Bashi Arts Co-Founder & EKC Dancer

Rachel DeForrest Repinz (she/her) is a visually impaired dance artist-scholar based in NYC. She received a BA and MFA in Dance from SUNY Buffalo State University and Temple University, respectively, and is a PhD in Dance candidate at Texas Woman’s University researching the presence of blindness in contemporary dance. Rachel founded and directs RACHEL:dancers, a multi-medium/multi-modal dance performance company, and co-directs Bashi Arts, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with Enya-Kalia Jordan. Her creative work is rooted in the postmodern tradition and disability aesthetic lineages, exploring experimental approaches to audio description, improvisational time-based performance practices, multi-sensory installation, and destabilizing ocularcentrism in dance performance and practice. Rachel serves as the Advisor of Dance and Disability for NDEO, and was awarded as a Dance/NYC ‘Disability. Dance. Artistry.’ Dance and Social Justice Fellow (2023). She has been on faculty in the Dance Department at Temple University, is the current Program Manager for the Hunter College Dance Education programs, and serves as a Staff Writer and Editorial Board member for thINKingDANCE. Rachel’s work has been presented nationally and internationally. Some favorite venues include Movement Research at Judson Church (2025), La MaMa Experimental Theater (2024), and Dixon Place (2024).

Company Coordinator & EKC Dancer

Rachele Domond (she/her) is a professional dancer, choreographer, pedagogue holding her NYS certification in Dance Education for grades PreK-12th. She is the dance teacher at M.S 72; The Catherine and Count Basie Magnet School for Multimedia and Performing Arts, a middle school in Southeast Queens.  Rachele's been dancing for 20 years while professionally teaching/choreographing for the last several. Having trained in multiple dance styles, her favorites are Hip Hop and Contemporary. Rachele just recently obtained her M.A. in Dance Education from NYU Steinhardt with a concentration on teaching African diasporic styles in higher education or performing arts organizations. Rachele is both a dancer and the coordinator of Enya Kalia Creations, one half of Bashi Arts.In addition to that, Rachele is also the founder and artistic director of Domond Dance, who provides dance technical + performance training, and uses dance education to connect with, inspire, and mentor children from ages 5-18, and young adults up to the age of 21. As a plus-size, Haitian-American woman, Rachele advocates for the inclusivity and representation of all bodies despite shape, size, and ethnic backgrounds in the world of dance

EKC Dancer

Makayla Monét Peterson (she/her) is a dancer, choreographer, scholar, teaching artist, and culture agent. A Temple University BFA alumna, she founded Monét Movement Productions: The Collective (MMPTC) in 2020, a platform where artistry meets activism. Makayla has received residencies and creative support from New Dance Alliance, Downtown Brooklyn, COCO Dance Festival (Featured Choreographer), Gibney Dance’s Black Diaspora Initiative and the Upsurge Dance Festival Wynn Mentorship Award. Most recently, MMPTC was named a 2026-27 CUNY Dance Initiative Artist. Her creative and scholarly work explores themes of ancestral memory, embodied resistance, and diasporic identity, shaped by her Trinidadian heritage. Her research and creative work have been presented at the Global Caribbean Dance Conference, Caribbean Studies Association Conference, Collegium for African Diaspora Dance, National Dance Education Conference and more. Choreographic highlights include COCO Dance Festival, Collective Thread Dance Festival, Mare Nostrum Elements Emerging Choreographer Series, Performance Mix Festival #39 and more! Additionally, Makayla leads arts and cultural programming across New York City public schools as a Department of Education vendor, creating space for empowerment, storytelling, and artistic exchange. Master class workshops have been taught at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, SUNY Erie, Temple University, and University of Mount Saint Vincent. Makayla seeks to build a platform at the intersection of arts and culture that amplifies identity, movement, and community.

EKC Dancer

Leah Moses (she/her)  is a movement artist, choreographer, and dance teacher from Brooklyn, New York. Leah holds her BA in Dance and Theater and her MA in Dance Education with NYS License + Certification in Dance Education (PreK-12). Her early dance training is rooted in the Graham School of Contemporary Dance, Dance Theatre of Harlem and teachings of who she considers to be experts: Edisa Weeks, Guanglei Hui, Pedro Ruiz, and YinMei Critchell, among others. Leah’s own artistry is a reflection of her love for Modern and African dance, Liturgical dance in the church and her Vincentian Grenadian background. This blend of Afro-Caribbean, traditional Modern, and dance as reverence (praise dance) has allowed Leah to create a teaching and movement practice that embodies Martha Graham's beloved quote: “Dance is the hidden language of the soul”. In addition to being a company member of Enya Kalia Creations and RACHEL: dancers. Leah also performs with Eden Brooklyn Dance Theater. goes here

EKC Dancer

Maleyah “Lee” Peterson (she/her) is a poet, writer, dancer, radical Black Feminist scholar, political educator, and multidisciplinary visual artist (at present: graphic design, photography and collage) whose work lives at the nexus of Caribbean diasporic identity, anti-colonial imagination, community care, and freedom dreams. She grew up in Canarsie, Brooklyn, deeply connected to her Trinidadian heritage by way of family, storytelling, living, music, and mas. On any day, you can find Lee clinging to the ancestral power of the Afro-Caribbean imagination, everywhere, doing everything she imagines. Lee is the Co-Founder and Co-Curator of (W)Ratchet Studies, a Queer Black Feminist Community Education Project in New York City that arms black women, femmes, and gworls with the tools to survive in a world that does not prioritize their living. In her day-to-day, Maleyah works a dance and theater teaching artist across schools in Brooklyn for Monét Movement Productions: The Collective. She is a Social Media Assistant with Colored Convos Media, LLC and a Social Media and Editorial Manager at Black Youth Project. With a Black Studies degree from Swarthmore College, Lee is creatively and politically committed to expanding collective and public definitions of violence to center Black women and queer bodies through writing, art-making, and multidisciplinary public engagement. Maleyah “Lee” is a Winter 2026 Brooklyn Poets Fellow and a 2026 POWERHOUSE Resident. Her poems, “Violet’s Riddim”, “Granddaughter of the Cane” and “Bacchanalia!” are published in Issue 11 of Brown Sugar Literary Magazine, Echoes. Her poem, “orange juice hips: new fruits, old roots” is published in Creative Stillness Anthology by The Creative Writing Hour by Dhayana Alejandrina published by Gatekeeper Press (2026). 

EKC Dancer

Rae Perry (she/her) is a Dallas, Texas–born dance artist driven by the healing power of movement. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Dance Studies with a focus in performance from Texas Woman’s University, including a summer study program at the American College of Greece in Athens in 2023. During her time at TWU, Rae performed with the International Dance Company under the direction of Elisa De La Rose, ImPULSE Dance Company directed by Anastasia Waters, and Odyssey Dance Co. directed by Ashlynn Rodriguez. She also assisted in managing HiddenCity Dance Company, an initiative launched in 2020 to provide free dance classes to students in response to the pandemic. Rae’s training spans ballet, modern, jazz, West African, hip hop, and musical theatre, with foundational mentorship from Hugh Nini, Eldar Valiev, Lilia Valieva, and Jennifer Austin. Her recent work, Echo, premiered at the 2025 DUMBO Dance Festival presented by White Wave Dance Company. She is currently a company member with New York Dance Project under the direction of Davis Robertson, performing works choreographed by artists including Leslie Brown, Clifford Williams, Samuel Lee, and Maleek Washington. Rae continues to seek collaborative opportunities that expand her artistry and deepen her connection to movement as a transformative practice.