Antoinette M. Coward-Gilmore is the Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of Danse4Nia, Philadelphia’s premiere arts organization that is the home to professional project-based dance company Phoenix Danse, youth dance company Nia-Next and arts education/ performing arts training program Danse4Nia Conservatory. A native Philadelphian, Coward-Gilmore began her dance training in 1985 at The New Freedom Theatre founded by John E. Allen Jr. and Robert E. Leslie Sr. under the dance direction of Patricia Scott Hobbs and later, continued her studies at the Franklin Learning Center under Master Lester Horton Technique Teacher, the late Faye B. Snow. She later earned a BFA in Dance from the University of the Arts and an MA in Dance Education and Performance from the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University. As a dancer who was the last generation of LEJA Dance Theatre in Philadelphia and briefly a member of Philadanco II, Coward-Gilmore was a founding company member of Philadelphia’s Eleone Dance Theatre before moving to New York to dance with the Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Company touring nationally and internationally. Coward-Gilmore is a seasoned choreographer who has choreographed for The Philadelphia Theatre Company, Camden Repertory Theatre, recording artist Kashiash, Prince Music Theatre’s Rainbow Company/ Youth Arts In Action and countless youth, dance and arts programs. She has taught at Harlem School of the Arts, Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, Norfolk State University, University of the Arts, Coppin State University, Grambling State University, Temple University and currently teaching artist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and adjunct dance faculty at Drexel University since 2010. Notably, she is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the Actor’s Equity Association, Dance Scholars Association, the International Association of Blacks In Dance, Collegium of African Dance On The Diaspora, Women of Color in the Arts, Dance Studies Association and she serves as chair for the Social Justice Committee of the Pennsylvania Dance Educators Organization (PaDEO).
