Nejla Y. Yatkin was named by Dance Magazine as one of "Top 25 to Watch in 2005" and "Outstanding Emerging Artist" by the D.C. Mayor's Arts Award Committee. This award-winning and internationally acclaimed choreographer and dancer graduated with her masters in dance and choreography from Die Etage - a Professional Performing Arts Department in Berlin, Germany. Ms. Yatkin is currently based in Washington, DC pursuing her solo career: dancing, choreographing and giving workshops at international and national festivals. She is also, since the fall of 2001, an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Maryland, College Park. Ms. Yatkin has performed in the US (New York, Washington, DC, Denver, and Los Angeles), Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine and Yugoslavia. She has been awarded numerous grants to create and perform from Arts International, the National Performance Network, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts, the Kennedy Center, the D.C. Commission of the Arts and Humanities and the University of Maryland. To date, Ms. Yatkin has received three awards from the Metro D.C. Dance Awards, including "Outstanding Individual Performance," "Best Scenic Design," and "Best Multi-Media Performance." Ms. Yatkin has just returned from a Latin American tour for her solo work sponsored by Arts International, La Red, and the National Performance Network. She is currently working on a new work co-commissioned by Dance Place, the National Performance Network and the Miami Dade Cultural Affairs Department to be premiered in the fall of 2005. For more information please visit www.ny2dance.com.