A talent for art. A talent for teaching. A passion for sharing.We recruit exceptionally talented and enthusiastic Artists-in-Residence, who are committed to working with us for the entire school year, and teaching artists, who may instruct during or after school, weekends, evenings or in our Summer Camp.
Their art practice is deeply investigated: all have prior experience teaching and guiding children, and all know first hand that great teachers can change lives. Many of our Artists have their own young experiences of being inspired by someone particularly special, and that is inspiration for their own paths. Art is central to their lives.
Great interest in in SFArtsED and its long proven methods attract like minds. And hearts. We employ a rigorous interviewing process, including live demonstration teaching. We also qualify through expectations of diverse artistic achievement and innovative approaches to their own creative process. Many of our artists are bilingual.
They are as dedicated and devoted to our kids’ transformations as we are. And they are truly part of our family.
A R T I S T B I O G R A P H I E S > 2 0 1 2 - 2 0 1 3
MASTER ARTISTS
Danny Duncan > Theatrical Director/Dramaturge, since 1991
Mr. Duncan is a native San Franciscan who has worked in the Bay Area most of his life. As founder and Artistic Director of Duncan & Company, he toured the West Coast for seven years. Mr. Duncan's writing career began in 1969 with Uhuruh, which appeared Off Broadway in New York at the City Center Theatre. Since then, he has authored and produced eight original musicals including Billie’s Song—winner of six Bay Area Critic Awards, including Best Musical of 1982. He is also the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award for his choreography for Theatreworks production of RAISIN the musical in 1998 as well as the Dean Goodman Choice Award for outstanding achievement in theatre. For five years Mr. Duncan served as Artistic Director for the Mayor's Summer Youth Program (Bayview Hunter's Point) and for ten years with United Projects, an arts organization that trained young people in the performing arts. Mr. Duncan has written the librettos and song lyrics for eight of The Event of the Year performances, and three original musicals for the SFArtsED Players. And, he’s served as Director of this musical theater company since its inception. Mr. Duncan has a long association with the School of the Arts Alternative High School and has taught at the American Conservatory Theater. He is on the faculty of the Oakland School of the Arts as drama teacher and is Director of their main stage musical each year.
Mozel Zeke Nealy > Music, since 1998
Mr. Nealy received his Bachelor of Arts in Black Studies and American History from San Francisco State University. His performances include the Ethnic Dance Festival, Oakland Youth Festival, San Francisco Jazz Festival, Yerba Buena Gardens for Robert Henry Johnson, Pecong for ACT, Tales of the City for PBS, Kimball’s’ East with Dizzy Gillespie, Radio Drama Workshop directed by Francis Ford Coppola and Life on the Water Theater. He has been a Staff Accompanist and Drummer for dance classes at Mills College, Marin Ballet, Skyline College, Pacifica, San Francisco State University, City College of San Francisco and the San Francisco Ballet. Mr. Nealy has taught Drum Workshops for Mills College, City College of San Francisco, California Arts Council Children’s and Adult Music Workshops, San Francisco State University and the Herald Project. He has been the Music Director for Group Petit LeCroix and Grupo Africania. He is the director of the Haitian Dance & Drum Retreat and Congo Solo and Percussion Festival, two major annual events dedicated to the study, exploration and performance of African derived music and culture. Mr. Nealy is a long time artist-in-residence in San Francisco public schools and has also taught for San Francisco Parks and Recreation.
Richard Olsen > Visual Arts, since 1993
Mr. Olsen is an artist, writer and art educator. He was the head of the art department at Gateway High School and taught art education at the San Francisco Art Institute. Mr. Olsen has curated many shows with SFArtsED including at Rena Bransten Gallery, Southern Exposure Gallery, the SF Arts Commission Gallery and the SF Museum of Modern Art. Most recently, Mr. Olsen curated the wildly successful INTERNATIONAL ORANGE: The Bridge Re-imagined at the Mills Building and in 75 "bridge" galleries around San Francisco. At SFArtsED, his students’ work has won a number of awards including the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s “Best of Design” award with a subsequent exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. He has lectured on art and education at UC Berkeley, SF State, the College of Notre Dame, the SF Museum of Modern Art and other institutions. He has also taught in public and private settings, including children deemed “severely emotionally disturbed.” Mr. Olsen received his BFA and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.
ARTISTS
Liz Andrews > Visual Arts, since 2012
Originally from Santa Cruz Ca, Ms. Andrews received her teaching credential in art education from San Francisco State University. She holds a BA in studio art from the University of California Santa Cruz and has exhibited work in several small galleries in Santa Cruz, including the Women’s Center at UCSC. She is a painter working in acrylics and mixed media. As an art educator, Ms. Andrews says her goal is to help students tell their own stories and ask questions so students develop their cognitive and critical thinking skills for investigating and understanding the world around them.
Christine Armand > Drama, since 2013
Ms. Armand has been teaching drama to elementary students for more than 15 years. She is a trained theatrical performer, published playwright and dynamic instructor, who is dedicated to the arts as a teaching tool. She has a master’s degree in theater from San Francisco State University and has run her own week-long Creative Storytelling camps. She has worked at many diverse schools in the Bay Area, guiding students to wholeheartedly express themselves. A well-rounded theatrical artist herself, Ms. Armand has performed in many Bay Area theatrical shows and has travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she starred in an original play. She is most proud of her own troupe, The PrimaMommas, where she produces and performs in a popular play that she also co-wrote called “Stretchmarks: Growing Into Motherhood.” The play has enjoyed many sold-out shows in the Bay Area, and most recently had it’s East Coast debut.
Alexis Arnold > Visual Arts, since 2011
Originally from Los Angeles, Ms. Arnold came to San Francisco in pursuit of an MFA in sculpture, which she received from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2010. She also holds a BA in studio art from Kenyon College and has spent time studying and living in Barcelona and New Zealand. She has exhibited work through the SF Arts Commission’s Art in Storefronts project, at Root Division, SF City Hall, Adobe Books Parlor and the Crucible, among others. Her artwork uses a multitude of media, from crystals to concrete, to create a journey from past narratives to possible futures.
Ms. Arnold has taught collage to kindergartners, welding to college students and a variety of techniques to all ages in between. She loves borrowing ideas or techniques from her own work and bringing them to the classroom, feeling this helps create unique projects for students. Understanding the beneficial influence art can have on child development, Alexis is thrilled to teach through programs like SFArtsED, as well as Leap…Imagination in Learning.
Aileen Barr > Visual Arts, since 2003
Ms. Barr has been a teaching artist for the past 15 years. She began facilitating art workshops in Ireland in the early 1990’s, working with schools and community groups. Since moving to San Francisco she has continued to combine teaching and her own studio practice. In her own art, Ms. Barr creates large-scale public art works using hand made tile and mosaic.
Teaching has always formed an important part of her art practice and she regularly consults and provides hand on opportunities with communities when doing public artworks. As a teaching artist she believes that the skill of teaching is about facilitating learning. Ms. Barr’s Artists-In-Residence aim is to foster independent thinking, enhance problem solving and encourage a belief that great things can be achieved.
Terry Gamba Baruti > Dance, since 2012
Mr. Baruti began teaching Capoeira for youth at the Western Addition Cultural Center in San Francisco and developed the largest and most advanced group of children in the United States. In 1988, he founded Adigun Sipho Capoeira group and began training in Capoeira Angola, a form more rooted in the traditions of the Congo-Angola Bantu Culture, the origins of the N'golo, the African father of Capoeira. Mr. Baruti learned Kongolese drumming under Grand Master Sandor Diabankouezi, director of the Kongolese National Dance Troupe and joined Les Bantus Sissa Kongo dance troupe in 1991. Mr. Baruti has taught Capoeria Angola, Adigun Sipho Capoeira, African Stick dance and Kongolese drumming around San Francisco and the Bay Area. In 1995 he collaborated with Lorraine Bowser to develop an appreciation for dance on a traditional, cultural and educational level through Adigun Sipho and Bana Ya Kongo, the arts of the Congo. In 1998, Mr. Baruti became an honorary professor at Mills College, where he teaches Kongolese drumming in the Music Department.
Ray Beldner > Visual Arts, since 1999
Born in San Francisco, Mr. Beldner received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from Mills College in Oakland, California. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally and his work can be found in many public and private collections including the Federal Reserve Board, Washington D.C., the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Oakland Museum of California and the San Jose Museum of Art.
