People

ALLEGRA BAUTISTA

Allegra Bautista is a San Francisco native. She trained at San Francisco Ballet, City Ballet School and the SF Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division for classical guitar. She graduated from Saint Mary’s College of California earning a BA in Liberal & Civic Studies and Performing Arts: Dance. She is honored to have performed in the works of Garrett + Moulton Productions, Amy Seiwert, Raissa Simpson, RAWdance, Epiphany Dance Theater, Tanya Bello's Project b, Natasha Adorlee's Concept o4, and ka·nei·see | collective. She is a certified yoga instructor. She also dances with Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Kristin Damrow & Company and Alleluia Panis.

BETHANY MITCHELL

Bethany Mitchell was raised in Mission Viejo, California, where she studied dance from the age of four at the Ballet Conservatory under the direction of Alan McCarter. She began her professional career in 2004 with regional ballet companies in California including Ballet Pacifica, State Street Ballet, and City Ballet of San Diego. After moving to San Francisco in 2007, Bethany performed and toured internationally with Liss Fain Dance while on faculty at ODC and Blue Bear School of Music. She moved to New York City in 2012 to further her career, and danced with Battery Dance and Indelible Dance while teaching at the Mark Morris Dance Center and Harlem School of the Arts. She has toured to over forty countries as a professional dancer, and taught masterclasses and creative workshops in over twenty countries as a teaching artist with Battery Dance. She recently completed a Fulbright Scholar Award creating a new piece of choreography on the B.F.A. students at the Escuela Profesional de Mazatlan in Mexico in May, 2022. She enjoys writing and performing her own music around the city, and is thrilled to be dancing with Liss Fain Dance once more.

KATHERINE NEUMANN

Katherine Neumann is a dancer and choreographer based in San Francisco. She a company member with FACT/SF and has worked professionally with Liss Fain Dance, Robert Moses’ Kin, the Mari Meade Dance Collective, ka·nei·see | collective, Stephanie Unger & Artists, Alyssa Mitchel, Alex Law, Hannah Ayesse, and Hannah Young. Katherine holds a BFA in contemporary dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

MOSCELYNE PARKEHARRISON

Moscelyne ParkeHarrison grew up in The Berkshires, MA.  She is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she received the Joseph W. Polisi Award for Artist as Citizen. Moscelyne pursued additional training at Hubbard Street Pro and Walnut Hill School for the Arts and summer workshops including b12, Banff Centre for the Arts, and Jacob’s Pillow.

Moscelyne’s choreographic works have been performed at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Alice Tully Hall, the Hudson Guild Theater, The Studebaker Theater (Chicago), the Foundry West Stockbridge and Triskelion Arts. She has received support from the Anthony Quinn Foundation Fellowship, Berkshire Taconic Foundation, Lee Bank Foundation Arts Access Grant, and Metropolis Ensemble for her choreography.

Moscelyne dances professionally on the East and West Coast with Post:ballet, David Michalek, Francesca Harper, Liz Gerring, Sharp & Fine, and Helen Simoneau. She is director of NEFA and MassCulturalCouncil award winning dance collective BODYSONNET.

She moved to the Bay Area in early 2022 as a company artist with Post:ballet, and faculty member at Berkeley Ballet Theater. Her world premiere ‘say i am you’ was performed by Post:ballet at BAMPFA in March 2022. Shortly after Moscelyne was named Choreographer in Residence. She looks forward to dancing, teaching, and creating in the Bay Area with Post:ballet, and freelancing on the East and West coast, as well as presenting her solo series ‘please come alone’ with BODYSONNET.

ISABEL ROSENSTOCK

A native San Franciscan, Isabel Rosenstock is a dancer and Pilates instructor.  She  holds a BFA in Dance from California State University, Long Beach and received further training under Summer Lee Rhatigan at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance.  She has attended workshops throughout Israel, Europe and the U.S. and has freelanced with various companies in the Bay Area, including LEVYdance, James Graham Dance Theater, Alyce Finwall Dance Theater and FACT/SF.  In addition to her work as a dancer, she owns a small Pilates studio where she helps folks reconnect to and heal their moving bodies.

ISABEL UMALI

Isabel Umali is a New York City based dance artist. Isabel has worked with dance companies such as LeeSaar the Company, the Francesca Harper Project, Gallim Dance, et al. creating work, originating roles and touring nationally and internationally. Isabel performed for Punch Drunk’s internationally acclaimed show, Sleep No More (2015-2019), and has appeared in various TV/print commercials and music videos.

As a creator, Isabel has collaborated with musicians and visual artists, with work presented in venues such as BRIC, The Shed, The Ace Hotel, Triskelion Arts, galleries, and festivals nationally and internationally. Isabel was a residency grantee of DSDT/Studio 210 in winter of 2022 which brought her back to the Bay Area as a bi-coastal artist. She is so happy to be joining Liss Fain in her newest creation.

Isabel is now a craniosacral and massage therapist. She works to enmesh her rich dance training with the principles and techniques of somatic healing practices.

