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.
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 began consulting for DDP in 2017 while studying as a Presidential Scholar of Dance at Wake Forest University, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Psychology and French. A lifelong ballet dancer, Isabelle’s understanding of ballet, its repertoire, community, and technique is extensive. Isabelle manages the DDP database and maintains a record of repertoire from which she generates reports on the inclusion tendencies of domestic ballet companies and other major players in the dance world. Her other duties include coordinating the communication of DDP findings with our collaborators, managing the website, creating content for the DDP social media accounts, and driving DDP’s efforts to encourage equity and inclusion within the dance community.
After a year abroad teaching English to middle-school students in Rouen, France, Isabelle transitioned her role as Director of Research to a full-time position in May 2019. Isabelle works and resides in Manhattan.
Hannah McCarthy
Archivist/Social Media Manager
Hannah McCarthy is a professional dancer, choreographer, teaching artist, and researcher 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 her to her current position as Baila Program Director and Ballet Teacher at Nashville’s non-profit Hispanic Family Foundation. She joined DDP as Archivist and Researcher in 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.
