our staff
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Hilary Palanza Gutkin is originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2006, she graduated Cum Laude with a BA in dance from Colorado College. She began her career performing and teaching with the David Herrera Performance Company (SF) and National Dance Institute (NYC). In 2009 Hilary founded Children's Center for Dance which serviced over 2,000 children in dance education programs. She simultaneously founded a performing arts company, Palanza Dance, which presented over thirty award-winning works on stages and in museums. Her work has also included running dance education programs with San Francisco Friends School, Alonzo King LINES Ballet (SF), Nagata Dance (SF) and Celebrate the Beat (Aspen, CO). Hilary has also been instrumental in nonprofit development, consultation, and fundraising for organizations like Central Market NOW (SF) and Zambaleta School of Music (Cairo, Egypt, and San Francisco).
In May 2018, Hilary graduated with a Masters in Public Affairs from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. She founded the Museum of Dance in the late fall of 2018. In addition to spearheading and pioneering the organization's identity, operations, and strategy, Hilary has grown the Museum of Dance to service over 500 youth in dance programs, over 50 dance artists with strategic and fiscal support, and a dozen international cultural institutions in an ongoing partnership. She has hired over 50% BIPOC and LGBTQ to executive roles in both staff and board of Director members to the Museum and has grown the MOD operating budget to $150,000 and MOD’s sponsorship to over $550,000. Hilary has guided MOD’s continued progress through the pandemic in three and a half years.
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Aimee Espiritu, M. Ed. launched Espiritu Consulting in October 2017 based on 15 years of management experience in the non-profit arts and public education sectors. It is Aimee's calling to combine methodologies from her Industrial Design training and her drive to use creativity as a tool for re-imagining how organizations and people can enhance their social impact. Guided by the purpose of each client's work, she is able to authentically practice both passions in analog and digital realms.
Aimee has led strategic planning processes and partnership-building efforts for non-profit organizations, school districts, museums, foundations and government institutions. Aimee’s consulting is informed by her experience as a Secondary classroom teacher, art/design educator, workshop facilitator and most recently as the Organizational Consultant for SOMA Pilipinas Cultural District in San Francisco to develop their Governance structure.
Prior to consulting, her primary focus was engaging teens and transitional age youth in school and out-of-school programs, curriculum design, exhibit development and peer-to-peer training — always grounded in the creative youth development and growth mindset frameworks. Aimee's dynamic consulting approach is rooted in complexity theory — which emphasizes interactions and the accompanying feedback loops that constantly change systems — and transformative hands-on experiences. These approaches combined with a seasoned understanding of the nuances of Bay Area youth development and adult professional learning landscape make working with Aimee a custom design experience.
She holds both a Masters in Education (Urban Education, Curriculum and Instruction) and a Secondary Education Teaching Credential from Holy Names University. Aimee obtained her Bachelor in Fine Arts in Industrial Design from the University of Washington.
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Clyde Evans, Jr., has been dancing Hip Hop since the age of 11. Performing dance has taken him all over the world to places such as Africa, Italy, London, Brazil, France, Finland, and Australia and allowed him to perform with stars like Will Smith, Jay Leno, Haley Berry, Mark Whalberg, Robert Redford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bruce Willis, and M. Night Shyamalan, as well as appearing in commercials for the Superbowl, dance contest on BET, So You Think You Can Dance, performances for the X-Games, Sunny D as well as magazine and other print media. Evans has truly enjoyed the opportunities performing Hip-Hop has afforded him (especially when it was for Michael Jackson!) but teaching has been equally rewarding. He has trained dancers who have appeared on America’s Best Dance Crew and in the Step Up movie franchise. Evans now instructs at both Montgomery Community College and Drexel University in the Philadelphia area. Sharing what he has learned with those who have a desire to learn it, is what's most important to him!
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Jason Nious, founder and director of Molodi, is a performing artist and creative director whose background with high school step teams and NCAA gymnastics launched his career in the arts. Growing up in a military household, he traveled the world and experienced a myriad of cultures at an early age which heavily influenced his perspectives on storytelling and his ability to connect with audiences.
As a performer, Jason has traveled the world extensively with Cirque du Soleil, Step Afrika, Stomp, and the International Body Music Festival. He's created award-winning choreography, worked as a cultural ambassador with the U.S. Embassy in southern and eastern Africa, South America, and Central America. He served as assistant choreographer, dancer, and stunt double for the film Stomp The Yard: Homecoming, and has performed in numerous regional theatre productions and independent films throughout his career. He honed his percussion and performance skills while working alongside some of the most talented artists this world has to offer, all of which strongly influence the work he does today as a teaching artist.
