Artistic Directors
Renée Kim was born in Trinidad, West Indies and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She began her dance training at the age of four with the Dance Theatre of Harlem School. She trained under the direction of the late Arthur Mitchell, founder of DTH.
Upon graduating from high school, Mrs. Kim joined DTH, dancing lead roles in many ballets including Concerto Barocco by George Balanchine, New Bach by Robert Garland, Contested Space by Donald Byrd, and Arthur Mitchell’s signature piece The Greatest, among many others. She performed The Greatest at the White House for then President George W. Bush in 2006, again at Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camp Gala that same year, and yet again for the First Lady Laura Bush at the New York Public Library in 2007.
Mrs. Kim’s television credits include an appearance on Extreme Makeover Home Edition, a featured segment on Britain's South Bank Show, Sesame Street and PBS In Performance at the White House. In 2013 she danced in Israel, where she was a featured dancer in The Wow Show.
In 2014, she settled in California and found a home with Nouveau Chamber Ballet under the Artistic Direction of the late Lois Ellyn, a former Principal Ballerina with NYC Ballet under George Balanchine.
With NCB, Renée performed principal roles such as The Sugar Plum Fairy and The Snow Queen. Ms. Ellyn created many new ballets on her and her husband David. The first entitled The Mandarin Ducks with an original score by Kimo Furumoto, conductor of the Rio Hondo Symphony and Cal State Fullerton Orchestra told the Japanese folklore of two Mandarin ducks that mate for life.
In 2019, Renée guested with Raiford Rodgers Modern Ballet and perform at the Luminario Ballet of Los Angeles’ Annual Gala. She also toured with Luminario Ballet to NYC for the annual APAP showcase in 2020 at Ailey Citigroup Theatre.
Renée will teach at Cal State Long Beach in the Fall.
David Tai Kim began his dance training at Long Beach City College under Sheree King in the Fall of 1999 and in a career spanning 20 years has danced professionally with the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) under the Artistic Directorship of Arthur Mitchell, Ballet Met under Gerard Charles and Ballet West under the leadership of Adam Sklute.
Mr. Kim has performed in Neo Classical works by George Balanchine, Arthur Mitchell, Robert Garland, Lois Ellyn, Bruce Marks, Nicolo Fonte and Classical Ballets by Petipa, David Nixon and Stanton Welch and Modern Dance Works by Bella Lewitzky. Notably, in 2006, Mr. Kim had the honor of dancing in a televised performance at the White House for President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush. He and his wife Renée Kim danced in Arthur Mitchell's pas de deux “the Greatest” in the East Wing to an audience of Dignitaries.
David has danced for several renowned Opera Houses, including The Metropolitan Opera where he had worked with Oscar Winner Anthony Minghella for the American Premiere of his Madame Butterfly. The Los Angeles Opera and The Lyric Opera of Chicago where he made his Musical Theatre debut in their production of The King and I.
Since his return to Southern California, Mr. Kim has performed for The Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the Barak Ballet, Lorin Johnson, Francisco Martinez Dance Theatre, Festival Ballet Theater, The Luminario Ballet of Los Angeles, Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet and for the Nouveau Chamber Ballet under Lois Ellyn.
Now, with the launch of their own studio, the Premier Dance Arts of Los Alamitos, the Los Alamitos Ballet Academy and soon to be The Los Alamitos Ballet Company. David hopes to ignite or re-ignite a passion for dance & in particular Ballet here in Los Alamitos and surrounding areas for dancers of all ages.
Faculty Members
Imani “Ima” Bias is a Creative Entrepreneur: Dancer, Choreographer, and Certified Pilates Instructor located in Long Beach, California. Born and raised in Moreno Valley, California, Bias began dancing at the tender age of three.
Furthermore, Bias acquired a comprehensive Pilates Certification, with a specialization in Dance Conditioning as well as an AA in Behavioral and Social Studies and an AA in Fine Arts. She went on to pursue performing arts in college, as she is a graduate of Cal State Long Beach, Class of 2019. Bias has worked with over 20 music artists. Beyoncé, H.E.R., Koffee, Doja Cat, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Alex Isley, Terrace Martin, D Smoke, Roddy Ricch, and Burna Boy are some of the special artists Bias has worked for thus far. “Black is King” a film with Beyoncé, “The Harder They Fall” official music video with Koffee and “Vegas” official music video with Doja Cat are just a few of Bias’ latest contributions. In the process, Bias has worked with choreographers such as Tanisha Scott, Laure Courtellemont, Fatima Robinson, Jaquel Knight, Oththan Burnside and Parris Goebel. Bias has also assisted Tanisha Scott with choreographing the music video for Sean Paul titled “How We Do It” featuring Pia Mia.
