Deborah Damast

Deborah Damast (Clinical Associate Professor and Director of Dance Education) has been teaching in the Dance Education program since 2002. Courses taught include modern dance history and pedagogy, advanced technique, introduction to modern dance, creative movement for children, dance production, concert preparation, and choreography, Deborah is Artistic Advisor of the program and serves as the Artistic Director of Dance Concerts, Kaleidoscope Dancers and the study abroad program to Uganda.

In 2024-2025 Deborah was a Fellow at the Center for Ballet at the Arts at NYU where she conducted workshops for dance leaders focused on embodied leadership. This work led to her Praxis project at Teachers College, Columbia as partial fulfllment for her EdD. 

In 2024 she was invited to be a founding member of the World Dance Education Alliance in Beijing, China, and participate in the 75th anniversary of the Beijing Dance Academy. 

At NYU, she serves as University Senator, and on the Theater Use Committee, Graduation Planning Committee, and has served on the Dean's Global Committee, Astor Fellows Planning Committee, and Alumni events planning committee among others. 

She has choreographed for the Steinhardt Graduation ceremonies for 9 years (including virtually during Covid), facilitates community engagement opportunities with NYC DOE children and teachers, international touring groups, and local dance studios. Deborah has collaborated with programs at NYU including Music Education, Music Composition, Music Technology, Percussion Studies, Courant and Tisch Motion Capture. In 2024 Deborah presented a talk at the Steinhardt/Jameel Arts and Health Symposium with the World Heath Organization and the UNGA, and created work for their first symposium at the MET Museum. 

Deborah participated in motion capture studies, Internet Arts Collaborations, was a founding member of IMPACT (International Music Performing Arts Collaborating with Technology) 2007-2012 with a teaching component in Korea in 2011, and will travel back to Korea in summer 2025 to teach in collaboration with Steinhardt faculty.  In  2019 she received a collaborative Faculty Challenge Grant with Yoav Bergner and Allegra Romita to research data and dance literacy. In the spring of 2020 Deborah received a Steinhardt Diversity Innovation Grant to begin collaborative work with Dancing Earth in New Mexico, focusing on indigenous arts practices, permaculture, and wellness. In 2021 she received a Internationalizing the Curriculum Grant to create cross cultural connections through dance and the performing arts in between NYU and Uganda, resulting in a zoom with Baraka Performers in Kampala, Kaleidoscope Dancers on zoom, Vanessa Williams and President Hamilton and Steinhardt leadership. In 2024 she received a Caring Culture Grant which brought together faculty, administrators, advisors, staff, and students to develop strategies for wellness, healing, breath work and connections to others at MPAP. 

Deborah collaborates as a mentor, provider of professional development and writer. She teaches teachers and future teachers at the Dance Education Laboratory, and has written curriculum for the Dance Education Laboratory, LREI, The Yard, the NYC DOE DELTA leadership team, Paul Taylor Dance Company, DEL and Alvin Ailey, and New York City Ballet. Deborah created and facilitated a workshop model for engineers at Google X moonshot factory with the Paul Taylor Dance Company and is collaborating on revised workshop plans. She has taught and/or directed programs at Peridance Center, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Harvey School, Dance in Education Fund, New York City Ballet, the 92nd St. Y, Temple Habonim, Harkness Dance Center, Innovative Learning Centers, West Virgina University, BYU, Marymount, and others. She has created creative dance videos for children, Move N Groove Kids.

Deborah has served as keynote speakers to the Utah Dance Education Organization, Peridance Gala, Dance and the Child International, and has presented speeches at numerous events including World Dance Education Alliance (Beijing, China), Kyoto Women's University (Kyoto, Japan), UNESCO Establishment of First Chair in Dance in Uganda (Entebbe, Uganda).

Deborah has created work in New York, nationally and internationally for over 30 years, Her choreography has been shown in NYC including World Financial Center, Riverside Church, 92nd St. Y, 14th Street Y, Judson Church, Peridance, St. Marks Church, Context, RAPP Arts Center, Gowanus Arts Exchange, Cooper Union, Ailey Citigroup Theater, Skirball Theater, Frederick Loewe Theater, Radio City Music Hall, MET Museum, Symphony Space, and she has created choreography for several music video/short films for Michael and Victoria Imperioli. She has presented her choeographed work at NDEO and ADTA conferences, and staged on Peridance, Steffi Nossen and Marymount Manhattan students. Her choreography has been presented Internationally in Italy, Canada, Korea, Japan and Uganda. She has taught and presented at conferences through National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) annually since 2004, New York State Dance Education Association (NYSDEA), Joyce Theater Symposium, CUNY Graduate Center,  ACDFA, NYU,  Kyambogo Music Education Conference (Uganda), and the 76th Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for Dance Research (Kyoto) . 

Deborah serves on the Advisory Board for Misty Copeland's BE BOLD Program, the Dance Teacher Magazine Awards Committee, the NYU Production Lab Fellows Committee, Board of Directors of Peridance Contemporary Dance Company and the Dance Education in Practice Journal Editorial Board, 

Deborah is Past President of the New York Dance Education Association and  served on the Boards of NDEO and NYSDEA.  At NDEO, she was a founding member of the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access) Committee. 

Deborah was a 2008 recipient of the GSO Star Faculty Award at NYU, the 2010 Outstanding Educator Award from the National Dance Education Organization, the 2017 NYU Steinhardt Excellence in Teaching award, the 2020 Dance Teacher Magazine Award, the 2022 Outstanding Leadership Award from New York State Dance Education Association, and the Martha Hill Mid Career award in 2023.   She enjoys teaching across the lifespan, choreographing, and her research interests are community engagement, academic service learning, and early childhood.