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Faculty
Layla Amis
Arturo Fernandez
Marina Hotchkiss
Maurya Kerr
Robert Moses
Alonzo King
Yannis Adoniou
Katherine Warner
Carmen Rozestraten
Debra Rose
Brion Charles
Jim Santi Owen
Layla Amis, a native of Florida, attended New World College of The Arts in Miami on full scholarship. She continued her education in Chicago, training with Biruite Barodicaite, Anna Czaun, Jonathan Levy, Elana Anderson, Kevin Iega Jeff, Hubbard Street Chicago and on full scholarship at Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Center. Layla has danced professionally with New World Modern Dance Company, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and as a principal dancer with Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre, the Gail Gilbert Dance Ensemble and Moving People Dance Theatre. She has performed works by Mia Michaels, Kevin Iega Jeff, Gary Abbott, Tomi Paasonen, Gail Gilbert, Robert Moses, Nora Reynolds, Raoul Trujillio, Rulan Tangen, Kevin Wynn, Ronn Stewart and Sam Watson. In 1998 Layla moved to Santa Fe, NM and became the artistic director of Dance Arts Los Alamos. There, she taught ballet and modern dance technique, choreographed numerous works, and staged The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty.
In 1999 Layla co-founded and became the co-artistic director for Moving
People Dance Theatre, a non-profit professional contemporary dance company.
Layla served as school director Moving People Dance Theatre for four years, teaching ballet, modern dance technique and repertoire, as well as directing and choreographing for over 20 pre-professional and professional productions.
In 2005 Layla accepted the position of School Director for Alonzo King's LINES Ballet. Layla's goal as a dance educator is to continually create, explore, and develop a functional and universal technique that trains the mind and body simultaneously and encourages fluency of expression and trust in the intuitive intelligence of the body, mind and spirit.
Arturo Fernandez
Arturo has been the Ballet Master of Alonzo King's LINES Ballet since 1992. His
career in dance includes work as a professional dancer, choreographer and
master teacher. He received his training at the United States International
University under the direction of John Hart, CBE and most notably Elaine
Thomas, who still inspires him to excel.
Arturo has danced in both ballet and modern companies including San Diego Ballet, Arizona Ballet, New Jersey Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Les Ballet Trocadero de Monte Carlo, Oakland Ballet and ODC/San Francisco. In addition to his dancing, he was the assistant to the directors of both ODC and Arizona Ballet.
In 1991 he collaborated with Brenda Way and KT Nelson of ODC to create Krazy Kat for the San Francisco Ballet. In 1993 he began creating his own work with a pickup company and received critical notice for his craftsmanship and sense of humor. Arturo has since choreographed for Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, Inland Pacific Ballet, FCCJ, Los Angeles Dance Theater, LINES Ballet School, San Francisco’s School of the Arts, and Alabama School of Fine Arts. Most recently he choreographed Dracula in two acts for Inland Pacific Ballet to critical acclaim.
As a master teacher Arturo has traveled extensively teaching master classes, workshops and intensives around the country. He has been a guest teacher for Hubbard Street Dance Company, Inland Pacific Ballet, Robert Moses’ Kin, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Western Ballet as well as many other companies. He is a former member of the faculty of Cal State Long Beach, San Francisco State University, San Francisco’s School of the Arts, Orange County Performing Arts High School, and Marin Dance Theater.
For more than a decade he has been an integral part of the faculty of the San Francisco Dance Center and has coordinated and taught in the Alonzo King Workshop for Professional Dancers since its inception. He has set ballets by Alonzo King on companies throughout the United States and works side by side with him in the creation of new work. He has been an important and well-respected part of the Bay Area dance community for over 25 years.
(Company Member 1983-2001) Marina Hotchkiss was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and trained extensively at the Academy of Ballet in San Francisco with Alan Howard, Janet Sassoon, and Howard Sayette. She performed with Pacific Ballet, the Berlin Ballet, and is a long time member of the San Francisco Opera Ballet. Ms. Hotchkiss became a member of LINES in 1983 and was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Individual Performance for her work with LINES. She gave birth to her daughter, Hannah, on Christmas Day in 1996. Ms. Hotchkiss currently heads the LINES Ballet / Dominican University of California Bachelor of Fine Arts Program.
(Company Member 1994-2006) Maurya Kerr began her training at Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She has danced with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Fort Worth Ballet, and the San Francisco Opera Ballet. She has been a featured guest artist with Alex Ketley and Christian Burns' The Foundry, Amy Seiwert's im'ij-re, Robert Henry Johnson Dance Company, and Ballet Zinoun in Morocco. She was a principal dancer in "The Matrix II: Reloaded." She has been a member of LINES Ballet since 1994 and also teaches for the LINES Ballet School and Summer Pre-professional Program.
