The Dance Data Project® Team
Kaori Higashiyama in Amy Seiwert’s The Nutcracker
Photo by Melissa Gerheart
Courtesy of Sacramento Ballet.
Our Founder
Elizabeth Yntema is the President & Founder of the Dance Data Project®. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for WTTW/WFMT, the Advisory Board of the Trust for Public Land in Illinois and the Board of Directors of the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Liza was graduated from the University of Virginia in 1980 and is 1984 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where she was awarded the annual prize for Outstanding Contribution to Social Justice. Ms. Yntema is a past member of numerous organizations in the Chicagoland area, including the Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Company, Women’s Bar Association, Winnetka Board of the Northwestern Settlement House, the Children’s Home and Aid Society, and the Junior League of Chicago, where she was named as Volunteer of the Year for her work advocating for homeless women and children.
Named to the final full year training cohort of The Philanthropy Workshop (TPW) in 2018, Liza spent a year honing her skills as part of “the next generation of strategic philanthropists.” TPW is a global network of over 450 selected philanthropists, from 22 countries.
Ms. Yntema has underwritten ballets for Sacramento and Pacific Northwest Ballets, the Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Company and BalletX, including world premieres by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa (Mammatus) and Stephanie Martinez (Bliss!). She has also supported works by Penny Saunders, Robyn Minenko Williams, Amy Seiwert and Eva Stone, as well as Nicolas Blanc and Christopher Wheeldon. Liza was Lead Sponsor of Crystal Pite’s work Solo Echo as part of the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Hubbard Street Dance Company.
In May 2018, American Ballet Theatre announced the launch of its ABT Women’s Movement, a multi-year initiative supporting the creation of new works by female choreographers for the company. Ms. Yntema, along with the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund, was an initial Principal Sponsor for this initiative and continues to support its development. Ms. Yntema recently joined the Boston Ballet’s multi-year initiative ChoreograpHER as a Lead Sponsor. Liza also actively supports the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s choreographic initiative for female students, New Voices. Liza’s work is featured in the soon to be published textbook Women & Leadership – Journey Towards Equity.
Kristin Daus
DDP Strategic Operations Manager
Kristin has experience working with diverse organizations and teams to identify and implement solutions which optimize their operations and drive their strategic projects forward. For DDP she manages the overall operations, special projects, and coordinates team communications. She grew up in Delaware, but Chicago is her home as she and her husband have raised their three children here. She is excited to be a part of the DDP team to work to accelerate progress on equity in the performing arts. Kristin has a B.S. in Business Administration from Marquette University.
Isabelle Vail
Director of Research & Development
Isabelle Vail leads DDP’s research team, oversees collaboration with institutional and independent research partners, coordinates new examinations of the state of gender equity in ballet, and spearheads strategic engagement through DDP’s social media channels and auxiliary programming. Prior to becoming DDP’s first full-time staff member in 2019, Isabelle attended Wake Forest University as a Presidential Scholar of Dance, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Psychology and French in 2018. She was awarded the Knox Dance Scholar Award upon the completion of her studies.
Isabelle began consulting for DDP in 2017 as a research assistant under Susan West. She took over as Director of Research in late 2017, actively participating in the founding of DDP as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and advising on the organization’s early research endeavors while completing her undergraduate studies. From 2018-2019, Isabelle resided in Rouen, France, working part-time as a language assistant in two local collèges. A lifelong ballet dancer, Isabelle continues her practice through open classes in New York City, where she now resides, and enjoys attending performances to remain informed on company programming and the incubation of emerging choreographers.
Hannah McCarthy
Archivist/Social Media Manager
Hannah McCarthy is a professional dancer, choreographer, teaching artist, and advocate based in Nashville, TN. In 2018, she received B.A. degrees in Dance and Journalism from Western Kentucky University, where she also completed an undergraduate thesis on feminism and intersectionality in modern dance history. Her passion for equity in the arts and fluency in Spanish led to her current position as Grants Manager for Nashville’s non-profit Hispanic Family Foundation and Baila Dance Studio. Her choreographic works have been funded in part by Nashville’s Metro Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Maggy Fouché
Development Manager
Maggy Fouché has been an active supporter and member of the Chicago cultural scene for over thirty years. After a successful career as a corporate marketing manager with personal care manufacturer Alberto Culver she moved to the arts and culture sector, joining the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. There she managed marketing and related initiatives for the Grant Park Music Festival, the Chicago Cultural Center, city-wide events such as Chicago Artists Month and Chicago Summer Dance, and city-owned venues such as Maxim’s. Later, at the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, she handled publicity, marketing, and fundraising during the organization’s tenth anniversary which included a tour to Havana Cuba and a historic “cultural exchange” performance in Chicago featuring 36 guest artists from Cuba. Since 2017, she has combined her marketing acumen and love of the arts to be a consultant in grant writing, audience development, and fundraising.
Ms. Fouché has also spent time as a volunteer, serving on the boards of various arts organizations includingSee Chicago Dance, the marketing and advocacy organization for Chicago’s non-profit dance sector. Maggy has an MBA from the University of Southern California.
Ellen FitzGerald
Special Projects Consultant
Ellen is a former professional ballet dancer with a wide variety of experience in the education, arts, and nonprofit spaces based in Indianapolis, IN. She has significant interest in women’s representation and equity in the arts, which led her to DDP’s work. She holds a M.S.Ed in Higher Education & Student Affairs and a B.S. in Ballet with an Outside Field in English, both from Indiana University. She joined DDP as a researcher 2020.
Jason Smith
Technology and Digital Lead
Jason has over ten years of project management, design, and software development experience, overseeing digital and design project for small start ups. He arrived at his current position through a circuitous route through studying literature, working in publishing, literary magazines, and other such ventures.
Jason and his team are behind the graphic design of the DDP website, reports, advertisements, and more. He joined the DDP team in 2018 and resides in Chicago.
Jenesis Williams
Intern
A senior in high school, Jenesis Williams is passionate about equality and the arts. She has studied classical ballet at the International Ballet Company for six years, and she has performed in excerpts from The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Coppelia, and more. She attended various ballet summer intensives, including a program at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. She joined DDP as an intern in 2019.
Katherine Wang
Intern
Katherine Wang (she/her) is a high school senior at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. There, she continues her twelve years of training in concert dance with a specific focus on ballet. She currently serves as a Head of the Dance Program and Captain of the varsity-level dance performance ensemble, in addition to having previously directed and choreographed for numerous productions. Currently investigating the role of racial fetishism and cultural appropriation in concert dance as a CAMD Scholar, a summer research fellowship program, Katherine is dedicated to instilling equity into the performance arts.
Lee Nah
Intern
Lee Nah is a senior at Lane Tech High School in Chicago, IL. She has been a dancer since the age of three and currently works with Joffrey Ballet Community Engagement in their Exelon Strobel Dancers Program. As a member of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago Youth Commission, she represents youth voices in Chicago and collaborates with city leaders to develop youth-focused outreach programs. She is an advocate for the destigmatization of mental health and body-image disorders and is passionate about arts equity and social activism.
