SB Dance’s mission is to engage the community with original work that combines movement, drama, and object. We aim to encourage people to think for themselves and to provoke curiosity about art and the artistic process. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit incorporated in 1998, the company is in residence at Salt Lake County’s Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts. It is overseen and guided by an energetic Board of Directors. The SB Dance umbrella shelters original creations, events with theatrical flair, and the Stage Ratz arts learning program for kids.
Stephen Brown (Artistic / Executive Director)
Stephen is a theater artist who, like other artists, has survived by developing offstage competence in operations and management, production, and education. After dropping out of college, Stephen performed with various companies, first in his home state of Utah, then in NYC. He landed a dream job with a rising star, hated it, returned to college and took a BS at Columbia University. After playing God with fruit flies, he returned to the art world, wandered as a pick-up performer, choreographed in dark corners, and lived out of a duffel bag. In 1996, Stephen was ready to start his own thing and incorporated it as a nonprofit in 1998.
20 years later, the thing has festered into creative lab known for off-beat and earthy humor, athletic physicality, tickling taboos, and playing with form. Stephen serves on several Boards, including the Performing Arts Coalition, where he has been President since 2007. As a producer and organizer, he created Festival Lounge at the Rose during Sundance Film Festival, co-created Eat Drink Salt Lake, and contributed to the development of Park City’s Thin Air Festival. He is married to a beautiful and hugely tolerant wife and has two young daughters nicknamed Evil and Beast.
SOMETHING REALLY BIG CAST
Nathan Shaw: dancer, singer; baring it for SBD since 2006; RDT vet; teacher o’ year at Judge High; leather-luvin’ weight-pumpin’ bear boy.
Christine Hasegawa: dancer, powder princess; sorceress with SBD since 2000; RWDC soldier before that; goal is to retire or be Norwegian citizen.
Annie Kent: dancer, actor, yogini-ella; owner of Parlour yoga and movement studio in downtown SLC; teacher of twists and turns; done with horses but not crops.
Kimberly Campa: ballroom, leaper before looker in the best of ways; UVU grad, now instructor and competitor in ballroom.
Natosha Washington: dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director of Penguin Lady Collective; fireball combo of strength, smarts, and love.
Dan Larrinaga: actor, singer who’s been pounding the Utah stage for everyone from SLAC to Desert Star to SB Dance since potty training; waiting for Stephen to cast him in sky blue tights as the Nutcracker Prince.
Ischa Bee and Raffi Shahanian of MiNX: Ischa is a singer, actor, and dabbler in much and many; one half of MiNX with Raffi, guitarist extraordinaire whose calm, cool exterior barely conceals wild hilarity and fun; MiNX is an electro-pop duo with original songs, covers, films, and multi-media experiences.
Jahnavi Alyssa: actress, dancer, vocalist, musician; real-life goddess who blew out of the Pacific Northwest to blow Utah’s mind.
George Rivera: ballroomer, traveler, and coffee nut; hips are certified as deadly weapon in several disciplines, flare for the dramatic whenever possible.
DESIGN TEAM
Carolyn “Winnie” Wood (Show Co-Director)
Winnie has had a long and complicated career in the performing arts which included a long association with the Repertory Dance Theatre, founding Dance Theatre Coalition, and performing and writing a monthly radio comedy show on KRCL for ten years. She has acted and danced in, directed, choreographed and produced theatrical productions for almost 30 years, received the Mayor’s Artist of the Year Award, and was instrumental in the completion of the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. Head of drama program at Wasatch Academy for 15 years and now freelancing and developing projects in film and theater.
Jess Greenberg: lighting design; Theater and Design faculty at Weber State; warrior instincts with painter’s eye.
Liz Ferguson: production manager, videomaker; tamer of raw chaos, rogue poet, proud owner of FrankenFinger.
John Brandon: photographer, patron saint, alien confessor; captures what’s there and what’s not; never ask him what he’s wearing.
RESERVE FORCES
John Allen: dancer, choreo, psychic traveller; RWDC alum, former Tulane faculty and resident of NO, lover of termites and second lines.
Rick Santizo: dancer, gymnastics coach, and hottie acrobat; sassy when provoked especially by stage moms; spunky spinner of many things.
Florian Alberge: dancer, actor, sexy French homme who enjoys being rolled in sushi; classified background in theater espionage and subversion.
Payden “Pay Pay” Adams: actor, chanteuse, danseuse, and lamb chop; owner of Metropolis Film; Disney defector and defective; taller than his car is long and more persuasive than a silver bullet.
Juan Carlos Claudio: dancer, cheerleader, clown; with SBD since 1999; RWDC vet; past life as U of U asst prof/lecturer; entrepreneur in arts therapy; from PR but his ass is owned by Utah.