2025 Summer Workshop Faculty

I dance and make dances in an attempt to make sense of the world around me. I recently left my faculty position of 14 years at UCSD, where I guided practices that question what dance is and can be. Early on, I received a full merit scholarship to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. I was a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company where I also taught and served as choreographic assistant to Bill. As a member of The Lyon Opera Ballet, I performed in works by William Forsythe, Stephen Petronio, Susan Marshall, Maguy Marin, Angelin Preljocaj, among others. In San Diego, I performed with McCaleb Dance, (directed by Nancy McCaleb) and eventually became Associate Artistic Director and began directing and making dances. Thursday mornings from 2008-2021 I practiced performing spontaneous dancemaking with a group called LIVE. My desire to dance forever led me to seek ways of moving with greater efficiency and sustainability. Contact Improvisation, Trisha Brown-like qualities, Deborah Hay’s questions and direction and somatic approaches to dancing have transformed and expanded my movement capacities. As a Feldenkrais Method® practitioner, I practice dancing using only as much effort as needed, moment to moment. As a dancemaker, I am a collaborator. I’ve made dances with Leslie Seiters, Anya Cloud, Karen Schaffman, Liam Clancy, and Jess Humphrey. 

Donna Flournoy serves as a Professor of Dance at San Diego Mesa College. She possesses extensive training and experience in the field of dance, having begun her formal education at Mesa College and Stage 7, where she focused on Ballet, Jazz, Musical Theater, Tap, and Acting. Through her mentorship with Jan Ellis, she developed a profound passion for dance and subsequently earned an Associate of Fine Arts degree from Mesa College.

Donna furthered her education by transferring to the University of California, Irvine, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance with an emphasis in Choreography. After several years dedicated to teaching and choreography, she achieved a Master of Arts degree from California State University, Long Beach.

Throughout her career, Donna has contributed her expertise by teaching and choreographing at various dance studios in New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Orange County, Utah, and San Diego. She has also performed with notable production companies, including the American Broadcasting Corporation's touring company, where she worked as a character dancer, and served as the assistant choreographer for the Common Ground Dance Company in Orange County, founded by Monie Adamson.

Her stage credits encompass performances as a dancer and singer in the Starlight Musical Theater production of "The King and I." Additionally, she choreographed and performed in the play "For Colored Girls," which was directed by Dr. Floyd Gaffney, a Professor of Theater at the University of California, San Diego.

Donna is deeply committed to the arts and is eager to share her knowledge and enthusiasm with her students.

Khamla Somphanh is a active teaching artist and dance maker, current Lecturer at San Diego State University School of Music and Dance, faculty at San Diego Dance Theater, Lynch Dance Institute, Mounarath-Powell Dance and The Kennedy Center Dance Lab. Somphanh attained Certification in Theory and Practice of Horton Pedagogy from The Alvin Ailey School in NYC, received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance from Saint Mary’s College of California and graduated from Duke Ellington Performing Arts High School in Washington, D.C.. Her choreographic works have been created for Wasatch Contemporary Dance, LITVAKdance, San Diego Dance Theater, Trolley Dances of San Diego, The PGK Project, Visionary Dance Theater, Diversionary Theater, Canyon Crest Academy, Malashock Dance School, Carlsbad Performing Arts Academy, School of Creative and Performing Arts among others. Somphanh’s self and co-produced works have been exhibited at ODC Commons, 10th Avenue Theater, Dorothea Laub Studio and Carlsbad Performing Arts Black Box. Some of Ms. Somphanh’s performing credits include ODC/San Francisco Dance Company, Wylliams/Henry Dance Ensemble, Na-Ni Chen Dance Company, East/West Repertory Ensemble, New World Dance Company, Soundance Dance Company, Malashock Dance Company, soloist for San Diego Opera, the Broadway production of “The King and I” and 1st national touring company as lead dancer and Assistant Dance Captain. 

