New York, NY – Dances for a Variable Population (DVP) announced today that Naomi Goldberg Haas will be transitioning from founding Artistic Director to Artistic Director Emerita of the company she founded in 2005. With this announcement, DVP’s Board of Directors has commenced an official search for the next Artistic Director of DVP.

DVP, officially incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2009, has grown from a grass roots institution started in Cole’s gym at NYU where Goldberg Haas was teaching a series of dance/fitness classes. Out of those classes she built a company of dancers and non-dancers whose mission was to make dance accessible to everyone with a particular emphasis on older adults. DVP has since experienced steady growth, while maintaining a steadfast commitment to long-term relationships with community partners and students.

Site-specific work by Goldberg Haas for DVP’s intergenerational company has been presented in Washington Square Park, the High Line, Grant’s Tomb, Time Square, New York Botanical Garden, West Harlem Piers, and the Whitehall Ferry Terminal, as well as countless gyms, libraries, and senior centers throughout the city. Goldberg Haas’s signature movement methodology Movement Speaks® is taught in free weekly classes for older adults in over 30 sites across four boroughs, reaching over 800 students annually. DVP weathered the pandemic, adapting to serve constituents through Zoom and phone classes. DVP continues to offer remote classes daily.

“I have been struggling with Fahrs Syndrome, a rare degenerative disease that attacks the basal ganglia of the brain as possibly developed from longtime lupus erythematosus, which I have successfully managed since 1985,” said Goldberg Haas. “The disease affects the part of the nervous-system that controls one’s movement and speech, the two essential things I need to dance, direct, and teach. When I was first diagnosed with this syndrome, about ten years ago, the doctors looked at the x-rays of my brain and marveled at the fact that I was still able to walk. I attribute this to the work we do at DVP which helps keep our bodies, minds, and spirits alive and vibrant. But Fahrs is a patient nemesis, and it has spent the past decade ever-so-slowly eroding my ability to move and communicate. It has finally reached a point where it feels like time for me to re-think my leadership of this company which has meant so much to me.”

After twenty life-altering years with Dances For A Variable Population, I have decided it is time to transition from Artistic Director to an Emerita position and begin a search for a new leader for our company. I have witnessed dance transforming lives at all ages, and it has transformed mine. I could not be more proud of what we have built together, it has been a community of people from across NYC that has sustained this organization growing together, dancing together. I know that this mission will continue to flourish and I am very excited to see it grow.” - Naomi Goldberg Haas

In 2025 Goldberg Haas published Moving Through Life: Essential Lessons of Dance, a memoir of personal struggle, resilience, and celebration, co-authored with Mikhaela Mahony. She received a Lifetime Impact in Dance Education Award (2023) from the New York State Dance Education Association; a Dance/USA Fellowship from the Doris Duke Foundation; the President's Award for the Performing Arts from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; and Art + Action Award (2013) from Gina Gibney Dance. DVP was recognized with the Outstanding Dance Organization Award (2024) from the National Dance Education Organization.

Commenting on Goldberg Haas’s leadership, DVP’s Executive Director Navarra Novy-Williams and former DVP Teaching Artist said, “When I first came upon a REVIVAL performance at Grant’s Tomb in 2016, it literally lit up both the summer evening and my heart. I thought to myself, ‘I have to meet whoever is responsible for this, I have to be a part of this.’ Since beginning as Executive Director of DVP, I have heard countless versions of this same story from teachers and students, partners and supporters. Naomi’s work touches a population that we are all a part of, and an essential truth that we can all be dancers, we all can express ourselves, and that while we all age– there is still so much to learn.”

“DVP is grateful to Naomi for her incredible leadership, tenacity, and vision,” said DVP Board Chair Joyce Steinglass. “In this next phase of her life, we look forward to watching Naomi find joy in new ways to use her brilliant and creative mind. We are honored to support her in her transition from Artistic Director to our founding Artistic Director Emerita.”

Reflecting on her career, Goldberg Haas said, “I can’t help but think of the Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams and the phrase ‘If you build it, they will come.’ Twenty years ago, I built a dance company based on the simple idea that dance is for every body. Out of that simple idea, people have been coming, and coming, and coming ever since. I have always looked for ways to celebrate this vibrant cross-section of our city as it is reflected in our older populations who have so much to share with us. For a culture that is predominantly youth-oriented, this can be a major revelation. Seeing the power, grace, beauty, and fragility of the older body is inspiring for audiences and empowering for older dancers.”

For further media information or high-resolution images:
Executive Director | Navarra Novy-Williams | execdir@dvpnyc.org

Press Contact | Kelly Ryan | Kryan821@gmail.com

Photo by Meg Goldman