MATTHEW ANTAKY, INSTALLATION & LIGHTING DESIGN

While pursuing a degree in the fine arts in Southern California, Mr. Antaky turned his interests to the performing arts and in 1983 moved to San Francisco to study visual and theatrical design at San Francisco State University. Since then, and for over thirty years, he has created installations, scenic, lighting and video designs for all of the performing arts including theater, opera, dance, and music. His work has been presented throughout the United States and in many countries around the world.

His extensive work in the dance world includes twenty years of designs and installations for Liss Fain Dance and many designs for companies such as ODC/SF, Flyaway Productions, Oklahoma City Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Robert Moses Kin, SjDanceCo, La Tania Flamenco, Lily Cai Dance, Chitresh Das Dance Company, Li Chaio Ping Dance, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Caminos Flamenco and RAWdance, among many others. For opera and music, Mr. Antaky has designed multiple productions for Opera Parallèle, Utah Opera and Symphony, Opera San Jose, Opera Pacific, Festival Opera, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Oakland Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Cabrillo Music Festival, and the San Francisco World Music Festival, to mention a few. Mr. Antaky is a nine-time nominee and four-time recipient of the Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Visual Design. Please visit matthewantakydesign.com for more information.

DAN WOOL, COMPOSER

Originally from St. Louis Missouri, Dan Wool is a San Francisco, California, based composer and sound designer who has worked in New York, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City and Anhui China creating scores and sound design for broadcast television projects, multichannel-audio theme park installations and more than 35 feature films, including seven films for celebrated cult filmmaker Alex Cox (director of Repo Man, Sid & Nancy). He is perhaps best known as the principal composer in the soundtrack-group Pray for Rain. Dan has also worked extensively creating sound and music for international and domestic advertising and sound branding and also as sound-designer for short films and documentaries, including several for the BBC and Channel 4 (UK). As a music producer, and engineer, Dan has collaborated with international artists such as Bernie Worrell (Parliament-Funkadelic), Philip Chevron and James Fearnley (The Pogues); Debra Harry (Blondie); and many Bay-Area artists, including All My Pretty Ones, Meredith Axelrod, essence, The Glowing Stars, Indianna Hale, Joe Lewis, The Mermen and Kally Price.

In the Arts, Dan has created scores and sound-design compositions for The Architecture and Design Museum (A+D Museum), Los Angeles, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery Dance (Sketch Series),  AXIS Dance Company,  Liss Fain Dance, RAWdance, choreographer Sonsherée Giles, choreographer Alice Sheppard and Ballet de la Compasión. In 2018 his music and sound design work for Phil Tippett and Lucy Raven’s experimental film OUT THERE screened at MoMA (NYC). He has also worked as a sound engineer and sound-designer on dance-compositions with composer Beth Custer (Joe Goode, Jo Kreiter), composer Rob Reich (Circus Bella, Gaucho, Tin Hat). Dan has performed in composer Jem Finer’s “Longplayer” installation, sponsored by the Longnow Foundation at YBCA. For the years 2015 thru 2018 Dan was engaged by the U.S. Olympic Synchronized Swimming Team for ongoing composition and musical services.

Dan has twice been nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award (Izzie Award) for Outstanding Achievement in Music/Sound/Text, in 2017 for his work with Liss Fain Dance and in 2013 for his work with AXIS Dance Company.

FRÉDÉRIC O. BOULAY, PROJECTION DESIGNER

Frédéric O. Boulay has worked with Liss Fain Dance since 2002, but this is his second collaboration as Projection Designer after The Water Is Clear And Still. His design work is at the intersection of art, technology, and innovation. Frédéric loves challenges and pushing the boundaries of what can be done on stage using new technology. He has worked with companies such as Opera Parallele, Rork Music, West Bay Opera, TEDx, and Youth America Grand Prix, to name a few; his designs have been seen throughout San Francisco, the Bay Area, and New York. Upcoming engagements as Projection Designer include the 15th anniversary remount of Dead Man Walking with Opera Parallele in February 2015.  Frédéric is a native of France; he is a member of United Scenic Artist Local 829 and holds both a Masters of Arts in Theatre Design & Production and an Executive MBA. Frédéric is the owner and founder of Oaktown Productions, which has provided design services and production management for performing arts organizations since 2005.

FLORENTINA MOCANU

Florentina Mocanu-Schendel — SAG-AFTRA — began her career by writing, directing, performing for theatre and radio shows. By 18, she earned awards as best actress, entered the People’s School of Art in Bucharest and the University of Theater Arts in Targu Mures graduating with a Diploma in Acting for theatre and film. In her native Romania, she became part of the National Theatre, Comedy Theatre of Bucharest, and Romanian Film Studio ensembles. In the United States she continued her work in theatre and film while completing her education with an MA in Drama from San Francisco State University and a PhD in Theater and Performing Studies from Stanford University.  Presently she teaches Classical Dramatic Literature at University of San Francisco, and freelances as an actor, director, and writer.

Special Note: Florentina would like to thank David Schendel and Davia Mira Schendel for the constant love and support, Diane Frank and Liss Fain for this marvelous project.