Queens College to Host Two CUNY Dance Initiative Artist Residencies
—The initiative, founded and based at the college, will also sponsor residencies at other City University of New York schools beginning this fall—
Flushing, NY, August 25, 2026—Queens College announced two artists’ residencies to be hosted in 2026–2027 under the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI), which was founded at the school in 2014 and is based in its Kupferberg Center for the Arts. One residency will be held by innovative tap dancer and electronic musician Liberty Styles. The other will be held by accomplished contemporary choreographer Claude “CJ” Johnson and composer Maya Miro Johnson (unrelated). They are part of the largest ever cohort of resident artists chosen by CDI, which is underwriting 26 residencies for the current academic year at Baruch, BMCC, Brooklyn College, City College, College of Staten Island, Hostos, Hunter, John Jay, LaGuardia, Lehman, Medgar Evers, Queensborough, and York College; learn more HERE.
These residencies provide New York City–based dance artists with rehearsal space, financial support, and time to develop new and existing work. In addition, these residencies bring dancers together with students and local audiences through performance, master classes, guest lectures, and open rehearsals. Jeffrey Rosenstock, assistant vice president for governmental relations and external affairs at Queens College, was a key figure in CDI’s development, responding to a critical lack of affordable dance space in the city as reported by research funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. “The CUNY Dance Initiative has surpassed the goals that we sought to achieve at its launch,” said Rosenstock. “It has evolved to enrich the student experience at CUNY schools throughout New York City and benefit local communities in ways that we couldn’t have foreseen, but of which we are deeply proud.”
“The cost of renting dance studio space can be prohibitively expensive, so it is a blessing to have a residency that provides access to spacious, fully equipped dance studios,” explains Queens College professor Edisa Weeks, director of the school’s dance program which is part of its Department of Drama, Theatre, and Dance. “CDI introduces our students to artists working professionally in the field and beautifully augments the dance program’s offerings.” CDI Founding Director Alyssa Alpine adds, “Importantly, one of the studios at Queens has a wood floor that was designed specifically for percussive dance like tap. Studios with wood floors are increasingly rare in New York, and we prioritize hosting at least one tap, flamenco, or street/club dance resident artist each year.”
Styles is a dancer, musician, actor, choreographer, producer, and researcher whose collaborative events, exploring the intersection of tap and drag performance, draw sold-out audiences in New York City. Styles performs in the city’s most storied venues, including the American Repertory Theater, the Joyce Theater, the Apollo Theater, and New York Live Arts.
As part of the CDI residency, Styles will teach two master classes at Queens College, one on choreography in the fall and the other, in the spring, on tap dance. “It is a huge honor to be in residence at Queens College this year through CDI,” says Styles, “especially given Queens College’s strong tap dance history and lineage through the work of such people as Marshall Davis and Jacqui Malone. I’m really looking forward to using these rehearsal hours to expand and develop upon my project, Adventures in Success. I will be creating new tap dance choreography and experimenting with electronic scoring as it relates to the piece, which explores themes of labor, visibility, and refusal.”
Claude “CJ” Johnson is a guest dancer with the Trisha Brown Dance Company, NVA & Guests, Rashaun and Silas, Keerati Jinakunwiphata, and many other companies. He has held choreographic residencies at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Joyce Theater, and Motive Brooklyn. He is scheduled to teach a master class in the fall to Queens College’s students in intermediate jazz dance. Maya Miro Johnson is a composer-performer-director who has received numerous awards, including both the Schuman and Surinach prizes in the BMI Student Composer awards, the Miller Prize/Cassella Award, the Fox Gibbs Memorial Prize, and the Startup Yale Creative Entrepreneurship Audience Choice Prize. She will begin her doctoral studies at Brown University this fall.
Their residency is offered in partnership with the Next Festival of Emerging Artists. “I plan to use the time to deepen a work in progress that is in collaboration with Maya Johnson,” says CJ Johnson. “Each moment in the studio will be to reveal the depths of the work while also exploring its sublime edges. The residency being at Queens College is also so inspiring as the institution is all about progressing the next generation of humans forward.”
Since its founding, CDI has supported some 300 residencies throughout the CUNY system. It receives major support from the Howard Gilman Foundation, the George S. Kaufman Charitable Foundation, and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, with additional funding from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s Charles E. Culpeper Arts and Culture program, SHS Foundation, the Gladys Krieble Delman Foundation, and the Harkness Foundation for Dance. Besides the Next Festival, it has ongoing collaborations with the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning.
About Queens College
Queens College enjoys a national reputation for its liberal arts and sciences and pre-professional programs. With more than 60 undergraduate programs and more than 100 graduate degree and certificate and honors programs, and research and internship opportunities, the college helps its students realize their potential in countless ways, assisted by an accessible, award-winning faculty. Located on a beautiful, 80-acre campus in Flushing, New York, the college has been cited by Princeton Review as one of America’s Best Value Colleges, as well as being ranked eighth as a Forbes College with the Highest Return on Investment for Graduates Nationwide, and sixth as a Wall Street Journal Best Value College Nationwide, thanks to its outstanding academics, generous financial aid packages, and relatively low costs. Princeton Review has designated QC a Best College for 34 consecutive years—since the guide’s inception. Forbes Magazine, Money Magazine, Princeton Review, and U.S. News and World Report recognize it as an overall top northeastern public college. Visit our homepage to learn more.
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