ADVISORY BOARD AND TEAM
Thank you to the generous individuals of the Advisory Board who have offered their support and guidance to SFDanceworks:
Joanna Berman
Davidson Bidwell & Edwin Waite
Sally Glaser & David Bower
James Sofranko & Cynthia Sheppard Sofranko
Timothy Streb & Myra Gamble
BRETT CONWAY
GENEVIEVE WEEKS
TEAM
LAUREN STRONGIN
Marketing
Lauren Strongin (she/her) was born in Los Gatos, California, and grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona. At 11, she was offered a full scholarship to attend The Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC. In 1999, she was awarded a full scholarship to the John Cranko-Schule in Stuttgart, Germany. She was a finalist at the Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition in Switzerland and IBC at Jackson, Mississippi.
Lauren joined Sarasota Ballet and quickly was promoted to Principal dancer. She then danced for Houston Ballet and finally, as a soloist for San Francisco Ballet. Her classical repertoire includes principal roles in Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Les Sylphides, Paquita, Giselle, Balanchine’s Coppélia, The Nutcracker, Le Corsair, and Cranko’s Onegin among others. She danced principal roles by Ashton, MacMillan, Balanchine, Robbins, Van Manen, Bourne, Tudor, Cranko, Kylián, Morris, Tharp, Possokhov, Wheeldon, Tomasson, Ratmansky, and Forsythe. She created roles in ballets by Scarlett, Morris, Elo, Barton, Peck, and others.
Lauren retired from a professional ballet career in 2019. She is a certified instructor for the Dance for Parkinson’s program, has interned with the SF Ballet in their wellness department, focusing on mental healthcare accessibility for dancers, and has designed costumes for SFDanceworks and other companies. Lauren has managed social media and marketing for several small companies. Currently, she is a stager and trustee for the Liam Scarlett Trust and is completing her degree in American Studies at Stanford University.
She is most proud to be mother to her daughter Cy with her husband Joseph Walsh. They live in San Francisco.
Photo credit: Ryan Strongin
ANDREA (ANDI) YANNONE
Operations and Administration
Andrea (Andi) Yannone has spent 30+ years in the arts and cultural arts sector, as an executive leader, designer of arts and education programs, collaborator, arts-partner, and musician. Andi worked at San Francisco Ballet from 1995-2001 and from 2011-2021 and was promoted to the position of Director of Education & Training at SF Ballet in 2015, establishing the new department and all functions, including oversight of SF Ballet School administration, its student residences, and all education, community, and engagement programs for youth, families, adults, and school children, as well as strategic planning and board relations as a member of the senior executive management team. She was instrumental in establishing diversity, equity, and inclusion planning both within her department and organization-wide, raising DEI to a strategic priority. From 2001-2011, she held three positions at the San Francisco Symphony in the Education and Electronic Media departments, culminating with designing and launching the acclaimed Community of Music Makers program. Her career in arts administration in San Francisco began in 1994 when she was the program director for The Hills Project, an afterschool arts program for underserved youth in the SF Western Addition neighborhood, which was one of the first public-private collaborations in San Francisco, involving the SF Unified School District, the SF Department of Children, Youth and Families, and the SF Ballet, SF Symphony, SF Opera, and SF Museums of Fine Arts. She currently resides in Albuquerque, NM, and works as an arts management consultant focusing on administrative infrastructure, strategic planning, and program design/development. (Arts Allied Consulting, LLC) linkedin.com/in/andrea-yannone-87555613
Photo credit: Murray Bognovitz