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ABOUT
Shawl-Anderson Modern Dance Center provides Bay Area dance students of all ages and levels with high caliber training in both contemporary and traditional movement forms in a welcoming, non-competitive environment. The Center is a non-profit organization founded in 1958 by Frank Shawl and Victor Anderson.
Shawl-Anderson Dance Center is committed to nurturing and mentoring the growth of dancers and choreographers; cultivating a healthy and supportive atmosphere for creative expression; sustaining traditions essential to excellence in the field; and, fostering the evolution of the art of dance.
Staff
Victor Anderson: Director Emeritus, Co-founder
 Victor Anderson began his career as a musician. He studied piano, composition and orchestration, but after seeing an American Ballet Theater performance of Anthony Tudor's "Pillar of Fire', he was immediately drawn toward dance. Within a few years, he had studied ballet intensively with several famous teachers, among them, Igor Schwezoff and Eugene Loring, the Diaghilev dancers, Theodore Kosloff, Maria Baldina, Vera Nemtchinova, and especially with Pavlova 's onetime partner, Aubrey Hitchins.
His interest in modern dance was awakened in the course of a professional appearance in Carnegie Hall with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. He soon thereafter took up his serious study of modern dance with longtime associates of Martha Graham, May O'Donnell and Gertrude Shurr, the latter having also been a member of the Denishawn and Humphrey-Weidman companies.
In addition to his studies in ballet and modern dance, he also worked under the direction of Jerome Robbins on Broadway before becoming a member of the May O'Donnell Dance Company. While he was a member of her company, he began his teaching career at the Grammercy School of Music and Dance, whose faculty also included such well-known dance figures as Robert Joff rev and Norman Walker. As a guest teacher, he has conducted master classes sponsored by the Oakland Dance Association, the Oakland Recreation Department, California Dance Educators, and the University of Arizona at Tucson. |
Frank Shawl: Executive Director, Co-founder
 Frank Shawl is the co-founder with Victor Anderson of the Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley. Frank has been active as a teacher, performing dancer and choreographer in the Bay Area for over 50 years. The Shawl-Anderson Dance Company was an active dance repertory group in the '60's and '70's and spawned many of today's prominent dance artists.
Prior to coming to the Bay Area, Frank performed mainly in New York City. He appeared in numerous Broadway and network television shows and toured throughout the United States and Canada. He appeared in concert with the late Charles Weidman and for over eight years with the May O'Donnell Dance Company. He returned to New York in the role of assistant to Miss O'Donnell, as well as having taught, directed, and performed in Amsterdam and throughout the Netherlands.
He has been the recipient of grants from the N.E.A. and California Arts Council, and in 1990 received, along with Mr. Anderson, the Isadora Duncan Award for Sustained Achievement in Dance. In 1991 Frank recieved the Isadora Duncan "Special Award" for the production of "Time Over Time" with June Watanabe and Marni Thomas-Wood. In 2001, they received the Ruth Beckford Award for Extraordinary Contributions in the Field of Dance. In more recent years Frank has continued to perform actively and has danced in works by Della Davidson, Sonya Delwaide, Randee Paufve, and Dandelion Dancetheater. In 2012, Frank, Victor and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center were awarded a Goldie Lifetime Achievement Award from the SF Bay Guardian. |
 Rebecca Johnson has been the Administrative Director at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center since 2008. Prior to that time Rebecca served on the organization’s Board of Directors for three years and was a youth and adult teacher since 2002. In addition to her work at the Center, she dances professionally with Paufve Dance and Nina Haft & Company and has toured to New York, Portland, San Diego, Vermont, Los Angeles and Massachusetts as well Amman and Ramallah. In addition to these companies, she has also had the pleasure of working with numerous choreographers including Della Davidson, Tammy Cheney, Kimi Guthrie, Martt Lawrence, Dana Lawton, Heidi Schweiker and Carol Kueffer amongst others. Rebecca began her dance training on the east coast studying ballet in a Royal Academy (RAD) program and then started her pre-professional modern dance training at the age of 14 with Moving West Dance Company. Rebecca graduated with highest honors in 1994 from Rutgers University in English Literature and Modern Dance with a minor in French Language & Literature, followed by the completion of her Master of Education degree in secondary teaching with an emphasis on Special Education from the University of New Hampshire. As a choreographer, Rebecca’s work has been seen at the Dance IS Festival, Paufve Dance’s 8x8x8, Works in the Works, Berkeley Earth Day, The Whole Story produced by Watchword Press and at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center. She is thrilled to be working at the Center serving child, teen and adult dancers as well as professional dance artists and choreographers.
