John Sefakis has been President of Dancers Over 40 since 2006, and grown the organization four-fold by expanding the DO40 mission to include panels, socials, casting opportunities and performances as well as opening up the organization to younger members and non-dancers as well (hence the new secondary Logo, Dancers Over 40..and Friends). He has been a member since 1998, when, as Associate Producer on MetroArts/Thirteen, he arranged for the group to be featured in a week-long tribute, hosted by theater and dance critic Clive Barnes.
Trained as a theater director, Sefakis wrote his master’s thesis on Bob Fosse and His Visual Design for the Theater, interviewed Gwen Verdon while in college, and later, during the MetroArts years, had the opportunity to work with her and feature a week about “Fosse” on MetroArts/Thirteen when it previewed in Canada and finally arrived in NYC in 1999.

John began dancing at 3 ½ , and ended up studying in his home town with a Luigi-trained dancer, Jane DeFalco, who still takes Luigi classes when she can (at 80!). She was an accomplished tapper, having assisted June Taylor in the 1960’s. Sefakis 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.

Sefakis worked for many years at HBO, The American Lung Association (as Manager of Corporate Promotions and Licensing) and Thirteen/WNET while maintaining his ties to the dance and theater world. He is also very active in the fight against HIV. He has been on the Community Advisory Board of the New York Blood Center for ten 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 (HIV Vaccine) study in 1998. A member of the original ACT-UP Housing Committee, he was also a GMHC buddy and team leader and a member of the AIDS Prevention Action League and SEXPANIC!, which was formed to protest the harassment of the gay community by the Giuliani administration.