Associates
Annalisa earned her Bachelors degree in Anthropology from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and since then been a program lead – developing student growth opportunities – as a staff member at UCI Summer Session. Born and raised in southern California, she was classically trained and tested in Cecchetti Ballet and trained in Vaganova style. She believes that she truly blossomed as a dancer and video producer during her Modern, Jazz, and Dance Film courses during her undergraduate career. Her life interests are rooted in sensing the intricacies and complexities of what it means to be “human” – as manifested most notably in her participation in dance and video production. Her larger video projects and collaborations include promotions for UCI Summer Session as well as the Tiyya Foundation, a non-profit organization in Santa Ana, California. She is a participator who thrives on the goal of building community and who is an advocate for empathy. She is ever-excited about contributing to the JazzXchange company and coordinator team, and expanding the JazzXchange community across the United States!
Julianna Cressman grew up in a family of musicians in San Francisco, surrounded by jazz and latin music. She became connected to the Bay Area musician community and affiliated the Berkeley non-profit organization, Living Jazz at an early age. Cressman has attended Living Jazz‘s Jazz Camp West for the last twenty-one years, assisting dance teacher and choreographer Lynn Brilhante for the last four and working on the sound production team for the last five. She has also worked for the Bay Area’s most active Brazilian cultural center, BrasArte, as Vendor Coordinator for the 2015 Lavagem and Festival. Cressman is an Artist Assistant at the newly constructed SFJazz Center, where she has worked personally with Bill Cosby, Kendrick Scott, Sean Kuti, Ladysmith Black Mombazo, and Gregory Porter among many others. She is currently pursuing a BFA in Dance Performance at UC Irvine. Cressman is grateful to be a part of JazzXchange and is excited for the future of the organization.
Irishia has been dancing for over 17 years and is trained in many styles including tap, jazz, ballet, hip hop, contemporary, african, dunham, modern, and flamenco. We are proud to announce that she created UCI’s first youth outreach dance program entitled “Shining Stars Summer Dance Program”. This program was created to support and promote college attendance by giving children the chance to explore future careers in dance and also to create opportunities for UCI undergraduates to develop their teaching practice. Irishia holds a BFA in Dance Choreography from UCI, as well as a BA in Educational Sciences. She is currently teaching and choreographing all across the Los Angeles and Orange County area.
Tarra Laperdon is a recent college graduate from the University of California, Irvine. Tarra earned her two degrees in Dance Performance as well as Social Policy/Public Service. She has been training and competing in various styles of dance since the age of 7, including ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and contemporary. Throughout her experience at UCI she has performed in over 10 dance concerts with well-known artists such as Sheron Wray and Chad Michael Hall. Since graduating, Tarra has performed in multiple professional dance concerts, including the “BlackTina Dance Festival” under the direction of choreographer Irisha Hubbard. Currently, Tarra is teaching dance lessons and instructing the competition team at a local dance studio in Aliso Viejo.
Originally from Union City, California, David started his dancing journey with James Logan High School’s show choir. Inspired to learn more he began taking dance classes during his first year at San Jose State University. While at SJSU, David trained in Limon under Gary Masters as well as Jazz, Tap, and ballet. He danced and performed under director Janie Scott in the dance departments musical theatre review ensemble, “Company One” and also delved into the world of hip hop with AK Modern. After a few years at SJSU David took a leap in hopes to push him to new heights and transferred to the University of California, Irvine where he earned his BFA in dance performance. At UCI David trained under Sheron Wray, Loretta Livingston, Chad Michael Hall, Jodie Gates, Donald McKayle, Molly, Lynch, amongst many other great faculty. Throughout his stay at UCI, David performed in various student and faculty works, danced in Donald McKayle’s Etude Ensemble, and conducted choreographic research funded by UCI as apart of his senior thesis. Outside of the education system, David has danced as a Nickelodeon dancer and hip hop dancer at Great America in Santa Clara, performed with the American Ballet of Los Angeles, California Contemporary Ballet, Gina Starbuck’s Art4life, and is currently on the hip hop company Family Bizness. In addition to performing, David enjoys choreographing; sharing his art and teaches throughout southern California.
