The theme for the inaugural year is 'defining choreography'.  Seeking to propel thoughtful, creative dialogue and action which advances creativity in the field, WCI is creating workshops, seminars and lecture demonstrations geared to three groups: professionals in the dance world, students and the general public.  The design of these activities will be based on the thinking and input of the Inaugural Year Think Tank participants.

is a media consultant who advises clients on maximizing global opportunities from their intellectual property. She also executive produces television and radio programming.  Previously she served as President & CEO of BBC Worldwide Americas, the BBC's commercial subsidiary in North and South America, where she spearheaded the company's aggressive growth from a small sales office into a diversified media organization.  She chairs the Board of New York Theatre Ballet, serves on the board of The Foundation of the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, is a voting member of the British Academy of Film and Television Artists, and of the New York Women's Forum. 

Claire Porter

is a winner of a 2013 Guggenheim award.  A choreographer/writer/performer known for her smart comedic work mixing language and movement, she has had her work performed in Germany, Scotland, Holland, Latvia, Korea and India and in the US at The Joyce Theater, Town Hall, NY Horticulture Society, American Dance Festival, Lucille Ball Comedy Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Florida Dance Festival and The Kennedy Center with the American College Dance Festival. Porter has received National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowships, New Jersey State Council on the Arts Choreography Fellowships, Mid Atlantic Choreography Fellowships.  Ms. Porter has received many university commissions for her work. Porter has an MA in Dance from Ohio State, a BA in Mathematics, and is a Laban Movement Analyst.  Ms. Porter has been a Resident Artist at The Baryshnikov Art Center and has received several National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowships, New Jersey State Council for the Arts Choreography Fellowships, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Awards, a Live Music for Dance Award and Commissions from Dance Theater Workshop's First Light Project, The 92nd St Y Harkness Dance Festival, Art Matters and Meet The Composer.

has danced, sung, acted, and choreographed in London, Paris, on and off Broadway, in American regional theaters, in film, television, ballet and modern dance companies, and cabaret. He was the archivist of the Cunningham Dance Foundation.  He is the author of Frederick Ashton and his Ballets (revised edition, Dance Books, 1999) and of Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years (Aperture, 1997), now available in an updated version as an app for iPad. At the Dancing in the Millennium Conference in Washington DC in July 2000, he received the 2000 CORD (Congress on Research in Dance) Award for Outstanding Leadership in Dance Research, and in September 2001 he received a New York Dance and Performance Award ("Bessie") for sustained achievement and was the Senior Critic Honoree, Dance Critics Association, New York 2007.

is Dean Emeritus, Purchase College School of the Arts.  As Dean of the School of the Arts, 2002 - 2005, and Dean of Dance, 1984 - 2007, at Purchase College, State University of New York, Carol K. Walker has had a distinguished international career.  Her work has carried her around Europe and Asia as artistic director of the renowned Purchase Dance Corps, as an adjudicator of programs worldwide, as a curriculum and program evaluator, a keynote speaker,  a member  on national and international validation teams, and through establishing student exchange and degree completion programs.  From 2007 to 2012 she was Professor of Dance, Coordinator of the faculty in the MFA Degree program, international consultant and active in donor relations for the Conservatory of Dance.  In March 2013 she was Professor-in-Residence at the Beijing Dance Academy for two weeks where she taught Improvisation, gave six presentations on American Modern and Contemporary Dance and four presentations and dialogues with the BDA faculty and administration.

director of World Choreography Institute, has created popular choreography lecture demos including The Othello Project with Carla Maxwell for the Jose Limon Dance Company. She regularly gives choreography workshops for dance organizations, including the dancers of Ballet Jazz de Montreal, Paul Taylor 2, and London's BalletBoyz. She has directed and/or choreographed over fifty concert dance, opera and theater works which have been seen at theaters across the U.S. and Europe.  Ms. Taucher is an author with numerous books, kids' plays, and DVDs published by Person Education and was a long-time teaching artist for Lincoln Center Institute. She has received grants from the NEA and the arts councils of Illinois, New Jersey and North Carolina.  Ms. Taucher recently co-produced Asking For It by Joanna Rush at the Cherry Lane Theater and was project co-ordinator/associate to the director for the new Native American musical Distant Thunder at AMAS Musical Theater, both in Greenwich Village, with Lynne Taylor-Corbett. Last year, her production company, Wendy Taucher Dance Opera Theater, produced Andre de Sheild's Black by Popular Demand and is now company in residence at the Laurie Beechman in Times Square and at Featherstone Center for the Arts on Martha's Vineyard.