Company Members Biographies

	Matthew Kinney was born in Tucson, Arizona, but raised in Round Lake, Illinois. He began dancing at the College of Lake County and has participated in many of their fall and spring productions including the Prairie Spirits Dance Troupe and the Annual Fear No Art festivals. Prior to dancing he had training in gymnastics and theater. He became a VADCO company member in 2006 and has performed in many of the companies’ performances such as Between Skin, Tango for Three, and most recently in I Am Fine. Being involved in VADCO has allowed Matthew to take his background in gymnastics and acting and merge those skills into a newly found passion for dance. While Matthew loves how much physicality and strength it takes to put on a great show; it is capturing the audiences through an emotional performance that he enjoys the most.
Lamaiya Lancaster has over twenty years of experience in multiple dance disciplines.  Production highlights include "Wizard of Oz", The Terrible Tales of Ringmaster Twigg", "The Dancing Man of Echoville", "Cabaret", and the CLC Prairie Spirits Dance Troupe.  In addition to her performing experience, Lamaiya has been choreographing for over ten years.  She was the assistant choreographer for CLC’s production of "West Side Story" and is currently the dance assistant for the Prairie Spirits Dance Troupe. Her teaching credentials include Stars Program, Tiffany & Co. Studio of Dance.  Lamaiya is currently on faculty at the College of Lake County and the Dance Connection in Grayslake, Il.
	Jeannine Potter, a proud native of Dayton, Ohio, is a teacher and independent artist working in Chicago. She holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Dance Performance from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Ballet from Indiana University. Between degrees, she spent several years performing with contemporary ballet companies and teaching extensively throughout New England. For the past several years she has been working with students at the College of Lake County, Dominican University and Olive-Harvey College teaching studio courses and choreographing for campus events. Most recently, her work has been performed as part of Dance Chicago, The Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival and The World Dance Alliance—Americas conference. This summer, she appeared with visual artist Rodney Veal at the Springfield Museum of Art in Springfield, Ohio. She is thrilled to be part of the new season of VADCO/Valerie Alpert Dance Company.
André Santiago began dancing Puerto Rican folkloric dance at a young age. In addition he has learned many styles of Latin dance including Salsa, Merengue, and Samba among others. Despite his love for dance, he has never taken formal dance lessons. However, he has trained in Capoeira and was baptized into the Omulu Guanabara Group. André has performed in various shows at the College of Lake County, including the Annual Fear No Art Festivals and the Prairie Spirits Dance Troupe. In the summer of 2010 André performed the duet "The Chat" alongside Jeannine Potter at the Dance Theatre Workshop in New York City. He also recently performed the duet "I Am Fine" alongside Matthew Kinney in the annual Spring To Dance Festival in St. Louis, in May of 2011. André is looking forward to starting another busy season with VADCO.
	Tiffanie Hancock graduated from the University of Utah in May of 2010 with a BFA in Modern Dance and a Minor in Creative Writing. After graduating she spent a year in Florida dancing with the Momentum, Sojourn and Zephyr dance companies. Tiffanie also taught dance all over the Miami-Dade County area. She developed her early training in Chicago at the Ruth Page School of Dance and Dance Academy of Libertyville before heading off to the University of Utah for her degree. While out in Utah Tiffanie had the opportunity to perform “Panorama” by Martha Graham with the Martha Graham Company during their spring 2010 tour. Tiffanie has also had the pleasure of working with Tandy Beal, Alberto Del Saz and Ernesto Puljol to name a few during her time at the University. Tiffanie has enjoyed dancing and working with great choreographers and teachers during her time in Florida such as Delma Idles and Pioneer Winter. Tiffanie is glad to be back in the Chicago area teaching and dancing with VADCO.
Alana Johnson received her Associates of Art at the College of Lake County while concentrating a majority of her class work in dance studies including ballet, modern, capoiera, dance composition, and dance history. Since 2006, Alana has contributed to the winter and spring dance performances at the College of Lake County, assistant directing the winter show in 2007, as well as performed through the Chiwaukee Dance Festival, Dance Chicago, American College Dance Festival Association, and The World Dance Alliance Americas. Now working towards a Bachelor in Dance and Public Relations at Columbia College Chicago, she aims to achieve her utmost potential in as many forms of dance as possible while making a creative impact in the business world as well!
	George Busto was born in Tarlac City, Philippines but raised in San Francisco and Delano, California. In 2003, he joined Delano High School’s United Filipino Organization club where he was introduced to Filipino Cultural Dances and hip-hop. From 2005-2006, he was introduced to dance styles of ballet, lyrical, & jazz under the direction and training of Kyla Smith. He competed for his high school’s team where he placed 1^st in his country, placed 3^rd regionally, and placed 33^rd in 2006 World Championships at Dayton, Ohio in the WGI Scholastic Open Division. Additional dance experience includes United Filipino Organization’s Hip-Hop Crew, Japan’s Filipino-American Association, Impulse Dance Crew, 2010 DePaul University’s HYPE; Hip-hop for Hope Competition, College of Lake County’s Fear No Art festivals and Prairie Spirits Dance Troupe, 2011 Lake County’s Best Dance Crew, Sama Sama musical production Sarsuela ni Lola(Grandma’s musical). Currently he is the Artistic Director for hip-hop group Cryptic Movement and Co-Director for LatinoXpressions.
Sherese Mays (Resident Poet) is a 2006 CLC Graduate with an Associates Degree in English. Sherese has been published in CLC’s Prairie Voices Spring 2006 edition. She is currently attending Northeastern University, Chicago as a continuing English major and a minor in Communications. Sherese is a Customer Service Trainer and the proud mother of three children. She hopes to begin her first book within the next year	.