Nicky Paraiso is Director of Programming at The Club at La MaMa and is also Curator for the annual La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, celebrating its 13th season this past May 2018.  He has been an actor/performer in the NY downtown theater, dance and performance scene since 1979, working with Jeff Weiss and Richard C. Martinez, Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, Yoshiko Chuma & The School of Hard Knocks, Anne Bogart, John Jesurun, Dan Hurlin, Dan Froot, Jessica Hagedorn, Robbie McCauley, Laurie Carlos, Richard Elovich, Fred Holland, Mary Shultz, Mark Bennett, among many others. Nicky’s one-man shows (including Asian Boys, Houses and Jewels and House/Boy, the latter directed by Ralph B. Peña) have been presented at La MaMa, Dixon Place, BACA Downtown, Performance Space 122, Dance Theater Workshop, Pillsbury House Theater (Minneapolis), the 4th Int’l Festival of Cabaret (Mexico City), the KO Festival (Amherst College), Dublin Theatre Festival, and the Initiation Performance Festival in Singapore (both in 2007).  He has performed with both Ma-Yi Theatre Company and National Asian American Theatre Company.  Paraiso’s awards include a 1987 BESSIE New York Dance & Performance Award, a 2004 Spencer Cherashore Fund grant for mid-career actors, a 2005 NY Innovative Theater Award, and the 2012 BAX Arts and Artists in Progress Arts Manager Award.  He has served on various theater, dance and music panels, and has also been a member of both the BESSIE Awards Selection Committee as well as the OBIE Awards Judges Committee.  Nicky is a recipient of a 2018 TCG Fox Fellowship Grant as an Actor of Distinguished Achievement. He will present a new dance-theater work, now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories, directed by John Jesurun, which will premiere at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre in March 2019.