Christian Burns has been choreographing, teaching and performing in the Bay Area for 21 years. His pursuit for finding meaning and purpose through dance has yielded a dynamic range of interdisciplinary dance works for stage, video and visual art.
From teaching statement: “By approaching a work from two opposite ends of the spectrum—ballet and improvisation—I allow the mirroring to reveal truths about each that might not be at first apparent. The tension of contrast between the traditional and contemporary approaches has deepened my understanding and appreciation of each of its core principles, and led to a personal philosophy that highly developed training in both will yield more authentic results of pure expression that we strive for in Dance. For me, embracing this duality has been informative not only in dance but a helpful way to approach learning in all areas of life, and something I would like to imbue through my various teachings.”
In the San Francisco Bay Area his work has been presented by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, ODC Theater, Counter Pulse, The Garage, Headlands Center for the Arts, Z Space Theater, Dancers Group Studio Theater, Shotwell Studio Theater, Howard Street Studio Theater. Beyond, his work has also been presented at The Walker Art Center, Canal Danse in Paris, Taipei Artist Village in Taiwan, Nightingale Theater in Brighton UK, WINLAB Independent Festival in London, Escapade Festival at MovingArtsBase in London, The Dada House in Zurich Switzerland, OT301 in Amsterdam NL, The Southern Theater in MN, as well as performances in numerous independent studio locations in Brussels, Oslo, Copenhagen, Scotland, Wales, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Southern France, New York and Western Massachusetts. His dance-video work has been shown at Pacific Film Archive Berkeley Art Museum, Impakt Festival (NL), Dutch National Television (NL), Moving Pictures Festival for Dance on Film and Video in Canada, Roberta Beck Cinema (NY), Santa Fe Art Institute and Stuttgart FilmWinter Festival in Germany.
His commissions include Hope Mohr Dance, The Cambrians, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, James Sewell Ballet, Stanford University, USF, Mt. Holyoke College, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, The Laban Center London, Interlochen Center for the Arts, LINES Ballet BFA at Dominican University and LINES Ballet Training Program. He created over 70 dance pieces for the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance during its fourteen year history between 2004-2018.
Christian has been awarded a 2010 Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange (CHIME) grant – given by the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, a 2008 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship for Choreography, the 2004 National Choo-San Goh Award for Choreography, the 2001 Paula Citron Award for Choreography for Camera (from the Moving Pictures Festival in Toronto), 1997 McKnight Artist Fellowship and was an artist-in-residence at the Experimental Television Center (NY). Christian is a contributing author for When Men Dance, Choreographing Masculinities Across Borders, Edited by Jennifer Fisher and Anthony Shay, Oxford University Press 2009 and has self published a book chronicling his choreographic process titled Motion and Process: knowing not knowing, ideas on dance 2006-08.
Christian has been a guest artist with The Forsythe Company and was a company member of Alonzo Kings LINES Ballet and James Sewell Ballet. He has been researching and practicing improvisational methods since 1994 and has performed internationally with Improvisers; Kirstie Simson, Katie Duck, Michael Schumacher, Ave Karczag, and Chris Aiken among many others. Christian completed three years of training at The School of American Ballet, working with renowned ballet teacher Stanley Williams.
In 2008 Christian co-founded the interdisciplinary art center Parsons Hall Project Space Holyoke, MA. In 1998 he co-founded The Foundry, an interdisciplinary dance company based in San Francisco. The Foundry received critical and popular acclaim as well as the support of numerous private Foundations, Contemporary Art Centers and Residency programs. In 2002/03 The Foundry were exhibited in Yerba Buena Center for the Arts biannual Bay Area Now3, named by Dance Magazine one of the ‘25 to Watch‘ and the San Francisco Chronicle said, “The Foundry is at the vanguard of American dance.“
Alonzo King LINES Ballet | BFA at Dominican, Summer Program, Training Program
Born and raised in New York, Dexandro Montalvo is a San Francisco based director, choreographer, dancer, and dance educator. A professional dancer with Robert Moses’ Kin (RMK) and various other companies for over six seasons, his choreographic commissions include works for RMK, Liss Fain Dance Company, LINES Ballet’s Training and Summer Programs, The Black Eyed Peas, DanceWorks Chicago, MINI (USA), Mini Amp Live, SF Ballet School, Concept o4, Dance Mission’s Dance Brigade, Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center, Cardinal Ballet, University of SF Dance Ensemble, Marin School of the Arts, & the ODC Dance Jam. Dexandro and his choreography have appeared on the MTV, BET, Telemundo, and Fox networks. He is a past Artistic Director of the Dance Theatre of San Francisco (in his tenure DTSF won two of the four Isadora Duncan award nominations including “Outstanding Choreography” for his ballet, “Pent”). Additionally, he was awarded a 2019 Saint Louis Inner Circle Award for “Such Sweet Thunder”, won an Izzie Award for his choreography in “Art Behind Bars” in 2014, and was nominated for another with “Impluse” in 2015 (RMK commission).
