The Ailey School

Natalia Mesa, originally from Bogotá, Colombia, is an experienced performer, teacher and performing arts administrator. Currently, she is managing the Battery Dance Festival and the Education Programs for Battery Dance, combining her knowledge in arts administration with her passion for dance and community building. Over the past few years Natalia has been implementing the company’s methodology, ‘Dancing to Connect’ into the New York Public School system and has assisted Battery Dance in coordinating programs in Latin-America. She holds a Masters in Performing Arts Administration from NYU and a Bachelor of Industrial Design with a minor in Business Administration from Los Andes University in Bogotá. She has worked with numerous companies in the United States and in Colombia such as Company E, Clancy Works and Dakshina Dance Company, TangoLibre, Ballet Anna Pavlova, and Sandrine Legendre Dance Company.

Early in her dance career she won an Honorary Mention on the V
 Encuentro 
para 
Estudiantes
de Ballet, in Habana, Cuba and later obtained a scholarship for the ballet program at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. In 2008, Natalia moved to New York where she completed her dance education at The Ailey School. She was a faculty member at Maryland Youth Ballet in Washington D.C and has taught dance and creative movement in various public schools in Washington D.C, New York and Bogotá.