Erika Malone, Artistic Director
Erika received her B.A. in Theatre and Dance from Sarah Lawrence College in NY and British American Drama Academy in London in 1998. Erika served as Eveoke’s Programs Director for 5 years, overseeing and growing their many successful programs that provide dance education to over 3,000 at-risk youth on a weekly basis in neighborhoods all over the city and 20,000 audience members annually. Erika created and continues to direct the renowned Eveoke Teacher Training Program (TTP) which is for performing artists at any level who want to make a living as a dance educator and/or arts educator. TTP participants work directly under the mentorship of Erika Malone to develop their professional capacities in dance education, creative & artful thinking, and the alignment of teaching with Eveoke’s mission to cultivate compassionate social action. Erika became Eveoke’s Artistic Director in April 2010.
Nikki Dunnan, Executive Director & Co-Founder
Nikki has served as an Eveoke Concert Company dancer and Master Teacher since 1994. In July 2000 she became the Administrative Director, handling all daily operations for the organization. Now as Executive Director, Nikki hones Eveoke’s technical curriculum, sets the annual budget and oversees all company business. Nikki curated and coordinated, in collaboration with founders Gina Angelique and Christopher Hall, the annual Celebrate Dance Festival, a three-day free event in Balboa Park featuring over 70 regional dance artists and organizations for 9 out of its 14 years. Nikki attended UC Irvine as a dance major from 1993-1996. She graduated from UC San Diego with a degree in psychology in 1999. Nikki has been featured in all 32 Eveoke productions including Soul of a Young Girl…Dances of Anne Frank (1996, 2000, 2006); as Yellow in Hope for the Flowers (1997); as Margaret Sanger and Annie Sullivan in Women Rebels (2003); as Raggedy Andy in Monstropoly (2004); Mothers (2004); Hips (2006); Hip Hop is Everywhere (2006); Luna- Dances of Love (2007); RISE- The California Earth Project (2007); Soulos…Green (2008); Lyrics, Beats, and Bricks (2008); Voices: Mapping the Hood (2009); and Las Mariposas (2010).
Ericka Moore, Resident Choreographer & Apprentice Company Director
Ericka Aisha Moore believes in the impact of art (dance) to empower individuals, which therefore empowers community. The first person to show her the power of art and how it could change lives was Gina Angelique. Ericka would like to thank Gina for all of her wisdom, mentorship, and choreographic genius. Because without Gina’s influence she feels her life would not be as rich. Since starting to study dance (jazz, ballet, modern, and hip-hop) seriously at the age of 15, Ericka has been driven to perform and to create pieces that speak about the world she lives in. For example, Funkalosophy, her second full-length show created in 2002, reveals how the hip-hop subculture contributes to an activist dance theatre, while empowering youth and others with a voice concerning their political and social issues. Funkalosophy was reset in 2003 and 2004. The 2004 production was the longest running dance theatre production in San Diego, running 6 shows per week for 9 weeks. Ericka has been a professional dancer for Eveoke Dance Theatre since 1997, performing in over 21 full-length shows as a principal dancer. She has alos danced with the Colette Harding Contemporary Dance Company and with Peter Kalivas in the The PGK Project. Currently, Ericka is Master Teaching Artist, Director of the Apprentice Company and Resident Choreographer for Eveoke Dance Theatre. Her most recent full length choreography credits include Soulos Green, Lyrics Beats and Bricks, Voices: Mapping the Hood, and Las Mariposas. Ericka is on the dance faculty at Palomar College and teaches at Canyon Crest Academy. Ericka is also a seasoned sound designer and has worked with Eveoke Dance Theatre, Stone Soup and Sledgehammer Theatre.
Becky Hurt, Master Teaching Artist
A lover of all that is dance, Becky Hurt found Eveoke Dance Theatre in 2005, joined the performing group, and never looked back. Since then she became a Master Teaching Artist and was invited to dance with the professional concert company. So far she has performed in Hip Hop is Everywhere (2006), Rise: The California Project (2007), Solous…Green (2008), Lyrics, Beats, & Bricks (2008), Voices:Mapping the Hood (2009), San Diego Dances (2010), Dance Theatre (2010), and Las Mariposas (2010). Before she found Eveoke, Becky was training and performing with Unity Dance Ensemble from 1997-2004 under the direction of Tessandra Chavez. She minored in dance at S.D.S.U. from 1997-1999 and graduated from the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts in 1997, with honors.
