People

CO-DIRECTORS

MEGAN & SHANNON KURASHIGE

  • Megan & Shannon Kurashige are sisters and the co-directors of Sharp & Fine, a San Francisco-based dance theater company creating devised storytelling that provokes deep feeling and instigates transformation. We believe that telling and receiving a story is a potent act of shared empathy and our work combines exuberant choreography, physical rigor, spoken text, live music, and surreal elements that invite you to discover your own meaning.


    Megan & Shannon have been commissioned by Oakland Ballet, the US/Japan Cultural Trade Network, and Soundwave, and their work has been presented by FACT/SF, the RAWdance CONCEPT series, and the Merde Project. As dancers, they worked with Liss Fain Dance, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Christian Burns, Alex Ketley, Ballet Pacifica, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal.

MEGAN KURASHIGE
Co-Director

  • Megan Kurashige co-founded S&F in 2011. She also performs with Liss Fain Dance, where she has been a company member since 2010. She has previously worked with choreographers Christian Burns (burnsWORK), Alex Ketley (The Foundry), and Amy Seiwert, and performed with Ballet Pacifica and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. She studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance under the direction of Summer Lee Rhatigan and the Academy of Ballet under the direction of Richard Gibson. She is also a writer. Her short fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies and she is a 2008 graduate of the Clarion Writers' Workshop at UCSD.

SHANNON KURASHIGE
Co-Director

  • Shannon Kurashige co-founded S&F in 2011. She has also performed with Liss Fain Dance since joining the company in 2010, and previously worked with Christian Burns (burnsWORK), Alex Ketley (The Foundry), and Amy Seiwert. Shannon attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studied under Melissa Hayden, and graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a BFA in Dance Performance and a minor in biology. She also received extensive training at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance under the tutelage of Summer Lee Rhatigan. Shannon is also an artist and freelance graphic designer.

CREATIVE TEAM FOR THE IPHIGENIA PROJECT
(working title)

ERIC AVERY
Deviser + Performer

  • Eric Avery is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural organizer with over nineteen years of professional experience in theatre, interactive performance, and community-based projects. Since 2018, they have focused on applying a reparationist framework to their creative practice, organizing projects, and life. This dedication to relationship-centered process has put Avery in partnership with non-profit organizations, municipalities, social service agencies, universities, farms, community centers, prisons, art galleries, public spaces, and private homes. In addition to collaborations, Avery has independently created over 25 original productions. They earned a Bachelor's in Theatre & Film from the University of Kansas and an MFA in Theatre Arts from Towson University. Honors/Awards: Bessie Award (Outstanding Visual Design), Lavender Magazine Best of List (Outstanding Performance), Elliot Norton Award (Outstanding Design), 2024 MAP Grant Awardee, Zellerbach: Community Arts, East Bay Fund for Artists, Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency, TBA CA$H Grant, Rainin: New & Experimental Works, and more.

    Website | Instagram

CHARMAINE BUTCHER
Deviser + Performer

  • Charmaine Butcher is a dance artist based out of San Francisco. After graduating high school with an Associate's Degree, they continued their training at Alonzo King LINES Ballet's Training Program in San Francisco. Charmaine has worked professionally for various choreographers, including Amy J Lambert, Chuck Wilt, Beth Terwilleger, Cameo Lethem, Dwight Rhoden, Robert Moses and performed with Ballet22, Ballare Carmel, Coriolis Dance, the Seattle Opera, SFJazz, and Verlaine & McCann’s Burlesque Nutcracker. They currently work with Post:ballet, Sharp & Fine, and BODYSONNET. Charmaine frequently collaborates with their partner Babatunji, showing work independently at San Francisco Trolley Dances, RAWdance’s CONCEPT Series, Dance Lovers (SF), and with Inner Child Foundation. In 2019, Charmaine completed their Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing & Entrepreneurship. In addition to dancing and teaching movement, Charmaine is a visual artist working in the mediums of floral, paint, and clay.

JORDAN GLENN
Composer + Performer

  • Drummer/composer/improviser Jordan Glenn spent his formative years in Oregon and in 2006 relocated to the Bay Area where he received an MFA from Mills College. Since then he has been most closely associated with Fred Frith, William Winant, Zeena Parkins, Roscoe Mitchell, Ben Goldberg, John Schott, Lisa Mezzacappa, Karl Evangelista, Motoko Honda, Michael Coleman and the bands Jack O' The Clock, Kyle Bruckmann’s Degradient, and tUnE-yArDs.  He has also worked with Rhys Chatham, Secret Chiefs 3, The Rova Sax Quartet, composer/bagpiper Matthew Welch and has been commissioned to create scores for evening-length dance pieces by Sharp & Fine and Liss Fain Dance. As a leader he has composed and conducted the trio Wiener Kids, Mindless Thing (a collaboration with poet Jim Ryan) and the percussion heavy large ensemble BEAK.

