We invite you to move and be moved. In the spirit of the final Friday at Jazz Camp, we will host a fun-filled DJ Dance party (YES! We're gonna get out of chairs and dance!) by none other than DJ Page Hodel.
BUT FIRST! You'll be dazzled by an incredible line-up of amazing dance performances by many of our camp's most outstanding performers!
Samara Atkins
Samara Atkins has been dancing and teaching hip-hop since 2000 and finds pure joy in sharing her love and passion of dance with others. She has been technically trained in jazz, ballet, and hip hop. Not only has she been a choreographer since the age of 14 and directed a student-run dance company at Howard University, but has performed in various dance companies such as Mix'd Ingrdnts, New Style Motherlode, Diamond Dance Company, Neopolitan, Dance 10, St. Mary's Dance Ensemble, Dance-A-Vision. She currently teaches dance through Destiny Arts Center and is Co-Founder and Associate Co-Artistic Director of the mixed genre dance collective Mix'd Ingrdnts, where her influences of street dance have been developed. Traveling to Mexico, China, Thailand, Nepal, and Vietnam to showcase and share her love of dance with other cultures, her passion is to perform and teach youth and the community to freely express themselves with confidence. She has choreographed and danced for local artists Jonn Hart, Michelle Martinez, Dahrio Wonder, Moesoul, and Judit, and also has back-up danced for Nile Rodgers and the band Chic. Samara has also danced for LUAM, whose choreographer credits include Busta Rhymes, Nelly Furtado, and Rihanna....
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We invite you to move and be moved. In the spirit of the final Friday at Jazz Camp, we will host a fun-filled DJ Dance party (YES! We're gonna get out of chairs and dance!) by none other than DJ Page Hodel.
BUT FIRST! You'll be dazzled by an incredible line-up of amazing dance performances by many of our camp's most outstanding performers!
Samara Atkins
Samara Atkins has been dancing and teaching hip-hop since 2000 and finds pure joy in sharing her love and passion of dance with others. She has been technically trained in jazz, ballet, and hip hop. Not only has she been a choreographer since the age of 14 and directed a student-run dance company at Howard University, but has performed in various dance companies such as Mix'd Ingrdnts, New Style Motherlode, Diamond Dance Company, Neopolitan, Dance 10, St. Mary's Dance Ensemble, Dance-A-Vision. She currently teaches dance through Destiny Arts Center and is Co-Founder and Associate Co-Artistic Director of the mixed genre dance collective Mix'd Ingrdnts, where her influences of street dance have been developed. Traveling to Mexico, China, Thailand, Nepal, and Vietnam to showcase and share her love of dance with other cultures, her passion is to perform and teach youth and the community to freely express themselves with confidence. She has choreographed and danced for local artists Jonn Hart, Michelle Martinez, Dahrio Wonder, Moesoul, and Judit, and also has back-up danced for Nile Rodgers and the band Chic. Samara has also danced for LUAM, whose choreographer credits include Busta Rhymes, Nelly Furtado, and Rihanna.
Molly Levy
Molly Levy received her training from Berkeley City Ballet and Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. Molly continued her education in New York City at Alvin Ailey/Fordham University, pursuing dance and a graduate track in childhood education. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in Dance May 2016. While in school Molly performed in works by Alvin Ailey, Robert Moses, Pascal Rioult, Gregory Dawson, Banning Bouldin, and Yoshito Sakuraba. Molly has also performed with Joanna Mendl-Shaw and the New York based Equus Projects and assisted in setting Jae Man Joo’s work “Into The Light” on Peridance Contemporary Dance Company.
Since returning to the west coast, Molly has worked with contemporary dance artists and companies around the Pacific Northwest including LED (Boise, ID) - a company combining live original music, movement, film, and visual design, Kate Wallich’s YC2 (Seattle, WA), Katie Scherman + Artists (Portland, OR), House of Verlaine (Seattle, WA), Daniel Costa Dance (Seattle, WA), and Seattle Opera in their production of Verdi’s Aida, with choreography by Jessica Lang. Her work has also brought her beyond dance and into live theater - working with Dacha Theater as a performer and movement director, burlesque - performing with Verlaine & McCann Present, and her own work combining movement and visual art.
