Faculty Biographies
Department Chair
Professor Kathryn "Kitty" Daniels
Ballet, Contemporary Issues in Dance
Kitty began her professional career as a ballet dancer, performing with companies in the United States and Europe. She continued her performing career in modern dance, performing with the Bill Evans Dance Company, Concert Dance Company of Boston, and Beth Soll and Dancers as well as numerous Seattle independent choreographers, including Pat Graney, Long Nguyen, Erin Matthiessen, and Wade Madsen. Nationally known as a teacher of ballet, modern dance, and kinesiology, she has taught at the Bill Evans Summer Institutes of Dance and Teachers Intensives, California State University Summer Arts Programs, London Contemporary Dance School, University of Washington, Boston University, Mount Holyoke College, and Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts and has been guest company teacher to the Mark Morris Dance Group. She has been an invited presenter at conferences of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science, the National Dance Education Organization, the National Dance Association, Not Just Any Body and Soul, Dance USA, National Association of Schools of Dance, Performing Artists Medical Association and CORPS De Ballet among others. Her articles have been published in the Journal of Dance Medicine and Science, Journal of Dance Education and Dance Teacher. Kitty has worked clinically as assistant to dance kinesiologist Karen Clippinger. She holds a BA from Goddard College and an MA in Dance Kinesiology from Lesley College. She is a member of the Council of Dance Administrators, the National Association of Schools of Dance, the National Dance Education Organization and the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science.
Core Faculty
Professor Patricia Hon
Ballet, Pointe, Modern, Spanish
Pat performed extensively for 10 years with ballet companies in France, Austria, Spain, and Germany. In 1983 she received the National Endowment for the Arts' Choreographic Fellowship and since then has choreographed for the Atlanta Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet's Summer Inventions, Singapore Ballet, Ballet Concerto of Miami, Goh Ballet in Canada, Federal Ballet Company of Malaysia, Ballet Petit, and for dancers competing in the International Ballet Competitions in Jackson, Mississippi. Before coming to Cornish in 1978, she taught at the Morelli Studios in New York and in Florence, Italy. Pat began studying ballet at the age of 10 in her native Singapore and continued her studies at Rosella Hightower's Centre de Danse Classique in France. She also studied Flamenco and Classical Spanish dance in Madrid, Spain, and performed with the foremost Spanish dance company, Antonio and his Ballets of Madrid, before coming to New York to attend the Joffrey School and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. She has been teaching for 30 years as Professor in the Dance department at Cornish College of the Arts. Between June and December 2008, Pat was Head of Dance at the School of the Arts, Singapore, where she continues to teach in the summer.
Professor Wade Madsen (on leave Fall 2008)
Modern, Composition/Improvisation, Choreography, Modern Partnering
Professor Wade Madsen has been teaching at Cornish college of the Arts for over 20 years and has premiered nearly 24 dances for the college dance company. He continues his growth as a teacher with various workshops and performances throughout the country. Wade has been producing and performing his own work with his company Wade Madsen and Dancers in Seattle since 1977. A former member of the Bill Evans Dance Company and Tandy Beal & Company, Wade has received choreographic grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts; Washington State, King County, and Seattle Arts Commissions; Artist's Trust; and Allied Arts. His work has been produced in Seattle by the Allegro! Dance Festival, On the Boards, Bumbershoot, Rockhopper Dance, and Composer/Choreographer. He has also performed with various dance groups in Seattle, including Spectrum Dance Theater, d-9 Dance Collective, DanceWorks Northwest, and Co-Motion Dance. Wade has performed, choreographed, and taught for various companies and colleges throughout the country. Wade also continues to choreograph for A Contemporary Theater (ACT), Seattle Rep, Seattle Opera and Seattle Shakespeare Ensemble. His acting credits include The Notebooks of Leonardo, co-produced with the Seattle Repertory Theatre and Chicago's Goodman Theater, as well as the films Threshold and Crocodile Tears. He earned his BA from the University of New Mexico.
