Carmen Rozestraten is a founding member of Alonzo King LINES Ballet and danced with the company from 1978-1996. She is a senior faculty member for LINES Ballet’s education programs and teaches the company regularly. A native of Amsterdam, she has toured the world as a performer and educator, teaching at major ballet companies such as Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Opera de Lyon and Spain’s Compañía Nacional de Danza.

She has choreographed for Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Institut del Teatre, Barcelona, the LINES Ballet Summer Program, the LINES Ballet Training Program, and LINES Ballet BFA at Dominican University of California.

Carmen has also made three award-winning dance films.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet | BFA at Dominican, Dance Center, Summer Program, Training Program

Keelan Whitmore from Rockford, Illinois, trained at the Rockford Dance Company, the Joffrey Ballet School/New School University, and graduated from Michigan’s Interlochen Arts Academy and St. Mary’s College L.E.A.P. Program where he received his B.A. in Dance. As a member of Kansas City Ballet from 2001-2006, Whitmore performed works by choreographers including George Balanchine, Nacho Duato, Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp. In 2006, Whitmore became a member of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet. His choreography has been showcased in workshop and gala performances presented by Kansas City Ballet, Virginia School of the Arts, the LINES Ballet Training Program, LINES Ballet BFA at Dominican, and Regional Dance America, which presented Whitmore with its National Choreography Recognition Award in 2005. That same year, he co-founded Kansas City–based multi-disciplinary ensemble Quixotic Fusion. Whitmore danced with Alonzo King LINES Ballet from 2006-2013. He is currently a soloist with TanzTheater Muenster in Germany.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Summer Program

Photography | © RJ Muna

Victor Talledos is an international independent artist based in SF. He began his dance training at Conservatorio de Danza in Mexico City and graduated from Escuela Superior de Musica y Danza de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico. In 2008, he moved to NYC to attend the Ailey School for two years. Victor has performed for Proyectos en Movimiento dance company and Ballet Moderno de Mexico-Las Bestias in Mexico. In 2010, Victor moved to San Francisco and became part of the Bay Area Dance community, he has worked for Robert Moses’ Kin Dance Company, Copious Dance Theater, Labayen Dance San Francisco, Alayo Dance Company, The Anata Project, RAWDance SF, among others. As a choreographer, Victor has shown his work in venues including Ailey Citigroup Theater, Dance New Amsterdam for the “Latin Choreographers Festival” in NYC, Dance Mission Theater for the “Latin American Contemporary Choreographers Festival” in SF, Safe House Arts, Cowell Theater. He has been a guest choreographer for Labayen Dance, Copious Dance Theater and Emote Dance Theater.

Victor is currently faculty member for all education programs at Alonzo King LINES Ballet, from Teens at LINES to the BFA Program at Dominican University of California. He is part of the Modern Dance faculty at Berkeley Ballet Theater and teaches open classes (ballet, modern and contemporary) at Alonzo King LINES Dance Center. Victor has also taught in places including ODC Dance Commons, Shawl Anderson Dance Center, and Westlake School for the Performing Arts and has been a guest artist at Stanford University, guest teacher and choreographer at Mills College, guest choreographer at The Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts (SOTA). He has taught workshops in Amarillo, Texas, Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico. Aside from his professional dance career, Victor is also a visual artist, part-time model and photographer.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet | BFA at Dominican, Dance Center, School Programs, Summer Program, Teens at LINES, Training Program

Photography | © Victor Talledos

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

Brett Conway is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and artistic director of SFDanceworks. As a former company dancer of Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater, Brett has worked with many influential choreographers, including Alonzo King, Jiri Kylian, Paul Lightfoot, Sol Leon, Mats Ek, Crystal Pite, Marco Goecke, and Ohad Naharin. Since 2017, Brett has been on faculty with the LINES Dance Center and LINES Ballet’s education programs.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet |  BFA at Dominican, Dance Center, Summer Program, TEENS at LINES, Training Program

Photography | © Nick Aitken

Lorris Eichinger started training in Grenoble at the National Conservatory and continued at the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Danse de Marseille. After training at The School of American Ballet in New York from 2010 to 2013, Eichinger joined the Professional Division program of the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. He then moved back to France to dance with the Jeune Ballet de Lyon. Eichinger danced with De Dutch Don’t Dance in the Netherlands in 2015, and then moved to Israel to join Kamea Dance Company in 2016. He joined LINES Ballet in 2019.

Learn more about Lorris on our blog, LINESConnected:
READ INTERVIEW

Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Lorris Eichinger | © RJ Muna

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

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