Michelle J. Rodriguez
Michelle J. Rodriguez is an artist who performs and writes in the worlds of music and theater. Raised in the Pacific Northwest and Kentucky by her Puerto Rican parents, Ms. Rodriguez was raised in Vermont, Chicago and NYC by her communities, inspiring her to explore kids-of-immigrants stories, divine femininity, intuition, healing and spaces in-between. Her music project MICHA became a finalist for NPR’s 2018 Tiny Desk Contest with her song “Nena Nena Nena,” praised for a “bilingual set spanning laid-back southern soul and Latin pop flare” (NPR).
Pharis Romero
Artistic Director, Voice Works
Pharis has been singing and playing music her whole life. An early student of classical and country, she grew up performing with her family’s band and learning the songs and stories that made her want to dig deeper. These days she performs mostly with her husband Jason, and is equally at home disappearing into an old-time jam as she is singing on stage or teaching the joy of song and sound.
Reuben Roqueñi
Reuben is a nationally respected arts administrator with over 20 years in progressive program development, management, artist-centric support systems and grantmaking experience. He is currently Executive Director at Portland Institute for Contemporary’s (PICA) whose programming supports the experiments of the most vital and provocative artists of our time. Previously, he was Director of Transformative Change Programs at Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, serving Indigenous artists across the US.…
Marisol Rosa-Shapiro
Faculty
Marisol Rosa-Shapiro is a New York and Seattle-based performer, director, teaching artist, and creator of original works of theater. She is a graduate of Princeton University and of Giovanni Fusetti’s Lecoq-based Helikos School of Theatre Creation in Florence, Italy. Her specialties include mask theater, mime, clown, commedia dell’arte, improvisation, physical comedy, movement-and ensemble-based creation and more.…
Gerald Ross
Faculty
Gerald Ross is a musician specializing in American Roots Music – Swing, Early Jazz, Western Swing, Hawaiian, Ragtime and Blues. Playing the guitar, lap steel guitar and ukulele he has performed throughout the USA and Europe and has recorded seven solo CDs. Ross is one of the finest instrumentalists on the scene today and his music expresses a sense of rhythm and melody that is rare in contemporary music.…
Bobby Rush
Faculty
Bobby Rush was born Emmett Ellis, Jr. outside Homer, Louisiana, in 1933. He twanged a diddley bow before picking up a guitar around age 11, and his preacher father knew enough about a harmonica to pass along a few riffs to his progeny. The family relocated to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 1948.
While still a teenager, Rush became a professional blues musician, adopting his stage name so as not to disrespect his devout dad.…
Sadie LeDonna and Shawn Kellogg
Sadie LeDonna and Shawn Kellogg have been teaching and performing together for over 7 years. They have organized festivals, summer camps, and workshops together and have created and performed in several independent full-length shows as well as with their own acts for a variety of events.
Sadie and Shawn founded Pop-Up Movement in 2019. Throughout the pandemic, they designed and built their gym in the Port Townsend area.…
Sadaf Sadri
Sadaf Sadri is an Iranian new media artist based in Seattle. The focal point of their work revolves around the concept of interruption. Their interest in disruption lies in the void that emerges in the wake of the discontinuation of the established power systems. This void, they believe, offers a space to imagine alternative narratives that might otherwise remain unexplored.…
David Sanchez
Faculty
Latin Grammy Award winner David Sánchez is being hailed as “the most profound young tenor saxophonist working today. Born in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Sánchez began playing percussion and drums at age 8 before migrating to tenor saxophone four years later.
Ellie Sandstrom
Faculty
Ellie Sandstrom, a Seattle Magazine “Spotlight Award Winner” and Velocity Dance Center’s “2016 Dance Champion”, is originally from Minneapolis, where she began her movement training with Minnesota Dance Theater and later, BalletArts Minnesota. She has studied various forms of dance technique, body conditioning, composition, improvisation and performance at dance festivals and schools across the country including Cornish College of the Arts, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance.…