About Us

Kate Burton - Dancer

Kate Burton began dancing in the Pacific Northwest and recently completed her MFA in Choreography and Performance at Mils College.  While at Mills, she danced with the Mills Repertory Company, performing works by Trisha Brown, Sonya Delwaide, Nancy Lyons and Paul Taylor.  She holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from Western Washington university and her interest in body mechanics, movement and inju8ry rehabilitation also led her to train and certify as a STOTT Pilates Instructor.  here in the Bay Area, Kate teaches dance and pilates at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Mills College and StageDor.

Kaitlyn Dykstra - Dancer
Kaitlyn grew up in Concord, CA and started dancing at the age of 8. She danced with Contra Costa Ballet for 11 years and is currently dancing with San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. She has fallen in love with dance all over again and is excited about the endless possibilities it offers. She loves the great community in San Francisco and is busy filling her time exploring it.

Jason Hoopes - Composer

Jason is a bassist/multi-instrumentalist, improviser, and composer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was born and raised in the mountains of northern California and began his musical life as a self-taught rock musician. After completing undergraduate studies at Southern Oregon University, Jason attended Mills College where he received both a Master of Arts degree in Music Composition and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Performance and Literature. While at Mills, Jason studied with Fred Frith, Joëlle Léandre, Roscoe Mitchell, India Cooke, Zeena Parkins, John Bischoff, and Shelley Senter among many other distinguished artists. In 2008, Jason's large ensemble work "the ebb" earned the Elizabeth Mills Crothers award for Outstanding Composition. He has performed with many artists including Fred Frith, India Cooke, Gino Robair, Lesli Dalaba, Gail Brand, Johanna Borchert, and Shayna Dunkelman.  Recently, Jason has turned his attention to composing for modern dance, working with Molissa Fenley, Alyce Finwall, Sophia Leiby, Jan Jennings, Rhiannon Kirby and Lavinia Vago among others. Jason is currently the bassist in bay area bands The Atomic Bomb Audition, Jack O' The Clock, powerdove, Host Family, The Brine, and continues to perform in a wide range of ensembles. He is also a teacher, writer, painter, and loves standing in the wind.

Peiling Kao - Dancer
Peiling was born in Taipei, Taiwan. She has worked as a freelance dancer for 12 years and was a full-time teacher at Cloud Gate Dance School in Taiwan. She graduated with a BFA in Dance from Taipei National University of the Arts in 1996 and has completed technique training in ballet, contemporary, Chinese folk dance, and contact improvisation. In 2008, she collaborated with choreographer Isak Immanuel in Djerassi Resident Artists Program and in 2007 was awarded a Taiwan-England artists’residency program, hosted by the Independent Dance based at Siobhan Davis Studios in London.  She has worked with Hwai-Min Lin (Founder of Cloud Gate Dance Theater), Mary Anthony, Molissa Fenley, Sean Curran, Ross Parkes, Men-Fei Lo, Min-Shen Ku, Susan Van Pelt, Nancy Lyons, Rachel Berman, and Joumana Mourad. She is now doing her MFA in Choreography and Performance at Mills College.

Julia Hollas - Dancer
Julia has been dancing with the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance since 2006, and is also an administrator with the Conservatory and Dandelion Dancetheater. While at the University of Utah, she performed in and photographed many departmental shows and organized the first Ballet Student Concert.

Kaitlin Parks - Dancer
Born in Ft. Lewis Washington, Kaitlin Parks grew up in Tulsa, OK Where she began her dance training with Yu, Leidi (a former principal dancer with Central Republic of China Ballet). She attended Idyllwild Arts Academy for high school, studying college prep. acedemics in the morning and training in Ballet, Modern and Jazz dance all afternoon. Summer study took her to the National Ballet School in Toronto Canada, Boston Ballet, and the Kirov Academy in Washington DC. After graduating from Idyllwild Arts she attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance for the entire summer finding herself at home with the positive, challenging and collaborative environment. She currently trains at the SF Conservatory of Dance under the direction of Summer Lee Rhatigan, while working with Amy Lewis' P.U.S.H. Productions and with choreographer Alyce Finwall. She also works as an EMT on an ambulance in San Francisco.

Joy Prendergast - Dancer
Joy Prendergast is from Longmont Colorado and began her dance training and Longmont Dance Theater.  She then moved to Utah and spent two years in the Ballet Department at the University of Utah. While in Utah she danced in the Character Dance Ensemble and traveled to St. Petersburg Russia with the Ensemble. Joy moved to San Francisco in 2007 to train with Summer Lee Rhatigan and Alex Ketley at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance.  She currently is working with The Foundry under the direction of Alex Ketley and Christian Burns, as well as freelance dancing in Bay Area.

Lucy Rahn - Dancer

Originally from Minneapolis, MN, is in her final semester in the MFA program in dance performance and choreography at Mills College in Oakland.  Lucy grew up taking a variety of dance classes as well as performing in plays at The Children's Theatre Co.  She earned a BA in French and Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin - Madison where she performed the work of Patrik Widrig and Sara Pearson.  In Madison, she performed with Kanopy Dance (Lisa Thurell, Robert Cleary); in Minneapolis, with Eclectic Edge Ensemble (Karis Sloss), Ray Terrill, Noah Bremer and Carrie Lande.  In MN, her choreography was presented in "Renovate" at the Ritz Theater and "Co-Motion" at the Lowry Lab Theater.  While at Mills, Lucy has had the opportunity to train under Sonya Delwaide, Rachel Berman, Ann Murphy, Sheldon Smith, Yukie Fujimoto, Linda Johnson and Molissa Fenley.  As a part of the school's Repertory Company, she performed in works by Robert Battle, Sean Curran, Trisha Brown and Molissa Fenley.  This spring she will present her MFA group and solo performances and turn in a written thesis exploring how dance notation can be translated into music notation.  In the summer, Lucy can be found running an outdoor dance camp for 5-8 year olds that she created in 2005 at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis.

Kristin Rooney - Dancer
Kristin Rooney is a dancer, choreographer and instructor.  She holds her BA in Dance from the University of California at Riverside and her MFA in Dance from Mills College.  In addition to Modern and Ballet, Kristin's training is diverse.  As a child she studied Jazz and Hip-Hop before she began training and competing in Ballroom and Latin dance styles at the age of fifteen.  Kristin was a member of the internationally known Otero Dance Company for seven years and has danced with InterSect Dance Company.  Kristin has also had the honor of learning and performing select repertoire of Trisha Brown, Paul Taylor, and Rachel Berman.  Besides performing and choreographing in the bay area, she enjoys being a part-time faculty member at Mission College.  Kristin currently resides in Oakland with her husband.

Christy Thomas - Dancer
Twenty years later and Christy Thomas is still dancing - who would have thought!   Upon graduating from NYU's Dance Department, Christy moved out west to explore dancing here in the Bay Area.  With a fabulous job working for AXIS Dance Company she's been able to do just that. So far, she's enjoyed dancing with Alyce Finwall, Patricia Banchik, Mo Miner, Nina Haft and Randee Paufve and is excited to explore what the future holds.  She's thankful for the support and encouragement she's had all along from family, friends and teachers and most importantly, thankful dance is still FUN!

Emmaly Wiederholt - Dancer
Emmaly Wiederholt is originally from Albuquerque, NM where she began ballet training at the age of five at Hayden’s School of Ballet.  After graduating from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT with a BFA in ballet and a BS in political science, she moved to San Francisco to further her dance studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance under the auspice of Summer Lee Rhatigan and Alex Ketley.  Still based in San Francisco, she enjoys being a part of the thriving dance community.