Mr. Beldner is a 1996 recipient of a California Arts Council Fellowship in New Genres. He was also a 1997 recipient of a Creative Work Fund Grant from the Haas Foundation, and a Potrero Nuevo environmental art grant for the GARDEN Project, which he led with SFArtsED at Francisco Middle School. He has taught sculpture and interdisciplinary studies at the San Francisco Art Institute and the California College of the Arts and is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Saint Mary's College in Moraga, CA. His work has been reviewed in publications including Arte, Art on Paper, Wired, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Village Voice, International Herald Tribune, and The New York Times.
Most recently, his work has been seen in Living With Duchamp, Tang Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, Argent et Valeur, Le Dernier Tabou, Exposition Nationale Suisse, Biel-Bienne, Switzerland and in the traveling exhibition, Illegal Art: Freedom of Expression in the Corporate Age. Mr. Beldner recently had a solo exhibition of his money-related artwork at Caren Golden Fine Art in New York.
Keta Bill > Music, since 2001
Ms. Bill received her BA in theater and music from Western Illinois University. A performer and studio vocalist here in the Bay Area for over 30 years, with bands Zasu Pitts Memorial Orchestra, Big Bang Beat and shows like Teatro Zinzanni, she continues to record for commercials, film and various CD projects. She teaches singing and chorus for Brisbane Dance Workshop, ODC and Spindrift School of Performing Arts as well as private piano and guitar lessons. She has worked in early childhood music and movement for 19 years and teaches at various preschools and for Blue Bear School.
Brandon Brack > Vocal Music, since 2012
Mr. Brack has his BA in Vocal Performance from University of Wisconsin-Madison, his MA in both choral conducting and vocal performance from University of Michigan, and his Doctor of Music Arts from USC. He currently serves as Interim Music Director for the San Francisco Girls Chorus. He has had extensive choral conducting experience in collegiate and church settings and has been a performing vocalist with many significant groups including New World Symphony under the baton of Michael Tilson–Thomas and Chanticleer—An Orchestra of Voices for whom he also served as outreach coordinator to numerous middle schools.
Jason Brown (Tata Salah Kongo) > Music, since 2007
Mr. Brown studied toward his Master of Arts in English at the University of Vermont. He studied abroad at the University of Nairobi in Kenya, East Africa. Mr. Brown is a guest accompanist for West African Dance classes at ODC/SF, City Dance and the Malonga Casquerland Performing Arts Center. He was the Musical Director of Ayoluwa African Dance Company and he has accompanied Modern and traditional West African dance classes at Spelman College and various African Dance Companies in Buffalo, New York. He has worked with the Jeh Kelu African Dance Company and been a Rhythm Artist with the Living Word Project. Some of the local agencies that Mr. Brown has worked with are: the City and County of San Francisco’s Human Services Agency, San Francisco Unified School District, Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Bayview Hunter’s Point YMCA, Street Beats, Coalition on Homelessness and San Francisco Network Ministries. Mr. Brown has also taught Elementary School in Buffalo, New York.
Angie Crabtree > Visual Arts, since 2008
Ms. Crabtree is an artist from the Bay Area whose current work is an investigation into consumer culture and trends. She has a Bachelor's in Fine Art from the San Francisco Art Institute, education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she’s studied abroad at the Gerrit Reitveld Academie of the Netherlands and has 10 years of experience in art education.
Her work has explored many themes including the nature of childhood, nostalgia and innocence. Children are a huge inspiration to her, and she constantly feeds off of their creativity. As a recent graduate, Ms. Crabtree has a fun, fresh attitude towards creative expression and she likes to encourage her students to experiment as much as possible. She promotes the use of different mediums, as well as the process of conceptualizing through art. Ms. Crabtree’s class themes are always connected with nature, and she has been known to bring in her carnivorous plant collection.
Rhonda Crane > Music, since 2005
A well-rounded musician who sings, plays, teaches and performs, Ms. Crane is a native of Brooklyn, New York, but a lifelong resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. Her vocal talents were developed in the Baptist Church, and she studied classical piano and viola through college. As a music major at San Jose State University, she sang in the opera Aida and organized the Rhonda Hudson Signers. Rhonda honed her craft as a music director in several local churches, and her last post was as minister of music at a Modesto church for seven years. Her professional career began in 1991 with Street Sounds, an a capella quintet, singing on stages throughout the world. Rhonda is also a principal singer with the group Chelle and Friends, which has completed two CD projects: Sweet Bread and Voodooville. Rhonda holds the national youth director position for the Edwin and Walter Hawkins Music & Arts Conference, of which she has been a member for 20 years. She is also the director of children’s ministry at Love Center Church, where she sings in the Bishop Hawkins 150-voice Community in Praise Gospel Choir. In addition to her performing, Rhonda loves to run workshops, produce concerts and teach chorus to schoolchildren in the San Francisco and Oakland Unified School Districts. In addition to SFArtsED, her current teaching associations include Oakland Youth Chorus and LEAP, Imagination in Learning.
Rachel Dawson > Visual Arts, since 2011
Visual artist, Rachel Dawson was born and grew up in Southern California. After spending her childhood and young adult years pursuing an acting career, Rachel decided that her real love was for painting and drawing. Transferring out of her drama program at the University of Southern California, she made her way to the Bay Area, upon being accepted to the joint-degree program between the California College of the Arts and University of San Francisco. Awarded her BFA in 2002, Rachel kept up her studio practice, participating in a number of exhibits all over California. She started teaching art to elementary and middle school students in both Los Angeles and in the Bay Area. However, working alone for so many years, with a dwindling art community and a lack of critical feedback, Rachel felt that her next step was returning to school. In 2008, Rachel applied to graduate school. Currently, she is in her second year at California College of the Arts and will graduate in 2011 with her Masters of Fine Art. She looks forward to continuing her practice and maintaining her connections teaching children and teenagers.
Juan De La Rosa > Dance, since 2012
Mr. De La Rosa began his dance training at San Francisco State University, where he received bachelors degrees in Theater Arts and Dance. Since then, he has been an active member of both the theater and dance communities in the Bay Area and has danced with Kelly Kemp and Company, 13th Floor Dance theatre and Sean Dorsey Dance. He has also been a guest artist in Dance Brigade’s Great Liberation Upon Hearing, Chris Black/Potrzebe’s Extinction Burst: a dance of lost movement at the Cal Academy of Sciences and Little Seismic Dance’s We Don’t Belong Here.
Mr. De La Rosa began teaching 10 years ago through Kidstock Inc. summer camps and continued teaching at summer camps throughout the years. In the summer of 2012, he received training in Curriculum Enhancing Dance through USF’s department of Performing Arts and Social Justice. He has been a guest instructor at Working Actor’s Wednesdays, SFSU and USF and is currently teaching at ODC’s Youth Program in addition to the San Francisco Arts Education Program.
Bruce Demetrius (Baba Duru) > Rhythms and Instrument Making, since 2011
Baba Duru is a world percussionist and member of folkloric dance troupes from Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Peru, Congo, Guinea, Senegal, Northern India and the United States. He spent years studying and performing with Master Drummers from the above mentioned countries and currently teaches and accompanies the Modern and Haitian Courses at San Francisco State University and City College of San Francisco and is musical director of Alafia Dance Troupe.
Amadou Diawara > Music, since 2008
Mr. Diawara, a native of Senegal, began his career with the world renowned West African Drum and Dance Company, BOUGARABOU. In 1992, artistic director Amadou M’baye Bagourra inivited Mr. Diawara to begin studying and performing with Bougarabo’s African Ballet Company.
Bougarabou presents the history and culture of West African Music through exhilarating performances of song, dance, stilt walking, fire eating and acrobats. Bougarabou performs in Senegal for tourist groups in local hotels and resorts and also travels internationally to share their captivating talent in West African drumming and dancing.
In 1997, Mr. Diawara, along with other artists, started an independent drum and dance company known as KAKILAMBE. He continued to teach workshops and perform with Kakilambe until he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in June, 2001. He began his career in the United States as a West African drum and dance teacher that summer. Mr. Diawara taught drum and dance to youth campers (ages 5-17) at Farm and Wilderness in Plymouth, Vermont. He has also taught classes for children, teens and adults in Cincinnati, Ohio, and at the YMCA in Vevay, Indiana. He also organized, directed and taught drum and dance workshops in Indiana and Ohio. Mr. Diawara was also privileged to experience Carnival in Bahia, Brazil, where he performed with a West African group for two weeks in 2002. He relocated to San Francisco in November of 2002. He has taught drum classes at the African American Cultural Center, drummed for Alassane Kane’s dance class at the San Francisco Dance Center and continues to share his music and culture with the Bay Area. Mr. Diawara is currently performing with Niancho Enyaley’s West African Drum and Dance Company located in the Los Angeles area. In 2007, Mr. Diawara implemented an educational rhythm and movement/creative expression program to teach children in local school districts. He is also director of the West African Dance Company Bu Falle, which offers in-school and after-school assembly performances as well as festival and community performances. Mr. Diawara believes drumming and dancing know no boundaries and connect all ages and ethnicities.
