San Diego Dance Theater is thrilled to once again present the annual Young Choreographers Showcase and Prize! Ten finalists will compete for three prizes, as voted on by YOU, the audience, and the panel of judges. Grand prize is $1000 and a night in Live Arts Fest 2020 awarded to "Best Overall." "Best Dancer" and "Audience Favorite" both receive a $500 prize. Winners announced directly following the 8pm show.
Date: March 2, 2018
Times: 5pm & 8pm
Location: White Box Live Arts, 2590 Truxtun Road, #205 (upstairs) San Diego, CA 92106
Tickets: $20
Info: 619-225-1803 or [email protected]
About the Finalists:
Trixi Anne Agiao is a socially conscious artist and educator who works to illustrate the human experience through movement and theater. She has choreographed for the past eight years and has enjoyed having her choreography showcased on stage and video all over California. Trixi has also enjoyed many wonderful performing opportunities with an array of artists including Spencer Powell, Terry Wilson, Jean Isaacs, Jacques Heim, Jeanne Travers, and somebodies dance theater. Besides dance, Trixi focuses on making mental health resources for those who are not yet able to afford or reach professional help.
Marya Barragan is an interdisciplinary artist from San Diego. She began her dancing career at Southwestern College and in 2016, she graduated from the Professional School of Contemporary Dance in Mazatlan, Sinaloa. Since 2011 Mayra has presented work in Mexico, California, Costa Rica, Spain, & Italy. She has been teaching for 10 years and specializes in the handling of energy, physicality, & the individual search of stage presence. Mayra currently trains in contemporary, breakdancing, calisthenics, & yoga and directs “GATONEGRO," a training and research project in outdoor spaces that seeks to collaborate with children and teens to generate interest in movement from an early age.
Mario Jaimes is a freelance contemporary dance artist with nine years of dance training and performance experience. He earned his BFA in Dance at San Diego State University along with a minor in Business Management. While in college, he choreographed numerous works, performed for the University’s Dance Company, and was president of the university’s Dance Club. In his third year, Mr. Jaimes began to perform in San Diego Dance Theater's Trolley Dances, paving the way for a spot in San Diego Dance Theater’s company. He is now entering his third year as a company dancer.
Alyssa Junious received her BFA from the University of California, Irvine. At UCI she was able to study and train under living legend and world renowned choreographer Donald McKayle in his Etude Ensemble. She was also a member of the collegiate hop hop team CADC, and Entity Contemporary Dance Company. After graduating, Alyssa began choreographing throughout San Diego. As a choreographer Alyssa strives to create work that connects to the human condition that allows dancers and audience to look outside themselves. She challenges her dancers by exploring diverse styles of movement to showcase the complexity in which the body can move. In addition, Alyssa performs locally as a professional dancer and works with various local dance companies and projects.
Auti Kamal, Northern California native, is a sought after master teacher and choreographer. Her work has been featured on the World of Dance LIVE stage, Club Jeté stage, and Dance Magazine. Auti received a degree in dance from California State University, Long Beach where she was chosen twice by the prestigious faculty to present her original pieces in student concerts. She is the founder and director of Bodyspeaks and a well-rounded artist with a killer drive to create and continue expanding her platform. Above all, she values kindness, professionalism, and inspiring others to pursue their dreams. Auti recently moved to San Diego and is looking forward to connecting with the dance community.
Jaime Nixon began dancing at the age of 19 taking his first steps at City College, whom he is grateful for the support from the faculty. Since then he graduated from London Contemporary Dance School. In London Jaime had the honour of presenting his work at the Robin Howard Theatre, teach for The Place CAT Scheme, and work with Theo Clinkard, Rick Nodine, James Cousins, and XinXin Song. He has also presented work at the CECUT, White Box, and City College via SD’s Fringe Festival. Jaime has also been a guest artist for SDSU “Make-It” and Artpwr’s “New Adventurers.”
Luci Patrick’s passion for dancing started with ballet training from Felicity Cunningham. Upon moving to San Diego, Luci continued her dance training with Kathy Roach. Through dancing with Mrs. Roach, Luci has had many opportunities to dance, teach and choreograph. To further her education, Luci is currently a student at the University of California, San Diego as a Dance Major. While at UCSD, Luci enjoys exploring different dance styles such as contemporary, jazz, hip hop, and tap. After graduating in Spring 2019, she hopes to continue a career in dance and find opportunities to perform, choreograph, and teach dance in many capacities.
Hannah Pritchett is a movement enthusiast from San Diego. She received dance training from San Diego School for the Creative and Performing Arts where she also had the opportunity to dance works by Donald McKayle, Jose Limon, Anna Sokolow, Fred Benjamin, Tong Wang, and Christopher Huggins. She spent a season as a member of Philadanco 2 in 2017 where she danced works by Daniel Ezralow and Fransisco Gella. Hannah will be dancing with San Diego Dance Theater for “Janus III: Dancing the Future” in 2019.
Jacob Soble is a self-taught choreographer from San Diego. His objective and mindset when creating, dancing, or performing is to feel and experience movement simultaneously, letting it be natural; to dance authentically. He has been dancing for most of his life but most of all, his passion is teaching and choreography. He hopes to choreograph and create pieces for dance conventions, companies, and music artists around the globe to influence young and old artists and dancers to not get fixated on what dance should be, and instead focus on what it naturally just "is" and what it means to them.
Keondre “DRE” Taylor began dancing at age 12 and has been going strong ever since. He signed with MSA dance agency at 13 and has opened for artists Chris Brown, Rihanna, and grammy award winning artist Mary J. Blige. Dre has been a dancer in the San Diego Dance community for over 10 years. Though he is no stranger to doing solo projects, Dre has recently decided to focus his energy in this area and is hoping that through this, not only will he be able to create his own vision and legacy that inspires and new generation of dancers to be their “true” selves as artists.
Cover photo: 2018 winner Chelsea Zeffiro with partner Angel Acuna, taken by Jim Carmody.