Lindi’s passion for dance began as a toddler and drove her to pursue a career as a professional dancer and educator. She has performed and taught for nearly 20 years in both Los Angeles and New York and has been seen in numerous music videos, industrials, musical theatre productions and tours across the country. She has also served as an adjudicator for several national dance competitions. Ms. Duesenberg holds degrees in both Dance Education and Journalism from Chapman University and has worked with children for over 15 years in many educational capacities—teacher, dance instructor, tutor and mentor.  

Since retiring from performing, Lindi has been forging her path in the NYC fitness and education world, working as a personal trainer, a leading instructor at Physique 57, creative movement director at the Nursery School at Congregation Habonim and founder her own company, Dance Motivation Fitness (DMF). She built DMF into one of the leading dance cardio workouts in NYC and become well known for her upbeat, motivational, and positive approach to wellness. Though she loved working with adults, her true passion is working with kids and teens and motivating them to achieve greatness is in all aspects of their lives. 

As a youth educator, Ms. Duesenberg has worked with children ages 3-18 in over ten dance studios throughout Los Angeles and NYC, served as a substitute teacher in the Compton and Garden Grove Unified School Districts (LA) and taught DMF specialty dance classes to underserved children in NYC for years.  She has also worked with Literacy Support Systems in New York to create and implement a unique dance and movement curriculum in K-12 classrooms to enhance and supplement traditional learning and promote key academic concepts.  As seasoned teaching artist, she provides a road to innovative kinesthetic learning that weaves arts education into language arts, math, science and social studies.  

While working as a “big sis” mentor, and teaching specialty dance classes to underserved NYC youth, Ms. Duesenberg was shocked by the lack of physical exercise in NYC schools and the dramatic rise of childhood obesity.   Arts opportunities for low income and transient families were also extremely limited and she knew she could create a program to help alleviate these issues.  DMF Youth was born out of the idea that a successful afterschool program needed to be much more than a dance class or sports program.  It needed to expose children to imperative life skills like goal setting, managing emotions, mindfulness, and growth mindset.  By working with educators, phycologists, and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) specialists, she created the DMF Youth curriculum that creatively weaves in these life skills and increases students’ self-esteem, confidence, and grit.

Rathi, born and raised in Mumbai, India started dancing at the age of 15 alongside pursuing her Diploma in Visual Arts and working as an Illustrator. In 2018, she moved to New York to pursue her career in Dance professionally at Peridance Centre. In Mumbai, she trained under Shiamak Davar’s Institute of Performing Arts and The Danceworx in Jazz, Ballet, and Contemporary. Since 2019, she’s had the opportunity to perform with various choreographers, namely Anabella Lenzu, Matthew Westerby, Elise Long, Apollonia Holzer, and Dina Denis to name a few. Her work Table for Two, Imperfect, and What Will be, Will be was presented at Spoke The Hub, Flushing Town Hall, BAAD (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance), Arts on Site, and Balance Arts Centre. Apart from being a company member with Chutzpah Dance and Treehouse Shakers, Rathi is a lead Teaching Artist with DMF Youth Inc. 

Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert is an Afro-Korean American singer, dancer, actress, music maker, and educator. She studied at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University where she earned a BA in Music Education. Lambert is a former member of Boom Crack Dance Company and a former music teacher at Bell Elementary. Nicole is best known for her work as an original broadway cast member of Six the Musical where during her time point played Aragon, Boelyn, Cleves and Parr.

Kiki is a Bronx native and passionate about bringing the power of dance to underserved NYC communities.  She began training at very a young age and is known for her versatility as a dancer and choreographer.  Kiki brings a vast understanding of Hip-Hop, ballroom, Latin, jazz, club Latin, modern, and lyrical to the DMF Youth team, and uses these many genres of dance to inspire and excite young dancers. She trained and worked with many companies including Arthur Murray’s, Piel Canela, and Contra Tiempo which allowed her perform and compete professionally around the country. Witnessing students become comfortable in their bodies and exploring the power of music and movement is Kiki‘s favorite part of teaching. She is passionate about teaching students how dance can enhance their personal lives, helping them grow strong both physically and psychologically. Kiki hopes to inspire her students to try new things and push past their perceived limits,  even if it feels uncomfortable at first. She believes you never know what you are capable of until you try and go all in!

Enya-Kalia Jordan is a choreographer, researcher, scholar, and teaching-artist, from Brooklyn, New York. She received a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY Buffalo State in 2017 and a Master of Fine Arts from Temple University in 2019. In 2020, she began her doctoral studies at Texas Woman’s University researching the decolonization of dance curriculum in higher education. This directly intersects with her work as a Lecturer at the University of Virginia and Assistant Professor at SUNY Erie. She has conducted ethnographic research in Tokyo, Japan; Guimaraes, Portugal; Amsterdam, Holland, Netherlands; and Paris, France. She has presented research twice at the NDEO annual conference in Miami, Florida, and San Diego, California. She founded and artistically directs her own movement-based artist collective, Enya Kalia Creations, which has performed nationally and internationally. This includes at the University of West Indies in Barbados, Pennsylvania State at Abington, CADD at Duke University, DaCi conference in Salt Lake City, BAAD! Ass Women in Dance Festival & Kun-Yung Lin’s Inhale Performance Series. Enya has won numerous grants, scholarships, and awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant, Arts Administrators of Color Network, Dance Union, Cooper-Newell Foundation, Texas Woman’s University, SUNY Buffalo State, Temple University, for her work.

Born & raised in Crown Heights Brooklyn NY. Professional Dancer who specializes free form contemporary infused with the studies of KRUMP. Playing a big role as a Street Dance Community Leader, he created a Dance platform that unites all Dance Cultures, called “Roundz Of Flame”. He Participated in multiple NYFW events within time he achieved dance awards, features in The New York Times, VOGUE magazine and sponsorship by PUMA. Recently honored to perform a dance piece for “Rihanna” at Parsons School Of Design | The New School Awards . As someone who love to inspire & motivate the youth, Rocka teached dance internationally in places like, Bali Indonesia, Kenya-Africa, Sweden & Berlin-Germany just to name a few. The dream goal is to open Schools that specializes in all the different Street dance styles, fundamentals and History.

Colleen Unda is a New York based dancer, movement educator, and certified personal trainer. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and received her training certification through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. She is the founder of her own personal training company, FaceTime Fitness, and has worked with multiple gym facilities including Equinox and F45. Colleen is well versed in goal setting, dance education, and functional movement training. Colleen has been a teaching artist for DMF Youth for 2 years and absolutely loves sharing her passion for dance with her students. She is so grateful to be part of such an amazing community!

Courtney Bryan Devon is a Black, Queer, nonbinary Theatremaker, Activist, and Educator. Through community engagement in theatre, music, movement, and dance, Courtney creates revealing, reviving and revolutionary experiences rooted in facilitation, fellowship, and freedom. Courtney cultivates an eclectic arts education that is continually reinvested into marginalized communities as a teaching artist and proudly serves as the director of the Rosetta LeNoire Musical Theatre Academy. A trained mixed martial artist, yogi, and movement facilitator, Courtney has also worked with scores of NYC adults in the fitness and exercise industry as a trainer and dance cardio instructor. Courtney is most enlivened in enriching and connecting communities through creativity, believing in the universal power of the arts and storytelling to facilitate environments of learning, healing, transformative justice, and radical joy.