BOARD OF DIRECTORS
ASHLEY GAYLE
Board Member
Ashley Gayle graduated from UC Irvine with a B.F.A in Dance Performance and a minor in Business Management. After moving back home to the Bay Area, she’s performed with the Alayo Dance Company, PUSH Dance Company, LV Dance Collective, the David Herrera Dance Company, Mix'd Ingrdnts, and Urban Jazz Dance Company. Ashley Gayle also enjoys teaching youth and adults throughout the Bay Area; including Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, John Muir Elementary, UC Berkeley/ CalPerformances Ailey Camp, Cal State East Bay, Las Positas College, Albany & Novato High School, PUSH Outreach, amongst many others. Her current endeavor is Co-Directing Visceral Roots Dance Company, and presenting choreography rooted in telling stories inspired by social justice for minorities. She has presented work through PUSHfest, The Black Choreographers Festival, SAFEhouse, as well as others. Arts Administration has also been an integral part of her career. Ashley worked as a Front Desk Program Manager with Shawl-Anderson for over 5 years, and is now working for K*STAR*PRODUCTIONS as Program Manager.
*Ashley will be come a full board member in summer 2021 as we update bylaws since she is concurrently serving in a temporary admin team position.
ROGELIO LOPEZ
Board Member
Rogelio Lopez has been a choreographic presence throughout the California college dance scene over the past decade, where he has created many works chosen to be performed at the American College Dance Association annual festivals, some of which have been presented in the gala performances and at nationals. Rogelio is currently the director of the MFA in Dance at St. Mary’s College of Moraga, and teaches regularly at Shawl Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley. He holds an MFA in Dance from California State University and has danced professionally for many wonderful contemporary dance artists including: Keith Johnson, Hope Mohr, Cathy Davalos, Mary Armentrout, Deborah Slater, Nina Haft, and Randee Paufve.
ANN DIFRUSCIA
Board Member
Ann’s love for dance started as a toddler. She danced in every school event, and delighted in organizing neighborhood plays that she directed, staged, and choreographed. In her teens, she sampled a taste of jazz and tap classes that triggered a life-long passion for the art form, and inspired her to enroll as a dance & theatre major at Emerson College. She moved to NYC in her sophomore year to train and study with master teachers: Graham, Sanasardo, Corvinos, Ailey School, and Luigi, and finally earned her BFA in Dance in 1974.
Ann has trained, performed, choreographed, and taught technique classes and composition on both coasts: Radcliffe College, Emerson College, ICD, Joy of Movement Center, Theatre Two, Boston Dance Academy, Advent School, and YMCA (Boston); the University Y House and SADC (Berkeley). Ann co-founded her Boston-based company, AfterImage Dance Co, that toured and performed throughout New England with appearances on WCBV and WGBH TV. AfterImage enjoyed an on-going residency at Electronic Body Arts in Albany, NY, and they designed a lecture-demo series that was performed widely throughout the Boston school district.
Ann has had the honor and pleasure of dancing in countless works that include Jack Moore, Sara Sugihara, Liz Rozner, Collette Bischer-Choate, Martin Kravitz, Randee Paufve, Valerie Gutwirth, Rogelio Lopez, Mary Armentrout, Chingchi Yu, Liv Schaffer. As a founding member of Ina Hahn Dance Company, Mary Reid’s - Smaller Than Life, Lucas Hoving Company, and LAZARUS Dance, she indulged in every moment. Ann has presented her own work in Bay Area venues since the 1980s. In 2017/2018, she premiered two solo pieces in a shared evening of dance (Sisters & Druthers) as part of the Dance Up Close Series at SADC. She continues to enjoy the rigor and generative nature of creating work through collaboration and discovery with other dancers, and dances with relish wherever, whenever she can. She is forever grateful for the opportunity to serve the community as a member of SADC Board of Directors.
SHAUNNA VELLA
Board Member
Shaunna Vella is a choreographer, performer, teacher and activist that has created work in the Bay Area for over 20 years. As a queer femme artist based in Oakland, her performance work and academic scholarship is an interdisciplinary praxis of queer performance, dance and embodiment, performance studies, and building performance as community ritual. She has been teaching at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center since 2004, and continues to collaborate with wonderful artists and teachers from around the world, many of which have been in proximity to SADC.
She is the Program Director for LEAP (Liberal Education for Arts Professionals) and is an Associate Professor in the Performing Arts at Saint Mary’s College of California where she teaches courses such as Dance and Social Justice, Art and Activism and Intercultural Choreography, as well as movement technique and production. Shaunna is the co-founder of Vella & Merrell Dance, and was recently nominated by The Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee for an Outstanding Performance Award for the Company in 2019. Shaunna holds an MFA in Dance from Saint Mary’s College of California.
LAURA MARLIN
Board Member
Laura Marlin is a Teaching Artist, Director, and Playwright; teaching children with Cal Shakes, Word for Word, and Berkeley Playhouse. Her two musicals (written with Phil Gorman), “Bravado” and “Becoming Robin Hood” have been produced by Berkeley Playhouse KidStage to great acclaim. Laura has danced at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center since 2001, and has had the good fortune to perform locally with Nina Haft and Co; Randee Paufve; Dana Lawton; Rogelio Lopez; Ruth Botchan; and Lisa Tenorio. Laura has a Masters in Education from Bank Street; she joined the SADC board in 2011.
JOIN THE BOARD
JOIN THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The SADC Board actively supports the life and future of Shawl-Anderson Dance Center. We are devoted to a dance center that provides a noncompetitive, inclusive and supportive community for dancers and dancemakers, with diversity, racial equality, and justice as our guiding principles. We welcome fresh voices, new energy, multiple points of view, and people of all backgrounds, cultures, and races with a strong commitment to our mission, vision, and values.
In its official capacity, the Board of Directors governs and holds fiduciary responsibility for SADC. The primary means of governance are:
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Developing, reflecting, and maintaining the Mission, Vision, Values of Shawl-Anderson and its history.
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Setting policy and providing direction for the organization by establishing a multi-year strategic plan, approval of the annual budget and monitoring financial performance.
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Donor outreach and development of both major gifts and community-based support.
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Developing and adopting policies/programs that broaden and address racial diversity and inclusiveness, and ensure equity.
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Hiring and overseeing the Executive Director and Artistic Director.
In addition to the complications the pandemic has brought, we are at a moment with a lot of work to be done, including:
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Expanding and supporting SADC as an equity-centered, anti-racist organization.
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Wrestling with the limitations of our space (when we are in the building again)...
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Assisting in designing and implementing new internal structures that promote communication and transparency, reciprocity, equity in decision making, and a healthy working atmosphere.
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Advising/developing/supporting new revenue streams.
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Acting as a sounding board about dance programming and curating, dance education, teaching dance, and dance pedagogy.
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Advising/developing/implementing fundraising campaigns.
If you are interested in learning more about a Board role, please contact board@shawl-anderson.org