Ana Nery Fragoso

Ana Nery Fragoso is the Director of the Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program at Hunter College, CUNY. AGDEP prepares candidates to teach Dance PreK - Grade 12 to students of diverse backgrounds, abilities, and interests. The curriculum is enriched by repertory classes with New York City-based choreographers, international performance opportunities, and internships at various venues.

 

Fragoso served as Director of Dance Programs for the NYCDOE Office of Arts and Special Projects from 2014-2021. She provided leadership and guidance for dance programs in public schools, designed professional learning opportunities for dance educators teaching K-12 dance in NYC public schools, and served as a liaison between the NYCDOE and external organizations offering dance and dance-related services to schools. She also directed the Arnhold New Dance Teacher Support program, which provides first and second-year dance specialists with mentorship, funds, and instructional support.

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Fragoso grew up in the Canary Islands, Spain, where she began her lifelong passion for dance. Upon her arrival in NYC, she studied at the Alwin Nikolais Dance Lab (NYC) for two years. For thirteen years, Fragoso taught at P.S. 315, a Performing Arts Elementary School in Brooklyn, where she created a dance curriculum that emphasized improvisation, technique, and dance-making. At P.S 315, she established strong partnerships with the larger NYC professional dance community such as Ballet Hispánico, Dancewave, Together in Dance, The Ailey School, the Chinese Cultural Center, Dancing Classrooms, the Merce Cunningham School, Ballet Tech, American Ballet Theater, and the New York City Ballet. During her last year at P.S. 315, she was selected to be one of the five New York City master dance educators featured in the PBS documentary, PS Dance!. From 2013-14 she created a brand-new dance program at the East Village Community School where she built a strong community around dance by motivating students to explore, sharing the curriculum with the administration, and educating parents, staff, and administration on the educational benefits of a comprehensive public school dance curriculum.

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Fragoso was a member of the NYCDOE Dance Blueprint Writing Committee in 2005 and worked from 2005 to 2014 as an NYCDOE dance facilitator co-designing professional development workshops for New York City Department of Education dance specialists. In 2017, she was a member of the New York State Dance Learning Standards writing team. From 2007-14, Ana was a faculty member at the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at the 92nd St Y providing instruction for pre-service and in-service dance educators and dance artists. As a cooperating teacher, she mentored undergraduate and graduate dance education students from New York University, Hofstra University, and Hunter College. Fragoso also worked for six years as a dance coach for the Artful Learning Community Grant (ALC) doing action research to develop strategies for collaborative inquiry around formative assessment practices and student learning in dance and on Arts Achieve, a four-year project that developed innovative dance assessment tools and strategies. She is the recipient of the 2022 Dance Teacher Award, a J. Javits Fellowship award, and two grants from the Ministry of Culture in Spain.

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Fragoso earned a B.A. Dance/Education from Hunter College and an M.F.A. in Dance/Choreography from Sarah Lawrence College.

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Fragoso is an Arnhold Fellowship Recipient in the Ed.D. Dance Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her primary objective is to acquire exceptional research skills and strategies to deepen her understanding of issues related to teacher education, advocacy, and policy.