John Sefakis, President, has been a member of DO40 since 1998, when he met (first) president Chris Nelson at a social event and Chris filled him in on the organization and its mission. John was, at the time, Associate Producer of MetroArts/Thirrteen, Thirteen/WNET’s non-commercial cable arts station. He thought it would be a great idea to feature the group on the channel.

For a week in 2000, MetroArts/Thirteen featured DO40, hosted by dance critic Clive Barnes, and included original footage of DO40 members Jon Mineo, Shelley Frankel, Nicole Barth rehearsing a number for an upcoming DO40 concert, an interview with (then) president Scarlett Antonia at Career Transition for Dancers, and a discussion with Chet Walker, Bill Hastings and Denise Pence. MetroArts also aired DO40’s concert staged at the Cunningham studios that featured Gus Solomons, jr. Carmen deLavallade and Dudley Williams and many, many more DO40’s.

That relationship continued, and John was asked to become a board member four years ago. He took over the reins as president last year. He is still at Thirteen/WNET, having moved over to the Programming Department after the cancellation of the MetroArts Thirteen channel.

He trained as a theater director and wrote his master’s thesis on Bob Fosse and His Visual Design for the Theater. He had interviewed Gwen Verdon while in college, and later, during the MetroArts years, had the opportunity to work with her and feature a week on “Fosse,” when it previewed in Canada and finally arrived in NYC.

John began dancing at 4, and ended up studying in his home town with a June Taylor Dancer, Jane DeFalco, who trained under Luigi as well as June. In college, the dance department scooped him up and he had to give up his tap and jazz shoes for Graham and Humphries techniques.

While in college, he began to take theater directing jobs away from his teachers, doing local dinner theater and finally regional and mainstage productions in the D.C. metropolitan area. He was one of the first people to direct “Jesus Christ Superstar;” in fact, that production had the dubious honor of being one of the first to be shut down by Webber and Rice before their Broadway show opened on Broadway.

John moved to NYC in 1975, and, because of his excellent hometown dance training, found dance work almost immediately, teaching tap and jazz at Phil Black’s dance studio, where he taught from 1975 – 1989. He also directed and choreographed many regional and stock productions of “Pippin,” “Chicago,” “Dames at Sea” and many plays for the Playwrights Active Cooperative Theater, as well as writing a play that was staged at the York Theater.

Television offered security (and a regular paycheck!), so John did the HBO ride (where he stayed for five grueling years) and currently, Thirteen/WNET.

John is very active in the fight against HIV. He has been on the Community Advisory Board of the New York Blood Center for the past six years, and is a member of the Global CAB for the HVTN and HPTN (HIV Vaccine & Prevention Trials Networks). He began his volunteer work with Project Achieve in 1993 and participated in Achieve’s Project Explore study.

A member of the original ACT-UP Housing Committee, he was also a GMHC buddy and team leader and participated in a study at Columbia Presbyterian for five years in the late ‘80’s. In the ‘90’s he was a member of APAL (AIDS Prevention Action League) and SEXPANIC!, which was formed to protest the harassment of the gay community by the Giuliani administration and media representation of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the sex that gay men have.

Kathy Seng Gurland, like many dancers, came to NYC right after high school and threw herself into classes, auditions and part time jobs. Her ballet teacher from Philadelphia recommended a Jazz teacher named Chuck Kelly and thus began her adventures at Don Farnsworth’s Studios. After passing the mandatory student verbal abuse tests from Chuck in jazz, tap and acrobatics, she remained a dedicated follower and eventually wound up being one of his first teachers and a long term friend. She joined DO40 right after her 40th birthday and has been a loyal member ever since. She joined forces with Ron Stratton in planning two of the holiday parties several years ago and has him to blame for getting roped into the position of treasurer.

Kathy spent most of her dancing career doing dinner theater and summer stock, toured with Cyd Charise and Tony Martin, and then moved into choreographing and directing. She assisted Tony Award winning Director Dennis Rosa on several productions and eventually made it to Off Broadway as an understudy in the musical flop “Surf City.” She landed a few national commercials during those years (Dawn, Uncle Ben’s Rice, etc.) but as we all know, those residuals really don’t pay the rent. Realizing that she was not going to join the ranks of Broadway’s rich and famous, Kathy decided to pursue a college degree while still dabbling in “the biz.” After seven years of part time study, while working multiple jobs and taking ballroom classes to maintain her sanity, she received her BA from NYU just prior to her 40th birthday.

Swearing to never return to school again, Kathy worked for five years in social services enduring the 9-5 schedule while simultaneously building a relationship with her former professor that happily ended with an elopement in the Virgin Islands.

Eight years ago Kathy went back on her promise and returned to NYU (this time for free thanks to the hubby) to pursue a masters degree in Social Work. She graduated in 2000, passed the state licensing exam and immediately began working in her two chosen fields – hospice and psychotherapy. Kathy still feels to this day that it is a true honor and privilege to provide end of life services to individuals throughout NYC and also still thoroughly enjoys being a “shrink” to her ongoing private clients.

After over 30 years living in the “only borough”, Kathy and her husband made the move over the bridge to Brooklyn last year and now reside in DUMBO. After going through withdrawal and adjusting to the peace and quiet, they are now confirmed Brooklynites. (The view of your City is marvelous from here and so are the sunsets.) Kathy and Bob also own a home on the island of Culebra, PR and Kathy is considering holding a DO40 membership meeting there in 2007 for those of you who like the beach.

Gregg Mayer is a dance graduate of HSPA '56 and majored in French Lit and Art History at GWU, where she developed the school's first performing dance company out of what was then a small dance dept. in a big PE dept (like all colleges of the era). She then went on to live and study in France and found herself in London at the end of the 50's, with no American modern dance around. So she was encouraged to create and direct Britain's first contemporary dance company. The company gave its first public performance in September '64 and gave a career head start to many rising dancers of the time, including James Cunningham. Jamie went on to be a part of the Judson Church dance group and had his own Acme Dance Company for many years.

Teaching at England's drama, art and music colleges, as well as guest teaching at Oxford and Cambridge Universities for ten years, Gregg was invited to Washington University,St.Louis to help create the dance dept. out of the (guess what?) PE dept. Drama came along out of English dept. and the Performing Arts Dept. was formed in the late 60's.

Since returning to NYC in the late 70's, Gregg has made the transition from the performing arts to the healing arts through a brief transitional career in Arts Administration and then with certifications in Pilates, Yoga, Yoga Therapy and Group Fitness. She teaches these courses as well as Insight Meditation, for clubs such as NYSports Club,etc. and is in private practice in her midtown loft.

Being fluent in French, Gregg is also a tutor of French language and conversation and her main "emploie du temps" is her work with cat rescue. She has many success stories and -alas- several really sad ones as well. It is a never-ending saga but very satisfying.

No doubt you’ve seen Richard Korthaze in many, many Broadway shows. He was in the original “Pippin,” the original “Chicago,” as well as Fosse’s “Dancin’.”

His first gig was in the chorus of the first revival of “Pal Joey” in 1951. Dick has been honored with the Gypsy Robe many times (see picture), and also appeared on Broadway in “Anything Goes” and “Take Me Along.” His movie credits include I’m Not Rappaport, The Addams Family and Sweet Charity.

Go to Page 2 of the Board Biographies