Along with pursuing her passions, Bias has devoted time to fitness and self-healing. She has been teaching Pilates for the past six years across the Inland Empire, Orange County and Los Angeles. In addition, Bias has over 25 years of dance training which inspired her to start her own health and wellness business. She is the founder of BODHI BY IMANI LLC, established in 2020, assisting others with their own healing process through movement EXPLORATION, proper BODY MECHANICS, cultivating MINDFULNESS, MIND and BODY centering, and the use of BREATH. Bias offers open classes and private sessions for seniors, athletes, dancers, pre and post natal clients. She teaches local classes with HB Pilates in Huntington Beach, Pilates on Purpose in Newport Beach, and Los Alamitos Ballet School in Los Alamitos, California. Bias’ teaching credentials include: Athleta, Free Arts LA, and also California School of the Arts San Gabriel.
Rhyann Diaz has been dancing since the age of three. She trained under Renèe and David Kim from the age of nine. She had also trained at Nouveau Chamber Ballet under the artistic director, Lois Ellyn for six years starting at the age of 11.
Ms. Diaz has danced in various pieces including "Smile" choreographed by Lois Ellyn, "Vocalise" choreographed by Stefan Wenta, and many more. She danced the roles of Clara and Sugarplum in LABT's production of "Sugar Plum's Realm" in 2022. She is currently continuing her training at Los Alamitos Ballet Theater as a senior company member.
Lisa Gillespie is an adjunct professor of dance at Loyola Marymount University and a frequent instructor at the Santa Clarita Ballet Academy. She has taught at the American Musical Dramatic Academy, Everybody dance!, Marat Daukayev School of Ballet and Lois Ellyn Ballet School.
Lisa began her training with Thomas and Ilona Russell (National Ballet of Washington DC, Frederic Franklin), Genevieve Damon (Marquis de Cuevas Ballet, Massine), San Francisco Ballet, and on scholarship at North Carolina School of the Arts, as well as with Stefan Wenta.
She recently worked with Polunin Ink to create Satori, an evening of dance at the Coliseum Theatre in London’s West End and in Prague. She has performed as Eliza in the Théâtre du Châtelet’s production of The King and I, directed by Lee Blakeley and reprised the role at Lyric Opera of Chicago. She has performed in many operas including King Roger, directed by Stephen Wadsworth and Maometto II, directed by David Alden at Santa Fe Opera. Other operas include Seattle Opera’s Carmen and Pearl Fishers and Die Fledermaus for The Dallas Opera, San Diego Opera and Washington National Opera (PBS Grand Performances) and Aida for Pacific Symphony. She has performed in The Merry Widow for LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and The Dallas Opera. Other LA Opera credits include Macbeth, directed by Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak, Aida, Queen of Spades, La Traviata, Vanessa and Placido Domingo & Friends Gala. Musical theater roles include Louise in Carousel, Dream Laurey in Oklahoma! and Eliza in The King and I for Musical Theater of Wichita. Lisa was with Ballet Arizona where she performed in ballets such as Balanchine’s Serenade, Four Temperaments, Rubies, Pilobus’ Land’s Edge and The Nutcracker. She has danced original works by Francisco Martinez and worked with Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet for many years touring to London and New York.
Lisa has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from George Mason University. She has completed 200 hours of yoga teacher training from Loyola Marymount University and ABT’s National Training Curriculum Level Pre Primary – Level 3. Lisa is excited to start her first season at the Los Alamitos Ballet School and Premier Dance Arts Faculty.
Lisa Johnson studied classical ballet under scholarship at the Marin Ballet, Cleveland Ballet, School of American Ballet and National Ballet School, Toronto. She was awarded first place in the Marguerite A. Hoffman competition at UCLA and was a semi-finalist competitor in the Prix de Lausanne, Switzerland, as part of the six-member American team. She danced professionally with the Los Angeles Classical Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Feld Ballets/NY, Ballet Chicago and Hamburg Ballet, was principal guest artist with the State Street Ballet, Ballet Pacifica and Francisco Martinez Dancetheatre.
Ms. Johnson has been on faculty at: California State University Fullerton, Dance Department; Saint Joseph Ballet, Santa Ana (currently The Wooden Floor); Long Beach Ballet Arts Center, Long Beach; Southland Ballet Academy, Fountain Valley; Ballet Pacifica Academy, Irvine; and the Maple Conservatory of Dance, Irvine.