Katie Dorame > Visual Arts, since 2011
Ms. Dorame was born in Los Angeles and moved to the Bay Area to pursue an MFA at the California College of the Arts, where she graduated in May of 2011. She also holds a BA in art from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her focus is painting and drawing, but informal sculptures pop up as well. She has taught children in France and has studied art history at the American University of Paris. She has also worked for the University of California, Berkeley’s ATDP summer camp as an arts-and-crafts teacher. Ms. Dorame has participated in group shows throughout the Bay Area. Most recently her work was shown in The Future is Now: New Bay Area MFA Graduates at the Sonoma State University Art Gallery.
Jasmine Douville > Dance, since 2011
Jasmine Douville is an educator, dancer and community activist focusing her art on how cultures are perceived in America. Teaching in the community for the past five years, she strives to show students the importance of dance education. Receiving her MFA in Dance at Mills College in Oakland California she plans to continue with her education and will be applying to doctorate programs soon.
Ms. Douville has been teaching and writing about dance education and its many benefits for years; she recently finished her first published journal, “Steps Ahead: Community Based Dance Education.” Focusing on at-risk youth and marginalized people in our society, her journal outlines a curriculum for children in the community and the benefits of education and dance. Her choreographic work has been featured at YBCA, Dance Mission Theater, Laney College, Black Choreographers Festival and Dancing in the Park.
Marcus Dyson > Music, since 2005
Mr. Dyson has been teaching choruses since the age of twelve. He is the Minister of Music at Calvary Hill Community Church in San Francisco. Mr. Dyson has also served as Minister of Music at Monument of Love Fellowship in San Diego making musical appearances on BET, TBN with top recording artists including Andrae Crouch, Shirley Caesar, Dr. Bobby Jones, Destiny’s Child and Kelly Price. Mr. Dyson’s debut CD was released in August, 2007. As Minister of Music, Mr. Dyson started the first youth choir for True Hope COGIC in San Francisco. Additional experience includes teaching Chorus class at Eugene McAteer High School.
Sean Forte > Musical Director, SFArtsED Players, since 2010
Mr. Forte is a graduate, magna cum laude, from the University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music with a BM in piano performance. He currently works at Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts serving the musical theater and vocal departments as an Artist-in-Residence. He is also the musical director for SOTA’s mainstage productions as he was last year (I Remember Mama, Ragtime). With SFArtsED, he works as an Artist-in-Residence at Commodore Sloat Elementary School and is the musical director of the Event Players. Aside from this, he collaborates as a musical director and a pianist for several organizations throughout the Bay Area such as Spindrift School of Performing Arts, Pacifica Spindrift Players, YPTMTC and several others.
Anne Garvey > Visual Arts, since 2006
Ms. Garvey received her BFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. She also studied Fine Arts at the Academy of Art College. She has been an Arts Educator through the Degenhardt Foundation in Hoi An, Vietnam and served as a Visitor Services Assistant at the Oakland Museum of California. Ms. Garvey has also been a Classroom Volunteer at the Peralta Elementary School in Oakland.
Nicole Rose Gelormino > Visual Arts, since 2011
Ms. Gelormino is a teaching artist who works with San Francisco Recreation & Parks Cultural Arts Division and Art Seed as well as Gateway High School. She attained her masters in art and art education at Teachers College, Columbia University and her bachelors in arts and education at Eugene Lang College, New School University. She focused her studio education on painting at Sarah Lawrence College, Eugene Lang College, Parsons School of Design and University of Basque Country in Spain. She currently maintains a studio practice in San Francisco.
Samantha Giron > Dance, since 2012
Ms. Giron is a San Francisco-based choreographer and dance educator. In her choreographic work, she utilizes a blend of contemporary and street dance to create performances about social issues such as marriage and tradition. She earned an MFA in Choreography and Dance from California Institute of the Arts where she received extensive experience creating original work in partnership with other artists. She has been collaborating and touring with composer Ken Christianson since 2005. Ms. Giron draws influence from the urban electronic music community and often collaborates with professional art makers from this world. These collaborations have resulted in performances at Burning Man and San Francisco's The Mezzanine, Supper Club and 1015 Folsom; and LA's La Cita and The Key Club. She is the recent recipient of the Zellerbach Family Foundation Fund Grant and was recently the facilitator of the Pilot Program at ODC Dance Commons. She is a professor of Hip Hop at De Anza College and an Artist-in-Residence at Berkeley High School.
Monika Gonzales > Dance, since 2010
A native San Francisco, Ms. Gonzales graduated from the San Francisco School of the Arts and has and been a dancer and choreographer for 25 years. During her years in Los Angeles, she appeared in projects as diverse as Salt-n-Pepa's video for "Twist and Shout" to Nike commercials to musicals like "Some Like It Hot." She has worked in San Francisco elementary school enrichment programs since 2006 and continues to study with Mission Dance and ODC in modern, jazz, hip-hop, Brazilian and hula.
Betty Grandis > Dramatic Arts, since 2011
Ms. Grandis has taught theater to adults and children of all ages throughout her career. She has worked as an educator for the New Conservatory Theatre Center, Sunset Learning Center, Marin Shakespeare Company, Hillbarn Theatre Conservatory, Civic Arts Education and Harbor-Solano College Youth Conservatory Theatre. She has designed the theater arts curriculum for the Peninsula Partnership/Daly City Public Schools. In addition to serving as Director of Education for Golden Thread Productions, she is an accomplished actor having performed in regional theater, stock, off-Broadway and throughout the Bay Area. Ms. Grandis is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. She has a BFA in theater arts from Hofstra University with a specialty in performance, and an MA in drama from San Francisco State University, where she was awarded the Graduate Student Distinguished Achievement Award in Creative Arts.
Megan Gredesky > Theater, since 2013
Ms. Gredesky received her MFA in directing from Minnesota State University – Mankato before moving to San Francisco, where she recently completed her Drama Therapy training at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her experience lies in teaching Theater Arts and Language Arts to high school students and college students, as well as directing musicals and non-musicals. As an MFA graduate, she wrote and directed a children’s musical based on the popular children’s book The Rainbow Fish. She also trained as a director at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. For the past year and half she has been bringing drama and play to elementary students in the East Bay as a form of healing. She appreciates the use of theater as an educational tool, including its use to cultivate child development and foster learning in the schools. She believes that any experiential approach to learning is richer and engages the child more fully.
Natalie Greene > Dance and Musical Theater, since 2003
Ms. Greene is a performer, teacher and choreographer exploring both traditional and innovative combinations of dance and theater. She is Adjunct Faculty at the University of San Francisco, where she co-directs the Dance Generators with Amie Dowling. Ms. Greene also teaches through SFArtsED and ODC School, and has served as Dance Faculty at San Francisco State University. She has performed for Kim Epifano, Deborah Slater, Emily Keeler, Kelly Kemp, Leyya Tawil and Mary Armentrout. Ms. Greene’s choreography has been presented in Italy, Spain, New York, Arizona and Massachusetts. Her work has been presented locally at ODC Theater, the Garage, John Sims, Shotwell Studios, Dance Mission and the Sunshine Biscuit Factory. She also creates performances with youth, teens, seniors, incarcerated adults, college and university students. This work has been featured at the Eureka Theater, the de Young Museum, the Marsh, the Fromm Institute, inside of County Jail #8, the College of San Mateo and SF School of the Arts. Ms. Greene has worked with the SFArtsED Players since 2003, and continues to learn and grow through collaborating with Emily Keeler and Danny Duncan.
Deborah Slater Dance Theater - www.artofthematter.org
Epiphany Productions / Trolley Dances - www.epiphanydance.org
University of San Francisco - www.usfca.edu/artsci/ug/performing_arts
ODC School - www.odcschool.org
Cassie Grilley > Musical Theater, since 2012
Ms. Grilley is graduate of the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts High School and is thrilled to be working with the SFArtsED Players family this year as their stage manager. Ms. Grilley loves the arts and was a member of the Players and Young People's Teen Musical Theatre Company. Over the summer she performed as Ado Annie in the SFArtsED Summer production of Oklahoma! She loves working with all of the talented kids and artists and is excited for this year's Players production of Bells are Ringing.
Jessalyn Haggenjos Barr > Visual Arts, since 2007
Ms. Haggenjos Barr received her Master of Fine Arts from the California College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited in major US cities that include New York, Boston, Richmond, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Portland and Seattle. Locally, Ms. Haggenjos Barr’s art has been seen at Root Division, The Autonomous Museum, Swarm Gallery, Crucible Steel Gallery, Café Royale, and the Oakland Art Gallery. She has also been shown in Copenhagen, Denmark. Ms. Haggenjos Barr has been a Teaching Assistant at California College of the Arts and has taught Painting and Drawing for SFArtsED’s Summer Camp.
