 Diana Schoenfield
Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Diana Schoenfield moved to California to pursue an education and career in dance. She graduated from the Honors Program at University of California, Irvine, with a BFA in Dance Choreography and a BFA in Dance Performance. She worked with Modern Dance legend Donald McKayle in his Etude Modern Repertory Ensemble for two years. She is currently a fourth year member of Entity Contemporary Dance Company, under the direction of Will Johnston and Marissa Osato. She danced with Boogiezone’s Hip Hop Company Breed under the training of Boogiezone’s creator Elm Pizarro. She has worked with a variety of other established Hip Hop choreographers in the LA Industry, such as the David Lee, Gina Hong, Jasmine Rafael, Hannah Wintrode, and Nicholas Bass. She is also a member of Sheron Wray’s JazzXchange Organization, training in Jazz Dance and Improvisation. She has performed in both community Hip hop shows and a variety of Choreography Festivals in Southern California. She is a free-lance choreographer, teacher and performer with immense passion for creation in all visual arts, including theater, film, dance, and studio art. |
Johnnie Hobbs
Johnnie Hobbs, III is a tap dancer, director and performer who has offered his talents to many Philadelphia & L.A. theatre companies such as The New Freedom Theatre, Adren Theatre Company, Interact Theatre and Matrix Theatre. A 2004 graduate of Philadelphia’s The University of the Arts, Johnnie moved to L.A. to follow his passion for film and television. His talent of tap dancing was showcased at "The Showtime at The Apollo" and the Inauguration Events in Washington D.C for President Barack Obama. In August 2011, Johnnie judged and performed in The Guatemala Dance Challenge in Guatemala. In 2012 he produced his first directing effort with a tap dancing short film drama called “NOSTALGIA” starring Dule Hill (The West Wing, Psych) and tap dancers Sarah Reich, Jason Samuels Smith and Chloe Arnold. The film went on to be accepted to film festivals around the country. Johnnie has been a guest speaker at performing arts colleges such as University of Colorado’s dance and acting department, Temple University, Santa Monica College, and Art Institute to name a few. Since living in L.A. he has lent his talents to films such as “The Lutheran,” “Amber and Andre” (Winning Best Actor at The Beverly Hills Short Film Festival), 9.14 Pictures’ mockumentary “Headspace,” a film produced by the creators of the critically acclaimed documentary “Rock School.” He has worked on segments on TV shows "America Now," "The Amazing Race," Food Network and was an acting coach on a Showtime TV pilot. He also worked under film producer Edward Saxon (“Silence of the Lambs,” “Adaptation," "Philadelphia").
Born in Chatsworth California, Jake found his love for dance very young. He began his training at the California Dance Academy, and went on to train with the The Yuri Grigoriev School of Ballet and The Ben Stevenson’s Houston Ballet Academy where he finished his training and then joined The Houston Ballet’s second company.
In 2014, Jake was offered a Corp De Ballet contract with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. Since then Jake has had the opportunity to have danced such ballets as Jiri Kylain’s “Petit Mort”, “Syphonietta” and James Kudelka’s “The Man in Black” among many more. Jake has always had a love for the arts and hopes to convey this love to as many people as possible.
Mandy Kerr Mandy
 Mandy Kerr Mandy began dancing, singing and acting at the age of three in her hometown of Edmonton, AB, Canada. After moving with her family to San Diego, CA and graduating high school, she then moved to New York City where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Marymount Manhattan College and began her rofessional career. Since her move to the United States she has performed and toured with some of today’s top musical artists such as CHER, *N SYNC, NICK CANNON and the 2004 United States Olympic Gymnastic team. She also was the assistant choreographer for MICHAEL JACKSONS “Miracle on 34 th Street” at NYC’s Madison Square Garden. Some of her television appearances include DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, SEX AND THE CITY, SESAME STREET, and VH1’s Big in ’05 Awards with DEF LEPPARD. Mandy shot a pilot for Fox with comedians Bob Sagat and Jeffery Ross as well as the pilot for the CBS television series SMITH starring Ray Liotta and Amy Smart. She has also worked with such companies as AFLAC and TJ MAXX and has been seen in commercials for both PROGRESSIVE and MAC IPOD SHUFFLE. As well as dancing professionally she can currently be found choreographing, teaching and judging both nation and world wide at multiple conventions, workshops, studios, intensives, and companies such as ELITE DANCE CONVENTIONS, STARSYSTEMS, TERPSICHORE, THE PERFORMER, BIGGAR DANCE FESTIVAL, NORTH BATTLEORD DANCE FESTIVAL, FUSION, SURREY DANCE FESTIVAL, HARBOUR Dance Center, SOURCE DANCE, and SKIP Entertainment. Mandy was the in house choreographer for ADIDAS Asia-Pacific working on numerous Pre-Olympic events as well as co-creating an instructional Hip Hop DVD called ADIDAS STREET HOP. She has traveled to China, Canada, Guam, Australia, New Zealand and Holland where she was added as a judge at the 2006/2007 World Hip Hop Championships. Some of her most recent accomplishments include choreographing for the Netherlands new artist “EVA”, privately training actress Chloe Grace Moretz, and choreographing the THEA Awards at the Disneyland Hotel. She was also recognized for her choreography in 2 theater for over 15 years
and loves to inspire and share her passion for dance to anyone who wants to listen!!!
