CHOREOGRAPHERS
These are the choreographers for Free the Beasts V: 2017
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Lela Annotto -
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Raven Arnold has been a dancer for nine years. She has studied various styles including ballet, contemporary, jazz, latin, and hip-hop. In the last few years, she has performed in Bayside Ballet school productions, such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Paquita, and Peter and the Wolf, as well as local community productions, including Dancing Stars of Humboldt and Free the Beasts. She has choreographed original work for Free the Beasts and various NPA Young Actor’s Guild Productions. After graduating from NPA this June, she will attend UC Santa Cruz and pursue her dream of starting up her own contemporary dance company that transcends typical expectations of body type and embraces diversity among dancers.
Laura Ayllón is the director of the Sassafras Belly Dance Company, teaches weekly Belly Dance classes at the Dance Scene in Eureka and produces local dance events. She performs locally and throughout the SF Bay Area.
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Stephanie Carter grew up in Rockford, Illinois, where she was trained in Ballet, Jazz, and Tap from a former NYC Rockette, Kathy Nelson. She attended a performance arts school from 4th-12th grade where she had dance classes every day instead of P.E. She studied Modern, Ballet, Jazz, and Tap at Columbia College Chicago. After moving from Chicago to Humboldt, taking a dance break, and starting a family, she returned to dance with a ravenous passion. She currently teaches at The Dance Scene and Ferndale Dance Academy, co-produces Free The Beasts Choreography Showcase held at Redwood Raks every Spring, and has founded and directs her own performance troupe, 555 Contemporary Dance Company.
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Bonnie Hossack - danced professionally in the San Francisco with Della Davidson & Dancers, Nancy Bryan & Dancers, McFarland/Whister DanceArtCompany, Jan Van Dyke & Dancers, Company Chaddick as well as many pick-up companies. Also while in San Francisco she started her own company, BZ/Dance. After San Francisco Bonnie returned to Arcata where she revitalized and opened three dance studios/performance spaces; Old Creamery Dancenter (in the space that is now the Redwood Raks Jade Studio), The Upper Studio, and the Pan Arts Studio. She also produced several performance series; 2 Left Feet Dance Project, Odd Sock Dance Series and Short Stories (the minute pieces). Her work as been commissioned by Ruth Rosenberg Dance Ensemble, Chaddick Dance Theatre, Humboldt State University and Footwork's Spring Series. Bonnie currently lives in Tulsa Oklahoma and is searching for her next adventure 3 years from now when she will move to ????
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Matilda Jackson has been dancing since she was three when she began her journey at North Coast Dance in Eureka. She enjoys dancing ballet, contemporary, Jazz and Modern. Matilda attends classes eight days a week and is learning to teach young dancers the basic necessities of ballet. She is a junior member of Sundance Ballet Company and 555 Contemporary Dance Company. Matilda has performed at Free The Beasts, One Minute Dances, Nutcracker, and multiple Spring Recitals. In 2016 at the first Dancing Stars of Humboldt she was featured as the youngest choreographer! Her roles in the Nutcracker have included Soldier, Little Flower, Fairy, Little Chinese and this year included full Snow, Flower and Chinese. Matilda also won an award in a local singing competition and was a Chimney Sweep in the HLOC production of Mary Poppins. She is excited to share her newest choreography with you tonight.
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Hope Magee - Hope Magee is fourteen years old and has been dancing since age five. She dances ballet and contemporary and has competed in dance competitions including Yagp. She is an avid dancer and hopes to one day be a professional dancer. Hope also has a passion for choreography and recently won an award at the Dancing Stars of Humboldt event with a self choreographed solo. Hope Magee is very excited to perform in the Free the Beasts showcase!
Nathalie Mostrel is a professional aerial silks performer, instructor, and multi-disciplinary dancer. She grew up in the Bay Area training in the world of competitive figure skating, where she fell in love with movement and the sensation of flying. Currently an instructor and choreographer with The Humboldt Aerial Collective, she is also a featured performer at a variety of local events as an aerialist and dancer. Nathalie draws inspiration from her wide array of dance vocabulary, including ballet, contemporary dance, belly dance, hip hop, and acrobatics. She is passionate about sharing the authentic expression of art through many different forms of movement.