As a dance educator, Dexandro currently teaches at SF Ballet, USF, Dominican University of California (LINES Ballet BFA Program), LINES Ballet Training Program, and ODC Dance Commons. Dexandro also serves as Assistant Director and Rehearsal Master of ODC’s pre-professional teen company. He has also taught at many other schools including Stanford University, SUNY Purchase College, and Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center. Dexandro holds a BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase College.
Learn more at DexandroMontalvo.com
Alonzo King LINES Ballet | BFA Program at Dominican University of California, Summer Program, Training Program
A native of Hutchinson, Kansas, Kara Davis has danced for BalletMet, Atlanta Ballet, Ohio Ballet, the San Francisco Opera Ballet, and Ballet Jorgen in Toronto, Ontario. She is a founding member of KUNST-STOFF and Janice Garrett & Dancers, both of whom she danced for ten years. Since moving to San Francisco in 1996, she has danced for The Foundry, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Robert Moses, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Holly Johnston, Amy Raymond, Pearl Ubungen Dancers & Musicians, and Mary Carbonara. She won an “Izzie” in 2003 for “Outstanding Achievement in Individual Performance” and was San Francisco Chronicle dance critic Rachel Howard’s pick for 2005’s MVP.
Davis has taught at the San Francisco Ballet School, Berkeley Ballet, Atlanta Ballet School, ODC, UC Berkeley, Saint Mary’s College, Stanford University, Mills College, SF State, San Jose State University, Guangdong Modern Dance Academy in Guang Zhou, China and in Cairo, Egypt. She has been a faculty member for LINES Ballet’s education programs since 2005 and co-founded project agora (project-agora.com) with Bliss Kohlmyer in 2006. The company has since presented work at the Bates Dance Festival (Artists in Residence 2015), Edinburgh Fringe Festival, SF International Arts Festival, ODC Theater, Dance Mission, and SPF. As an independent choreographer her work has been selected as a finalist (2009) and runner-up (2012) for ACDA, and has been performed at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Cowell Theater, and the California Theater (sjDANCEco commission) and the Museum of Performance + Design. Davis has received numerous Isadora Duncan nominations for her choreography and one “Best Choreography” award for Terra Incognita, Revisited, a collaboration with Manuelito Biag, Katie Faulkner, and Alex Ketley.
Davis was an Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center For The Arts in 2009 and currently teaches at University of San Francisco. She earned her MFA from Hollins University in 2013.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet | BFA Program, Summer Program, Training Program
Arturo Fernandez is a native of Oakland, CA, Arturo began dance training at the School of Performing Arts of USIU in San Diego. After only 2 years of intensive study he joined San Diego Ballet in 1976. Other companies he’s performed with are California Ballet, Arizona Ballet, New Jersey Ballet, Ballets Trocadero de Monte Carlo and Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. After moving back to California he joined Oakland Ballet for a short time and ODC/San Francisco (11 years) and there served as the assistant to the choreographers from 1988 until Spring of 1991. Arturo has choreographed for the James Sewell Ballet, Inland Pacific Ballet, and Alonzo King LINES Ballet, among others, and has also demonstrated his work in self-produced concerts throughout the region. Since 1992 he has been the Ballet Master for Alonzo King LINES Ballet, as well as assisting Alonzo King in the creation of new work. Since 1998 he has coordinated and taught in Alonzo King’s Professional Workshop. In 2001 he directed the first ever summer Pre-Professional Program at LINES. For more than 2 decades he has been an integral part of the Alonzo King LINES Dance Center, the LINES Training Program and the LINES BFA program. He has set Alonzo King’s ballets on companies and universities throughout the US including NYU, Washington University in St. Louis and Western Michigan University. Most notably he set Alonzo King’s HANDEL on the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm.
Maurya Kerr is a choreographer, educator, performer, and the artistic director of tinypistol, where her choreographic work has been honored by numerous awards, grants, and commissions. She was an ODC artist-in-residence from 2015 to 2018, and completed her MFA through Hollins University in 2016, writing her thesis on people of color and their access to, or prohibition from, wonderment. Maurya was a member of Alonzo King LINES Ballet for twelve years and teaches extensively in their educational programs. She most recently performed in The Foundry’s ‘Deep South’ and BodyCartography Project’s ‘felt room’ at SFMOMA and the University of Minnesota’s Weisman Museum. In 2017 Maurya Kerr co-founded the tiny little get down, a quarterly dance party intended to defiantly and subversively fortify otherness through embodied joy and the power of the collective.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet | BFA Program, Discovery Project, LINES Day, Summer Program, Training Program
Photography | © Andrew Weeks
A former Alonzo King LINES Ballet dancer, Gregory created dawsondancesf in 2007 as an outlet for his choreographic vision. The Company debuted at the California State Summer School of the Arts. With movement that is physical and deliberate, the company uses the Classical idiom, in unpredictable ways. Dawson relishes utilizing the sculptural grace, and physicality of motion, thus allowing his dancers to fully utilize every ounce of their kinetic, and animal energy.
