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    LACDC | Kate Hutter

    Kate Hutter

    Artistic Director

    Kate Hutter is co-founder and Artistic Director of the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company. Kate is an alumnus of the Walnut Hill School and a graduate of the University of Southern California with a BFA in Theatrical Design. Kate also holds a MFA in Dance / Choreography from Purchase College, SUNY. Kate has won awards from the USC School of Theatre for Outstanding Choreography 2001-2004 as well as the Stanley Musgrove Award and the James and Nony Doolittle Award for her unique contributions in the theatre, and received the MFA award for excellence in her program at SUNY. Kate's work has also been nominated for two Lester Horton Awards for "Best Small Ensemble." Kate continues to create new works for the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company, choreograph for theater productions, commercials and school concerts, and teach at the Brockus Project Space in downtown L.A. while developing new ways of bringing dance to the public and educating students through LACDC's outreach programming and performances.

    LACDC | Michelle M. Mierz

    Michelle M. Mierz

    Co-Founder, Board Member

    Michelle Michelle Mierz is co-founder and previous Executive Director of the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company. She trained as a dancer herself since the age of four through college. Michelle combined her passion for dance and her business background to create LACDC. Michelle graduated magna cum laude from the USC Marshall School of Business Honors Program/ Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies with a BS. Her professional credits outside of LACDC include work with the consulting firm, CounterIntuity, as a Project Manager, interim operations manager for the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood, Associate Producer with LA Stage Alliance for the 2004 Ovation Awards, and Associate Producer for the Choreography Media Honors 2008-2009. In 2011, Michelle graduated from Yale University's School of Management with her MBA. She now resides in her hometown of West Seattle, WA and is a Senior Product Manager at Amazon.com.

    Jennifer Aleman Hutter

    Board Member

    Jen joined the board of the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company in 2009. She is one of LACDC's biggest fans, and has yet to leave a performance without feeling inspired by the energy and passion that the artists bring to LACDC. She graduated magna cum laude from Southern Methodist University with a BBA, where she also spent a semester at the Universidad Jose Ortega y Gassett in Madrid, Spain, studying Spanish language, history and art. She began her career at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette ("DLJ") in New York in the real estate finance division, and later became a founding member of DLJ Strategic Partners, L.P., a private equity fund created to purchase interests in leveraged buyout, mezzanine, venture capital and real estate funds in the secondary market. After three years at DLJ, Jen earned her MBA from the Harvard Business School, where she continues to be involved in alumni fundraising initiatives. In 2004, she joined General Electric for a year long stint in a sales and marketing leadership program where she was instrumental in strategizing on new business opportunities to achieve revenue growth for two business units. In 2005, Jen joined Credit Suisse where she was most recently a Vice President in the Alternative Investments division, responsible for raising capital from endowments, foundations and pension plans for private real estate managers globally. In 2009, Jen co-founded the KAP Group, a strategic marketing firm that advises real estate private equity managers seeking institutional capital. She enjoys travel, yoga, adventure, and flying, and is an active member of the Bay Cities 99s and Women in Aviation International. Jen hopes to bring her fundraising experience and business acumen to LACDC as the company continues to flourish.

    Casey Cowan Gale

    Production Manager / Board Member

    Casey Cowan Gale's extensive experience ranges from co-designing the lighting for the world premiere of Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches to designing the architectural lighting for ABC's Nightline offices in Washington D.C. Her most recent work includes the lighting designs for The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Mame, Camelot and The Sound of Music at the Hollywood Bowl with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, all directed by Gordon Hunt. For her work she has received a Dramalogue Award, the L.A. Weekly Award, and awards from the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. She served for 6 years as a lighting designer for Walt Disney Imagineering, where she designed the lighting for various attractions at Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disneyland, and Walt Disney World. She spent an additional 5 years at Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development researching and evaluating lighting technology for any and all branches of the Walt Disney Company. Casey was the Director of Lighting Design for the University of Southern California School of Theatre for 8 years, and is currently a free lance Lighting Designer.

    Marlo Baird

    Board Member

    Upon graduation from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre and a Critical Studies of Film minor, Marlo Baird began her career in post production working as a producer for a boutique editorial company, Spot Welders, in Venice Beach. Since, she has collaborated with award winning directors, including Mike Mills and Craig Gillespie, on national campaigns such as VW, Nike and Milk. She continues to produce commercials, music videos and documentaries, one of which premiered at South By Southwest. Marlo also works periodically as voice over talent, most notably as the voice for AT&T during the 2008 Summer Olympics. Most recently, she spent the fall of 2008 working full time as a community organizer for the Barack Obama Campaign For Change in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is an avid supporter of the arts in Los Angeles and is excited to bring the momentum of the grassroots movement to LACDC.

Staff

    Lauren Dragicevich

    Operations Coordinator

    Lauren Dragicevich arrived in California in 2002 already an experienced dancer. While receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting at the University of Southern California she also participated in the USC Repertory Dance Company and the USC Dance Force. Lauren joined LACDC in 2005 as a dancer in the Reveal and has been a supporter ever since! More recently, Lauren has turned her talents towards the administrative side of the Arts. Understanding the power of Marketing - Lauren was employed for several years at a post-production trailer house learning the trade of effective marketing. Now being driven by a unique opportunity to work for LACDC, Lauren will continue to hone her marketing abilities for an incredible organization that inspires creativity and encourages positive artistic developments in the Los Angeles community.

    Jamila Glass

    Social Media Coordinator

    Jamila Glass is a founding company member of LACDC and a graduate from the University of Southern California's prestigious film school with a minor in Advertising. She is the owner of The Cutting Room which provides a fresh look to web design, internet marketing, and video editing in the realm of film, video, radio, advertising, and social media. Her freelance work spans over ten years with clients worldwide, including the Fashion Institute of Technology, Chicken Soup for the Soul, a British Vogue Stylist and Grammy-nominated Tamar Davis. She attributes her keen eye, creative streak, and rhythmic sensibilities to her immersion in the performing and visual arts from a very young age and her secondary career as a professional dancer. As Social Media Coordinator for the LA Contemporary Dance Company, Jamila created a successful Facebook campaign that resulted in a fan increase of over 150%, produced a series of behind-the-scenes videos that received thousands of views and several YouTube honors, and currently generates daily content that keeps their supporters excited, informed, and actively involved in the community. Additionally, her work with LACDC garnered a request to lead multiple Social Media Panels for the LA County Arts Commission. Jamila recently completed web design for Alexie Agdeppa from FOX's So You Think You Can Dance, Season 7 and internet marketing for Lee Thompson Young, regular cast member on TNT's Rizzoli & Isles. Committed to always giving her clients more than they envisioned, she is intent on discovering new ways to innovatively engage the LACDC audience and to expand their reach around the world. (www.thecuttingroompost.com).

Collaborators

    LACDC | Filip Zachary

    Filip Zachary

    Composer and Guest Artist

    Filip Zachary's background ranges from piano and guitar since age 12 to Ableton and Reson by age 17. With deep influences in industrial music, drum and bass, breakbeat, trance, house, idm, and others, he keeps true to the fact that no genre should be specific. His music keeps everybody on their toes, and their ears being drained by the speaker monitors, that will certainly be blasting at all times to get the proper affect. Learn more about his music at www.FilipZachary.com