Artists
Season 6:
BROOKE CORRALES
Brooke Corrales is originally from Paso Robles, California. She danced at Artistry in Motion and trained at Nor Cal Dance Arts under the direction of Tawnya Kuzia. She is a graduate of Alonzo King LINES Pre-Professional Program under the direction of Karah Abiog. During her two years with LINES, she performed pieces by Alonzo King, Chuck Wilt, and Mike Tyus, among others. She had the amazing opportunity to perform with SFDanceworks Season 5 under the direction of Dana Genshaft debuting pieces by Edward Clug, Yin Yue, and Babatunji Johnson. She is currently attending Arts Umbrella Graduate Program under the direction of Artemis Gordon. While at Arts Umbrella she has worked and performed pieces by Ethan Coloamgelo, Crystal Pite, Lucas Timulak, James Kudelka, and Stephen Shropshire. She is looking forward to being a part of SFDanceworks Season 6.
ISAAC BATES-VINUEZA
Isaac Bates-Vinueza (he/him) is from Louisville, Colorado. He studied at Boulder Ballet School and at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, where he was a 2016 recipient of the Flemming Halby Exchange with the Royal Danish Ballet School. Upon his graduation, he joined Sacramento Ballet, where he performed leading roles in works by George Balanchine, Penny Saunders, and Amy Seiwert, among others. He has also performed with LED Boise and Amy Seiwert’s Imagery. Isaac recently made his choreographic debut with "Rumor," which premiered at Sacramento Ballet in 2022. That same year, he was awarded the Ann and Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow. He lives in Berkeley, California, where he works as a freelance artist and studies English at the University of California, Berkeley.
Photo Credit: Frances Powless
SARAH CHOU
Sarah Chou (she/her) is originally from San Diego, California and received her training at Southern California Ballet and Danceology. She is a graduate of the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program under the direction of Karah Abiog, where she performed works by Sidra Bell, Gregory Dawson, David Harvey, Alex Ketley, and Chuck Wilt, among others. In 2021, she attended the School at Jacob’s Pillow’s Contemporary Program on full scholarship. Sarah was a guest artist for ODC/Dance in 2022 and this is her second season with SFDanceworks.
Sarah graduated Cum Laude from Wellesley College in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and a minor in Economics. As an undergraduate, she performed, choreographed, and produced extensively for Harvard Ballet Company and Wellesley College Dancers. Beyond her performance career, she has worked as an arts administrator at numerous organizations, bridging her passions for performance and production leadership.
Photo credit: Peter Wei
MJ EDWARDS
Michael Edwards Jr (they/them), today known as MJ was born in Middletown, NY. They began their professional training at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. While at LaGuardia, they trained on scholarship at American Ballet Theatre JKO School, Steps on Broadway, and French Academie of Ballet. They further studied and performed with MOVE|NYC| where they had the opportunity to work with notable faculty such as Jermaine Spivey, Sidra Bell, Maleek Washington, Navarra Novy-Williams, and Jamall Callender along with many others. Additionally, they performed the works of Azsure Barton, Shamel Pitts, Nigel Campbell, Yin Yue and Gregory Dolbashian. In 2017 MJ began studying at the San Francisco Ballet School. There they achieved the San Francisco Ballet School 2018-2019 Choreographic Fellowship and had the privilege of premiering their own choreography “Constant Search” for the San Francisco Ballet School’s 2019 Spring Festival Performance. They are a 2019 YoungArts Winner in Modern/Contemporary, as well as a 2019 Meringoff Family Foundation Valedictory Prize Winner. MJ also attended The Juilliard School in pursuit of a BFA in Dance. During their Juilliard career they worked with choreographers such as Ohad Naharin, Sonya Tayeh, Amy Hall Garner, Andrea Miller and performed the work “Crossing the Rubicon” by Donald Mckayle at The David H. Koch Theater. Since departing Juilliard they are an artistic assistant and performer with The Francesca Harper Project. They most recently joined the Limón Dance Company in 2021.
