Tawnya has been dancing for 25 years and has won numerous awards and scholarships. She has been teaching and choreographing all styles of dance for 13 years and has trained many scholarship winners, and national champions. Tawnya received her B.A. in Dance from SJSU, where she was a member of their modern dance troupe, University Dance Theatre, under the direction of Julliard Alumni Gary Masters. She has performed with multiple dance companies since then. Tawnya continued her training in a work study program at Edge Performing Arts Center in Hollywood California, one of the premiere dance studios in the nation where she trained under and assisted some of the worlds top choreographers including owner and master teacher, Bill Prudich. Throughout her training Tawnya has been fortunate to train under some of the best choreographers in the country. Currently, Tawnya is busy choreographing for companies, award shows, and events such as "The NAACP Awards where she choreographed for Vanessa Williams and the "original dream girl" Sheryl Lee Ralph and dancers. She discovered her love for fusing Hip Hop with Contemporary dance while dancing with Funkanometry in their all female Hip Hop Company De La Femme. In 2006 Tawnya and her husband (Motion Picture and Event Production Designer) Jason Kuzia were so excited to open the bay area’s newest dance center, Nor Cal Dance Arts, where Tawnya is also the Artistic director of it’s pre-professional dance company The Collective Dance Co.  In June of 2009, Tawnya was selected as a National Finalist for the Capezio Award for Choreographic Excellence in NYC.  Regarded as one of the Bay Area's best contemporary choreographers Tawnya is so excited to be working with new and talented dancers and hopes to help dancers experience the art of dance in new and creative ways.

Jason Kuzia (Technical and Operational Director)

Jason Kuzia is the Founder and Director of Light Touch Entertainment. After moving to Hollywood, California Jason has worked on many accredited motion picture productions, theater shows, Live Events, and commercial television pilots under the direction and guidance of Christopher Coppola (Blood Head), Rando Schmook (X-Men) and two time academy award winner, Bobby Moresco (Crash). Jason began his training in theater design at Valley Christian High School where Skip Sharp, one of Northern California's leading set designers, mentored him as a set designer. Jason continued to study theatrical design at San Francisco State University where he worked on many productions developing his skills as a talented set designer. Later, Jason was offered a position as Director of Sales and Marketing at Legend Theatrical, a new lighting and set design company in Santa Cruz, California. It was there that Jason acquired and nurtured his vast knowledge of theatrical lighting and design. Jason has gone on to become a active member of the Art Directors Guild (800) and continues to take on larger and larger projects. He currently wants to continue to grow with new designers, directors, and bands. He and his wife now run and operate Light Touch Entertainment and Nor Cal Dance Arts based out of Northern California

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Heather Miller

Dance has been an important part of Heather's life for 20 years! She is trained in jazz,tap, ballet, lyrical and hip hop and has had the opportunity to take professional classes in Los Angeles and New York from master choreographers. She has participated in many dance competitions, performances and the Miss Dance Pageant. She also danced in many halftime performances for the Oakland Raiders, Golden State Warriors and Stanford University teams. A graduate of San Jose State University, Heather was a member of the University Dance Theatre. She was a gala performer in the American College Dance Festival and the Tap Festival in Thousand Oaks. She received a BA in Dance and performed in SJSU concerts, in the independent film "Shut Up and Dance," and with the Corie Tyson dance company. Heather is very excited to be teaching for Nor Cal Dance Arts and brings to students her passion for dance, fun choreography and always a smile! Look for Heather at this years Sacramento Kings Games!!!

Chrissy Centeno

Christina Centeno is our teams acrobatics coach. She comes to Nor-Cal with expertise in Sports acrobatics, competitive gymnastics, and dance.  Christina has competed  internationally and all across the United States.  She has won national and state titles, during her career. She continues to pursue her passion by teaching acrobatics through dance.  She has taught for over 25 years and has coached many dance teams to a national level.

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Francisca Rodriguez

Francisca Rodriguez has been pursuing her passion for dance for the past nineteen years. She has competed with several award winning dance teams including Sheri's Born to Dance and The Lincoln Convertibles. Francisca has competed not only locally, but also nationwide. She has had to privilege to travel to Los Angeles, Orlando, Las Vegas, and New York for national competitions as well as master classes. She has been teaching at Nor Cal Dance Arts since its opening in 2005 and is currently coaching her alma mater’s championship dance team, the Lincoln Convertibles. Francisca’s teaching experience includes jazz, lyrical, tap, combo, and creative dance classes. She recently graduated from San Jose State University with a BA in Communication Studies and a minor in Criminal Justice Administration. Francisca is very honored to be a part of NCDA’s artistic staff and is looking forward to another amazing season!

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Nicole Kirkland

Nicole Kirkland has been dancing for 17 years. She began her dance training at Dance Arts Academy in San Jose and went on to train with Teen Dance Company of the Bay Area and later with The Dance Company of San Francisco under the direction of Chris Jacobsen and Sonya Tayeh. She has been fortunate to train with many amazing and well-known choreographers such as Mia Michaels, Rosero McCoy, Dee Caspary, Nick Lazzarini and Shane Sparks to name a few. Nicole has performed for Macy’s Passport after party, San Francisco White Party 2009, EBay Inc., Golden State Warriors, and many other Northern/Southern California dance shows. She has been featured in several bay area music videos and was also an extra on the TV series “Trauma”. This past summer Nicole was involved with U.S. Performing Arts Hip Hop Camps and assisted instructors from dance crews such as Beat Freaks, Jabbawockeez, Supreme Soul and Kaba Modern, all from the show America’s Best Dance Crew. While Nicole continues her training to constantly grow as a performer and dancer, she looks forward to the many opportunities ahead while pursuing a career as a professional dancer.

