dancers

LAUREN CAMP, DANCER AND REHEARSAL DIRECTOR

Lauren Camp received her BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase College with an emphasis in Choreography. She is the co-founder and Director of Dance for MADArt Creative, a collaborative modern dance company. Lauren has also choreographed for NYU/Atlantic Theater's Spring Awakening, Scandinavian American Theater Company's Bastards of Strindberg, Lucy Moses' Summer Musical Theater Workshop and Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater's Seussical the Musical. She has been Associate Choreographer for Utah Festival Opera's Rex, Oklahoma!, H2$, and Carousel. She currently dances with Yoo and Dancers, The LM Project, and The Dreamland Follies. She teaches dance for the Vanderbilt YMCA, Central Park Dance Academy, Three Act Theatre and drama for the Lucy Moses School.

HANNAH FRANZ

Hannah Franz is an NYC-based, freelance artist from Long Island, NY. Franz holds a BFA in dance from Adelphi University, where she studied ballet and modern intensively, performing the works of Paul Taylor and Lar Lubovitch. Franz has also performed in several, contemporary and classical works, choreographed by Eddy Ocampo, Lauri Stallings, Shan Dai, Adelheid B. Strelick, Frank Augustyn, and Orion Duckstein. Additionally, Franz spent a semester at the London Contemporary Dance School, focusing on gaga and improvisation. In the spring of 2018, Franz was the arts administration intern for GALLIM dance. Currently, Franz is dancing for Yoo and Dancers, Douglas and Co., and Joyce King/JKing Dance Company.

ANNIKA SHEAFF

Annika Sheaff received a BFA in dance from The Juilliard School. She toured the world with Pilobolus Dance Theater from 2006-2010. During that time she collaborated with the artists Inbal Pinto, Avshalom Pollak, Sesame Street, OKGO, Art Spiegelman, Basil Twist, Dan Zanes, Robert Whitman and Graciela Daniele. In NYC, she dances for Aszure Barton and Artists and for Yoo and Dancers.

SEAN HATCH

Sean Hatch is originally from Stafford Springs, CT. He graduated with a B.F.A. in Dance Performance from the Hartt School at the University of Hartford. He started dancing in February 2007 at Connecticut Concert Ballet under the direction of David Lawrence and Wendy Fish-Lawrence. While at the Hartt School, he performed works by Jose Limon, Martha Graham, Shannon Gillen, Pascal Rioult, and Stephen Pier. Sean was also fortunate to perform as a company member of Full Force Dance Theatre directed by Katie Stevinson-Nollet. In March 2012, Sean performed as a soloist in Dark Meadow Suite at the Joyce Theatre restaged by Peggy Lyman. He is extremely grateful to the people he has worked with who have helped him develop as a dancer as well as a human being.

ELISABETH JEFFREY

Elisabeth Jeffrey started her classical training under the tutelage of Carlos Stroia in Minnesota at the age of seven. She went on to train at the Joffrey Ballet School under a full merit scholarship, when she was fourteen. During her years there, she attended schools such as the American Ballet Theater, the Houston Ballet School, the Washington Ballet School, and the Royal Ballet School of Covent Garden. She also performed with Arts Umbrella Dance Company in Vancouver, Canada, and Peter Pucci Plus Dancers at City Center, in NYC. Upon graduation she began her professional career, and is current company member of Thomas Ortiz Dance and Periapsis Music and Dance(PMD). Elisabeth is also the rehearsal director of PMD. She has danced for Benjamin Briones Ballet, Emotions Physical Theatre and AS Arts NYC. Elisabeth is so happy to be a part of Yoo and Dancers.

JIHYUN KIM

Jihyun Kim, born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, started dancing at the age of 8 and got B.S degree in dance at Hanyang University in South Korea. She won the Golden-prize for Senior contemporary in ‘The 41st Dong-A Dance Competition’, which is the most influential competition in Korea and started to gain attention as a remarkable dancer. Post graduation, Jihyun had danced with Garimda Dance Company performing many projects in Korea. In 2012, she decided to move to New York in order to enhance her career and dance experience. She had received training exposed to many styles of dance at Peridance Center and she earned her MFA in dance from Tisch School of The Arts, NYU in 2017. Jihyun has performed in works by Crystal Pite, Trisha Brown, Stefanie Batten Bland, Gaspard Louis, and Alice Klock.

LEIGH SCHANFEIN, M.S.

Leigh Schanfein performs modern, ballet, and contemporary dance as a freelance artist in NYC. She has an MS in kinesiology with a specialization in biomechanics, and BS in animal physiology and neuroscience. She's received multiple awards for her research with dancers, mostly examining postural control, gives lectures, and worked for five years as the research associate at Harkness Center for Dance Injuries. She is adjunct professor at Barnard College, and writes for Dance Informa Magazine.

MARINA VIANELLO

Marina Vianello, a native of Kansas City, Missouri, began her dance training at City in Motion Dance Theater’s School of Dance. In 2018 she graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Global Systems from George Mason University, where she was awarded an annual Dance Talent Scholarship. Throughout her college career she was cast in pieces by Susan Shields, Christopher d’Amboise, David Grenke, Lar Lubovitch, Alejandro Cerrudo, and Robert Battle. She spent her summers training with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Rioult Dance NY, and DanceWorks Chicago. In the summer of 2018 she attended the b12 dance festival in Berlin, Germany where she performed a piece by Shannon Gillen at the dock11 theatre. She was last seen performing the original choreography of Jerome Robbins in the Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s production of West Side Story in the role of “Velma”.

REBECCA WALDEN

Rebecca Walden began training in ballet in her hometown of Columbia, South Carolina. She continued her studies in ballet and contemporary dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts and at Alonzo King's LINES Ballet Training Program. She has performed professionally with Columbia Classical Ballet and Nevada Ballet Theatre. For the past year and a half, she has been performing in New York while pursuing a degree in Anthropology and Human Rights at Columbia University. While in New York, she has had the pleasure to work with Stuart Loungway's Terra Firma Dance Theatre, Benjamin Briones, Laura Shapiro, Sidra Bell, and Bennyroyce Royon. Rebecca is thrilled to be working with Hee Ra Yoo and her fellow dancers.

XIANG XU

Xiang Xu is an international choreographer, dancer and instructor based in New York City. Xiang grew up in China and earned his B.A. at Beijing Dance Academy. He won awards including the Gold Lion prize in choreography at the Singapore World Music Dance and Instrument Competition. He holds an M.F.A. in Dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and has served as adjunct faculty and guest artist at Syracuse University and Santa Monica College.

In 2015 he established the Xiang Xu Dance Theater. Xiang choreographed and performed in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In 2017, he was selected for the Cunningham Repertory Workshop. His paper “Exploration of the Historical and Cultural Aspects of Yuanchangbu” was published by the Asian Journal of Humanity, Art and Literature, and his book Exploration of the Foot-Binding in Chinese Classical Dance is published in Chinese and English.