MOLLY LEVY
Deviser + Performer

  • Molly Levy is a performer and dance educator who is drawn to the heart and humanity of dance. She is curious about how movement uncovers truths we may otherwise never know and inspired most by untethered honesty. Born and raised in the Bay Area and currently based in Oakland, Ca, Molly has performed throughout the country in devised original works, immersive theater, site-specific dance, and full evening burlesque shows. Her collaborations have included work with Sharp & Fine, Paufve Dance, Post:ballet, Cantankerous Creatures, Katie Scherman + Artists, Seattle Opera, The Equus Projects, and LROD. In addition to performing, Molly has worked in theater as a movement director creating fluid movement languages and character specific movement studies for adaptations of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet, devised site-specific theater, and The Light Princess (a musical). As a teacher, Molly integrates her background in ballet, floorwork, and body-mind centering practices to offer a grounded and supportive approach to learning dance with an emphasis on anatomical alignment, functional progressions, musicality, and individual expression.

HADASSAH PERRY
Deviser + Performer

  • Hadassah is a queer woman, artist, and musician currently based in San Francisco. She grew up in Riga, Latvia where she began her studies in dance and piano. In 2016, she moved to Israel Palestine to study with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. In 2018, Hadassah joined New Dialect, directed by Banning Bouldin, where she worked closely with and performed works by Hofesh Shechter, Roy Assaf, Ariel Freedman, Rosie Herrera, Ana Maria Lucaciu, and Alex Ketley. In 2021, Hadassah moved to San Francisco and joined UNA Productions, directed by Chuck Wilt. Hadassah is the co-director of the contemporary program at the Westlake School of the Performing Arts, where she teaches, mentors, and choreographs. She is passionate about making queer art with her partner, Kira Fargas, and has performed throughout the Bay Area. This is Hadassah's first project with Sharp and Fine, and she is thrilled to be joining. @smileypiley

RYAN ROULAND SMITH
Deviser + Performer

  • Ryan Rouland Smith holds a BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2014, Smith became a member of Kate Weare Company, performing in and originating roles in such works as Dark Lark, Unstruck, Marksman and Praise. In 2019 while dancing in New York, Smith had the pleasure of working with Stefanie Batten Bland, Look Who is Coming to Dinner and Nicole Vaughn Diaz, A Portrait of Them. Following the collaborative process between Kate Weare Company and ODC, Decameron/Up For Air; Smith joined ODC/Dance from 2021-2025. While there he had the pleasure of dancing and originating works by Sidra Bell, Mia J. Chong, Sonya Delwaide, Catherine Galasso, KT Nelson, Dexandro Montalvo, Kimi Okada, Amy Seiwart and Brenda Way. Currently Smith is freelancing in the Bay Area, this is his first collaboration with Sharp and Fine.

ALLEN WILLNER
Lighting Designer

  • Allen Willner is a lighting designer for theater, dance, and opera. He has lived and worked in San Francisco and New York as a Lighting Designer for 20 years. Locally, he has designed for many Bay Area dance companies including Sharp & Fine, Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project, inkBoat, Garrett Moulton Productions, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Katie Faulkner’s Little Seismic Dance Company, Kristin Damrow & Company, ABD Productions, Moving Ground, and Epifany Dance Theater. Allen has designed for regional and international theaters and has received numerous awards and nominations for his work, including the Theatre Bay Area Award, Bay Area Critics’ Circle Nomination, and the Isadora Duncan Dance Award.

PAST COLLABORATORS

PERFORMERS:

Marissa Brown, Christian Burns, Katie Cassady, Cora Cliburn, Julie Crothers, Sonja Dale, Josianne Fleming, Eric Garcia, Tristan Ching Hartmann, Katharine Hawthorne, Caitlin Hicks, Emily Jones, Rachel Laws, Shannon Leypoldt, Sarah Lyman, Moscelyne ParkeHarrison, Chelsea Reichert, Jane Selna, Carson Stein, Kelvin Vu, Sarah Woods-LaDue, Meredith Webster, Megan Wright

COMPOSERS:

Max Judelson, Erika Oba, Theo Padouvas, Aram Shelton, Cory Wright

MUSICIANS:

Steve Adams, Ben Davis, Max Judelson, Joshua Marshall, Arjun Mendiratta, Erika Oba, Theo Padouvas, Crystal Pascucci, Teddy Rankin-Parker, John Schott, Aram Shelton, Matthew Wrobel

VOCALIST:

Ina Rae Woods

LIGHTING DESIGNERS:

Stephanie Buchner, Delayne Medoff

WRITERS:

Kat Howard, Amber Hsu, Ben Loory