Caroline Rocher Barnes trained at the Conservatoire de Montpellier in France with Madame Claparède and later graduated from the Rudra Béjart Art School in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 1998, she moved to America to study at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York. In 1999, Mrs. Rocher Barnes joined The Dance Theatre of Harlem under the mentorship of Arthur Mitchell, was promoted to the rank of soloist in 2000 and then Principal Dancer the following year. Her professional career extends internationally as she danced with the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, Germany, the Lyon Opera Ballet in France, and Alonzo King LINES Ballet in San Francisco.

In 2001 Mrs. Rocher Barnes was named “25 to watch” in Dance Magazine. She also collaborated with international ballet star Vladimir Malakhov at the Career Transition For Dancers Gala in New York and was invited to perform at “Le Gala des Etoiles du 21ème siècle” in Paris in 2004.

Mrs. Rocher Barnes has performed works by acclaimed choreographers such as Marius Petipa, John Cranko, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Hans Van Manen, John Neumeier, Maurice Béjart, Maguy Marin, Jacopo Godani, Robert Dekkers, Dwight Rhoden, William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Arthur Mitchell, Michael Smuin, Glen Tetley and Alonzo King.

Alongside her dance career, Mrs. Rocher Barnes has been a great advocate for passing on her craft to the next generation of dancers. For the past 15 years, she has been teaching worldwide and in 2015, she traveled to Cape Town as part of The LEAP-SOUTH AFRICA Project. There, she taught young dancers at the CAPA Art School, and in the public schools located in the townships of Khayelitsha, and Guguletu. She currently teaches at The School of The Washington Ballet and at The Citydance Conservatory. She is also Adjunct faculty at George Mason University and at Prince George’s Community College, and she’s part of the LINES Ballet Summer Program faculty.

Mrs. Rocher Barnes graduated Summa Cum Laude from Saint Mary’s College of California and holds a BA in Performing Arts.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Discovery Project, Summer Program

Photography | © RJ Muna

Sandra Chinn is a ballet teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sandra has faculty and company positions with Alonzo King LINES Ballet, ODC/Dance, Shawl Anderson Dance Center, and Berkeley Ballet Theater, where she has been artistic advisor since 2018. She has been a visiting guest artist for Hollins University MFA Dance program, and is adjunct teacher at New York University Tisch Department of Dance Summer Festival since 2016. She has guest taught for Company Wayne McGregor, Jessica Lang Dance, the dancers of Paul Taylor Dance Company, Abraham.In.Motion, Lucinda Childs Dance, Smuin Ballet, Aszure Barton and Artists, Amy Seiwart’s Imagery, Post:Ballet, SF DanceWorks, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and BODYTRAFFIC. She is beloved for her somatically informed pedagogy that draws on Body-Mind Centering, Pilates, Feldenkrais, Franklin Method, Alexander Technique, Iyengar Yoga, GYROTONIC®, and GYROKINESIS®. She received an Isadora Duncan Special Achievement Award for “her commitment to and excellence in the training, teaching, inspiring, and motivating dancers throughout the dance community” for the 2018-19 season.

During her performing career in New York City, she was a company member of Dennis Wayne’s Dancers, Finis Jhung’s Chamber Ballet USA and Bob Bowyer’s American Ballet Comedy. She was featured in the off-Broadway dance show “Funny Feet,” for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination as “Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical.” She is a graduate of the National Academy of Arts (Champaign, Ill.), and she continued her studies at the Joffrey Ballet School (NY), and intensively with Maggie Black. She is grateful for a performing and teaching career in the concert dance field and she looks forward to continuing her work and studies for many years to come.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dance Center, Summer Program, Training Program

Photography | © Nick Korkos

Anne-René is a modern dancer, choreographer, Alexander Technique teacher, yoga instructor and the founder and artist-director of the dance company Sculpted Motion. Anne-René received her undergraduate degree in dance from Point Park University, her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her Alexander certification from The American Center for the Alexander Technique in New York City. She re-located to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2009 after 20 years in New York City. She is currently on faculty for all of LINES Ballet’s education programs, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Square One Yoga and she maintains a private Alexander practice. She continues to travels as a guest artist to universities across the country.

In New York she had the pleasure of assisting Jane Kosminsky at The Juilliard School for ten years in the dance division and at national conventions and in the making of her DVD; For Dancers; The Alexander Technique. Anne-René was on the faculty at DNA (Dance Space Center), Dancewave, Mark Morris Dance Center and she has been a guest teacher at Sarah Lawrence College, Long Island University/Brooklyn, Barnard College, The Next Stage Project, Joffrey Jazz Summer Intensive, Mills College, San Francisco State University, Penn State, Bucknell University, Hope College and the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival.

Her work has been performed at the Cowell Theater, McKenna Theater, Z-Space, ODC Commons, Mint Plaza, ChoreoProject, Dance New Amsterdam, Kumbel Theater, City Center Studios, Makor Theater, Evolving Arts Theater, Mainstage Theater, Discovery World and Knickerbocker Theater.

Anne-René’s approach to teaching contemporary/modern dance and her creative process integrates the concepts of the Alexander Technique. The dancer is encouraged to identify and change inefficient habitual patterns in order to access resiliency, expansion, risk taking and the freedom to explore the range of motion and expression in the body. The dancer will gain clarity, efficiency, softness, strength and truth in movement, breath and performance quality. Sculpted Motion creates choreographic works that stimulate the viewer viscerally, emotionally and kinesthetically by using movement containing strong circular shapes, organic undertones and rich details with an athletic and sensuous aesthetic.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet | BFA at Dominican, Discovery Program, LINES Day, Summer Program, Training Program

David Harvey is a Seattle-based dance artist and educator. He studied at Interlochen Arts Academy, The Kirov Academy of Ballet and the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program. He then danced for Alonzo King LINES Ballet from 2007-2014, and continues his relationship with LINES Ballet’s education programs as a returning faculty member and choreographer. Harvey has also worked as a dancer and collaborator with Bobbi Jene Smith, Tom Weinberger, Sarah Foster Sproull and David Raymond + Tiffany Tregarthen. He has been a member of Kate Wallich’s The YC since 2015.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet |  BFA at Dominican, Discovery Project, LINES Day, Summer Program, Training Program

Photography | © Jobel Medina