Ms. Johnson has been a lecturer at California State University Long Beach, Department of Dance since 2006. Ms. Johnson teaches courses at CSULB in ballet technique, pointe, ballet history, body placement and Pilates. She is also on faculty at Orange County School of the Arts, Santa Ana, teaching ballet and pointe technique, Pilates, and serving as ballet mistress in the Classical and Contemporary Dance Conservatory. Lisa is excited to start her first season at the Los Alamitos Ballet School and Premier Dance Arts Faculty.
Lorin Johnson performed with the San Francisco Ballet before joining the American Ballet Theatre in New York under the directorship of Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1987. Johnson performed at ABT until 1995, appearing in eight seasons at the Metropolitan Opera House and touring nationally and internationally to such cities as Paris, Tokyo, Athens, Buenos Aires, and London. Johnson created original roles in ballets by such renowned choreographers as Ulysses Dove, Clark Tippet and Agnes DeMille, among many others, and he has worked with some of the 20th century’s most renowned choreographers, including Glen Tetley, Kenneth Macmillan, Twyla Tharp, and Jerome Robbins.
Johnson’s choreography has been presented internationally, including at The Garage Museum in Moscow, Russia and at the Fabbrica Europa Dance Festival in Florence, Italy. Nationally, his work has been commissioned by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra at Segerstrom Concert Hall; Celebrate Dance in Los Angeles; the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Invitational Dance Festival; the Laguna Dance Festival; the Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival in Palm Springs, the Los Angeles Dance Invitational at the Ford Amphitheater and with the LA Grand Ensemble at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.
Johnson served as the Artistic Coordinator of ABT’s program in Orange County for several years and is guest faculty at the William J. Gillespie American Ballet Theatre School at the Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts. Johnson has taught master classes in ballet internationally and in 2013 taught at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory in Russia (the former school of George Balanchine).
Johnson’s publications can be found in Dance International and Dance Teacher magazines, as well as in peer-reviewed journals such as Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Routledge). He was the editor of Kinetic Los Angeles: Russian Émigrés in the City of Self-Transformation (Experiment, No. 20), which led to a co-curated exhibition of Russian émigré artists that was featured at the State Theatrical Museum in St. Petersburg Russia in 2013. He has been a pre-performance speaker at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts and the Los Angeles Music Center and served as Artistic Advisor for the Music Center’s festival LA’s Rite: Stravinsky, Innovation and Dance during the Joffrey Ballet’s 2013 visit. His writings on the composer Igor Stravinsky have recently been published in the Cambridge Stravinsky Encyclopedia (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Lorin Johnson has been a professor at CSULB since 2006 and has also served as Assistant and Associate Dean of the College of the Arts at the university. He is excited to start his first season at the Los Alamitos Ballet School and Premier Dance Arts Faculty.
Yukiko Nimura is a Japanese dancer and choreographer. She is originally from Chiba, Japan. She has extensive training in Modern Dance, Improvisation, Ballet, and Hip hop. At the age of 18 she moved to the United States to continue to learn about dance and Art. Upon her arrival, Ms. Nimura initially attended Glendale Community College and after transferring to California State University of Long Beach (CSULB) she successfully completed her studies and graduated with a BFA in Dance.
Ms. Nimura has performed in several faculty productions during her time at CSULB, the most recent piece was called "The Lark" choreographed by Rebecca Lemme, who is also Artistic Director of Acts of Matter. She is also a team member of Team BUK, a K-Pop Dance Ensemble. Yukiko is excited to start her second season at the Los Alamitos Ballet School and Premier Dance Arts Faculty.
Melissa Sandvig was born and raised in Orange County California. She began her ballet training at Long Beach Ballet at the age of 5 and began dancing professionally at the age of 15. Melissa was also a young actress and starred in commercials and afterschool specials, but soon chose to put that on the backburner to fully commit to her future as a ballerina. While still in high school, she won 2nd place in the prestigious Music Center Spotlight Awards and toured internationally with the Los Angeles Classical Ballet in Taiwan and China. After graduating she was recruited to join The Milwaukee Ballet where she danced soloist roles with them for 6 seasons. Melissa then returned home to Los Angeles to become a freelance artist and a certified Pilates instructor. Her interest in Pilates came after suffering a fracture in her lower back which caused her to retain her body and posture to protect her back from future injuries.
Melissa enjoys teaching younger dancers how not only to be healthy but to work their bodies correctly to prevent injuries. She was recently certified in Progressive Ballet Techniques as well. She continues to perform with companies such as Helios Dance Theater, Sacramento Ballet, Los Angeles Contemporary Ballet, Luminario Ballet, Motion Tribe, BodyTraffic, Strange and Elegant Dancers, String Theory, The Los Angeles Opera, and many more. She is most well known for her performance on Season 5 of “So You Think You Can Dance” as the “Naughty Ballerina.” Melissa was the first classically trained ballerina and the oldest contestant at age 29. She broke stereotypes about age and ballet and made it all the way to the top 6. Now she continues to perform, teach master classes, independently as well as with VelocityDance Convention, Dance Excellence, VIP, Distinction Dance, and West Coast Elite.
