Jennifer Backhaus

Artistic Director, Backhausdance | Faculty at Chapman University

Jennifer Backhaus is Founder and Artistic Director of Backhausdance, Orange County’s award-winning contemporary dance company. She was featured in “OC Metro’s” 40 Under 40 in 2009 and recently honored by Chapman University with the 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award as well as Alumni of the Year in 2007 for her artistic leadership of Backhausdance. As a choreographer, Jennifer’s works have been commissioned and produced by Brigham Young University, Chapman University, Los Angeles Ballet, McCallum Theatre, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, TDC of the Bay Area and Utah Regional Ballet, among others. Many of Jennifer’s works have been honored by Regional Dance America, and her piece Disintegration was selected for national performances with the American College Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. For Backhausdance, she has created numerous works, three of which have received multiple Lester Horton Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. At the McCallum Theatre’s Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival, Jennifer has been the recipient of three consecutive choreography awards for her work with Backhausdance. Currently a full-time dance faculty member at Chapman University, Jennifer is also a teaching artist for the Segerstrom Center for the Arts Education Programs, where she shares her love of dance and choreography with hundreds of students in public and private schools across Southern California. A life-long learner, she holds a BFA in Communications and Dance from Chapman University, and received her MFA in Choreography from Hollins University.

backhausdance.org

Blythe Barton

Artistic Director, Blythe Barton Dance | Faculty at Grossmont College

Blythe grew up in Juneau, Alaska, and continued her dance training at Chapman University. There she discovered a passion for choreography, and in her senior year, was awarded “Excellence in Choreography” for her work “Conversations at a Table.” She also won an award for Outstanding Student Dance Performance. On scholarship at Florida State University, Blythe received an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography. In her first semester, she was selected to present her choreography “Standing Still” at ACDFA. For her thesis, she co-created a full-length concert, including performance, choreography, and video dance. Since moving to San Diego in 2008, Blythe has continued to create work and present at several Southern California venues, including: Ignite: A Choreographer's Showcase; Celebrate Dance Festival-San Diego; the San Diego Young Choreographers Prize; New Voices from San Diego Dance Theater; Summer Series at The Vine; and the San Diego International Fringe Festival. Her work was commissioned by Chapman University for Dance Tour and for the Benefit Concert for the Epilepsy Support Network, as well as by Leverage Dance, Visionary Dance Theatre, The PGK Dance Project, California Ballet School, and Malashock Dance School. Blythe has performed with many great artists, among them: Sean Green, Rudy Perez, Gerri Houlihan, Lynda Davis, Dan Wagoner, Alan Danielson, Gabe Mason, Monica Bill Barnes, Katie Stevinon-Nollet, and Andy Noble. Blythe has toured in New York, Utah, Nevada, Illinois, Florida, and throughout California. She is currently performing professionally with both Jean Isaacs’ San Diego Dance Theater and Malashock Dance. As a founding member of San Diego Dance Connect, Blythe is working with other passionate members of the San Diego dance community to create a service organization that will strengthen the dance community by providing opportunities to network, communicate, advocate, and share resources. She currently teaches dance at Grossmont College and in the San Diego Dance Theater School.

blythebartondance.org

Joshua D. Estrada-Romero

Artistic Director, FUSE Dance Company

Born and raised in Southern California, Joshua D. Estrada-Romero began his dance training at California State University, Fullerton. While performing and choreographing for their annual fall and spring concerts, he was also a member of CSUF’s Dance Repertory Theatre and graduated with his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Dance in fall of 2008. His extensive experience in dance, music, and art evolved through his dance memberships and training with Palindrome Dance Company, RhetOracle Dance Company, BARE Dance Company, Nickerson-Rossi Dance, and Kelly Alvarez & Artists. Joshua also worked with very well-known artists of the Limón Dance Company and Erick Hawkins Dance Company, and choreographer Victor Kabaniev. His recent projects include performances with freeFall Theatre in their production of The Light in the Piazza, performance at the Segerstrom Pacific Symphony Hall in Costa Mesa, and the production of The Nutcracker for Claylee’s Dance Academy and Tustin Dance Center. Joshua is the founder and artistic director of FUSE Dance Company based in Orange, CA, whose mission is to support and foster the growth and development of the performing arts in Southern California through performances, dance education, and dance community collaboration programs. FUSE has participated in many Southern California Dance Festivals including Santa Barbaras’s HHII Dance Festival, Los Angeles Dance Festival, Lineage Dance Festival, BlakTina Dance Festival, Temecula DanceXchange, RAW Artists, and has also had privilege of showcasing his work in Boston MA, Austin TX, New York NY, and Seattle WA. Joshua received his M.F.A in Dance from the University of California Irvine in 2016 and currently shares his passion as an instructor/choreographer to all dance students of California State University Fullerton, Mt. San Antonio College, Santa Ana College and the Orange County School of the Arts. His work has been commissioned at Saddleback College and CSUF, and has been a finalist for the Palm Desert Choreographer Dance Festival in 2008 and 2012, taking second place for his work “Beyond the Body” in 2008. In 2018, his company held a Residency at Mt. San Antonio college. He has held master classes and workshops at Ketchikan Theatre Ballet in Alaska, Round Rock Repertory in Austin Tx, Cypress College, San Pedro Ballet, Long Beach City Ballet, and numerous high schools across L.A., Orange County and the Inland Empire. For the past five years, Joshua has produced and directed SYNTHESIS, a choreographer dance festival. Each year SYNTHESIS is held at the Curtis Theatre in Brea and showcases choreographers across the U.S., helping build a stronger dance community in Orange County. His recent exploration in other movement practices such as boxing and taekwondo creates an athletic approach to movement. In addition to teaching and choreographing concert dances, Joshua has explored dance photography and dance on film.

