Dance Instructor, American Dance and Drama Studio, New York City
Education:
Bachelor of Arts in Dance, UNC Charlotte (2017)
Hometown: Dunstable, MA
Dimara Coulouras was a student at UNC Charlotte when she first traveled to New York City.
"The summer after my freshman year I was granted a scholarship through the dance department and the help of Martha Graham Dance Company alumna, Professor Kim Jones. This first experience living and dancing in NYC really opened my eyes to what kind of career path I wanted to take."
When she graduated from the UNC Charlotte Department of Dance in May 2017, with a concentration in performance, choreography, and theory, she moved to New York, where she now teaches and performs as a freelance. Recently, she participated in a particularly beautiful and moving public performance, The Table of Silence Project 9/11. This transcendent ceremony for 100 dancers, created in 2011 by choreographer Jacqulyn Buglisi and artist Rossella Vasta, was performed most recently on September 11, 2017, on the Plaza at Lincoln Center.
Dimara credits her time at UNC Charlotte with building the skills and courage needed to embark on a dance career in a big city:
"Through my time at UNC Charlotte, I learned the discipline it took to condition your body mind and spirit to train in dance every day. Along with my technical dance studies, UNC Charlotte gave me a more broad education through liberal arts and dance theory classes that were required. I learned my potential and gained the confidence in myself to pursue a career as a professional dancer while at UNC Charlotte."
Among the highlights of her time as a student was performing a Martha Graham work at the Joyce Theater in New York City, when the dance department performed Steps in the Street in the Graham Company University Partners Showcase in 2015. "Dancing in such an important venue and sharing the stage with some of my most idolized dancers is an experience I will never forget."
Above all, she expresses gratitude for the department's "home away from home" community environment: "The faculty and students are some of the most genuine and accepting group of individuals I met during my time at Charlotte, and I was so glad to be from a department that was so inclusive."