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Shelby Lawson is a dancer from sunny Tempe, Arizona. She started dancing at the age of six and attended Arizona School for the Arts, where she trained with Ballet Arizona in ballet, modern, flamenco, and jazz. Shelby continued her dance training lightly through a move to Germany, her undergraduate studies at Arizona State University, and the years following graduation. However, it was during the pandemic that she found her way back to dance, taking barre at the kitchen counter every morning during lockdown. When the world opened, Shelby moved

Kiara Kinghorn is a recent graduate of the Masters of Fine Arts Program in Dance at the University of California Irvine where she studied under a luminous faculty including Lar Lubovitch. Originally from Ventura County, Kiara’s training influences include: Westside Ballet, Ballet Austin in Texas, and The Joffrey Ballet School in New York City. She holds a BFA in Dance from UC Santa Barbara where she graduated with honors, and presented an evening-long dance theater piece based on TS Eliot’s The Wasteland. Currently, Kiara serves as dance

Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, grew up a bun head in Crystal Lake, Illinois and attended Alma college in Michigan on scholarship where she received her B.A in Dance Performance. Throughout her career she has studied ballet, pointe, contemporary, modern, jazz, tap, character, jazz, hip hop, and yoga. Kat studied and performed at the American Country Dance Association (ACDA) two years in a row and choreographed her own full length show as her senior thesis. Kat also attended American Dance Festival’s summer intensive in 2016, studied

From Seattle, Washington, Carmen studied at Pacific Northwest Ballet School under the direction of Peter Boal. While at PNB school, she attended summer programs at San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, and Miami City Ballet on full scholarship. She also studied under Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre as a member of their graduate program from 2015-2018. In 2018 she moved to Los Angeles, joining American Contemporary Ballet as an apprentice, and was promoted to the main company in 2019. While at ACB, Carmen had the opportunity to

Andrew Alexander is a versatile dancer from California State University Dominguez Hills. He recently achieved his Associate of Arts degree in dance from Long Beach City College in 2021. Andrew investigated multiple dance forms throughout his college career, such as African, Samba, Jazz, Modern, and Hip-Hop. He perpetuated the idea that his ability to dance without ballet training would only take him so far; as a student at CSUDH, Andrew finally discovered his passion for ballet. His debut in a ballet was by Keneth Walker. Inspired by

Victoria Manning grew up in Massachusetts and trained with Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre. She attended summer intensive programs across the country and trained with Philadelphia Ballet, Boston Ballet, Ballet Austin, Brookline Ballet, Orlando Ballet and Washington Ballet. After high school Manning attended Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and Kelley School of Business where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance and an Outside Field in Marketing. There she had the privilege of working with Kyra Nichols, Carla Korbes, Michael Vernon, Shawn Stevens, Sarah Wroth, and Sasha

Elijah S. Pressman trained at Lauridsen Ballet Centre in Torrance. California. Elijah’s repertoire includes ballets by Robert Kelley, Laurence Blake, Jon Cristofori, Kenneth Walker, William Whitener, and Daniel Baudendistal. He has attended the summer intensives of Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre, Utah Regional Ballet, is a two-time full scholarship recipient to the Craft of Choreography Conference run by Regional Dance America and was selected to dance at the International Ballet Conference in Jackson, Mississippi. Elijah is a founding member of KWDP.

Emma Silagy began her dance career at two and a half years of age, having accumulated more than nineteen years of classical ballet training and nine years of modern/contemporary experience.  Recently completing her education at California State University, Long Beach, Emma earned her Bachelor’s degree in Dance with a minor in Event Planning Management.  While training at CSU Long Beach, Emma was afforded the privilege to work under many distinguished choreographers such as Lorin Johnson, Andrew Vaca, Rebecca Bryant, and Rebecca Lemme.  In addition to her choreographic opportunities

