Royce Zackery

Royce Zackery received a Master of Arts from N.Y.U. Steinhardt/American Ballet Theatre Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions and is certified in the ABT National Teaching Curriculum with a concentrated degree in Ballet Pedagogy. He received a B.F.A. from Southern Methodist University is a proud member of the International Association of Blacks In Dance, ABT’s Project Plié on faculty both at the The Washington Ballet and THEARC Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus. Interdisciplinary driven, Professor Zackery’s research includes brain cognition and bilateralization in human response for injury prevention, efficiency within athletic performance and childhood education (STEAM).

Professor Zackary has more than 20 years of experience as a professional dancer and teacher artist. Naming a few, he has performed in Broadway shows including My One and Only, Oklahoma! and Anything Goes –along with classical ballet and contemporary companies including Ajkun Ballet Theatre, Rioult Dance, Rebecca Kelly Ballet, Thomas/Ortiz Dance, and Ballethnic Dance Company.

Professor Zackery’s choreography, teaching, coaching and directing experience crosses all levels of dance from beginner to professional. He has served as faculty for three of the most prestigious training facilities and programs in NYC know around the world including Broadway Dance Center, The Alvin Ailey Extension Program, and The School at Steps on Broadway. He has also taught dance in public schools, community outreach centers, academies, universities, professional companies, and festivals across the U.S. and abroad. Teaching idioms include Classical/Contemporary Ballet, Contemporary Movement, Jazz, Tap, and Partnering (Classical/ Contemporary).

Currently Professor Zackery is a Tenured Associate Professor and Head Coordinator of Dance Arts for Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance Program. Mr. Zackery a grant recipient in collaboration with the Israel Embassy, The Israeli Institute: Schusterman Program and Howard University Dance Arts. He has received choreographic notoriety for works commissioned by the Public Affairs Office of the U.S. &  Rwandan Embassy’s. Other commissions include the Kennedy Center, White Nights Festival, Dixon Place, Ajkun Ballet Theatre, Hofstra University, Irondale Theatre, Staten Island Ballet, Loteria Performing Arts and Nomad Contemporary Ballet. He has also created works for international festivals, galas, governmental functions with choreographic premieres in Germany, Russia, New York City, Africa, Mexico City Mexico, California, Ohio, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Atlanta, Georgia.

Professor Zackery is a strong believer and advocate for giving back to the community and youth of the world through teaching. He travels to Africa collaborating with a New York based international NGO (MindLeaps) that creates educational programs for vulnerable children in post-conflict and developing countries. and train native teaching artists of Kigali, Rwanda. Working with 11 different artists from 5 different countries, he recently premiered a new choreographic work (BABEL) at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Amphitheatre for the Annual Ubunmutu Arts Festival. Here is the resting place for 300,000 victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi. The choreographic creation is collaboratively accompanied by renowned classical pianist, composer, Howard University Professor, and Global Music Award Winner Dr. Karen Walwyn’s masterpiece Mother Emanuel. The works inspiration derives from the Charleston South Carolina Church massacre of 2015. While in Kigali, Professor Zackery also trains native teaching artists of Kigali, Rwanda and mentors orphans and homeless children to help them get into boarding schools, trade schools, and IT programs.  Professor Zackery’s teaching philosophy is committed to enriching students’ cognitive development. He believes that unconditional caring, patience and mentorship of young people will ensure leaders of tomorrow.

Heinz Poll

Heinz Poll was born in Oberhausen, Germany, in 1926.  Poll, was a champion ice skater before he became a dancer, his experience on the rinks imbued him with a love of speed that he expressed in his athletic baroque ballet, Cascade (1985). After World War II, he studied dance at Joss’s Folkwang School in Essen, began his professional career at the Municipal Theatre in Goettingen and became a principal dancer with the Berlin State Opera Ballet.  In 1951, he joined the National Ballet of Chile as a dancer, ballet master, and teacher.  The company’s tradition of bringing serious programs to indigenous people in remote mountain villages served as the model for Ohio Ballet’s Summer Festival of free outdoor performances.  In 1962, Poll joined Ballet de Jeunesse Musicales de France as ballet master.  Two years later, he came to the United States as a guest artist with the Chilean company.  He performed in the American Dance Festival the following summer and stayed in New York to teach at Thalia Mara’s National Academy of Ballet.  In Akron, he developed Ohio Ballet into one of America’s most polished, respected, and widely traveled chamber dance troupes. Poll was awarded the Association of Ohio Dance Companies Award in 1983, the Cleveland Arts Prize in 1995, and the Ohio Arts Council’s Governor’s Award in 1999.  After his retirement, he wrote his memoir and has conferred a number of his ballets to former Ohio Ballet dancers.  Poll passed away in 2006.

Richard Dickinson, MFA

A former dancer with Ohio Ballet, Dickinson’s association with that company began in 1988. He later became ballet master and director of company touring.  Dickinson was also a soloist with Boston Ballet for eight years. At age fifteen, he joined the Pasadena Dance Theatre and was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Emerging Choreographer Award for a work premiered by the same company. He performed in the PBS television production of “Frankie and Johnny” with the Chicago Ballet. and danced principal roles in Asian, European and American tours with Rudolf Nureyev and the Boston Ballet. In addition to his professional work, Dickinson had an extensive dance career including principal and soloist roles at Chicago Ballet, Honolulu City Ballet and various regional companies. Previously, he served as Artistic Associate for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the Artistic Director of Ballet Western Reserve, Great Lakes Festival Ballet, Chamber Dance Theatre. He has also directed Boston Ballet II and has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Contemporary Dance from Case Western Reserve University.