Sana Bangoura, Dance Teacher

Alhassane “Sana” Bangoura comes from a family of traditional drummers and dancers from Guinea, West Africa. As current and former members of the world-renowned Les Ballets Africains and Ballet Merveilles, the Bangoura brothers’ talents have brought them all over the world and led them to make their homes in Italy, France, the U.S. and Iceland. Inspired by his brothers, Sana began his drum and dance training in 1999 as a member of the company Wasasso, based in the capital city Conakry. In this company, under the direction of Ballet Africains dancer, Sorel Conte, Sana rose to the position of Principal Dancer, and in 2001 became Assistant Director.

During his sixteen years with Wasasso, Sana’s duties were manifold. He managed rehearsals for longtime company members as well as for youthwho aspired to join the group. He provided lessons for students from a myriad of countries to include Chile, Argentina, France, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden and Portugal. He performed in the national competition Stas Vacance when the company took 1st place. Sana also choreographed Wasasso’s performances that appears on Guinea National Television and won his group a 1st place finish in the nation in 2011.

After moving to Minnesota in 2015, Sana now performs with his brother, master drummer Fode Seydou Bangoura, in their group Duniya Drum and Dance, and teaches community class for adults. Performance highlights include Duniya’s many Fakoly shows and appearances at The Cowles Center, The Cedar Cultural Center and Orchestra Hall, and the Minnesota State Fair.

Brandon Chambers, Visual Art Teacher

Brandon Chambers is a visual artist committed to a multidisciplinary practice. He uses art as a vessel to document and preserve his grappling with the human condition and its effects on lived experience. He does this abstractly by engaging in the creative act in varying contexts and observing himself, the process and results to draw conclusions and insights about existing. Brandon’s most recent interest is in the idea of virtual reality, not just as an emerging technology, but as a philosophical concept tracing back to Plato’s Cave and the question of how information and our perceptions shape our reality and how we live with uncertainty about the nature of reality. Brandon received his BA in Studio Art from the University of Maryland and an MFA from the University of Minnesota.

Zamara M. Cuyún Grimm, Visual Arts Teacher

Zamara received a BA Anthropology U of MN, and has completed 2 years of Graduate Studies in Anthropology at U of Penn. A self-trained muralist, Zamara uses elements of Guatemalan and Maya history, ideology and iconography while focusing on the strength of women in community building. Recent public art projects include St. Paul City Council Chambers, La Mexicana Supermarket (funded through an Early Career Artist Project grant from Forecast Public Arts). Zamara also serves on the leadership committee for Serpentina Arts, a Latinx Visual Artists Organization.

Bruce DeMorrow, Dance Teacher

Bruce DeMorrow trained at Woodbury Dance Center in Woodbury, MN. His energetic approach to tap classes along with his new, cutting-edge choreography at a fast and upbeat pace leaves his students feeling full of life. He was a competition dancer for many years at Woodbury Dance Center and has won numerous awards. He has had a variety of involvement with outside tap dance companies and is an experienced performer and choreographer. He recently performed with Kaleena Miller’s I Love Her!, Shift and Here Now performances and with Rhythmic Circus in their Feet Don’t Fail Me Now critically acclaimed show. Mr. Bruce is also very active with the Twin Cities Tap Festival.

Alex Barreto Hathaway, Musical Theatre and Theatre Teacher

Alex Barreto Hathaway is a process-based artist and educator that leans into playfulness, theatrical clown, mask and physical theatre, clown again, and stories that celebrate the Latinx experience He earned his BA in Theatre Arts at the University of Minnesota with a thesis project exhibiting Mask, Puppetry, and Street Theatre practices studied in Pernambuco, Brazil. Since 2010, he has worked with theatre groups such as Open Eye, Exposed Brick, Red Bird, Theatre Forever, SteppingStone, as well as on tours throughout communities in the Midwest through the site-specific work of Sod House, TigerLion Arts, and The Department of Public Transformation. Additionally, he has devised, designed, and/or directed original pieces ranging from puppet operas (This Side of the Blue and Basement Creatures), to mask performances (The Legend of Diego and Escúchame), to ensemble-created multi-disciplinary installations (Awkward Love, Animus, and Fat Cat Falls). From 2016-2020, he designed and led arts-based learning for international English-learners at Roosevelt Highschool and then Highland Park High School. Barreto Hathaway was selected for an Artist in Residency program where he and participants from towns across the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate region dreamed-up and presented a month-long festival exhibiting art, music, photography, and puppetry created from local interviews recorded in 2020. In the same year, he and his partner became first-time parents to a hilarious kid named Ray.

Laura Osterhaus, Dance Department Co-Chair

Laura Osterhaus Rosenstone is a dance educator at SPCPA. She teaches Contemporary/Modern Dance and Jazz Dance from an improvisational lens. She received her BA in Dance from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and her MFA in Choreography and Performance from Smith College in Massachusetts. Laura was a company member of Zenon Dance Company from 2016-2019 and is the artistic director of Slo Dance Company. She has taught dance at various schools throughout the Twin Cities, including, SPCPA, Spring Lake Park High School, the Performing Institute of Minnesota, and Zenon Dance School. Her work has been featured in the Candy Box Dance Festival, and she is a recipient of a 2023 Paid Partnership with the Southern Theater. Laura currently dances for two East Coast-based dance organizations: Kia the Key & Company (Hip-Hop, club & street styles) and Vanessa Anspaugh (postmodern/improvisational).

