karah m. abiog
founder & director
Karah Abiog is the Founder and Director of the training ground sf, serving as the visionary force behind the organization and its vibrant community. Her distinguished career in dance spans over four decades, encompassing performance, choreography, education, and artistic leadership. For the past 15 years, she has been the Director of the LINES Ballet Training Program. During this time, she cultivated an internationally recognized pre-professional program and stewarded over 400 students. Many of her former students have achieved notable careers in professional dance or have transitioned into related fields such as healthcare, the creative arts, administrative, and leadership roles.
In 2019, Karah also assumed the role of Director for the LINES Ballet Summer Program. The onset of the global pandemic quickly tested her leadership, requiring her to swiftly pivot, develop, and implement comprehensive online programs. This innovative response ensured that LINES Education continued, providing meaningful engagement for the dancers and employment for teachers and artists. It also garnered significant acclaim from the dance community.
Karah takes pride in fostering a dynamic learning environment characterized by rigorous training, creative exploration, and personal growth for students, educators, and guest artists from around the world. A core tenet of her approach emphasizes the cultivation of diversity, versatility, and individual expression, both artistically and personally.
Karah is originally from Saratoga, California. She earned her Bachelors in Dance from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Her professional dance career spanned over twenty years, where she had the pleasure of dancing with companies like Complexions Contemporary Ballet under the artistic direction of Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, and Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, co-directed by Kevin Iega Jeff and Gary Abbott, to name a few. She also worked with a remarkable range of choreographers, from modern dance pioneers Donald McKayle and Katherine Dunham to today’s innovative leaders including Camille A. Brown and Hope Boykin. Karah has also had the privilege of working with music artists Roberta Flack and Jennifer Holliday.
Her pedagogical expertise is equally extensive, with years of experience teaching students of all levels and ages. Karah has held prominent teaching positions with LINES Ballet BFA, Summer and Training Programs and as a full-time visiting professor with the Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of Missouri – Kansas City and has been a guest teacher worldwide. Her participation in the International Seminar of Brasilia cultivated a lifelong connection with the Brazilian dance community and developed significant exchanges, allowing Brazilian dancers to come to the US.
In establishing ttgsf, Karah was pleased to partner with the ZiRu Family Foundation, which provided founding support for the organization's launch.
Photo by Quinn Wharton
founding support
The ZiRu Family Foundation
The ZiRu Family Foundation provided substantial donated expertise and financial support, including consulting, operational setup, structural guidance, and early-stage financing through ZiRu Dance, ensuring a strong foundation and stability through the organization's launch and early growth.
ttgsf staff
Timmorie Freeman,
Program Coordinator
Timmorie Freeman is a San Francisco-based freelance artist and the Coordinator for ttgsf. She trained at the Ruth Page School of Dance under Victor Alexander, and TDA Prep with Preston Miller and Jacqueline Green Miller, followed by a Traineeship with Ballet West in Salt Lake City. She was then selected to train full-time at La Escuela Nacional de Ballet “Fernando Alonso” in Havana, Cuba, under Ramona de Saá Bello and Ana Julia Bermudez de Castro. Timmorie then spent two seasons at City Ballet of San Diego, during which time she performed works including Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht, Rubies, The Four Temperaments, soloist roles in The Nutcracker, and premiered in the original work, Battu. In 2022, she graduated from the LINES Ballet | Training Program having performed original works by Mike Tyus, Sidra Bell, Gregory Dawson, David Harvey, and Alex Ketley. In years since, she has worked with Marika Brussel at Fieldworks London’s Residency, Peninsula Ballet Theatre, ODC’s Pilot Program, and Andrea Salazar. She is currently majoring in Business Administration at City College of San Francisco and intends to transfer to major in Finance.
Photo by Vin Vuthikorn
Linda Lam,
Operations Manager
Linda Lam has over two decades of experience in marketing, business, and program management, primarily in non-profit organizations within the education and arts sectors. Recent professional affiliations include the Bay Area Financial Education Foundation (BAFEF), LINES Ballet, and the University of San Francisco. As an independent consultant, Linda provides business administration management services to ttgsf. Linda earned her MBA from Columbia University and holds a BS in Business from Syracuse University.
Katherine Disenhof,
Marketing Consultant
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Katherine Disenhof graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Human Biology, a minor in Dance, and Stanford’s 2012 Louis Sudler Prize in the Performing and Creative Arts. While pursuing a fruitful career as a contemporary dancer, she rather serendipitously found her way into the fields of graphic design and marketing. Katherine has spent the past decade building a repertoire of arts marketing skills through collaborations with a range of nonprofit clients, including Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Brava Theater Center, Destiny Arts Center, Bear Yuba Land Trust, and Robert Moses’ KIN, to name a few. She currently serves as the Marketing Director for the San Francisco Dance Film Festival/Dance Film SF and is thrilled to be supporting ttgsf.