BERNARD BROWN is a performing artist, choreographer, filmmaker, educator, and arts activist working at the crossroads of Blackness, Queerness, and belonging. As artistic director of Bernard Brown/bbmoves, a social justice dance theater company, he choreographs for stage, specific sites, film, and opera. His work has been presented across Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe, including On The Boards, Centre de Developpment Choregraphique La Termitierre, Dance Camera West, American Dance Festival’s ADF Movies by Movers, Roy and Edna Disney/California Arts Theater (REDCAT), University of Chicago, The Saint Louis Black Repertory Company, Japanese American National Museum and Royce Hall, amongst other venues. Commissioning organizations include The City of Los Angeles, UCLA, Santa Monica Symphony, Dance Mission Theater, the Fowler Museum, South Chicago Dance Theater, Lula Washington Dance Theatre, and a host of universities and community organizations. Brown has developed work in residencies with The Music Center, Johns Hopkins University, Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, B Street Theater, Northwestern University, Theatre Soleil (Burkina Faso) and Dance Italia. For nearly 3 decades, Brown has toured with and performed in the choreography of leaders of the dance field including Lula Washington Dance Theatre, David Rousseve/REALITY, Donald McKayle, Rennie Harris, Rudy Perez, Pat Taylor, Doug Elkins, Janessa Clark, Shapiro and Smith Dance, TU Dance, and Lucinda Childs, to name a few. By invitation, he has joined casts of productions like the Kennedy Center’s Masters of African American Choreography, Los Angeles Opera’s AIDA, and Robert Wilson’s Letter to a Man with Mikhail Baryshnikov.  Some other career highlights include restaging Donald McKayle’s canonical “Games” for the Kennedy Center's Masters of African American Choreography, performing on the Daytime Emmy’s, in Penumbra Theater’s “Black Nativity,” Donald Byrd’s “Harlem Nutcracker,” and being the titular principal dancer in Nike’s “12 Miles North: The Nick Gabaldon Story,” the first documented Afro-Mexican American surfer. He is a proud member of the American Guild of Musical Artists. 

As a sought-after educator, Brown has conducted workshops, lectures, presentations, and master classes internationally, namely in Korea, Israel, Burkina Faso, Panama, Malta, Canada, and Brazil, and across the US, sharing his inclusive pedagogy. He is a core member of Street Dance Activism and an ongoing collaborator with Dancing Through Prison Walls, an abolitionist project. His activism has been featured in Dance Magazine, the Los Angeles, and New York Times. A first-generation college graduate, he is an Assistant Professor of Dance at UC San Diego, a Certified Katherine Dunham Technique Instructor, and a California Arts Council Established Artist Fellow. The Los Angeles Times has called him “…the incomparable Bernard Brown…”

bbmoves.org

Terry Wilson has been performing, choreographing and teaching for over 32 years. Her dance career began the minute she met Jean Isaacs and she has performed over 50 dances created by Jean. She studied with her at San Diego State University and consequently began dancing for Three’s Company and Dancers in 1986. Terry then performed for Isaacs/McCaleb and Dancers for eight years before leaving to obtain her MFA in Dance from the University of Michigan. Following that, Ms. Wilson returned to San Diego to dance for Jean at San Diego Dance Theater, retiring from performing in 2003.

​Highly valuing education, Terry earned a BS in Psychology from SDSU and an MFA in dance on full scholarship from the University of Michigan. She also is a professor at San Diego City College and lecturer at UCSD. Terry is deeply invested in the dance community in San Diego and hopes to create more opportunities for everyone to perform and enjoy movement.

Terry choreographed for the first two years of Trolley Dances, performed in the third event and was invited back to choreograph in the 2008, 2014 and 2018 “best of” Trolley Dance performances. After retiring from performing, she worked with Jean to create “Moving Stories,” a children’s program; became rehearsal director for company repertoire; and served on the Board of Directors for San Diego Dance Theater. She is also honored to have worked alongside Jean as Associate Artistic Director of San Diego Dance Theater for over a year and a half. As she moves into the Artistic Director position, Terry is excited to infuse the upcoming seasons with exciting new approaches to dance making, training and performance.

Luci found her love for dancing as a child when she started training in ballet training with Felicity Cunningham in Las Vegas. After moving to San Diego at age 10, Luci continued her dance training with Kathy Roach at Fine Pointe Ballet Studio. In addition to dance, there she was also given opportunities to teach and choreograph. Luci graduated with a BA in Dance from University of California, San Diego in Spring of 2019. While at UCSD, Luci has enjoyed exploring many different dance styles such as contemporary, improvisation, jazz, hip hop, and tap. In 2018, Luci became a company member with H2O dance and a Work Study student with San Diego Dance Theater. She is honored to now be a company member at SDDT. She hopes to continue her career in dance with more opportunities to perform, choreograph, and teach dance in many capacities.

Cecily Holcombe began dancing while majoring in physics at UCSD. Her first exposure to dance was a beginning modern class with Jean Isaacs, who she continued to study with extensively throughout her career. After graduating, she moved up to San Francisco and performed with Liss Fain Dance and worked with other local choreographers while earning her teaching credential and teaching high school. Since moving back to San Diego, Cecily has been honored to perform with Khamla Somphanh, Push Process Movement Theory, and Blythe Barton Dance, among others. Cecily joined SDDT in 2017 and presented her first choreographic work at Live Arts Fest in 2022. Outside of dance, Cecily teaches high school math and science and enjoys playing guitar. She lives with her husband, their dog, and 3 unpredictable children.