Faculty

Kelly Alvarez

Kelly Alvarez

Lecturer

Ballet, Contemporary, Pilates

Kelly Alvarez, MFA, is a dance artist, scholar, and educator whose breadth of expertise spans ballet, modern and contemporary dance forms, as well as Pilates, injury prevention, and dance history. With over 25 years teaching experience, Alvarez draws from her extensive background to provide a comprehensive and immersive learning experience for her students. She holds a BFA in Dance with honors from The University of the Arts and an MFA in Dance from the University of California, Irvine.

black and white headshot of Molly Bogunovic

Molly Bogunovic

Lecturer

Ballet

Molly Bogunovic is a dancer and educator who danced professionally with Pennsylvania Ballet and Los Angeles Ballet. Over the course of her career, she has performed in countless Balanchine, classical and contemporary ballets, and has danced in numerous national commercials and TV shows. Bogunovic brings over 15 years of teaching experience.

Kyle de Tarnowsky

Lecturer

Composer and Music Director

Kyle de Tarnowsky is an educator, composer, and music director/pianist in the musical theatre, film/television, and dance worlds of Southern California. He is the Music Director at USC Kaufman and a Lecturer at USC Thornton. 

E. Moncell Durden

Associate Professor of Practice

Hip-Hop, Jazz, Improvisation

A dancer/educator, ethnochoreologist, documentarian, embodied historian, author and Associate Professor of practice at the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, Durden specializes in pedagogical practices that prove cultural and historical context in what he calls the morphology of Afro-kinetic memory.

bret-easterling

Bret Easterling

Lecturer

Contemporary, GAGA, Repertory

Bret Easterling is an international dance artist, creator and educator. After graduating from The Juilliard School, he performed with the Batsheva Dance Company. He is currently a certified Gaga teacher, stager of Ohad Naharin’s work and the Artistic Director of BEMOVING.

Holley Farmer

Assistant Professor of Practice

Farmer, MFA, University of Washington, was a member of The Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1997-2009, receiving the New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for Sustained Achievement.

Nina Flagg

Lecturer

Dancehall, Hip-Hop

Nina Flagg is a LA-based Dance Artist, Choreographer, and Educator. Over the past two decades, her work has evolved as an intersection of multiple movement traditions, explored through the lens of Hip-Hop consciousness.

Jesus Fuentes

Lecturer

Ballroom

Jesus “Jay” Fuentes is an accomplished ballroom dance educator and performer featured in iconic dance films such as Dirty Dancing and Newsies.

Shannon Grayson

Assistant Professor of Practice

Jazz, Tap, Social Dance

Shannon Johnson Grayson is a dancer, choreographer, educator and Howard University Graduate with a BFA in Dance Arts. She has taught for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago for over a decade, is a certified Horton Technique instructor, NASM Personal Trainer and Nutrition Coach, and teaches various techniques and genres of dance at USC Kaufman.

person with an updo smiling in a headshot fashion to the camera.

Ebony Haswell Frazier

Lecturer

Ballet

Ebony Haswell Frazier is a dancer who began her training at The Miami Conservatory (Thomas Armour Youth Foundation) and continued on to New World School of the Arts. Her performing career began at The Dance Theatre of Harlem and then led to time at Complexions Contemporary Ballet and the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater.

Grasan Kingsberry headshot

Grasan Kingsberry

Lecturer

Dance for Musical Theatre

Grasan Kingsberry is an interdisciplinary international educator, mentor and Daytime Emmy, Grammy, ACCA and Regional BroadwayWorld Award recipient. After receiving a BFA from The Juilliard School, he went on to appear in 11 Broadway productions including the award-winning revivals of The Color Purple and Once On This Island.

Saleemah E. Knight

Assistant Professor of Practice

Jazz, Dance Studies

Saleemah E. Knight, BFA, MFA, is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary artist, TV-personality, influencer and professional dancer. Commercial performance and choreography credits include: The Daytime Emmys, Dancing with the Stars, Country Music Television, The Lion King, Beyoncé, Chris Brown and more. She also danced works of renowned concert choreographers Donald Byrd, Bill T. Jones and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar.

person photographed for headshot in grey tuxedo with red shirt underneath looking to the camera

Jason Rodgers

Lecturer

Tap

Jason Rodgers is a tap dance educator, dancer, choreographer, actor and musician. His credits include The Academy Awards, the North American tour of the Broadway musical Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk, and Dancing With The Stars (ABC), among many others.

person in hat looking to camera with squinted eyes and a smirk for a headshot photo.

Danté Rose

Lecturer

Hip-Hop, Breaking

Danté Rose is a dance artist, musician, thespian and educator whose special blend of cross-cultural influences have made him a highly regarded unique movement artist in the United States and abroad. Part of the avant-garde Circle of Fire breaking crew, Rose balances both traditional and experimental approaches to Breaking, Hip-Hop and House Dance.

Betsy Struxness

Lecturer

Contemporary, Careers in Entertainment, Dance and New Media

Betsy Struxness is an interdisciplinary artist, entertainer and educator. Raised in the professional arts community of Kansas City and with a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School, STRUXNESS forged a career on Broadway, appearing in Wicked, Memphis and originating hit shows like Matilda and most notably, Hamilton. STRUXNESS’s talents extend well beyond dance and stage with her continued work on screens small and large, as actor or voice actor, creative leader or performer. Her debut pop album, in which she co-wrote, Physical Attention, is available everywhere. Struxness currently lives in Los Angeles and is a part-time lecturer at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Follow along on all her adventures! @be_strux.

Pat Taylor

Lecturer

Jazz

Pat Taylor, MFA, is a rooted jazz dance choreographer, educator and scholar. She is the founding Artistic Director of Los Angeles-based JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble – celebrating jazz as a vital thread in the cultural fabric of African American history and heritage and a defining element of the American experience.

Josette Wiggan

Lecturer

Tap and Vernacular Jazz

A graduate of UCLA, Wiggan’s career highlights include the 2001 Spotlight Award, 1st National Broadway Tour of 42nd Street, movies Idlewild, Princess and the Frog and studying with Germaine Acogny at L’ecole les Sables in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal. She was also part of two original casts of Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel and Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour.