Lakey Evans-Peña

Educator, scholar, and artistic coach, Lakey Evans-Peña is the Associate Director of The Ailey School Horton Pedagogy and serves as a master teacher of the Horton technique for the Professional Division of The Ailey School. Prior to this role, Ms. Evans-Peña was the Rehearsal Director of Ailey II, touring nationally with repertoire inclusive of Mr. Ailey’s iconic work Revelations and works by William Forsythe, Robert Battle, Andrea Miller, and Francesca Harper. She has been the répétiteur of Mr. Ailey’s work at the American Dance Festival and assisted Ronni Favors in the staging of Mr. Ailey’s Memoria with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Most recently she produced an evening length performance, restaging and performing Lester Horton’s 1948 duet The Beloved, as well as premiering three new works of her own choreography. Her teaching, rehearsing, and coaching practice is centered in artistic empowerment, performance practice, and cultural relevancy.

Ms. Evans-Peña holds a BFA from the University of the Arts and an MFA from Montclair State University. As a scholarship recipient at The Ailey School and a member of Ailey II she performed a wide array of works including those of Alvin Ailey, Ronald K. Brown, Eleo Pomare, Hope Clarke, Milton Myers, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Kevin Iega Jeff, Kathryn Posin, and Cecilia Marta.
Additionally, she was the lead in Donald Byrd’s The Harlem Nutcracker for three national tours, danced in the New York City Opera’s production of Carmina Burana, and worked with a wide spectrum of NYC based artists. She has been on faculty at Hollins University, Marymount Manhattan College, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Montclair State University, AMDA, STEPS, Peridance, and Ballet Hispanico.

In 2009 she founded the Williamsburg Movement & Arts Center. As the Artistic and Executive Director through 2022, she developed offsite school and community partnerships with 14 NYC public and private schools in Brooklyn. These workshops and residencies enabled 3,000 students a year to explore dance. The onsite studio offered a wide array of movement classes for ages 2-adults and served as a vibrant community gathering space.
In 2013, she concurrently founded WMAAC Residencies (now renamed WRArts), a 501(c)3 organization providing affordable creative after-school performing arts programming in schools throughout Williamsburg.

2024

2023