Draft:Tiffany Rea-Fisher

Tiffany Rea‑Fisher (born 1981) is an American choreographer, dancer, director, educator, activist, and arts leader based in New York City..^[1]and the Adirondacks^[2]. Raised in California, Tiffany danced her whole life, starting at 3 years old^[3]. During her career, she rose to principal dancer ^[4], performing for thousands with a myriad of companies in the US and all over the world. She is now the founder and artistic director of EMERGE125 ^[5]and serves as executive director of the Adirondack Diversity Initiative^[6]. Rea‑Fisher combines dance, community organizing, cultural advocacy, and a deep commitment to equity, imprinting a legacy of inclusivity across stage, world, and wilderness with dance as the lasting language of change.

Rea‑Fisher's interest in dance began at 3 years old^[3]. Her mother supported that interest from an early age^[7]. Rea-Fisher's training was in tap, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, and acro. With this varied education, she participated in Dance competitions across the country winning National and Regional Titles.^[8] She trained at the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, earning her BFA in May 2003^[9]. A knee injury early in her studies put her on the sidelines and allowed found time to immerse herself in modern dance history, a pensive, reflective period she credits with shaping her voice as an artist and leader. Learning from the past to change the projection of the future.^[10]

As a student, she co-founded ForArts, Purchase's first interdisciplinary arts collective, which hosted quarterly performances and gallery events, bringing students from all over the campus together.^[11] She was also elected to the Strategic Planning Committee for the college's 2004–2009 initiative. In addition, She was a member of the Student Government and the University President Search Committee. This paved the way for her innovative leadership qualities to emerge.

Rea-Fisher is a trail blazing Activist, her contributions have caught national attention numerous times. In 2023, she was recognized by Pointe Magazine as one of the Top 12 Performances for her work in Sounds of Hazel Pointe Magazine^[30]. That same year, She was involved in the renaming of John Thomas Brook, a site in the Adirondack region whose name change reflects broader efforts to reevaluate place names with problematic historical associations, as reported by Adirondack Explorer^[31]. In 2020, she played a very active role in community organizing, serving as an organizer for the George Floyd march in Harlem, which was covered by Vogue^[32] and Juneteenth march at City Hall^[33], which received media attention from Dance Magazine^[34] and NY1^[35]. Additionally, she contributed as a community organizer for James Felton Keith's congressional campaign.^[36]

Tiffany Rea-Fisher has been engaged in a range of artistic and equity-focused initiatives that bridge the performing arts and community advocacy. Since 2023, she has worked with the Adirondack Diversity Initiative ^[37], where she leads equity efforts across Northern New York, collaborating with state agencies, the Adirondack North Country Association, and regional partners to advance inclusion and access in historically underserved communities. From 2021 to 2024, she served as an artist-in-residence at The Flea^[38], contributing to a program dedicated to supporting Black, Brown, and Queer artists through the development and presentation of new work. She has also participated in programming at John Brown Farm through Creatives Rebuild New York ^[39], an initiative aimed at strengthening the role of artists in community development, and in 2023 held an artist-in-residence position with the National Dance Institute^[40], where she further expanded her work in arts education and performance.

Rea-Fisher received her BFA from SUNY Purchase in 2003 ^[41], a conservatory known for its rigorous training in the performing arts. She later participated in the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program (2016–2017), an executive leadership initiative for arts and cultural leaders, through which she completed intensive study at Harvard Business School^[42], the University of Michigan ^[43], and the Sundance Institute ^[44]. From 2016 to 2020, she was a fellow in the APAP Leadership Fellows Program^{[45] [46]}, a nationally recognized program that supports emerging leaders in the performing arts sector.

Her numerous fellowships and honors reflect both her artistic achievements and her leadership in the field. In 2022, she was named a Toulmin Fellow^[47], a program associated with NYU, the Center for Ballet and the Arts, and National Sawdust that supports interdisciplinary research and creative practice. In addition, she received the Craigardan Fellowship ^[48],which provides artists with residencies in the Adirondacks, interweaving nature and art for a unique artistic experience in 320 acres of Mountainside fields. That same year, she was awarded The Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award, recognizing exceptional courage and leadership in the fields of social justice and community impact^[49].

In 2021, she received a National Dance Project Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts^[50], one of the most prestigious grants supporting the creation and touring of new dance work in the United States. Rea-Fisher has been nominated multiple times for an AUDELCO Award (2025^[51] 2022^[52], 2019^[53], 2018^[54], 2017^[55], 2016^[56]) which honors excellence in Black theatre. She has also received a citation from the City of New York ^[57], and a Creatives Rebuild New York Award ^[58], both recognizing her contributions to the arts and community engagement.

