Dancewave Founder Diane Jacobowitz Announces New Executive Director

Initiating Dancewave’s first shift in executive leadership in 25 years, Founder Diane Jacobowitz has officiated her departure from the leading, socially-conscious education nonprofit’s staff, effective in September, 2020. Issuing a statement on Friday August 14th, Jacobowitz introduced Dancewave’s new Executive Director, Nicole Touzien, whose tenure will begin in September. A former Director of Education at Dancewave, Nicole has recently worked with renowned NYC nonprofit organizations charged with stewarding open green spaces, promoting youth development and championing arts education.

“Nicole is an arts and political advocate, and longtime friend of our organization,” says Founder Diane Jacobowitz. “Her commitment to equity and justice shines brightly. Nicole will undoubtedly center Dancewave’s trajectory toward continued success.”

Touzien’s initial focus as Executive Director is to secure new local and national partnerships to uplift Dancewave’s mission, and to increase program accessibility to new neighborhoods and vulnerable populations affected by the city’s COVID crisis.

Jacobowitz’s vision pioneered the Dancewave Culture and Youth Company model that put New York City youth onto the world stage working with renowned choreographers such as Mark Morris, David Dorfman, Kyle Abraham, Twyla Tharp, Trisha Brown, José Limón, Paul Taylor, Ronald K. Brown, Meredith Monk, Camille A. Brown, Shen Wei, Bebe Miller, and many others. Dancewave has accelerated in the last 10 years with the development of its international Dancewave Through College and Beyond college fair and auditions and its recent expansion into the new $4.5M city-funded Dancewave Center in Gowanus, which opened last June. Jacobowitz will continue her legacy serving the NYC dance community as an educator and dance advocate.

Recognizing the powerful effects that dance can have on human development at all stages of life, Dancewave continues to orient its public programs as a vital community resource to help people from all backgrounds and abilities to collectively unite, resist, and heal, especially amidst our challenging and uncertain socio-political climate. At the peak of the pandemic’s onset this Spring, Dancewave offered free virtual community dance classes reaching 2,500 participants from nations as widespread as Jordan, Tunisia, Jamaica, the UK, Switzerland, and Canada.

To learn more about Dancewave visit: https://dancewave.org/