Dance Department Alumni

Amali Hart

Amali Hart is set to pursue a degree in astrophysics at the College of San Mateo. Alongside academics, Amali will continue to nurture her love for dance by training recreationally to stay connected to the art. Balancing science and creativity, Amali aims to bring a unique perspective to her studies and beyond.  While excited to pursue her academic and artistic passions, more than anything, Amali looks forward to getting a cat.

Aaralyn Johnston

Aaralyn Johnston will be attending University of California, Santa Barbara this fall. She will not be majoring in dance but plans to continue dancing in the future. She thanks her friends and family for their continuous love and support. 

Gabriella Pusateri 

Gabriella Pusateri will be continuing her education at Western Washington University this fall. She will be studying sociology. In the future, she hopes to use her degree to pursue a career in therapy or social work. With her free time, she is looking forward to exploring the nature in the Pacific Northwest, and visiting friends in Seattle.

Kiko Tilles

Kiko Tilles will be attending Villanova University in the fall. Though she is not pursuing a career in dance, Kiko remains committed to dancing as often as possible. She would like to express her gratitude and love to her friends and family, with a special thank you to Andrea Scheumann for her unwavering support and guidance.

Sara Yoffie

Sara Yoffie will enter the School of Dance at University of the Arts in Philadelphia this fall, as a recipient of the Trustee’s Scholarship for Creative Leadership. She aims to join a top contemporary dance company and create ground-breaking choreography. Sara is grateful for the unconditional love and support of her family, friends, dance teachers and dentists.

Jillian Dummel

Jillian plans to study public health and psychology, and hopes to attend medical school in the future. She will continue dance throughout college. Jillian wants to thank her sota dance family, all of her friends, and her parents for giving her continuous love and support.

Vitesse Disney

Vitesse Disney is studying Global Supply Chain Management at Clarkson University. Quite different from dance, Vitesse is excited to explore logistics while continuing to dance on the side. Vitesse would like to thank her family and the dance seniors for all their love and support through high school.

Chris Chun

Chris is planning on attending the University of Southern California to study at the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. He would like to thank his friends, family, and teachers who have supported him on his journey to where he is today.

Max Berenshteyn

Max Berenshteyn will be attending SF state. He decided to go to SF state because it would give him a little bit more time to decide what he wants to pursue. he will continue to study and teach dance during his time in college. 

Melody Cheng

Melody Cheng's next steps will be going to college in Santa Monica college. Her major would be pre-nursing and would transfer to University Of California Irvine. 

Natascha Leddy

Natascha Leddy is continuing to pursue high level training in ballet at a trainee program in the hopes of becoming a professional ballerina and joining a ballet company. Natascha is planning to enroll simultaneously in college to start working towards her library science degrees. 

Arianna Tillman

Arianna Tillman is going to major in dance at Chapman University. Over the summer, she will train at the LA Contemporary Dance Company summer intensive as well as the Dance Training Center S.F. summer intensive.

Neve Wilcox

Neve Wilcox would like to thank Andrea, the dance department, and her family for their support and love on this journey. She will continue her dance training in addition to attending UC Berkeley.

Drina María Canjura-Kaufmann

Drina Canjura-Kaufmann is attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a BFA dance major with minors in Spanish and Anthropology.

Katherine Shagalov

Katherine Shagalov is attending Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, and is majoring in Computer Science. She is currently not dancing due to COVID closures, but is very excited to be able to take classes back home over the summer and in the many dance studios in NYC when they open back up!

Taylor Matsu 

Taylor Matsu is currently attending at The College of San Mateo. She had danced in London before moving home because of covid. She currently goes to community college but is hoping to transfer and major in Kinesiology and minor in Dance. She is unsure of what her future goals are but has hopes of being an athletic trainer. Her favorite SOTA Dance memory was the down time of tech week that would allow her to bond with her peers and performing her senior piece for the last time.

Hanna Persky

Since graduation from SOTA Dance Hanna Persky has completed two years at the University of Southern California on a full ride scholarship through the NROTC program. She has been a Dean's List student for four semesters, a member of the Tri-Delta sorority, and works over 25 hours a week. She plans on commissioning as an officer in the United States Marine Corps to pursue an aviation career. SOTA dance pushed her beliefs of what she thought she could do time and time again. Hanna learned resilience, how hard she could work, and her values throughout my time at SOTA dance. She wouldn't be where she is today without the support and training from the program.

Tristan Toy

Tristan Toy is currently dancing at the Post Graduate Program at Boston Ballet and next year he will be apart of BalletMet’s second company. He misses dance concert and helping everyone get ready for the big show.