Laura Schandelmeier & Stephen Clapp

Dance Box Theater, Inc.
a non-profit 501(c)3 tax exempt organization

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Stephen Clapp, M.F.A.
Co-Founder, Co-Artistic Director
Principal Consulting Partner
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Stephen Clapp (he/him) is a Filipino-born cultural strategist, equity facilitator, change agent, performing artist and choreographer who maintains a professional creative practice as Co-Artistic Director for Dance Box Theater with his creative and life partner Laura Schandelmeier. Stephen is a co-owner of DC Vegan, the national capital region's premier plant-based delicatessen specializing in cruelty-free and sustainable practices. His creative work aims to build social capital among communities with engagement through choreographic inquiry, devised theater performance, anti-oppression curriculum development and training, anti-racism facilitation, equity-based strategic planning, organizational development and cultural equity consulting. Stephen's approach to community engagement and organizing employs movement-based arts-integration strategies that foster self-determination, innovative thinking, open dialogue, collective decision making, power analyses, resource development and creative problem solving. With over 25 years of professional experience using the arts as a tool for grassroots community development and creative changemaking, Stephen understands that the transformative evolution of individuals, communities, organizations and their systems is essential, valuable and timely. As a cultural worker, his creative practices are rooted in moving away from racist, neo-colonial and otherwise oppressive and problematic tendencies; towards a vision of equity, diversity and justice, where culturally marginalized voices are centered, honored, activated and celebrated. Stephen was a 2021 fellow with the Intercultural Leadership Institute, a 2023 cohort member of the artEquity BIPOC Leadership Circle, serves as co-chair of the Pola Nirenska Award Committee, is an active member of the Board of Directors for Alternate ROOTS, and serves as the Director of Racial Equity and Creative Producer with Dance Exchange.



Laura Schandelmeier, C.M.A.
Co-Founder, Co-Artistic Director
Principal Consulting Partner
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Laura Schandelmeier (she/her) is Co-Artistic Director of Dance Box Theater (DBT), was Artistic Director of Schandelmeier & Co. in NYC from 1988-1994 and a solo performer in the DC area from 1995-2004 when she began collaborating with Stephen Clapp. DBT has created and toured eight full-evening performance works with increasing recognition regionally, nationally and internationally. DBT has received commissions from the Creative Communities Fund, The Kennedy Center and received the 2010 Dance Metro DC Founder's Award for Innovation in Dance. Schandelmeier's work has been commissioned and presented by DTW and Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church in NYC and by The Kennedy Center, Dance Place, The IN Series, and by WPAS in Martha @ Dance Place, curated by Richard Move in DC. In 2014 she was choreographer for Yentl, Directed by Shirly Serotsky at Theater J and Movement Consultant for a staged reading of Remember This: Walking with Jan Karski by Derek Goldman and Clark Young, featuring Academy Award nominee, David Strathairn. She has received several awards for her choreography including grants from the Harkness Foundations for Dance, the Suitcase Fund, Maryland State Arts Council and Prince George's Arts Council. She is a Master Teaching Artist for the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts.