Antoinette M. Coward-Gilmore is the Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of Danse4Nia, Philadelphia’s premiere arts organization that is the home to professional project-based dance company Phoenix Danse, youth dance company Nia-Next and arts education/ performing arts training program Danse4Nia Conservatory. A native Philadelphian, Coward-Gilmore began her dance training in 1985 at The New Freedom Theatre founded by John E. Allen Jr. and Robert E. Leslie Sr. under the dance direction of Patricia Scott Hobbs and later, continued her studies at the Franklin Learning Center under Master Lester Horton Technique Teacher, the late Faye B. Snow. She later earned a BFA in Dance from the University of the Arts and an MA in Dance Education and Performance from the Steinhardt Schoo ...