ttgsf faculty
Partial listing. Check back for additional faculty.
Maurya Kerr is a Bay Area-based artist and educator. Much of her work, across disciplines, is focused on black and brown people reclaiming their birthright to both wonderment and the quotidian. Maurya was a member of Alonzo King LINES Ballet for twelve years, an ODC artist-in-residence from 2015 to 2018, and holds an MFA in dance from Hollins University; she has taught in the LINES education programs since their inception. After co-curating ODC Theater’s 2023/24 season, she was appointed as Resident Curator for their 2024/25 season. Her sophomore short film, Saint Leroi, was described in the Village Voice as “a surreal meditation on Black history, violence, and American decay and a powerful indictment of racism.” Maurya is a 2025 NEA Creative Writing Fellow, with her poetry nominated for two Pushcart prizes and appearing in multiple journals. Other recent honors include winning Rhino Poetry's 2024 Editor's Prize, second place in Palette Poetry's 2023 Resistance & Resilience Prize, and first place in the 2022 Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. She is author of the chapbooks MUTTOLOGY and tommy noun (winner of the 2022 C&R Press Winter Soup Bowl Chapbook Award). www.tinypistol.com
Maurya Kerr
Sandra Chinn is a ballet teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received the Special Achievement Award by the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee for her "commitment to and excellence in the training, teaching, inspiring, and motivating dancers throughout the dance community”. Most recently she is on faculty at Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program, Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA at Dominican College, and is director of ballet pedagogy for Berkeley Ballet Theater Youth Division. She enjoys teaching for dance companies, most recently ODC/Dance, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, SF DanceWorks, Eight/Moves, Smuin Contemporary Ballet, A.I.M Kyle Abraham, and Paul Taylor Dance Company. She teaches ballet classes inspired by somatic studies with Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen because she believes these concepts reveal additional possibilities for rich, efficient and elegant movement. Sandra is grateful for a performing and teaching career in the concert dance field and looks forward to continuing her work and studies for many years to come.
Sandra Chinn
Brett Conway is a dance artist, teacher, stager, and choreographer based in San Francisco. He began his professional dance career with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, where he worked closely with Alonzo for eight transformative years. After that, Brett moved to Europe to join Nederlands Dans Theater, spending five years collaborating with influential choreographers such as Jiří Kylián, Paul Lightfoot, Sol León, Mats Ek, Crystal Pite, Marco Goecke, and Ohad Naharin.
In 2015, Brett returned to San Francisco and danced with LINES Ballet for one final season. He then expanded his involvement in the local dance scene by working with SFDanceworks, Opera Parallel, and the San Francisco Opera. From 2019 to 2021, he served as co-artistic director of SFDanceworks, where he choreographed his first professional piece, The Bedroom, and produced Drew Jacoby’s short film, EVIDENCE OF IT ALL.
Since transitioning from full-time dancing, Brett has found great fulfillment in teaching and coaching dancers. He has staged Dani Rowe’s *For Pixie* for both San Francisco Ballet and Ballet Idaho, as well as Alejandro Cerrudo’s *Never Was* for Ballet Arizona. Since 2017, Brett has been on the faculty of LINES Ballet’s Training Program, BFA Program, and Summer Program, where he teaches ballet and LINES repertoire, in addition to creating several choreographic works. He also teaches ballet at LINES Dance Center, ODC Dance Commons, and Smuin Contemporary Ballet.
Brett Conway
Babatunji (he/him) is an award-winning dancer, choreographer, and dance educator. Following almost two decades of self-taught street dance and a ten year career with Alonzo King LINES Ballet, he has developed a unique approach to various styles of movement. His choreography has been commissioned nationally and internationally. Some of his favorite collaborations have been with David Harvey, SF Jazz in collaboration with Terri Lyne Carrington, Kev Choice, Misty Copeland, among others.
Babatunji
Charmaine (they/she) is a dancer and dance educator. After training at LINES Ballet, they started a freelance career in Seattle then SF Bay Area, working with companies including Ballet22, Ballare Carmel, BODYSONNET, Post:ballet, Seattle Opera, SF Jazz, and Sharp & Fine. If they aren’t dancing, they are likely baking, making pottery, or playing with flowers.
Photo | Maximillian Tortoiello
Charmaine
Chuck Wilt is a choreographer, drag artist known as Fuchsia, costume designer, educator, and the Artistic Director of San Francisco based company Una Productions. They are genderqueer, second generation Queer and a proud pup parent. Chuck has taught, created and set repertory for universities, training programs, professional companies, youth companies, and public high schools nationally.
Founded in NYC in 2013, Una creates original, multi-disciplinary productions that incorporate contemporary dance, drag performance & live music. Una has performed, been in residence, taught and set work internationally. www.una.productions
Chuck is also a contributing director with Detour Productions, a devised-dance-theater company creating immersive shows in SF.
As a drag artist and performer, Fuchsia is a part of the house of Clutch the Pearls, performing regularly at the monthly show and engaging in outreach with local LGBTQIA+ organizations.
Chuck Wilt
Hadassah Perry is a queer artist and performer currently based in San Francisco. Originally from Riga, Latvia, she began her artistic training in dance and piano before relocating to Nashville, Tennessee.
In 2017, after a year abroad studying with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Hadassah joined New Dialect, under the direction of Banning Bouldin. During her time with the company, she had the opportunity to work with renowned choreographers including Bryan Arias, Roy Assaf, and Rosie Herrera. Since moving to San Francisco in 2022, Hadassah has performed and collaborated with UNA Productions (Chuck Wilt), Sharp & Fine (Megan and Shannon Kurashige), and Detour Productions (Eric Garcia and Kat Gorospe Cole).
Her choreographic works have been featured in New Dialect’s Third Voice Installation, UNA Productions’ GLIMPSE, and the Kindling Arts Festival. Hadassah currently serves as co-director of the Contemporary Training Program at the Westlake School for the Performing Arts in Daly City, alongside Kira Fargas. She is thrilled to be on faculty for the inaugural year of Training Ground SF!
Photo | Dillon Vado
Hadassah Perry
Kira Fargas is a queer, first-generation Filipinx-American movement artist, choreographer, educator, drag performer, and community advocate. She grew up dancing at the Westlake School for the Performing Arts in Daly City, CA, and received a BFA in Dance from the University of Arizona in 2017.
Kira currently performs and collaborates with UNA Productions (Chuck Wilt), EIGHT/MOVES (Mia Chong), and Detour Productions (Eric Garcia and Kat Gorospe Cole), and has also worked with New Dialect (Banning Bouldin), Rosie Herrera, Alex Ketley, Ariel Freedman, KT Nelson, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, and Rena Butler, among others.
Her own work has been showcased at UNA Productions' Glimpse and BODYSONNET's OTHER/self. Central to her artistic practice are explorations of her Filipinx and queer identity—honoring both her cultural history and her chosen family.
Kira co-directs the Contemporary Training Program at the Westlake School for the Performing Arts alongside Hadassah Perry and is deeply committed to advancing the field through mentorship and collaboration with the next generation of dancers. She is excited to be on faculty for the inaugural year of the training ground sf.
Kira Fargas