Cynthia Adams, a recent Rhode Island transplant, is Artistic Director of Fellow Travelers Performance Group (FTPG) founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1993. The company was active in producing their own work as well as many artists in the Bay Area, For the past sixteen years Cynthia continued producing and touring work while based in Iowa where she was faculty at Iowa State University and recently became Teaching Professor Emerita of Kinesiology.
Ms. Adams served on the American College Dance Association (ACDA) board of directors and currently serves with the ACDA Screen Dance Committee. Cynthia is a Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider® (YACEP®), Pilates trainer, and BioMechanics Method Corrective Exercise Specialist.
Vision: I am looking to connect with the dance community and contribute toward building an atmosphere that actively supports each other in creating a vibrate, diverse, inclusive dance scene.
Laura Bennett, Treasurer, is managing director of Dancing Legacy and school director of Fusionworks Dance Center. A Brown University graduate, she has studied, performed, and taught techniques and repertory of the 20th century American concert dance lineage, beginning with her early training at the Harlem Dance Studio, led by her mother Julie Adams Strandberg and her aunt Carolyn Adams. She holds a dance education certificate from 92nd Street Y, New York, and has taught dance and theater in schools, colleges, community centers, private studios, and summer programs, including 33 years at the New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Dance where she was associate artistic director. Outside of dance, Laura enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, studying the Bible, following sports, and listening to podcasts.
Vision: I would love to see RIDA become an entity that can help frame and harness Rhode Island's unique, small-state power to become a pilot-site and model for dance activity that crosses boundaries, supports collaborative endeavors, and builds an engaged, literate audience.
Lea D'Arminio is a Providence, RI-based choreographer, educator, and artist. Her career mission is to keep “every movement and artistic process as cool and fun as making dance films to sassy TLC songs with my friends as a kid.” As a major collaborator and contributor to the Rhode Island dance and arts community, she directs the elemdi performance collaborative, works as a resident artist with Metamorphosis Dance Company). She serves as the Dance Coordinator and integration specialist at Moses Brown School (K-12). She offers dance and movement classes to adult communities throughout Providence. She has a BA from Boston College and a master’s from Columbia University. https://leadarminio.com/
Vision: My vision for my place in the Rhode Island Dance Alliance (RIDA) Board is fundamentally simple: to cultivate an environment where our community can see, hear, and do more dance by building solid infrastructure for communication, visibility, and genuine accessibility.
Tania Geist believes dance is about catharsis and whimsy. Her formative dance years were in Chicago, training and performing mainly at the Ruth Page Foundation and later specializing in jazz, lyrical, and musical theatre. She also danced in New York, Florence Rome, Oxford, and choreographed at the University of Notre Dame. Currently, she runs a small business as an editor and event facilitator. She is also teaching and developing programming for MDC, including classes for adults 30+ without formal training, as well as children’s programming that is neurodivergent-friendly.
Vision: I am passionate about increasing accessibility to the beauty of dance for: the young and old, the neurodivergent, total newbies, and those who can’t afford classes. Getting out of our head sand into our bodies through dance helps us feel human. I would love to help develop programming for RIDA that brings people together from many diverse circles over a love of dance.
Nina Kossler, Secretary, is an Assistant Professor of Dance and Director of PC Dance Company at Providence College. She previously taught at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Valdosta State University, Ball State University, and Purdue University. She has also taught for the Mark Morris Group and Liberate Artists. She holds an MFA in Dance (Choreography) from UNC Greensboro and a BA in Dance from Muhlenberg College Her concert and screen dance choreography has been presented at the Global Water Dances Film Festival, and more. Nina performed as a member of Crossroads Dance Indy, a nonprofit multigenre dance company, and as a collaborator with Ballet INitiative.
Vision: My vision for RIDA is about building connections with the dance community as a shared resource for resilience and creation. As a newer resident of New England, I want to learn more about our shared community and contribute my own experiences in any way that I can.
