ClancyWorks shifts perceptions through dance! ClancyWorks presents original modern dance works created through an exploration of architecturally informed partnering techniques. The Washington Post has described Dr. Adrienne Clancy, Founder, as “a wizard of invention” and her choreography as “a tour de force of unpredictable partnering.” Over the past 20 years of choreographing, Clancy has earned numerous awards and honors for her work and has had her dances presented internationally in Japan, Poland, Paraguay, Mexico, Israel, and England.
Lisa Mathews and Mikel Gehl are the Milkshake Duo, a school and library-friendly part of the Grammy-nominated award-winning kindie band Milkshake. Milkshake makes original music kids can call their own, exploring topics kids care about, from pretend play to the social ups and downs of friends and bullies. The duo's highly interactive live appearances inspire joy, even as the kids learn through music and rhyme as part of the band.
LISA MATHEWS has been a Teaching Artist with Wolf Trap’s Institute of Early Learning Through the Arts since 2013, providing classroom residencies in music and creative drama in Maryland, DC and Virginia schools. She also worked with Young Audiences/Arts for Learning between 2008 - 2024, earning their Artist of the Year Award in 2010.
Laura Shovan is a children’s author, educator, and Pushcart Prize-nominated poet. Her chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt, and Stone, won the inaugural Harriss Poetry Prize. She has worked as an editor of literary journals and poetry anthologies. Laura's debut novel-in-verse, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, won several awards, including NCTE Notable Verse Novel. Her novel Takedown was selected for Junior Library Guild, PJ Our Way, and the ALA’s Amelia Bloomer Project. Her most recent work is Sydney Taylor Notable A Place at the Table, co-written with Saadia Faruqi.
Katherine Lyons is a Master Teaching Artist for the Wolf Trap Foundation conducting workshops and residencies for teachers and children in the Maryland/Virginia/ DC area and across the US. As a Teaching Artist, she has worked with children Pre-K through High School for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Walters Art Gallery, Peabody Institute and Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts.
Renée Collins Georges was one of the last Raelettes to “hit the road” with Ray Charles and His Orchestra in a singing career that has taken her all over the world. Renée is a vocalist and children’s songwriter with a passion for kids and Jazz.
Adele is a poet/teacher living in Silver Spring, MD. She received her BA & MFA in English Literature/Creative Writing at the University of Maryland. She's a professor at Montgomery College, Teaching evening classes for UMGC, and is a poet in at the Arts in Education Program with the Maryland State Arts Council. She's been published in Gargoyle, So to Speak, The Maryland Poetry Review, Smartish Pace, The Lucid Stone, Scribble, and more. Books: Refracted Love, Freshwater Pearls, The Moon Lighting, & Look Ma, "Hands" on Poetry (collection of creative writing workshops for students).
Alden Phelps is an artist, songwriter, and musician with over 20 years years of experience performing for audiences of all kinds across the region. Alden’s zany songs, zippy guitar-ifications, and sing-along choruses delight folks of all ages, and his arts-integrated interactive workshops inspire a love of language and the joy of playing with words.
Between 1986 to 1994, MEAC toured worldwide as an Arts Ambassador on behalf of the British Council. Its ground-breaking performances were acclaimed as the first Art form that could truly allow the severely disabled child an opportunity to become part of the theater community. In 1994 the troupe re-located to the United States of America. Beginning in 1994 MEAC conducted a school residency at The Maryland School for the Blind, which continued for 21 years.
Leila Cabib is a professional cartoonist, illustrator, and animator. Her clients include The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Gannett newspapers, Time-Life Books, and many other publications and organizations. She has written and illustrated two nationally syndicated comic strips. She has been teaching cartooning in after-school programs for 29 years and cartooning and animation as an artist in residence in elementary, middle, and high schools (grades 2-12) for 20 years. Her students’ animated videos have been honored with several national awards and shown at international film f