Maria Portman Kelly

Maria Portman Kelly (Dance for PD Programmes and Engagement Manager) has supported the New York City based flagship programme since 2011. She created a Volunteer Training Programme and co-facilitated Introductory Training and Professional Development workshops for dance teachers, movement experts, and medical professionals. Maria acted as production assistant for three volumes of an At Home DVD series for Dance for PD and has supported projects involving live-streaming and Moving Through Glass, a Google Glass App for people with Parkinson’s. She attended Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health Arts in Aging, the Lincoln Center Global Exchange, and the World Parkinson Congress, and was invited to work with The Amahoro Dance Troupe of Gisenyi, Rwanda. She is a former dancer with the Louisville Ballet, Susana B. Williams Modern Dance Company, and Ballet Español, and has performed as an actor with Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. In collaboration with The Bushwick Starr she co-created classroom curriculum for Big Green Theater, their environmental education initiative. She was selected by the New York Foundation for the Arts as an Emerging Leader, and is pursuing an MA in Disability Studies from CUNY School of Professional Studies.