About Bay Area Dancers
Bay Area Dancers was created as an outlet for the young professional who still dreams of being on stage! This love of performing brought co-directors, Alicia Brewster & Trishna Saigal to formalize their idea into a fun, energetic dance company bringing a trained dancers and a variety of dance styles together. While maintaining a healthy work:life:dance balance, Bay Area Dancers has created a flexible schedule of rehearsals on weeknight evenings and weekends enabling dancers to have the ability to choose their rehearsal schedule based upon their availability.
Bay Area Dancers provides the forum for passionate dancers to get back into the groove of a dance studio or dance team family, while getting to perform together on stage!
How It Works
Dancers in the company can audition to be a choreographer. Each piece that is selected will rehearse twice per month, one hour each. Company members can then sign up for the pieces they’d like to join. This flexibility enables dancers to participate in a company while maintaining their professional life as well. Dancers have the choice as to how many pieces they want to sign up for based upon their own availability.
Dancers pay for their rehearsals in two-month increments. Rehearsals are charged on an hourly basis. For example, if a one-hour rehearsal is $15, it would be $30 for the month and $60 for two months of rehearsals. Payment plans available.
The leadership role within BAD stems from the dancers who audition to be choreographers. As a choreographer you will be directing your own rehearsals, music and costume ideas!
Our Awesome Choreographers
Our choreographers come from diverse backgrounds to bring flair and excitement that most dance companies can’t offer.
Originally born in San Francisco, Francesca grew up in Las Vegas, NV where she started dancing at the age of 4. In the beginning, she took ballet, tap, and jazz then gradually added in hip-hop and street jazz. In high school, she joined a Polynesian group called Te-Awhi where she learned Hula, Tahitian, and Maori. In 2012 Francesca moved back to San Francisco to attend San Francisco Art Institute to get her BFA in Sculpture. Focused on studying, Francesca took a break from dance only occasionally taking dance classes such as those from Bay Area Flash Mob (a flash mob group that dances various styles made popular by music videos), and Sexitude (a sexy jazz, funk, hip-hop fusion class with some attitude). Eventually, Francesca began to dance and perform regularly with BAFM and Sexitude after graduating from SFAI in December 2015. Francesca currently works as an after school enrichment teacher for STEM and art programs.
I started my dance training with classical ballet in Mexico. After moving to the US I became more interested in modern dance and improvisational work. The therapeutic capacity of dance became very clear to me as dance accompanied me into every life transition. Ohad Naharin’s Gaga movement language became the entry way into my career as a dance/ movement therapist. This year’s piece, “Somos”, is a piece that incorporates my roots and life experience through dance.
Tappin’ since 1994!
BAD choreographer and co-founder, Alicia Brewster, can’t imagine life without dance. Tap is her favorite genre if she had to choose one style. She is grateful for all the experiences, friendships and personal growth dance has brought her over the years. Now as a Dance/Movement Therapist she loves bringing out the joy in others through dance.
BAD choreographer and co-founder, Alicia Brewster, can’t imagine life without dance. Tap is her favorite genre if she had to choose one style. She is grateful for all the experiences, friendships and personal growth dance has brought her over the years. Now as a Dance/Movement Therapist she loves bringing out the joy in others through dance.
Vanessa is originally from Fremont, CA, where she took dance classes with her older sister. Like most children starting dance in the US, her origins were in tap, ballet, jazz, and later ventured into hip hop and contemporary. While enrolled in dance, Vanessa was also studying classical piano, where her love of music developed. In college, Vanessa joined the Sacramento Black Art of Dance Company, where she studied African-Caribbean, contemporary, and hip-hop. Vanessa is a pediatric orthopedic Physical Therapist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, Oakland and a part of the Dance Medicine team, treating performing artists and young athletes. She has a passion for performance, teaching dance to the hospitalized children, and rehabilitation for dance injuries.
Sara grew up outside of Portland, Oregon and began dancing at age 9. Tap was her first love, after discovering she didn’t like the pink leotards for ballet. Through high school, Sara danced at a local studio and assisted with the younger classes. She danced tap, jazz, and hip-hop, as well as guest choreographing for high school musicals such as “School House Rock Live!” (Italicize?). In college, Sara discovered her love for modern dance and found ballet again. After choreographing a modern piece for her senior project, she was asked to choreograph again for the annual university spring show. Her double major in dance and psychology from Western Oregon University led her to receive her MA in Dance/Movement Therapy from Lesley University. In her professional and personal life, Sara is humbled to share the power of movement with those around her. From encouraging self-expression and healing through movement with her patients to kitchen dance parties with her friends, Sara is constantly elated by the feeling she gets while dancing.
Renica began her dance journey at the tender age of five with the classics ballet, tap, and jazz. Growing up in Los Angeles, there were many opportunities to perform–fun fact: she once auditioned for Kids Incorporated!–but for Renica, dance was more personal. She will tell you it is her native language, her therapy, her joy. As an undergrad at UCLA, she dug into yoga and modern and dances from around the world, especially enjoying African-based dance traditions. She was a member of a West-African Music and Dance Ensemble for a time. Some years passed before dance was featured prominently in her life again. In that time she built a career in non-profit development, lived in London with her partner, trained in Naturopathy and Nutrition, had a couple spirited kids. About six years ago, Renica connected with a wonderful program called Dancin Power. Through this organization that leads movement sessions for kids at children’s hospitals in the Bay Area, Renica met the fierce and talented Souls who would go on to found Bay Area Dancers. Today, she is profoundly grateful to be dancing all the time again (and not just in the living room to Disney soundtracks!) and hasn’t looked back, ya’ know, unless it’s part of the choreography.