Dancing in the Park

Antonina Skobina

Antonina Skobina was born in Mariupol, Ukraine. She is a 3-Time US National Ballroom Dance Champion and a Vice-World Champion. She is also a Blackpool Dance Festival Winner, which is the most prestigious ballroom dance competition in the world.

Together with Denys Drozdyuk, Antonina co-founded a collaborative ballroom dance performance duet, “DNA.” She is also the co-founder of DNA Dance Academy, Manhattan’s first ballroom dance school dedicated specifically to children.

Antonina participated on NBC’s hit television show World of Dance for two seasons and was a finalist on the Canadian TV show Revolution. She performs frequently as a Guest Artist with the Stars of American Ballet and at various international ballet galas, festivals, and productions worldwide.

Antonina is the recipient of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography, CUNY Dance Initiative Residency, Green Box Arts Residency and was featured in Vogue (USA and International editions). In addition to dancing, she has a great passion for acting and is a graduate of the New York Film Academy. She also teaches workshops and master classes throughout the world.

Denys Drozdyuk

Denys Drozdyuk was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine where he started dancing at the age of 4. From then on, he has been continuously trained in ballroom dance. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance from The Juilliard School and a Master of Arts Degree in Dance Education from New York University.

Together with Antonina Skobina, Denys co-founded a ballroom dance performance duet, “DNA.” He is also the co-founder of DNA Dance Academy, Manhattan’s first ballroom dance school dedicated specifically to children.

Denys participated on NBC’s TV show World of Dance for two seasons and was a finalist on the Canadian TV show Revolution. He is also a winner of So You Think You Can Dance Canada television show.

Some of his ballroom dance achievements include: 3-Time World Ballroom Champion, 3-Time USA National Ballroom Dance Champion, 7-Time German National Ballroom Dance Champion, 3-Time Canadian National Ballroom Dance Champion, and Blackpool Dance Festival Winner.

Denys performs frequently as a Guest Artist with the Stars of American Ballet, and in various international ballet galas, festivals, and productions worldwide.

Denys is the recipient of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography, CUNY Dance Initiative Residency, Green Box Arts Residency, and was featured in Vogue (USA and International editions). He also teaches workshops and master classes throughout the world.

Olivia Bell

Olivia Bell is a corps de ballet member with New York City Ballet. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, she trained locally before being accepted to the School of American Ballet in 2018. While a student, Olivia originated a featured role in Gianna Reisen’s Signs. In 2022 Olivia became an apprentice with New York City Ballet and was then promoted to corps de ballet in 2023. As a corps member Olivia has performed featured roles in Kyle Abraham’s Love Letter on Shuffle, George Balanchine’s Swan Lake, Tiler Peck’s Concerto for Two Pianos, and Jerome Robbins Interplay.

Frances Samson

Frances Lorraine Samson is a New York based artist originally from Toronto, Canada. She has been featured by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), TEDx and Harper’s Bazaar, and has had the honor of working for institutions such as The Juilliard School, SUNY Purchase College and the Danish National Academy of Music. Frances was a principal dancer with the Limón Dance Company from 2017-2023 and is currently on faculty for the Limón Institute. She has had the pleasure of collaborating with artists such as Kate Weare, Francesca Harper, Raúl Tamez, Kayla Farrish, Madeline Hollander and Aszure Barton. Frances most recently performed for Award-winning choreographers Twyla Tharp and Baye & Asa. She is the 2023 recipient of the Clive Barnes Award for Dance and is an unarmed actor combatant certified by The Society of American Fight Directors.

Spencer Lenain

Born in San Diego, California, Spencer Lenain began his dance training at age 7 at Ballet Arte where he was instructed by Erlends Zieminch and Sara Viale. He also attended nine summer intensives at American Ballet Theater, earning the National Training Scholar scholarship three times. He graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 2024 with a BFA in dance. He has performed at the Vail Dance Festival each of the last two years, and in the fall of 2024, he performed as Tybalt in LA Dance Project’s Romeo and Juliet. Spencer is also very active on social media where his ballet videos are featured on TikTok @spencerdancerrr and Instagram @spencerdancer. 

Daisy Kate Jacobson

Emiko Nakagawa

Emiko Nakagawa is a Japanese tap dance artist currently based in NYC. She went on to further develop her tap artistry with Yukiko “Smilie” Misumi’s mentorship at the age of 8, and she served as dance captain on various stages, including ARTN Company’s solo “Legends of Tap” series, and “Tokyo International Tap Festival “from 2015 to 2020 in Japan.  

Before coming to NY, she achieved international recognition through performing at the show “JUBA!” at Chicago Tap Festival, and the show at Big Apple Tap Festival in NY.  

She also has had success at many international tap dance contests. She was a winner of both Woodshed Experience and LA Tap Fest cutting contests in 2019. In the tap dance contest KAWASAKI TAP FESTIVAL in Japan, she won six prizes until 2016 and was the champion in 2017.  

After coming to NY, Emiko works for Caleb Teicher & Company, Dorrance Dance and more of New York based dance companies. 

She is an alumnus of The School at Jacob’s Pillow 2023. 