Erin Hewitt > Dance and Musical Theater, since 2010
Ms. Hewitt studied at the University of San Francisco, graduating with a BA in performing arts and social justice with a dance emphasis. A longtime musical theater lover, she is a choreographer, performer and collaborator, and has appeared onstage from a young age. Favorite past shows include Cabaret, Chicago, Urinetown! The Musical, Hairspray, and most recently her role as Cassie in A Chorus Line. During her time at USF, Ms. Hewitt staged such musicals as Songs for a New World and Reefer Madness and worked with incarcerated men in the Resolve to Stop The Violence Program, before joining the SFArtsEd family as an instructor for the youth summer camp Broadway Bound and co-choreographer for the SFArtsED Players. She also greatly enjoys her in-school musical theater residencies throughout the year. With training in classical Broadway styles of dance, including tap and jazz, and interests in contemporary styles, Ms. Hewitt's variety of interests are all a part of her diverse approach to teaching.
Deborah Hoch > Visual Arts, since 2006
Ms. Hoch received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She has exhibited her work throughout California in venues that include the Bucheon Gallery, Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Rental Gallery, de Saisset Museum and the International Airports in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Ms. Hoch has been teaching clay classes in San Francisco for adults and children since 1995. She has served on the faculty of the EBA/Soma Studio School, taught ceramics at The Crucible in Oakland and worked for Terra Mia Studios Art Exploration Summer Day Camp.
Prajakti Jayavant > Visual Arts, since 2011
As an art teacher in convalescent hospitals and in elementary and special education schools, Ms. Jayavant has taught students from 3 to 103 years old. She implements writing, puppetry, storytelling and a healthy dose of fun into her visual arts pedagogy. Her elementary school students are active artist explorers who often find themselves within the environment of a cherished storybook, within constructed classroom caves, and even transforming the Golden Gate Bridge into a variety of musical instruments. Ms. Jayavant believes in fostering the creativity and the imagination that is unique to each student.
She holds a BFA from Ohio State University and an MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts. Her artwork has been curated by Lawrence Rinder and John Zarobell in San Francisco. She has exhibited at the Drawing Center in New York and is a recipient of the Visions from the New California Award.
Jean Johnstone > Theater Arts, since 2012
Ms. Johnstone is the associate director and dramaturg for the David Herrera Performance Co, a San Francisco modern dance company focusing on the Latino Diaspora. She is founding and building the Applied Theater Action Institute in Oakland. She spent three years teaching and directing new work in Hong Kong, where she was the lead drama instructor at the Hong Kong University Graduate Association College, and a delegate at the IDEA international arts education congress.
She was an artistic director of Rococo Risque Cabaret (Best Theatre Ensemble SF Weekly 2005) and was a founding member of the Million Fishes Art Collective in San Francisco, directing their inaugural show, SUBmerged. Ms. Johnstone studied at The Moscow Art Theater in Russia and holds a graduate certificate in Theater Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as her bachelor’s degree, also from UCSC. She has worked with director Baz Luhrman, with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Brava for Women in the Arts, WE Players, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and others. She is currently creating the Applied Theater Action Institute in Oakland.
http://dhperformance.org/
http://appliedtheater.org
Katie Kerwin > Musical Theater, since 2009
Ms. Kerwin earned her degree in the performing arts, holding a BFA from New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts CAP21 Conservatory. She has had experience teaching voice and dance for over 15 years, and is herself a working actress with over 20 years experience working professionally. She offers private training in vocal technique, audition, and performance ages 5 to adult. Ms. Kerwin tailors each lesson to the individual needs of the student, from young beginner to seasoned professional. Her vocal background from NYU is classical with training in musical theatre/pop vocal performance. She also teaches classes in Broadway and contemporary tap dance styles from beginner to advanced. Ms. Kerwin joined the artistic staff at the professional Show Palace Dinner Theatre in 2003 as an assistant to the Artistic Director. In 2004 she became the Resident Choreographer for the Show Palace. She has directed and choreographed several shows there and her performances there have been a great tool for her students to see the application of techniques on the professional stage. Ms. Kerwin’s teaching expertise is Vocal Technique & Performance, Tap (Broadway and Contemporary), Musical Theatre Performance, and Acting. You may have seen her in TONY® award winning director Walter Bobbie and Broadway choreographer Randy Skinner’s, production of Irving Berlin’s WHITE CHRISTMAS in San Francisco at the Orpheum Theatre in 2005, and subsequent performances at the FOX theatre in Detroit in 2006, and the Ordway in St. Paul in 2008. You can also hear her singing in the ensemble of the Broadway cast album of the show which was released in the fall of 2006.
She is a member of NATS (National Association of Teacher’s of Singing) and the International Tap Association, and is a proud member of ACTOR’S EQUITY ASSOCIATION, the professional stage actor’s union.
Esmeralda Kundanis-Grow > Dance, since 2011
Ms. Kundanis-Grow's background is a blend of various styles including: modern, improvisation, West African, ballet, jazz, and hip hop. A recent graduate from the University of Colorado at Boulder’s BFA Dance Program, she has performed in numerous productions in the Greater Denver Area, Chicago and in San Francisco with Sara Shelton Mann, Catherine Galasso and Raisa Punkki. Her choreography and dance-for-camera work have been showcased in the ATLAS Black Box Artist Residency Program at CU as well as in Barcelona, Spain, Burgundy, France and Mexico. She is co-director of Tilt Productions, a dance-for-camera production company as well as a Fusion Rhythms Teacher at Rhythm and Motion Dance Workout program in San Francisco. She recently lectured, choreographed and performed in Earthdance’s Emerge Interdisciplinary Arts Exchange.
Diana Lee > Musical Theater, since 2008
Ms. Lee is a classically trained pianist and cellist teaching, performing and freelancing in the Bay Area. She teaches both instruments privately and works as an accompanist for church services and for instrumentalists and vocalists as well. She is a cellist in the Bear Valley Music Festival Orchestra and plays in various chamber groups in the East Bay. Most recently she has been studying chamber music with the members of the Alexander String Quartet, the resident quartet at San Francisco State University, where she also participates in the annual Yehudi Menuhin Chamber Music Festival. Ms. Lee did her undergraduate studies in Music and Physics at UC Berkeley. She resides in Berkeley and continues to be involved with the University Symphony and studies orchestral conducting under David Milnes. She has served as musical director of the Players, and continues to work as an Artist-in-Residence in the schools during the year and as a vocal coach in the summer. This year, she is putting together a Supplemental Workshop Series for the middle-school students in the Players, helping them with the process of applying to and auditioning for the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts Vocal Department.
Laura Lowry > Dramatic Arts, since 2008
Ms. Lowry is a teaching artist in the Bay Area. She has taught for Marin Shakespeare Company, Word for Word Theatre Company, CalShakes, New Conservatory Theatre, StageWrite, Malcolm X Elementary, Contra Costa College for Kids and SFArtsED. She is currently the Drama teacher at Brandeis Hillel Day School where she teaches K-8th grades. Ms. Lowry received her MFA from FSU/Asolo Conservatory and studied Shakespeare in London with Patsy Rodenburg, teacher at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After graduate school, she moved to New York City, where she continued to study Shakespeare at The American Globe Theater. When Ms. Lowry is not teaching she is performing at venues all around the Bay Area. Some of her favorite Bay Area roles include Angel Face in Angel Face (Word for Word); Kathleen in Hard Laughter (Alter Theatre); Lady Caroline Bramble, Enchanted April (Porchlight Theatre Company); and Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story (Cinnabar Theatre.)
Alfie Macias > Music, since 2001
Mr. Macias has worked as a traditional percussionist in the Bay Area for over 10 years and began as an understudy to Master Ghanaian Drummer, S. Kwaku Daddy. Together they taught and performed for children throughout the Bay Area with Life’s Rhythms, a West African percussion group. He served as teacher’s aide to Afro-Caribbean Master, Zeke Nealy, playing for Blanche Brown and Halifu Osumare’s dance workshops.
Mr. Macias performs with the acclaimed folkloric company Aguas da Bahia under the direction of Master Condomble Percussionist Gamo da Paz and Tania Santiago of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. And he has participated in several Bay Area performance groups, including the Mara-Reggae, Fogo Na Ropa and As Pernas Com Alma Brazilian dance companies. Mr. Macias is also an ensemble member and instructor for the San Francisco Carnaval champions Loco Bloco.