Alice Paige, Creative Writing Teacher

Alice Paige is an author, teaching artist and performer from Chicago. She received her B.Sci in Biology from Iowa State University and her MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University. She is a Loft Mentor series Fellow and a Digital Pedigogical Lab Fellow. Her work can be found in American Precariat, Freezeray Poetry, Coffin Bell and other strange journals.

Aaron Preusse, Theatre Teacher

Aaron is the Founder of the Fake Fighting Company, a stunt and stage combat company based in Minnesota. He is a Certified Teacher and Fight Director with the Society of American Fight Directors. In addition, Aaron received honors of Advanced Gold with Recommendation from the British Academy of Dramatic Combat. He has served as Fight Director for over 25 productions at the Guthrie Theater.  He has been the Fight Director for Children’s Theatre Company and their Theatre Arts Training Senior and Junior Intensives, the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Minnesota Opera, Commonweal Theatre Company, Park Square Theatre , as well as many other theatres, universities and film projects in the region. Aaron has taught for the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, the University of Minnesota, Concordia University of St. Paul, the Minnesota Thespian Festival, along with many other institutions. Aaron is a graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.  More info can be found at www.fakefighting.com.

Mike Salow, Instrumental Music Teacher

Mike Salow is a multifaceted guitarist with over 20 years of playing experience. He graduated with honors from McNally Smith College of Music receiving a B.M. in guitar performance with a music business minor. After graduating in 2012, Mike was asked back to McNally Smith to join the guitar department as a teacher where he taught for the next 4 ½ years. Outside of teaching Mike has worked with various fusion, funk, jazz, hip-hop, blues, metal, pop, country, and rock bands. Currently Mike gigs throughout the Twin Cities with several groups, most notably with Minneapolis based rock band, Chester Bay. After joining Chester Bay in September of 2009, Chester Bay toured throughout the upper Midwest, was featured in Rolling Stone magazine, and also opened for national acts such as Candlebox, Los Lobos, Fitz and the Tantrums, and The Avett Brothers. Aside from Chester Bay, Mike acts as composer, guitarist, and producer of Twin Cities Progressive Metal band, Ideology. The band released their debut album in Fall of 2016 and is a project founded by Mike and Five Finger Death Punch drummer, Charlie Engen. Besides having taught at McNally Smith College of Music, Mike is also founder/teacher of Lessons With Mike LLC and Ideal Music Lessons. Two companies that are one in the same and specialize in providing in-home music lessons throughout the Twin Cities. You can also find Mike teaching online for InfiniteGuitar.com where his main lesson focus is on advanced jazz/fusion playing.

Ariane Sandford, Creative Writing Teacher

Ariane Sandford received her BA in Theatre Arts from St Olaf College 2002, an MA in English from Iowa State University in 2007, an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University in 2017, and is currently pursuing her MAT for English grades 6-12 at Hamline University. She has been a Dramaturg at the Guthrie Theater, worked at Milkweed Editions, published in Painted Bride Quarterly and Booth Magazine, among others, and has been selected to be mentee in the Loft Literary Center’s mentorship program.

Darrius Strong, Dance Teacher

Darrius Strong is a Twin Cities based choreographer, dancer, and educator whose creative work has been chosen for Rhythmically Speaking and the Walker Art Center’s Choreographer’s Evening. He was featured in The New Griots Festival in 2015, as well as an American Standard billboard advertisement in NYC Time Square in 2016. He was also a 2017 Momentum New Works recipient. Strong has created works for Threads Dance Project, Flying Foot Forum, Alternative Motion Projects, and James Sewell Ballet. Recently, he was selected as a recipient of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship. Strong developed his own dance company STRONGmovement in 2015. He is also a faculty member at Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Arts, TU Dance Center and Eleve Performing Arts Center, where he teaches how to connect their identity to movement. Strong is also a company member of Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater. Learn more at strong-movement.com.

Taiwana Shambley, Creative Writing Teacher

A Black trans woman with disabilities, Taiwana Shambley is a full-time writer and teaching artist from St. Paul’s North End neighborhood. Guided by political anger and black radical tradition, Taiwana’s mission is to empower queer, trans and disabled youth voices, through both her writing and by facilitating storytelling skills for others. Taiwana is a master’s student in fiction, a Loft award-winning teaching artist, and represent by agent Riley Jay Davis. She invites you to sign up for her mailing list at taiwanashambley.com to be the first to hear about her debut novel and chapbook.

Brooks Turner, Visual Art Department Chair

Brooks Turner is an artist, writer, and educator. His recent work engages the history of fascism in Minnesota and has been supported through a 2020 Artist Residency in the Weisman’s Collaboration Incubator, a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant, a Minnesota Humanities Center Innovation Lab Grant, and a Rimon: Minnesota Jewish Arts Council Project Support Grant. His work has been exhibited nationally, with upcoming exhibitions at the Weisman Art Museum and St. Cloud State University. Since 2014, he has taught sculpture, drawing, and painting at the University of California, Los Angeles, St. Cloud State University, and Ridgewater College. In 2017, he wrote A Guide to Charles Ray Sleeping Mime, published with Paperleaf Press, and continues to write essays for Hair and Nails Gallery and Temp/reviews