March 09-12: Stephane Charbonneau, Jaffar Smith, and Ellen Kim

MARCH 09-12: STEPHANE CHARBONNEAU, MARY GENTRY, AND ELLEN KIM

MEET STEPHANE CHARBONNEAU
Stephane Charbonneau come to us from Montréal, Canada. He's the founder of the Rockwell Family, a dance studio and a dance company, who currently hold the canadian title for the Hip Hop International. His crew made it to the finals in the last World Hip Hop Championships in Las Vegas. His style is described as intricate with a little smooth touch. His talent brought him to teach in many cities : Quebec, Vancouver, Seattle. His goal is to share his passion with everybody. Come and get inspired.

STEPHANE'S VIDEOS:


http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=70163400902#/video/video.php?v=129013735617
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o61A0g4X5M&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Ai4W4ZS3E&feature=channel_page



MEET JAFFAR SMITH
Jaffar Smith is originally from Washington State. He began his career as a child actor in “Bill Nye the Science Guy.” He started dancing at a young age studying Tap, Jazz and Gymnastics. After high school, he moved to Las Vegas, NV and began his hip hop training with Culture Shock Las Vegas. After leaving Las Vegas, he moved to San Diego where he contributed to the launch and success of Urban FX (a professional Hip Hop Dance Troupe). Soon after, Jaffar relocated to Los Angeles to pursue the commercial dance industry where he has danced with artists such as: MC Hammer, 3LW, Brandy, Ashanti, JoJo and Mariah Carey.

Beyond his dance credits, Jaffar is a motivating and inspiring instructor. Jaffar’s talent expands to his choreography which is extremely clever in its musicality. He has choreographed for numerous professional hip hop dance companies and most recently EPIC Recording Artist GINUWINE. He currently has a class at Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio (LA) and teaches at the world renowned Millennium Dance Complex.

Along with Tessandra Chavez, he is directing Unity Los Angeles, a branch off company of Unity Dance Ensemble in San Diego, CA. Unity LA, like Unity Dance Ensemble in San Diego focuses on versatility in dance forms such as Jazz, Hip Hop, Modern and Ballet.

His personality, style and personal flare make his choreography and class a treat to both take and watch. His energy and focus on “Having fun while pushing yourself” brings new life to class will have you “Moving faster than you think you can!”


JAFFAR'S VIDEOS:
YUMMY


EKETC


MEET ELLEN KIM
Ellen Kim is a striving dancer and choreographer from the Bay Area, training independently in dancing and choreographing for over 9 years. She began dancing with City Shock SF under the direction of Darnell Carroll when she was a sophomore in high school. After dancing with City Shock for five years, she later became a dance captain and contributing choreographer for the group. Ellen has also danced with other groups such as No Label (Yusef Nasir), Khaotic (David Collier), Culture Shock Oakland (Kim Batiste), Khamai (Leelee Brewster) , and Funkanometry San Francisco (Emerson Aquino). After joining Funkanometry SF in 2004, Ellen's passion for dance, as well as her amazing performance abilities, earned her a spot on the Funks SF Artistic Circle as one of their leading Dance Principals. She has since choreographed many pieces for the company, and continues to inspire and set a high standard for her fellow company members through her leadership and dance talent. In 2008, she was motivated to start her own company with Kyle Hanagami called The Lost Kids. Six individuals from the Bay has come together to use their love for dancing to help out their communities by holding workshops to raise money for different charities.

Ellen Kim has been blessed to share her passion for dancing with people from all parts of the world covering cities from the Bay Area, East Coast, and all the way to Oslo, Norway. These amazing opportunities to share her love for dancing and choreographing keeps her motivated and very inspired. Teaching and spreading her passion for dancing to all different kinds of dancers keeps her going strong!! Being able to share something so fun and special with others is all Ellen wants to do!!! LIVE IT UP!! God Bless!!

ELLEN'S VIDEOS:

IN MY WHITE TEE


URBAN LEGENDS 08 ELLEN KIM