When I was younger I wanted to be a jazz musician. I listened to John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald. They were my soul sculptors. I named my favorite blue bellied lizards in their honor. By the time I reached High School I may have been immersed in theater, in writing, but my thoughts were like ragtime itself. Syncopated. Ragged. I was envisioning the rhythm of my future. Read More

Treehouse Shakers has become my family. This isn’t an exaggeration. They were one of the reasons that I originally decided to move to New York City. In 2003, while I was an intern at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, I met Lisa Neidermeyer, a former Treehouse Shakers company member. When she learned that I was interested in dance and youth education, she put me in touch with Emily Bunning, who invited me to a rehearsal. That rehearsal was reason enough to locate to New York. Read More

This June, Treehouse Shakers was fortunate to have Kathy Le May of Raising Change lead a dynamic workshop in how to make the big ask in fundraising. We invited colleagues and donors to join us, as she poignantly led us in a workshop on how to ask for larger gifts and become better fundraisers. Kathy’s story on the act of generosity is so powerful, it brings home the belief that generosity is not only monetary, but a way of being. To Continue Reading Check Out Mara’s Treehouse.