Xochitl Velazquez began dancing at the age of 6. At age 9, she began her ballet training at San Diego Civic Youth Ballet. She later went on to train in Tampa, Florida at Orlando Ballet School and Next Generation Ballet School under the direction of Peter Stark. In 2012, she received a scholarship at Walnut Hill School for the Arts. In that same year, Xochitl completed American Ballet Theater’s National Training Curriculum in New York with the highest score in her class. She danced at America’s Ballet

Laura Smith Mauldin, born and raised in Thousand Oaks, California began figure skating at the age of four and dancing ballet at the age of six. During a thirteen-year competitive skating career which took Laura and her brother/partner all over the U.S. and to Europe for competitions, ballet became merely a side line for cross training and was eventually abandoned. But Laura returned to ballet at age eighteen, after retiring from her ice skating career, when she began attending Moorpark College, where her love of dance was

Tracy Jones trained under Colleen O’ Callahan, Alicia Head, and Diane Lauridsen at Lauridsen Ballet Centre. She has worked with such choreographers as Ron Cunningham, Robert Kelly, Daniel Baudendistel, Julie Shulman, Gina Patterson, and Stephen Mills. She has danced for South Bay Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, and in the trainee program of Ballet Austin. Tracy has worked as a guest artist for Riverside Ballet, San Pedro Ballet, and many others.  She has been in numerous premieres for KWDP and continues to be thrilled working with the company. Catch the

Michael Hill grew up dancing, leaving home at 15 to pursue it professionally. He was trained at the Next Generation Ballet, Canada's National Ballet School, Orlando Ballet School and Ballet West Academy Professional Training Division, as well as with masters such as Bruce Marks, Dinna Bjorn and Alonzo King. He has performed several corps roles with Ballet West, principal and soloist roles with Ballet West II, the Ballet Repertory Theater of New Mexico, Queen City Ballet, New West Ballet, and has also competed in the National High School

Olivia Hamilton originally from east Tennessee, earned her Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Belhaven University in Jackson, MS (Cum Laude)and currently dances with professional contemporary company FUSE Modern Dance of Orange County. Olivia was a part of the Steps of Faith Dance Company in Cartersville, Georgia from 2008-2010 . Olivia has trained extensively in classical Vaganova ballet and Graham modern as well as tap, improvisation, aerial, and contemporary. She has trained under Leann Alduenda and , Oliver Steele of SteeleDance in NYC, Desmond Richardson and Dwight

Morgan Davison started her dance training at Riverside Ballet Arts under the direction of Glenda Carhart and then furthered her studies at Ballet Pacifica. Morgan began her professional career with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet. She continued her education on scholarship at the University of Utah, dancing with the Department of Ballet’s resident student company, Utah Ballet. She was then invited to join Nashville Ballet’s second company. While in Nashville, she became more interested in exploring modern and contemporary dance by working with Banning Bouldin and Gina Patterson.

Gia Calhoun trained with Roberto Almaguer and Julia Ortega and also at California Dance Theatre under the direction of Kim Maselli, Stanley Holden, and Charles Maple. She attended summer programs at the Joffrey Ballet School, on scholarship, North Carolina School of the Arts, American Ballet Theatre, and Ballet Ostrava Workshop in the Czech Republic. Gia attended UC Irvine where she earned a B.A. in dance, and she completed a Pilates teacher training program with Diane Diefenderfer at Studio du Corps in Costa Mesa. She danced with Columbia

Gia Calhoun trained at California Dance Theatre under the direction of Kim Maselli, Stanley Holden, and Charles Maple. She attended summer programs at the Joffrey Ballet School, on scholarship, North Carolina School of the Arts, American Ballet Theatre, and Ballet Ostrava Workshop in the Czech Republic.

Laura Smith Mauldin, born and raised in Thousand Oaks, Calif. began figure skating at the age of four and dancing ballet at the age of six. During a thirteen-year competitive skating career which took Laura and her brother/partner all over the U.S. and to Europe for competitions,