Judson Emery

Judson has been dancing for 9 years and began his formal dance training at Teen Dance Company in Mountain View, CA. While at TDC, Judson was fortunate enough to work with such choreographers as Mia Michaels, Mandy Moore, Napoleon and Tabitha, Jason Parsons and Robert Battle, to name a few. At the age of 16, Judson toured internationally with the Mark Foehringer Dance Project to the Danza Nueva XX Contemporary Festival in Peru. As well he was invited by Alonzo King, Artistic Director of Lines Ballet, to participate in his Professional Workshop, on scholarship, during the summer of 2008. Judson has attended many conventions through the years and has been noticed for his unique movement quality. In 2009 he was a scholarship winner at Monsters of Contemporary and had the opportunity to work with Sonya Tayeh for the Monsters of Hip Hop show the summer of 2009. Judson has also trained at summer programs at The Juilliard School, LINES Ballet School and San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. Currently Judson has had the honor of assisting Tyce Diorio on the show So You Think You Can Dance, has been working with former Frankfurt Ballet dancer Amy Raymond for the past two years and continues to delve deeper into his own choreographic expression. Judson also enjoys photography and any artistic medium that reveals truth and the inner workings of ones soul.

Nika Clark

Born in Portland, Oregon, Nika Clark moved to Portola Valley, California when she was two and started dancing almost immediately. She trained at Western Ballet, The San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and Lines Ballet as well as studying other forms of dance such as tap, jazz, and lyrical. She performed in full length ballets (Coppelia, Romeo and Juliet, and Cinderella) under the direction of Mark Foehringer, as well as with his company, MFDP/SF. After 17 years of ballet, Nika tried her hand at hip hop and made her way onto companies such as Funkanometry SF, Neverland, and Academy of Villains, with whom she currently trains. Nika is very excited to teach at NCDA this year and hopes to inspire her students the way her teachers have inspired her.

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Randy Le

Randy Van Le, born in San Jose CA, raised in Stockton CA, began to dip his life into the art of dancing after being inspired by the silver tin man on the pier of San Francisco. The first training he ever received was from a small freestyle garage team called Urban Legends in the late 90’s. Being the youngest in Urban Legends, Randy Van Le was put into small studio hip hop training in Sacramento CA, once a week for a few months. From there he met various dope dancers that fed him knowledge of freestyle and dance. The biggest inspiration to him was Gary Kendall, whose words opened his eyes and made dancing from a hobby into a passion. Moving to San Jose in 2005 for school at SJSU, he was later introduced to the Urban\Hip Hop Choreo -circuit by a few friends from the Bay. The first team he joined was Booftroop (Krisuan Rosalejo) in late 2006, followed by Soulidified Project (Mappy Mappala) in mid 2008. By September 2009, Randy became a member of Funkanometry SF and continues to train. Jumping into the choreography world has made Randy into a director and dance mentor. In June 2008, Randy, alongside MJ Serafica, co-founded a junior team called A-Youngin. In January 2009, he started a project called Yuppie Joints, which became an established team in September 2009. Still today, Randy is the executive director of Hungry Bumz and Hungry Kidz and continues to share and teach people about his art of dancing. Randy is proud of what he has learned in the past few years and still considers himself a young student, hungry to learn everyday from his dance-mates, students and directors.

Jessica Woodman

Jessica Woodman was born and raised in San Jose, CA. She has been dancing for 13 years and has received her training from world renowned teachers such as Xavier Ferla, Elke Schepers, Kristine Elliott, and Lawrence Pech. She attended American Ballet Theatre's Summer Intensive in New York for three years and was invited to attend Ballet Austin's Summer Intensive in 2010. She has performed numerous solo roles such as Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker, Nikiya in La Bayadere, and Myrta in Giselle. She was chosen to perform in original works choreographed by Yannis Adoniou, Gregory Dawson, and Lawrence Pech. She was awarded the Stanley Kahn Tap Award by world renowned tap dancer Sam Weber. She is currently working as a Personal Trainer and a Freelance Dancer. She greatly enjoys teaching and is excited to be working with the students at Nor Cal Dance Arts. 

Rathika Subra

Rathika Subra is a Software Engineer working in Bay Area always with a great passion for dancing. She teaches Zumba in her spare time. She has been trained and certified in Basic Zumba, Advanced Zumba, Zumba Toning and Zumbatomic. She also teaches Zumba at the East Valley Family YMCA.

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Kathryn Huth

Kathryn started dance at the of two. She has a total of 17 years of Tap training and teaching experience. She was part of a nationally ranked competitive team winning several awards, participated in several conventions, and took classes from the cast of the Broadway show STOMP. She was an integral part of Santa Teresa High School's competitive Dance/Cheers teams and is a member of the United Spirit Association.

Alyssa Sandoval

Alyssa Sandoval (Jr. Staff Member) has been dancing at Nor Cal Dance Arts from the beginning. She is well versed in many styles of dance. Alyssa is a member of The Collective Dance Company and loves performing.

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Allison Del Rosario

Ally Del Rosario (Jr. Staff Member) has been dancing since the age of 3 years old.  Ally is well versed in a styles of dance but prefers both contemporary and hip hop.  Ally is a recent graduate of The Collective Dance Company and currently attends school at San Jose State.