Most recently you can spot her as one of the ballerinas in Taylor Swift’s music video “Shake it Off” choreographed by Tyce Diorio, as well as on Nappytabs “Harlem Hopscotch” Video. She has been a guest dancer on the hit show “Glee”, “Bunheads”, “Vegas”, “Dancing With The Stars”, “America’s Got Talent”, “Mobbed”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Hart of Dixie”, “The Young and the Restless”, “Lucifer”, Apple TV’s “Physical” a Microsoft Tablet commercial and continues to perform her piece about breast cancer “This Woman’s Work” with Ade Obayomi for fundraisers and events everywhere. She has also performed in motion capture work for many of the “Shrek” movie dance scenes “Puss in Boots” and “Madagascar 3”, and has worked with Cirque Du Soleil and Disney to create a new show. She can also be found on CLI conservatory, the Youtube channel, Buzzfeed, DS2DIO and the web shows EHOW and HealthyPower TV. She was chosen to perform as the principal ballerina in the Hit Off Broadway Musical “Silence” opening in Los Angeles.
Melissa married Erik Sandvig in ‘05, a childhood friend she grew up with at her local church. Erik has been such a blessing and so supportive and is known by many as the “sign guy” in the audience of “So You Think You Can Dance.” They welcomed their son the summer of 2013 and she continued to dance and perform until she was 7 months pregnant with Helios Dance Theater and also on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Now that she is a mother of 2 young boys, she continues to perform, but is focusing on her teaching and choreography. Melissa’s contemporary ballet choreography for groups and solos continues to be competed in NYC for Finals of Youth America Grand Prix, and competitions around the US.
Chihiro Sano, originally from Japan, began her modern dance training at the age of seven under the direction of Akiko Ishii. She joined Backhausdance as an apprentice and has been a full company member since 2010. Since joining the company, Chihiro has performed at venues including McCallum Theater in Palm Desert, at Irvine Barclay Theater, at the American Dance Festival in North Carolina, Carpenter Center in Long Beach and Joyce Theater in New York City.
Chihiro has worked as an assistant to Artistic Director Jennifer Backhaus on freelance projects such as the Irvine Valley College Faculty Dance Concert, the East Valley Dance Project/Studio Project in Palm Desert, the Temecula Community Theater Dance Project and Trolley Dances Riverside. Currently, Chihiro serves as rehearsal manager and education coordinator at Backhausdance. As a certified yoga instructor, Chihiro is passionate about sharing her love of dance and yoga with people of all ages and abilities. Chihiro is excited to join the Los Alamitos Ballet School and Premier dance Arts Faculty
Dancing since the young age of two, Emma Silagy has accumulated more than twenty years of classical ballet training and ten years of modern/contemporary dance experience. While completing her Bachelor’s degree in Dance with a minor in Event Planning Management at California State University, Long Beach, Emma was afforded the privilege to work under many distinguished teachers and choreographers such as Lorin Johnson, Andrew Vaca, Rebecca Bryant, Rebecca Lemme, Sophie Monat, Lisa Johnson, Keith Johnson, Gracie Whyte, and David Kim. In addition to her choreographic opportunities with CSU Long Beach, Emma trained under renowned artistic directors while performing with South Bay Ballet from 2008 to 2015, including performances at the annual Regional Dance America/Pacific conferences from 2011 to 2015, as well as summer intensive training with American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, and The Washington Ballet.
Throughout her four years at CSU Long Beach, Emma studied dance pedagogy and honed her skills teaching classical and contemporary ballet to K-12 level students while instructing at Dance 1 Redondo, and substitute teaching at Center Stage Dance Academy. She was also afforded the opportunity to teach dance to children in underserved communities in Bucharest, Romania in 2017 and 2018. In addition to teaching, Emma also has continued her own professional dance career; she joined Kenneth Walker Dance Project (KWDP) in March 2020 and is currently dancing in her third season with the company. In 2022, Emma had the privilege of performing “SENZA FRETTA” with KWDP, learning original choreography by Salvatore Aiello under the repetiteur direction of Jerry Kumery and Mia Cunningham from The Salvatore Aiello Trust.
Now as a full-time member of the team, Emma is excited to be a part of her second season with the Los Alamitos Ballet School and Premier Dance Arts faculty.