Our Team

Yana Landowne
Co-Executive Director and Board Member

Ms. Landowne is an accomplished Performing Arts Director for many years, including directing at the Harold Clurman, the Linhart, the Judith Anderson,and the Greenwich Street Theater,also the Public Theater, HERE, 45 Bleeker, NADA, Ohio, P.S. 122, Roundtable Ensemble, Metropolitan Playhouse, and the Tenement Museum. She is currently the Resident Director for the Billionaires for Bush Follies. She holds an MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama and a BFA in acting from NYU. For more info check out yana.landowne.org

Greg Miller
Founder, Co-Executive Director and Board Member

Having worked 18 years in management for Fortune 500 companies, Greg Miller is now serving the public sector after creating Dance Parade Inc in 2007. Drawing from 9 years of living abroad, Greg seeks to anchor the Dance Parade vision by encouraging as many colorful and vibrant forms of movement as possible - nourishing a network of those who will cross generations and cultures to unite and celebrate under a single form of art. Motivated by the healing qualities of dance, he practices Salsa, Swing, Roller and the 5 Rhythms.

Peter Zehren
Board Member

Peter Zehren has been a professional fundraiser for 27 years staging major appeals and raising millions of dollars for various causes. He has also spent 25 years in radio wearing several hats: Fundraising Director, News Director, Business Manager and Producer of, as well as the character voices on, the internationally acclaimed children’s radio show Secret Clubhouse. He has been listed in the 5th edition of Personalities of America from the American Biographical Institute. He has performed on stage with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, danced at the Minnesota Star Ball and sang at Carnegie Hall. In addition to a degree in Mass Communications, he holds a BA in Ballroom Dance.

Trevor
Board Member

Trevor is a native New Yorker who has contributed to and enjoyed our City's dance, art, community, and nightlife events for over ten years. He is thrilled to bring his experience as an event producer, musical artist, lawyer, dancer, and lover to the groundbreaking first annual Dance Parade New York.

Brian K. Austin
Creative Director

Brian Keith Austin's need to express his love of dance and making people groove has been with him from the very beginning. Going by Aero mc he's represented at events such as the New york Tokyo Music Festival, Cut & Paste Design tournament SayWord Entertainment & Electronic Dance music parties with notable names such as TZ Islam, Talib Kweli Moving Fusion, Bad Company, Hired Gunn, Kenny Ken, Ill-isha, Dj Prayin Mantis & many more!. An energetic, creative web & art coordinator by day and musical beast by nigh, Brian K. Austin reaches out to touch souls who love the art of dance. Through his voice he releases great energy that gets the masses moving in rhythm. Music is a way of life, so let's dance to keep it alive.

Mariana Bekerman
Festival Production Director

Mariana Bekerman was born in the Ukraine and emigrated with her family to NYC in 1979. After graduating from LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts, she received her BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1996. After receiving her degree, Bekerman danced and choreographed for various companies, resorts, choreographers, off-off Broadway plays, and music artists. In 2000, she founded the Mariana Bekerman Dance Company and has since choreographed more than twenty original dances for her company that have been presented at more than 35 venues and festivals. In addition to her work for and with the14-member MBDC, she continues to free-lance as a dancer and choreographer for other artists and productions, and assists with the production of other dance concerts and events, such as the New York City Dance Parade and the American Dance Guild.

Jessica Sawhney
Finance Team

Jessica Sawhney was born and raised in Miami Florida before moving to Atlanta, Georgia to attend Emory University. While pursuing a double major in political science and psychology, Jessica was actively involved in Emory's undergraduate Student Government Association and various dance organizations. After graduating in 2007, Jessica began her career as a Private Banking analyst at JPMorgan advising ultra high-net worth clients and their unique financial situations. Though new to New York City and the corporate world, Jessica is excited to get involved with community organizations like Dance Parade New York. Dance has been a big part of Jessica's life, both as a child and now as an adult. She has developed a strong passion for hip-hop dance having lived in music rich environments like Miami and Atlanta. In college, Jessica broadened her dance background by joining an Indian Bhangra Dance team which brought her closer to her own culture. Jessica is thrilled to be part of an organization at combines the promotion of cultural diversity and dance in the most vibrant city in the country.