Jason facilitates Molodi's arts education program, reaching over 20,000 students per year. He’s currently a teaching artist with Cirque du Soleil’s Arts Nomades program and The Smith Center's education outreach program. As a resident artist with the Nevada Arts Council, he regularly conducts in-school residencies in stepping and body percussion.
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Antwan is a multi-percussionist that has Co-founded the Las Vegas-based performance arts company Molodi, performed with the Las Vegas and North American production of Stomp, and tour nationally with Step Afrika. He is actively performing and teaching workshops and residencies in the U.S and internationally. In addition to performing and teaching, Antwan is a certified Real Estate Agent with the State of California and Simple Real Estate, serving individuals and families in the Bay Area.
Antwan has been engaging audiences for 14 years with body percussion and stepping. As a performer, he thrives on breaking down musical and genre barriers through creative, interdisciplinary projects. As a teacher he is enthused by creating community through body music, giving people a different outlet of expression. As an artist, Antwan has expanded his artistic crafts by becoming an improv actor and stand-up comedian. He strives to grow to become a better teacher, performer and person. -
Sanseria Murray (Son-see-ah-Ray), lives to awaken, ignite, heal, and compel everyone she encounters through her words, her workshops, and her embraces. Sanseria (they/she) is a word nerd, and lover of dark chocolate, who considers themself a storyteller with deep conviction that the only way to our collective liberation is by living with a transformative and restorative, radical love ethic.
Sanseria is an accomplished poet, playwright, director, and teaching artist with over 20 years of experience in education. Currently, Sanseria hosts workshops and retreats, and spends their time writing, creating, loving, laughing with their whole self and learning what it means to lean into rest, especially as a Black, Queer person. Their first book, Morning Star Rising: a book of poetry, was published in 2021 (That’ll Write Publishing). Sanseria resides in Texas.
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Carolina (Carro) Czechowska was born in Stockholm and received her education at the Royal Swedish Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, The Boston Ballet, and Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet Training Program. In San Francisco, she has danced with RAWdance, Capacitor, James Graham Dance Theatre, Garrett & Moulton Productions (2011-19). In 2019, she joined Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, where she is currently a company member. Internationally, she has been part of Tino Seghal's world-renowned installations and worked with Johannes Wieland at the 2015 “One Small Step” festival. Developed during the pandemic, Carro joined Moving Isolation, an award-winning online international collaboration led by Swedish choreographer Anna Holter. She has been a choreography repetiteur at Oakland Ballet, Company C Contemporary Ballet, SF State University, Santa Clara University, and Collin College.
Outside of dancing, Carro has taught classical Pilates for twelve years and is the owner of Body Bottega. Between 2015-2018, she was the founder and co-owner of Yoga Pilates Adventures, a retreat wellness company. Currently, she is the co-director of a movement agency, The Collective Attention, that encourages cross-pollination between performance art and the entrepreneurial culture. In 2017, Carro was awarded an “Izzie”; The Isadora Duncan Dance Award for outstanding individual performance.
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Gabriel Carrion-Gonzales (he/they) continues to be inspired by Marie Carrion-Mcafee, his fearless mother who demonstrates self-love, boundary-setting, and speaking from an authentic heart. As a dance artist and arts administrator, Gabriel is interested in being a connector of two worlds; one in his head/dream space and this physical realm we co-inhabit.
Gabriel is currently on the leadership team of Dancing Earth as an Executive Producer for the CALIFA project. While on an ongoing basis, developing a relationship with the Queer Community of Albuquerque to lead Queering ABQ, a project Gabriel is founding and developing. This project calls on Queer elders, Queer community, and Queer youth to speak authentically and find the power within the community to play a part in advancing Queer culture which currently holds the potential to damage many Queer-Trans BIPOC lives in the Southwest and beyond.
As an administrator, Gabriel has held positions with multiple Albuquerque arts non-profits and has received administrative mentorship and training from Dance/USA’s Institute for Leadership Training (2021) program and David Herrera’s LatinXtension’s (2022) program. Gabriel is constantly grateful for those who have taken the time to inspire, mentor, and teach him as he grows.
As a dancer, Gabriel has recently completed two-touring seasons with Dancing Earth. Gabriel’s movement vocabulary broadly calls on ballet as he spent many years of his youth in ballet studios throughout the nation. Currently, Gabriel is using dance as an act of self-actualization and an attempt at loving the self. It is commonly understood to be a difficult process to love the self, for Gabriel exploring pole, erotic movement, and Vouge has inspired self-love and confidence. For others it may be other movement styles, Gabriel hopes everyone has an opportunity to find what it is that fills them with love for themself.
“On a human level, I am a Queer Burqueno Latinx artist committed to improving the culture our current youth and the next generations will grow up in. I am committed to fulfilling my duties of being a future Queer elder and committed to walking in Love while I roam this beautiful Earth.”
