Karenne H. Koo, Co-Founder and President, is a dance artist committed to developing and practicing multi-disciplinary approaches to encourage and stimulate the art of inclusive dance as an instrument for building community. She was Co-Founder of Evolve Dance Inc., a NY-based nonprofit dance organization, and served as Executive Director from 2006 to 2017. While in New York, she managed the Y Dance Program at the Family YMCA at Tarrytown with Evolve Dance and was Co-Producer and performer in the YDance Festivals and Evolve Dance Festivals. In 2013 she relocated to Tucson, AZ and became immediately active within the local dance communities. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Mettler Studios, Inc., a member of the International Association for Creative Dance and part of a Tucson-based Butoh Dance group. Karenne has conducted creative dance residencies in New York, San Francisco, Vietnam, Indonesia and Peru. In Tucson, she completed a 3-year dance residency at Arts for All, Inc., a nonprofit arts organization that provides art education for adults and children with diverse abilities and co-directed the Arts for All Adult Dance Ensemble, a performing group of dancers with diverse abilities that regularly presented original works at multiple venues. She facilitates workshops/residencies with Arizona TASH, Mettler Studios Inc., Pio Decimo Center, Satori School, Sister Jose Women’s Center, The Greogory School, ZUZ! Dance Company and various memory care/assisted living retirement communities. Karenne continues to work towards expanding the potential of creative dance as an inclusive, communal experience through collaborative partnerships with multiple community organizations, both national and international. Karenne is the Recipient of the Inaugural 2022 J. Mare Founder’s Award from Ben’s Bells Project in Tucson, AZ. She is a Certified Mettler-based Dance Educator upon completion of Mettler Studio’s Mettler-based Dance Education Certification program that included 500 hours of Mettler-based dance teacher training, workshops and mentored teaching. https://karennekoo.net/
Sabrina Geoffrion, Co-Founder, Vice President, Assistant Secretary and Repertory Company Director, earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, with a minor in dance, and her Master’s degree in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Arizona in Tucson. She has worked in various areas over the years, including teaching at the preschool and college levels, and academic research with the Program for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona (UA) with Dr. Andrew Weil, the Psychology Department at the UA, and the Psychiatry Department in the College of Medicine (also at UA). Since 2006, Sabrina has taught a variety of online Psychology classes for several universities. She currently holds an adjunct faculty position and teaches online for Grand Canyon University. Sabrina also works periodically as a childbirth educator and doula (helping moms during labor and delivery). Sabrina danced as a child and in college, and has studied ballet, jazz, contemporary, and African dance. She is currently part of Mettler Studio’s Teacher Training Apprentice Program. Sabrina is also a Butoh dancer and continues to look for ways to combine her passion for dance and movement expression with her love of teaching and helping others.
Sandra O’Donnell, Secretary, has devoted her career to eliminating structural racism and advancing social justice in social service and community development policy and practice. Toward that end, she has held positions in state government, private philanthropy, community based organizations, and universities, focusing particularly on diverting youth of color from incarceration, increasing learning and earning opportunities for low income families of color, and increasing the numbers of talented people of color in community leadership and public service. Over the past 20 years, she has provided grantseeking and evaluation consultation to community based nonprofits. She holds a PhD from the University of Chicago. Sandy and her husband John live in Tucson and in Chicago. She is delighted to have the opportunity to help launch Dancesequences!
Keita Tsutsumi, Curriculum Director and 504 Co-Coordinator, is a Portland-born, Carolina-raised, Tucson-based Japanese-American artist. After receiving his B.A. in visual arts (with a ceramic focus) from Guilford College, he moved to Tucson to fill an AmeriCorps position at Arts for All, Inc. Through this opportunity Keita was introduced to creative dance after being invited to attend a creative dance class given by Mettler Studios, Inc. at the Tucson Creative Dance Center. Though he has never been in a dance class before, movement has always been an important mode of expression for Keita, be it on a potter’s wheel, a strut down the street or a stretch to the sun. Keita feels inspiration from a distant admiration of what he imagines classical dances would feel like mixed with the sense of organic functions of nature. In his art practice, the Mettler-based creative dance approach brings Keita closer to the mind-body relationship and their relation to the environments he inhabits. Keita teaches dance at multiple elder residences in Tucson and is currently part of Mettler Studio’s Teacher Training Apprentice Program. He is also a Butoh dancer, a ceramic artist and teaches at The Clay Co-op. Through his practice, he is committed to working, learning and connecting with others through art and movement.
Michelle Woodward has a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Northern Arizona University and a Master in Educational Psychology from the University of Arizona. She currently works for the Mathematics Department at the University as a course Director for Math 100. She is also a yoga instructor, a massage therapist and an amateur painter that works mainly in acrylics. She came upon dance late in her life through a class with Karenne at Zuzi! Dance a few years ago. She has experienced the transformative impact dance can have first hand and is excited to be a part of the Dancesequences family.
Dancesequences Inc. 