Guest Artist Events

Jacob Mora, Choreographer/Dancer/Actor/Musician

April 17

2:10-3:40         Modern – Mains – All Welcome

Choreographer, dancer, actor, and musician Jacob Mora hails from Denver, Colorado where he works in dance, music, and film.

As Artistic Director of Moraporvida Contemporary Dance Jacob fuses both cultural and contemporary movements and music styles, ever-expanding his continued exploration of relationships and the human experience.

Jacob has garnered international success as a performer, teacher, and artist.   He has been seen dancing with the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, Hannah Kahn Dance,  and Santee Smith Group. He has had the pleasure of working with Choreographers such as Donald Mckayle, Betty Jones, Milton Meyers, David Rousseve, Eleo Pomare, David Dorfman and Lisa Race, among many.

Existing as a fiercely passionate educator and promoter of dance culture, Jacob unites different genres of movement, both traditional and progressive to bring together peoples of different cultural and socioeconomic groups to embrace the art and joy of dance.

As an emcee and musician Jacob’s reach is similarly diverse. He produces, creates and performs with multiple bands across the genres of Hip Hop, Electronic and avant-garde styles of music.

Jacob teaches nationally and internationally conducting workshops and residencies on Jazz, Contemporary, Modern, Hip Hop and Conditioning the Spirit.  He has been on faculty with the University of Wyoming, UNLV  the New York Institute of Dance, as well as a guest artist and teacher for many other schools, festivals, and institutions.

Shelia Ivy Traister,  SAG-AFTRA Colorado Local President, and National Board Member

April 11, 2017

1:30-3:30 SAG-AFTRA and Careers in Screen Performance (open to all, Crane Acting Studio)

4:10-6:30 Acting for the Camera Audition Coaching
(anyone can view, class only will participate, Crane Acting Studio)

Sheila Ivy Traister is an award-winning actress and 35-year veteran of the entertainment industry with numerous credits in film, television, commercials, broadcast, voice-over/animation, corporate-industrial film, theater, Improv, and corporate entertainment. In film and television, she’s worked with Academy Award-winning directors Jim Sheridan, Taylor Hackford and Peter Bagdonivich amongst others; while playing opposite the likes of Helen Mirren, Toby McGuire, Hillary Swank, and Nathan Lane. Sheila’s had recurring, co-star and guest-starring roles in acclaimed television series and made for TV movies and has a coveted Super Bowl commercial under her belt. She directed ‘Goodbye Texas’ (Short Film Script Semi-Finalist, Duke City Shoot Out Film Competition in New Mexico) and is currently in development as a director, story and script consultant for the feature film Sleeping Dragon. She’s also written and directed for the stage. In 2016 her direction of “Arabian Nights”, produced the number one selling show in the history of the Black Box Theater at The Aurora Fox. As an actor, she received ‘Best Leading Actress Awards’ for: ‘Woman’ in Sound of A Voice; ‘Women’ in The Blue Room; ‘Martha’ in Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf; and critical acclaim as ‘Sah Jin’ in 99 Histories. An educator at heart she created the acting department at the Colorado Film School in 1999, taught Acting for Camera at Denver School of the Arts for 3 years and is adjunct faculty for UCD’s film program, teaching Acting and Directing for TV & Film. Sheila has a private coaching practice working with actors, writers and directors and has produced, taught and or participated in dozens of workshops and panels for both the on-camera, theater/arts and public speaking communities for the past 25 years in major markets in the U.S. and has clients around the globe. A proud member of SAG-AFTRA ~ receiving her card in both legacy unions in 1988 ~ Sheila has served as the SAG-AFTRA Colorado Local President and National Board Member since merger in 2012 and has been an elected leader for the past 23 years.

Jamie Johnson, Educator/Performer/Choreographer

Jamie A. Johnson began her training under the direction of Christine Kirk, formerly of the Paris Opera Ballet. She studied at prestigious summer intensives such as Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, Ballet West Conservatory, Jacob's Pillow, Cleveland/San Jose Ballet, and Milwaukee Ballet. She was a scholarship student at the University of Utah where she was a recipient of Walter E. Cosgriff Memorial Scholarship, the Enid Cosgriff Memorial Scholarship and the Fine Arts "Recognition of Excellence." While at the university, she performed in the national touring companies of Utah Ballet and the Character Dance Ensemble.