Professor Lodi McClellan
Ballet, Dance History, Theory and Practice of Performing Arts Criticism, Teaching Methods
Lodi began her ballet training as a child with Loyce Holton at the Minnesota Dance Theatre and continued with Sydelle Gomberg, Samuel Kurkjian, Hannah Wiley, Marjorie Mussman, Jocelyn Lorenz, Flemming Halby, Kitty Daniels, and Yasuko and Emi Tokunaga. During a seventeen-year professional career in modern dance, Lodi was a member of the Chamber Dance Company, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Beth Soll and Company, Llory Wilson and Dancers, and Nina Wiener and Dancers, among many other freelance artists. She has been teaching dance technique for twenty-nine years. Her teaching credits include the University of Washington, American Dance Institute, Strictly Seattle, Dance Fremont, ARC, Harvard University, Boston University, the Boston Conservatory, Emerson College, and many private studios on both coasts. As a member of Beth Soll and Company, for three years she and other company members were Artists-in-Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology choreographing on and teaching modern dance to engineers. In addition to teaching in the Cornish Dance Department for the past thirteen years she has also taught Performing Arts Criticism, Integrated Studies, Animal Ethics, and Arts Censorship in the Humanities and Sciences Department. Over one hundred of her dance reviews and articles have been published by the Seattle Weekly, Eastside Week, Dance International, The International Dictionary of Modern Dance, Curve, and DanceNet, for which she also served as Co-Editor. She has researched and presented pre-performance lectures for the Chamber Dance Company, Seattle Theater Group, The Orcas Center and Cornish College of the Arts. Lodi graduated with honors from Walnut Hill School of Performing Arts and received her BA in Dance, cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College. She earned an MFA in Dance, specializing in dance criticism, from the University of Washington. Her professional membership includes The Dance Critics Association and The Society of Dance History Scholars.
Associate Professor Michele Miller
Modern, Modern Partnering, Martial Arts for Dancers, Tai Chi, Teaching Methods
After teaching at and managing Dance Space Center (now Dance New Amsterdam) in New York, Miller moved to Seattle to join the Pat Graney Company. With her business partner KT Niehoff, she began Velocity Dance Center in 1996 where she remained on the Board of Directors until 2006. Michele teaches all levels of modern dance at Velocity and at Cornish College of the Arts. She spent a year as the Artist In Residence at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts where she taught dance and choreographed work on the students. Michele has spent two summers teaching at Bates Dance Festival in Maine, and has also taught at the Guandong Modern Dance Festival, the University of Washington, the University of Montana - Missoula, the University of Oregon - Eugene, and Western Washington University - Bellingham. She has taught locally in summer workshops for Dance This!, Strictly Seattle, and the Regional Dance America Craft of Choreography workshop. Michele holds a fourth degree black belt in Kajukenbo Kung Fu and teaches Kung Fu and Tai Chi to both dancers and martial artists. At the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago, Michele won two gold medals for forms, and in 2005 was the Women's Junior Division Grand Champion in Tai Chi at the Hong Kong Martial Arts Association competition. She is a founding member of the d9 Dance Collective, an all-women repertory company working with choreographers David Dorfman, Bebe Miller, Lisa Race, Stephanie Skura and others. Michele performed with LeGendre Performance Group from 1999 to 2004.
