(President and CEO) became President and CEO in 2024. She became Artistic Director for Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) in 2007. In 2019, she was named Chief Artistic & Producing Director. For over 20 years she performed with the company, appearing in most of the company’s repertoire. Before becoming Artistic Director, she served as the company’s Associate Artistic Director, Deputy Director for Arts and Operations, and Resident Choreographer. In addition to her choreographic and artistic leadership, Ms. Blunden-Diggs is the Executive Director of Jeraldyne’s School of the Dance, the cornerstone to Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, and she works closely with DCDC’s pre-professional company, DCDC2. She has created works for the company, which have become part of the company’s artistic blueprint. Her notable works include Configurations, Kaleidoscope, Fragments, In My Father’s House, and Traffic. Her first piece, Variations in Blue, composed when she was 17, was submitted as an entry in the Young Choreographers Showcase and selected for inclusion in the National Choreographic Plan. She has contributed an impressive body of work, including No Room, No Place, No Where, for which she received a Monticello Award in 1982.”

In May 2002, she adjudicated the Regional Dance America Northeast Competitions. Ms. Blunden-Diggs was Co-Director/Choreographer for The Human Race Theatre’s production of Crowns, as well as Director/Choreographer for Central State University’s original production of In The Pursuit of Wind among others. She created ballets for and worked with students at the University of Dayton, Sinclair Community College, Wright State University, Central State University, South Dayton Dance Theatre, and Stivers School for the Arts.

She served on the Board of Directors for “The International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD)” from 2000 to 2006. She has received numerous awards and accolades. Among them are honors from Regional Dance America, Monticello Choreographic Fellowships in 1979 and 1980, and two Individual Fellowship Awards from the Ohio Arts Council in 1981 and 1984. She has been recognized by the University of Dayton, and by the Women of Influence by the YWCA. Congressman Mike Turner (OH-10) awarded her the Black History Month Congressional Award for Community Service in recognition of 40 years of serving the community through dance and dance education.

The Fisk University Alumni Association honored her with an Excellence in Artistry Award, and she was awarded a Montgomery County Arts and Cultural District Master Fellowship for artistic excellence and community outreach initiatives in 2000. In 2014, she received the Image of Hope Youth Advocacy Award for her contributions to improving the lives of youth in the Greater Dayton area. Ms. Blunden-Diggs is an adjunct professor at the University of Dayton in the Theatre, Dance, and Performance Technology Program and serves on numerous boards: membership chair of the IABD, secretary for the National Board of Trustees of Dance/USA since 2020, and the Seedling Foundation Board for Stivers School for the Arts.

Qarrianne (she/her), a Fayetteville, NC native, joined DCDC’s first company in 2012 after having performed for two seasons in DCDC2. She earned her BFA degree at Howard University, studying under Sherrill Berryman-Johnson, Pat Thomas, Sandra Fortune-Green, Katherine Smith, Akua Kouyate, and Assane Konte. She studied traditional and social Jamaican dance at University of West Indies at Mona, and most recently trained and performed with The National Theater of Ghana’s National Dance Ensemble in Accra, Ghana. Ms Blayr has enjoyed performing the work of many notable choreographers such as Donald McKayle, Dianne McIntire, Paul Taylor, Ray Mercer, Sidra Bell, Stafford Berry Jr and Crystal Michelle Perkins, and has been blessed to perform on some prominent stages: The Bolshoi (Moscow, Russia), Victoria Theater (Dayton, OH), The Joyce Theater (New York, NY), and Dance Stages Shanghai Contemporary Dance Festival (Shanghai, China), among others.

Ms Blayr’s original choreography has been presented by DCDC, DCDC2, University of Dayton; Central State University dance and theater productions, Hill Dance Theater Academy (Pennsylvania), Kazyna Dance Ensemble (Kazakhstan), Dayton Performing Arts Alliance (DPAA), and the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD). Ms. Blayr serves as Artistic Directress of DCDC, and is a Founding Board Member and Teaching Artist of Dance Grenada, an annual international dance festival and conference. She also serves as Board Member for the Montgomery County Arts & Cultural District, and is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.