In such schools as L.R. Flynn, Glen Park and McKinley, Mr. Macias works as a Percussion, Music Exploration and Dance teacher for the San Francisco Arts Education Project. He’s also the Musical Director and Lead Instructor of the Windsor Bloco Afro-Brazilian drumming bateria for youth of all ages. He has spent 6 years working with at-risk youth in San Francisco’s Mission district through L.E.A.P., Saint John’s Educational Threshold and Loco Bloco. In 2003 he began directing the Pocos Locos group, including participants from K-5th grade. In 2004 he created Fuel, a salsa rueda performance group, dedicated to promoting youth awareness of Latin dance influences in the Mission district.
He teaches rhythm, music and dance concepts through contemporary and traditional musics of the world and develops his students’ creativity and social awareness. Mr. Macias’s work provides an opportunity for youth to perform for the local community and study abroad.
Benjamin Malkevitch > Vocal Coach & Accompanist, SFArtsED Players
Mr. Malkevitch hails from Long Island, New York, by way of Cleveland. Along the way, he has music directed such diverse fare as Guys and Dolls, The Last Five Years, Oklahoma!, The Pirates of Penzance, Songs for a New World and Seussical. He has also arranged several songs by Gershwin and Sondheim for chorus. In his other incarnation as an operatic vocal coach, Mr. Malkevitch has worked with BASOTI, Opera Western Reserve (Ohio) and New York Opera Studio. He is currently an artist-in-residence at School of the Arts and is on staff at Notre Dame de Namur University, where he will be music directing The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He is thrilled to work with SFArtsEd's talented and enthusiastic faculty and students.
Laura Marsh > Dance, since 2005
Ms. Marsh hails from Memphis, Tennessee, where she received a BFA in Dance and Theatre from University Of Memphis in 1992. After graduating, she performed and choreographed with Project: Motion, later moving on to become co-artistic director of the company. In 1997 she was awarded first prize in Tennessee Association Of Dance’s annual choreography competition. She has taught creative dance, modern and ballet to students from age 3 through adult. Since her arrival in the Bay Area in 1998 she has performed with Megan Nicely and Company, Right Brain Performance Lab, Nina Galin Music and Dance, and Steamroller. Ms. Marsh has taught dance at Synergy School, ODC, Rhythm and Motion, and Beresford Recreation Center in San Mateo. Currently Ms. Marsh teaches children's dance classes at Brisbane Dance Workshop, ODC, San Mateo Parks and Recreation and Burlingame Parks and Recreation.
Tom Mayock > Dance, since 2010
Tom Mayock was a performing artist with El Teatro Danza Contemporanea De El Salvador (modern, indigenous and classical dance), attended Cornish College of the Arts and has performed with ballet, jazz and modern companies, for corporate industrials and for film. His choreography for children has been televised on Evening Magazine, his musicals have been performed by The Branson High School and he is the co-artistic director of Sun Valley’s World Dance Festival. He has performed, choreographed and taught professionally in Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas, Alaska, the Bay Area and Washington, D.C. Currently he is studying child and adolescent development and is the founding director of the Kid Dance Brigade, an after-school program for kids. Visit www.TomMayock.com or “iDancewithKids” on YouTube to see his work.
Rene McIntyre > Choral music, since 2012
Rene McIntyre hails from Long Island, N.Y., where her teaching experiences include teaching preschool through high school, summer music classes and private instruction in piano and voice. After moving to San Francisco in 2002, Ms. McIntyre ended her sabbatical by returning to school and earning a BA in music. While working on her degree, she worked as a vocal mentor at Community College of San Francisco, completed an internship for Music in Schools Today, volunteered as a piano teacher for the after-school program at the Kroc Center/Salvation Army and worked for Art & Soul Music Studios as an after-school music instructor, teaching piano, voice and musical theater classes. In addition to teaching, Ms. McIntyre performs as a singer when the opportunity arises and has performed wit the CCSF Choir, the Oratorio Society at Cal State University East Bay, the East Bay Singers and the St. Paul Tabernacle Baptist Church Choir.
Mario El Caponi Mendoza > Dramatic Arts, since 2011
Mr. Mendoza is a stage director, dramatist and dramaturg. In 2008, he received his BA in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus in Theatre for Youth and LGBT Studies from Arizona State University. He is currently an MFA Playwriting candidate finishing his last semester of course work from San Francisco State University. His plays include: The Penny Dreadful Project (also dir.), produced by The School of Theatre Cruelty in 2010; Brave, Battling Autism, produced by the College of Creative Arts at San Francisco State University in 2010; A Mad Dog in the Fog, produced by the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University in 2011; Jump: A Love Story (also dir.), produced by The School of Theatre of Cruelty in 2011. Mr. Mendoza was named a semi-finalist at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in 2011 for his play Ophelia, Fragments of Her and most recently, a 2012 semi-finalist for his play Theory of the Red Nebula. He has also worked as a dramaturg for The Tour Bus, Teatro Bravo and San Francisco State University.
Lydia Morris > Visual Arts, since 2011
For more than a decade, Ms. Morris, an artist and teacher, has worked to enable young people to express themselves with skill and confidence in various media. In the Bay Area, she has been an art instructor with San Francisco Parks and Recreation and with Camp Edverture More in Moraga, and she was an artist in action with Frida Del Puebla at the Women's Building in San Francisco. Her work has been seen at the Martin Wong Gallery in San Francisco as well as 222 Gallery, Art Space Gallery and Galley 1822 in Fresno. She received her BA in painting from San Francisco State University.
Tiersa Nureyev > Fashion, since 2005
Ms. Nureyev is a graduate of California College of the Arts. She holds a B.F.A. in fashion design. She is a freelance designer who specializes in highly crafted textile-based objects and garments. She has been commissioned to create one-of-a-kind pieces for private clients and artists represented by prominent San Francisco galleries such as the Wattis Institute. She also owns the sustainably designed fashion accessory line “Stella Fluorescent." This will be Ms. Nureyev's seventh year with SFArtsED.
Erik Parra > Visual Arts, since 2007
Mr. Parra received his Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work has been exhibited throughout America in states that include New York, Nebraska, Indiana, North Carolina, Illinois, Wisconsin, Maryland, Minnesota and Texas. His work has also been shown at the Museu de Arte de Brasilia. Locally, Mr. Parra's work has been exhibited at Southern Exposure Gallery, The Headlands Center for the Arts, Blankspace Gallery, Root Division and most recently at Johansson Projects in Oakland. He has lectured at the University of Wisconsin, Western University in Bellingham, Washington and Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska. He has been a studio art teacher at the El Paso Museum of Art and has been a teaching artist for children at: Dream Yard in the Bronx; Architots in Middle Village, New York; the Monroe Street Fine Arts Center in Madison, Wisconsin; Children's Art Center and Kid's Art in San Francisco.
Sonia Reiter > Dance, since 2010
Ms. Reiter grew up in Virginia and received a BA in Dance from Oberlin College. She continued her studies at the Laban Centre in London and the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. She also completed a 200 hour Yoga Teaching Certification and pedagogical workshops with California Dance Learning / Luna Kids Dance. She has taught movement to children and adults since 2003 in schools, studios and community centers. In addition she has performed as a freelance dancer in the SF Bay Area as well as nationally and in Europe.
Linda Ricciardi > Musical Theater Costumes, since 2006
Ms. Ricciardi is a designer, milliner and builder specializing in sculptural costumes and soft sculpture props for theater. Ms. Ricciardi’s experience, while including numerous projects for stage, also includes projects for television, dance and opera. Some of Ms. Ricciardi’s notable projects include Broadway musicals (Spamelot, The Producers, Seussical, the Musical, The Lion King), Radio City Music Hall (Pokemon, Scooby Doo Live, Blues Clues,) The Lincoln Center Festival (My Life as a Fairy Tale,) and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Pericles.)
Ms. Ricciardi moved to the Bay Area after working and living in New York City for 10 years. Her recent projects, in addition to teaching and designing costumes at both School of the Arts Alternative High School and Oakland School of the Arts, include: prop maker for the tour of Spamelot; Milliner for the show Passing Strange at the Berkeley Repertory Theater; and hat designer and milliner for the play Far Away by Caryl Churchill. Linda lives with her boyfriend Oliver and her cat Leo in San Francisco.
