BOARD MEMBERS

Nahisha McCoy was first introduced to Cora by Artistic Director Shannon Hummel. She signed her son up for classes, and the rest is history. Nahisha began volunteering with the Walkover Program that Cora offered to local schools and then joined the Cora advisory committee for two years. Nahisha officially became a Board Member in 2016, inspired by what Cora does for the youth in the community. She served as President and Co-Chair for four seasons before becoming Vice-President in 2024. She is the Red Hook West Resident Association Vice President, speaking on behalf of her community and advocating on the ground when changes are made that affect the community. She is also a Manager for Staxks Entertainment, a local leader, peacemaker, published author, and community advocate, who has lived in the Red Hook community for 25 years.

Denise Purvis, PhD, MFA, BA, is a professional dancer, choreographer, and dance educator with over twenty years of experience. Denise’s professional experience includes directing her own dance company, Shifting Velocity Dance, performing at domestic and international dance festivals, and dancing with Richmond dance company, Starr Foster Dance Project. Purvis currently serves as dance department head at Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Arts & Technology and teaches yoga at Virginia Commonwealth University. An avid dance scholar and writer, she has presented research in several international conferences, and published internationally, with articles in the Journal of Dance Education and the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices. Current research interests include somatic practice as post-structuralist and process philosophy in praxis, as well as 4E cognition in the dance classroom. Her certification in the Bill Evans Method of Dance Pedagogy enriches her classes by providing a strong foundation for fully integrated, efficient, and healthy movement. She serves on the National Dance Education Organization’s committees for Action and Accountability and Strategic Planning. Past experience includes serving as dance education specialist at Southern Utah University, and directing the dance program for the Chesterfield County Specialty Center for the Arts at Thomas Dale High School in Chester, VA. This is her second year on the Board.

Shyda Hoque has worked as a licensed real estate agent in New York State. Community and Art are her two passions and when asked to be on the board of Cora she went to her childhood days of dance growing up in Dallas, Texas. Dance and theatre were the foundation of her childhood and she is grateful to contribute a small part to an organization that allows youth to dance. She joined the board of Cora Dance in Red Hook, Brooklyn in 2020 and serves as its treasurer. She was a teaching artist at the Children's Museum of Arts in NYC and worked at a national broadcast company out of college. She has served on the Litwing of the Lark Playwright Center and is a Park Food Slope Coop Member. Serving on the board of Cora has helped her find work at the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City that helps with youth and violence prevention. She graduated from Saint Edward's University in Austin, Texas with a BA degree in English Writing and Rhetoric. This is her third year on the Board.

Pat Bennett-Wilhelm, a resident of Clifton Forge for most of her life, is honored to be one of the first Board members of Cora Dance Alleghany. She has had a lifelong love of dance as a student, teacher, and ballet company member. When Cora came to Clifton Forge, Pat knew that she had to take part somehow someway.

As an undergraduate from Radford University and then on to Virginia Tech for her MA in Education, Pat has been an educator in many settings - public schools and private schools with all ages of students, and now she is with the University of Virginia assisting preschool educators across Virginia with incorporating best teaching practices in their programs.

Another great love of Pat's is traveling. She has traveled across the USA and abroad. She passed this love of travel to two of her favorite travel companions, her two adult children. This is her second year on the Board.

Carolyn Hall is a Brooklyn-based, Bessie award winning dancer/performer, coastal marine ecologist, and science communications instructor. She is a freelancer for all of these and currently works/creates with a wide variety of fun people and places including Genspace, Carrie Ahern Dance, the American Fisheries Society, Exact Communication, and suisoco/Maho Ogawa. Carolyn combines this mix of interests to create interactive projects that aim to make complex, data-rich issues around water and climate change more understandable, embodied, and memorable through artistic and public engagement. This is her third season on the Board of Cora Dance.

Scott Pfaffman is a long time Red Hook resident. His daughter Phoebe Pfaffman attended Cora classes and performed in numerous youth company productions.

Scott is a master contractor, sculptor, and visual artist who has leant his talents to many institutions and artists throughout his four decades in Red Hook. He built and managed construction for all of Cora Dance’s studios and operational spaces over the past 12 years, working closely with other community artisans and in collaboration with Architect and Cora Dance Lighting Designer, Severn Clay-Youman. He is married to Molly Blieden and is also the proud father of Max Pfaffman.