Dancers
MICHAELA CRUZE
Michaela obtained her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from Chapman University in 2011. Upon graduation, Michaela apprenticed with Kolben Dance in Jerusalem, Israel. Michaela returned to the States in 2012 and moved to San Francisco. She has performed with Scott Wells, Christine Bonansea, and [detour dance]. She is a current company member of FACT/SF and LEVYdance. Michaela is also a Personal Trainer and small business owner.
KELLY DEL ROSARIO
Kelly was born and raised in Mililani, HI. He began his studies in Dance in 2001 at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and received his BFA in Dance in 2005. Upon graduation, Kelly moved to San Francisco where he has worked with various artists including the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Project Agora, Sarah Bush Dance Project, Robert Moses’ Kin, project.b, and RAWdance.
CLAIRE FISHER
Claire was born and raised in Tracy, California. She received a majority of her training from Alonzo King LINES Ballet, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, & Northwest Dance Project. Residing in San Francisco, she has appeared in several works and collaborations with amazing artists and companies such as Brannigan Dance Works, Hayley Bowman, Fullstop Dance, dazaun.dance, Liv Schaffer, Nicole von Arx, and The MoveMessenger(s). Claire is super thankful to be working with RAWdance this fall for Portal at Salesforce Park!
JHIA JACKSON
Jhia is an artist, scholar, and organizer who regularly engages in interdisciplinary projects. At the core of her practice is the belief that art and life are not distinct. She has performed with Movement of the People Dance Company, dNaga Dance for the World Parkinson Congress, Alexandra Pirici, and Epiphany Dance Theater among others. She is the founder of Emerging Black Bay Artists, a Joe Goode Co-Production artist, and a doctoral candidate in sociology at UCSF.
CARLY JOHNSON
A California native, Carly received early training at the age of two. She continued her studies at SOTA, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and completed her BFA from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. Carly has had the pleasure of working and performing with various artists including Ja’Malik of Ballet Boy Productions, Carmen Rozestraten, Nelly Van Bommel of NØA Dance, Sidra Bell, Andrea Miller of Gallim Dance, Robert Moses’ KIN, Dexandro “D” Montalvo, Tanya Bello’s Project.B, RAWdance and had the opportunity to perform as Baryshnikov’s silhouette in his show Letter to a Man at Zellerbach Theater.
ARVEJON JONES
ArVejon Jones is a Bay Area freelance dance artist and educator. Originally from Los Angeles, CA he has performed with Copious Dance Theater, Robert Moses Kin, PUSH Dance, SOULSKIN Dance, ODC Dance/ SF, Concept o4, Sean Dorsey Dance, Prometheus Dance Theater, and Jean Appolon Expressions, among others. He has taught for multiple institutions including San Francisco State University, BodyVox, Boston Ballet, LINES/ SF Dance Center, and various private dance studios. He is delighted to be collaborating with RAWdance at Salesforce Park.
VICTOR TALLEDOS
Victor began his training at Conservatorio de Danza in Mexico City, graduated from Escuela Superior de Musica y Danza de Monterrey, Mexico, and studied at the Ailey School. He has danced for various companies in Mexico and NYC. In the Bay Area, he has worked for Robert Moses’ KIN, Copious Dance Theater, Labayen Dance SF, Alayo Dance Company, and The Anata Project. Victor has shown his own work in San Francisco and NYC and he has been a guest choreographer for Labayen Dance SF, Emote Dance Theater, and Copious Dance Theater. He has taught Horton, Modern, and Ballet at San Francisco Dance Center, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Lone Star Ballet in Amarillo Texas, and Westlake School for the Performing Arts, and workshops in Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico.
NICK WAGNER
Nick grew up in the Seattle area and is a graduate of Chapman University with a BFA in Dance Performance and minor in Kinesiology. Since moving to the Bay Area, he has had the pleasure of working in the dance community as a performer, administrator, and somatic healer. Nick is a Certified Massage Therapist in California (CMT).
ADAM WEINERT
Adam is a choreographer, researcher and gardener based in Hudson NY. He produced and choreographed two award-winning dance films screened nationally and abroad, and his performance works have toured to four continents including a number of non-traditional dance venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, The Tate Britain Museum, and The Tate Modern Museum. Adam is a 2020 Bessie Honoree and his ongoing research includes teasing out the sensual connectivity between performance, agriculture, nourishment and community. adamweinert.com
JULIANN WITT
Juliann was born in Marin and began dancing at the age of three. As a young dancer she trained at the California Academy of Performing Arts and attended summer programs with American Ballet Theatre and Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Juliann received her BFA in Dance Performance from SUNY Purchase and performed briefly in NYC post graduation. Since returning to the Bay Area she has had the pleasure of dancing with many great artists and companies including DTSF, Nol Simonse, Bellwether Dance Project, Dexandro “D” Montalvo, Fullstop Dance, Robert Moses’ Kin, Liv Schaffer, Concept o4, and the San Francisco Symphony. She has been a member of RAWdance since 2018, and is incredibly grateful to have participated in numerous performances with these extraordinary artists!
