Leadership

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, BalletX, Ballet Austin, and AXIS Dance, as well as Washington, Atlanta, Oakland, Kansas City, Colorado, Louisville, Cincinnati, Oklahoma City, American Repertory, and Milwaukee Ballets.

Lori Laqua brings 30+ years of experience to her role as Managing Director of Smuin Contemporary Ballet. Laqua oversaw the renovation of Smuin Center for Dance, the organization’s permanent home, which joined the rehearsal studios and administrative offices under one roof for the first time. Laqua previously served as project manager for the design and construction of the ODC Dance Commons and the ODC Theater during her 20 years there. She is especially pleased to have kept Smuin dancing during the pandemic having utilized the CARES Act and grant programs to help retain employees and to present programming on new platforms. Laqua holds a PhD (ABD) and MArch in Architectural History from the University of Virginia, a MA in Art History from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a BA in History and Art History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Laqua joined Smuin in 2017.