Ruby Chen is a freshman at Lowell High School. She has been dancing at ODC since she was 8 years old, starting in tap and transitioning to contemporary and ballet. This is her first year in the Dance Jam, and she’s extremely grateful for the opportunities she was given.
ODC’s teen contemporary dance company is directed by ODC School Director, Kimi Okada, and Associate Choreographer Doug Gillespie. The Dance Jam was founded in 1996 to offer technical/creative training and performance opportunities to talented and committed young dancers. There are currently 8 members in the company, selected by audition.
The Jam has a rigorous training program, taking seven classes per week, cross training in contemporary, ballet, composition/choreography class, Pilates, and special classes in world dance and street forms. Many Jam members go on to have careers in the professional dance world.
With guidance from ODC staff, the Dance Jam self-produces their own home season at the ODC Theater, richly expanding their skill sets and understanding of what happens offstage as well as in the studio and onstage to create a season. They carry these skills forward to whatever career path they take.
ODC Dance Jam 2024/25 Season
The ODC Dance Jam season will feature two world premieres by Babatunji Johnson and Dexandro Montalvo. Repertory works will include an excerpt from the ODC company piece Head in the Sand, choreographed by Kimi Okada in 2016, There’s So Much To Do to Save the World (2010) choreographed by KT Nelson, and Mixing Ground (2003) choreographed by Bliss Kohlmyer.
Upcoming Jam Season:
April 19, 2025, 8:00pm
April 20 4:00 and 7:00 pm, 2025
ODC Theater
Contact registration@odc.dance
Dance Jam members
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Ever Keegstra
ODC Dance Jam Member
Ever Keegstra is 14 years old and is a freshman at Jewish Community High School. She started her dance training at the age of 3, primarily focusing on contemporary and ballet, but dabbling in hip hop, tap, and acro. While Ever has been dancing at ODC for 6 years, this is the first year that she has been in the Dance Jam, which she is extremely grateful to be a part of. In her free time, Ever enjoys playing tennis and eating ice cream.
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Ella Ford ODC Dance Jam Member
Ella Ford is 15 years old and a Freshman at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. Ella has been dancing at ODC since she was 3 years old, and has always had a passion for performing of any kind. She has sung at SF Jazz as well as Freight and Salvage, performed in ODC’s The Velveteen Rabbit for 6 years, sung in ACT’s high school cabaret group, and has participated in Alonzo King’s LINES summer intensive for two years. This is Ella’s first year in the Jam, and it has been a long-time dream of her’s growing up in the ODC community. She is so excited to perform in this year's season!
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DOUGLAS GILLESPIE is a Brooklyn-based Dance Artist passionate in the making, teaching and embodying dance as an art form. He teaches at colleges and dance centers around the world, including Festival Danza Urbana and Piroutteando in Mexico, The Juilliard School, NYU Tisch Summer Program, ODC dance, Mark Morris Dance Group, National Taiwan University of the Arts and Gibney Dance Center in New York. Gillespie is an avid dance maker; in 2023 he premiered Squid a duet co-choreographed with long time dance partner Leslie Kraus for the Oklahoma Contemporary Museum. Douglas' company choreography includes works for the Teoria De Gravidad company of Monterrey, Mx., Limon Professional Training Program and Sarasota Contemporary Dance. Gillespie has created his own student commissions for Piroutteando, Guadalajara, Mx., SUNY Brockport, Florida Southern College, Cleveland State University and Santa Fe College; two of his works have been showcased at American College Dance Association. Gillespie has also premiered two international self-choreographed solo projects. Currently dancing as a performer in Life and Trust, Emursive's 2024 premiere large scale-immersive dance project and performing with Company SBB, Stefanie Batten-Bland. Douglas was a performer for David Dorfman Dance from 2018-2021 and an originating member, creative contributor, rehearsal director and choreographic assistant for Kate Weare Company from 2007-2021. Gillespie has performed in Punchdrunk Emursive’s Sleep No More and Third Rail Projects’ Then She Fell. Gillespie was born in San Diego, raised in Jacksonville, Fl. and received his BFA in Dance from Florida State University in 2005.
BABATUNJI JOHNSON was born in Portland, Oregon and grew up on the Big Island of Hawaii. Though never formally trained as a child, Babatunji was always moving his body to the beat. At the age of 15, he discovered the art of hip hop. Following over a decade of self-taught street performance, he has developed a unique approach to various styles of hip hop such as breaking, popping, and krump. While cultivating his own movement language, Babatunji simultaneously trained in ballet, modern, and contemporary. Babatunji has performed with Lines Ballet, Post Ballet, SFDanceworks, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Misty Copeland. In 2015 Babatunji was given a Princess Grace Award, as well as a Chris Hellman Award for his outstanding achievements and promise in the world of dance.
DEXANDRO MONTALVO, born and raised in New York, is a director, choreographer, dancer, and educator. A professional dancer with various different dance backgrounds and companies, his choreographic commissions include works for ODC, RMK, LINES Ballet Training Program/Summer Program, The Black Eyed Peas, DanceWorks Chicago, MINI (USA), Mini Amp Live, SF Ballet School, Concept o4, Dance Mission’s Dance Brigade, Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Center, Cardinal Ballet, University of SF Dance Ensemble, Marin School of the Arts, & the ODC Dance Jam. Montalvo and his choreography have appeared on the MTV, BET, Telemundo and Fox networks. Montalvo is a past Artistic Director of the Dance Theatre of San Francisco. During his tenure DTSF won two of the four Isadora Duncan award nominations including “Outstanding Choreography” for his ballet, “Pent”. Additionally, he was awarded a 2019 Saint Louis Inner Circle Award for “Such Sweet Thunder”, won an Izzie Award for his choreography in “Art Behind Bars” in 2014 and was nominated for another with “Impulse” in 2015. As a dance educator, Montalvo was co-director of ODC’s Dance Jam and currently teaches at SF Ballet School, YAGP, USF, Dominican University of California, LINES Ballet Training Program & ODC. Dexandro serves as an ongoing choreographer for ODC/Dance.