Executive Director

Rebecca Johnson had her early dance training on the East Coast in a Royal Academy of Dance ballet school near Boston. She discovered modern dance in 1985 and began performing professionally with Moving West Dance Company at the age of 14. Rebecca earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Dance and English Literature from Rutgers University. While in residence in New Jersey and New York City she performed in companies directed by Michael Gary and Val Suarez. Rebecca completed her Master of Education degree from the University of New Hampshire in 2001. Rebecca migrated west to California in 1999 and since then has performed with Nina Haft & Company, Paufve Dance, Abigail Hosein’s ahdanco, Rogelio Lopez & Dancers and Dana Lawton Dances amongst others. She was the Managing Director of Shawl-Anderson Dance Center from 2008-2014 after seven years of teaching modern for teens and adults at the Center as well as serving on the board. Rebecca became the Executive Director of Shawl-Anderson in January 2015. Rebecca’s administration background includes work with a range of non-profit organizations, both in social services and the arts, as well as private consulting work for numerous individuals and companies in the areas of fundraising, marketing, event production, publicity and graphic design. She also serves as adjunct faculty at Saint Mary’s College in Orinda, CA for the Master of Fine Arts program in Dance.

Artistic Director

Jill Randall has been a part of the Shawl-Anderson Dance Center community since 1998. During the past 20 years in the Bay Area, she has worked as a performer, teaching artist, arts administrator, and writer. Her experience in dance is wide and varied, from teaching dance in public schools to directing festivals. Jill is passionate about the many ways that dance can be a part of the East Bay community and what dance can offer youth and adults alike.

As a performer, she has worked extensively with Nina Haft & Company, Paufve Dance, Martt Lawrence, and Dana Lawton. As a teaching artist, she has worked in K-12 public and independent schools and at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center. She received the Herbst Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013 for her work at The Hamlin School in San Francisco. With Bridget Frederick, Jill co-founded and co-directed the Dance IS Festival for 7 years in Berkeley. The festival brought together professional artists, college departments, and high school students to dialogue and perform together, involving nearly 100 artists each year.

Jill was the Director of Education for the Lincoln Center Institute affiliate in Berkeley from 2004-2006 and then became the first Assistant Director of Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in 2006. From 2006-2010, Jill expanded the Center’s offerings and enrollment for both youth and adults, restarted the master class program with visiting artists, and created the Dance Up Close/East Bay performance series.

Jill’s writing covers a variety of topics including careers in dance, dance education, and arts integration. Her writing has been published in Dance Studio Life Magazine, DIY Dancer, and Teaching Artist Journal. Jill also currently writes the monthly news content for Dance Teacher Magazine.

View her writing online:
Life as a Modern Dancer Blog (artist profiles and career paths in dance)
Dancing Words Blog (children’s books on dance)
MFA Dance in Review
Bay Area High School Dance

Jill received her BFA in Modern Dance from the University of Utah in 1997 and her MFA in Creative Practice at Saint Mary’s College in 2016. 

Administrative Director

Abigail has been working at SADC as a teacher for 11 years and as an administrator for over 7.  As Administrative Director she provides direction and day-to-day management of educational programs, artistic programs, information technology, finance, administration, and design, to name a few. By helping create and implement organization-wide policies,  programs, and infrastructure, she is excited to contribute to the overall success, mission, and growth of the Center.

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She is also the artistic director of ahdanco, a Bay Area modern dance company founded in 2002.  She has been teaching for over 15 years and has served on faculty at Santa Clara University, College Prep High School, and is currently at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center. She holds her MFA in Performance and Choreography from Mills College and has performed locally for Dance Repertory/San Francisco, Hudson Dance, Barely Complete Productions, and Rogelio Lopez & Dancers.

Production Manager & Communications Coordinator

Jessi Barber is a choreographer, lighting designer, and stage manager who has been based in Oakland since 2010. She has designed shows for the Counterpulse EDGE residency, Z Griss, and Dalton Alexander. In her work as Production Manager and resident lighting designer at SADC and a freelance stage manager she has worked with local companies including Paufve Dance, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, ka.nei.see | collective, Nina Haft & Co, and Nicole Klaymoon’s Embodiment Project. Jessi holds a BA in Environmental Studies with a minor in Dance Performance from Oberlin College. 

Administrative Manager & Equity Practice Advisor

For Piper Thomasson, dance has been an integral part of her life since she began ballet at 3 years old. She is originally from Stockton, CA but moved to the bay area when she started attending Santa Clara University earning a BA in Theatre Arts with a Dance Emphasis as well as a BA in English with a focus in Technical Writing. Needing more dance in her life than the Silicon Valley provided, she moved to the East Bay. She is also currently the Project Director for the Bay Area’s long-time performance series, Works in the Works with Choreographers’ Performance Alliance. While she misses teaching and performing as often as she did in college, she still appears at the occasional audition (and performance) as a freelance dancer. Most recently, she performed with Risa Jaroslow and Dancers at ODC in At Your Service.  She is also a regular substitute teacher of Jazz at her alma mater, SCU.

Development Associate

Greta is an Italy native who moved to the Bay Area in early 2018. She earned a Masters in Anthropology from the University of Copenhagen and decided to leave the academic world to pursue her love of dance and movement and not having to wear shoes at work. She has danced and performed in Copenhagen and Berlin and is currently enjoying exploring the Bay Area and all it has to offer.

Registrar & Youth Director's Assistant

Hannah Westbrook is a freelance dance artist based in Oakland, CA, after transplanting from Southern California. Hannah holds BA degrees in Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies from UC Berkeley, and is currently a company dancer with Tim Rubel Human Shakes and animi motus, with whom she has performed nationally and internationally. She is also an Associate Artist with FaultLine Theater, and Co-Artistic Director of the Phenomenal Anomalies alongside Becky Robinson-Leviton. Hannah has been privileged to dance in works by choreographers including Stephan Koplowitz, Jennifer Perfilio, Rebecca Morris, Catherine Liu, Michael D. Lee, Becky Robinson-Leviton, Sue Roginski, and Julie Freeman. She also participated in the first AXIS Choreo-Lab, working with Laurel Lawson and Neve Mazique-Bianco.

Work Study Manager

Rachel Caldwell is delighted to be a member of both the youth teaching faculty and administrative staff at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Rachel trained in ballet, tap, jazz, modern, hip hop and Scottish highland dance. She earned her BFA in Dance from the University of North Texas in 2011 and MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from Mills College in 2014. Outside of SADC, Rachel is a pre-ballet teacher at Berkeley Ballet Theater and a Contributing Editor for Dance Teacher magazine, for which she writes the History, Technique and K-12 columns.

Front Desk

Julia Sweeney first came to Shawl-Anderson at age 9, performed in works by Abigail Hosein, Nina Haft, Randee Paufve, Rogelio Lopez and others as a member of the Shawl-Anderson Youth Ensemble, and joyfully returned to her dance home as an administrator in 2019 after earning her Honors BA in Social Studies from Harvard University. An aspiring video artist, Julia studied with Karthik Pandian and Ross McElwee and worked as a research assistant for the Beirut-based visual artist and filmmaker Lamia Joreige. She makes work that is sometimes dance-related, always strange, and often unintentionally involves citrus fruits! Julia is also a trained peer counselor and organized a free community mental health summit as an intern at the Broadmoor Improvement Association in New Orleans.