Yauri Dalencour Dancer/Choreographer, Ethnodanceologist, Educator, UX Designer, Researcher, Brand Ambassador
Joining Dancetime Publications in in December of 2015 as Head of Product, and acquiring the company in August of 2017, Yauri is a contemporary dancer trained in classical ballet, Graham-based modern and Horton technique (as well as tap, jazz, Flamenco, Hip Hop and Salsa) receiving most of her professional training through the Alvin Ailey American Dance School’s professional division and degrees in dance. She began her career in the performing arts by studying music at 6 years old – playing piano, clarinet and cello – before picking up dance at the age of 12.
She holds a BFA in Dance from Adelphi University (performance and choreography) carrying a second major in International Studies (a concentration in Latin American studies, political science, and Spanish), a minor in African American and Ethnic Studies and completing a study abroad program Burgos, Spain through Purchase college studying modern dance, flamenco, ballet and Spanish. She also holds a Masters degree from New York University in Dance and Dance Education from the department of Performing Arts Professions at the Steinhardt School of Education, Culture & Human Development and started PhD studies in Dance in 2005 at one of only three Universities at the time offering a PhD in Dance. She completed her course work in 2007.
Dancing professionally since 1993 throughout the United States, Spain and Italy, Yauri has worked as a solo artist and with various dance companies – the Reston Jazz Ensemble, RIA Tap Company, Ayoj Llewop body Politic, Roots in Revolution, the New Company, The Burgos Contemporary Dance Company and for two years performing in an off-broadway work Witness Uganda, at venues including The Rattlestick Theatre and the Tank at NYC’s Time Square. In 2010, she most received a scholarship to attend Urban Bush Women’s Summer Leadership Institute in New Orleans and performed with the company. She has both taught and choreographed since 1995 for the Alvin Ailey American Dance School, Summer Institute for the Gifted at both Drew and Princeton Universities, Temple University, and Reston Institute for the Arts and Young Actors Theatre, Museum for African Art, PS/IS 66, and for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Yauri was Education Coordinator an Archivist Internship for the Foundation of Dance Promotion, the former non-profit leg of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company where she co-curated an exhibition at the National Museum of Dance for the company. Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company which is now New York Live Arts has its’ digital archives featured on the Google Cultural Institute. Yauri is proud to be a part of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company archive and exhibition journey. She was also an archivist for Katherine Dunham working with her in her last year of life along with the Library of Congress on the digital archives, a collection they created for her. She was also a digital archivist for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation.
Founder, the Dance Culture Editorial, 2016
An editorial column on Dancetime Publications, covering trends, research, culture and commentary on dance. The editorial also features guest columnists and experts to weigh in on it all.
Founder, EthnodanceologyCreative™, 2007, NYC
From Yauri’s experience of working with Katherine Dunham, she has been compelled to share her passion and love for dance and culture. She has become a big proponent of STEAM and Integrated Arts education and in 2007 Yauri, coined the term ‘ethnodanceology’. Her aim was to create a term which captured and defined her work in dance and the way she studied dance within a cultural and historical context. In 2007, she founded EthnodanceologyCreative™in NYC, a cultural implementation boutique using arts, education and digital platforms and technology to bridge cultural gaps and reform education. Through the organization, Yauri consulted private and public schools in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education and as well as museums and cultural arts centers on dance and dance education, culturally focused curriculum, programming, initiatives and professional development and staffing for the programs she designed and implemented. Her educational philosophies undergirded her programs and curricula and she used her methods in research to develop integrative programs examining race, identity, gender, socio economics, politics and intersectionality across cultures . Through her PhD work, she focused on education – the presence or lack thereof, of Dance degree programs at HBCUs and the economic, political and social intersections which have shaped this. As a trained anthropologist, she using her research skills in ethnography to develop curricula, programs, choreographic works with her students starting with research and following the design thinking process meeting student needs and institutional goals. Using mixed media— photography, live music, film/videography, and gathering source material through interviewing, transcription, and observation, Yauri brings topics of discussion to life through both curriculum and on stage.
Archivist for Katherine Dunham
In the spring of 2005 while a graduate student at NYU, Yauri had the pleasure of working with the late Katherine Dunham as an archivist working alongside her in her home processing papers, films/documentaires, reviews, manuscripts and photographs for two collections. The Library of Congress’s, Performing Arts Encyclopedia – Katherine Dunham Collection and Ms. Dunham’s Museum in East St. Louis. During Yauri’s time with Ms. Dunham almost up until her passing at the age of nearly 96 in 2006, she was reminded of the true legacy of Ms. Dunham as an educator, activist, anthropologist, dancer, choreographer and writer as she handled her precious and historical materials with care. Yauri’s training in both anthropology and dance cultivated a great understanding of how dance is one’s culture, that understanding connections between dance and culture is integral and that understanding dance is being able to understand self. Her interest in Dunham’s work and legacy goes beyond measure and her work as an archivists is about the celebration of culture and sharing it with tomorrow. Dunham’s legacy lives on.
UX Designer/UX Coach
With a fascination and love for technology and recently moving with her husband and three awesome kids to Silicon Valley for his work, Yauri’s concern with the intersections between art, culture, education and technology has evolved expanding her skills as a trained anthropologist in ethnography to exploring UX Design – focusing on research, strategy and front end-development as well as UX Coaching teaching empathy and coaching UX Designers during the design thinking process. Check out portfolio to learn more about her work in this space. Yauri joins Dancetime Publications not only as a dancer, dance archivist, educator and social scientist passionate about dance within a cultural and historical context but also as Head of Product and Brand Ambassador using her skills as a UX Designer, Community Organizer and Leader and Researcher. She is excited about the streaming efforts and online presence of Dancetime Publications in this fast pace moving digital age.
Arts-in-Education Residencies
- Gil Hodges/PS 1933
- NYCity Explorers Academy
- Long Island University Children’s Academy, among others
- Seminar Series
- Spring/Summer Seminar Series 2013, Brooklyn NY – From Birth & Beyond
University/College Teaching Positions, Residencies & Honorariums
- New York University
- Temple University
- The New Community School CUNY
- Stanford University
- UC, Berkeley
Fundraising Events
- 1st Annual Yauri Dalencour Dance Black History Month Benefit, Brooklyn, NY
- Summer Soirée Benefit and Micro-fund
Born outside of Chicago a small suburb called Oak Park, Yauri hales from the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC for most of her childhood also living in Dallas and Myrtle Beach as a young girl. She called NYC home for 14 years where she pursued her career in dance and recently relocated to the SF Bay area with her husband and three awesome kids – two daughters and a son. She considers herself a Brooklynite transplant in Silicon Valley. Believing a woman should not have to choose between having a career or family, Yauri embraces her space as a wife and millennial and mom and a highly ambitious and passionate creative and scholar.