CHANEL DaSILVA

Founder & CEO of Strategy & New Initiatives

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Chanel is a multifaceted artist whose work reflects her deep connection to the transformative power of the arts. As an entrepreneur, choreographer, director, and ARTivist she uses dance as a vehicle for social change and evolution towards a more diverse, just, and inclusive dance industry and society. Chanel is the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of MOVE|NYC| - an arts and social justice organization with the mission of creating greater equity and diversity in the dance profession and beyond - as well as a Choreographer & Director creating new, provocative works that reflect the complexities of what it means to be human.

After being named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and graduating with her BFA from The Juilliard School, Chanel became a member of the highly celebrated Trey McIntyre Project, based in Boise, Idaho, where she was a muse for the creation of many of Mr. McIntyre’s works. She danced lead roles in his masterpieces Ma Maison - in collaboration with The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The Sun Road - in collaboration with PBS's "Faces of America" series, Gravity Heroes, and Mercury Half-Life. Chanel was featured on the cover of Dance Magazine with TMP in 2011 and was a part of Brooklyn Academy of Music's "Dance Motion USA", touring throughout Asia with TMP as a cultural ambassador to the United States of America.

Upon returning to New York City, Chanel became a member of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and performed iconic Lubovitch works such as Coltrane's Favorites, Transparent Things, and The Black Rose. Throughout her career Chanel has been blessed to dance and tour internationally across Europe, Asia, South America, The Caribbean, and the United States; living the life and career she dreamed of as a young girl. #DanceDidThat

In 2016 Chanel began her career as a choreographer making work for educational artistic institutions such as LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts and Harvard Dance Project and in 2018 she was selected to choreograph for Gibney Company's EMERGE season, alongside Bobbi Jene Smith and Micaela Taylor. After being named a 2020 Joffrey Ballet Winning Works Competition participant, Chanel has since been commissioned to choreograph works for The Joffrey Ballet, American Repertory Theater, The Juilliard School, Parsons Dance Company, Ballet Memphis, Dallas Black Dance Theater, Booker T. Washington High School, Festival Ballet Providence, Barnard College, and The Hartt School. She has choreographed and directed music productions for Esperanza Spalding (Twelve Little Spells) and Nathalie Joachim (Ki moun ou ye) and is also a notable repetiteur of the works of Trey McIntyre, having re-staged his ballets on companies and institutions across the nation.

Chanel is a widely sought after educator, mentor, and consultant having led master workshops and seminars across the nation for institutions such as The Juilliard School, SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, Harvard University, New York University, LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, The Scottish Ballet, Ballet Hispanico, and New Orleans Ballet Association. Her work has been centered both on dance training & education, as well as professional development & career management for pre-professional dancers, and DEI strategies for Arts Leaders.

Over the years Chanel has received recognition from numerous institutions including The Joffrey Ballet Winning Works Choreographic Competition, the Martha Hill Dance Fund Mid-Career Award, a 2011 Princess Grace Award, and the 2008 Martha Hill Prize awarded by The Juilliard School. She is a National YoungArts Winner, was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and was featured on the 2004 PBS Documentary “American Talent”. In 2019 Chanel received a IRNE nomination for Best Choreography for "The Black Clown" which premiered at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA.

Chanel attributes her success and longevity in the dance field to the tribe of artists, educators and mentors that opened the doors to the dance industry for her at an early age. Including the Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center, Creative Outlet Dance Theater of Brooklyn, LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, The Ailey School, Springboard Danse Montreal and The Juilliard School.