Sam Cohen
Legal Affairs Director and Secretary

Sam Cohen is a second year law student at Brooklyn Law School, focusing in creative intellectual property issues and advanced civil litigation. Between his undergraduate studies and law school, he worked for three years as a commercial litigation paralegal and administrator for the law firm of Jaffe & Asher, LLP. He received his B.A. from Hampshire College in 2003 with a focus in international relations, and spent the school year 1998-99 abroad in Jerusalem, studying at Hebrew University while interning at a local entertainment newspaper. Devoted to the arts and to organizing events to bring art to the people, Sam revived and rebuilt the then-dormant Hampshire College Slam Poetry Collective during undergrad and currently serves as a founding organizer of the East Village's Theory Events Collective, which since 2006 has produced free art and music events at local venues such as China1, Karma and Niagara. His first book of poems, Strange Fire, is available from Destructible Heart Press.

Samir Bitar
Marketing Director

Samir Bitar is a dancer and arts manager based in Brooklyn, New York. Samir's affair with dance began as an undergraduate dance student of Theresa Dickinson's at New College of California in San Francisco. Since college he has studied dance and composition at the Merce Cunningham Studio, Bates College and the prestigious Royaumont Centre de Recherche et de Composition Choreographique in France. In 2003 Samir launched The Art of Consulting, an arts consultancy firm. In 2007 he graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a master's degree in in arts management. Currently Samir is the Executive Director of Sens Production.

Tatiana Smith
Marketing Manager

Tatiana Smith is a Haitian-American fashion editor (Lavish Magazine) and visual artist from New York who leads an eclectic life of fashion, culture, and travel. She has studied Haitian folklore, Dunham, Senegalese Sabar, and Guinean African dance techniques. Dancing and performance are her life, and even when faced with adversities in her dancing career, she will always continue promoting the dances and dance teachers of the African Diaspora.

Karen Kriegel
Outreach Director

Karen Ann Elizabeth Kriegel began performing by the age of six, and has since performed nationally and internationally. While attending Juilliard , Ms. Kriegel was introduced to Korean dance and performs, competes and lectureson this dance form. Working as a dance researcher since 2001; independently in the USA, Africa, Central America & Europe, and for agencies such as CID-UNESCO in Europe and the Middle East, where she initiated and integrated projects of cultural cooperation. in 2004 Karen created the "Dance Network" projects with a goal to keep artists connected and inspired. (NYC Dance Network & Athens Dance Network) Her newest section THE DANCE PROFESSIONALS SOCIAL NETWORK nurtures the relationships of dancers across "dance genre" lines keeping creativity, inspiration, and innovation fresh. Karen's work as a performer, lecturer and as a cultural liaison abroad lends itself well to her work as Dance Parade's Outreach Director.

Tze Chun
Parade Production Director

Tze Chun is the lead choreographer and Artistic Director of the Tze Chun Dance Company (TCDC). Her work has been presented in some of New York City's most prominent modern dance venues, including Dance New Amsterdam, Dance Theater Workshop, Riverside Theatre, Trisekelion Arts, Minor Latham Theatre and Merce Cunningham Studios. In 2006 Ms. Chun was an artist-in-residence at the Brentwood School in Los Angeles, California and is the JP Morgan SOAR Grant Recipient for 2008. In addition to her impressive credits in the arts, Ms. Chun has extensive experience in event planning and service staff management. She has worked with Chinese American Planning (CAP) for six years, and while pursuing her Bachelor of Arts degree at Columbia University Ms. Chun also managed the Columbia School of Mixology and CBA, its attached employment agency.

Mel Alvarez
Sponsorship Director

Mel comes to us by way of California and Virginia and parallels keen development skills with many years on the dance floor. Once a jazz and hip-hop dancer, he became part of a dance troupe which performed among the hottest gay clubs in New York. Mel has managed fundraising events for a variety of non-profit organizations like GMHC, Jacobi Medical Pediatrics, Live Out Loud, Aid for AIDS and most recently with Axis Danz flag dance company.

Shireen Dickson
Volunteer Coordinator

Shireen has an eclectic range of dance experiences -- from being a teen member of the National Tap Ensemble and a professional NBA cheerleader, to performances as an actress and dancer at major US festivals. In addition to dancing with and serving as choreographer's assistant to 2008 Guggenheim Fellow Dianne McIntyre, she also develops and conducts live-music-based workshops for youth with such organizations as Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Duke Ellington School, and the Jazz Drama Program. She also makes stuff.

Vlad Ilin
Web Developer

For 6 years now Vlad has worked as an event coordinator, helping to organize many great events, including free street parades as the "First Warm Night" & "One Night of Fire". Although he changed careers to become a full time web-developer, he still tries to contribute to the free dance scene in any way he can.