Molly has been living, dancing and teaching in Santa Cruz for the past 17 years. They teach contemporary dance at Motion Pacific and Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center and are a trained Dance for Parkinson’s instructor. Molly joined Joe Goode Performance Group in 2014 and also teaches through the company's educational outreach program. They have recently become the Queer Ambassador at Motion Pacific in which they build programming for the LGBTQIA community. They are honored and proud to be a possum and delight in the nourishing playfulness of improvisation and this wonderful group of almost romantic humans.
Katie is a dance improviser and choreographer based in Santa Cruz, CA. She currently teaches Dance at Kirby School and previously taught Contemporary Dance and Dance for Parkinson's Disease at Motion Pacific. She lived in Argentina from 2008 - 2016, where she co-founded the dance-theater group "El Niño Viejo". While in Argentina, she received creative grants from Iberescena, Prodanza, Fondo Nacional de las Artes, and Bienal Arte Joven. She has presented her choreography in schools and festivals throughout Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Mexico. She teaches individual lessons in the Alexander Technique and previously taught group AT classes at the Universidad Nacional San Martín. She holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Colorado. She has directed two pieces with the Almost Romantic Improv Group, "I Inherited This" and "Make Believe". She loves exploring movement improvisation as a form of self-awareness, connection, and play.
Collette Kollewe (she/her/hers) is a dancer, choreographer, and instructor based in Santa Cruz, CA. She is currently the Director of Motion Pacific Dance, a nonprofit organization and dance studio in downtown Santa Cruz. Collette views dance as a source of healing, community, collaboration and inspiration. From 2010-2012 Collette studied dance at Cabrillo College where she received both the Roberta Bristol Award and Tandy Beal Scholarship. She then graduated with her BFA in Dance from San Diego State University in 2014 and received the “Outstanding Graduate in Dance” award. That same year, she co-founded E&C, a dance performance collective, in partnership with Erin Reynolds. Their works show representations of the intricacies of the human condition through a kinesthetic experience. Collette has also been a member of Cid Pearlman Performance dance company since 2014 and has danced in works premiering in Sweden, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Cruz and was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Award for Ensemble Performance for Two, a duet, in 2019. Collette plans on continuing to find the small and large dances in the world, using the artform as a platform for connection, conversation and social change.
Maria is a performer from St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and has been a teaching artist for Dance for Parkinson’s since 2017. Maria received her BA in sociology and dance from Hampshire College, focusing her studies on identity formation through social dance and the gendering of movement. She has performed at the National Queer Arts Festival, the Tannery Arts Center, Motion Pacific Dance, and around the Bay Area as a musician. Maria loves the immediacy that movement provides us to find our senses, imagination, humanity, and connection to ourselves and each other. She also enjoys surfing, sewing, playing chess, and teaching herself new things
Cynthia Strauss is a performance artist based in Santa Cruz, California since 1992. She began dance studies at San Francisco State University with Wilford Mark; Caribbean folkloric dance and Blanch Browne; Haitian and African. A long deep dive into improvisational movement practice led to ongoing collaborations with painters, poets, and musicians, in a multitude of environments; not limited to forests, streams, post offices, subway cars, and boulder tops. Cynthia engages in communication through dance, dance making, and being with people and nature near and far. Almost romantic improvisational possum wonders is the next journey.
Lisa is a performer, facilitator, and production manager in Santa Cruz, CA. Lisa received dual degrees in Theater and Writing from The New School in 2017, and relocated to Santa Cruz where they’ve received an education in performance, collaboration, and production from colleagues and friends at Motion Pacific, Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center, Cid Pearlman Performance, Tandy Beal & Company, and many strangers. Lisa has always been entranced by the power and intimacy of live performance, how it exposes and contradicts our usual webs of relation, but finds that improvisation is a unique gateway for the otherworldly and unholy. Lisa also enjoys teaching pilates, staring into space, walking, rollerskating, and flirting with friends.
Lyndia bio
Almost Romantic 