Carly Melber
Carly grew up dancing and competing in all styles of dance at Agoura Hills Dance and is very excited to be back teaching this fall. In May 2016, Carly graduated with Honors Cum Laude from San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a Minor in Business Administration. At SDSU, Carly began her training in contemporary, yoga, and improvisation techniques. She also performed with the University Dance Company for two years, created several of her own pieces, and spent her senior year as Vice President of the SDSU Dance Club. In addition to her technical training, some SDSU classes that Carly found most valuable to her future as a dance teacher were Pedagogy, Choreography, Improvisation, Dance History, and Somatic studies.
Carly is also very interested in dance from a global perspective. During her junior year at SDSU, Carly spent a semester studying abroad at Coventry University in the UK. At Coventry, Carly continued her contemporary training while collaborating with her colleagues to create an evening length ensemble. Finding her study abroad experience so valuable, Carly spent the summer after graduation at ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival in Vienna, Austria. During the four-week intensive, Carly trained with choreographers and dancers from around the world as well as completed the ATLAS program, which was designed for emerging choreographers. Overall, Carly credits the versatile dance career she has had thus far to the training she received growing up at Agoura Hills Dance and is so excited to be back from her travels to share what she has learned with everyone here.
Marielle Alonzo
Marielle started training at the young age of three under Liza Mata of St. Anne's Ballet Studio in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. She took lessons in Jazz, Hawaiian Hula and Classical Ballet where she received remarks of Highly Commended and Distinction from the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD London). Marielle enterd in the Universtiy of the Philippines in 2000 as a Dance major to further hone her skills. With the guidance of Professor Basilio Esteban Villaruz, Angel Lawenko-Baguilat and Chrisitne Novales-Maranan. Marielle became an even more graceful dancer formidable not only in Classical Ballet but in Modern and Contemporary as well. Marielle also learned Pangalay (Ligaya Amilbangsa), Classical Indian Bharatanatyam (Shanti Shreedhar), Flamenco (Tatiana Balashova) and Philippine Folk and Ethnic Dances (Leilani Gonzalo) during her study in UP. She participated in the Tari Dance Festival held in Malaysia in 2005 as a member of UP Dance Company. Upon graduating from UP, Marielle became a company member of the Philippine Ballet Theater. She had the opportunity to dance lead roles in ballet like La Bayadere, Giselle, Paquita, Don Quixote, Carmina Burana and Esmeralda. She also trained with Carlos Garcia from the highly-acclaimed Trockadero Company in the US. Her other teachers are Nonoy Froilan, Tony Fabella, Myra Beltran, Paul Morales, Enrico Labayen, Krisitin Jackson, and Sheron Wrey. Marielle was a member and faculty of Airdance Company. She also handles the ballet classes of the Philippine Ballet Theater School. She has appeared in several music videos, television, commercials and a budding choreographer. She has worked with the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line as Revue Cast for the production shows from 2010 to present.
Ilze Mattson
Native to Studio City, California, singer, dancer and actress Ilze Mattson grew up in a family of musicians where she was exposed to the arts from a very young age. Ilze recently graduated from the University of California Irvine with a BFA in Dance Performance and a BA in Education Sciences. Throughout her college career, she had the opportunity to volunteer for several nonprofit organizations including Orange County Therapeutic Arts Center, Bare Bones Dance Theater, Los Angeles Latvian Folk Dance Group Perkonitis and upcoming this summer, Shining Stars. Ilze is very passionate about outreach and finding ways to inspire the community through dance and musical theatre. Ilze has performed/ choreographed for UC Irvine productions as well as for musical productions in the Los Angeles Latvian Community. She absolutely loves working with children and strives to bring out the best in each and every one of her students. |
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