MEET OUR TEAM

Nina Klyvert-Lawson, a dance educator, and performing arts manager is the founder and artistic director of Project Performing Arts, located at the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Center in Harlem. An Emerson College graduate, she holds a BA in Theater Education, specializing in Dance, and a MA in Dance Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. 

As a Performing Arts Administrator at Boys and Girls Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts under the direction of Ramon Rodriguez, she served as dance instructor, Dance Program Director and Artistic Director of the Conservatory. She was responsible for creating, developing and implementing various programs for after-school, Saturday Enrichment, Boys and Girls Harbor camp, and GESTURES Dance Ensemble. Nina was also responsible for the design and implementation of the performing arts “Contracted Services” for Public and Charter School institutions. In addition, her creative efforts were instrumental in the performance elements of the Conservatory’s annual fundraiser “Winter Heat” in collaboration with Career Transition for Dancers, and in Boys and Girls Harbor’s annual “Salute to Achievement”. 

Nina's dance education began with creative dance and theater classes at a Bronx community center. Her pre-professional training started at Juilliard School’s Saturday Preparatory Program, and  continued as a scholarship recipient at The Ailey School. Additional dance training included Clark Center, Joy of Movement (Cambridge), Boston Ballet, and Broadway Dance Center. Nina has been a dancer with Alvin Ailey’s Third Company (Director Kelvin Rotardier), Ailey II (Director Sylvia Waters), Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company (Director), Impulse Dance Company (Director Adrienne Hawkins), and Rael Lamb’s Dance for the New World. Her film and Off-Broadway credits include Secrets of Sahara, The Eddie Files “Welcome to Math: You Gotta Start Somewhere”, and with Ty Stephens’ Shades of Harlem and Jazz Alley. As a master teacher/instructor, she has taught in Italy, at Yale University, Teaneck High School, Rye Arts Center, Mind Builders and as an adjunct instructor at Bergen Community College.

A former NYSCA panelist, Nina also served on the Archdiocese of New York's Entertainment Committee for the 2008 Papal Visit. She is currently a member of the CMOM (Children's Museum of Manhattan) Dance Advisory Board and a member of Fractured Atlas. Nina has been the Director/Choreographer of the Liturgical Dance Ministry of St. Charles Borromeo, Chapel of Resurrection and All Saints Church since 1993. 

As the founder of Project Performing Arts, Nina trusts that PPA will expand every child’s and teen's horizons, that the classes will feed their curiosity and passions, and will afford each to discover a different part of themselves and be empowered through the arts.