Krystal Pires-Patch has been a performer for the majority of her life: she began dancing when she was 4 years old and has been acting for almost as long. She graduated from the University of California Irvine in 2012, where she received both a BA in Dance and a BA in Drama. During her time there, she was involved in multiple campus organizations that use the performing arts to advocate for local and global causes, including the infamous V-Day organization, which you may recognize for its connection to The Vagina Monologues.
Born in Riverside, California, Jason Poullard is a Pomona based actor, choreographer and dancer that completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance Performance and Bachelor of Arts in Drama from the University of California, Irvine. His dramatic arts credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, West Side Story and The Bacchae, working with esteemed choreographer Tracey Bonner, directors Eli Simon, Phillip Thompson and renowned Romanian director Mihai Maniutiu.
Dylan Romaine is a jazz bassist who hails from the Bay Area, California. He has been playing music since the age of 11 and plays in a variety of groups specializing in jazz, funk, rock, and blues in the Orange County and Los Angeles area. He recently began touring with pop singer Ollie Gabriel and 15 year old guitar virtuoso, Ray Goren. His passion is to get people inspired by jazz, often in ways that merge concepts from popular music with the traditional jazz style. During his time studying at UCI, he was able to meet a variety of dancers who are involved with JazzXchange. He looks forward to a bright future with the organization in an effort to promote jazz through the inseparability of jazz and dance.
Nicole Rivor is a dancer-singer who studied ballet, modern, jazz, hip hop, tap, salsa, rumba, and improvisation. She attended UC Irvine, where she danced in the department’s two performing ensembles: Etude Ensemble and Insight Jazz Ensemble. She graduated cum laude from UC Irvine with a BFA in Dance Performance and a minor in Anthropology in June 2015. After graduation she began dancing with JazzXchange, a company based in OC that keeps jazz alive through connecting to movement from Europe and Africa. She also performs with Multiplex Dance Company for “Ancient Matter,” a collaboration between MXD and the Taiko Center for the Arts in LA. She is the Co-Founder and Administrator for the “Shining Stars” Dance Organization, which is an outreach organization that provides free dance programs for underprivileged youth in OC. She teaches at My Gym Children’s Fitness Center, OC Dance Studio, and is a substitute teacher at several dance studios in OC.
Noelle White graduated from University of California, Irvine in 2014 with a BFA in Dance Performance and a Minor in Education. In August 2014, Noelle was selected to attend a three week professional workshop in London taught by Dr. S Ama Wray, being one of the founding members of Embodiology®. Noelle served as a research assistant for Dr. Wray in a Dance Therapy Research Study at UC Irvine, where Embodiology®
was implemented for healing purposes for non-dancers. Noelle served on the non-profit Bare Bones Dance Theater committee for 4 years as their Event Coordinator. Currently Noelle serves as an Administrative Assistant to Dr. Wray and Embodiology® along with Assistant Artistic Director and Company Dancer for the non-profit JazzXchange.
Charlotte Young currently dances with Professor Sheron Wray researching movement in Irvine and the greater Los Angeles area. She began her work with Professor Wray while in university at University of California, Irvine, UCI. She began her own movement research, in the form of dance training, at Kyne Dance Academy. She continued her study at establishments like Jimmy Defore Dance Center, Laguna Beach Dance Company, Orange Coast College, and Irvine Valley College before she began her training with Professor Wray while in university at University of California, Irvine, UCI. Charlotte finds inspiration for movement from all of life, namely: the breath, the body, yoga, nature, mindfulness, martial arts, music, animals, tantra, flow arts, shamanism, bio-hacking, the sacred feminine and an expanded awareness that seeks to connect and integrate these forms towards a greater human, future Earth experience, one of unity, of inclusion, consciousness. Charlotte holds a Bachelors of Arts degree from University of California, Irvine.
Guest Artist
Fabio focuses on interactive music systems. His research takes an interdisciplinary approach, at the meeting point between music informatics, musical composition and musicology. He obtained his Ph.D. in Music and Technology at the University of Kent, and his B.A. and M.A. in Musicology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He has experience with 15 programming languages and his area of interest targets the creative industry. He has 18 years of music creation experience. His art includes musical pieces, installations and performances with other artists. Fabio is Postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Irvine, at the Department of Cognitive Sciences and at the Department of Dance. He is Postdoc at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, at the Department of Electronic Engineering. He is the Principal Investigator leading the international project “Musical-Moods”.