Wendy Robushi > Visual Arts, since 2001
Born in Connecticut, Ms. Robushi relocated to California in 1985 and received her MFA from UC Berkeley in 1989. She holds a BS in art education and has a minor degree in the ceramic arts. Ms. Robushi’s oil and wax paintings are alive with color, texture and symbolism, and her unique style of layering of paint, pastels and wax, with rich underscorings, has become highly collectable. In 2005, Ms Robushi was one of 130 artists chosen to participate in Hearts in San Francisco, and her work is included in many private and public collections. A prolific muralist, Ms. Robushi was a guiding force behind numerous murals funded by the Neighborhood Beautification Fund and designed and painted by artists and students in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunter's Point. Since 1989 she has worked out of her San Francisco studio at Hunter's Point Shipyard, an artists’ colony of more than 250 artists. She has served as a board member of The Shipyard Trust for the Arts and currently is the coordinator of the Shipyard Artists' Spring Open Studio. As a dedicated arts educator for over 30 years, Ms. Robushi has served as artist-in-residence in over a dozen San Francisco schools.
David Rosenthal > Dramatic Arts and Musical Theater, since 2002
Actor, teacher, voiceover artist, director and private coach, Mr. Rosenthal received his BA in Theatre, Anthropology, and English Literature from Sarah Lawrence College. He also studied acting in NYC at Herbert Bergoff Studios and in San Francisco with Richard Seyd. Cast in over 60 national commercials, television and film roles, Mr Rosenthal has also voiced hundreds of characters for video games by Sony, EA, Xbox, Sega, & Nintendo. Directorial and coaching credits include Kids on Camera, Kittredge School, Mercy High, Freeman School, SFUSD, Young Performers Theatre and Lilliput Players Children’s Theatre. He has over 20 years of teaching experience and works with all ages, from pre-school to seniors.
Henry Shin > Musical Theater, since 2002
Mr. Shin served as assistant conductor of the University Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Civic Orchestra. He is in the PhD Conducting Program at UCLA. He has also served as music director of the UC Berkeley Summer Symphony for three summers, as assistant conductor of the USC Concert Orchestra and as guest conductor with the USC Thornton Symphony and Chamber Orchestras. Mr. Shin's principal conducting teachers include David Milnes, Carl St.Clair, John Barnett, and Larry Livingston. He has also attended master classes taught by Kurt Masur, Marin Alsop, Gustav Meier, Daniel Lewis, and Stanislaw Skrowavczewski. Recently, Mr. Shin has been the recipient of the of UC Berkeley's Alfred Hertz Memorial Traveling Fellowship, where he studied with Carl St.Clair at the Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar in Germany. He began his musical training on the piano at the age of four, and later on the cello. Mr. Shin received his BA in music from UC Berkeley and his Master's at the USC Flora L. Thornton School of Music in orchestral conducting.
Alex Stein > Musical theater, since 2012
Mr. Stein is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works as a composer, performer and educator. In addition to his work with SFArtsEd, he works as composer with the San Francisco Opera's ARIA Network, helping elementary school classes to create original mini-operas. Mr. Stein holds a Master's Degree in composition from the Mannes College of Music, where he studied with David Loeb. While at Mannes, he was a winner of the 2008 Jean Schneider Goberman composition competition, the Martinu prize for orchestral composition, and the Composer-in-Residence Chamber Ensemble commission. His works have been premiered at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, SUNY Stony Brook, and by Choral Chameleon and the Mimesis Ensemble. He is currently working on his first opera.
Samantha Stone > Dance, since 2011
Ms. Stone received her BFA in Dance from the University of Michigan in 2007, having had the opportunity to work with such great dancers/choreographers as Amy Chavasse, Doug Varone and Rennie Harris. Upon graduating, she has continued her dance studies both outside of the US in Brazil and Mexico as well as here in the Bay area focusing her studies primarily towards Axis Syllabus Dance. Ms. Stone adores teaching and has spent the last few years teaching dance in the Oakland Unified School District as well as directing the dance program at Appel Farm Arts and Music Camp for two consecutive summers in Elmer, New Jersey. You can find Ms. Stone dancing about this gorgeous city as she performs and choreographs as a freelance artist.
Eric Subido > Literary Arts, since 2011
Mr. Subido has been working with children, youth and families for about 10 years in San Francisco. His undergraduate degree from San Francisco State University is in Child and Adolescent Development and he received his master's degree in expressive arts therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies. His specialty population is highly disadvantaged at-risk youth in San Francisco. He currently runs his own expressive arts program for children called Dance Your Art Out which provides creative movement based social learning experiences for children through art and play. He has been practicing yoga for a number of years and has been creating socially conscious rap music for most of his life.
www.danceyourartout.blogspot.com
www.emassin.com
Rose Tully > Literary Arts, since 2011
Ms. Tully facilitates memoir writing workshops with under-published voices young and old, and in another teaching job is schooled by feral third graders daily. She received the 2011 Leo Litwak Award in fiction at San Francisco State University, where she completed her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing, and where she currently teaches creative writing. This year, her fiction stories have found homes – one in University of Wisconsin Press's Windy City Queer: Dispatches From the Third Coast, and one in Bay Area's Lit-Up Writers Highlights in Low Lighting. Last year, Ms. Tully was selected for the 2010 RADAR Writers Retreat in Akumal, Mexico, and hopes her work will take her to even more magical places.
Rebecca Weisser > Dance, since 2005
Ms. Weisser brings her love of dance in all its forms to children of all ages throughout San Francisco. She has been teaching dance to children and adults for the past 10 years. She was trained at Luna Kids’ Summer Dance Institute, and her classes include everything from hip-hop to hula to Bhangra to square dance. Ms. Weisser recently became the executive director of Moving Beyond Productions (MBP) and is developing an advanced performance group with her star students from all over San Francisco—many of them from SFArtsED. This year they performed in Carnaval, alongside many teachers and parents, with a mix of Haitian, hip-hop, meringue, and samba. Before starting her own Carnaval contingent, she danced with and co-directed Mixtiso Latin Hip-Hop, under the artistic direction of Vanessa Mosqueda from 2001 to 2010. In addition to being a dance teacher, Ms. Weisser is the outreach coordinator for the Marsh Youth Theater, recruiting youth from the Mission District and other underserved communities to become involved in theater productions. She works with families as well, translating (in Spanish) and helping the families support their children in their artistic growth. She also teaches a parent-child dance class at the LGBT Center, and she was also the arts coordinator at Sanchez Elementary School from 2002-2005. Ms. Weisser has a BA in politics from UC Santa Cruz.
A R T I S T S - I N - R E S I D E N C E I N M E M O R I A M
Michael Koob > Dance, since 1991
Mr. Koob is the Administrator Director of the SFArtsED Summer Camp. He trained in Wigman technique under Hellmut Gottschild at Temple University in Philadelphia. He has toured the Eastern United States and Europe with ZeroMoving Dance Company and has choreographed and performed with Six Thumbs Dance Theater in San Francisco. He is currently the Artistic Director of TRANSIT. He teaches extensively throughout the Bay Area and serves on the faculty of ODC/SF. In 2002 the Mayor’s Department of Children, Youth and Their Families honored him as a “Teacher of the Year” during the Celebration of the Young Child Week.
Dan Kryston > Musical Theater Technical Design, since 2004
Mr. Kryston is the head of the Musical Theater and Technology departments at Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. Mr. Kryston received his degrees in Theatre Directing and Design from Virginia Commonwealth University and Regis University. He has worked as artistic director for the Berlitz Gallery Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona, and has been an active force in San Francisco’s cabaret scene.
A L U M N I A R T I S T S - I N - R E S I D E N C E
Barbara Beccio > Costume Design, since 2011
Actively teaching since 1988, Ms. Beccio is also an award-winning doll designer who brings her inventive and inquisitive spirit to her classes and workshops in costuming, doll and mask-making and sculpture. She brings her knowledge of clothing construction and textiles, as well as many costuming techniques, to the classes that she teaches at The Academy of Art University in San Francisco as well as classes that she taught at The Art Institute of California-San Francisco as well as at Stonemountain and Daughter Fabrics in Berkeley. Having taught classes from pre-school to college as well as adult classes, she is able to bring versatility and creativity to a wide range of education situations.
Ms. Beccio has created costumes for over 70 productions in theater, opera and dance, for institutions including the Juilliard School, the Emelin Theatre and Princeton University. A deeply knowledgeable costume designer with extensive training in all aspects of the craft, she not only designed but also draped, patterned and constructed costumes for productions ranging from Sondheim's Into the Woods (Skylight Opera Theatre, 1993) to Molière's Misanthrope (York Theatre Company, 1991). S he was also assistant designer on "Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego." Her work has won many awards, including the Seidman Award for Excellence in Design.
