Our Team
Dancers
Lani Dickinson started her training in Towson, Maryland. She graduated with honors and attended a summer at Alonzo King LINES Ballet. In 2015, she was awarded the Princess Grace Dance Award. Lani joined AXIS Dance Company in August 2016 through November 2019. Now she is a freelance artist for POST: Ballet and Yayoi Kambara, and other Bay area companies/choreographers. Lani is an advocate for inclusive practices, especially in dance and performance.
Lani Dickinson
Nayara Lopes is a principal dancer with Philadelphia Ballet from Curitiba, Brazil. Nayara Lopes began dancing at age six. She trained at the School of Theatre Dance Guaira in Brazil and later at the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in New York. Nayara also competed in ballet competitions such as the Youth American Grand Prix (YAGP) finals in New York, where she received the Mary Day Special Award, as well as the YAGP regionals in Columbia, SC, where she was the 2011 Grand Prix winner. Nayara joined Philadelphia Ballet for the 2016/2017 season as a member of the corps de ballet, was promoted to Soloist for the 18/19 season, promoted to First Soloist for the 2019/2020 Season, and promoted to Principal dancer in December 2021.
Nayara Lopes
Samuel “Samuka” Lima is a young up-and-coming breakdancer from Brasilia, Brazil. Diagnosed with cancer in his right leg, Samuka had a full leg amputation just below his hip. Just after the surgery, Samuka was quickly introduced to Breakin’ and hip-hop. He has not stopped since. His dance style is energetic, dynamic, and strong. He performs around the world in solo work and as part of the ILL-Abilities Crew.
Samuel "Samuka" Lima
Xavier Townsend started his dance training in Jazz and Tap at the age of eight and quickly added Hip-Hop and Ballet to his schedule.
Currently living in New York, Xavier performs in commercial, concert, and theater work, and has performed both nationally and internationally. In 2018 he was featured in a Target commercial seen on one of the famous Times Square billboards, and as dancer in the Season 14 to the hit show, “So You Think You Can Dance,” on the Fox Network. Later that year, he was cast as “Sniper” in Newsies, making his theater debut at the Media Theater for the Performing Arts.
In 2019, Xavier worked with Akram Khan in Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise which premiered at the Shed in the new Hudson Yards in NYC. Recently, he finished the YouTube dance short film Brothers & Sons, presented by Project 44, about the social climate in 2020.
Xavier Townsend
Joel Brown is an American paraplegic dancer and singer/songwriter based in London. He studied music at the University of Utah from 2008-2011 and has toured extensively throughout the USA and internationally with Brown-Rice Productions and AXIS Dance Company from 2011-2014 and Candoco Dance Company from 2015 to present. As an independent artist, Joel has created a duet, 111, One Hundred and Eleven, in collaboration with Eve Mutso, former Principal with Scottish Ballet. 111 received high critical acclaim at Edinburgh Fringe, 2019.
Joel Brown
Ofir Yannai was born in Ramon in 1994. Between the years 2012-2014 she attended the Maslool Professional Dance Program at Bikurey Haitim center, Tel Aviv, directed by Naomi Perlov and Offir Dagan. Between the years 2015-2019 she danced with the Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak Dance Company. Ofir worked with Choreographers such as Noa Shadur, Rachel Erdos, Dafi Altabeb and Geva Zaibert. Joined The Batsheva Ensemble in 2019.
Ofir Yannai
Artistic & Production Team
Stacey Menchel Kussell is a New York-based filmmaker working at the intersection of dance and popular culture. Her recent works have examined themes of cultural identity, sustainability, and motherhood. She is currently working on several projects in New York, the Bay Area, Barcelona, and Tokyo. Her films have screened at Lincoln Center's Dance on Camera Film Festival, The San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Dance Camera West, and as part of the Jewish Film Institute's Monthly Shorts Series. Stacey received her M.A. from New York University in European and Mediterranean History, and her B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Emory University. Before becoming a filmmaker, Stacey performed professionally with contemporary dance companies in New York and Europe.
Stacey Menchel Kussell, Producer/Director
Ellen Bar is a freelance film producer and consultant living in Brooklyn, NY. Ellen developed and produced the narrative dance film NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ, directed by Henry Joost and Jody Lee Lipes, which premiered at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival and aired on PBS and BBC Four. She produced the feature documentary film BALLET 422, directed by Jody Lee Lipes, which premiered in competition at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and was released theatrically nationwide by Magnolia Pictures. Before she was a filmmaker, Ellen was a professional dancer with New York City Ballet, and in 2011 became the became the Director of Media Projects at NYCB.
Ellen Bar, Consulting Producer
Emily Huang is a San Francisco based architect. Prior to founding Huang Iboshi Architecture in 1998, she worked with William Turnbull Jr, architect renowned for his work in San Francisco Bay Area Regionalism. She received her Master of Architecture Degree from MIT and was the recipient of several scholarships. Emily’s master thesis, Body in Space: the sensual experience of architecture and dance was awarded with distinction. Emily also holds Master of Construction Management and Bachelor of Architectural Design degrees from the University of Florida. She is a registered architect in the State of California and is LEED AP accredited. Emily’s architectural practice focuses on residential and small institutional projects. Renowned for elegant design solutions, her work is appropriately contextual, poetic yet practical, and environmentally collaborative.
Emily has taught architectural design at University of Florida, Boston Architectural College and The Academy of Art University. She has been a guest architectural design critic at University of California, Berkeley, California College of the Arts, Academy of Art University, and University of San Francisco.
Emily Huang, Architect and Scholar
The Lluís Domènech i Montaner Foundation is a Barcelona-based organization aiming to recover, study and disseminate the work of Lluís Domènech i Montaner, one of the most influential and representative artistic figures in the second half of the nineteenth century and first quarter of the twentieth century.
On an international scale, the Foundation LDM aspires to disseminate Domènech’s oeuvre as a foremost example of modernisme, Catalan Art Nouveau, highlighting its connections with cultural movements around Europe.
The LDM Foundation in conjunction with the associated partners of the Taula Domènech i Montaner will be one of the main organizers of the year of cultural programming commemorating the anniversary of Domènech i Montaner in 2023.