Staff & Teaching Artists

Elizabeth Epsen

epsen@fas.harvard.edu

Manager of College Dance, OFA Dance Program

Elizabeth Epsen (she/her) is the Manager of College Dance for the OFA Dance Program where she oversees all co-curricular dance in the OFA including artistic and pedagogic curation of programming; administration; communications; undergraduate student...

Aaron Jensen

Ballet Accompanist

Aaron Jensen is a pianist and principal accompanist for the dance division of Boston Conservatory at Berklee. He has played for institutions such as Boston Ballet, Harvard Radcliffe, Emerson College, Ballet Theater of Boston, and accompanied pre...

Akili Jamal Haynes

Contemporary and West African Accompanist

Akili Jamal Haynes is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who began his career at age 15 as a trombonist under the mentorship of Wynton Marsalis. Haynes currently performs with several ensembles and has participated on several recordings as a trombonist...

Andrea Sala

Production Supervisor & Advisor for Student-Led Dance Group Residency

Andrea Sofia Sala (she/her) was born in San Antonio, Texas, but grew up in Northern Mexico. During her high school years, she was heavily involved with dance companies and programs around San Antonio, including San Antonio Metropolitan Ballet. Andrea...

Anjali Nath

Kathak Teaching Artist

Anjali Nath is an established Kathak dance performer and teacher, trained by the renowned, late Kathak master, Pandit Chitresh Das. Known for her swift chakkars (spins), crisp footwork and grace, Nath’s solo performances are rooted deeply in the Kathak...

Ashton Lites, aka Stiggity Stackz

Hip-Hop Teaching Artist/Spring '26 Artist-in-Residence

Ashton Lites, aka Stiggity Stackz, or just Stackz, is regarded as one of Boston's most renowned veteran freestyle dance specialists with over 15 years of intensive training in many different cultural and concert dance forms including Krump, Popping...

Dean Vollick

Ballet Teaching Artist

Dean Vollick began dancing at 18 with Canadiana, a folk dance company in St. Catharines, Ontario. He began his ballet training at Brock University and then continued at The George Brown College/Lois Smith School of Dance and Canada’s National Ballet...

Ella Wechsler-Matthaei

Soca Fusion Teaching Artist

Ella Wechsler-Matthaei began dancing Hip Hop at the age of six with Jam’nastics Inc., a Cambridge-based nonprofit dedicated to teaching dance and gymnastics to youth through afterschool and summer camp programing, where she danced and choreographed...

Emi Okumura

Ballet Accompanist

Hailed as a “magician of the piano” by the world-renowned pianist and judge Hiroko Nakamura, Dr. Okumura is an active recitalist and chamber musician who has performed live and on broadcasts throughout the US, Europe and Asia. She routinely performs...

Grisha Coleman

Embodiment Practices Teaching Artist

Grisha Coleman is a certified Awareness Through Movement/ The Feldenkrais Method™ practitioner studying with David Zemach-Bersin, Denis Leri, Carole Kress and Elizabeth Berringer among many others. She has also trained in Body-Mind Centering ™ and the...

Joh Camara

West African Dance Teaching Artist

Sidi Mohamed Camara, popularly known as “Joh,” was born in Bamako, Mali in West Africa, and from the age of 5, trained in music and dance from his mother Fanta Kamissoko, a well-known Jali (Jalis,also known as Griots,are highly venerated in their...

John Lam

Ballet Teaching Artist

John Lam began dancing at the age of four at the Marin Ballet in San Rafael, CA. He rose quickly through the ranks and was awarded a scholarship to attend Canada's prestigious National Ballet School before being invited to join the Boston Ballet in 2003...

Kelvin Vu

Gaga Teaching Artist

Kelvin Vu is a designer and dancer interested in the intersection of the performing arts, public space, and public knowledge. After graduating from Yale, he trained at the SF Conservatory of Dance before moving to Tel Aviv to join Batsheva Dance Company’s...