Shortly after forming the Company, Dawson created “which light in the sky is us” for Company C Contemporary Ballet, (nominated for an Isadora Duncan Award for choreography) became Assistant Director of the California State Summer School of the Arts In the fall of 2011, Dawson became Artistic Director of Dawson Wallace Dance Project in Denver, Colorado, where the Denver Post named him “the best choreographer in Denver.” Dawson received a CHIME grant, partnering him with choreographic mentor Elizabeth Streb for one year. In September 2013, dawsondancesf re-established the company in SF with the premiere of “fabricca matterasso d’argento” at Zaccho Dance Theatre. Following this, Mr. Dawson created “birds eye view” (a collaboration with the Richard Howell Quintet) for the 2014 Black Choreographers Festival, which received an Isadora Duncan Award in 2015. “MONOCHROME” at the BAN7 Festival 2014 in San Francisco.
In the Fall of 2014, Dawson premiered “in this moment” with Richard Howell and“intrinsic motion project”, and in 2015 completed it’s 5-week residency at CSSSA. In spring of 2015, dawsondancesf premiered “Intima” produced by Al’myra Communication, which collaborated with AliKaf – visuals, and Ashraf kateb – music. dawsondancesf made it’s debut in New York City in the Fall of 2014, with a return in September 2015, at Baruch College. In 2015 dawsondancesf premiered “Punctus Contra Punctum”, at Grey Area SF. In fall of 2016 dawsondancesf in collaboration with Sidra Bell NY presented an evening in SF at ODC Theater with the premiere of “lovechild”and in Summer 2016, “Altered Larynx”. In the Fall of 2016 dawsondancesf was invited to Pixar studios in Oakland to perform for the premiere of CoCo. In the Winter of 2017 the company was presented by YBCA for the premiere of “les verities”. In the Spring 2017, “RITE 17” was premiered at Grey Area SF, and in the Fall of 2018 “Floating in Mid-Air” premiered at the Bayview Opera House. In Winter 2019 dawsondancesf premiered “Champion and Lovers” at Dance Mission Theater in SF.
Dawson has made over 70 works since founding the company in 2007. “MANGAKU” is his fifth with Howell and the 18th work for dawsondancesf. The rest include commissions for other companies: Boston Conservatory, Menlowe Ballet, Robert Moses’ Kin, Tacoma Metropolitan Ballet, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company, and compositions for all of Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s education programs.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet | BFA at Dominican, Summer Program, Training Program
Photography | © Devi Pride Photography
Alonzo King has been called a visionary choreographer who is altering the way we look at ballet. King calls his works “thought structures” created by the manipulation of energies that exist in matter through laws, which govern the shapes and movement directions of everything that exists. Named as a choreographer with “astonishing originality” by The New York Times, Alonzo King has guided LINES Ballet with his unique artistic vision since 1982.
King has works in the repertoires of the world’s leading ballet and modern companies and has collaborated with distinguished visual artists, musicians, and composers across the globe. His work has been recognized for its impact on the cultural fabric of the company’s home in San Francisco, as well as internationally by the dance world’s most prestigious institutions.
Named a Master of Choreography by the Kennedy Center in 2005, King is the recipient of the NEA Choreographer’s Fellowship, the Jacob’s Pillow Creativity Award, the US Artist Award in Dance, the NY Bessie Award, the SF Arts Medallion Award, and the National Dance Project’s Residency and Touring Awards. In 2015, he received the Doris Duke Artist Award in recognition of his ongoing contributions to the advancement of contemporary dance. King was also named one of America’s “Irreplaceable Dance Treasures” by the Dance Heritage Coalition, joining historic icons in the field. In 2020, he was honored with a Dance Magazine Award, and his choreography appears in the 2023 short film Flower, produced by and starring Misty Copeland. King was also inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2022 and received the Minyon Harlin Award from UCSF in 2024 for his service to women and girls with HIV. Additionally, Alonzo King’s celebrated ballet Deep River is featured on NEXT at The Kennedy Center—a series on PBS that showcases artists who are at the forefront of their disciplines and serve as culture bearers of the 21st Century.
King has received honorary doctorates from The Juilliard School, Dominican University of California, and California Institute of the Arts in recognition of his significant contribution to the field of dance. Renowned for his skill as a teacher, King was also honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Corps de Ballet International Teacher Conference in 2012. An internationally acclaimed guest ballet master, his training philosophy undergirds the educational programming at the Alonzo King LINES Dance Center of San Francisco, which includes the pre-professional Training Program, Summer Program, and the BFA Program at Dominican University of California. Furthermore, King is a former San Francisco commissioner and a writer and lecturer on humanity and art.