Professor Deborah Wolf
Modern, Composition/Improvisation, Choreography, Dance History
Deborah began her professional career performing with the State University of New York at Brockport’s Company in Residence. Shortly thereafter she joined Concert Dance Company of Boston, New England's premiere modern repertory company, performing works by over 50 choreographers including Merce Cunningham, Laura Dean, David Gordon, Wendy Perron, Bebe Miller, Mark Morris, and Randy Warshaw. She became CDC's Resident Choreographer and eventually added CDC's Artistic Directorship to her duties. Other performance credits include Seachange Theater Ensemble, New York Chambre Dance Ensemble and Peter DiMuro and Associates. A recipient of a Massachusetts Artist Foundation Fellowship and seven Finalist Awards in choreography, she has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Boston and Somerville Arts Lottery Councils, and Seattle’s Artist Trust. Deborah has choreographed for the Boston Ballet, the Boston Symphony Youth Concert Series, and numerous other companies both in New England and Seattle. Producer and performer of her own choreography through WolfWorks, she has also been produced by among others: Boston's Dance Umbrella, Boston Dances, Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out Series, New England Choreographers’ Showcase, and in Seattle area by Velocity’s Strictly Seattle and Under Construction, Rockhopper’s On the Side, Dance On Capitol Hill’s Choreofest and Intimate Works, Men in Dance/Against the Grain Festival of Dancing, Powell/Scott’s Composer/Choreographer #6, Lehua Dance Theater, Evoke Productions’ Full Tilt, Bellingham Repertory Dance Company and On the Boards’ 12 Min Max Mainstage and Northwest New Works Festival. Most recently her choreography was selected for the A.W. A. R. D. Show! 2009 administered by the Joyce Theater Foundation and performed at On the Boards. Her teaching credits include Harvard University, Rhode Island College, Boston Ballet, SUNY/Brockport, and currently as Professor of Dance at Cornish College of the Arts. She has served on the boards of d9 Dance Collective, Velocity Dance Center and as a panelist for New England Foundation for the Arts, Seattle Arts Commission and the Seattle Fringe Festival. Deborah received her BA in Dance from State University of New York/Brockport.
Adjunct Faculty
Adjunct Instructor Amma Anang
African Dance
Amma is co-founder of Ocheami, a West African Music and Dance Ensemble. She has studied in Ghana and has performed throughout the US and Canada. She has spent the last six years as a Student Programs Supervisor at Edmonds Community College, along with her work at Cornish. Amma holds a BA in Drama/Dance and Black Studies and an MFA in Dance from Mills College.
Adjunct Instructor Byron Au Yong
Rhythmic Fundamentals, Listening to Music
Byron creates musical events where classical and folk music combine with activism and relevance. Examples include Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas, Stuck Elevator, and YIJU: Songs of Dislocation. His multidisciplinary initiatives have been featured in concert, festival, and site-specific locations as diverse as the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Hamburg, Tokyo Art Museum, and Jeonju Sanjo Festival. His numerous honors include awards from the American Composers Forum, Creative Capital, Ford Foundation, and Meet the Composer. Byron holds an MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, an MA from the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA, and a BA/BM from the University of Washington. Visit HearByron.com to learn more about his work.
Adjunct Instructor Steve Casteel
Ballet, Ballet Partnering, Men's Technique
Steve Casteel was born in Tacoma, WA and received his early training from Jan Column School of Classic Ballet. At age sixteen Steve joined Boston Ballet II. In 1987, Steve became a member of Houston Ballet where he was promoted to soloist and performed many of the great classical works such as Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Coppélia, and Cinderella. With Houston Ballet, he performed works by such renowned choreographers as Christopher Bruce, Jirí Kylián, Sir Kenneth McMillan, Ben Stevenson, and Paul Taylor. In addition, he has performed with Diablo Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Next Stage Dance Theatre, and Spectrum Dance Theatre. Locally, Steve has danced in works by Kay Englert, Dominique Gabella, Amii LeGendre, Wade Madsen, Dale Merrill, Crispen Spaeth and Deborah Wolf. From 1997 to 1999 he worked for Washington Contemporary Ballet in Tacoma as Assistant to the Director. In 2001, Steve received his Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA. In 2004, he received his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona in Tucson AZ. From 2004 to 2006 Steve was the Public Relations Coordinator for Next Stage Dance Theatre. Steve has taught at Bainbridge Dance Center (Bainbridge Island), Berkeley Ballet Theater (Berkeley CA), Cornish Preparatory Dance Program (Seattle), Dance Fremont (Seattle), Spectrum Dance Theater (Seattle), and The University of Washington (Seattle).