Wendy Oliver, Past President, EdD, MFA, is Professor Emerita of Dance and Women’s & Gender Studies at Providence College, in the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Film. Currently, she dances, writes dance articles, teaches dance at Lifelong Leaning Collaborative, and serves as the President of The Village Common of RI board of directors. At PC, she served as a choreographer and directed the Providence College Dance Company. She has published in Research in Dance Education, Dance Chronicle, Journal of Dance Education, and served as Editor-in-Chief of JODE from 2014-2020. Her books include Writing about Dance, the co-edited Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches, and Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century, by UPF, 2022, among others.
Vision: To see dance flourish and connections deepen amongst members of the RI arts community.
Andy Russ is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, educator and producer, based in Providence, RI. For over 35 years, he has been making and helping others make art. Originally from North Carolina, he spent 10 years in New York City, surfing the downtown dance scene, while acting as Music Supervisor for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. In 2005, he relocated to Rhode Island to take on the role of Artistic Coordinator for cellist Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project. As a designer, he has created soundscores, lighting, and projections for over 100 dance, theatre, film, and radio productions. He is a founding Co-Director of the nonprofit presenting organization Motion State Arts, a Resident Artist at the Wilbury Theatre Group, an Adjunct Professor of Dance at Roger Williams University, and most recently a Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University. Since 2014, he has been creating original multimedia performances under the moniker Passive Aggressive Novelty Company.
Colin Stilwell is an adjunct professor at Salve Regina University and a faculty member with Newport Contemporary Ballet, where he teaches contemporary dance techniques for both the academy and the company. His choreography has been presented at Aunts, Dixon Place, Hofstra University, Hunter College, Roger Williams University, Providence College, Brown University, and more. In 2024, his dance film "Remerge" received an IGNITE Series Award from the Brown Arts Institute, and in 2025, his film "Catching Fire" premiered at the EcoPerformance Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Croatia.
Vision: I envision the future of RIDA as an organization rooted in a community of people who share the mission to uplift, support, and empower dance artists, dance makers, dance enthusiasts, and anyone who loves to move and groove in any genre. RIDA will be a vibrant outlet for those seeking self-expression and creativity– a center for community engagement
Joshua Tuason, Board President, is a Providence, RI-based dance artist and somatic educator. He is an Associate Professor at The Boston Conservatory and a teaching artist at Hollins University. Certified in Cunningham Technique and Alexander Technique, he is also an approved Registered Somatic Movement Educator through ISMETA. He has previously taught at Rhode Island College, Roger Williams University, Dean College and Ballet RI. As a performer he was a member of the Martha Graham Ensemble and eight years with the Stephen Petronio Dance Company. Freelance performance work with dance artists Yvonne Rainer, Pam Tanowitz, John Heginbotham, Ian Spencer Bell, Ellen Cornfield, and the Merce Cunningham Trust. He began his dance artistry in a public-school outreach program run through the San Francisco Ballet and holds a BFA from Marymount Manhattan College.
Vision: To foster a sense of belonging so that everyone is empowered with an embodied sense.
Alicia Wilder is Rhode Island-based mover, creator & events producer who believes that art and movement should be accessible to all, using her platform to further this mission. Since graduation from Rhode Island College (2010) with a B.A. in Dance, she has been working with Pawtucket-based TEN31 Productions for 15 years. In 2014, she founded Metamorphosis: The TEN31 Dance Company (MDC), which has expanded to a community dance and performance space focusing on inclusivity and creating a safe space for all. She currently works for Cranston High School West (RI) & Tabor Academy (MA) as their musical choreographer, and is a dancer for Buoy Band and elemdi performance collaborative. Her passions also include cosplay, costume creation, and podcasting.
Vision: My vision for my role as an Elected Director begins with empowering and supporting the dance community, and continues with creating accessible arts programing and communication, and strengthens the dance industry in Rhode Island.