Catherine Kineavy, Community Arts Activist-in-Residence
Catherine Kineavy is a cultural historian weaving together her academic background in History, her professional background in publishing, and her personal practice in the literary and visual arts. She has twenty-five years experience in working with community organizations building partnerships and collaborations to make the artistic and educational experience transformative. Catherine has worked with Eveoke in numerous capacities over the years and she continues to share her talents with the organization by serving as a Community Arts, Activist-in-Residence. Catherine is also the Executive Director of The Cultural Worker, a grassroots arts and humanities organization.
Danae Banks, Teaching Artist and Youth Performing Group Co-Director
Danae received her High School Diploma from Kearny High School (2007) and now attends Grossmont College where she hopes to attain her AA degree. She expects to transfer to a four year where she will pursue her dream in becoming a Physical Therapist. Danae is a native of San Diego. She has been training and dancing with Eveoke Dance Theatre since 2005. She joined the Performing Group in 2006 where she performed over 50+ performances through school assemblies in San Diego. In 2008 she was privileged to join the newly created Apprentice Company, who brought forth the show Multi-Me (2009). While also participating in the Apprentice Company, Danae was given the opportunity to take part in several company shows including: Soulos Green (spring 2008 as an understudy), Lyrics, Beats, and Bricks (fall 2008), and Voices (spring 2009). Danae recently became Co-Director of Eveoke’s Youth Performing Group. Danae feels that Eveoke has changed her perspective of how she perceives the world and aspects of that world that surround her daily living. She often says that Eveoke serves as her lunch box full of enjoyable treats; all that is needed is the ability to enter inside and take pleasure in all the luscious artistry it carries.
Myriam Lucas, Teaching Artist and Youth Performing Group Co-Director
Myriam has been dancing at Eveoke Dance Theatre since 2007. She started her career as a freestyle Hip-Hop artist and has worked her way up to a Hip-Hop teacher. She enjoys working with outreach youth and currently Co-Directs the Youth Performing Group for Eveoke Dance Theatre. Myriam is currently a Women’s Studies Major at San Diego State University and hopes to one day merge both of her passions, dance and feminism. She hopes to one day help heal women through dance and help women question the world that they live in through dance. Myriam aspires to be a great dancer, choreographer and teacher. She strives to create choreography that is unique and blended with many different kind of styles, such as hip-hop and modern. She hopes to inspire her students and lives to be inspired as a student of life and dance.
Diondra LaShay Eubanks, Teaching Artist
While growing up in Oceanside, Diondra began her dance training studying Jazz, Hip-Hop, and Ballet at El Camino High School. After being introduced to many forms of dance, she continued her training at local dance studios and Palomar College. After receiving her BS in Kinesiology-Physical Education from CSUSM and becoming a Club Coordinator for F19 fitness centers, Diondra is able to continue to her dance training and be a part of many performance opportunities as a member of Eveoke’s Apprentice Company. Diondra is extremely excited to be a part of Eveoke’s teacher training program under the direction of Erika Malone. In this program, Diondra has learned many teaching skills on how to become an effective teacher and how important it is to have intention behind dance movement.
Heather Shershun, Teaching Artist
Heather fell in love with Hip Hop as a teenager in Eugene, Oregon. First, the music, for its socially and politically conscious message. Then, the dance form. Hip hop became the link between her life as a progressive activist and a dancer. Heather has a varied performance history ranging from burlesque to drag to hip hop, jazz and modern dance. She performed with Dance Northwest, as well as numerous local Eugene Hip Hop dance companies until moving to San Diego in 2005 to pursue teaching. Heather has been teaching outreach dance education for Eveoke since then and is currently pursuing a degree in Education. Her passion is focused in teaching positive body image and healthy self esteem to girls through dance.
Behin Behrozi, Teaching Artist
From childhood, Behin has been at the intersection of arts, culture and performance through her involvement with the Iranian-American community in Los Angeles. She received her BA in Critical Gender Studies with an emphasis on Culture and Representation from UCSD in 2006. At that time she began her work with Shakti Rising, a local womens empowerment organization. She continues to be an advocate for women through her volunteerism with them. In 2007, after seeing RISE: The California Earth Project she became inspired to combine her love of social activism with her love of dance and began taking classes at the North Park studio. In 2008 she enrolled in Eveoke’s Teacher Training Program. She began teaching Community Hip Hop at the studio in 2009, at which time she also joined Eveoke’s Outreach Performing Group. She plans on building her strength as a dancer and “artivist” through performance and teaching in 2010 and beyond. Her interests include: acro-yoga, turntablism, the 4 elements of hip-hop, diasporic communities, graphic novels and artivists like Erykah Badu and Taylor Mali.