Adjunct Instructor Carla Corrado
Kinesiology, Movement Foundations, Conditioning
Carla holds a BS in Physical Therapy from the University of Washington (1989) and a BA in English with a minor in Dance from the University of Rochester. In addition to teaching at Cornish, Carla serves as Cornish's on-site physical therapist in the Dance Department and holds clinic hours at Seattle Orthopedic Sports. Carla has been a licensed massage practitioner since 1980 and was one of the founding coop members of New Seattle Massage. She previously worked at Seattle Sports Medicine clinic as well as backstage and on tour as a physical therapist for Pacific Northwest Ballet. A former dancer who studied ballet, modern, low flying trapeze, Skinner Releasing and contact improvisation, Carla has choreographed and performed in Seattle with various independent artists. Carla is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association and the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science.
Adjunct Instructor Meg Fox
Lighting Design for Dance, Technical Production for Dance
Meg has been designing lights for dance and theatre for over 20 years. In Seattle, she has worked with every major modern choreographer and company. Although her first love is dance based work, she has also designed lights for many of the major houses in Seattle along with many new performance works. She has toured nationally and abroad with Urban Bush Women, and The Pat Graney Company, among others. Her work has also been commissioned by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and by Sonia Dawkins for the Pacific Northwest Ballet.
Adjunct Instructor Rex Kinney
Hip Hop
Rex Kinney grew up in Seattle and was introduced to hip hop at the age of 14. He has had the pleasure of performing and choreographing for such venues as the Pacific Northwest Ballet's REACH and DANCE CHANCE Program, Poncho's Auction Gala, Village Theater's The King and I, Seattle Theater Group’s DANCE this, Experience Music Project, Seahawks and Seattle Sonics/Storm Half-Time shows, Seattle Academy, Evoke Productions, Enertia, Kube 93.3 FM's Summer Jam Concert on the main stage, opening for Cypress Hill, the music video “Do You Want Me” by Mion Lee Drew and its west coast tours, the Children's Hospital Benefit Showcase, and the UW Conference for former Governor Gary Locke. He is currently the Director and Choreographer for the Shorecrest High School Dance Team, where he has led them to 5 District Titles and 2 WIAA State Dance/Drill Championships in 2006 and 2009, with a 3rd place ranking at Nationals in 2007. In addition, he is an instructor through the UW Experimental College and Westlake Dance Center in Seattle.
Adjunct Instructor Vivian Little
Ballet
Vivian Little was an original member of Pacific Northwest Ballet and performed as a principal at the company under the direction of Melissa Hayden, Janet Reed and Todd Bolender from 1974-1977. She performed as a soloist with San Francisco Ballet under the direction of Lew Christensen and Michael Smuin from 1977-81. After her performing career she taught ballet classes, worked as the ballet mistress and choreographed for El Ballet Municipal de Lima, Peru. Vivian has taught ballet classes for over twenty years at Walnut Hill Performing Arts School in Massachusetts, Pacific Northwest Ballet School and as a Guest Lecturer in the University of Washington Dance Department. She founded Dance Fremont! in September 1996 and currently co-directs and choreographs for the Dance Fremont! based performing company, Fremont Danceworks.
Adjunct Instructor Tonya Lockyer
Choreography, Movement Analysis
Tonya began her professional career as a performer with Contemporary Dancers Canada, then danced in New York and Boston performing the work of Donald Byrd, Merce Cunningham, Charles Moulton, Joanna Mendl Shaw, and numerous independent choreographers. She also worked as a Principal Dancer and Rehearsal Director for Paula Josa-Jones. In 1999 she founded VIA, a Dance/Theater company dedicated to collaborating with artists from diverse cultural and artistic backgrounds. She has performed her work at venues and festivals in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Russia and received numerous awards including two residencies at Banff Centre for The Arts, and grants from Arts International, The Canada Council, and The Seattle Arts Commission among others. She has choreographed for dance and opera companies and colleges here and abroad. She has taught modern technique, improvisation and movement analysis at Emerson College, The University of Washington, The Bates Dance Festival, Strictly Seattle, and The Seattle Festival of Alternative Dance and Improvisation. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at The University of Maryland and The University of Calgary and has taught master classes locally, nationally and internationally. Tonya is a graduate of The School of The Toronto Dance Theater and studied at the studios of Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham, Limon, and Movement Research. She is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst. Her articles have been published in Contact Quarterly and Nouvelles de Danse (Brussels).
