Dancers

BRANDON W. FREEMAN - Assistant to the Artistic Directors - Better known as “Private” hails from Colorado. He is an ODC veteran having first joined the company in 1996 - and has passionately danced, coached, taught, choreographed, and championed for ODC ever since! He has also been a guest artist, collaborator, and choreographer for many other Colorado and Bay Area companies and schools, and was a Principal Dancer in the movie, “The Matrix 2: Reloaded”. Private has always brought his outside experiences back to his artistic home to enrich and deepen his contributions to ODC. Nominated multiple times, Mr. Freeman received Isadora Duncan Dance Awards for Ensemble Performance in 2002 with Brian Fisher (Sonya Delwaide), 2012 with Katie Faulkner (Little Seismic Dance), and 2014 with Katherine Wells (Imagery) Notably, Private received a nomination for Individual Performance in 2004 for his role, which he helped to create, in Brenda Way’s masterpiece, Investigating Grace. As a teacher, incorporating ODC's values, he enjoys teaching ballet and modern dance technique as well as Dance for Parkinson’s Disease. Mr. Freeman also has had the honor of being entrusted by Val Caniparoli to set Mr. Caniparoli’s work on Singapore Dance Theater and Ballet X in Philadelphia.

Private seeks to exhaust the joys of life! He is a woodworker, oil painter, voice actor, a poet, and an actor. He has solo flown an airplane; and served honorably as a Sergeant in the Army National Guard for 11 years. He gratefully acknowledges all who have influenced his career; specifically Brenda, KT, Sonya, and Randy.

Website: www.pfcrafts.co
Instagram: @PvtPilot73

Jeremy was born in Brooklyn, NY, and grew up in Augusta, GA, where he received his initial training at the Augusta Ballet School. In 2005, he graduated with honors from the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he performed leading roles in The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, and Lynn Tailor Corbett's Lost and Found. Jeremy then danced with Nevada Ballet Theater, performing principal roles in George Balanchine's Rubies and Serenade, Mathew Neenan's At the Border, along with works by Twyla Tharp, Fredrick Ashton, Val Caniporoli, and James Canfield. Since moving to San Francisco in 2012, he has worked with Robert Moses Kin, Post:Ballet, Zhukov Dance, DawsonDanceSF, and Hope Mohr Dance. He joined ODC/Dance in 2015.

Instagram: @jeremybn

Rachel Furst is from Baltimore, MD, where she began her dance training in competitive dance and then formally trained at the Baltimore School for the Arts. In 2012, she was awarded the Dizzy Feet Foundation Award and also began her professional dance career at Amy Seiwert’s Imagery. In 2013, she graduated summa sum laude with a BFA and minor in psychology from the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA program at Dominican University of California. Rachel also danced with Smuin Contemporary Ballet and Dawson Dance SF before joining ODC/Dance in 2016. During the pandemic, Rachel worked as a rehab trainer at Active Care Physical Therapy, where she found a deep passion for helping others heal. Those skills have helped her grow as a physical artist, and she feels immensely grateful to conjoin that experience with her dancing as she nourishes her artistic home at ODC.

Instagram: @sailorraerae

Jaime Garcia Castilla was born in Madrid, Spain, and studied at the Royal Conservatory of Professional Dance. He was named an apprentice with the San Francisco Ballet in 2001 and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet the following year. He was promoted to soloist in 2006 and to principal dancer in 2008. He created roles in Elo’s Double Evil; McGregor’s Borderlands; Morris’ Beaux, Joyride, and Sylvia; Page’s Guide to Strange Places; Possokhov’s Classical Symphony and Fusion; and Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour. As a guest artist, Jaime performed at “Ballet Stars From San Francisco,” the Lively Arts Foundation Gala in Fresno, California, in 2012, and at the Pas de Deux Gala in Valladolid, Spain, in 2011 and 2012. He danced Flames of Paris and “The Ocean and Two Pearls” from The Humpbacked Horse in Osaka, Japan, in 2006.