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 Abigail Hosein is the Artistic director of ahdanco, a modern dance company, presenting work at a variety of venues throughout the Bay Area. Hosein holds her MFA in Performance and Choreography from Mills College and currently teaches at Santa Clara University and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center. She has performed locally for Dance Repertory/San Francisco, Hudson Dance, and Barely Complete Productions. Additionally, Hosein’s work has been commissioned by College Prep High School, Berkeley High School, the Shawl-Anderson Youth Ensemble, and San Francisco Performances’ Dance Mentor Program. More at www.ahdanco.org.
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 Katie Kruger has been teaching and dancing professionally in the bay area for the past 15 years. After graduating from UC Santa Barbara's Dance Dept. she continued training in both NYC and San Francisco, where she has had the opportunity to dance with various companies and choreographers including: Donald McKayle, Pickle Family Circus, Rebecca Johnson, Patricia Banchik, Tammy Chenney, and Randee Paufve. She is currently a member of Paufve Dance. She has taught children from ages 2 to 18 in ballet, creative movement, modern, improvisation and composition classes. She has taught in both public and private sectors of education focusing on the individual child and what they have to offer. Her classes nurture the students love for dance, creativity, and challenges their own personal growth in technique. As well as teaching ballet and modern at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Katie is the Youth Program Coordinator and is happy to answer any questions you have concerning your child's dance classes.
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 Maureen "Mo" Miner came to the Bay Area from Illinois where she was an Assistant Professor of Dance at Illinois State University. She received her B.S. in Psychology and then went on to get her MFA in Dance Performance at the University of Iowa. She has performed with Jennifer Kayle and Company, Shelter Repertory Dance Theatre, Charlotte Adams and Dancers, Duarte Dance Works, Sara Semonis, and in works by Miguel Gutierrez and Lucas Crandall. In the Bay Area she has worked with Project Bandaloop and is currently dancing with Nina Haft and Company and Katie Faulkner’s little seismic dance company. Mo’s own choreography has been seen at 2nd Sundays, the DanceIS Festival in Berkeley, Watchword Press presents The Whole Story, Bare Bones, and at the Shotwell Studios in San Francisco. She was one of the Artists-In-Residence at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in 2009. Mo currently teaches at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center and University of San Francisco.
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Ann DiFruscia, Board Member, Secretary
Ann DiFruscia is currently the IRIS/EECS Helpdesk Manager at University of California Berkeley’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. She danced throughout her childhood and began her formal training at Emerson College. She has trained with dance luminaries such as Ina Hahn (Humphrey), Claire Mallardi (Radcliffe), Anna Sokolow (Improv & Technique), Paul Sanasardo (Graham), Nina Weiner (Twyla Tharp), Fred Mathews and Gary Masters (Limon) among others. In 1981 Ann moved to the Bay Area where she continued her studies while having the honor and privilege of dancing in works by Martin Kravitz, Jack Moore, Sara Sugihara, Liz Rozner, Claire Mallardi, Collette Bischer-Choate, and Randee Paufve, as well as being a member of Ina Hahn Dance Company, Lucas Hoving Company, Lazarus Dance, and her own After-Image Dance Co. She has taught at Emerson College, Radcliffe College, Institute of Contemporary Dance, Joy of Movement Center, Boston Dance Academy, Theatre Two, YWCA and the Advent School. Ms. DiFruscia is proud to have been elected to the Shawl-Anderson Dance Center board in 2011 and continues to revel in her dance classes at the Center, grateful for the simple pleasures of moving and the loving camaraderie shared at the Center.
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Laura Marlin, Board Member
Laura Marlin joined the Board of Directors of Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in 2011. Ms. Marlin holds a Master of Education degree and currently teaches elementary and middle school students for various literacy programs in the Bay Area. Her love of writing is also fueled by her recent foray into playwriting. Her most recent work, an originally commissioned play called Bravado!, was produced by Berkeley Playhouse in January 2011. As a Berkeley mother of two, Ms. Marlin began dancing at the Center just eight years ago and her interest sprouted into a semi-professional dance career. Since then she has appeared in works by Bay Area choreographers including Nina Haft and Dana Lawton. Ms. Marlin is pleased to be giving back to the dance community that supported her start in dance by serving on the board.
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Steve Siegelman, Board Member
Steve Siegelman is a Berkeley-based writer. He has written or contributed to more than 30 cookbooks, including Firehouse Food and The Pancake Handbook. He is cofounder and editorial director of The Book Kitchen, a boutique publishing company, and creative director of the food group at Ketchum, a PR and marketing agency. He has written for several nationally televised cooking series featuring such chefs as Mario Batali, Rick Bayless and Martin Yan. Steve has been a student at Shawl-Anderson since 1996 and joined the board in 2008.
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