OFA Dance Staff and Teaching Artists

OFA Dance Staff and Teaching Artists

dancers on stage

Dance Program Staff

Elizabeth Epsen
Associate Director for College Dance, OFA Dance Program
Elizabeth Epsen (she/her) is the Associate Director for 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...
Elizabeth Epsen headshot

Dance Teaching Artists, Accompanists, and Advisors

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...
A Black man with long dreadlocks and mustache and wearing a white garment is looking downwards in concentration.

Aysha Upchurch
Dance Center Cypher Host/Mentor
Lecturer on Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education & Director of HipHopEx Lab
Aysha Upchurch is an artist, instructor, and an education consultant committed to youth advocacy, social inclusion, artistry development, and transformative education. Whether on stage or in the classroom, hip hop is a thread throughout her work. Upchurch...
Close-up of a Black woman with high pony tail dreadlocks in a brightly beaded top. She looks directly at the camera with her hand framing her face. Hot pink back ground.

Hershey Bliss
Soca Fusion Teaching Artist
Hershey Bliss is a dancer, teacher, and Bahamian native with Haitian roots raised in Boston, Ma. She is well known in the New England area for her innovative twist of the latest dancehall moves and flexibility. She regularly teaches dancehall workshops...
Hershey Bliss with her leg behind her wearing a bright green spandex short suit.

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...
Black and white close-up of a Black man with bare muscular shoulders. His gaze is downward and he is smiling.

Tarikh Campbell
Hip Hop Teaching Artist
Originally from New Jersey, Tarikh Campbell began his dance training as a student at MIT and quickly began performing with Boston-based dance companies, including Tribe and Static Noyze. He is a co-founder of dance crews Project Nailz and Side Project...
Black man stands against a tree and looks towards the camera with a light smile. He is wearing a gray and red shirt.

Robin Cho
Ballet Accompanist
Robin Cho specializes in providing music for dance classes and has played for a multitude of esteemed ballet schools across the United States. She currently plays for Boston Ballet School, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, in addition to Harvard Dance...
East Asian-American woman leans on her elbows over a piano. She has long brown hair and is smiling at the camera.

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...
Close-up of Grisha Coleman, a a light skinned Black woman with short hair. She looks up at an angle with a soft smile.

Sory Diabate
West African Dance Accompanist
Originally from Bamako, Mali, Sory Diabate comes from a long line of Djelis (griots) and began drumming in the early eighties, as an apprentice with Sidiki Camara. In Mali, Diabate was a member of Troupe Pionna, and a principal drummer with Troupe Doumba...
A Black man in traditional West African garb, in bright red, green, yellow, and white, drumming with his hands. He is smiling joyfully.

Steven Garcia
House Teaching Artist
Steven Garcia, who performs under the name Rhythm, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Garcia is a leader in the Boston house community and a member of Dance Fusion Family. Beyond the work Garcia has done in Boston, hosting house sessions, workshops, and...
Steve Garcia looking at the camera seated with his hands folded on his knees.

Ana Harmon
Gaga Teaching Artist
Ana Harmon is a dance and movement advocate currently living in Boston, MA. She is a certified Gaga teacher and shares classes with both professional dancers and people with little to no formal training. Harmon completed her certification in Tel Aviv with...
Close up of Ana Harmon. She has blond hair pulled back and looking off to the side. She's wearing a green tank top.

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...
Close headshot of Aaron Jensen, a White man with a gray short beard wearing a white collared shirt. Behind him is a blue sky and palm tree.

Evens Joseph 'EJ'
Latin & Afro-Caribbean Teaching Artist
Evens “EJ” Joseph is a seasoned performer, instructor, and community leader, and the founder of EJ Dance Studio in Brockton, MA. Born and raised in Haiti, EJ began teaching local youth and choreographing performances by age 10 and by 16, he was formally...
Evens Joseph headshot; he is smiling directly at the camera and wearing a white collared shirt and blue tie.

Takumi Kakimoto
Ballet Accompanist
Takumi Kakimoto is an award-winning pianist and composer based in Boston. He was awarded full-tuition scholarship from Berklee College of Music and graduated with B.M. in Jazz Composition and Piano Performance in 2019. During his studies, he received a...
Profile view of a young Japanese man is playing the piano with dramatic lighting.

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...
A close-up headshot of an Asian American man looking intensely at the camera. He has short black hair that falls over his forehead. Black backround.

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...
Black and white close up of Ashton Lites looking to the side and laughing.