BENJAMIN FREEMANTLE
Guest Principal Artist, Benjamin Freemantle (he/him), started his training in his hometown of Vancouver, Canada at the Caulfield School of Dance. At 15 years old he was offered a full scholarship to train at the San Francisco Ballet School, later joining the San Francisco Ballet School Trainee Program. He joined the San Francisco Ballet as a member of the Corps de Ballet in 2015, immediately dancing Principal roles in original works and full length ballets like Lensky in Onegin. In 2018, Benjamin became a Soloist with the company and was named “25 To Watch” by Dance Magazine. In 2019, he was named Principal Dancer by Helgi Tomasson, after performing works by George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Jerome Robbins, Trey McIntyre, Dwight Rhoden, John Neumier, William Forsythe and many more. In 2022, he stepped away from San Francisco Ballet and now pursues an independent artistic career based in New York City. As a professional performer and creative, Benjamin challenges and re-imagines boundaries and possibilities both on the stage and on the screen.
Photo credit: Travis Chantar
EMILY HANSEL
Originally from Rochester, Minnesota, Emily Hansel (she/they) received their BFA in Dance from the University of South Florida. They currently dance for Post:ballet, Christy Funsch, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Jennifer Perfilio, and David Herrera Performance Company. Emily has also performed Cunningham repertory in “Signals from the West: Bay Area Artists In Conversation with Merce Cunningham at 100” and danced with Robert Moses’ KIN, Garrett-Moulton Productions, FACT/SF, ZiRu Dance, The Anata Project, Talli Jackson, and Marika Brussel, among others. Emily is a self-producing choreographer whose work centers the dancer’s experience. Recently, Emily created new work for Post:ballet, choreographed new work for Berkeley Ballet Theater in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Võ, and created a dance film commissioned by REYES Dance. In 2022, Emily was named an Individual Artist Fellow by the California Arts Council, was awarded a free rental by ODC Theater, and self-produced her first evening-length choreographic work, Four by Four. She writes for the Life as a Modern Dancer blog and the ODC Dance Stories blog, speaks on dancers’ rights, and teaches ongoing dance classes for youth and teens. Emily advocates for equitable working conditions for dancers, and is a proud member of the Leadership Committee at Dance Artists’ National Collective.
STELLA JACOBS
Stella Jacobs (she/her), originally from Boston, is a NYC-based freelance dancer. She joins SFDanceworks for a second year in their 6th season, and has performed for Dawson Dance SF. Stella apprenticed for BODYTRAFFIC, a contemporary dance company in Los Angeles, after completing the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program in San Francisco. During her time at LINES, she was a soloist, part of a duet, and a company member in works by David Harvey, Alex Ketley, Chuck Wilt, Gregory Dawson, Sidra Bell, and others. She also choreographed and co-choreographed pieces performed at LINES Training Program shows. Stella began her training at the Deborah Mason Performing Arts Center in Somerville, MA, where she studied under Adreinne Hawkins, Christopher Huggins, and Gino DeMarco, and attended summer intensives at Juilliard, Jacob’s Pillow, BODYTRAFFIC, and elsewhere. She will be attending GibneyPRO this fall to further immerse herself in the New York based community of artists.
NICHOLAS KORKOS
Native San Franciscan Nicholas Korkos has performed with Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal, Aszure Barton & Artists, SF DanceWorks, Hubbard Street 2, Loni Landon Dance Project, Zhukov Dance Theatre, Robert Moses' KIN, project agora, tinypistol, Opera Omaha, the Metropolitan Opera, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, four times with the San Francisco Symphony, and most recently has developed new work with Sonya Tayeh, Josh Prince and Reed Luplau, respectively. In addition to performing, Korkos teaches and choreographs at various schools including the LINES Ballet School B.F.A. and Training programs, Gibney Dance and Peridance Center in NYC. In 2021 he conceived, directed, choreographed, performed in and crowdfunded for the dance film Being Alive, a Dance. As a photographer Korkos has photographed for Opera Philadelphia, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Opera Parallèle, and various dance companies, and his work has been seen in numerous publications including The New York Times.