Jennifer Huffman Olivas

Diavolo | LehrerDance

Jennifer Olivas is from the small town of Festus, Missouri. She attended Webster University in St. Louis where she received a BFA in dance. As a professional, Jennifer has performed all across Europe and The United States, in China, Korea and Australia. She has performed with distinguished groups such as David Dorfman’s Dance out of Seasons, Les Grands Ballet Canadiens de Montreal’s The Nutcracker, Paul Taylor 2 in Esplanade, Inaside Chicago Dance Company, MusicalFare's American Rhapsody and Neglia Ballet's The Nutcracker. Jennifer was a founding company member of Buffalo’s Lehrer Dance and toured for three years, before she moved to Los Angeles to dance with Diavolo Dance Theater for four seasons. Jennifer finds herself still jumping back in with Diavolo and recently appeared with the company for the final top ten performance on season 12 of America's Got Talent. Jennifer's teaching credits began when she was seventeen years old and now she continues to teach and co-teach with her husband, Omar all across the country. They have set works and taught all over the world including at Brigham Young University, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Webster University, LA Contemporary Dance Company, Backhausdance, Lehrer Dance and in Fürth, Germany. Jennifer has been an adjunct professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville for five years and is excited to be back for another semester teaching at a Webster University. She also keeps busy as an L1 Crossfit trainer managing a local Crossfit Affiliate, coaching her Acrobatic Gymnastics team and spending time with her husband and two boys.

Omar Olivas

Diavolo Dance | Backhausdance | Faculty at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville

Olivas was born and raised in Santa Ana, Calif. He began his training at Saint Joseph Ballet, now the Wooden Floor, under the artistic supervision of director Beth Burns. Olivas has a master's in Kinesiology from SIUE and earned with a BFA in Dance as a Haggerty and William Gillespie Scholar from the University of California, Irvine, where he was a member of Donald Mckayle’s student repertory dance company, Etudes. As a professional, Olivas has performed nationally and internationally with such distinguished groups as Diavolo Dance Theater, BackhausDance, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, Santa Clarita Ballet, and Neglia Ballet. Olivas premiered Donald McKayle’s Minstrel Man at the Conservatoire in Paris, France and Tammy L. Wong’s About Last Night for the Esplanade’s Da:ns Festival Singapore in 2006. Aside from dancing, Olivas has been teaching and choreographing dance for over 10 years. He was invited by La Salle College of the Arts, in Singapore, to set a piece for The Esplanade's Da:ns Festival in 2008. In 2011, he paired with his wife, Jennifer Huffman Olivas, to co- teach master classes and set brand new works all over the world including at Brigham Young University, University of California Irvine, Webster University, Lehrer Dance, BackhausDance, LACDC, and Ballet Centrum in Fürth Germany. Olivas is currently on faculty for the department of theater and dance at SIUE and is a L1 certified crossfit trainer at a local gym.

Rachel Pace

Backhausdance

Miss Pace completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance with an emphasis in choreography at the University of California Irvine where she graduated magna cum laude in June 2009. There she had the opportunity of studying under Loretta Livingston, Donald McKayle, Jodie Gates, and Lisa Naugle. Also, she has attended summer intensives with ODC, the Jose Limon Dance Company, and the Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company. She was awarded Best Choreography of her graduating class and last September presented a piece at the MixMatch Dance Festival in Venice, CA and more recently showed a piece at Jimmie Defore Studio’s “Pulse” concert in Costa Mesa. She also trained and performed for two seasons with Orange County's professional modern dance company Backhausdance under the direction of Jenny Backhaus.

Zak Ryan Schlegel

Shen Wei Dance Arts | AXIOM Dance Theatre | Backhausdance

Zak Ryan Schlegel is a performer with Shen Wei, educator at The Joffrey Ballet School, founder of bi-monthly dance salon CONGRESS, and co-artistic director of AXIOM Dance Theatre. He is a three-time Outstanding Choreographer of the Youth America Grand Prix, New York Times calls him “a star” and Wall Street Journal “eye-catching & effortless”. His choreographic work has been presented from The Juilliard School in NYC to Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA. His extensive research of Eastern and Western movement traditions adjacent to the philosophical tenets of observation and questioning largely inform his technical vocabulary, arresting language and physical study of identity. In 2020 Zak returned to the US from company membership of Italy’s Spellbound Contemporary Ballet led by Mauro Astolfi. Zak creates an evening length, experiential sound bath “Liminal” with Jonsi and Alex Somers of Sigur Ros, has collaborated with Floria Sigismondi and danced the works of Jean-Guilliame Weiss, Ryan Heffington, Yin Yue, WIFE, Kitty McNamee, Nina McNeely, Josie Walsh and Jennifer Backhaus. He received formative training from Rafael Bonachela at Sydney Dance Company, Danielle Agami, Lucas Crandall, has participated in Gaga research with Ohad Naharin in Tel Aviv, Israel and holds a BFA from Chapman University. Zak can be seen in video, print and television with Britney Spears, Sigur Ros, Vogue Italia, MIKA, Fitz and the Tantrums, Years & Years, Sam Sparro, The Pierces, Japanese Breakfast, Lexus, Prius, Sleep Number, FLAUNT and OUT Magazine. Zak practices the act of query as the primary motivation of understanding—where mortal repetition and shifting layers become the central geometry of being.