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Janice Parakilas says "I want my belly dances to delight and inspire the audience and the dancers. I believe dance is a conversation between dancer and viewer, giving form to our experiences, hopes and dreams. This choreography is a belly dance/Andulusian fusion based on a song by the French/Spanish/Algerian
team Sylvie and Gil Aniorte-Paz. Tracy helped me refine the Andalusian characterizations."
Allie Phinney studied Communication and Interdisciplinary Dance Studies at HSU. During her time in the dance department she was recognized for her excellence as a performer and her contributions to the program. She is currently the Senior instructor and studio Manager at Trillium Dance Studios. In her spare time she loves to dance with her cat Sapphire and host Ballerina Birthday parties at Trillium!
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Jordan Rosin - is a third generation butoh practitioner and physical theatre artist. His main teachers are Joan Laage, Vangeline, & Tetsuro Fukuhara, though he has trained with numerous others including Ko Murobushi, Katsura Kan, Diego Pinon, and Daiichiro Yuyama. Jordan was a co-founder & Producing Artistic Director of the NYC-based physical theatre ensemble, The Ume Group from 2011-2016; has been a frequent collaborator with the butoh company Ren Gyo Soh; and is creator of DREAM DANCES™. Recent choreography include the internationally acclaimed Butoh Medea (Best Physical Theatre, United Solo Festival 2015; Best Choreography, United Solo Festival 2015); The Ume Group’s Butoh Electra; Facet (Hollywood Fringe Festival); Isis Variations (FringeNYC 2014, CoolNY 2014 Dance Festival); Dream Dances; and Lysistrata Project. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre at Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake, CA. 
www.jordanrosin.wordpress.com / @JordanRosin
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Lily Ryman has been dancing for 15 years. Starting training in Ballet when she was three, she has also studied Latin/Salsa, Jazz, Modern, and Contemporary. Currently Lily dances with North Coast Dance and has performed in many local shows, including The Nutcracker and Free the Beasts. She has also choreographed dances for productions with NPA Young Actor’s Guild. Throughout her college education Lily plans to minor in dance, specifically choreography and dance performance.
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Isadora Sharon -
Shoshanna has been dancing in Arcata since she was about 8 years old! She directs the Ya Habibi Dance Company, serves as part time faculty in the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance at Humboldt State University, owns and operates Redwood Raks World Dance Studio in Arcata. She has taught and performed across the country and enjoys improvisational dance with live music most of all. At Redwood Raks she teaches Belly Dance for children and adults and preschool Creative Dance classes and produces amazing birthday parties and Summer Dance Camps for children. She is also a Girl Scout daisy leader and Rutabaga Princess Sparkle Lumina. Shoshanna is delighted to have created this choreography showcase with Stephanie Carter and loves the talent and variety it brings to Redwood Raks.
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Amantha Wood - came to dance by way of a book series she read at the age of ten. She began formal dance training at the age of twenty, fell hard for choreography and moved from LA to SF to be a choreographer. Instead she danced on a variety of dance floors around San Francisco. Amantha moved to Humboldt and continued dancing, designing clothing, publishing fashion photos, and delving into poetry and writing. She is happy to be in the deep creative process of choreographing again.
555 Contemporary Dance Company was established in 2015, with several members performing together long before then. Directed by Stephanie Carter, 555 strives to pull the audience into another world during a performance. Sometimes quirky (I.e., "Raynbo Konnekshun", "Drunk Hobos"), sometimes tragically emotional (I.e., "Reue", "Hope"), and sometimes a little scary (I.e. "Shadows", "Shadows Part II: The Possession"). 555 is a troupe that believes dance is not just entertainment, but an endeavor to relate to the audience as a kindred spirit using the purest of art forms in which the artist becomes the art itself.
