Stephanie McKay, Dancer, Musician, Songwriter & Vocals
Stephanie Mckay is a Native New Yorker with over 20 years experience in the arts as a dancer, singer, songwriter and musician. She has performed in 22 countries worldwide.She graduated from the University of the Arts in Phil, PA with a BFA in Modern dance. In this program she studied with world renown professors Milton Meyers (Horton) , Ruth Adrian (Paul Taylor)) and Pat Thomas (Martha Graham).
As a dancer, she was a member of The Jane Comfort and Company, a guest artist with Urban Bush Women, and a company member with Risa Jarasolow, and Amy Pivar dance companies. As a singer, songwriter she has recorded and published three albums and one EP on Universal and EMI records. Her songs have been featured on TV show Greys Anatomy, as well commercials for L’oreal, and been featured on radio and TV throughout Europe.
Stephanie started her teaching artist training at the Lincoln Center Education Institute’s Summer Intensive for teaching artist development. After attending this program she applied to Community-Word Project’s TATIP’s program to further her interests in teaching artistry. In 2016, she was awarded a artist development grant as part of Joe’s Pub Working Group at the Public Theatre in NYC.
She is the proud mom of an eight year old son named Ezra whose joy and curiosity for life inspires her teaching everyday.
TATIP Work:
“Since training with TATIP I have interned at PS 132 Juan Pablo Duarte in an 2nd grade ELL class. During this 15 week internship residency, I was mentored by veteran CWP TATIP Teaching Artists T. Scott Lilly and Elizabeth Leonard. I observed, assisted and was a lead teacher for one class.”
“I completed three other internships through CWP’s partnerships with Wingspan Arts, Marquis Studios, and Citizen Schools. In these eight and ten week internships, I was mentored by Suzanne Darrell (musical theatre), CWP classmate Sari Nordman (yoga), Graham Dody (drummer), and Danielle Nicolosi (dance). I taught subjects such as Pop choir (Wingspan), Bucket drumming (Marquis Studios), Yoga and Creative movement (Marquis Studios), and Bhangra dancing (Marquis Studios). I also co-taught and , and co-planned for the first time, a 15 week volunteer residency at Citizen schools in East Harlem called “Makers in Movement “ with my CWP TATIP classmate Mary Chang.”
“Since training with CWP, I have experience teaching in four public elementary schools and one middle school citywide in the Bronx, Harlem and Brooklyn. This has solidified my interest to continue my studies teaching the arts. I have applied to both Emerson and Lesley college in Boston toward an MFA. I am interested in Theatre Education and Immersive Arts therapy.”
Most memorable TATIP moment:
“While taking CWP’s cohort workshop with National Dance Institute’s workshop, the instructor “highlighted” different students work in the class. I saw the joy of teaching children modelled by the CWP and NDI instructors when my son was welcomed to take the workshop alongside all the adults in the class. During one of the “highlights”, my son and I were asked to perform the choreography for the class side by side. I noticed the joy expressed on his face, his confidence in this moment reminded me how important and essential the arts are to children discovering themselves and their unique voice. This moment of reflection also eaffirmed why I came to CWP and why I want to teach. Life was coming full circle.“
Find out more about Stephanie here:
Check out Stephanie’s Lesson Plan she presented with her partner Amy Glover.
Interested in TATIP? Find out more about our 2017-18 Program!
See more of our 2016-17 Graduates in the 2017 TATIP Anthology!
