Staff
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Bonnie Curtis Bonnie Curtis, owner and instructor at Curtis Studio of Dance, was born into a performance family. Dance training began in Florida at the Grace Thomas Studio of Dance. From her pre-school days on, the dancing school was where her days were spent, either taking class or sitting on the piano bench with one of the studio accompanists. Ballet was the main focus of her training, allowing her to excel in pointe, tap, acrobatic, adagio, musical comedy, and jazz. She danced with the Palm Beach Ballet Company and enjoyed a very long and exciting performance career on stage, theater-in-the-round, and on television, performing a variety of dance forms. Along with the dance training, she studied classical piano for ten years. Bonnie used her dance background in her other love-that of one and three meter springboard diving, becoming top diver in the United States. She constantly refers to this training as a guide for improving muscular strength and endurance for her students as well as teaching the value of body mechanics and preparation for any move. Bonnie has been teaching dance for 35 years at CSD; she greatly enjoys putting on successful young dancers' productions and working with her winning competition corps. She is an active member of the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance and a chairperson and founding member of Carpinteria Valley Arts Council. Visit www.artscarp.org Melissa Ornelas Melissa began dancing at the age of two. She studied all forms of dance and decided to specialize in the beautiful art of Flamenco. Melissa obtained the title of Junior Spirit of the Fiesta at the age of 9 and at the age of 16 was awarded the coveted title of Senior Spirit of the Fiesta, both titles are very difficult to achieve. It requires great dedication and responsibility to train, audition and carry out the reign as Spirit/Ambassador of Old Spanish Days Fiesta throughtout Satna Barbara. Also in 2002, she established The Melissa Ornelas Dance Company. The company has toured central California, as well as, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Melissa will teach Flamenco at CSD and we look forward to adding Salsa and Middle Eastern dance styles to our program with Melissa in the near future. FLASH--Melissa has been accepted and will attend University of Hawaii in the Dance Department!! Bosco Bosco has been choreographing, instructing, and performing in Los Angeles for the past three years. He has performed for the National Basketball Association, Pony, Nike, Great Clips, Aveda, and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Kelly Rowland, B2K, Tyra Banks, Rome, Marques Houston, Melody, Nodesha, and Barbara Baldieri are just some of the artists who he has worked with. Bosco can be seen in the feature films "Dirty Deeds", "You Got Served", and "The Seat Filler", along with a television appearance on "Next Top Model: 2." He is also a featured soloist in the Barbara Baldieri video "Todo Lo Que Quiero." Bosco's own choreography credits include a live stage show for Aveda, and assistant to choreographer Tony Michaels on Tyra Banks' video "Shake Ya Body", and also Kelly Rowland's "Follow Your Destiny." Bosco is the hip hop instructor for the CSD. Visit www.boscodance.com Thomas McDonnell Thomas was born and raised in San Francisco. He studied commercial art and played high school basketball for four years graduating with honors. He attended San Francisco City College, The Academy of Art College of San Francisco and New York University's Tisch program. Thomas started dancing seriously at the age of nineteen at San Francisco Ballet School, the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet, and with Alonzo King. He danced professionally with the Empire State Ballet in Buffalo, New York, Ballet Omaha, Minnesota Dance Theatre, Santa Barbara Festival Ballet, the State Street Ballet School, the Robert Henry Johnson Dance Company, the Oakland Ballet, Michael Smuin, Valerie Houston and the Santa Barbara Dance Theatre. Thomas loves to teach, choreograph, paint, play basketball and enjoys motorcycling. He was married in 2005 and is now the proud father of daughter, Sparrow. Thomas teaches modern for CSD and performs in our Nutcracker Ballet and year end performances. Suzy Miller For 25 years, Suzy has been an internationally acclaimed choreographer. Her resume includes national television credits, film, M/TV videos, musical theater, TV commercials, rock and roll stage shows, celebrity nightclub acts, and dance-intensive fashion shows for top name clients. She has worked with many celebrities and has won many industry awards, including five Emmies, a Peabody, and television's coveted Iris award. She has written satires and comedic sketches that have been used in television sitcoms, television pilots, magazine format TV shows, and assorted theatrical revues, as well as a regular column for L.A. Dance Magazine. Her competition choreography has consistently won Best Overall, Best in Show, and Best Choreography at all the major conventions. Suzy teaches master classes and is CSD's competition choreographer. _______________________________________________________________________________ Meredith Kerr
Meredith lives in Hollywood, California where she has been performing and teaching Hip Hop locally and internationally for the past four years. She has travelled to many countries including; Italy, Russia, Estonia, Switzerland, Germany, and Portugal. Meredith is also technically trained in ballet, jazz, lyrical, and modern; performing in ballet's such as The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, and Cinderella. Growing up, she studied ballet in San Francisco, trained in Chicago and New York, and finally settled in Los Angeles. Her versatility makes it easy for her to work with a variety of artists. She has performed for Snoop Dogg, The MTV Video Music Awards, Marques Houston, a variety of Asian artists, and Soul Train. Her impressive passion for dance and teaching has encouraged many young dancers from around the globe to establish a sense of self-respect and confidence. Meredith is presently performing with Tony Braxton at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and will return after this engagement!
Marie has been dancing for 19 years. She has studied ballet, jazz, lyrical, tap, modern, hip hop and musical theater. At the age of eleven, she was chosed to join a modern dance company performing A Wing and A Prayer, touring the western United States. In 2003, she moved to Los Angeles where she has enjoyed performing at various venues. Marie has been teaching at numerous studios in the Los Angeles area, as well as, choreographing and preparing dancers for competitions. Her dance piece Tribal Tap won the 2006 Encore Choreographer's Award. Marie is an excellent technician and has an uncanny ability to bring the best out of all dancers from young dancers to advanced pre-professionals. Marie teaches jazz and hip hop at CSD. Marissa Ruelas Marissa started dancing Flamenco and performing at Santa Barbara Fiestas at age three. She has been studying continuously since then with Cruz Dance and Entertainment and Melissa Ornelas and Company, as well as, the world-renowned Flamenco professional, Roberto Almaral. Marissa has been teaching and choreographing Flamenco dance for the last five years. She participated in I Love Dance competitions throughout the state of California taking first places and high scores in solos, duets and group dances. Marissa recently performed her own piece at the 2007 Santa Barbara Fiesta, at Carpinteria Valley Arts Council events and is presently preparing to audition for the coveted Senior Spirit of Fiesta 2008. She will be teaching Flamenco dance for CSD.
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