Photo Credit: Jiyang Chen
MATTHEW WENCKOWSKI
Matthew is from St. Charles, Illinois, where he received his early training at Moves Dance Studio in North Aurora. As a competitive dancer with Excel Dance Productions, he was awarded the national title Senior Mr. Adrenaline at the age of 17. Matt joined the Joffrey Academy of Dance’s pre-professional and trainee programs under the direction of Alexei Kremnev and Anna Reznik, performing with the Joffrey in The Nutcracker as well as in pieces created for the Joffrey Academy. He has studied on scholarship at Lou Conte Dance Studio under the guidance of Claire Bataille. Matt then joined DanceWorks Chicago under the direction of Julie Nakagawa. It was there he had the privilege touring nationally and internationally performing a variety of contemporary works. In 2015 he joined the Grand Rapids Ballet and remained there until 2022 working under both Patricia Barker and James Sofranko. It was there he danced soloist roles in both classical and contemporary works, dancing in full-length ballets and as well as new and remounted works. With Grand Rapids Ballet he has had the privilege of performing pieces by Alejandro Cerrudo, Trey McIntyre, Ben Stevenson, George Balanchine, Yuri Possokhov, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Val Caniparoli, Robyn Mineko Williams, Penny Saunders, and many more. Matt joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago for the 2022-2023 season.
LANI YAMANAKA
Lani Yamanaka (she/her) is a San Diego native who began her movement training in Judo and Dance and finds the two intrinsically aligned. She studied at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine where she received her BFAs in Dance Performance and Choreography. Lani has been a company dancer with Akram Khan Company, ODC Dance, Entity Contemporary Dance, and SFDanceworks, and a guest artist and collaborator with Kambara+. She has performed works by Donald McKayle, Edward Clug, Yin Yue, and Kate Weare. In 2015, she was in the original ensemble of PEARL, directed and choreographed by Daniel Ezralow which premiered at Lincoln Center. In 2019, she served as dance captain for DRAGON SPRING PHOENIX RISE, the inaugural production of The Shed NYC. She is featured in MOVE, a Netflix docu-series featuring Akram Khan which follows her time in Bangladesh right before the Covid-19 lockdown. Lani is an educator and a NASM Certified Personal Trainer who strives to bring forth a deeper sense of awareness and body autonomy to movement learning environments.
Instagram: @laniyamanaka
Photo Credit: Patrick Andrada
MUSICIANS
ALTON ALLEN
Alton Allen is an artist and composer from Honeydew California, currently living in Los Angeles. A fixture in the small but lively San Francisco music scene throughout his 20's, Alton's work has appeared across many formats and genres, from global advertising campaigns for GoPro to musical compositions for Gregory Dawson, Danielle Rowe, and Sarah Van Patten. He has performed around the world as a member of Low Roar, and current member of Poolside, as well as performed under his own solo projects (niteppl, Alton Allen). Alton's musical style is hard to pin down; he has an obvious obsession with the form and function of music, yet an equal enamourment with depth and texture undulates throughout his works. He seeks to unify his love of popular music with experimentation, the strange with the approachable. To his mind music, like dance, is a language we all can speak as one people; even if we don't always understand each other's words, we can always understand movement and sound, and that's a beautiful thing that the world has given us.
Photo Credit: Sterling Hampton IV
JEROME BEGIN
Called a “fabulous composer-pianist” and an “unimpeachable” choice of collaborator by the New York Times, Jerome Begin has composed many scores for dance, theater, concert works, installation and film. Equally at home in the classical, experimental, theatrical and pop worlds, he has always been drawn to collaboration. Begin takes from classical music concepts of form, process and compositional rigor. From experimental electronic and acoustic music he draws on ideas of sonic expansion and innovation in ways for musicians to connect in time and texture. In popular music, he is strongly attracted to the power of rhythm and sound over the body and the ability of the “hook” to resonate within the consciousness of individuals and masses. His vast experience composing in the dance and theater realms has lent to his music a deep understanding of the dynamics of live performance. He writes with a keen consciousness of the inherent theater present in the making of music.
