGUE Magazine, University Dance Companies and Domino’s Pizza Company. Porter has an MA in Dance from Ohio State, a BA in Mathematics from The College of New Rochelle, is on the Advisory Board of DanceNJ and is a Laban Movement Analyst. Claire is represented by Jodi Kaplan and Associates.

Apollinaire Scherr is the New York-based dance critic for the Financial Times. She has written regularly for the New Yorker, The New York Times, and Newsday, and contributed to Salon, New York magazine, the Village Voice, Elle, the San Francisco Chronicle, Barnard magazine, and Flash Art International. She gave the 2010 keynote address for the Dance Critics Association and received a New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dance Research Fellowship in 2019. She holds a BA in English Literature from the University of California at Berkeley and an MA in English Literature from Cornell University. As a graduate student at Cornell University, she was funded by a five-year Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities. She currently teaches undergraduate seminars on writing on the arts at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in Manhattan and the MFA course Performance Perspectives at Montclair State University. She lives in Sunnyside, Queens.