ERIN YEN
Erin Yen holds a BFA with Distinction in Dance from The Ohio State University, where she became fluent in the Laban Systems of Movement Analysis. She was the first to use Labanotation to document Doug Varone’s work, and she can be found polishing this notated portion of Possession (’94.) Erin has danced with companies such as Alvin Ailey and BalletMet, and she has performed works by artists Ohad Naharin, Bebe Miller, and Johannes Weiland. Since moving to the Bay Area, Erin has performed at venues such as Glen Park, CounterPulse, and the Green Room. She is a current resident of San Mateo.
STACEY YUEN
A Bay Area native, Stacey received her BFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She went on to work with Seán Curran and the Santa Fe Opera, and to travel to Greece to perform in works by Johannes Wieland and Stella Zannou at the one small step dance festival. She spent three seasons as a dancer and rehearsal director with the Sticky Trace Company in Germany. Since returning to the Bay, Stacey has worked with Robert Moses, Katie Faulkner, Jennifer Perfilio, Lenora Lee Dance, Alyssandra Katherine Dance Project, and RAWdance.
KATHERINE DISENHOF
Katherine Disenhof was born and raised in Mill Valley, California, where she studied classical ballet at Marin Ballet. She graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Human Biology and received the Louis Sudler Prize in the Performing and Creative Arts. Katherine was a Company Dancer with San Francisco’s Robert Moses’ Kin from 2013-2017 and with Portland’s NW Dance Project from 2017-2020, touring domestically and internationally with both companies. She has also had the pleasure of dancing with a number of Bay Area groups including Kinetech Arts, Katharine Hawthorne, Project B, and RAWdance. KatherineDisenhof.com
Designers
DANIEL BERKMAN Composer
Daniel is a Bay Area multi-instrumentalist, composer, electronic musician, producer and innovator of electro-acoustic music. He has several acclaimed albums to his credit including film soundtracks, ballets, works for kora, cello, viola da gamba, guitar, keyboard instruments, ukelin, LyraVR and electronic music under his moniker Colfax. Daniel has been a composer and musical accompanist for the San Francisco dance community since 1998, working with Janice Garrett and Dancers, Lizz Roman and Dancers, Berkeley Ballet Theatre, Post:Ballet, ODC, San Francisco Ballet, and many others. danielberkman.com
BEN ESTABROOK Director of Photography
Ben Estabrook specializes in translating dance to the screen. He was the Director of Photography for dance films that have screened at festivals across the globe and has worked as the Digital Content Producer for San Francisco Ballet, a Lecturer at UC Berkeley, and has given guest lectures and workshops on screendance for several universities. Ben helped to found the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, for which he serves as the Technical Director. His interest in screendance led him to the University of Utah, where he graduated with an MFA in Film & Media Arts and a Graduate Certificate in Screendance. benestabrook.com
DEL MEDOFF Lighting Designer
Del is an Oakland-based lighting designer/technician who has designed for dozens of Bay Area companies including Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Christy Funsch, Peiling Kao, Sharp and Fine, 13th Floor Dance Theater, Bellweather Dance, and many more. He has always felt strongly connected to dance and is grateful to the community for giving him a home. “You can’t have a light without a dark to stick it in.” – Arlo Guthrie
CHAD OWENS Scenic Designer
Chad has created original staged designs for more than 100 productions, for companies including Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Cal Performances, Aurora Theatre, and West Edge Opera. Set Design and Art Direction for film include Blue Jasmine, Milk (Oscar and Art Director’s Guild noms for best production design), Chasing Mavericks, Haywire, The Pursuit of Happyness (sic), The Wild, Haiku Tunnel, Woman on Top, and Bunraku. Owens has also worked extensively as an Art Director for TV, and an Associate Designer on Broadway. He is based in Oakland.
SURABHI SARAF Composer
Surabhi is a media artist, composer, and performer based in Brooklyn, NY. She is the recipient of the Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship Award and the Djerassi Resident Artist award. She is a current resident at Harvestworks NY, and was a 2019 technology resident at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. Saraf has performed at Soundwave Biennial ((8)); Thessaloniki Contemporary Art Biennial, Greece; Currents International New Media Festival, Santa Fe; San Francisco Electronic Music Festival; and Max Mueller Bhavan Goethe Institut, Mumbai and New Delhi, among others. She has had solo exhibitions at Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai, and Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco. Her work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Blouin Art Info, Art Practical, and KQED Arts. surabhisaraf.net
JOEL ST. JULIEN Composer
Joel is a San Francisco-based composer, musician, songwriter and sound artist who has written music for documentaries, short / feature films, podcasts, and dance. He is a firm believer in experimentation/fusion with acoustic and electronic elements in sound oscillating through escapism and the mysticism of the present tense. www.joelstjulien.com
Photos by Hillary Goidell