Rea-Fisher has been featured multiple times in Dance Magazine across her career, both as a profiled artist and as a contributor of essays. In 2004, she was included in the magazine's “Up and Coming” feature highlighting emerging dance artists for her dynamic and powerful performances as a Principle Dancer. She later contributed “APAP: A Love/Hate Relationship” (2017)^[59], which examined the complexities of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals conference and its impact on the performing arts ecosystem, followed by “Why Dancers Belong on the Ballot” (2021) ^[60], which advocated for greater civic engagement among dancers, and “Why I Dance” (2023), a reflective essay on her artistic practice and motivations.^[61]

Beyond Dance Magazine, Rea-Fisher has also written extensively on equity and arts policy in other publications. In 2018, she authored “What Inclusion and Equity Looks Like…” for Western Arts Alliance, addressing what structural inclusion looks like in arts organizations^[62]. In 2020, she expanded on these themes in the IABD Blog essay “What Inclusion and Equity Looks Like: From One Black Artistic Director’s Point of View in Three Parts,” offering a personal perspective on systemic change in the dance field from her rich experience in the discipline of dance.^[63] In 2021, she contributed “We Need a Full Plan to Save the Arts in New York” to Gotham Gazette, discussing policy approaches to supporting the arts sector during crisis.^[64]

Rea-Fisher has been on faculty at Steps on Broadway since 2016^[65], where she continues to teach professional-level contemporary and modern dance classes and contribute to the training of emerging and established dancers. From 2012 to 2015, she was on faculty at the Joffrey Ballet School^[66], where she worked with pre-professional and professional students in classical and contemporary dance techniques. In addition to her institutional teaching appointments, she has served as a guest lecturer at a range of academic and cultural institutions, including Dartmouth College, New York University, SUNY Purchase, Kent State University, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Baylor University, the Library of Congress, and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock in Germany, where she has spoken on topics related to dance, artistic leadership, and equity in the performing arts.

Rea-Fisher has held numerous leadership and advisory roles across arts, civic, and community organizations. She served as Vice President of the board of directors and advisory board member of the Stonewall Community Development Corporation^[67], contributing to its mission of supporting LGBTQ+ community development and advocacy. She is also a board member of The Tank NYC, a non-profit arts organization supporting emerging and interdisciplinary performance work^[68]. Previously, she served in multiple capacities with The Bessies, including committee, steering committee, and selection committee roles, helping to support and evaluate excellence in dance performance^[69].

She has also contributed to broader arts and equity organizations, including serving on the advisory board of Dance/NYC^[70], participating in the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) INFLUENCER Cohort ^[71], and serving as a panelist for the Statewide Community Regrants Program for the Adirondack Quad-County Region through the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts (ALCA) ^[72]. Her civic engagement extends beyond the arts sector, including service on the Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Board ^[73], the Hate and Bias North Country Regional Council ^[74], and the founding steering committee of the Energy Equity Collaborative^[75]. She is also a member of Voters for Change, reflecting her ongoing involvement in civic engagement and advocacy efforts^[76]

Through dance, Rea-Fisher unites art and activism^[60]. Whether in the theater^[38], or public parks^[25], or protest lines^[33], she advocates for a better American Dream. One Steeped in a rich, if not at times, fraught history^[33]. She encourages her audiences and performers to engage, to question. To see beyond the status quo into a new future; one that acknowledges the past while stepping boldly into the unknown.^[60]

Rea-Fisher continues to mentor and choreograph and her voice resonates across disciplines and generations. Tiffany Rea-Fisher's legacy is one of fearlessness and artistic rigor. The true embodiment of resiliency and fighting spirit. Though her titles many, as a choreographer, artistic director, and cultural leader, she has expanded the boundaries of what dance can express^[34]. Her works are not just performances but living archives of grit and celebration, shaped by her unwavering belief in dance as a transformative force. ^[38]

Through her stewardship of EMERGE125^[5] and her roles in institutions like the Adirondack Diversity Initiative^[2] and the Classical Theatre of Harlem^[77], she has built pathways for underrepresented voices to be seen, heard, and empowered.^[34] With every piece she creates and every stage she touches, Rea-Fisher carves out a vision of a more courageous world; one where dance becomes a tool for truth. The light leading us through these dark times. ^[64]