CAROLINE SHAW
Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She is the recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, several Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She has worked with a range of artists including Rosalía, Renée Fleming, and Yo Yo Ma, and she has contributed music to films and tv series including Fleishman is in Trouble, Bombshell, Yellowjackets, Maid, Dark, and Beyonce’s Homecoming. Her favorite color is yellow, and her favorite smell is rosemary.
DANNY SULLIVAN
Originally from Bellingham, WA, Danny Sullivan holds a Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music in Boston, concentrated in Piano Performance & Pedagogy. He’s held pianist positions at Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, performed on stage with Smuin Ballet & San Francisco Ballet School where he’s been full time Music Faculty & Pianist since 2012. In his freelance career he’s music directed & accompanied over 30 musical theatre and opera productions, improvised live music for fashion shows, composes, performs monthly at Martuni’s & annually at SF Botanical Garden’s Flower Piano.
Photo credit: Chris Hardy
DESIGNERS
REID BARTELME AND HARRIET JUNG
Harriet Jung and Reid Bartelme met in 2009 while pursuing fashion design degrees at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. They started designing collaboratively in 2011 and have focused their practice primarily on costuming dance. In 2015 they were commissioned by the Museum of Art and Design in New York to develop a costume centric performance work and have since devised two performances at the Guggenheim Museum to shed light on collaborative practice in design and dance. Reid & Harriet Design has completed research fellowships at NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. They continue designing costumes and sets for dance productions around the world while expanding the scope of their practice outside the theater.
reidandharriet@gmail.com
JIM FRENCH
Jim French (he/him) designs lighting for the performing arts and live events, with work seen in twenty five countries around the globe. Highlights of Jim's work in dance include over twenty five world premieres for San Francisco Ballet, nine seasons as resident designer for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and long running collaborations with the choreographers Val Caniparoli, Pascal Rioult, and Amy Seiwert, with vertical dance company Bandaloop, and with Ballet West. At home in the San Francisco Bay Area, he has collaborated with Alonzo King Lines Ballet, RAW Dance, Shotgun Players, Kronos Quartet, Joe Goode Performance Group, ODC Dance, Post:Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Imagery, Marin Theater Company, West Edge Opera, and has been house LD at SF Jazz. Favorite credits from further afield include Finnish National Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Nederlands Dance Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Ballett Basel, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Carte Blanche, Royal Ballet of Flanders, and LA Dance Project. Jim designed lighting for the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit, and volunteers for Dancers Responding to AIDS and Bike East Bay.
Lauren Starobin
Lauren’s costume design is informed by her life-long study of art and fashion as well as her own experiences as a dancer. Her innovative designs attempt to foster creativity for both choreographer and dancer as well to give audiences thoughtful and artistic visual experiences. Lauren was recently the subject of a feature in WWD titled “A Ballet Costume Designer on the Rise” by senior fashion journalist, Misty White Sidell.
Lauren studied art and design at Rhode Island School of Design well as in Paris at Studio Berçot. She received her BFA in fashion design from FIT in 2021 where she was the recipient of several scholarly awards including two Critics’ Awards as well as the 1st prize in the Underfashion Club’s Student Design Competition. She apprenticed with celebrated dance costume designers Reid & Harriet and honed her construction skills at various prominent Broadway costume shops. Lauren has designed original costumes for some of the most prominent names in dance today, including Alexei Ratmansky, James Whiteside, Dana Genshaft, Gemma Bond, Al Blackstone and others. In the short time since graduating she has been commissioned by The Washington Ballet, American Ballet Theater Studio Company, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Sarasota Ballet, Ballet Collective and others. In addition to her dance costume work, Lauren designs capsule collections for several sustainable boutiques in her native NYC as well as original custom looks for performance artists of all sorts.