SB Dance’s mission is to engage the community with performance, multi-media, and production. We aim to encourage people to think for themselves, to provoke their curiosity, and to connect with something new. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit incorporated in 1998, the company is a resident at Salt Lake County’s Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts. It is overseen and guided by an energetic Board of Directors.
Stephen Brown (Artistic / Executive Director)
Stephen glimpsed dance for the first time as a freshman in college in the mid-80s. He soon left school altogether to take a deep dive into this curious art form. Relentlessly studying modern and ballet (back then, it was all about ballet on the bottom and modern on top), he eventually wound up working with Repertory Dance Theater and Ririe-Woodbury in Utah, then Mark Morris and others in New York, and finally as a freelancer around the country, spending several periods with Sharir Dance Company in Austin, where he began to choreograph more consistently. Along the way, he graduated with a BS in Molecular Genetics, Summa Cum Laude from Columbia University in New York, and was on his way to grad school to play with fruit flies before doing a U-turn to take another look at dance.
That other look became starting his own thing, in 1996. He moved back to his home state of Utah where there were many terrific dancers, a 200-seat blackbox under construction, and a new arts grant program. His vision was project work—that is, a venture organized around a conceptually-compact production that is produced over several months and concludes with performances. The ensemble of artists would morph according to the needs of each project. By 2021, under the name SB Dance, his vision has become a creative lab known for off-beat and earthy humor, athletic physicality, tickling taboos, and toying with form. He and his teams have created over two dozen original evenings that range from movement pieces to plays to immersive experiences to musicals, and about everything in-between. Stephen serves on several Boards, including the Performing Arts Coalition, where he has been President since 2007, and is an avid organizer of important cultural initiatives such as Eat Drink SLC.
CURRENT PERFORMERS
Annie Kent: dancer, actor, trainer of tone, twists and turns; changing hearts and minds for SB Dance since 2013
Ischa Bee and Raffi Shahanian: Ischa is a singer, actor, and dabbler in much and many; Raffi, guitarist extraordinaire whose calm, cool exterior barely conceals wild hilarity and fun; together they are Raffi & Ischa, an electro-pop duo with original songs, covers, films, and multi-media experiences.
Ari Hassett: dancer, bioengineer, Gallagher-impersonator; newbie with SB Dance but is breaking in and down very quickly
Nathan Shaw dancer, singer; skipping on stages, throwing bodies, and making everyone laugh for SBD since 2006; RDT vet; teacher o’ year at Judge High; leather-luvin’ weight-pumpin’ bear boy;
Christine Hasegawa dancer, powder princess; sorceress with SBD since 2000; RWDC soldier before that; most often quoted as saying “Stephen is going to change it anyway”
Natosha Washington: dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director of Penguin Lady Collective; fireball combo of strength, smarts, and love
DESIGN TEAM
Carolyn “Winnie” Wood (Show Fixer)
Winnie has had a long and complicated career in the performing arts which included a long association with the Repertory Dance Theatre, founding Dance Theatre Coalition, and performing and writing a monthly radio comedy show on KRCL for ten years. She has acted and danced in, directed, choreographed and produced theatrical productions for almost 30 years, received the Mayor’s Artist of the Year Award, and was instrumental in the completion of the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. Head of drama program at Wasatch Academy for 15 years and now freelancing and developing projects in film and theater.
Jess Greenberg: lighting design; Theater and Design faculty at Weber State; warrior instincts with painter’s eye; teaching a corps of the best and brightest lights in tech; acclaimed for work in stages across the nation
Brad Henrie: production manager, stage MacGyver; longtime theater rat for many local artists now making saves for SB Dance
John Brandon: photographer, patron saint, alien confessor; captures what’s there and what’s not; never ask him what he’s wearing
OTHER PERFORMERS
John Allen: dancer, choreo, guest teacher, movement therapist, psychic traveler, and hammock rocker; RWDC alum, former Tulane faculty and NO-ite; playing with SB Dance since 2013
Juan Carlos Claudio: dancer, teacher, cheerleader, clown; with SBD since 1999; RWDC vet; past life as U of U asst prof/lecturer; entrepreneur in arts therapy; from PR but his ass is now owned by Utah
Dan Larrinaga: actor, singer who’s been pounding the Utah stage for everyone from SLAC to Desert Star to SB Dance since potty training; waiting for Stephen to cast him in sky blue tights as the Nutcracker Prince
Kimberly Campa: ballroom, leaper before looker in the best of ways; ballroom instructor and competitor in ballroom
Rick Santizo: dancer, gymnastics coach, and hottie acrobat; sassy when provoked especially by stage moms; spunky spinner of many things
Florian Alberge: dancer, actor, sexy French homme who enjoys being rolled in sushi; classified background in theater espionage and subversion
Payden “Pay Pay” Adams: actor, chanteuse, danseuse, and lamb chop; Disney detective; taller than his car is long and more persuasive than a silver bullet