Press Release: Erica Bondarev Rapach Elected DX Board Chair
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2019
CONTACT:
Amanda Newman
Communications Manager
Amandan@danceexchange.org
Takoma Park, MD, October 7, 2019: Dance Exchange is thrilled to announce the election of Erica Bondarev Rapach, Associate Executive Director of The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, as the chair of the Dance Exchange board of directors. With more than 18 years of leadership in the arts and nonprofit management, Erica will build on her 5+ years of service as a board member by stepping into this leadership role.
Erica celebrated by rallying her personal network to donate $1,150 to Dance Exchange via a Facebook fundraiser. “Building on more than four decades of connecting communities, I look forward to ever-expanding the Dance Exchange circle and expanding the tools we use to do that,” explains Erica. “In this and other areas, I am committed to partnership with our stakeholders to increase participation in all that we have to offer.” Erica succeeds Marti Head who served as board chair from 2011-2019 and who will remain a member of the board.
As Associate Executive Director of The Clarice, Erica brings expertise in cultivating strategic partnerships; developing and sustaining dynamic programming; and increasing access to and participation in the arts. Erica was previously Director of Marketing and Communications at The Clarice. She came to The Clarice from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra after several international administrative and changemaking roles in her early career.
As the 2019-20 season unfolds, Erica and the eight other board members will collaborate with staff and key stakeholders to advance a new Strategic Plan, which examines Dance Exchange’s creative practices, as well as its organizational dynamics, structure, administration, and outputs. The Strategic Plan is intended to move Dance Exchange forward as a creative force in the world, newly articulating the organization’s mission and vision while honoring its legacy; introducing a visual model that illustrates areas of impact and growth; and outlining a road map through 2022. Though already supporting internal strategy and planning, Dance Exchange anticipates sharing the strategic plan more publicly in early 2020.
About Dance Exchange
Dance Exchange collaborates across generations, disciplines, and communities to channel the power of dancemaking as a means for dialogue, a source of critical reflection, and a creative engine for thought and action. Founded in 1976 by Liz Lerman and under the artistic leadership of Cassie Meador since 2011, Dance Exchange is a non-profit dance organization based in Takoma Park, Maryland. Over our 43-year history, Dance Exchange has created and supported more than 250 groundbreaking performance projects that explore content as far ranging as nuclear physics, immigration, ecology, prayer and action, aging, and the advancement of racial equity. Our dancemaking and creative practices grow from a legacy and commitment to intergenerational and community exchange, artmaking at the intersection of social relevance and community participation, and moving as a way to notice our world and noticing as way to move our world. Learn more at danceexchange.org.
Dance Exchange is grateful for the support of our donors and funders. Major support for this year's programming comes from: Maryland State Arts Council, Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The City of Takoma Park, Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts, The Elizabeth B and Arthur E Roswell Foundation, The Chesapeake Bay Trust, The Greater Washington Community Foundation, and the Takoma Foundation.