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:
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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:
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Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Shuaib Elhassan | © RJ Muna
A next generation BIPOC artist and millennial, Mx. 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, stand-up comedian, 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. Mx. 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 Time’s. Mx. 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 FLAMENCO”.
*She has flamenco masterclasses on specific Sundays at LINES Dance Center!
More information at caroleflamenco.com
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
Photography: Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş | © Sarah Lutzky
Josh Francique was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He began his dance training with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater back in 2015. Joshua continued his training at the Northern Illinois University BFA dance program and, soon after, at The Ailey School on a full scholarship. Francique has performed works by Nicole Clark-Springer, Gary Abbott, and Kevin Iega Jeff, to name a few. In 2020, Francique attended LINES Ballet Training program for a year. Joshua joined LINES Ballet in 2022.
Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Josh Francique | © RJ Muna
Mikal Gilbert raised in Virginia Beach, VA, Mikal Gilbert developed a love for dance at the age of 19 while studying music performance at the University of the Arts. It was there that his passion grew upon encouragement from several dance faculty members. He then went on to formally train at Norfolk Academy under the tutelage of Elbert Watson, where he studied ballet and modern. In 2017, Gilbert was an inaugural member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet’s Pre-Professional Program. In 2018, he continued his studies at The Ailey School as a full scholarship recipient.
Mikal has attended intensives and workshops at Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Complexions, and BalletX. Mikal is a “Dancer of Philadelphia” and has been a member of Koresh Dance Company (2019–2022), Dance Iquail (2022), and PHILADANCO! (2022–2024), where he performed works by Bernard Gaddis, Milton Myers, Christopher Rudd, and Tommie Wheed. Mikal joined LINES Ballet in 2024.
Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Mikal Gilbert | © RJ Muna
Ilaria Guerra was born in Torino, Italy. At the age of five, she moved to Palos Verdes Estates, California where she trained in classical ballet at Lauridsen Ballet Center, performing with their pre-professional company, South Bay Ballet. Ilaria graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program at Dominican University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a minor in Arts Management in 2013. She joined dawsondancesf under the direction of Gregory Dawson in 2013. In 2016, Ilaria received an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Ensemble Performance. Ilaria joined LINES Ballet in 2018 and has had the chance to tour all over the US, Canada, and Europe with the company. In 2022, Ilaria earned her Master’s degree in Arts Administration from Drexel University.
Learn more about Ilaria on our blog, LINESConnected:
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Photography: Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dancer: Ilaria Guerra | © RJ Muna
Dominique Hargrove is a powerhouse, a divine vibrant being. She is a storyteller, revisiting and reimagining all aspects of herself and allowing her experiences to shape her reality. Diving into realms of love and collaboration, she is exploring empathetic and compassionate ways of listening and learning from her ancestors, family, and friends on how to cultivate and sustain a thriving community. As a teacher, she invites her students in the process of self-reflection. Co-creating a space where her students feel called to swim in the pools of their inner truth and create/perform movement from the space of authenticity.
Dominique Hargrove has had the pleasure of training with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Hubbard Street, Homer hans Bryant, LINES Ballet’s BFA Program at Dominican University of California, Guy Shoromi, and Sidra Bell. She has had the opportunity to choreography and perform internationally in Portugal and Vancouever and domestically throughout the Bay Area. Hargrove is currently an arts education teaching artist in the San Francisco and Oakland area. She is excited to be back in the sacred space of the studio diving into the ritual form that is movement medicine.