"What is joy?"
"When did you discover joy?"
"When did joy discover you?"
Our Team
FOUNDER, RESEARCHER & LEAD ARTIST
Naila H. Ansari, MFA
A native of Buffalo, New York, Naila Ansari (she/her) is an award-winning choreographer, director, and performing artist. She is a distinguished MFA graduate from the University at Buffalo in Dance and a Cum Laude undergraduate of Point Park's Conservatory of Performing Arts Program. Ansari is an original and former principal dancer for the August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble. The company was named “Top 25 Dance Companies to Watch” in Dance Magazine for the 2012-2013 season, featured at Jacob's Pillow and SummerStage NYC at Central Park. Ansari has danced and performed works for the legendary Lula Washington Dance Theatre out of Los Angeles, CA. She has had the privilege of dancing works by Robert Battle, Kyle Abraham, Camille A. Brown, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Sidra Bell, and Trebien Pollard, to name a few. Ansari's choreography has been set on a host of colleges, universities, professional theatres, and commercial projects.
As an Assistant Professor in Theatre and Africana Studies at SUNY Buffalo State College, Ansari has merged artistry and scholarship to build and create works through community and collaborative processes that facilitate conversations on race and Black performance. She has published articles in Theatre Journal, received numerous grants and awards such as the New York State DanceForce Grant, and The Pittsburgh Courier 40 under 40 awards. Ansari is a research assistant and assistant choreographer for AT BUFFALO the Musical and the recent AT BUFFALO TED TALK under award-winning artist and scholar Dr. Amma Y. Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin. Ansari's award-winning choreographed work "Mine Eyes Have Seen" was selected and performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C for the American College Dance Association awards in 2018. Ansari is a collaborator with the UB Arts Collaboratory under the direction of Bronwyn Keenan. Her most recent project and a forthcoming book, The Movement of Joy, focuses on the performance of joy through the creative archiving of oral histories, movement histories, live-performance, and film. Ansari is currently the Dance Director for Ujima Company, inc. selected by the late Lorna C. Hill.
LEAD ARTIST & ART PARTNER
Marquis “Ten Thousand” Burton
Marquis “Ten Thousand” Burton is a(n) visual artist, decorate spoken word, writer and educator. He has partnered with Shea’s Performing Arts and other non-profit and educational institutions to teach young adults and children to not only discover their voices but also the power within to use it for over a decade. He has coached the Buffalo poetry teams at the National Poetry Slams to Top 10 finishes in the 2 out of 4 years. Marquis has also held the position of curator of poetry talent for the Music Is Art Festival for the past 6 years. Since 2016, he has partnered with artist Tara Sasiadeck to create visual art installations for events such as Music Is Art Festival. Since 2019, he has partnered with Naila Ansari to create immersive interactive dance and poetry experiences that explore joy in play, resistance, community and self.
EDITOR
Robin Lazzara
Robin is a Film/TV freelancer. She's worked as the Production Secretary for several movies that have come to Buffalo, including A Quiet Place: Part II and Nightmare Alley. She is the Production Manager of LiteWork Media Buffalo, a small freelance production company that creates videos for local organizations, schools, and music artists. In her free time, she enjoys teaching dance, helping out her family's nonprofit organization, and playing video games.
VIDEOGRAPHER
Paulette D. Harris
Paulette D. Harris, Buffalo-born was affiliated with the African American Cultural Center (AACC) since 1988 and has served as artistic director of its Paul Robeson Theatre (PRT) 1996-2020. She was employed at WGRZ-TV NBC Affiliate for nineteen years, where she worked in the production, programming, and news departments. During her time at WGRZ-TV, she was the Program Director. Throughout her time there, she also worked as a camera operator, floor director, editor and provided content to the web, amongst many other related broadcasting and journalism skills. She accepted a position at the State University of New York at Buffalo as an adjunct professor in 2014 and continued work with the College through 2020, which garnered several collaborative projects that created intern opportunities for the students.
Ms. Harris has received numerous recognitions for her directing. Some of her directing credits include Native Son, Jar The Floor, In The Continuum, Steal Away, Birth, Holiday Heart, Souls of Black Folk, Revenge of A King, Ned’s Garden, The Bluest Eye (co-directed), Emperor Jones (co-directed), Black Nativity, Branches From The Same Tree, How I Got Over, and Skeleton Crew which was nominated for Outstanding Direction of a Play, Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Actress in a Play and Outstanding Supporting Actress of a Play of which Outstanding Actress and Supporting Actress were winners. Most recently, the World Premiere production she co-wrote and directed The Sidewalk Stageplay, received recognition for Emanuel Fried new playwrights, and the other show she Directed, Native Son was nominated for Outstanding Direction of a play in the 2019 Artie Awards.
Playwriting credits include the world premiere of Two Weeks Until The Rest of My Life – which traveled to Washington DC, How I Got Over, Santa’s Blues, Soul of a People: gone but not forgotten. In addition, she currently instructs students ages 8 - 16 in Performing Arts Training and filmmaking. In August 2020, she was accepted into the Casting Society of America Mentorship Program which she works with a professional casting Director learning the processes and procedures for casting films.