Since founding Robert Moses' KIN in 1995, Choreographer, Dancer and Artistic Director Robert Moses has choreographed over 40 works for his company, created ballets for Oakland Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet and Lawrence Pech Dance Company, received prestigious grants and awards for his work, including the Isadora Duncan Award, was named the first Duke/Wattis Artist-in-Residence at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and toured with Robert Moses' KIN to national venues, including the highly acclaimed Colorado Dance Festival.
Prior to establishing his own company, Mr. Moses was a highly regarded performer with such companies as Twyla Tharp Dance, ODC/San Francisco, Long Beach Ballet, Walt Disney World Productions, and Gloria Newman Dance Theater among others. He has choreographed for theater and film as well as for the concert stage. His credits include major productions for the Lorraine Hansberry Theater, New Conservatory Theater, Los Angeles Prime Moves Festival (L.A.C.E.), Olympic Arts Festival, Black Choreographers Moving Toward the 21st Century, Robert Henry Johnson Dance Company, and Savage Jazz Dance Company.
Mr. Moses has collaborated with many other notable artists, among them are Julia Adam, Margaret Jenkins, Alonzo King, Sara Shelton Mann, SoVoSo, Marcus Shelby, Keith Terry, and Frank Boehm. Mr. Moses has been a lecturer at Stanford University since 1995 and a master teacher or guest faculty at the Colorado Dance Festival, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, University of Texas, University of Nevada, Mills College, San Jose State University, Saint Mary's College, California Dance Educators Association, American College Dance Festival, and San Francisco Dance Center. He has held numerous residencies including the Duke/Wattis Artist-in-Residence at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, ODC Theater and in the San Francisco public schools as part of the San Francisco Arts in Education Foundation Artist-in-Residence Program.
Mr. King has works in the repertories of over fifty companies throughout the world. Included among those are Frankfurt Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Joffrey Ballet, DTH, NCDT, Washington Ballet, and Hubbard Street. In addition, he has choreographed numerous works for Opera, television, and film. King choreographed for Patrick Swayze in his new film "Without a Word." King has coached many of the world's foremost dancers including prima ballerina, Natalia Makarova for whom he created two works. Renowned for his skill as a teacher, Mr. King has been guest ballet master for National Ballet of Canada, Les Ballet's de Monte Carlo, San Francisco Ballet, Ballet Rambert, Ballet West and others.
In 1982, Mr. King founded Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, which has developed into a national touring company for fourteen dancers. He has had numerous collaborations with outstanding musicians such as the legendary Jazz great Pharoah Sanders, India's national treasure Zakir Hussain, Berneice Johnson Reagon, Hamza al Din, Pavel Syzmanski, Leslie Stuck, and Nzamba Lela. In 1989, Alonzo King inaugurated the San Francisco Dance Center, which has grown to be one of the largest dance facilities on the West Coast. Alonzo King is a recipient of the NEA Choreographer's Fellowship and the National Dance Residency Program. He has also received four Isadora Duncan Awards, as well as the Hero Award from Union Bank, and the Excellence Award from KGO in San Francisco. He has served on panels for the National Endowment of the Arts, California Arts Council, City of Columbus Arts Council and Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Arts Partners Program. He is a former commissioner for the city and county of San Francisco, and a writer and lecturer on the art of dance.
(Company Member 1993-1998) Yannis Adoniou was born
in Athens, Greece and studied dance at The National Ballet School
of Athens and John Neumeier's Hamburg Ballet School in Germany. He
danced as a soloist with the Osnabruck National Theater, the Bonn
State Ballet, San Francisco Opera Ballet and Alonzo King's LINES
Ballet as a principal dancer for seven years. Mr. Adoniou has guested
with Complexions in New York, ProsXima in Athens Greece as well with
Unterwegs Theater in Heidelberg, Germany where he has worked as both
a dancer and choreographer.
In 1998 Adoniou joined forces with Tomi Paasonen and founded a multimedia
dance company and art forum called KUNST-STOFF. As one of the artistic
directors of KUNST-STOFF, Yannis Adoniou has created a unique style
of movement that blends ballet technique with release principles
while extending the body's physical structure beyond codified limits.
Adoniou's predilection for poetic imagery allows him to put pure
dance into a theatrical environment.
