board of directors

yolande snaith

YOLANDE SNAITH trained initially at Wimbledon School of Art, London, and later completed her degree in theatre and dance at Dartington College of Arts, UK, in 1983. Since then she has been creating her own work, performing, choreographing and teaching internationally, winning several awards including Digital Dance, Time Out/Dance Umbrella and Bonnie Bird Choreography Awards. In 1990 Yolande formed her own company with financial support from the Arts Council of England; Yolande Snaith Theatredance produced 11 full-length works, which toured internationally to over15 countries. In 1998 ,Blind Faith won the prestigious Prix D’auteur du Conceil Generale de la Seine-Saint-Denise. Yolande has received commissions from dance, theatre, opera, film and television companies, including the English National Opera, Birmingham Dance Exchange, Transitions, Ricochet Dance Company, The Verve, BBC and Channel 4 Television. In 1997 she choreographed Stanley Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut, and in1999 she was the choreographic adviser for David Hinton’s film Birds, which was the overall winner of the 2001 Monaco Dance Screen Awards.

Yolande joined the faculty of Theatre and Dance at UCSD, USA in 2002. IMAGOmoves was established in 2006 as an artistic ‘umbrella’ for collaborative project with other artists and performers. Since its inception IMAGOmoves has created a range of dance theatre works, including large group site-specific events in urban city locations, to intimate smaller group and solo work presented in a range of venues, from the Hungarian State Theatre of Cluj, Romania, to San Diego’s alternative performance spaces. Yolande has collaborated with several international artists in San Diego including director Gabor Tompa, composers Shahrokh Yadegari and Kris Apple, dance artists Liam Clancy, Mary Reich, and Jess Humphreys, designer Victoria Petrovich, film director Mark Freeman and visual/performance artist Eleanor Antin amongst others.

Ruins True, a collective creation with theatre director Gabor Tompa, co-performer/choreographers Liam Clancy and Mary Reich, composer Shahrokh Yadegari, and scenic/projection designer Ian Wallace was previewed in San Diego 2010, and toured to the INTERFERENCES international theatre festival, Cluj, Romania, 2010, then to Budapest and the Off-Avignon festival, France, 2011. In 2012 Yolande was commissioned to choreograph a re-creation of Ruins True with performers from the Hungarian State Theatre of Cluj, Romania, for touring to international theatre festivals. Recent full length solo performance projects include One Hundred Feet, 2012 - 13 and Once I Dreamed I Was a Dinosaur Swimming Backwards, which featured in the San Diego International Fringe festival 2016. Yolande collaborated with renowned international dance artist Katie Duck on Girls at Work, a duet performance that premiered at Live Arts Fest in San Diego 2015, and toured to Amsterdam, Berlin and the UK in 2016. 

More information @ www.yolandesnaith.com

DAVE MASSEY

Dave Massey is a dance educator, choreographer, and movement researcher. He is full-time faculty at MiraCosta College and holds his MFA in Dance from UC Irvine. Dave began dancing at the age of 17 and was fortunate to study from wonderful teachers and mentors in the Los Angeles area such as Stefan Wenta, Carlton Johnson, Joe Tremaine, Sally Whalen, Patrick Franz, Paul de Rolf and Jerry Grimes. He danced professionally for over 15 years and worked with eminent Hollywood celebrities of the time including Ann-Margret, Mary Tyler-Moore, Lucille Ball, Carol Lawrence, Joe Namath, Barry Manilow, Cheryl Ladd, Debbie Allen and the list could go on. He was fortunate to dance in film, television, stage and night-club acts. Dave began teaching almost as soon as he started dancing. He assisted a variety of choreographers such as Joe Tremaine, Jaime Rogers, and Roland Dupree, in convention and television work.

