People Archive

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

Rosie Dater-Merton is a dancer and teaching artist based in the Bay Area. She grew up in Vermont where she danced at her local dance studio. During the summers she attended many dance programs including The Ailey Summer Intensive, The Rock Summer Intensive, Orlando Ballet Summer Intensive, Walnut Hill Summer Intensive. She then moved to Michigan to attend Interlochen Arts Academy and studied classical ballet, pointe, pas de deux, under the artistic direction of Joseph Morrissey and Cameron Basden. Rosie then moved to California to attend the LINES/Dominican University program where she earned her BFA in Dance and a minor in Arts Management. During her time in the LINES BFA program she had the honor to study with many artists including Gregory Dawson, Maurya Kerr, Kara Davis, Robert Moses, and FLOCK Works Dance.

This past summer Rosie had the opportunity to attend the Hubbard Street Dance Create Intensive, as well as the NW Dance Project Summer Intensive. In addition to being a freelance artist, she currently works as an instructor/event coordinator at a rock climbing gym; she does event performances in collaboration with Barclay Broadway Dance Company; and is thrilled to be interning for the LINES community programs as well as being a teaching artist for the HeART with LINES program. In the future she hopes to become more involved in the Bay Area dance community, and eventually find a path in dance therapy/outreach where she can help bring dance to communities with limited arts access.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Youth and School Programs

Photography | © Robert Kunkle / Good Lux Photography

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

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

Theo Duff-Grant was born in Vancouver, Canada. He studied at Goh Ballet Academy for ten years before completing his training at the Dutch National Ballet Academy. In 2015, he joined the Dutch National Ballet. In 2017, he moved to Saint Petersburg, Russia to join the Mikhailovsky Theatre. Duff-Grant joined LINES Ballet in 2022.

Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Theo Duff-Grant | © RJ Muna

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

Shuaib Elhassan from Manhattan’s Lower East Side, began his formal dance training at The Ailey School under the co-direction of Tracy Inman and Melanie Person on a full scholarship. Elhassan has also trained at intensives such as Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Elhassan was a member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet during their 2012- 2013 season. Additionally, Elhassan has performed with Life Dance Company, Zest Collective, Dance Iquail, and the Von Howard Project. Elhassan joined LINES Ballet in 2014.

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

A next generation BIPOC artist and millennial, Ms. CarOlé Flamenco (CarOlé Tachíria Acuña Flamenco) turned professional at fourteen and has over fifteen years of experience. She is the fifth generation flamenco & Spanish dancer (ballet/contemporary/folk) in a Gitano family legacy, a versatile Meisner actor, singer, comedian, contemporary dancer, choreographer, director, author, scholar; all works have a relation within the realm of flamenco. Her work can be seen in film, television, streaming, in commercials, in theatres, as well as other mediums. Ms. Flamenco has been named the “Top flamenco dancer in America” by the So You Think You Can Dance judges, is a Mexico City Fashion Film Festival Best Actress nominee, is one of the featured professionals as “Living the Dream” & named a “Flamenco Star” by Sunset Magazine, is an Isadora Duncan Dance Award elite nominee in individual performance, named “One of the funniest stand-up comedians in the Bay Area” by the Contra Costa Times. Ms. Flamenco was one of the first originally chosen artists by Jennifer Lopez to be in “¡Que Viva! The Chosen”. She is the artistic director of “CarOlé Flamenco’s LEGACY PROJECT”.

*She has flamenco & contemporary dance masterclasses on Sundays at LINES Dance Center!

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.

Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş is a Turkish-American poet, dance artist, and educator engaging with the disciplines of choreography and visual art as tools for grasping poetic language. She is passionate about disability justice in a world where she’s seen firsthand how the most intelligent, kind, and vulnerable people are neglected and denied care.

She has served as a resident artist at Djerassi Resident Artist Program, iMPACt Center for the Arts, Stapleton School for the Performing Arts, Center at Eagle Hill (MA), Surel’s Place (ID), and Tofte Lake Center (MN). She has been commissioned by Sadler’s Wells (UK) for her dance writing and by World Stage Design (Canada), 92NY’s Future Dance Festival (New York), and FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival for her choreography. Flasher-Düzgüneş received a B.F.A. in Dance (magna cum laude) from NYU Tisch and an M.A. in Dance Philosophy (with distinction) from the University of Roehampton, London, as a US-UK Fulbright Finalist.

She currently dances with MovingGround and pateldanceworks, teaches with CalPoets, Gallery Route One, and Roco Dance, and serves as the coordinator of Marin County’s first Youth Poet Laureate Program.

To learn more, visit Flasher-Düzgünes’ website.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Community Programs

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