Season 8

ARTISTS

BABATUNJI

**DANCER**
Babatunji Johnson was born in Portland, Oregon and grew up on the Big Island of Hawaii. Though never formally trained in dance as a child, Babatunji was always moving his body to the beat. At age 15, he discovered the art of hip hop. Following over a decade of self-taught street performance, he has developed a unique approach to various styles of hip hop, like breaking, popping, and krump. While cultivating his own movement language, Babatunji also trained in ballet, modern, and contemporary. Babatunji has performed with Alonzo King Lines Ballet, Post:Ballet, SFDanceworks, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Misty Copeland. In 2015, Babatunji received a Princess Grace Award, as well as a Chris Hellman Award for his outstanding achievements and promise in the world of dance.
Photo Credit: RJ Muna

ISAAC BATES-VINUEZA

DANCER

Isaac Bates-Vinueza was born in New York City and raised in Louisville, Colorado. He received his initial dance training at Boulder Ballet School with Ana Claire and Becky Jancosko. He then went on to train at Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle. Isaac has danced professionally with Sacramento Ballet, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, LED Boise, Post:Ballet, and SFDanceworks. Throughout his career, he has originated and performed leading roles in works by Natasha Adorlee, Bryan Arias, George Balanchine, Lauren Edson, Laura O’Malley, Penny Saunders, and Amy Seiwert, among many others.

Isaac made his professional choreographic debut in 2022 at Sacramento Ballet, and that same year, was awarded the Ann and Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow. A passionate teacher, Isaac frequently teaches company class for SFDanceworks and is on faculty at Berkeley Ballet, where he teaches advanced ballet, men’s technique, and contemporary dance.

In 2025, Isaac received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in English from UC Berkeley, and upon graduation was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He lives in San Francisco.

Photo Credit: Frances Powless

SARAH CHOU

**DANCER**
Sarah Chou is originally from San Diego, California and received her early 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. Throughout her career, she has performed works by Rena Butler, Edward Clug, Laura O'Malley, Yue Yin, Helen Pickett, Gregory Dawson, David Harvey, and Chuck Wilt, among others. This is her fourth 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 a student, she danced, choreographed, and produced extensively for dance groups in the Boston area. Her most recent work, “there’s a chance we may change,” commissioned by Harvard Ballet Company, premiered in November 2023. In addition to her performance career, Sarah bridges her passion for creativity, change, and equity as part of the Finance team at Intersection for the Arts.
Photo Credit: Peter Wei

EMILY HANSEL

**DANCER**
Emily Hansel is a San Francisco-based dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, arts administrator, and artist advocate. Originally from Rochester, Minnesota, Emily received their BFA in Dance from the University of South Florida. Emily has danced with SFDanceworks, Post:ballet, Christy Funsch, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Robert Moses’ KIN, Garrett-Moulton Productions, Rebecca Fitton Projects, David Herrera Performance Company, Jennifer Perfilio, FACT/SF, and ZiRu Dance, among others. Emily has also performed in Alexandra Pirici’s *Re-collection* at SFMOMA and in Cunningham repertory in *Signals from the West*. For their choreographic work, which is centered around dismantling systems of oppression in the concert dance field, Emily has received a San Francisco Artist award from the San Francisco Arts Commission, was selected to participate in MANCC’s Forward Dialogues program, received an ODC Theater RDI Award, and was named an Individual Artist Fellow by the California Arts Council. Through their choreography, writing, speaking engagements, teaching, and other creative work, Emily advocates for healthy and equitable working conditions for dancers.
Photo Credit: Robbie Sweeny

JA’MOON JONES

**DANCER**
Ja'Moon is a conjurer of movement, channeling ancestral memory through ritual, dance theater, and immersive experiences. His work invites audiences into the liminal—where history, fabulation, and the present converge.
Ja’Moon’s performances have spanned Senegal, NYC, Colorado, and California. He is the inaugural Resident Choreographer at Ballare Carmel. A Juilliard graduate, he has performed in Sleep No More NYC and danced works by Crystal Pite, Bill T. Jones, and Kyle Abraham, among others. Honored with the Max Mara Young Visionary Award, YoungArts Gold Medal, and a residency at École Des Sables, he continues to shape new futures through motion.

EMMA PORTNER

DANCER AND CHOREOGRAPHER, *elephant*
A prominent voice in the movement industry, Emma Portner has become widely known for her inimitable quality and complex devotion to the craft of dance. The actor, dancer and director-choreographer has been recognized for her unique and “almost-paranormal” ability.
Born in 1994, Emma Portner's dance training was influenced by summer courses at the National Ballet of Canada and in 2012, Emma moved to New York City to study at The Ailey School. Soon thereafter she choreographed the musical *Bat Out of Hell*, making her the youngest woman in history to choreograph a musical on London’s West End. Before the age of 20, she’d garnered millions of international views through dance on film and worked with some of the music industry’s biggest names including Maggie Rogers, Blood Orange, FKA Twigs, and Sylvan Esso.
Her most recent work includes collaborations with Apple, Netflix, Vogue, Adidas, The Norwegian National Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, Sony Studios, and indie music stars. Emma’s work has been featured by the Guggenheim Museum, Jacob's Pillow, New York City Center and Théâtre Champs-Élysées, to name a few. She has been hailed as “beguiling” by the NY Times and was listed as one of Paper Magazine’s “100 people to watch in 2019.”
Most recently, Emma’s work *Bathtub Ballet* premiered to critical acclaim at the Royal Swedish Opera and her ballet islands shared a tour with quintessential choreographers Crystal Pite, Jiří Kylián and Ohad Naharin. Emma’s newest work for Göteborg Danskompani *Forever, Maybe* premiered to critical acclaim in Spring 2024. Emma portrayed Gozer the Gozerian in *Ghostbusters: Afterlife* and stars in A24’s festival darling *I saw the TV Glow* (2024) directed by Jane Schoenbrun.
Photo Credit: David Kim

NAT WILSON

DANCER AND STAGER, A MEASURABLE EXISTENCE

Nat Wilson (they/he) is a Brooklyn-based freelance dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Their main work is with YYDC, performing with the company in New York and internationally, and assisting Yue Yin in staging repertory and creating new work. They are in the first generation of certified FoCo instructors, and have already led FoCo workshops in Peru, Los Angeles, and Chicago, in addition to ongoing classes in New York. Their other freelance work includes kNoname Artist/Roderick George, Boca Tuya, ate9 Dance Company, and More Fish Dance. Before moving to Brooklyn, Nat worked abroad dancing with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, where they had the opportunity to perform and teach masterclasses around the world, including China, Colombia, South Korea, and India. They are always happy to connect via Instagram through the handle @natattax.

Photo Credit: Joan Dwiartanto