Adjunct Instructor Tim Lynch
Ballet
Tim is from Long Island, New York. Trained on full scholarship at The School of American Ballet, Tim joined PNB as an apprentice in 1993 and was promoted to full company member in 1994, retiring at the end of the 2002-03 season. Tim began working with PNB's Education and Outreach program in 2001, teaching and choreographing for the REACH Student Performance Group and joined the faculty in 2003. He is Co-Artistic Director of the Seattle Dance Project, a modern dance company based in Seattle. Tim holds a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts.
Adjunct Instructor Kathleen McCormick
Pointe
Kathleen trained in California at the Marin Civic Ballet and continued her studies at ABT, American Ballet Center and the Banff School of the Arts. As a student she was honored with scholarships from the San Francisco Ballet and North Carolina School of the Arts. She danced professionally with Nevada Dance Theatre, Joffrey II, Joffrey City Center Ballet and the Banff Touring Company. She has taught at The Dance Studio, Washington Dance Forum, Washington Academy of the Performing Arts, Dance Fremont and the University of Washington. Formerly she directed the American Ballet Conservatory, ABCDance and the Seattle Youth Ballet. Kathleen is on faculty and is the Director of the Preparatory Dance Program at Cornish College of the Arts.
Adjunct Instructor Christina McNeil
Ballet, Jazz
Christy holds a BFA in Dance from Cornish where she was the recipient of a Kreielsheimer Scholarship. Her performance credits include Interweave Dance Theatre (Boulder, CO), Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (Dance Captain/Company Manager), and many guest spots for colleges and other shows. She has held faculty or guest teaching positions at Cornish, Community Colleges (Shoreline, Bellevue, Riverside), Interlochen High School for the Performing Arts, Sammamish High School, and many schools and studios around the northwest. Dance choreography credits include: Cornish Dance Theater, Riverside Community College, Interweave Dance Theatre, ARC Dance, En L'Air Dance, Full Tilt and Westlake Dance Center. Theater choreography credits include: several Cornish Theater department productions, Taproot Theatre, Theater Schmeater and Strike Anywhere Productions.
Adjunct Instructor Sara Padilla
Alternative Training
Sara completed the three-year teacher certification program at the American Center for the Alexander Technique in New York City in 1995 and is a member of the American Society of the Alexander Technique (AmSAT). In addition to a diverse private practice, Sara has taught the Alexander Technique at Cornish College for the Arts and the Northwest Actor's Studio Conservatory. She has guest lectured at Seattle University, University of Puget Sound and Icicle Creek Music Center, and has taught several workshops in Portland at Conduit Dance Studio and The Oregon School of Massage, and in New York City for Judith Shakespeare of New York. Lifetime involvement with the human body and movement as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer inform Sara’s work. In addition to her teacher certification, she holds a Bachelors Degree in Dance and Liberal Arts from Portland State University. As a faculty member in the dance departments at Lewis & Clark College and Portland State University, she taught dance, improvisation and repertory. Sara performed, lectured and taught workshops with her NYC based duet dance company Grindle/Nedrow & Co./Dance throughout the US from 1986-1992.
Adjunct Instructor Becci Parsons
Feldenkrais, Movement Foundations
Becci Parsons is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitionercm and dancer with over 35 years experience in the movement arts. She holds a BA in Dance from the University of Washington and has performed locally with Llory Wilson, Pat Graney, Jeff Bickford and a host of gifted independent choreographers. Her inspiring teachers include Bill Evans, Kitty Daniels, Mark Morris, Sharon Kinney, Peggy Hackney and Stewart Dempster. In addition to a part-time faculty position in the Dance Department at Cornish, Becci teaches community Awareness Through Movement® classes, BackSense workshops and maintains a private practice in Seattle. A former regional representative for the Feldenkrais Guild of North America, Becci facilitates study groups and mentoring programs for local practitioners and students in training programs. Her work is dedicated to the mindful exploration of human vitality, grace and elegance through the study of "self in motion."