Julianna Cressman
Julianna Cressman is a San Francisco native, hailing from a musical family. She completed San Francisco’s Ruth Asawa School of the Arts Dance program and graduated from UC Irvine’s Dance Department under the mentorship of Dr. S. Ama Wray, performing with Dr. Wray’s ensemble, JazzXChange, and Irishia Hubbard’s The Hubbard Collective. Cressman hosted Samora Pinderhughes’ The Transformations Suite three times at UCI via her own production organization, AwakenArts. Following graduation, she returned to the Bay Area, joining Alayo Dance Company in 2018, and Sarah Bush Dance Project in 2019. Cressman teaches jazz and contemporary at City Dance and City Ballet School, and assists Ramon Ramos Alayo’s advanced Salsa Rueda classes. Cressman is an originating cast member of Paul Flores’ 2019 premiere of We Have Ire at YBCA, and a member of its subsequent 2019/2020 national tour.
Lynn Brilhante - Host
Lynn Brilhante is described as having dynamic, fluid and gutsy dancing and choreography. She brings a fresh and innovative approach to the world of Jazz and shows a unique ability to merge and update various elements, in the process creating her own trademark style. These talents have recently earned her a nomination for the Theatre L.A. Ovation Award for Choreography. Ms. Brilhante has also received the Dance Masters of America Choreographer's Award and the Robbi Award for Choreography. Her success in transferring her love of dance through teaching is evidenced by a flock of loyal students, both in her studio classes in the San Francisco Bay Area and at numerous workshops, master classes and camps throughout the world. Ms. Brilhante boasts a long and impressive resume of choreographic and performance achievements, spanning the diverse media of stage, film, television and video. Her contributions will continue to enrich the dance world.
Pamela Carrara
Since 1976, Pamela Carrara has worked nationally and internationally to co-create healthier changes in their lifestyle and well being. She began her teaching career in 1976 as a dance instructor at the Powell Reilly Dance Studio in San Francisco, CA. As as a professional performing artist, she has choreographed, improvised and worked independently, and with local San Francisco Bay Area dance companies and jazz musicians. Her love of movement resulted in a wide vocabulary of movement training that includes jazz, ballet, modern, tap, gymnastics, improvisational techniques, various ethnic styles, and partner dancing, as well as, healing intrinsic movement and energy work.
Karli Jo List
Born in Los Angeles, Karli Jo’s passion for the arts began at a very young age. Growing up in theatre and visual arts, Karli Jo began dancing at age 14, and has trained in a wide variety of styles including jazz, modern, ballet, tap, hip-hop, West African, and Bollywood. She graduated with her BFA in Dance and minor in Anthropology from Chapman University and plans to pursue a massage license.
In college, Karli Jo performed in works by Ido Tadmor, Dwight Rhoden, Jenny Backhaus, Julian O’Brien, and her peers. She performed at the Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fischer Memorial Service in Anthony Tomas’ piece “Alright” (2017) and “Ibuki” from the Diavolo Veterans Project (2019). Choreography credits include Works in Progress (2018) and Concert Intime at Chapman University (2019), as well as incorporating her work as an anthropologist into dance films.
Karli Jo plans to continue creating in a way that combines all of her artistic modalities and collaborate with artists across all mediums. She hopes to heal dancers and people alike through massage therapy as well as work with children and adults through creative movement.
Charles Simon
Charles Simon has been professionally dancing since the age of 13 for the Golden State Warriors, H&M, Oakland Raiders, and the San Francisco 49ers. He is also a multi-instrumentalist, playing five different instruments including guitar, bass, drums, piano, and voice. Rap also began at an early age while in school using rhymes to express himself. He began to freestyle and perform professionally in high school at age sixteen. While studying music at Santa Fe University of Art and Design Charles joined a rap group named Spacemob Space Cadets. This helped to gain focus on what he wanted to say as an artist and taught him how to work in a musical group as a vocalist. A large part of his rap experience has come from freestyling. Charles has performed with musicians like Zeal Levin as a special guest in the Art and Soul Festival in 2016, Joshua Baronkay, and Reese M Bull.
Aaron Draper
Aaron Draper is a Dancer/Choreographer/Teacher/Trainer, Co-Director of Banana Peel Dance
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