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 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, Trust for Public Land in Illinois, 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 26 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. Most recently, Ms. Yntema is supporting Penny Saunders’ new production with Ballet Idaho and sponsoring Aszure Barton’s new work with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.
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 and Dance Data Project® have been featured in the book Women and Leadership: Journey Toward Equity by Lisa DeFrank-Cole, Professor and Director of Leadership Studies at West Virginia University and Sherylle J. Tan, Ph. D. a developmental psychologist and Director of Internships and KLI Research at the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College. Ms. Yntema has also been awarded the inaugural Top Tier Feminist Giver Award by Philanthropy Women in March of 2021.
DDP’s ground breaking work is featured in the forthcoming book Turning Pointe: How A New Generation of Dancers is Saving Ballet From Itself due to be published in May 2021.
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.
Ellen FitzGerald
Communications Manager
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. For DDP, she manages external communications, PR, and social media.
Bradford Chin
Special Projects Consultant
San Francisco native BRADFORD CHIN (he/him) is a San Francisco- and Los Angeles-based dance artist, scholar, and DEI/accessibility consultant & audio describer for dance. Described by LA Dance Chronicle as “conceptually fun,” his works have been presented at festivals, museums, and schools. Formerly with AXIS Dance Company, he has performed works by choreographers including Arthur Pita, Jennifer Archibald, and Robert Dekkers, and has additionally danced with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Contempo Ballet, and Laurel Jenkins among others. Specializing in physically integrated dance and inclusive teaching methods, Chin has taught ballet, contemporary modern, improvisation, composition, and jazz techniques in ten states and internationally. For two years, he co-directed stART in partnership with ARTX and with funding by Arts Council for Long Beach. His applied and scholarly research centers on equity, pedagogy, and aesthetics in Western concert dance culture. He earned his BFA in Dance from California State University, Long Beach.
Michayla Kelly
Research & Project Consultant
Michayla Kelly holds a BA in Mathematics and Dance from Goucher College, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and received the Julia Rogers Research Prize for her capstone paper, The Fundamental Shared Essence of Dance and Mathematics. Michayla has performed with ballet, opera, and contemporary companies and is currently the Company Manager for VLA DANCE, an emerging contemporary company in Boston, MA. She is also an educator of both ballet and mathematics and has been commissioned by the state of Massachusetts as an independent data analyst. She is passionate about the intersection of mathematics and social justice and proud to join the DDP team in using quantitative research to advocate for a more just and transparent dance world.
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.
Bailey Walker
Intern
Bailey is a senior dance education major at Southern Utah University. She currently sits as Associate Director for Southern Utah University Dance Organization. Bailey works and teaches throughout her community to bring awareness to and advocate for dance. She is especially passionate about advocacy and research related to gender equity within the arts. Bailey joined the DDP team as an intern in 2021.
