about torya

Torya Beard is a New York-based director, creative consultant, curator, choreographer, and producer specializing in dance and theater. For over 25 years, Torya Beard has supported performing artists through all manners of administrative and producorial support, including but not limited to general operations, public relations, marketing, creative consulting, and producing. She is the 2022 recipient of the APAP’s Inaugural CIPA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Creative Producing and was featured, along with Ayodele Casel and Idina Menzel, in Variety and Lifetime’s‘Power of Women: The Changemakers’Special for her work with the arts-based youth development organization, A BroaderWay Foundation.

 

Recent and upcoming projects: Rooted for ALL ARTS Past, Present, Future film festival (co-director/co-producer with Ayodele Casel), Max Roach 100--Freedom... In Progress (Co-creator with Ayodele Casel), Ayodele Casel: Rooted, 2023 New York Dance and Performance Awards--The Bessies (Producer),  Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic (stage production, Joyce Theater 2022), Funny Girl  2022 Broadway revival (Assistant Director); Waitress 2021 Broadway remount (Assistant Director); American Repertory Theater 2022 Gala (Director); Untitled Ayodele Casel American Repertory Theater commission (Director). Little Island Dance Festival (co-curator), all-female Jesus Christ Superstar - In Concert and subsequent studio album Jesus Christ Superstar: Highlights from the All-Female Studio Cast Recording (Executive Producer).

 

A significant collaboration has been Torya's creative partnership with artist Ayodele Casel. The pair have developed a series of projects, including Sophisticated Ladies (University of Michigan School of Music, Theater, and Dance), the Bessie Award-winning dance film Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic (The Joyce Theater, Director);  the stage production Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic (American Repertory Theatre, Director); Ayodele Casel + Arturo O'Farrill (The Joyce Theater); Really Rosie (City Center Encores! Off-Center);Where We Dwell, a New York City Center commission; Rooted for the inaugural five-borough tour of New York City Center's On The Move; Diary of A Tap Dancer:While I Have The Floor; Diary of a Tap Dancer: Us (New York City Center commission). Beard and Casel are Resident Directors of Dance Lab New York's inaugural Tap Project and co-curators of the Little Island Dance Festival. 

 

Her other projects include 13 years at A BroaderWay Foundation (dance teacher, creative director, and 4 years as Executive Director), YoungArts (Regional Multidisciplinary Co-Director—NYC 2019, Miami 2020, virtual 2021 & 2022); Classical Theatre of Harlem's The First Noel (Associate Choreographer);  Idina Menzel's 2017 World Tour (Co-Creative Director); Harvard University ArtLab (Arts Admin Consultant, Fall 2019), Cornell University, High-Performance Leadership Certificate, 2021.

 

After studying dance at The University of Michigan, she toured with Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, David Rousseve/Reality, The Kevin Wynn Collection, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Earl Mosley's Diversity of Dance, Deeply Rooted Chicago Dance Theatre, and Donald Byrd's The Harlem Nutcracker, among others. She was a featured dancer in the film Idlewild and made her Broadway debut in Disney's The Lion King. 

 

Founder of creative consultancy firm thatgirl006, Inc. Some of Torya's artistic collaborators: Ayodele Casel, Idina Menzel, Jeanine Tesori, Darren Biggart, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Roger C. Jeffrey, Rod Gailes OBC, Evidence, A Dance Company,  Charlotte Brathwaite, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Harlem Stage, and The Classical Theatre of Harlem. In addition, she currently serves as Managing and Creative Director, Ayolives, Inc., Artistic Director at Excellence Community Schools, Co-Founder of the artist-led social enterprise, tall poPpy, and also serves on the boards of Earl Mosley's Diversity of Dance and dance-theatre-media company, the feath3r theory (TF3T).