Libby Black > Visual Arts, since 2000
Ms. Black was born in Toledo, Ohio on June 19th, 1976. She received a BFA in Painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1999 and an MFA in Painting from the California College of the Arts in 2001. Her work has been exhibited at Yerba Beuna Center for the Arts (San Francisco), Orange County Museum of Art (Newport Beach), Jersey City Museum (Jersey City), and numerous galleries in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Libby has been an artist in residence at Headlands Center for the Arts and Montalvo Arts Center. Libby’s work has been reviewed in Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, Zink Magazine, Flash Art, and The New York Times. Libby is represented by Marx and Zavattero (formally Heather Marx Gallery) in San Francisco. Libby lives and works in Berkeley, California.
Jesse Bliss > Dramatic Arts, since 2010
Ms. Bliss is the founder and artistic director of The Roots and Wings Project. She is also an actress, writer, director, producer, poetess and MC whose works have been produced and performed around the world. Ms. Bliss’ writings for the stage include Diamonds, performed at UCLA in collaboration with dance legend Rennie Harris; Roots and Wings, performed in New York and San Francisco; Between Fingertips, performed at Central Juvenile Hall and CASA 0101, TREE OF FIRE Reading @ Lincoln Heights Jail and an excerpt performance at Theatre of Note and performance appearances at the United Nations on International Women’s Day and the Edinburgh Festival. She has essayed leading roles at CASA 0101 in shows including Between Fingertips, You Don’t Know Me, Hoop Girls and Heart on a Wire, as well as hosted the CASA 0101 Poetry Slam. She has also performed in The Vagina Monologues and countless other theatrical productions with extensive work in radio and lead roles in independent film. Ms. Bliss is an arts education veteran, with extensive experience writing curriculum and teaching theater and creative writing to at-risk and incarcerated youth. She was awarded a Flourish Foundation grant for The Roots and Wings Project Theater Program in partnership with J.U.I.C.E. for youth coming out of juvenile hall.
www.therootsandwingsproject.com
Drew Boles > Music, since 2006
Born in Springfield, Missouri, Mr. Boles began classical piano study at the age of seven. From 1998-2002, Mr. Boles attended Emory University in Atlanta, GA. There, he helped create the honors program in composition, and was the first student to graduate with Honors (summa cum laude) in Music Composition. From 2003-2005, Mr. Boles attended the University of California, San Diego, where he completed his master's degree in music composition.
Mr. Boles currently lives in San Francisco where he teaches music, composes, and performs. He has recently completed the score for the film, Dear Beverly, a collaboration with longtime friend and filmmaker Melanie Mascioli. Other projects include the Mercurial Gay Beings' BaMeThi, a large-scale musical/performative/theatrical work in a summer 2006 premiere, and a new songwriting/recording project centered around a crunchy upright piano.
Kelley Bowker > Dance, since 2009
Ms. Bowker is a freelance dancer/choreographer in the Bay Area. As well as creating her own work she currently dances with Gretchen Garnett and Dancers and Ishika Seth. She received her BFA in Dance from the University of Michigan and spent a year as an apprentice with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange before relocating west. Ms. Bowker first began teaching as a gymnastics coach during college and has continued ever since, recently expanding her repertoire with her pilates certification. She likes to infuse her dance teaching with all the other movement modalities she works in to challenge students. Teaching primarily modern dance Ms. Bowker likes to bring elements of composition into her class to allow students to find their own voice through movement.
Clint Calimlim > Dance, since 2007
Mr. Calimlim is trained in Hip Hop, Jazz and Ballet. He has performed with various Bay Area Hip Hop Dance Companies that include Culture Shock, Funkanometry SF, Khaotic, Mind Over Matter and Xplicit. He has choreographed and performed with recording artists Deborah Cox, Jocelyn Enriquez, Ryan Duarte and Angelina. Mr. Calimlim served on the judging panel for the Bay Area Dance Quake and was a member of the audition panel for the 2007 San Francisco Hip Hop Dancefest. He is the Hip Hop Program Director at Spark of Creation Studio and he teaches at Dance Mission in San Francisco. Mr. Calimlim has also taught at the Metronome Dance Center and been a Hip Hop instructor for the San Francisco Ballet’s Outreach Program. And he’s served as the Head and Artistic Director of the Hip Hop Department at Westlake School for the Performing Arts.
Michael Cappelli > Dramatic Arts, since 2008
Mr. Cappelli received his MA in Theatre Education from Emerson College. He is an actor with over 15 years experience working in regional and local theatres, and has also written and directed several plays including Possessions and Slowdance. Mr. Cappelli has performed at venues that include the NewGate Theatre, Perishable Theatre, Coyote Theatre, Theatrezone, Boston Instant Fringe Festival, Boston Theatrics!, Wilde Stage and Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre. He has taught at the Aquarium of the Pacific, New York Film Academy and P.S. Arts in Southern California.
Robert J. Cowan > Musical Theater, since 2008
Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, Mr. Cowan holds a degree in music and philosophy from Gonzaga University with extensive studies in K-12 music education. He has taught and directed choirs and bands in middle schools, high schools, and in colleges throughout Washington and California, has instructed a number of private students in vocal performance and piano, and currently teaches at Spindrift School of the Performing arts in Pacfica. An avid performer, Mr. Cowan has enjoyed recent appearances as Papageno; The Magic Flute, Bill; Kiss Me, Kate; Jud;Oklahoma!; Officer Lockstock; Urinetown; and The Cat in the Hat; Seussical. Mr. Cowan is also a scholar of liturgical music and serves as music director at St. Lawrence O'Toole Catholic Church in Oakland. He is currently pursuing a Masters in Music in vocal performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Ken Doumbia > Music, since 2009
Mr. Doumbia is a professional West African performer and is one of the few artists who has had the opportunity to travel the globe as a master drummer and dancer with every prominent ballet company in his region, including the internationally renowned Ballet du Senegal and Afrique Noire. He has since made his home in the Bay Area as a respected member of the drum and dance community. He has extensive experience working with numerous schools and dance companies; teaching to students of all ages the music, dance and traditions of West Africa.
Mr. Doumbia has worked with all age groups from kindergarten to high school, and also at the college level. He has worked in both affluent schools and in inner-city schools with troubled youth. He has prepared students for many performances in small venues and large, such as SF Carnival and the SF International Food Fair. KIPP Bayview received a year grant to fund his job as a performing arts director for their junior high music and dance program, and the school performed at several venues including a Breast Cancer Awareness forum.
Mr. Doumbia’s students learn not only how to drum and dance, they also learn a lot about African culture. Mr. Doumbia teaches them many stories about how people live in Africa, how community is important and how to respect our elders. He teaches them many stories from his book, co-authored with his wife: The Way of the Elders: West African Spirituality & Tradition by Adama & Naomi Doumbia, Ph.D. Mr. Doumbia is fluent in Wolof, Bamana, French, Spanish and English.
Julia Graham > Dance, since 2007
Ms. Graham received her Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College. She has performed locally in solo and ensemble works with emerging Asian American artists at Intersection for the Arts and at CounterPulse and has choreographed work in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. Her work has also been performed at the Bessie Schoenberg Dance Theater in New York. Ms. Graham was an Assistant Teacher at the School for Performing Arts at P.S. 315 and the Frank Sinatra High School in New York. She has also taught at the Kipp Academy in New York. Currently, Ms. Graham teaches Hatha Yoga in San Mateo.
Kari Hoffman > Dramatic Arts, since 2010
Ms. Hoffman is a recent graduate from Cornish College in Seattle. She earned her BFA in theater with an emphasis in arts education and directing. Since college she has worked as an intern teaching artist at Seattle Children's Theatre and as a teaching artist fellow at the California Shakespeare Theater. She is now beginning her career as a teaching artist at multiple schools around the Bay Area.
Douglas Johnson > Dance, since 2008
Mr. Johnson received his Associate of Arts in Dance from Grossmont Community College. He acquired extensive performance experience as a member of San Diego’s Eveoke Dance Theatre from 2002-2007. While with the company he also taught at the company school and worked in in-school and after-school programs, teaching hip-hop, modern, and creative dance programs at all levels, from pre-school through college. He also helped lead a successful pilot program in teaching literacy through dance at Freese Elementary School. Mr. Johnson’s experience also includes choreography and theatre production.
Dallas Kavanagh > Visual Arts, since 2008
Ms. Kavanagh received her MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at the Alfred University School of Art & Design. Her work has been exhibited nationally in New York, California, Oregon and Wisconsin. In 2008 she also exhibited work in Beijing, China. Ms. Kavanagh has taught classes in sculpture, mixed media and metal fabrication through the NYSCC AU SAD program. Other teaching experience includes work in Brookline and Boston, Massachusetts as well as Rosendale, New York.
