Faculty

Since moving to Chicago in 1999, Ms. Willingham has worked as the Dance Director of the Whitney Young Dance Department and the Director of AileyCamp Chicago. Her credits include work with several dance companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Joel Hall Dance Company, and Hubbard Street II. She founded The Willingham Project, a multi-cultural dance company providing dance and educational programs for underserved communities. Currently, she is on the faculties of Columbia College, Olive-Harvey City College, and the Academy of Dance, the official school of the Joffrey Ballet.

A former dancer with the Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre, Zineb Chraibi grew up in Casablanca, Morocco where she first started training. She later returned to her native city of Paris to study ballet, modern, and jazz, then to Montreal to pursue her training at Les ballets Jazz De Montreal. In 1991, she completed her BA in Dance Magna Cum Laude at Point Park College in Pittsburgh, PA while performing with the Playhouse Dance Theatre. Since moving to Chicago, Ms. Chraibi has performed with with the Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre, Winifred Haun and Dancers as well as with various independent choreographers. She has served on the faculty of the Conservatory of Dance at Barat College, The Chicago Academy for The Arts, The Joel Hall Dance Center and taught at the Lou Conte Dance Studio. She is currently on the faculty at the Dance Center of Columbia College, the Joffrey Ballet and guest teaches in the U.S. and abroad.

Ms. Ford is originally from Georgetown, Kentucky. She began her dance training at age 8 at the Lexington Ballet under the direction of Karl Kaufman. She went on to earn her B.F.A. in Dance from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. While studying at CCM she trained with James Truitte and fell in love with the Horton Technique and modern dance. After relocating to Chicago, Ms. Ford danced for 9 years as a company member with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater and self-produced several dance concerts as Nucleus Dance Collective. Currently, Ms. Ford serves as Associate Artistic Director to Hyde Park School of Dance, Tyego Dance Project and Tyego Next Generation. She is the director of Hyde Park School of Dance's outreach program for the community. She also teaches dance at the Chicago High School for the Arts and the Joffrey Ballet. Ms. Ford is also a certified Kundalini Yoga Instructor, group fitness instructor and Clinical Exercise Specialist.

Reginald Harris began his dance training at age five with his uncle and mentor, Marshall Lindsey. At age twelve, he began his classical ballet training with former Dance Theatre of Harlem principal dancer Homer Bryant. After high school, Reginald studied year round as a professional division student at The Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Pacific Northwest Ballet School. Reginald has danced professionally with the River North Chicago Dance Company, Dances Patrelle and Ballet Austin, dancing the works of Marius Petipa, George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Stephen Mills, Thang Dao, Thaddeus Davis, Viktor Kabaniev, Sidra, Bell, Gina Patterson, Frank Chaves, Harrison McEldwoney and Kevin Iega Jeff. Reginald is also a teacher and choreographer. He has taught at the Ballet Austin Academy and various other studios around the country. He has also been commissioned by Ballet Austin to create five ballets for Ballet Austin II. Reginald was the 2008 recipient of the Gem City Ballet’s choreographic competition.

Brian McSween was born and raised in Charlotte, NC where he began dancing in tap, jazz, and ballet at the Charlotte City Ballet. He attended the Joffrey School of Ballet for two summers before being accepted into the Joffrey Concert Dancers. He worked seasonally with Joffrey, American Ballet Theatre, and Grand Rapids Ballet before joining the Aspen Ballet Company full time. After two years he returned to the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago where he has performed varied roles throughout the repertoire. Brian has also worked with Complexions: A Concept in Dance, taught around the country and choreographed for the Charlotte City Ballet. He remains a member with the Joffrey and was most recently seen in the movie The Company.

Lauren Moore was born and raised on the South side of Chicago. She attended Whitney Young High School and went on to receive her B.F.A. in dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she had the opportunity to work with prominent and emerging national and international dancers and choreographers. Ms. Moore also holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Dominican University in River Forest, IL. She began studying dance at the age of five and has trained extensively with the likes of Homer Hans Bryant, Russell Talbert, Kevin Jeff, and Lisa Johnson-Willingham; she is currently performing with the Willingham Project. In addition to teaching dance history and orientation at The Chicago High School for the Arts, she teaches eighth grade language arts at O’Keeffe Elementary School in Chicago’s south shore neighborhood. Ms. Moore has a passion for not only dance and performance, but education as well. She is excited about the opportunity to be able to fuse dance and education together to produce well-rounded students -“scholar artists”- that are not just skilled and gifted in the area of dance, but students who are also intellectually sound.