Dave, with his wife Sue, owned a dance school and trained many dancers that went on to dance in film, Broadway, television and company work. National and international choreographing and teaching opportunities began to grow for Dave and they closed the dance studio. Dave began traveling across the United States teaching at the studio, regional and national level working with Dance Masters of America, Dance Educators of America and Dance Olympus. He taught throughout Europe at the studio and national level including the world-renowned festival d’Avignon as well as set choreography on Danse St. Etienne. While working at Televisa in Mexico City, he began teaching for Televisa working with several Mexican celebrities. Dave also went to Australia teaching throughout Sydney and Melbourne as an ambassador of dance for Dance Educators of America.

Dave was artistic director of the Diamond Valley Dance Theatre. The company was part of the L.A. dance scene and was honored to be asked to be part of the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival. Louis Segal of the LA Times wrote: Dave Massey of Diamond Valley Dance Theatre has a sharp eye for pacing and flow that better-known local choreographers might well envy. He was resident choreographer at Theater East, in El Cajon, choreographing Damn Yankees, with Ray Walston, Camelot with Stuart Damon and No, No Nanette with Dody Goodman. He was part of the 2017 San Diego Dance Theater’s Trolley Dances and enjoyed working with new and familiar dancers in the site-specific work at the San Diego Library. His concert dance work has won several awards including the prestigious gold award for choreography, from the Jazz Dance World Congress.

Dave continues researching his love for movement. His recent exploration has taken him to New York and Israel studying the Gaga movement language developed by Ohad Naharin. He continues to explore varying ways of movement creation along with the words and ideas that can help him connect to dancers and their bodies. Movement research fuels Dave’s passion to continue to make work. In the courage to continue, Dave finds joy!

BRADLEY LUNDBERg

Bradley received his B.A. in Communications from UCSB, where he began his dance training with Christopher Pilafian. While in Santa Barbara, Brad danced three seasons with Santa Barbara Dance Theater. After a move to New York, he was a member of Jennifer Muller/The Works, Steeledance, Creach/Company, and performed in works by Young Soon Kim, Ben Munisteri, Leda Meredith, and Michael Foley as well as having a number of his own works performed at Hatch and Danspace. After a brief stint ‘dancing’ on Celebrity Cruise Lines, Brad returned to the West coast where he has danced with Keith Johnson/Dancers, Jean Isaacs San Diego Dance Theater, McCaleb Dance, Malashock Dance and Blythe Barton.  Bradley's own choreography is defined by masterful partnering work, clever formation building and dissembling and continual flow based phrase work. Bradley's  other passion and career is working with children with special needs.  He has been teaching this population for most of his adult life.  

KRISTOPHER Apple

Kristopher Apple is a violinist, composer, performer, and improviser working at the intersection of music, dance, text, and digital media. His music is a regular feature of the San Diego arts scene where he works closely with choreographers, writers, directors, composers, visual artists, and software developers to integrate music and interdisciplinary performance practices. He is a highly sought after artist who provides music, dance accompaniment, and production support to numerous colleges, universities, dance companies, and theater companies throughout San Diego including University of California San Diego, Mira Costa College, San Diego State University (2007–2016), and Coronado School of the Arts.

Apple’s work is informed by his ongoing investigation and interaction with dance, theater, poetry, and music practices in collaborative performance making and ensemble improvisation. He was a member of LIVE Collaborative Dance Theater from 2008–2014 and a co-founder of the collaborative music and dance ensemble Odd and Even. He has been featured as a composer and performer with several dance and theater companies including IMAGOmoves, Somebodies Dance Theater, Little Known Dance Theater, The PGK Dance Project, San Diego Dance Theater, Wallpaper Performance Company, TranscenDANCE Youth Arts Project, Animal Cracker Conspiracy, PADL West, and the podcast Incoming (incomingradio.org). Apple is a member of the Grey Pony Writer’s Guild and International Guild of Musicians in Dance. He holds a Bachelor of Music and Master of Art degrees from San Diego State University where he studied violin and interdisciplinary performance.