She successfully made her first circus appearance which New York Circus Project are the presenting organization in 2025. 

Most recently, Emiko was selected for Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” for 2026. 

Her choreographies and performances have been shown at 54 Below, Symphony Space, The Joyce Theater, World of Dance (Headliner), 92NY, Vail Dance Festival and more, and she has a great appreciation for working and performing with amazing artists in U.S. 

Colorado Ballet

Presenting exceptional classical ballet and innovative contemporary dance through performances, training, education and community engagement, Colorado Ballet continues to inspire and grow an increasingly diverse audience base in Denver, Colorado. Established in 1961 by Lillian Covillo and Freidann Parker, Colorado Ballet is a non-profit organization celebrating 65 years of excellence. As a world-class professional company serving more than 100,000 national and international patrons, Colorado Ballet presents 58 performances annually to sold-out audiences in the 2,000-seat Ellie Caulkins Opera House. The Company’s 42 professional dancers and 20 studio company dancers come from all over the world. Colorado Ballet’s The Armstrong Center for Dance, a 35,000-square-foot building, boasts eight state-of-the-art professional dance studios and amenities for the professional Company.

Under the direction of Artistic Director Gil Boggs, Colorado Ballet performs classical ballet masterpieces, full-length story ballets, and its critically acclaimed repertory production MasterWorks, featuring varied works from neoclassical ballets to world premieres. The Raydean Acevedo Colorado Ballet Academy serves more than 1,200 students from toddlers to seniors each year. Colorado Ballet’s Education & Community Engagement offers programs to students and community members, making more than 25,000 contacts and reaching over 200 schools and organizations annually. Participants come from a variety of backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses including youth, families, teachers, and people with and without disabilities. For more information, please visit coloradoballet.org.

Cleo Parker Robinson Dance

CLEO PARKER ROBINSON is founder and artistic director of the 56-year-old Denver-based artistic institution, CLEO PARKER ROBINSON DANCE (CPRD), leading a professional Ensemble (CPRDE), Cleo II (her second company); two training-track Youth/Junior Youth Ensembles; an Academy of Dance offering a BA in Dance with Metropolitan State University in Denver; an International Summer Dance Institute (ISDI); a newly expanded creative campus totaling eight studios and two 240-seat theatres, and numerous community outreach programs nationally and internationally. The new and already award-winning Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Center for the Healing Arts launched January 17, 2026.

A master teacher/choreographer and cultural ambassador, Cleo Parker Robinson and CPRDE have performed nationwide and internationally in 40 countries around the globe. Ms. Parker Robinson’s lifetime of work in dance, evidence-based somatic movement therapy, education, and community outreach includes nearly 30 choreographed works.

CPRD holds the greatest number of works and their performance rights by American Dance Master Donald McKayle. Throughout the 56 years of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, she has collaborated with Mr. McKayle, Professor Maya Angelou (Lush Life, 1983), mentor and Cultural Anthropologist Katherine Dunham (who bequeathed her own role in Barrelhouse Blues to Ms. Parker Robinson), Talley Beatty, Eleo Pomare, danced with Eartha Kitt, and was featured in a film Run Sister Run (1974/84, about activist Angela Davis) by photographer/director Gordon Parks. In 2012 with dancer and choreographer Julie Belafonte, Ms. Parker Robinson premiered the U.S. performance of Southland, a Civil Rights performance on lynching by Ms. Dunham banned by the U.S. government after its 1952 World Premiere in Santiago, Chile.

In 2021, the Vail Valley Foundation commissioned Standing On The Shoulders, choreographed by Ms. Parker Robinson with a composition by orchestral director Omar Thomas. Its World Premiere was on at the Gerald Ford Amphitheatre during the Vail Dance Festival that year.

She recently collaborated with fellow Denver native and renowned Grammy-Award winning jazz artist Dianne Reeves on Freedom Dance. Each holiday season since 1991, CPRD’s Denver-developed Granny Dances To A Holiday Drum has delighted audiences near and far with live and virtual performances featuring a dozen global seasonal holiday traditions.

As a national leader in American Modern Dance specializing in the global African cultural diaspora and global cultural anthropology through dance, Ms. Parker Robinson holds four honorary Ph.Ds from state institutions: Colorado College, the University of Denver (her alma mater), Regis University, and the University of Colorado at Boulder where she began their Modern Dance program.

She has received numerous national awards, including a 2005 Kennedy Center Medal of Honor, the 2021 National Medal of the Arts as co-founder of the International Association of Blacks in Dance, the 2017 Dance/USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2026 Award of Merit by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals. As a national arts leader, Ms. Parker Robinson served on President Clinton’s National Council of the Arts/NEA panels on Dance, Expansion Arts, Arts America, Inter-Arts panels for the USIS, and for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.

To date, six documentaries feature chronicle the work of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance with two more in development as of 2026.

Cleo Parker Robinson remains dedicated to celebrating the human experience and potential through the Arts and Education. Her life-long vision of “Inspiring Movement” with “One Spirit, Many Voices” remains strong and steadfast, expanding to welcome, embrace, and sustain all people. Each performance she attends invokes a participatory gesture and blessing of “Peace/Love/Respect…For EVERYBODY!”