ARIEL RIVKA DANCE
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Allison Kadin (president)
Allison Kadin is a Director and member of the Leadership Team at Mission Partners. She brings over a decade of experience in strategy, creative production, marketing, communications, and operations to nonprofit organizations, foundations, and purpose-driven businesses. After a tenure as a Senior Marketing Manager at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), where she produced hundreds of communications campaigns to promote live performances and internationally renowned festivals, she parlayed her passion for storytelling and community-building into social impact communications. Since 2020, Allison has led creative teams and driven strategy for emerging and legacy organizations including Imperative 21, Economic Security Project, PolicyLink, Kataly Foundation, and Southern Poverty Law Center. Outside of client work, she merges her experience in arts management and desire to elevate social issues with creative engagement projects like Forward Union Fair (a multi-day event that brings together artists and social impact organizations) and boundary-pushing works by theater and dance companies. She was selected to be part of Race Forward’s first cohort of the Racial Equity in the Arts Innovation Lab and was an International Society for the Performing Arts Global Fellow. She serves on the boards of Ariel Rivka Dance and AENY – Spanish Artists in New York and was a communications consultant for New York City Center and La Nacional Spanish Benevolent Society. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in English and received an MBA from Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business. Allison currently resides in Los Angeles, California with her dog Roo.
Giselle Huron
Giselle Huron is Senior Trademark Counsel and Anti-Counterfeit Lead at Google, supporting mobile hardware, retail services, and Google DeepMind. She has served as a Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School since 2022. Prior to Google, Giselle worked in litigation at Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu and Davis Polk & Wardwell after earning her law degree at Harvard Law School. She has been dancing, singing, and performing for most of her life, and formed a love of niche dance companies when she started diSiac Dance Company with some friends at Princeton University. Giselle served as President of the ARD Board of Directors from 2019-2024.
HANA GINSBURG TIROSH (EXECUTIVE CONSULTANT)
is a graduate of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and has a Masters of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Teaching from Purchase College Conservatory of Dance. She is the New York City Director for the New York Institute of Dance and Education (NYIDE), as well as the New York City Coordinator for the New York Dance Festival. As a professional dancer, Hana has enjoyed a 10-year career that has taken her all over the world, and is currently a member of Kaleidoscope Dance Theatre, Valerie Green/Dance Entropy, Matthew Westerby Company and Danse En L’air. She is on the Faculty at Fierce Dance Company, and also teaches professional Reinforced Motor Function (RMF), RMF for Ballet Application and McLeod Technique Modern classes in NYC as part of NYIDE’s regular programming. She is thrilled to be a Principal Dancer with Ariel Rivka Dance, as well as Rehearsal Director and Administrative Consultant.
Doug Crowell
Doug Crowell is a native New Yorker and owner of Brooklyn's Buttermilk Channel and French Louie restaurants, with licensed locations in Tokyo and Yokohama. A graduate of Boston University and the Culinary Institute of America, he began his restaurant career in the kitchen, notably at Manhattan's La Grenouille and Picholine, and held top management positions at some of New York's most popular restaurants. In his spare time, Doug studies poetry and prose and is a voracious appreciator of dance, music, and visual arts.
Ariel grossman (Artistic Director)
Ariel Rebecca (Rivka) Grossman is a native New Yorker who trained at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts and Joffrey Ballet School under Gerald Arpino. She earned a B.S. in Dance, with honors, and a Minor in Women’s Studies from Skidmore College, and a masters in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College. In 2008, she founded an all-female contemporary company, Ariel Rivka Dance. Ariel Grossman received a 2023 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Matthew Saffer
is a Software Developer with over 10 years of professional experience. He worked at Microsoft for 3 years on the award winning Visual Studio IDE, holding leadership roles in the creation of a V1 product including the coordination between India, Raleigh and Redmond in a new set of technologies. After Microsoft, Matthew joined Comprehend Systems, a Y Combinator startup, as their first non-founding employee. He took the company from 3 to 9 people in the course of a year as the lead engineer, network administrator and recruiter. Matthew is the primary author of 1 international patent, co-author of two US domestic patents, and holds a bachelor of science in Computer Science from Carnegie-Mellon University.
Stefania De Kenessey (Composer-In-Residence)
Trained at Yale and Princeton, composer de Kenessey is steadfastly committed to honoring women composers and is the founding president of the International Alliance for Women in Music. Her opera adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s best-selling novel “Bonfire of the Vanities” premiered in New York City in 2015 to considerable acclaim: “melodically ingratiating…skillfully wrought…caustically witty” (Financial Times); “Stefania de Kenessey’s musical setting was, unlike a lot of contemporary opera, tuneful and grateful to the voice” (The Observer). Her instrumental and vocal music has been performed extensively in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to Joe’s Pub, LaMama, and New York Live Arts. Premieres in 2018-2019 featured her (mostly) humorous cabaret songbook, The Well-Tempered Woman. For further information, please visit her website at: www.stefaniadekenessey.com
Jack levy
is a partner in the New York City law firm of Morrison Cohen LLP where his practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and corporate governance. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the New York University School of Law. Jack and his wife Judy Bass are residents of the Upper West Side of Manhattan and regular theater goers and dance enthusiasts. They met Ariel Grossman and David Homan several years ago and have enjoyed following the development of Ariel Rivka Dance. Jack is honored to be on the ARD Board and looks forward to working toward the growth and success of the company.
Jane TarIca
Jane Tarica received a BA in English and Theater from Lehigh University, and an MFA in acting from the New School for Drama. After school she started volunteering at the Women in Need Shelter in East New York as a math tutor for the GED and has never looked back. She has been an Adult Education teacher in mathematics for the past 14 years at the Borough of Manhattan Community College Continuing Education Department. SHe has been a teacher leader, staff developer, and curriculum writer. She also teaches reading and writing as needed. In 2013 she founded “The WithinReach Foundation” - a scholarship foundation for adult learners to continue their educations at community college. The foundation has served over 30 students, many of which have gone on to pursue bachelor’s degrees. The foundation focuses on creating a community for these brave students and helping them in whatever way we can as they pursue their dreams. She is interested in helping underserved communities gain access to education and enrichment.
Raz Tirosh
was born in Israel and moved to the States when he was 13 years old. He graduated with honors from Carnegie Mellon University with degrees in Economics and Computer Engineering. He has over ten years of experience in Finance, and has worked in Chicago on the floor of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange, and currently lives and works in New York City. He is an avid snow boarder, kite surfer and supporter of dance and the arts. He always excited to be a part of the ARD Board and to help the company grow and flourish. He served as ARD president from 2015-2019.
Julianna Koch
Julianna Koch, who holds a BA from Skidmore College and an MA and PhD from Cornell University, is a market researcher with more than 10 years experience in turning the voice of customers into strategic recommendations for her healthcare industry clients. She currently leads primary research engagements as a senior research director at buzzback. Between report writing and project management, you can find Julianna in ballet class in New York City. She is excited to engage with dance in a new way.
EMERITUS BOARD
Stephanie Garland
Lauren Wong
Hector Godinez
Richard Kadin
Elisa King
Tammie Kukoleca