After re-connecting with Audrey at a workshop/ celebration of Lavinia Williams presented by Noel Hall in 2015, Frances Vidal engaged in our modern jazz classes and soon joined MoJazz Dance in 2016, with her first performance in WomanHood. Fun-loving Frances actively performed with MoJazz through 2022 and continues to hang with the Sistahs for company celebrations and field trips!

Her first actual studio training was in modern dance with Gloria Ramos at the University of Massachusetts. When she returned to NY, Frances pursued West African dance with Chuck Davis in Harlem. She went on to explore more dance with International African American Ballet and Charles Moore Dance Theater in Brooklyn. Frances found her dance campus at Clark Center for the Performing Arts taking jazz with Shelley Frankel, Brazilian with Loremil, and modern with Jill Albert. Frances and Audrey originally met in Charles Moore’s class at Clark Center.

Frances left New York to continue her academic studies with courses at University of Texas and Austin Community College. While pursuing her coursework, she created Melecumbe, a dance group which performed African-based Caribbean dance at various venues in Austin. She was a substitute teacher in the Austin Independent School district for six years, and later returned to NY to broaden and deepen her dance experience.

Since the pandemic, Frances has been a full-time substitute teacher of English Language Arts for the NYC Department of Education. She resides in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, NY, where she was born and raised. Frances expresses herself through dance, visual arts, and photography, “Finding Myself Outside of Myself!”