Ms. Deborah joined the Tapestry faculty in 2006 and is thrilled to be part of this wonderful school. She has been a public-school and private school dance educator in Buffalo for over 30 years and graduated from SUNY Brockport with her BS in Dance and MA in Dance Education. As part of her undergraduate program, she studied at the Middlesex Polytechnic School of Arts and Performance in London, England. She holds a K-12 New York State Certification in Dance, taught 5th-12th grade dance at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts magnet school for 15 years, K-12 dance at Tapestry and currently teaches K-4 Dance. She has also taught at the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts/Jamaica School of Dance summer program in Kingston, Jamaica, Buffalo State College, SUNY Brockport, SUNY Fredonia and as a guest presenter on dance education for Canisius College and the University at Buffalo.
In 2011 she presented a Creative Dance Seminar at the School of Vera & Regina Alexopoulou in Athens, Greece sharing creative dance best practices and Tapestry’s dance curriculum. In 2012, she attended the Summer Dance Institute for Teachers in Seattle, Washington. This Brain-Compatible Dance Education course was created and taught by Anne Green Gilbert, an internationally known author and dance educator. Much of Tapestry’s dance curriculum and her teaching is centered on the BCDE model.
In 2015, Dr. Nancy Wallace, Carlos R. A. Jones, Deborah Lipa-Ciotta and Corinne Kindzierski, published an article for Middle School Journal titled “Dancing Through the Decades in Middle School” highlighting Tapestry Charter School’s work in dance, humanities and community guest expert/artist engagement. She presented at the NYSDEA, (New York State Dance Educators Association), 2015 Conference at New York University sharing Tapestry’s 4th Grade “Dance Around the World” curriculum. Ms. Deborah served on the NYSDEA board for 4 years in the role of secretary and advocacy. From 2016-2018 she worked with the New York State Department of Education, reviewing the new state standards for dance and serving as a consultant for training teachers in New York State on the new standards. In 2021 she served as a member of the New York State Teacher Certification Exams (NYSTCE) Dance Standard Setting Committee.
Ms. Deborah is a member of NDEO (National Dance Education Organization) and daCi (dance and the Child international) organization and often attends national and international conferences. She is currently on the daCi USA board as secretary and helping to plan the fall 2021 daCi USA Days of Dance-National Gathering to be held at Tapestry. She enjoys traveling and spending time with her husband and three adult children.