Ryan Rouland Smith (He/Him) hails from Colorado where he graduated from the Denver School of the Arts. In 2013 Smith graduated Cum Laude from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in Dance and Choreography. Smith received additional training at the American Dance Festival, where he had the pleasure of working with John Jasperse, Reggie Wilson and performed in the first reconstruction of Bill T. Jones’ Love Redefined.  In 2014 Smith became a member of Kate Weare Company, performing in and originating roles in such works as Dark Lark, Unstruck, Marksman and Praise.  In 2019 while dancing in New York, Smith had the pleasure of working with Stefanie Batten Bland, Look Who is Coming to Diner and Nicole Vaughn Diaz, A Portrait of Them.  Following the collaborative process between Kate Weare Company and ODC, Decameron/Up For Air; Smith joined ODC in 2021.

Jenna Marie (she/they), originally from Philadelphia PA, began her dance training at Olga Kresin's Ballet School and later attended The Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. As a scholarship student at The Ailey School, Jenna became a member of Ailey II. Jenna Marie has been a member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Nai Ni Chen Dance Company, MOMIX, The Metropolitan Opera, and Ballet Hispanico. She has participated in Amy Seiwart's Imagery SKETCH 11 and 12 and has been a guest artist with The Black Iris Project, Mark Foehringer Dance and San Jose Dance Theatre’s Sleeping Beauty Production. Jenna has worked for artists such as Beyoncé, Romeo Santos, Nile Rodgers, and Betsey Johnson. Since moving to the Bay Area in 2019, she has danced with Post:Ballet, Robert Moses’ Kin, Marika Brussel, Christy Funsch, and Janice Garrett and Moulton Productions. Jenna joined ODC/Dance in 2022.

Colton Wall, originally from Florida, began his dance training in 2013 at Santa Fe College after years of gymnastics and martial arts. In 2015 he received his BFA in Dance at Florida State University and in 2016 he joined the company of Diavolo: Architecture in Motion and performed L’espace Du Temps. In 2017 he joined the cast of VIVA by MOMIX. He was part of the original cast and dance captain for the creation of ALICE by MOMIX. Colton has toured ALICE internationally from 2018-2022. Colton is thrilled to join ODC and the Bay Area community.

Katie Lake grew up in Massachusetts and received her primary dance training at the Dance Studio of Wakefield and Northeast School of Ballet with additional training at Boston Ballet, the Joffrey School of Ballet, Miami City Ballet, & Kaatsbaan. In 2012, she graduated summa cum laude from Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s BFA program at Dominican University of California.

After university, Katie performed with Garrett + Moulton Productions in their Swiss tour of “Stringwreck”. Following the tour, she stayed in Europe and was hired as a Soloist at Saarländisches Staatstheater in Saarbrücken, Germany. In her four years with the company she performed in 50+ performances a year of contemporary repertoire including works by world-renowned artists such as Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger, Alexander Ekman, Stijn Celis, Marguerite Donlon, & Kenneth MacMillan, among others.

Since returning to the states in 2016, Katie has danced with Gibney Company in NYC, SFdanceworks, Alejandro Cerrudo, ISHIDA Dance, and little house dance, and has performed in creations by Bryan Arias, Emilie Leriche, Olivier Wevers, & Andi Schermoly. In addition to performing and teaching dance, Katie is a 500HR Registered Yoga teacher. She is passionate about the restorative power of movement and uses the practices of both dance and yoga as tools to help others discover a sense of awareness, freedom, and joy.

Katie joined ODC in 2024, and she is delighted to be back in the Bay Area!

Joanne Kim was born and raised in Southern California, where she trained with the late Lois Ellyn, former ballerina of New York City Ballet under George Balanchine. After receiving her higher education in Visual Communications from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles, she began her marketing career in social media, influencer marketing, and event production, working for fashion and beauty companies like Volcom, Forever 21, Beach House PR, and Dermstore. Since moving to San Francisco in 2021, she has been a frequent collaborator with ODC/Dance. Kim first guested for the company in 2022 then went onto design costumes for The Dance Jam, ODC’s resident teen dance company, as well as the ODC School Youth and Teen program for their 2023 performances. She returned to guest for the company again in their 2023 season of The Velveteen Rabbit and for the 2024 Dance Downtown season.