Dance Source Houston spotlights dance leaders, both artists and administrators, in the Greater Houston area through two distinctions – the Dance Source Houston Artistic Honor and the Giannelli Service Award – honoring individuals whose contributions have had a significant impact on dance in our local community. Each year we celebrate the leadership and achievements of two extraordinary individuals by awarding these honors at our annual fundraiser, SPARK.
The recipients of the 2024 recognitions are:
Dance Source Houston Artistic Honoree – Lori Amare-Bujung
Giannelli Service Awardee – Jane Weiner
Awardees will be honored during Dance Source Houston’s annual fundraiser, SPARK, on Saturday, March 2, 2024 at MATCH. Tickets are on sale now at matchouston.org.
2024 Dance Source Houston Artistic Honoree
Lori Amare-Bujung
LORI AMARE-BUJUNG began her training in dance with Allie Belle Thomas who gave her a love of ballet. She later trained with Frank Hatchett who gave her the opportunity to dance off-Broadway and train with professionals such as Rick Odums, and Maurice Hines.
Bujung later joined the Kuumba House Dance Theatre where she taught, became a company dancer, and later moved into leadership, as company tour manager, school director, and grant writer. She also danced with Several Dancers Core, Texas Dance Theatre, and local productions like the “Music of Motown,” and several productions with the Ensemble Theater. She founded Second Generation Dance Company where she was able to choreograph several dynamic dance works and promote culture through dance.
Amare-Bujung received a BFA in Dance from Sam Houston State University and an MFA in Dance from Hollins University. She taught at Houston Community College for five years and is in her 19th year teaching for Houston Independent School District.
2024 Giannelli Service Awardee
Jane Weiner
JANE WEINER established Hope Stone, Inc. in 1997 with a dream to unlock the innate creativity of children and adults through the arts. Graduating from Bowling Green State University with a degree in deaf/elementary education and minor in dance, Jane worked with the Doug Elkins Dance Company in New York City for a decade plus of dancing and touring before her move to Houston in 1996. She has set work on the Alley Theater, Houston Ballet II, Stages Repertory Theater, the Houston Children’s Museum, as well as many universities, and has collaborated with the Houston Symphony, the CAMH, and the Asia Society, and was a speaker at the 2012 TEDx Houston and 2013 TEDx TAMU.
She is the Artistic Director of Hope Stone Dance and directs The Hope Project, Hope Stone’s mindful arts education outreach program.
2023 Dance Source Houston Artistic Honoree Rathna Kumar.
Award Categories:
Dance Source Houston Artistic Honor – Given to an artistic leader whose contributions have made a sustained impact on the Greater Houston dance community.
Artistic Honor nominees will be considered for:
- their sustained artistic contributions to the local dance field,
- demonstration of extraordinary artistic vision, and
- having made a significant impact on local dance artists and communities.
Individuals nominated for this award may include but are not limited to choreographers, dance educators, dancers, and others who have worked in the dance field as a mover and maker.
Joyce Wilkenfeld accepting the 2023 Giannelli Service Award on behalf of Maxine Silberstein.
Giannelli Service Award – Given to an individual whose leadership and dedication have strengthened the dance community of Greater Houston.
Giannelli Service Award nominees should be considered for:
- their sustained support and outstanding service to the local dance community,
- demonstration of extraordinary leadership, and
- having made a significant impact on local dance artists and communities.
Individuals nominated for this award may include but are not limited to arts administrators, donors, production personnel, and others who provide support behind the scenes.
The Giannelli Service Award is named after Dance Source Houston’s founder, Christina Giannelli. Giannelli was honored for her vision and passion for the dance sector of Greater Houston at our first annual SPARK in 2022.
Maxine Silberstein has had a distinguished career as a performer, teacher, educator, and mentor. Over the span of 50 years, Maxine has curated and organized dance programs at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston. During Dance Month at the Kaplan Theatre, nationally known performers appeared on the Kaplan stage such as Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, Ohad Naharin Dance Company, Danielle Agami’s ATE9 Dance Company, Dallas Black Dance Company, Koresh, and Gallim. International companies presented were Vertigo, Inbal Dance, and Sheketak. Diane Walker, Acia Gray, Sam Weber, Jason Samuels Smith, and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards were a few of the tap greats that appeared at the Kaplan Theatre. I W Marks Jewelers Master Classes, a partnership with SPA, included members from Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Bella Lewitzky Dance Company, and Jose Greco Dance Company. Locally favorites were Houston Choreographers X6, Houston Ballet II, and International Folkdance.