Adjunct Instructor Aileen Panke Santos
Afro-Brazilian Dance
Aileen first began exploring dance in New York where she was born and raised. There her studies included foundations in ballet, modern, jazz, tap and theatre dance at studios such as Broadway Dance Center and Phil Black. She began performing and choreographing at an early age with local theatre productions and advanced her studies to include Afro-Cuban, West African, Salsa and Tango in New York, Seattle, Brazil and Argentina. She enjoys sharing her passion for dance by performing and teaching Afro-Latin dance forms to adults and children. Aileen's other passions are in the healing arts and world cultures. She holds a Master's degree in cross-cultural community health and specializes in creating health promotion programs for underserved and minority populations. She has traveled to Nepal, South America, and Europe as a nurse to volunteer for various health organizations. Aileen recently spent 3 years in Salvador, Brazil studying Afro-Brazilian culture, music and dance. There she strengthened her technique in the Silvestre method and various other traditional dance forms, including Dances of the Orixas, Samba de Roda and Afro. Her teachers and mentors from Brazil include Rosangela Silvestre, Vera Passos, Marilza Olivera, Nem Brito da Silva and Nilginha Fonseca from Bale Folklorico. Aileen now performs and co-teaches Afro-Brazilian dance with her husband Pitta in Seattle. The combination of her experience, education and passion in the healing and performing arts brings a grounded yet dynamic energy to her teaching and performance style. Her unique charisma and enthusiasm radiates her belief in dance as an art form that allows physical, mental and spiritual expression, promoting cross-cultural understanding through a common corporal language.
Adjunct Instructor Pitta Santos
Afro-Brazilian Dance
Pitta was born and raised in Salvador, Brazil. Pitta has studied and taught Capoeira and Afro-Brazilian dance in his native Salvador for the past 18 years. He recently landed in the United States with much enthusiasm to share his native Afro-Brazilian culture through Capoeira and dance, two of the most significant artistic expressions of Black Brazilian culture. Pitta began training Capoeira Regional (pronounced hey-shon-al) under Mestre Washington and at the age of 17 became the Regional Capoeira Champion of Salvador. Pitta studied dance at Universidad Federal do Bahia and Federacao Cultural do Bahia in Salvador. He has performed throughout the state of Bahia with professional Afro-Brazilian dance and Capoeira groups such as Arte Bahia, Joao de Barro, and Axe Bahia. In 2003, Pitta co-founded the Capoeira group, Bantos Brazil, teaching and performing extensively in theatres and festivals. Bantos Brazil grew successfully, and with partnership and funding from UNESCO, provided Capoeira instruction to over 350 under-privileged youth. Pitta has also appeared on several Brazilian television and radio programs featuring his dance and Capoeira classes. In Seattle, with his wife Aileen, Pitta has created Bahia in Motion and the Capoeira group Bantos Capoeira Seattle, offering classes in Afro-Brazilian dance and Capoeira to both adults and children. Pitta's extensive professional training and ability to transmit the vibrant energy of Bahia, Brazil produce fun, creative and invigorating classes. Since his arrival, Pitta has taught workshops at Seattle's Rhythm Fest and BrasilFest and has been invited to take part in various community festivals.
Adjunct Instructor Alia Swersky
Creative Foundations, Composition/Improvisation
Alia is a movement artist, improviser, performer and teacher living in Seattle. For the last twelve years, she had created her own work as well as collaborated with and performed in the works of many local artists, including LeGendre Performance Group and The Maureen Whiting Company. Alia ran the dance program at University Prep for six years and currently teaches at Cornish College of the Arts in addition to teaching yoga in the community. Alia is a co-artistic director of Dance Arts Group, the producers of the Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation.