OUR TEAM

Jill Randall (she/her) has been a part of the Shawl-Anderson Dance Center community since 1998. During the past 23 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. Jill currently writes for Dance Teacher and her own sites, Life as a Modern Dancer and Dancing Words (about children’s books on dance). Jill received her BFA in Modern Dance from the University of Utah and her MFA in Creative Practice: Dance at Saint Mary’s College.

Driven by the bias Bacchus before Buddha, Bianca Cabrera’s work is built by a vibrant amalgamation of baton twirling, burlesque, ballet, go-go, club, cabaret, camp, contemporary, queerness and modern dance. Cabrera directs the Oakland, CA based performance company, Blind Tiger Society which is their main conduit for choreography and performance creation. Her work was nominated for a 2014 Soul of Oakland award and has been supported through the Fleishhacker and Rainin Foundations.
Cabrera (They/She) received early training at the Chicago Academy for the Arts and later studied at the Alvin Ailey School, the Martha Graham Center and Point Park College, before receiving her BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts. Their two decade performing career includes work with many celebrated dance artists and companies including: Lingo Dance/KT Niehoff, Kim Epifano, LevyDance, The Fossettes, Sonya Smith, Erika Tsimbrovsky/AvyK, Flyaway Productions, Cielo Vertical Arts and David Herrera. Bianca is a founding member of Latinx Hispanix Danza Unidxs and served on the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards committee in 2019-20.

Erica Morales initially experienced the true sense of dancing in community as an 8-year-old

during Ballet Folklórico classes while growing up in the Northeast of Los Angeles. It was then

that she realized dance embodies the movement of spirit for both self and community. Erica went on take dance classes such as tap and ballet and eventually enjoyed varied dance classes at Mills College and UC Santa Cruz as a young adult.

Erica grew into a role as community organizer at a young age, helping her father rally the

community to preserve public spaces as community spaces. This experience led her to work with several California organizations fighting for basic rights in marginalized communities—ranging from working with governmental officials and organizers to legalize queer marriage to helping Spanish/English bilingual families negotiate with corporate banks to help subside the foreclosure process of their homes during the 2008 Housing Crisis.

Over a period of 17 years, Erica taught at several Bay Area progressive private schools and

eventually took a leadership role in Equity, Inclusion and Justice at The Berkeley School. She

facilitated SEED (Seeking Equity in Education) meetings and created curriculum for project-

based learning which allowed her to focus on equitable practices, inclusive engagement, and

social justice implementation in education. She has been the Business Manager and Director of

Finance of successful Science non-profit organization in Berkeley, California for the past 2

years.

Erica is a connector, community advocate and resource mobilizer who brings a unique

experience to SADC. She tries to center radical self-love and community when she dances and

she strongly believes that dance mirrors the outside world bringing integrity, intentionality, and

embracing the human experience as integral.

Movement, breath and flow are three things that inspire APRIL C. TAYLOR, a Bay Area transplant from Los Angeles who graduated from Mills College with a BA in Women's Studies and Dance. A performing and ritual artist, as well as a trained actor/singer/dancer, she has been performing her entire life and working in a variety of artistic and event areans. Her passion for the expressive arts and education have led her to teach children and adults for the past twelve years at Bay Area schools and studios. April is glad to be serving as part of the administrative team as SADC emerges from 2020 and 2021. She looks forward to more dancing and creativity while always supporting the mission of the Center where she has been an active community member since 1997. 
Find out more about April at enchantedacts.com

Originally from the East coast, Laya moved to the Bay Area in 2015. She started taking dance classes as an adult, her first ever at Shawl-Anderson, and developed a passion for movement arts. In addition to dancing and her work in the field of public health, Laya is a collage artist and baker. In her free time she can be found listening to music and practicing improvisational movement in her living room. 

Madeline Lawder is a dancer and movement specialist. A graduate of the Performing Arts & Social Justice program at the University of San Francisco, Madeline has taught aerial dance, acrobatics, and contemporary in private studios across the Bay and guest lectured at UC Berkeley and University of San Francisco. She has performed locally and nationally with aerial dance companies Flyaway/Jo Kreiter Productions and BANDALOOP.  She currently choreographs and produces outdoor site-specific performances in northern California as part of DIRT & GLITTER.

Eli Zepeda (she/her) is a Bay Area native and Shawl-Anderson has been her dance home for over 20 years. She is a proud graduate of the Saint Mary's College (SMC) and Mills College dance programs. After graduating from SMC, she taught dance and pilates. For the last few years she has been doing communications work for schools and non-profits. Most recently Eli performed with Paufve Dance and with Nancy Karp + Dancers. In addition to dance, Eli enjoys sewing, reading, cooking, and hanging out with her family which includes a really cool third grade son, awesome husband, and adorable dog. 

Noah D. James III (he/his.) has esteemed over two decades of intentional dance work here in THE OHLONE. A movement journey that includes performance installations and partnership with Urban Jazz Dance Company, honoring his family origins and heritage from the Point Shipyard Project in Push Dance Company to co-developing and directing a wonderful garden with Visceral Roots Dance Company. In 2015, while home at Shawl Anderson Dance Center, Noah picked up The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp. His life was forever impacted and in constant motion toward being an artist of servitude. Noah has worked over thirty different jobs while courageously carving out a dance journey of his own-at times- even against doctors' advice. While growing up with Sickle Cell Disease, Noah discovered he was deaf and hard of hearing. He learned early on to embrace the differences against societal norms and pressure by choosing joy. A quote by Rabindranath T., "I SLEPT AND DREAMT THAT LIFE WAS JOY. I AWOKE AND SAW THAT LIFE WAS SERVICE. I ACTED, AND BEHOLD, SERVICE WAS JOY.”  May the dance continue! Here are some ways to connect with Noah: https://linktr.ee/Inoahplace

Taylor Bazile (she/her/hers) grew up a student-athlete in the Bay Area with a love for dance. In high school, she was a member of the dance and track and field teams and danced recreationally over the years. Taylor received her B.A. in Communication from the University of Southern California in 2023 and incorporated her love for movement into her electives at the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. She started teaching in 2021 with Tiffany's Dance Academy back home in the Bay during the end of the pandemic and gained classroom experience in ballroom,  modern contemporary,  African American Dance (Lecture), and Pilates upon returning to USC campus her senior year. She is excited to join the Shawl-Anderson Dance Center team as a Media Associate and looks forward to continuing her journey with the SADC community, making dance viable to all. 

Noelle is a mover, creator, and educator based in the Bay Area. She started with Shawl-Anderson during the summer of 2022, and has also become a part of the Youth staff . For the summer of 2023, Noelle will be the Youth Program Summer Camps & Intensives Coordinator! 

Andrinea Murphy (she/her) is an Oakland native who works as a steward for Shawl-Anderson. Fashion has been her niche since a young girl playing in her mother's closet. Her interests have revolved around anything creative that allowed her to self-express. Growing into a teen she fell in love with dance at her high school, Oakland High, where she studied Jazz dance for the first time then decided to expand her knowledge learning different styles after graduating. From that point on she fell in love with the structure and community that comes with each style of dance and the idea of movement in general. Ever since she has always felt most comfortable working and dancing around such inspiring people. Andrinea enjoys the arts and is currently a Liberal arts major at San Francisco State University while also studying dance on her free time, hiking, and participating in anything that involves self expression through art.

Ash (they/he), is a multi-disciplinary artist based on the unceded land of the Lisjan, Ohlone people, also known as Oakland, CA. They received their B.A. in Theatre Arts with a minor in Dance from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2020. He is primarily fascinated by all their various practices' intersections and how those connections bring together a diverse community. Now to be joining the Shawl-Anderson Dance Center team, they are excited to expand their community within the East Bay dance community.

Carly has been dancing for more than three decades while slowly moving west. She grew up in Lancaster, PA and moved through DC and Chicago on her way to California. She is a life-long student with undergraduate degrees in Biology + Dance from the George Washington University and a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Chicago, where she studied embodied cognition. Carly is currently pursuing an MFT in Somatic Psychotherapy at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She also loves books by Haruki Murakami, the tv show The West Wing, elaborate German board games, and odd numbers.

Olivia Sander (she/they) is an Oakland-based movement artist with roots in the Pacific Northwest. In 2021, she graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in Dance and medical school prerequisites. Olivia’s current practice is notably influenced by her training in modern, house, and improvisation styles. They have presented choreographic work across the US and France and delivered lectures on their artistic research at the University of Washington. Currently, they teach, perform, research, and create in the Bay Area and Europe, driven by curiosity and a desire to connect. Olivia is honored to be on the team at SADC!

Originally from California’s Central Coast, Vivi (she/her) graduated from UC Berkeley in 2020 with a B.A. in Anthropology. Her career experience primarily consists of museum curation, California archaeology, and customer service but she’s been a life-long lover and occasional creator of art in all its forms- painting, ceramics, performance, literature, etc. Currently, Vivi doubles as an Admin Associate at Shawl-Anderson and a “Hot Dog Tender” at a local Berkeley restaurant. She hopes to one day attend graduate school for Museum Studies but is greatly enjoying just being a working adult in the mean time. Vivi is eager to help SADC provide a creative, nurturing environment for all dancers!

Zoë Quon (she/her) wears many hats, including: dancer, choreographer, barista, steward at SADC, and lighting technician/stagehand. Her movement style is gestural, slinky, and adaptive. Much of her art stems from her lived experiences of queerness and her Chinese-American heritage. She recently completed her B.A. in Performing Arts and Social Justice with a concentration in dance at USF. She finds joy in many things: jazz cd’s, jasmine flowers, and tank tops, to name a few.

Zohra (she/her) is a Steward and Teaching Assistant at Shawl Anderson with a special love for working with kids and ballet. On the side, she moonlights as a freelance children's book editor, and is especially keen on giving voice to BIPOC experiences.