Casandra Hillman, Dance Coordinator, Instructor (Full Time)

Casandra Hillman is a dance educator, choreographer, collaborator and dance historian. She has been performing, teaching and choreographing in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2003 and in Santa Cruz since 2011.  

Casandra holds her MFA in Dance from Mills College and her BFA in Dance from the School of Music and Dance at SFSU. Her understanding of movement and the human body is informed by her study of Ballet, Laban Movement Analysis, Bartineff, Jazz, Hip Hop and Limon, Cunningham and Graham modern dance techniques.

She has performed the choreographic works of Molissa Fenley, Kathleen McClintock, Dr. Alberta Rose, Susan Whipp and the late Alicia Pierce. She has also performed in the re-staging of Martha Graham’s Primitive Mysteries and re-staged the choreography of Agnes DeMille’s Carousel.

She was an Adjunct Professor of Dance at Cabrillo College in Aptos 2010-2016 and during her time there served the community as a Santa Cruz Arts Council Associate and SPECTRA Artist.  

Casandra is the Founder/Artistic Director of URBAN INDUSTRY Dance Company, an all-female Contemporary Hip-Hop company that has performed in National Dance Week, Santa Cruz Hip Hop Festival, Max-10 and Cultural Caliente.  Casandra has also been a visiting artist at Marin School of the Arts, Golden State Theatre and a Master Instructor at ACDA. 

To learn more about Casandra Hillman or URBAN INDUSTRY please visit: www.ceodanceco.com

Lara Branen, Instructor
 

Lara Branen received her masters in dance from the University of Colorado in 1987. Lara has served on the dance faculty at Santa Rosa Junior College since 1988. She started her dance studies in ballet at Colorado College, Colorado Springs with Norman Cornick. She has studied jazz with Lynn Simonson in NYC, Joe Tremaine in Los Angeles, Ed Mock and Anne Marie Garvin in San Francisco.

Lara is the Director of the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop held annually at the University of Colorado in Boulder and the Artistic Director of the workshop's resident dance company Interweave Dance Theatre.

Lara previously taught at the University of Colorado as well as in numerous private studios in the Denver Metro area. She first taught aerobic dance at the Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa and was a Pilates Trainer at Sonoma County's first Pilates studio BodyChange.

Lara has choreographed musicals including The Fantastiks, The Wiz, and two SRJC productions, The Rock Opera Tommy and Fiddler on the Roof. In addition to her work at SRJC for the annual dance production and the touring Dance Ensemble, her choreography credits include several Sonoma County World Aid's Awareness Day performances, rock concerts and fashion shows throughout the 80's in the Denver metro area, and the International Skiwear Convention in Las Vegas.

Kristine Marchus, Instructor

Kristine Marchus began her training in Vagonova Ballet and Jazz at the age of nine in Indianapolis, Indiana. She continued her study of dance and theater at Broad Ripple High School for Performing Arts. Kristine attended the Boston Conservatory, where she received her BFA and performed for four years with The Boston Conservatory Dance Theater.

After graduation she taught for the Boston Public Schools and Boston Ballet's New Ballet School. Kristine moved to New York City to teach for Elliot Feld's Feld Ballets New York/BalletTech. While in New York, Kristine performed at the Merce Cunnigham Space and danced for several modern dance companies.

Kristine later earned her M.A. from UCLA and taught dance for Los Angeles Unified Schools. She performed with the Department of World Arts and Cultures and as a company member of Regina Klenjoski Dance Company.

Kristine is currently on the faculty of Sonoma State University, the Sonoma Ballet Conservatory, The Yoga Company, and has been teaching jazz, hip hop, modern, ballet, and, most recently, Yoga for SRJC since 2001.

Lea Poisson, Instructor

Lea Marcella Poisson finished her BA in Dance at CSU Long Beach (2003), after transferring from SRJC where she received her AA and Certificate Degree in Dance. Graduate studies have been at Sonoma State University for an MA in Education, with a concentration on CTL (Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning), and an emphasis in Kinesiology. Lea has found that her experiences and education were immensely imperative in her development as a performer, choreographer, and teacher.  She started instructing at SRJC in 2006.

Lea has always enjoyed the art and joy of performing, the creative process of collaboration with others, the composition experience and results of choreographing. As a performer, she has worked as a Warrior Girl for the NBA's Golden State Warriors and a Gold Rush member for the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. Lea has performed with modern dance companies in the North Bay such as De/Em Dance Collective and Expressive Motion. Also, she loves practicing methods of teaching dance that will help dancers to maximize their potential.

Lea has not only danced but choreographed, taught, and coached dance locally for years.  She specializes in Hip Hop/Funk, Jazz, Modern at SRJC. Other special dance passions of hers are Contemporary Dance, Contact and Lifts, Improvisation, Ballet, African, Musical Theater, and Conditioning for Dancers. She loves teaching people of different characteristics and those of diverse abilities. A few other places Lea has taught are: Sonoma State University, Mendocino College in Ukiah, Santa Rosa High School (in the ArtQuest Dance program and as a Cheerleading/Dance Team coach), at Dance Innovations (formerly known as Fantastic Feet Studio of Dance), and Santa Rosa Dance Theater.

Carrie Stillman, Instructor

Carrie Lynn Stillman received her M.A. in dance from CSU, Long Beach (2001) and her B.A. in dance from UC, Santa Barbara (1992), and has been on the dance faculty at SRJC since fall 2000.

Carrie has also worked as a certified Pilates instructor since 1995, and owns her pilates-based studio, Mindful Movement, in Santa Rosa.

She has choreographed, danced, and co-directed for several local dance companies and studios in a variety of settings throughout Sonoma and Marin counties since 1992 to the present.

Carrie is continuously striving to stay open, innovative, and present through movement expression and education, not letting the ego block conscious creativity, with the intention of propelling students into a positive state of being through learning and self discovery.

Dawn Urista, Instructor

Dawn Urista received her MFA in Dance from the University of Oregon in 2011 and graduated from UC Irvine in 2002 with degrees in both Dance and History. Prior to her MFA studies at the University of Oregon she performed professionally in San Francisco with group A dance and with the Conservatory of Classical Ballet.

She has participated in the Royal Danish Ballet’s summer intensive in Copenhagen where her instructors included Thomas Lund, Vivi Findt, Johnny Eliasen, Eva Draw, and Raymond Rodriguez.

In collegiate and professional work she has danced for  Alexandrous Ballard, Sue Borgeson, Tamara Grose, Walter Kennedy, Valerie Ifill, Alyssa Lee, Donald McKayle, Ann Fisher-Ratto, Michael Lowe, Sally Streets, Xiao Liu-Moore, Larry Rosenberg, Glenda Carhart, and David Allen; and has acquired a repertory of post-modern dance as well as classical and contemporary ballet.

Her MFA research entails a comparison of two versions of Giselle's Mad Scene and a look into the historical and cultural reasons for different characterizations. She also harbors an unholy lifelong love of books, bookmaking, and letterpress design and enjoys incorporating the temporality of dance with the physical imprint of the bound pages.

Alyce Finwall, Instructor

Tamara Grose, Instructor

Jenny Stulberg, Instructor

Tanya Tolmasoff, Instructor