Meredith Yayanos

Meredith is a violinist, thereminist and vocalist Meredith Yayanos has a lifelong compulsion to explore and unpack some of the creepier, funnier, and more dysfunctional aspects of fairy tales, mythology, and the monstrous feminine. As both a session player and a touring performer, her body of work is informed by lifelong study of classical, folk, electronic, and experimental music. Yayanos has collaborated with a wide variety of acts including Faun Fables, The Dresden Dolls, Angelo Moore, Beats Antique, Halou, Stolen Babies, HUMANWINE, Jill Tracy, Elegi, Sport Murphy, The Living Jarboe, Edison Woods, Raz Mesinai, Pinataland, David Garland, Thomas Truax, Butch Morris, Kim Boekbinder, The Vanity Set, Love Life, and the Walkmen. In recent years Yayanos has also done a fair amount of film-scoring, most notably for The Narrative of Victor Karloch and The Mill at Calder’s End (two Victorian ghost story puppet films directed by Kevin McTurk, partially funded by the Jim Henson Foundation) and for the award-winning, feature-length psychological thriller, Empty Rooms. Her compositions, arrangements, and collaborative experiments with other artists often revolve around fusing classical sounds with varied folk traditions and electronic palettes to create a unique “uneasy listening” experience.  She received her BA from Bard College. 

María José Castillo

Born and raised in Mexico, María José began her ballet training at 9 years old. At the age of 13 she joined Fomento Artístico Cordobes, a junior dance company under the direction of the Cuban National Ballet. Through this company, she toured through Mexico and performed in New York and Cuba. At the age of 18 she moved to New York City and joined Ballet Hispanico’s second company BHdos. María José holds a B.F.A in Dance from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance class of 2016. While at Purchase, she performed work by Bill T. Jones, Rosalind Newman, Shannon Gillen, Kevin Wynn and Martha Graham. After completing her degree she moved back to New York City and was part of numerous freelance projects and collaborations with other dancers and artists. She has also performed and modeled at New York Fashion Week. María José recently relocated to San Diego and is beyond grateful to be dancing with such talented and warm artists at LITVAKdance and is humbled to have the opportunity to perform with the company.

Emily Miller

Emily Miller received her BFA in Dancemaking from Columbia College Chicago in 2008. In addition to dancing in Chicago and New York, she has produced evening length works, collaborative projects, and designed sound professionally. Miller directs of the GET DOWN/PICK UP Company and runs Performing Arts Workshop in Encinitas. Miller currently dances for isadoraNOW with Elyssa Dru Rosenberg and has performed most recently for Jean Isaacs San Diego Dance Theatre, Kate Corby & Dancers in Fresh Dances, during North County Art Network's economic summit, and with the beautiful artists who took part in Shared Spaces in 2017.

WREN POLANKSY, Visual artist

For roughly two decades Wren has been practicing and teaching art, yoga and mindfulness meditation. Her formal education includes an MA in Counseling Psychology from the Wright Institute, graduate study in Contemplative Psychology and Art at Naropa University, and a BA in Studio Art from Scripps College.  Wren has worked as an artist and educator for various establishments including: the Museum(s) of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, San Diego, La Jolla, and Boulder, Colorado and the Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland, CA, in addition to many public and private schools throughout California. As an artist, Wren has always worked in a broad range of media.  One of her most frequently used tools is the camera.  Viewing Litvak Dance company members through the lens on location throughout her homeland, North County San Diego, has been particularly fulfilling. Recently, Wren has had the honor of illustrating several books for Shambhala Publications:  "The Awakening Body" by Reginald Ray, "The Fourth Trimester" by Kimberly Ann Johnson, and "Hip-Healthy Asana" by Charlotte Bell.  Currently, she is working on a series of new mixed media works inspired by the natural world and the moving body.  She is married to a traditional Irish fiddling cheese expert and is a devoted mother of two busy little boys.  She loves making custom, meaningful works, and is available for commissions.  She can be found at: www.wrenpolansky.com or e-mail wrenpolansky@gmail.com.