After graduating cum laude with a B.F.A. in Ballet and a B.A. in English, Ms. Johnson danced with Sacramento Ballet, Ballet Pacifica, Ohio Dance Theatre and Boulder Ballet—reaching the status of principal dancer. Johnson went on to perform with the international touring company, MOMIX. With MOMIX, she performed upon world-renowned stages, such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Joyce Theater in New York and Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro. Johnson's repertoire ranges from classical ballet to modern to contemporary dance. She enjoyed the privilege of having roles created especially for her. Her repertoire includes works by Gerald Arpino, George Balanchine, Seán Curran, Doris Humphrey, Louis Falco, Moses Pendleton, Marius Petipa, Michael Smuin, Helen Tamiris and Doug Varone.

Johnson is an accomplished teacher and choreographer. She has taught as a faculty member and guest teacher throughout the United State—notably at the University of Washington, Interlochen Arts Camp, the University of Wyoming, and Utah Regional Ballet. Her work has been performed by St. Paul Ballet, Boulder Ballet II, Interlochen Dance Ensemble and West Texas A&M University Dance Ensemble. Ms. Johnson holds an M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Washington. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Utah Valley University.

Flamenco Denver

Wednesday, April 5

2:10-3:40         Studio Theatre – All are welcome

The Mission of Flamenco Denver is to promote Flamenco dance as a living art form and a vital part of Hispanic heritage through classes, quality dance performances, and arts education programs that catalyze connections among young people and nurture the next generation of Spanish dance artists and educators.

Coco Kleppinger, Casting Director, Actor

OCTOBER 8, 2016
1:00 - 3:00 p.m., Public Workshop, “How to Audition for Film”

Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts Crane Studio

Coco Kleppinger studied theatre at the University of Wyoming and UCLA, where she received her bachelor's degree in acting for theatre, television, and film (with honors). She went on to get her MFA at UCLA in theatre with a dual emphasis in acting and voice/speech/dialects. After acting and dialect coaching in LA for six years, she became a casting assistant and then associate for Rich Delia casting. She has helped cast 17 feature films. Casting credits include: Lights Out, Don't Breathe (both in theaters), Stephen King's It (2017), Fist Fight (Starring Charlie Day and Ice Cube), The Masterpiece (starring James Franco), and Tribes of Palos Verdes (starring Jennifer Garner). She coaches dialects privately and often teaches voice and speech at UCLA.

Get more info

Lisa Konoplisky, Actor, Playwright

OCTOBER 20, 2016
9:35-10:50 a.m., Public Workshop, "Meisner Work," Intermediate Acting Class

Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts Acting Studio

Lisa works as a playwright, director, and acting teacher. Her plays have been staged at the Lyceum Theatre (NY), Blue Box World (NY), Speaking Ring Theatre (Chicago), Camanea Theater (Chicago), The Stockyards Theatre Project (Chicago), The Circle Theatre (Chicago), Theatre Limina (Minneapolis), Mercury Theater (Madison, WI), Stage Q (Madison, WI), Icarus Falling (Lansing, MI) and at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Alaska. Lisa was also a resident playwright at Seattle’s Annex Theatre were her play, You’re Not From Here, Are You?, was performed. She was the winner of The Writing and Drinking Festival and her play performed by Chicago’s Neo-Futurists and The Factory Theatre. She was a guest artist for several years at both the Magnetic Children’s Theatre and Children’s Theatre in Madison, WI. As a director, her credits include Rhinoceros, True West, Crimes of the Heart, Design for Living, Stop Kiss, Hamlet, Careless Love, The Vagina Monologues and Paradise Lost.

Lisa has also worked in film as an editor. She’s edited several documentaries, cut Daytime Emmy Reels for Days of Our Lives, and was assistant director of the Danish documentary Free The Mind, which Variety called “elegant” and “beautifully crafted.” Currently, she is working on a documentary about Chinese Americans in the Mississippi Delta during the era of Jim Crow.

Lisa graduated from Lafayette College and holds an MFA in Writing from Columbia College, where she taught undergraduate writing for several years. A monologue from her novel-in-progress appears in the 2004 edition of New Monologues For Women by Women. She studied playwriting in NY with Dale Worsley of Mabou Mines, as well as voice with Jeffrey Jacobi and acting with Anthony Mannino. She trained in the visual arts at Cooper Union in NY and studied improv at Upright Citizens Brigade in NY.