Elaine Smith Holton

Elaine is a Queer Jewish Black-Chinese American community-centered artist based in Philadelphia. She’s been practicing community-based dance since 2008, when she served as a Passista and Dance Director of Austin Samba, a Brazilian Rio style, community education and performance bateria out of Austin, TX.

Over the next four years, she’d go on to choreograph and produce four Carnaval Brasileiro shows as part of the largest indoor Brazilian Carnaval show in the US.

In 2012 she joined the board of Forklift Danceworks, later serving as their Company Manager to produce a variety of community-based performances.

Currently, Elaine is a 2021 Headlong Performing Institute Fellow and HPI Artist in residence she also teaches and performs with Acarajè, Philadelphia’s Afro-Brazilian Bloco.