As Dance Director at the J, she introduced Maccabi Dance to the Maccabi Games, presided over JCC Summer Dance Camps, directed the Dance Event for the Senior Olympics, developed the JCC Dance Initiative bringing together independent choreographers and dancers to present a concert, and Summer Dance Festival “Texas Tanz” featuring workshops, master classes and performances. She created What’s happening on Houston’s Dance Scene, a forum to discuss dance events in Houston.
Silberstein is the recipient of the inaugural Buff Orpington Houston Contemporary Dance Achievement Award (also known as the Buffy), the Jerry Wische Staff Excellence Award from the ERJCC and in the Houston JCC Maccabi Hall of Fame.
Currently, Silberstein serves on the Performing Arts Houston Education and Community Committee. Additionally, she has served on numerous boards including the Board of Trustees of the Houston Dance Coalition, Discover Dance Group, Weave Dance Company, Kinetic Architecture, Uptown Dance Center, the Advisory Board of Sandra Organ Dance Company, and the HCC Central College World Dance Institute Board.
Silberstein performed with Houston Contemporary Dance Company under the direction of Lynn Reynolds and Joan Karff’s New Dance Group. Additionally, she was a teaching artist for the Texas Institute for the Arts and the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts. Silberstein has taught for The River, a performing and visual arts center for children with disabilities. She directed and choreographed for the University of Houston Honeys under the Guy Lewis basketball program.
Silberstein received her B.S. in Special Education and Physical Education with an emphasis in Dance from the University of Houston. She began her dance training with Doris Hede of LaMarque. Studying all forms of dance in Houston, instructors included Fred Strobel, Anita Dyche, Camille Long Hill, Patsy Swayze, and Rudy Jenkins. She furthered her dance education with classes in New York with Alvin Ailey School, Jennifer Mueller, Merce Cunningham, and Luigi.
She has been married for 54 years to her beloved husband Bubba and they share their love with their two children Steffani and Brent. She continues to pursue her passion in creating collaborations between companies, choreographers, and dancers in the Houston Dance Community, and to teach young children the art of dance.
Rathna Kumar brought a new dimension to the Texas Arts scene in 1975 with the state’s first Indian dance institute, the Anjali Center for Performing Arts. She is the only Indian American to receive the Government of India’s Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Excellence in Classical Dance. She is a world renowned dance icon, choreographer, teacher, arts educator, singer, stage and screen actor, linguist and published author of two unique books on the fundamental techniques of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. Among her honors – Congressional Recognition, Nomination to the Texas Women!s Hall of Fame, Distinguished Asian Award (Houston Metro), Asian Legacy Award (Houston Community College), Lifetime Achievement Award (Asian Pacific American Heritage Association) and an Honorary Doctorate in Performing Arts from India.
Rathna has 33 original full length dance productions to her credit and is noted for her brilliant and unique choreography, for which she has received several Individual Artist grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance and a Groundwork Grant from Dance Source Houston for her cross-cultural project, A Story, A Song and A Dance. Rathna is a founding member and Artistic Director of Samskriti, Houston’s first pan-Indian non-profit arts organization, established in 1995. As a member of UNESCO!s International Dance Council she was an invited speaker at Arts Education and Creativity conferences in Greece, Portugal and Hong Kong. She also represented the US as a performer and a participant on the Culture in the Diaspora panel at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (international gathering of non-resident Indians), India, in 2006. As aperformer Rathna has travelled the world, participating in events such as the Festival of India in Mexico City, and the First European Telugu Conference Conference in Manchester, UK.
Rathna has been teaching Bharatanatyam at Rice University since 2002 and a Teaching Artist with the Young Audiences of Houston for 33 years. She has been a Dance Panelist, Grant Programs, for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Houston Arts Alliance. Her Anjali Dance Company and Anjali Repertory Dance Company have performed all over Houston and in other cities, at prestigious events and venues.