Connect With LEAP Staff
LEAP staff are dancers, arts professionals, and LEAP graduates. We are here to support you as your learn more about the program, and we will be with you every step of the way!
Shaunna Vella
LEAP Program Director
Shaunna Vella is a choreographer, dancer, educator and activist as well as being the Program Director for LEAP (Liberal Education of Arts Professionals) at Saint Mary’s College of California. Shaunna has been teaching at the college since 2004, and currently teaches Technique, Composition and Dance Studies courses in the undergraduate and the MFA dance programs on campus. Her choreography is political and interdisciplinary, and her pedagogy is an intersection of creative practice for survival, performance as ritual, and dynamic community building. Shaunna continues to teach, study, collaborate and perform around the world with artists she admires greatly. She has had a celebrated performance career working as a dancer for many nationally recognized dance companies in which she had the opportunity to travel on many international tours. She has created and performed works with Rogelio Lopez and Dancers, Anne Bluethenthal and Dancers, Davalos Dance Company, Liss Fain Dance, Paufve Dance, Agora Dance Project, Josh Prince, Dance Ceres and Deborah Slater Dance Theater. In 2007, she served on the Isadora Duncan Dance Committee. She is the co-director of Vella & Merrell Dance Project, a queer dance-theater company based in Oakland, CA (vellamerrell.org). She believes in the power of art and expression to transform our narratives and the physical world, and she is honored to be supporting other artists in pursuing their educational goals through the LEAP Program.
She holds an MFA in Dance: Creative Practice and a BS in Psychology and Dance: Performing Arts from Saint Mary's College.
Email: svella@stmarys-ca.edu
Stephanie Miller
Associate Director/Program Coordinator, San Francisco
Stephanie Miller began dancing at the age of three, and received her BA in Dance from Saint Mary's College, as well as an MFA in Choreography and Performance from Mills College. She danced primarily with Paufve Dance from 2002-2011, and has performed with several other Bay Area dance companies such as Dance Ceres, Little Seismic Dance Company, Davalos Dance Company, and Stranger Lover Dreamer. Stephanie also had the privilege of dancing in Trisha Brown's seminal work, Glacial Decoy Redux, restaged at Mills College by former company member, Shelley Senter. After many years of performing, teaching, and working in the non-profit world, Stephanie became a mother and was cast in her most rewarding role yet. In July 2017, she returned to her alma mater to step into the role of Associate Director for the LEAP Program. Stephanie is proud to be able to support dancers as they pursue their educational goals, and grow into the next phase of their careers.
Email: scb1@stmarys-ca.edu
Phone: (925) 631-4538
Margot de La Barre
Program Coordinator, New York
Margot has appeared on Broadway in South Pacific, Evita, Anything Goes, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, and Promises, Promises. She has danced on three Tony Awards telecasts, Good Morning America, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, The Late Show with David Letterman, and The View. She was also part of NBC's Sound of Music Live! starring Carrie Underwood. Margot toured the country playing Nancy and covering Polly in The Boy Friend directed by Dame Julie Andrews. Additionally, Margot has performed at many regional theater's around the country, including Paper Mill Playhouse, Goodspeed Opera House, Theatre Under the Stars, North Shore Music Theatre, TOTS, Westchester Broadway Theatre, and Arizona Theatre Company. She is originally from New Orleans, where she trained in ballet with Giacobbe Academy of Dance and Delta Festival Ballet. Margot is the proud mother of two little ones and a proud graduate of the LEAP program.
Email: md24@stmarys-ca.edu
Phone: (925) 631-4404
Andrew Pearson
Program Coordinator, Online
Andrew Pearson comes to LEAP with a still-growing 10-year-career as a performer and creator within the LA dance community. Career highlights include 6 years with the LA Contemporary Dance Company; gallery performances with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and Los Angeles Art Exhibitions (LACE); opera performances with The Industry and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; original work presented by Highways Performance Space, The Bootleg Theater, and The Ruby Street; and music video choreography featured on NPR.com and Billboard.com. His experience has also led to opportunities to perform in Paris, Buenos Aires, New York City as well as share his work in San Francisco, Chicago, and Gdansk, Poland. Andrew continues to perform and produce creative works through his platform Bodies in Play (www.bodiesinplay.com).
In addition, Andrew's extensive career in higher education includes faculty positions at California State University, Channel Islands, the Art of Acting Studio, and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) as well as to guest classes for UCLA, California Institute of the Arts, Northern Kentucky University, Chapman University, and Transit Dance in Melbourne, Australia. In addition to LEAP, Andrew is currently the Program Coordinator for AMDA's Open Fitness program as well as teaches in their Dance Theater Department.
Email: ap43@stmarys-ca.edu
Phone: (925) 631-5015
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