Caitlin Heflin

Caitlin is a native of Nashville, Tennessee, and received her BFA in Dance Performance and BA in Economics from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Immediately after graduation, she was invited to join Thodos Dance Chicago, and she performed and taught in the Chicagoland area until relocating to Los Angeles in 2017. Since then, she has worked with Cherice and Charissa Barton, Christian Denice, and Vincent Paterson, and she was a company member with Louise Reichlin’s LA Choreographers and Dancers. Additionally, she has presented her own work at Highways "New Shoes", Fuse Dance Company’s "SYNTHESIS V", and the MixMatch Dance Festival.

Robert Gomez

Robert Christopher Gomez is from Los Angeles, California. His dance training began at Renaissance High School For The Arts, where he studied African, Jazz, Modern, and Ballet.  After graduation, Robert danced under the direction of Tawny Chapman with Leverage Dance.  Since then, he has since studied and performed with various disciplines from the Maple Conservatory of Dance, Kobi Rozenfeld, Erin Landry, Valarie Cabag, Deborah Brockus and more.

Amanda Tran

Amanda emerged as a dancer and artist at the age of three. A Southern California native, she began her dance training at Orange County Dance Center in Huntington Beach, CA. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from University of California, Santa Barbara. During her time at UCSB, she was an apprentice for Santa Barbara Dance Theater under the direction of Christopher Pilafian. She was also a member of the UCSB Dance Company where she toured throughout California and Europe, performing works by JacqulyJ Buglisi and Monica Bill Barnes. This will be Amanda’s first season with Kybele Dance Theater.

Karlo Ramírez

Born and raised in Mexico City, Karlo started training with Shea New at College of the Desert, Palm Desert, CA. Karlo also worked under the direction of Patty Williams, Kim Lewis, Ron Brown, Catherine Demonchaux and Lindsay Kaufman. Later Karlo transferred to Santa Monica College where he earned his Teacher of Dance Certificate and performed with both Synapse Dance Theater and Global Motion. After finishing The Alvin Ailey Summer Program Karlo came back to Los Angeles to perform with Kybele Dance Theater.

Marii Kawabata

Marii Kawabata was born and raised in Amami-island, Japan and moved to Los Angeles in 2015 to pursue academic study and a career in dance. She graduated from Santa Monica College, where she performed with synapse dance theater working with Barak Marshall/BODYTRAFFIC, Bill Evans and Sophie Monat. She was featured in Mark Tomasic’s piece “wianbu” which she performed at the American College Dance Association Festival (2019). This is her first season with Kybele Dance Theater.

Nick Albuja

Nicolas Albuja, born and raised in Ecuador, began training in gymnastics at age 7. Later he focused on  b-boying and hip-hop which became the beginning of his dance career path. He later began ballet training in the "BEC" (Ecuador National Ballet) at the same time attending South American Fitness Competitions with Men’s Fitness Choreography earning him 2nd place. Shortly after moving to LA to make contemporary dance his main focus he studied at Santa Monica College where he was cast in Donald McKayle’s piece restaged by Stephanie Powell. He has proudly joined as our newest member.

Kennedy Blue

Kennedy Blue, originally from Macon, Georgia, started her dance training at Debbie Allen Dance Academy and then Alexander Hamilton High School. She attended Santa Monica College as a Dance Major where she performed in Synapse Dance Theater working with Bill Evans, Sheron Wray, and Karen McDonald. After leaving SMC, Kennedy joined Kybele Dance Theater as an apprentice.

Stephanie McMahon

Rachel Walton

Guest Dancer

Rachel began her dance training in Leesburg, VA studying ballet, jazz, and contemporary from a young age.  After high school, she was accepted into the inaugural class of BFA dance students at the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.  While in Los Angeles, she has enjoyed studying under the prestigious faculty, artists in residence, and guest faculty at USC as well as adding hip-hop to her training.  Entering into her senior year, she has performed in works by William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Paul Taylor, George Balanchine, and Aszure Barton. Rachel has enhanced her training through a variety of summer programs, including Springboard Danse Montreal, BalletX, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.

Christian Espinel

Guest Dancer

Christian Espinel, a native from Los Angeles and began his training with the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, learning various styles from Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Contemporary, Hip-Hop, Tissue, Character, Dunham and many other techniques. He has performed in many of Ms. Allen’s original productions and through DADA, he joined Unity Dance Ensemble a company founded by So You Think You Can Dance choreographer Tessandra Chavez. He has since worked with Rosero McCoy dancing on Disney Channels “Shake It Up” as well as on BET in Debbie Allen’s “Hot Chocolate Nutcracker”. Christian then became a member of Utah’s ‘Best Of State’ company Odyssey Dance Theatre touring nationally as well as throughout Germany and Istanbul. Christian also dances with JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble, Invertigo Dance Theatre and Pony Box Dance Theatre. Throughout this dance journey he has had the privilege to share the stage with artists such as, Herbie Hancock, Raven-Simone, Jaleel White, Tichina Arnold, ELEW and many others.

Junji Dezaki

Guest Dancer

Junji Dezaki is a native of Wakayama, Japan and the longest-running company member of KDT.  Junji held the title of Karate State Champion before moving to Los Angeles.  After relocating to Southern California, he was cast in the Monsters of Hip-Hop 2007. Junji began taking ballet classes shortly after and has been performing with Ken Dance Company, KIN Dance Company, No) one Arts and City Ballet of Los Angeles. In his dancing style, he mixes martial art, hip-hop and ballet.