Devyn “Tucci” Cottrell
Devyn graduated with a degree in Psychology in 2008 from Fort Lewis College and has been teaching dance for 3 years. Her passion for working with kids has driven her to spend the last 9 years of her life involved in youth programs. Devyn has taught preschool, infant care and college hip hop classes, tutored elementary and middle school math, volunteered for Big Brother’s Big Sisters, was a swim instructor for Adaptive Aquatics, and has choreographed semi-professional musicals for elementary, middle, and high school aged children. She has 3 years of performance experience with her college dance program Dance Co-Motion (2006-2008), Fort Lewis College Theater’s Kenetic Kolitescope (2007), The Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center’s Summer Showcase (2009) and The Salt Fire Circus and Bare Bones Burlesque Side Show (2009). After her Internship at Napa State Hospital in 2008, Devyn has been motivated to combine her degree in Psychology with dance as a means to therapy. Her dream career is bringing Expressive Arts Therapy to mental health care facilities in order to foster healing through dance. Devyn loves teaching for the Eveoke Outreach Program and hopes to provide an accessible outlet for each kid she reaches.
Kira Preston, Teaching Artist
Kira Preston started performing on stage as a sassy little munchkin in 1987, equipped with sparkles, fringe, crimped lioness hair that was half the size of her body, and size 2 tap and jazz shoes. She grew up as a tap and jazz dancer and then expanded her love for dance to include ballet, modern, hip-hop, and various forms of burlesque. Kira taught tap dance to 4 year olds and worked as an assistant in adult jazz and tap classes for two years. In 2008, she was introduced to Eveoke Dance Theatre by a friend and was drawn to the spunky, passionate, and diverse group of people she found there. Inspired by the opportunity to join the Teacher Training Program, she began her journey to grow as a teacher under the passionate mentorship of Erika Malone. She has worked with various teaching artists from Eveoke in outreach classes, and now teaches Child Hip-Hop at the studio on Saturday mornings and the occasional Community Hip-Hop class. Kira also has the wonderful opportunity to assist one of Eveoke’s most special dancers with a disability to take hip-hop on Friday evenings. With a B.A. in Critical Gender Studies and a passion for social justice, Kira aspires to activate social change through arts education by sharing love, compassion, respect, inclusion, feminism(s), and critical thinking as tools to open up, heal, and empower the hearts and minds of her students.
Shayna Cribbs, Teaching Artist
Shayna Cribbs began dancing at Eveoke Dance Theatre in January of 2009 and is a current member of Eveoke’s outreach performing group. As a member of the performing group, she has performed in the shows Ripples on the Water (2010) and Evolution of Hip Hop (2011) in schools and festivals throughout San Diego. Shayna has also performed in Eveoke’s production of Las Mariposas (2010) and is excited to be a part of the upcoming hip hop production Refuge. Shayna first moved to San Diego in 1995 to attend the University of California, San Diego. While working towards her BA in Human Development and a teaching credential at U.C.S.D., she began her dance training under Jean Isaacs of San Diego Dance Theater. Shayna is a founding teacher at Explorer Elementary Charter School, has taught third grade there since 2000, and has helped to develop an atmosphere of creativity, social awareness, and emotional growth. Shayna was drawn to the similarities she saw in Eveoke’s environment. She is currently in the Teacher Training program at Eveoke and has seen the profound effect that occurs when integrating dance and the Arts into schools.
Nicole Ellis, Development Intern
Nicole grew up in an artists’ family, gaining an early appreciation for all art forms. In 2009 she graduated cum laude from the University of California, Santa Barbara with degrees in Psychology and Business-Economics. By the time she graduated Nicole had over five years experience working as a teacher with Kaplan and Revolution Prep, and as a private tutor with special needs children. During the same time period she spent a year working as a sales rep and accounts manager for an advertising company. After graduating, Nicole moved back to her hometown, San Diego, and began looking for work with non-profit organizations. Eager to get involved in the development side of a non-profit, she was thrilled to be turned on to Eveoke by a longtime friend and former Eveoke performer. Nicole is so thankful to be able to combine her passion for the arts with her drive to help achieve social justice through non-profit development at Eveoke.
