BESSIES STAFF

HEATHER ROBLES Executive Director

Heather Robles (she/her/ella) is a nondisabled queer Latinx cis woman of indigenous Mexican descent who lives on the stolen land of the Lenape and Canarsie peoples in what is now called Brooklyn. She has worked at The Bessies since 2010- the first year they were independently produced with Lucy Sexton. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Alma Dance Company, a certified birth doula at Our Birth Doula and an adjunct professor at her alma mater, Marymount Manhattan College. A Brooklyn-based choreographer and performer, she has worked with many artists including Yvonne Rainer, Sidra Bell, Pavel Zûstiak, Nathan Trice, DANCENOISE, André M. Zachery, Buglisi Dance Theater, Soluq Dance Theater, Alison Cook Beatty Dance, Fredrick Earl Mosley, Suzzanne Ponomarenko Dance, and The Equus Projects. She is on the board of Renegade Performance Group and Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts. Heather is also a dance educator, teaching artist, producer, and advocate for mental health in the dance field.

NEYSHA MERCED Associate Manager

Neysha Merced (she/her) is a DeSales University graduate with a BA in Dance. Her background, being born in Puerto Rico and raised in Allentown, PA, fostered her love of nature and performance. Now living in NYC, she is focused on community building through movement and networking with dancers and artists of all genres to create a sustainable future for the arts. Neysha is a dancer and the Associate Artistic Director of J CHEN PROJECT. She specializes in social media strategy for small businesses and assisted in designing the relaunch for the JCP 2022 Mentee Program. This is her third year as Program Manager of the Bessies. She is a GYROTONIC® & GYROKINESIS® Trainer, a model represented by Stetts Model Management, and a freelance florist.

GABRIELLE BURGESS Social Media Manager

Gabrielle Burgess (she/her), originally from Dracut, MA, has worked with The Bessies since 2019. She holds a BA in Dance from Hofstra University, and has worked with a number of artists as a freelance performer, including the Moving Architects, the Chamberlin Collective, Joan Bradford and Collaborators, and kamrDANCE. Gabbie has worked for many years as a dance educator in Brooklyn and the greater New York area, and is currently studying at Columbia University to become a licensed occupational therapist.

REGINE PIETERS Development Consultant

Originally from the Caribbean island of Curaçao, Regine Pieters (she/her) is an arts administrator, producer, choreographer, and dancer. Upon moving to NYC in 2018, she found a deep joy in organizing the logistical aspects of performance, prioritizing providing artists with the support and resources to develop their work and thrive creatively. She has worked in administrative, producing, development, and management capacities at Gibney Dance Center, Center for Performance Research, Dishman + Co. Choreography, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, The Bessies, and New Yorkers for Culture and Arts. Currently, she’s diving deep into her fundraising and development work at The Chocolate Factory Theater, longing to make non-profit funding more equitable within underrepresented communities. With her deep appreciation for the performing and visual arts, she aspires to create leverage within the structures of arts organizations to foster sustainability and opportunities for artists.