Before his manifold career in arts management, Wayne Hazzard had a distinguished 20-year career performing with many notable choreographers and companies including the Joe Goode Performance Group; Margaret Jenkins Dance Company; Ed Mock & Company; June Watanabe; Aaron Osborne; Emily Keeler and more. Coinciding with his life as a dancer, Hazzard has and continues to work as an advocate for dance. In 2000 he worked with the dance legend Anna Halprin presenting her work in a performance retrospective celebrating her 80th year and received an Isadora Duncan (Izzies) Award for his innovation, dedication and contribution to the field of dance. In 1996 Hazzard was acknowledged for his role presenting The Dedication Project: remembering those lost to AIDS. Frequently asked to serve as an advisor and panelist with such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, and Dance Advance/PEW Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia, Hazzard currently serves on the board of trustees for Dance/USA.
In addition to his work as Program Director for Dancers’ Group, Kegan Marling also freelances in the San Francisco Bay Area as a graphic designer, installation artist, sound designer and project coordinator. He has served on the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (Izzies) committee, San Francisco Arts Commission panel and was co-director for the Renaud-Wilson Dance Festival. He is a collaborating artist with Della Davidson's Sideshow Physical Theatre and co-director of spoon with Jane Schnorrenberg. When not working, he enjoys exploring the world through cartoons, mythology, photography, logic problems, video games and architecture.
Movement, breath and flow are three things that inspire April. A Bay Area transplant from Los Angeles, she graduated from Mills College in 1997 with a BA in Women’s Studies and Dance. A trained actor, singer, and dancer, she has been performing for most of her life and working in a variety of artistic areas. Her passion for the arts, and education have led her to teaching children and adults for the past eight years. Currently she is on-staff at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley. She has danced with Dana Lawton, and Mary Armentrout, and is a company member of the Dandelion Dancetheater. A recent graduate of CIIS’s Sound, Voice and Music Healing Certification program, April is excited about adding the magic of sound to her love of dance. For the past nine years she has worked at the Project Director for Works in the Works, the longest running performance series in the Bay Area. And she serves on the Board of Director’s for Choreographers’ Performance Alliance, the organization that produces Works in the Works. Joining Dancers’ Group in 2008, April is looking forward about advocating for the diverse Bay Area dance community.
Born in Los Angeles, Jorge went to the University of California, Santa Cruz where he got a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and a graduate certificate in Theater Arts. He got his early dance training by harassing his sisters and friends to dance salsa and swing with him whenever he felt the music. In Santa Cruz he was co-director of Grupo Folklorico Los Mejicas de UCSC, directed his own dance-theater pieces, and went to the beach religiously. He recently moved to San Francisco to plug into and absorb the local dance community and is loving every minute of it. Jorge is also a developing movie buff and constantly strives to be more like foreign/ classic film actors.
A native of Buffalo, NY, Alice graduated from Wellesley College with a B.A. in women’s studies, and a concentration in body politics. At Wellesley, she taught belly dance classes, and she has studied flamenco dance in Seville, Spain. When not at Dancers’ Group, she assists at the Chhandam School of Kathak Dance and is preparing for graduate work in dance/performance studies. Her research interests lie at the crossroads between sexual violence, fat acceptance, cultural identity, and movement. In her spare time, she enjoys nature and scavenging for treasure.
I am a choreographer, performer, teacher, and community activist. Bookkeeping is my day job for many years. Like dance it is an ancient form that still continues to make the world go round. It is about being in balance and creating a structure that allows numbers to flow into a clear statement of activity. I have enjoyed applying my trade for Dancers’ Group since the time when our home was the Footwork Studio at 22nd & Mission.
An independent dancer, choreographer, teacher and artistic director of Push Dance Company, Raissa Simpson brings her love for dance to Bay Area National Dance Week as the organization’s Project Director. She is a recipient of the Regional Dance Award, San Jose State Univ.’s Peoples Choice Award, Zellerbach Family Foundation and Theatre Bay Area’s CA$H Grant. She holds her BFA from State University New York, Purchase (SUNY)- talent-based scholarship, subsequently attending the schools of Dance Theatre of Harlem (NYC), the Paul Taylor School (NYC). She has toured and performed as a company member with Robert Moses Kin (2002-2007) and Joanna Haigood’s Zaccho Dance Theatre (2007-Present). Additionally, she enjoys marketing, web design, guest teaching, photography and administrating for local dance companies.
Kate Law, Membership Empress
Kate Law has always had a love of movement. Some called it hyperactivity, but she knew this energy had a higher purpose and so began her launch into the dance scene at the ripe age of 4. Kate graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a B.A. in International Political Economy and French. While there she was an active board member and choreographer for Reparatory Dance Group (RDG), was a four year Trustee Scholar, earned a Diplome de Langues des Affaires from L'Institut Catholique in Paris, and won the Carol Read Summer Research Fellowship to write a dissertation on "at-risk" children in the performing arts. As a dance artist Kate has worked with Tensile Dance, a modern company under the direction of the Tacoma City Ballet, as well as Bay Area groups DiggsDance Theater, Change of State Performance, Carmen Carnes Dance Ensemble, Karen Stevens, and HerPic Performances. She currently performs with Jo Krieter’s Flyaway Productions and Project Bandaloop in addition to creating work and teaching with her partner Alayna Stroud under the name Group Ascension.