Sunanda Narayanan
Bharatanatyam Teaching Artist
Born and raised in India, Sunanda Narayanan is an acclaimed exponent of the ancient South Indian classical dance style called Bharatanatyam and practices in the ‘Vazhuvoor’ style. Narayanan is the prime disciple of Guru Rhadha, one of the foremost...
A close-up of an Indian woman wearing a red bindi on her forehead with her hair tied back in a low ponytail and wearing a traditional garment in pink. She looks towards diagonally off camera and is smiling softly.

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...
A close up of Anjali Nath dancing; she wears an orange tunic; her arms framing her face.

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...
Young Japanese American woman smiles softly and looks at the camera.

Smitha Radhakrishnan
Bharatanatyam in Contemporary Application
Dr. Smitha Radhakrishnan is a lifelong diasporic Bharatanatyam dancer focused on how traditional vocabularies of expressive movement can connect with contemporary personal, social, and political struggles. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she has...
Black and white close-up headshot of Smitha Radhakrishnan smiling to the camera. She has chin-length hair.

Soumya Rajaram
Bharatanatyam Teaching Artist
Soumya Rajaram is an exponent of Bharatanatyam with over two decades of performance experience. She started training at the Kalakshetra Foundation, a premier institute for Indian classical arts and later under revered teachers and choreographers from this...
Headshot of Soumya Rajarim, an Indian woman with long brown hair, dangly earrings, and tear drop bindi. She is smiling subtly.

Nailah Randall-Bellinger
Contemporary; Conditioning: Strength & Stretch Teaching Artist
Fall 2021 Artist-in-Residence
Fall 2023 Teaching Artist-in-Residence
Nailah Randall-Bellinger is a dance educator, scholar, and choreographer. For over 35 years, she has taught modern and contemporary classes throughout the United States and abroad at national conventions and universities. She has studied, performed, and...
Nailah Randall-Bellinger, a Black woman in her 60's with long braids leans on her hand against a brick wall.

Yolanda Roberson
Vogue Teaching Artist
Yolanda Roberson also known as 'Yyoyo', is a dancer, performer, and teacher, and native of Roxbury and Dorchester, MA. Yyoyo got her start as a child performer at the age of 8. She performed as a dancer and won the Roller Kingdom dance contest every...
Headshot of Yolanda Roberson. She is smiling directly at the camera and wearing a cream colored sleeveless top with a white wrap-around.

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...
Close-up head shot of Andrea Sala looking into the camera and smiling.

Laura Sánchez
Embodiment Practices: Healing through Expressive Movement
Laura Sánchez is an award-winning flamenco artist, creator, choreographer and educator originally from Cádiz, Spain. She began her flamenco education as a child and received professional training from the Dance Conservatory of Madrid. She holds a...
close-up of Laura Sanchez, a light skinned woman smiling into the camera. She has wavy brown hair neck-length, and red lipstick. Wearing a mauve dress.

Nko "Fallou" Small
West African Accompanist
Nko "Fallou" Small is a Cultural Ambassador of West African Drum and Dance. Having parents that are natives of Senegal and Barbados, he was born into the world of African-Caribbean music and dance. At the age of five he began an intensive training on the...
Close-up headshot of Nko F. Small wearing a hat.

Lonnie Stanton

Ballet; Contemporary
Lonnie Anela O’ Kalani Neff Stanton is a proud native Hawaiian raised in rural Northern California and based in Boston. She has been committed to dance education with a strong somatic focus as well as a professional contemporary performance career since...
Close-up of a woman with brown wavy hair and brown eyes looking directly at the camera and smiling.

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...
White middle-aged man in a pink collared shirt looks directly into the camera.

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...
Kelvin Vu looking straight at the camera with his arms crossed in front of him and wearing a marigold colored longsleeve shirt.

Makeda "Keda" Wallace
Soca Fusion
Makeda "Keda" Wallace was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and began her training in liturgical and West African dance at the Reggie Lewis Center. She then trained in hip hop at Body by Brandy with Jay Brown Company. She had an early interest in...
A Black woman with long neat dreadlocks wears a mustard yellow blazer. Her arms are crossed in front of her and she smiles at the camera.

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...
Light skinned Black woman with shoulder length brown wavy hair. She wears a red halter tank top and tilts her head over her shoulder smiling warmly at camera.

Liza Zayas-Sellers
DJ for House
Liza Zayas-Sellers is a poet and DJ performing as Luna del Flor. She holds the honor of being named one of Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Neighborhood Salon Luminaries and was selected by The Lawrence Arts Collective as one of their 2023...
Liza Zayas Sellers, aka Luna del Flor, in front of a blue laptop DJ-ing. She has curly brown hair and wearing red lipstick, smiling.