Ben Keim > Musical Theater, since 2009
Mr. Keim was raised in Cincinnati , Ohio , and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1993. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from San Francisco State University. He has worked extensively as a pianist for musical theatre, dance classes, choirs, and solo vocalists and instrumentalists all over the Bay Area. Mr. Keim is currently the music director/organist at Ocean Avenue Presbyterian Church, in San Francisco. He also is the choral accompanist at St. Ignatius College Prep, and is the pianist for the long-running music theatre revue “Shopping! The Musical” at the Shelton Theatre. Mr. Keim has recently begun teaching piano and preparing singers for musical theatre auditions, and is looking to pursue a career in music therapy.
Cassi Maggio > Dramatic Arts, since 2010
Ms. Maggio completed the two-year training program with the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. Before PCPA, she received her BA in theater arts with an acting option and a minor in marketing (cum laude) from CSU East Bay. She began teaching young artists with PCPA’s Young People’s Project and since then has taught with New Conservatory Theatre, SFArtsED, StarStruck Theatre, TheatreWorks, Cal Shakes and Berkeley Playhouse. In addition to teaching, Casi can be seen performing with companies all over the Bay Area and as the marketing associate with Center REPerotry Company in Walnut Creek.
Melinda Neal-Cofresi > Dance, since 2008
Ms. Neal-Cofresi is a BFA candidate in dance at Saint Mary’s College. She trained at the Oakland Ballet Academy under Ronn Guidi and studied locally at Shawl Anderson and the San Francisco Dance Center. She is certified to teach Ballet by the Dance Masters of America, and has performed with Simply Pasquale, Napoles Ballet Theatre, California Ballet, Udance Electra, New Trails Dance Theatre, Oakland Ballet Academy and Solano Civic Ballet. Ms Neal-Cofresi is the Artistic Director and Choreographer for Halal Ballet Theatre, a non-profit youth ballet company and also teaches for Dance Network.
Teresa Partridge > Visual Arts, since 2011
Ms. Partridge received her BFA in visual art in 2009 and an MA in Art Education in 2010 from Tufts University in affiliation with the School of the Museum Fine Arts, Boston. As a visual artist she works in screen-printing and other print media, where she manipulates old family photographs to become new memories. She has also dabbled in installation art, where she explored her fascination of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. As an art teacher, she has taught a toy-making summer class at the Museum Fine Arts, Boston and while a student teacher at Brookline High School, taught drawing I and Jewelry/metals I & II.
Anna Marie Rockwell > Visual Arts, Since 2011
Ms. Rockwell was born in Greenbrae, California in 1980. She received her BFA in painting at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. In 2005 she spent a semester at the Centre pour l’Art et de Culture, an art studio program facilitated through Maryland Institute College of Art in Aix en Provence. She then received a scholarship to spend a semester at the Pont Aven School of Contemporary Art. Ms. Rockwell has had several solo and group exhibitions in Italy, France, Estonia, and has participated in international artist residencies including MoKS, Center for Art and Social Practice in Estonia, A Gentil Carioca in Rio de Janeiro and SOMA Summer in Mexico D.F. From 2008 to 2010 she lived in New York City and worked as an assistant to Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco. She is currently an MFA candidate at the San Francisco Art Institute in the New Genres department.
Matt Rupert > Musical Theater, since 2009
Mr. Rupert attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD, beginning in 2003. He was in the Bachelor of Music program for clarinet in the studio of Steven Barta, the Bachelor of Music Education program, as well as a Minor in Piano Performance in the studio of Nancy Roldan.
As a music educator, Mr. Rupert maintains private clarinet and piano studios and has taught in both the Baltimore County Public School System and the Howard County Public School System in Maryland. He specializes in instrumental music but has also spent significant time teaching and directing choral programs. From the summers of 2003 to 2007 Mr. Rupert also held a position as Musical Director of the OnStage Middle School Workshop in northern New Jersey where he directed middle school students in putting on a musical theatre revue.
In September 2008, he moved from Baltimore to San Francisco and is currently Assistant Principal Clarinetist with the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony as well as a local chamber musician.
www.mattrupert.com
www.bars-sf.org
Suzanne Santos > Circus Arts, since 2007
Ms. Santos holds a BA in Theatre from George Fox University. She is a graduate of the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre, and earned an MA from the Clown Conservatory and New College in Theatrical Clowning. Ms. Santos is the lead Clown Therapist at Edgewood Center for Children and Families and has performed Off Broadway with the International tour of Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi. Locally she can be seen as a clown with the Pickle Family Circus School Tour.
Jonathan Shue > Dramatic Arts, since 2010
Mr. Shue received his BA in theatre from UCLA. He is an actor, singer and musician who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. His local credits include Chester in A Civil War Christmas (TheatreWorks), Simon in Hay Fever (The Pear Avenue Theatre), various roles including musician in As You Like It (San Jose Repertory Theatre), Scripps in The History Boys (New Conservatory Theatre Center) and Cornelius in The Matchmaker and Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest (California Theatre Center). He also appeared in 12 children's theatre productions, including international tours, with California Theatre Center. His upcoming shows include Babes in Arms at 42nd Street Moon in December 2010 and Compleat Female Stage Beauty at City Lights Theatre Company in San Jose in February 2011.
Alyssa Stone > Music, since 2009
Northern California native Ms.Stone recently completed her Post Graduate Degree in Voice at San Francisco Conservatory studying with Catherine Cook and Bryan Nies after receiving her Master of Music from New England Conservatory studying with Patricia Craig and Damien Francoeur-Krzyzek and her Bachelor of Music from Illinois Wesleyan University studying with Dr. Carren Moham and Dr. Rachel Jensen while also Minoring in Theatre Dance.
Ms. Stone loves working with youth in the Arts and has been a voice teacher, choreographer, and director for many years. She is the Arts Education Program Assistant for the San Francisco Arts Commission and also works for the Education Department and as a Teaching Artist at the San Francisco Opera.
Performing since she was 8 years old, some of Ms. Stone’s most recent Operatic roles have included: La Fée in Cendrillon (Massenet); Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia; Clorinde in Cendrillon (Isouard); The Policewoman of Love in Orpheus in the Underworld; Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire; Madame Goldentrill in The Impresario; The Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte; Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia; and the Soprano Soloist in Handel's Messiah. At San Francisco Conservatory, she also had the opportunity to perform in the Musicals You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Urinetown. Ms. Stone participated in AIMS in Graz, Austria where she sang in the Opera and Operetta Programs and has sung with the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute performing as Despina in Così fan tutte, Frasquita in Carmen, Mariane in Tartuffe, Nanetta in Falstaff, and Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Recently joining the illustrious Lamplighter’s gang, Ms. Stone had the good fortune of experiencing immortality as a fairy in Iolanthe and was seen this summer in Woodminster’s Singin’ in the Rain and Brigadoon.
At New England Conservatory, Ms. Stone was awarded a Fellowship Grant to perform recitals around the Boston area and had the opportunity to direct along side the Opera Faculty for a number of scene productions. She also acted as the Assistant Director for Boston Opera Collaborative's production of Don Giovanni.
Gabrielle Teschner > Visual Arts, since 2008
Ms. Teschner received her MFA from California College of the Arts. Locally she has exhibited work at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Queens Nails Annex, 18 Reasons, John Berggruen Gallery, Playspace Gallery, Oliver Art Center, Haines Gallery and the Pro Arts Gallery. Her work has also been presented in Boston and New York and is in the collections of the Virginia Commonwealth University and the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the De Young Museum. Her work is also in the private collections of David Breskin and Ed Ruscha. Ms. Teschner has been a Gallery Assistant at the Wattis Institute and a Researcher and Teaching Assistant at CCA.
Cole Thomason-Redus > Music, Vocal Coach & Accompanist, SFArtsED Players, since 2010
A fifth-generation San Franciscan, Mr. Thomason-Redus is quickly emerging as a sought-after conductor and educator of choral music and musical theater. Currently in his 11th year as an Artist-In-Residence at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco, his many duties there have included music director of the Musical Theater Department, assistant director of the Vocal Department and instructor of advanced placement music theory. For the last decade, Mr. Thomason-Redus has been a vocalist and composer for the renowned choral ensemble Schola Cantorum San Francisco, a 14-voice professional ensemble specializing in sacred choral literature of the past century. Many of his works written for the Schola have been recorded and broadcast on NPR and several online music sites, and have been performed by the San Francisco Symphony Chorus under the direction of Ragnar Bolin. Additional conducting experience has included guest and interim directorships of various local community choirs and theaters. He was also a co-founding director of International Orange Choral, a local semi-professional performing ensemble. Internationally, Mr. Thomason-Redus has performed in 12 countries in Europe. As a vocalist, he continues to perform anywhere and everywhere from cathedrals to piano bars. Also of note, he served for three years as a classical music analyst on the Music Genome Project at Pandora.com, specializing in vocal, choral and operatic literature.