Mr. Adoniou received his first
choreographic commission making So Lange Man Noch Weiss Sieht and
Family Pictures for the Bonn Ballett in 1990 and 1991. Other commissions
and Festivals include his acclaimed Othello for Summerfest/Dance
in 1997, the Bay Area Dance Series, the San Francisco Lesbian and
Gay Dance Festival, the Burning Man Festival in Nevada, the BERLIN
TANZTAGE Festival and the HerbstDance festival in Heidelberg, Germany.
Mr. Adoniou is co. producer and director of CAMP KUNST-STOFF -an
annual festival in Northern California that brings together artists
of multiple disciplines to perform in an idyllic, natural setting.
(Company Member 1982-1997) Katherine Warner is a dancer, choreographer and teacher who has performed throughout the United States, Central and South America, and Eastern Europe. She studied with Maggie Black, Aaron Osborn, Carlos Carvajal, Alonzo King, Anatole Vilzack, Madame Sholar, and Xenia Chlistowa, among others.
She danced with San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Dance Spectrum (founding member), Zaccho Dance Theater, Santa Fe Opera, and San Francisco Opera Ballet. She was also a founding member of Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, with whom she performed from 1982 - 1996 creating a wide variety of roles. She was honored by the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards for her outstanding contributions to LINES as a dancer.
(Company Member 1982 - 1988, 1992 - 1995)
Carmen Rozestraten was born in Amsterdam and began her training with
the Theater Academy in Amsterdam. After completing her training,
outstanding choreographers Rudi von Dantzig and Choo San Goh selected
her to dance in new work they were creating.
In 1976 she left to continue her dance studies in New York. She
took classes at the Joffrey Ballet School and with outstanding independent
teachers Marjorie Mussman, Maggie Black and Louis Falco. She danced
with choreographers Nora Gutherie, Ted Rotante and Vivian Freedman.
In 1978 Carmen moved on to San Francisco where she studied with
Sue Lloyd, Henry Berg, Carlos Carvajal and Alonzo King. She performed
with Peninsula Ballet, Golden Gate Ballet and Dance Spectrum.
Carmen was a founding member of LINES Contemporary Ballet and danced
with the company from 1982 - 1988. Alonzo King created roles for
her in many ballets, including Awake in the Dream (Donald Fontowitz),
Ictus (Harry Partch and Gamelan), Pavane (Shostakovich), Allegro
Barbaro (Bartok) and Mysterious Mountain (Alan Hohvaness).
She returned to Europe in 1989 to teach and
perform, working in the Netherlands with Artemis, Melkweg and
Barry Stevens as a teacher, and with Niewe Dansgroep as a ballet
mistress. After that she traveled the world teaching in France
at the Ecole de Danse, in Belgium with the Jan Faber Company,
in Stuttgart, Germany at the NY City Dance School, in Aruba
at Sima Danza, in Curacaõ at the School of
Ballet, and in Caracas, Venezuela at the International Dance Festival.
During this period she also performed with Dance Advance in London,
Josette Baïz in France and eventually joined the Dresden
Ballet in 1992.
In 1993 she returned to San Francisco for a
guest appearance with LINES Ballet and she was invited by Artistic
Director Alonzo King to rejoin the company. In the years before
her retirement in 1995, Mr. King created roles for her in Compelling
Geological Evidence (Donald Fontowitz), Garland (Peter Garland),
Pavane (Shostokovitch), Ocean (Pharoah Sanders), Bach Cello
Suites (Bach), Rock (Bernice Johnson Reagon) and Signs & Wonders
(Traditional African Music).
(Company Member 1984-2000) Debra Rose trained at the School of American
Ballet and has danced with the Oakland Ballet, and San Francisco
Ballet before joining LINES in 1984. She was a principal dancer
with LINES as well as Ballet Mistress for the company. She has assisted
Mr. King in setting ballets on various companies including the
Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey.
She is a Master Trainer in both GYROTONIC® and
GYROKINESIS® at
San Francisco Gyrotonic having worked with the system for over
20 years. Debra works closely with Juliu Horvath, the creator of
the Gyrotonic System, in developing and implementing Gyrotonic
syllabus that is used for trainers all over the world.
Brion Charles has studied ballet and modern dance for 25 years, while working as a dance medicine specialist in physical therapy for over 10 years with Dr. James Garrick at the St. Francis Center for Sport's Medicine. He is the resident physical therapist Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, and the LINES Ballet School and Pre-Professional Program, the School of the Arts SF, the Oakland Ballet, and other companies and professional artists.
"I believe that education in dance is really education in self-awareness. I support the art of each dancer by integrating knowledge of technical aspects of movement with various dance styles, recognizing that every dancer has their own personal ideal placement, which can be developed to increase strength and self awareness while decreasing the risk of injury."