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Angel Guanajuato is a New Mexico-based artist who focuses on exploring his identity and human emotion from the perspective of a queer existentialist through music, poetry, and dance. His lineage is shrouded in mystery, and can only be traced back a few generations. Through the process of making music he explores, creates, and deconstructs his identity. Angel is a self-taught music producer and has been using Ableton to produce since 2018. He has since collaborated with other artists to create music for podcasts, dance films, and movements. His personal project “Jupiter’s Baby” is in progress with hopes to release music under this name in 2023.
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Ian Alexander Levine is a California-based filmmaker originally from Vermont, where he was raised off-the-grid at the base of a mountain by nature-loving artists on a homestead with goats, bees and a windmill. He got his start in music recording and production at Full Sail University before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area where he launched his career in film. He has worked with a long list of some of the worlds largest brands, production companies, agencies and networks including; Apple, Google, Intel, Airbnb, Adobe, YouTube, Westbrook Media, BBDO, The Martin Agency, PBS and many more. Ian's insatiable desire to reveal the true spirit of any given story guides his creative sensibilities as a Director and Editor. You can see a selection of Ian's work and find out more about him on his website — ianlevine.com.
AWARDS:
- 2020 SXSW, Official Selection
- 2018 Audience Awards, Winner
- 2016 San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Official Selection
- 2015 Golden Trailer Award 'Best Documentary TV Spot', Official Selection
- 2014 Topanga Film Festival, Official Selection
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Samantha is a documentary filmmaker and freelance producer based in Los Angeles. Her purpose is to create human-centered stories, guided by compassion and curiosity.
Before turning to film, Samantha spent five years in branded content in the technology sector. She is involved with refugee rights work, and enjoys spending time exploring outside.
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Patrizia Herminjard, native to Switzerland, is a choreographer, filmmaker, dancer and Lecturer in the Theater & Dance Department at Colorado College (‘96). An interdisciplinary artist, her raw materials include human beings, movement, and digital media creating socially engaged works for the stage and screen. Her dances are collaborative in nature by doing, thinking, and feeling largely on a democratic level, investigating the complex interconnectedness of human relations.
Patrizia’s screendance works have been presented by Dance Camera West and Sans Soucci Film Festival. She served on the board for the American College Dance Association and in 2012, Convergence was presented at the ACDF National Convention at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. From 2007-2013 she directed the Colorado College Dance Festival establishing a cross-cultural exchange between Taiwanese and American contemporary dancers.
Patrizia has performed with the Martha Graham Dance Ensemble, Pearl Lang Dance Theater, DanceArt Hong Kong and has taught internationally in Canada, China, Switzerland, and Taiwan. She earned her MFA from the University of California at Irvine where she served as the rehearsal director for the Donald McKayle Etude Ensemble.
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Jamie Wright is a former musician, a graduate from Stanford University with a BA in Economics and the University of San Francisco with an MBA in Marketing. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors since 2006 for Robert Moses Kin and Push Dance Company.His work has been presented throughout the San Francisco Bay Area at the Black Choreographers Festival/Here and Now, where his choreography opened the 2009 season. In 24 Views and the Pilot Program at ODC Theater, Collaborations! Dance: Music at the Cowell Theater and in four annual seasons at Dance Mission. He has been commissioned to create works for And Still Dancing and the Opera Frontiers.In 2012 he choreographed for the acclaimed Sleeping Beauty Trilogy, by author Anne Rice, which had its world première at Dance Mission.
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Software engineer specializing in system architecture and fullstack web development with over 20 years of experience in the tech sector. Started in the industry during the late 90s as a
software quality engineer for early dotcoms. As the dotcom "boom" became "bust" in 2001, went back to school to get a Computer Science degree. Came back to the industry as a software development engineer and worked for companies of various sizes, from early stage startups to global enterprises, including a 5-year stint as a manager. Has developed and currently maintains a website for IMOD and serves as a software / IT consultant for the organization. -
Brian Marston worked at The Fine Arts Museums from 1981 to 2017 in various positions in the Finance department, retiring after 36 years. His last position was Controller which he served for 5 years. He is the owner of JNM Associates, Inc. from 2000 to 2017, performing Medical Billing and Bookkeeping Services for several medical practices. Partner for Safwat & Marston Inc. Certified Public Accountants from 2017 to current. safwatmarstoncpa.com/the-partners/
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Safwat Said has more than 7 years in public accounting experience providing accounting and tax services. Safwat served a variety of clients in the area of real estate, retail, restaurants, Healthcare, Constructions, and services. Safwat worked as a senior auditor for HLP & Co, Financial Controller for international real estate and investment companies in Kuwait City.