Introducing NDEO's New Executive Director

Ray brings to his work more than four decades of experience as a Somatic movement artist and educator, along with a record of cross-sector collaboration and a deep commitment to advancing Dance as integral to education, wellness, and civic life. His work is grounded in the belief that movement can transform how we learn, live, and relate—fostering agency, self-knowledge, and collective well-being.

Ray's life in formal movement began with swimming, soccer, running, and musical theater. He later transitioned into Dance, graduating high school from he North Carolina School of the Arts, receiving his BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University (with a minor in Religious Studies), and his MFA in Dance from the University of Texas at Austin.

His career spans many spaces where Dance Education thrives: youth and school-based education, adult and lifelong learning, professional training and performance contexts, higher education, creative arts centers, wellness frameworks, and international cultural exchange initiatives. He has contributed to and been served by many organizations dedicated to the dance and movement arts such as WDAA, ACDA, NDEO, ISMETA, CAESA, TDIF, CORD (now DSA) and others.

He co-founded four contemporary Dance collectives in the southern United States— Steve’s House Dance Collective, The Zen Monkey Project, Sheep Army/Elsewhere Dance Theater, and THEM—each committed to fostering innovative, collaborative, and community-rooted performance, and has continuously maintained an active creative and scholarly practice—presenting original choreographic work nationally and internationally, publishing peer-reviewed scholarship in both Spanish and English and serving as an invited guest artist for diverse communities throughout the U.S., Turkey, Southeast Asia, South America, and Mexico. His teaching has been featured at festivals and institutions including the American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, MELT, the ZMP Summer Dance Intensive, Verano Chilango, Camp_iN, the Colorado College Summer Dance Festival, and SFADI, among many others. 

From 2006 to 2022, Schwartz served as Professor of Dance at the Universidad de Las Américas Puebla in Mexico, and from 2008 to 2018 as Director of its Dance Program. In 2007 He co-founded Performática: Foro Internacional de Danza Contemporánea y Artes del Movimiento, a platform that, for over 13 years, fostered global artistic and educational exchange. He has, since, coordinated the MA in Dance Education at the University of Northern Colorado, serving K–12 and studio-based educators nationwide, and taught Somatics in the Program in Dance at Duke University. He has also served for sixteen years as a faculty member, educational consultant, and investigator with the Center for Body Mind Movement, an international somatic movement education organization that explores embodiment as a means of engaging both the simplicity of direct experience and the infinite complexity of the human organism. 

A certified practitioner in Body-Mind Centering® and the Feldenkrais Method®, Schwartz teaches Somatics and mobility classes to diverse populations, honoring movement as both a birthright and an essential medicine. He also teaches Dance technique and improvisation in independent studios and community centers, activities that continually reaffirm his belief in Dance as a lifelong practice of connection, resilience, and shared creativity.

"In the world I imagine, Dance welcomes everybody. It lifts each of us high and plants the seeds of possibility in the ground beneath us all. Our organization has always believed that Dance Education is more than a profession — it is a practice of imagination, empathy, and collective care. For decades, our members have modeled what it means to teach, create, and organize toward a more just and expressive world. As Executive Director of NDEO", Schwartz notes, “I will honor our legacy and advocate for Dance not as an extracurricular supplement, but as a core literacy of the body—integral to wellness, identity, resilience, expression, imagination, joy, heart, and soul. Stepping into this role feels like a convergence of partnership, purpose, and promise. I’m eager to bring my experience to NDEO’s next chapter, cultivating a spirit of collaborative leadership grounded in deep listening and vital impulse—one that advances the role of Dance and movement as catalysts for learning, cultural vitality, and community building. Together with NDEO’s staff, Board, members, and partners, I look forward to forging strategic coalitions that connect policy, practice, and embodied knowledge in service of a more creative and connected society. It is both a deep honor and a profound responsibility to join NDEO at this moment of growth and opportunity, and I look forward to all that we will create together."

The National Dance Education Organization, under the auspices of the Board that voted to conduct a national search for the new Executive Director, embarked on a structured, multi-stage national search.

The position was publicly posted in early June 2025. It drew a strong and highly qualified pool of over 150 applicants from across the country, representing a range of experiences in K–12 education, higher education, arts administration, and nonprofit leadership. A search committee composed by representatives from the Board of Directors, past presidents, and members at-large representing the different sectors NDEO serves (K-12, studio, HE) conducted virtual interviews with a group of semi-finalists, followed by more in-depth conversations with a smaller group of finalists at the national conference.

The committee was particularly attentive to candidates’ demonstrated commitment to NDEO’s mission, experience in collaborative leadership, and vision for advancing dance education nationally. The Board’s reflections on the process emphasized appreciation for the thoughtful work of the search committee and a shared sense of confidence and excitement about the organization’s next chapter under the new Executive Director’s leadership.