IN CONVERSATION

Dancing into Futures:

Training, Profession, and Advocacy

APRIL 26, 2025

12:00 – 1:00 (ET)

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Nina Klyvert-Lawson

Professional Dance Artist, Dance Educator, Arts Administrator & Arts Advocate

Nina Klyvert-Lawson, affectionately known by her students as Ms. Nina, is a dance educator, performing arts manager and the founder/artistic director of Project Performing Arts in Harlem, New York. An Emerson College graduate, she holds a BA in Theater Education, specializing in Dance, and a MA in Dance Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. As broad and diverse as her professional career is in dance and the performing arts, Nina Klyvert-Lawson is also an arts advocate for children and teens with the belief that participation, study and training in the arts is the inherent right of every child. 

Creative movement and theater classes at a young age were the spring-board for Ms. Nina’s pre-professional training. Her first dance experience began at a community center, and continued at The Juilliard School’s Saturday Preparatory Program (Manhattan College). As a two-time scholarship recipient at The Ailey School her professional dance training broadened providing access to diverse styles of dance and instructors. Additional dance training includes Clark Center (NYC), Joy of Movement (Cambridge, MA), Boston Ballet, and Broadway Dance Center (NYC). Ms. Nina’s professional dance career began in Boston dancing with Rael Lamb’s Dance for the New World and Impulse Dance Company (Director Adrienne Hawkins) then continued in New York with Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company (Director Roni Pratt), Alvin Ailey’s Third Company (Director Kelvin Rotardier) and Ailey II (Director Sylvia Waters). Her film and Off-Broadway credits include Secrets of Sahara (Michael York), The Eddie Files “Welcome to Math: You Gotta Start Somewhere”, and Ty Stephens’ Shades of Harlem and Jazz Alley. As a master teacher/adjunct professor/instructor Ms. Nina has taught in Italy, at Yale University, Bergen Community College (New Jersey), Teaneck High School (New Jersey), Rye Arts Center (Rye, NY), and Mind Builders (Bronx).

Nina Klyvert-Lawson’s career as an arts administrator began at Boys and Girls Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts, an East Harlem institution that trained 500 students annually in the performing arts. As a faculty member of the conservatory she also served in the role of Dance Program Director, and as Artistic Director of the Conservatory. A former NYSCA (New York State Council on the Arts) panelist, Nina also served on the Archdiocese of New York’s Entertainment Committee for Pope Benedict XVI’s New York City Papal visit. In addition she also served as a member of the CMOM (Children’s Museum of Manhattan) Dance Advisory Board and is a former member of Harlem Arts Alliance. Nina has been the business manager for several prominent professional choreographers since 2013. As the creative consultant for the former Office of Black Ministry, Archdiocese of New York, Nina has been the Director/Choreographer of the Liturgical Dance Ministry of the catholic churches in Harlem including St. Charles Borromeo, Chapel of Resurrection and All Saints Church since 1993.  Ms. Nina has been the dance movement specialist at Dawning Village (East Harlem) since 2019.