Leadership & Staff

Amy Seiwert enjoyed a nineteen-year performing career dancing with Smuin, Los Angeles Chamber, and Sacramento Ballets. As a dancer with Smuin, she became involved with the “Protégé Program,” where Michael Smuin was her mentor. She retired as a dancer from Smuin in 2008. That same year, Celia Fushille named her Choreographer in Residence, a position she held for a decade. She is the recipient of numerous choreographic awards, including a “Goldie” award from the San Francisco Bay Guardian in 2010, which described Seiwert as the Bay Area’s most original dance thinker, “taking what some consider a dead language and using it with a 21st-century lingo to tell us something about who we are.” 

In 2017 Seiwert’s first full-evening work, “Wandering,” set to Schubert’s Winterreise, was commissioned by the Joyce Theater in New York. The NEA and Kennedy Center have also supported Seiwert’s works. A former Artist in Residence at ODC Theater, she has also served on the Artist Faculty for Jacob’s Pillow’s Contemporary Ballet program. Her creations are in the repertory of Smuin, ODC/Dance, Ballet Austin, BalletX, Opera Parallèle, AXIS Dance, Oakland Ballet, and others. She is honored to be rejoining the artistic team of Smuin Ballet.

Amy London received her training in her hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, from Karen Alwin and Shauna Bereska. She danced with Hartford Ballet, Diablo Ballet, and Smuin Ballet. Her favorite Smuin roles included: Eternal Idol, Q.a.V. and Hearts Suite. She has served on faculty for schools throughout the Bay Area and as Artistic Coordinator at Marin Ballet, where she has choreographed more than 20 works. As Smuin’s Ballet Master, she enjoys preserving Michael Smuin’s legacy, as well as collaborating with and being the caretaker of the works of Val Caniparoli, Trey McIntyre, Amy Seiwert, Ma Cong, Helen Pickett, Adam Hougland, Choo-San Goh, and Jiří Kylián. As the inaugural Education Program Director for Smuin Center for Dance, she oversees its successful community engagement, outreach and faculty development.

Jo Ellen Arntz moved to San Francisco after receiving her BFA in dance from Creighton University (Omaha, Nebraska). She danced with San Francisco Ballet from 1981-1991 and has been teaching dance in the Bay Area since 1977, recently celebrating 20 years on faculty at Marin Dance Theater. She began at Smuin as Wardrobe Supervisor in 1996 and became Company Manager shortly thereafter. Working with Michael Smuin at San Francisco Ballet and later his own company prepared her for the multiple hats she wears in the organization today.

Alicia Tos rejoins Smuin after having served as Development Manager from March 2016-January 2020. Originally from Buffalo, NY, Alicia has a BA in Arts Management from Purchase College and focused in marketing and development for dance companies. She has worked with Garth Fagan Dance, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and Ellen Jacobs Associates in New York City. She loves baking and soaking up the sunshine in Northern California’s wine country in her free time.

Coral Bell comes to Smuin with over 7 years of experience in fundraising and database management. Prior to Smuin, she has worked for missions including early childhood education, transitional housing, the arts, and membership organizations. Coral holds a BA in Sociology with a concentration in Social Diversity from the University of Texas at Arlington and currently lives in the Rio Grande Valley area along the Texas/Mexico border. In her free time, she likes to watch scary movies, bake, and work on home improvement projects.

Originally from the Bay Area, Ellen Gaintner worked at Nashville Ballet and San Angelo Civic Ballet before joining Smuin in 2016. A classically trained ballet dancer, she was a member of Nashville Ballet 2 from 2008-2010.

Aja Hruby De Coudreaux has spent most of her career in the arts, enjoying varied experience in theater, live events, and the entertainment industry. Aja’s experience includes many behind-the-scenes aspects of stage and screen, from costuming to prop-making to box office roles. She has pursued her passion for costuming both academically and professionally, completing a degree in Fashion Design with a focus on historical costuming from the California Design College in Los Angeles and she has worked as a designer in theater, film and the fashion industry. Aja devotes her free time to her love of history, antiques, music, artistic expression, and the performing arts. She’s happy to be back in her hometown of Oakland and a member of the Smuin Ballet family.

Benjamin is thrilled to join Smuin Ballet to help build awareness and outreach for Smuin Center for Dance. Having danced with Smuin in 2016, he is enthusiastic about his return to assist the company from behind the curtain. A San Francisco-based ballet teacher, creative producer and artist, Benjamin is pursuing his M.A. in Arts Administration at Goucher College. He looks forward to using his wide variety of skills to highlight all Smuin Center for Dance has to offer and to further the company’s connection with the community.

KT Graham joined Smuin Ballet in 1997 after working as Production Stage Manager and Lighting Designer for Lewitzky Dance Company in Los Angeles, as well as Technical & Lighting Director for Washington Ballet in Washington, D.C. with whom she toured extensively both nationally and internationally. She also engages in freelance projects and has particularly enjoyed serving as Production Stage Manager for Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, Dances from the Heart benefits for The Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation, and for the National Dance USA showcase in 2012.

Michael is a professional lighting designer for dance, theatre, operas, and musicals. Since joining Smuin Ballet in 2004, he has designed the lighting for The Christmas Ballet, The Turntable, Be Here Now, If I Were a Sushi Roll, Tutto Ecceto il Lavandino, Oh, Inverted World, and Fly Me to the Moon, as well as many other Smuin productions. He also designs lighting for other performance companies throughout the Bay area, where his designs have won a Theatre Bay Area award and a Shelly Award. His past designs have also been nominated for an Isadora Duncan Award and BATCC Awards. www.Michaeloesch.com

Alex Wolfthal is a San Francisco-based stage manager for dance, opera, and theatre, and has been with Smuin Ballet since 2022. She has worked on stage management teams at the Merola Opera Program, Tulsa Opera, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Clubbed Thumb, and MCC Theater. She has also worked on the Production team at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. When Alex is not in the theater or at the studio, she enjoys hiking, baking, restaurant-hunting, and beating her friends at trivia.

Over the past 20 years, Vincent has worked with Bay Area companies including Berkeley Opera, Lines Contemporary Ballet, ODC, Oakland Ballet, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, and serving as Wardrobe Master for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for eight years. He has worked internationally for Opera Zuid in The Netherlands and Animazing at Chateau de Belcastel in France. His number one priority the last 20 years has been Smuin Ballet, and he prides himself on helping to create a family-like atmosphere within the company. Often asked, “What do you do for fun?” His response is always, “THIS is what I do for fun . . .”