KIM GRIER-MARTINEZ is the Artistic Director of the Rod Rodgers Dance Company, founded in 1967, located in the historic East Fourth Street Cultural District, in the heart of New York’s East Village. A native New Yorker, Ms. Grier-

Martinez received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the prestigious Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, now the University of the Arts, one of the top undergraduate dance programs in the United States. She is a dancer,

performance artist, masterteacher, educator and choreographer.

 

As a dancer, Ms. Grier-Martinez made her debut at the esteemed Metropolitan Opera House as the outstanding, principle dancer in George Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess", choreographed byCarmen de Lavallade. Across the country, she has

performed as guest artist, in Missouri, with the Wylliams/Henry Dance Theater and in Philadelphia with LEJA Dance Theater. She has also performed in New York City with dance experimentalist Blondell Cummings; Nanette Bearden

Contemporary Dance Company; Forces of Nature; Duane Cyrus Company; Alpha-Omega Dance Company; Footprints;

Urban Dance Collective and the Rod

Rodgers Dance Company. Her solo

performances have included works

by Richard Rivera, Sean Curran, Kayoko

Sakoh, Milton Myers, Tee Ross, Lonne

Morretton, Eleo Pomare, Fred Benjamin,

Talley Beatty and Heidi Latsky. Recently,

she was privileged to perform solo theater

with the distinguished, award winning

novelist, playwright and director, Bil Wright.

 

Ms. Grier-Martinez was a long time featured

soloist with the Rod Rodgers Dance Company;

a supportive hub for development

and maturation of black dancers and

other artists founded in the 1960s by the

late modern dance choreographer

Rod Rodgers. For almost two decades,

under his tutelage and pedagogy, she

assisted Mr. Rodgers with creative projects

including mounting and rehearsing

choreography and teaching master

classes with an emphasis on helping

dancers transition their craft from studio

to stage. Upon his passing in 2003, she

emerged as the Artistic Director for the

Rod Rodgers Dance Company. Ms. Grier-Martinez believes in the interrelatedness of political, scientific, and cultural life and is committed to sustaining and improving its ethnic, social, and geographic diversity, and curricula that reflect global awareness” and portrays this through the Company’s repertoire.

 

As Artistic Director, Ms. Grier-Martinez has led the company to perform on stage, in streets, in Iibranes, at community based centers and internationally. Among other venues, they have performed at the Fourth Arts Block Festival; Cooper Square Committee Festival; Theater for the New City; NYPD Po|icewomen's Endowment Association; Arts at Oswego State University of New York; John H. Murray Civic Center Department of African American Studies at Syracuse University; International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference and on tours in Japan at the Kenmin Koryu Center in Kagoshima; 10th Anniversary of Keya's Fun Approach Dance School in Bermuda; the Sea Island African American Heritage Festival in St. Simons Georgia and along standing relationship performing and choreographing for the

renowned Middle Collegiate Church’ Arts Ministry in New York City.

 

Ms. Grier-Martinez commitment to in the ‘interrelatedness of worldwide political, scientific, and cultural life” furthers the founder’s belief that all people should be able to enjoy dancing and performing. She seeks diversity in ethnicity, gender and body type and size and a strong effort is made to recruit male dancers. To rave applause, the youth program has also featured a student dancing with crutches and those who are visually impaired and physically disabled.

 

Ms. Grier-Martinez has a special passion for teaching young people using dance to mentor and guide them from childhood to young adulthood. In 2005, she established the Rod Rodgers Youth Program and Ensemble which teaches the traditional study of ballet, modern, jazz, dance-theater, hip-hop, tap, composition, Conga Drumming and West African in a school year program and summer intensive. This program is scholarship based and charges the lowest class fees in the City and no one is turned away for lack of funds. Additionally, components of the program are taught at public schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City. As a result of their training through the Rod Rodgers Youth Dance Program, students have been accepted to performing arts high schools and colleges and achieved awards and national recognition for their scholarship, service and leadership.

 

Ms. Grier-Martinez served as Director of Dance Programs at the Harlem School of the Arts and Rehearsal Director and Choreographer for three of the school’s resident dance companies. Additionally, she has worked as a dance specialist with children thorough the Bronx Arts Ensemble, Alvin Ailey Summer Outreach Programs/Mach Ailey Camp and Hudson Repertory Dance Theater. She continues her work with the ArtsConnection where she incorporates poetry, music and elements of media for dance tributes to the struggles and achievements of Black heroes including Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Jr., Duke Ellington and Harriet Tubman.

 

Ms. Grier-Martinez’s teaching credits include Oswego State University, Parents Promoting Dance & Community Folk Arts in Syracuse, New York, New Orleans, Des Moines and Iowa. She taught Master Classes at California State University in Humboldt, Long Beach, Dominguez Hills and Arcata, Metropolitan School for the Arts, Long Island University in Brooklyn, Black College Dance Exchange (various locations), Florida A&M University, Howard University, Adelphi University and SUNY Plattsburgh, Syracuse University (list incomplete) and Arts-In-Education residency programs in the Tri-State Area. Her choreography includes the Off-Broadway production, "Dark Star from Harlem", a tribute to Josephine Baker which premiered to raving reviews at La Mama Ellen Stewart Theater and the Miss US Virgin Islands Caribbean Queen Pageant in St. Croix.

 

Ms. Grier-Martinez has served as a panelist for the New York State Council on the Arts, Middle Collegiate Church Arts Ministries of New York City, the Fourth Arts Block (FAB) and as a judge for the Hal Jackson Talented Teens Final Pageant in New York City, Connecticut and St. Croix. She choreographs for and volunteers at Good Shepherd Church Young Ministries and Middle Collegiate Church whose mission is social action and interfaith dialog for the purpose of justice and reconciliation. Among other recognition, she is the recipient of the Lila Wallace Award, National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Teacher’s Recognition in 2005-2006, 2004-2005 and 2009, the Linda Janklow Award, Downtown Arts Young Artists and Leaders 2011 Mentor Award and was honored by the Renaissance Movement Ensemble of the Harlem School of the Arts Alumni in 2012 and awarded a “Certificate of Appreciation” for Breast Cancer Awareness Fundraiser For Birdie’s Nesting Place in 2013 & 2014.

 

Ms. Grier-Martinez’s - Ms. Kim to her youngest students - biggest reward and contribution to society through dance, is the fact that students from the initial Rod Rodgers Youth Dance Program have become teachers at the studio and are now training and mentoring new students while some current students are now in their eighth year of training. The studio is a second home to students where they’ve developed strong bonds and life lessons. They spend hours talking about what Ms. Kim said, what Ms. Kim did and what Ms. Kim has taught them! For Ms. Kim, it’s about more than dance. It’s about connecting with youth to reach them at multiple levels and using dance to support their hopes and dreams.