MITCHELL WEISS - CO-FOUNDER
His thirty five years of management experience include successful and well-known recording, sports and theatrical artists, Disney Theatricals-International, New York Shakespeare Festival, Big Apple Circus, and over 200 Broadway and off-Broadway shows including Tony Award winners A Chorus Line,The Grapes of Wrath and Beauty and the Beast.For 15 years, New York University has offered his graduate course "Managing on Broadway". Additionally, he has been a guest professor at SUNY-Plattsburgh, U of Rochester and U of Kentucky while speaking at national conferences about the business end of show business.He is the author of “Managing Artists in Pop Music" now in its second edition, and is completing his next book "The Business of Broadway" to be released in early 2015, both for Skyhorse Publishing/Allworth Press.Mr. Weiss has served on the Board of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers and has been a certified ATPAM manager since 1985. He is proud to have learned his craft working with the best producers and managers in the world including Harold Prince, Kermit Bloomgarden, Joseph Papp, Bernard Gersten, Robert Kamlot, Charlotte Wilcox, Elizabeth McCann and others.Mr. Weiss graduated from Oberlin College and is a consultant, director, composer/lyricist and producer of a wide variety of shows and events through his New York-based production and management company MW Entertainment Group. As a personal management consultant, he has worked with Village People, Greg Louganis, Karen Mason, Sir Ari Gold and many more.Email: mitch@justlearnsomething.us
HARRISON LEE - DANCE UnStructor
Fell in love with salsa dance over 10 years ago. Asked why? “It’s fun, it’s sexy, it’s part of my aerobic routine, and at social functions it’s a great way to meet people…. My biggest inspiration is a 96 year old “salsera” (female salsa dancer) who claims salsa has kept her youthful & popular!"
At the age of 14 he was asked to model for Flowers Ultd., a teenage fashion group that attracted broad media attention in Washington, DC. While attending Morgan State University, although he had no formal training, he was recruited by the campus dance troupe. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, Harrison moved to East Orange, NJ, to work for IBM, but after two months he resigned to follow his heart, determined to become a professional dancer.
He took his first formal dance classes at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center at the age of 21 (which was "old" in dance speak). With two years of intensive training in ballet, modern, and jazz, he auditioned for Rick Odums, then Artistic Director of Chamber Dance Group. While a member of Chamber, he also danced with the companies of modern/jazz icon Fred Benjamin & innovative modern choreographer Rod Rodgers. During the next decade his dance career took him across Canada, throughout the Caribbean and to western Africa.
Harrison added acting and singing to his studies, becoming a triple threat performer, which led to his performing on Broadway and touring in the King & I, starring Yul Brynner and Rudolf Nureyev, respectively. He also toured with singing sensation Patti LaBelle in Your Arms Too Short to Box with God and later in the Broadway bound production of House of Flowers.
Harrison's co-starring film debut was in the 1997 feature “Dirty Laundry” with Academy Award nominee Tess Harper and TV/film/radio personality Jay Thomas, followed by roles on television and the NYC and national stage.
After hanging up his dancing shoes, he taught jazz dance at the Ailey school and continues to act and sing on stage. Ten years went by before he realized how much he missed dancing and took up ballroom. He enrolled in an intensive teacher training program at Stepping Out Studios & received certification to teach six dance styles at the basic level -- waltz, foxtrot, swing, cha-cha, rumba, and SALSA! Afterwards, he competed in International Latin Ballroom for a year, winning numerous competitions before taking a three year break to study interior design at FIT. He currently studies under salsa masters Nelson Flores & Nicholas Messina, and he continues to dance just for the love of it every week.