Vania Deonizio, Founding Director - is a dancer, choreographer, and an advocate for cultural change fighting for hospitals to treat humans as individuals who benefit from having access to creative and expressive arts during hospitalization. Born in Rio de Janeiro and raised throughout Brazil, Vania founded Dancin Power in the spring of 2006, while living in the United States. Thanks to her passion and determination, today, more 19,000 hospitalized children and their families at eight children’s hospitals across the United States have been positively impacted by the power of music, movement, mindfulness, and dance. After years of seeing the practical impact of her work, she decided to delve into the academic perspective and has been pursuing a graduate degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Expressive Arts Therapy. Vania has been featured by NBC, NowThis, and The Huffington Post, where a video of her work went viral, garnering the attention of millions of viewers worldwide. She has been awarded the Front Line Scholar Award from TEDMED and was recently named by the British Medical Journal as their International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare 2018’s Artist-in-Health Resident.
Rachel Baird - Teacher - Born in Canada, Rachel began dancing at the age of five and trained extensively in ballet and contemporary dance. At the age of sixteen, she moved to NYC to pursue a professional career. Rachel attended the prestigious Joffrey Ballet School and Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program. She completed the Pushing Progress Professional Development Program and is now a freelance dancer working with various choreographers in NYC. Rachel is inspired by the feelings of empowerment, joy, freedom and human connection that dance brings, a reason why she joined Dancin Power.