Open Classes Faculty

Acting credits, regional and off Broadway: The Wedding Dress, A Winter’s Tale, La Cage aux Falles, Supper, Black Orpheus, Blues for Mister Charlie, The Wiz. Films: Mo’ Better Blues, Fisher King, Working Girls, Slaves of New York, Temptation, Do the Right Thing. Television: Samuel Beckett Project, Matlock, One Life to Live, Law and Order, Slakes’ Limbo, Central Park West as well as National and Regional TV Commercials. Danced and or trained with Laverne Reed Dancers, Capitol Ballet Jr. Co., D.C. Dance Ensemble, Aglaia Dance, Dance Theatre of Harlem School Ensemble, and Spoke the Hub Dance. Choreography for: Lincoln Center Outdoors Festival, N.Y.C. Halloween Day Parade, As You Like It -directed by Mark Rylance, Arthur Ashe Day Opening Ceremony, Career and Education Expo at the Javits Convention Center, Baryshnikov Wear Show, Carnegie Hall Benefit, Citikids on Broadway at the St. James Theater, Puppeteers Cooperative, music videos, industrials, Equity Showcases, Off -Broadway and Liturgical dance groups. Taught or Guest Taught at Howard University Children’s Theater, The Actor’s Center, Michael Howard Studios, Harlem School of the Arts, Yale University, Dalton School, Thamesdown Contemporary Dance in England, 92nd Street Y, Clark Center, New Dance Group, Leggz Dance Studio, Long Island University. Presently teaching for: Dance Theatre of Harlem, The Juilliard School, Syracuse University Tepper semester in NYC. B.F.A., Howard University., Theater Arts.

SARAH WINGO has toured nationally and internationally with shows like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Cats (Victoria) and for The Rolling Stones 50th Anniversary Tour. Other favorite regional credits include Beauty and the Beast, Guys n’Dolls, and Cabaret.

Ms. Wingo has appeared as an actor/dancer in several episodes of The Marvelous Miss Masial. She can also be seen in national, regional and network commercials for: Samsung, Napa Auto Parts, Geico, Pillsbury, Cold EEZE, Weight Watchers, Aleive, and CNN NYE 2019 With Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen. Ms. Wingo is in commercial print advertisements with celebrity trainer Sean-T for Kohl’s/Fila, Rockport Shoes, The Carlyle Hotel and Cartier. Sarah has also appeared in videos for Beach Body (Open Fit), Health.com and Shape.com (Pure Barre). Most recently, she appeared as co-host of Time Life Loves the 80s along-side 80’s pop icon, Thomas Dolby.

Ms. Wingo’s choreography has been performed around New York City. Most recently in Dance Theatre of Harlem’s spring performance Kontomble (Jazz), The Alvin Ailey School’s BFA Benefit Concert, AMTA’s production of Nunsense at The West Side Theater as well as various contemporary pieces at The Ailey Citigroup Theater, The Producer’s Club and The Joyce Soho. Ms. Wingo has also choreographed for Barter Theater’s Late-Night Cabaret, Fort Wayne Ballet, Bristol Ballet, and the Miss Virginia and Miss Tennessee Pageants as well as setting solos and group pieces to be performed for competitions. Currently, she has a residency at the Players Theater with her improv team Pie Town where she creates an improvised ballet in the show Welcome to Pie Town.

Ms. Wingo is on faculty at Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Alvin Ailey School where she teaches jazz, ballet, composition, conditioning and anatomy and loves every single thing about being a dance educator. She  is a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT), Corrective Exercise Specialist (CES), Fitness Nutrition Specialist (FNS), Performance Enhancement Specialist (PES) Women’s Fitness Specialist (WFS) and Weight Loss Specialist (WLS) through the National Academy of Sports Medicine and has been training athletes and beginners alike for over a decade.

Photo by: J. Demetrie Photography

RACHEL AFI SEKYI, from Cambridge, England, began her study of dance at the Kingslocombe School of Dance. She graduated from the Italia Conti Stage School, London, receiving her AISTD. In the UK she has performed as a dancer in numerous pantomimes and taught Ballet at the Nisbeth School of Dance. In NY she danced with the Erroll Simpson Dancers, Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians and the Dance Theatre of Harlem where she has also been commissioned for various choreographic projects. She has been a teacher in the US at Alvin Ailey, local Westchester Schools, NYC Public Schools and for over three decades at the Dance Theatre of Harlem School teaching Ballet and Tap, while most recently serving as Assoc. Director of the Tendu Program.

Born and raised in New York, New York, DANIELLE THOMAS began her extensive dance training at the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) at the age of four where she studied ballet, tap, jazz, West African, modern and contemporary dance. Upon graduating high school, Ms. Thomas was invited by Founder and Artistic Director Emeritus, Arthur Mitchell, to dance professionally with the Dance Theatre of Harlem Company. During her tenure with the Dance Theater of Harlem, Ms. Thomas had the opportunity to travel the world appearing and performing on various platforms including Sesame Street, the Chinese New Year Parade in Hong Kong, China, and the world’s famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York alongside Gregory Hines, and Ben Vereen, to name a few. Ms. Thomas has also had the opportunity to train and perform with various professional dance companies, and study and train with some of the most prominent dance companies and artists over her twenty-two-year tenure as a professionally trained ballet dancer, including her mentor, the late legendary Arthur Mitchell.

In more recent years, Ms. Thomas has taught at Rockefeller Center for the Radio City Rockettes, as well as Harlem School of the Arts, Ballet Tech, Joffrey Ballet, Manhattan Youth Ballet, New York City Charters Schools and her alma mater, Dance Theatre of Harlem school for nineteen years. Ms. Thomas is the recipient of her Certification in the American Ballet Theatre Curriculum.

Photo by: Joseph Rayome