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 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’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.