ADVISORY BOARD AND TEAM
Thank you to the generous individuals of the Advisory Board who have offered their support and guidance to SFDanceworks:
Joanna Berman
Davidson Bidwell & Edwin Waite
Sally Glaser & David Bower
James Sofranko & Cynthia Sheppard Sofranko
Timothy Streb & Myra Gamble
BRETT CONWAY
GENEVIEVE WEEKS
TEAM
KAT GOROSPE COLE
Kat Gorospe Cole (she/they/siya) creates works invoking subtlety and spectacle through film, performance and drag. They have the pleasure of co-directing Detour, a devised performance company that centers Queer maximalism, and that has been creating works in San Francisco for almost 15 years. They are a recipient of an artist fellowship from the California Arts Council and recently premiered QUAKE, an experimental performance about their dis/connection from their mother’s Ilokano ancestry.
Her short films have screened in over 25 festivals including NewFest, CAAMFest and Hot Docs and she was awarded "Best Bay Area Director" from the Coven Film Festival. She has worked as an Associate Producer for Oscar and Emmy-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, and is an Associate Producer for Boots Riley’s I’M A VIRGO premiering this summer. They have worked with SAMMAY as Director of Photography and Editor for their music video Blood and short film Hinga. He can be seen donning a mustache onstage as the drag king Sir Acha and is often found in shows at the OASIS, Rebel Kings, and Clutch the Pearls. He'll be performing next for KQED Live on June 8th.
Photo credit: Tessa Shimizu
LAUREN STRONGIN
Lauren Strongin (she/her) was born in Los Gatos, California, and grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona. At 11, she was offered a full scholarship to attend The Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC. In 1999, she was awarded a full scholarship to the John Cranko-Schule in Stuttgart, Germany. She was a finalist at the Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition in Switzerland and IBC at Jackson, Mississippi.
Lauren joined Sarasota Ballet and quickly was promoted to Principal dancer. She then danced for Houston Ballet and finally, as a soloist for San Francisco Ballet. Her classical repertoire includes principal roles in Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Les Sylphides, Paquita, Giselle, Balanchine’s Coppélia, The Nutcracker, Le Corsair, and Cranko’s Onegin among others. She danced principal roles by Ashton, MacMillan, Balanchine, Robbins, Van Manen, Bourne, Tudor, Cranko, Kylián, Morris, Tharp, Possokhov, Wheeldon, Tomasson, Ratmansky, and Forsythe. She created roles in ballets by Scarlett, Morris, Elo, Barton, Peck, and others.
Lauren retired from a professional ballet career in 2019. She is a certified instructor for the Dance for Parkinson’s program, has interned with the SF Ballet in their wellness department, focusing on mental healthcare accessibility for dancers, and has designed costumes for SFDanceworks and other companies. Lauren has managed social media and marketing for several small companies. Currently, she is a stager and trustee for the Liam Scarlett Trust and is completing her degree in medical anthropology at Stanford University.
She is most proud to be a new mother to her daughter Cy with her husband Joseph Walsh. They live in San Francisco with their bulldog, Orson.
Photo credit: Ryan Strongin
ANDREA (ANDI) YANNONE
Andrea (Andi) Yannone has spent 30+ years in the arts and cultural arts sector, as an executive leader, designer of arts and education programs, collaborator, arts-partner, and musician. Andi worked at San Francisco Ballet from 1995-2001 and from 2011-2021 and was promoted to the position of Director of Education & Training at SF Ballet in 2015, establishing the new department and all functions, including oversight of SF Ballet School administration, its student residences, and all education, community, and engagement programs for youth, families, adults, and school children, as well as strategic planning and board relations as a member of the senior executive management team. She was instrumental in establishing diversity, equity, and inclusion planning both within her department and organization-wide, raising DEI to a strategic priority. From 2001-2011, she held three positions at the San Francisco Symphony in the Education and Electronic Media departments, culminating with designing and launching the acclaimed Community of Music Makers program. Her career in arts administration in San Francisco began in 1994 when she was the program director for The Hills Project, an afterschool arts program for underserved youth in the SF Western Addition neighborhood, which was one of the first public-private collaborations in San Francisco, involving the SF Unified School District, the SF Department of Children, Youth and Families, and the SF Ballet, SF Symphony, SF Opera, and SF Museums of Fine Arts. She currently resides in Albuquerque, NM, and works as an arts management consultant focusing on administrative infrastructure, strategic planning, and program design/development. (Arts Allied Consulting, LLC) linkedin.com/in/andrea-yannone-87555613
Photo credit: Murray Bognovitz