Who We Are

John-Mario Sevilla directed performance and professional development at the historic 92Y Harkness Dance Center, a home of American Modern Dance. He directed the School of Dance, which teaches movement to all ages and levels; produced several dance concert series (Harkness Dance Festival and Dig Dance); and administered professional learning/development programs (Dance Education Laboratory, Dance Therapy Program and Harkness artists residencies). As the director of 92Y Dance Education Laboratory, he conducted research in formative assessment (“Arts Achieve” funded by the US Department of Education Investment in Innovation “i3” grant); initiated Universal Pre-K early childhood arts curricula (“Pre-K for All – Create”) with the New York City Department of Education; and sustained viable partnerships with State University of New York Empire State College and City University of New York Hunter College to offer alternative dance education licensure and continuing education credits. He collaborated with 92Y’s Tisch Center for the Arts for its production of “The Art of the Fugue” with the Brentano String Quartet and Gabriel Calatrava; Gilda and Henry Block School of the Arts activations with Shantell Martin and Natsuko Hattori; and Education and Outreach elementary arts curricula. Before 92Y, he was New York City Ballet’s Director of Education and Manager of School Programs, responsible for residencies in more than 300 public schools and dozens of public programs, including several collaborations with educators from other cultural arts organizations, such as Lincoln Center Institute, The Metropolitan Museum and The Museum of Modern Art. He has been a panelist for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts – Dance review committees. He was a 2014 Martha Hill Mid-Career Award recipient and the 2021-22 Visiting Scholar at the Asia | Pacific | American Institute at NYU. His choreography has appeared at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, LaMaMa, NYU Steinhardt, Movement Research at Judson Church, 92Y Harkness Dance Center, Dance Theatre Workshop, Columbia University, ABC No Rio, Lower East Side Tenement Museum, The Asia Society and Bronx Academy of Art and Dance. He has danced in the companies of Pilobolus, Alison Chase, Murray Louis and Alwin Nikolais, Anna Sokolow, Rebecca Stenn, Lisa Giobbi, Janis Brenner, Erin Dudley, Bill Cratty, Pamana, among others, as well as with juggler Michael Moschen, drag artist Sherry Vine, poet John Unterecker and Navajo sand painter/healer Walking Thunder. He studied Philippine folk dance with Agrifina Cabebe, H. Wayne Mendoza and Hana Gomez Trinidad. From Maui, he is a hula student of Kumu Hula Hōkūlani Holt (Pāʻū O Hiʻiaka) and Kumu Hula June Ka‘ililani Tanoue (Hālau I Ka Pono).

Kimiko Guthrie grew up in Berkeley, CA, where she was blessed to attend the project-based Green Door School, founded by Joyce Walton, which sparked her love of creativity and experiential, exploratory learning. Kimiko pursued these loves through dance and writing, studying both subjects at UC Santa Cruz, where she received a BA in Creative Writing. After graduating, she and choreographer/arts activist Eric Kupers co-founded Dandelion Dancetheater, an arts organization committed to investigating the intersections of dance, theater, writing, music, community-building, and healing. With Dandelion, her choreography has been presented nationally and internationally. Kimiko was also a resident choreographer for Asian American Dance Performances, and has worked with numerous SF Bay Area-based dance companies, including Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. She has received grants from the Serpent Source Foundation for Women Artists, the Zellerbach Family Fund, Theater Bay Area, The East Bay Community Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Gerbode Foundation, The Japan Foundation, and residencies with the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and Shawl Anderson Dance Center. Kimiko has been teaching dance to children and adults since 1993, and has been actively exploring and teaching dance pedagogical theory and practice since 2000. She holds an MFA in Choreography from Mills College and is a lecturer in the Departments of Theatre and Dance and Teacher Education at Cal State East Bay. Her debut novel, Block Seventeen, about a woman haunted by ghosts from her mother’s childhood experience in a Japanese American incarceration camp, was published by Blackstone Publishing in 2020. She is thrilled to join Luna Dance & Creativity as the Professional Learning Manager.

Sally OuYang (she/her) has been dancing since she was a little girl in kindergarten. Growing up in Taiwan, dancing has always been a true joy and passion for her through various forms, including ballet, traditional Chinese folk dance, modern dance, jazz and hip-hop. Sally joined the modern dance club at National Taiwan University while majoring in Foreign Language and Literature and minoring in Economics. She performed and assisted in choreography in the school’s annual Flower Dance Festival for two consecutive years. Sally continued to study towards her Master’s degree at National Cheng Kung University, completing her MBA in 2007. Upon graduation, Sally received a scholarship for the exchange student program at San Diego State University, where she met her future husband and decided to move to the States. Living in the New York Metropolitan area, Sally worked as a marketing professional in consumer insight, marketing research, data reporting and analytics. Sally moved to the Bay Area with her family in 2018 and discovered Luna Dance through the Creative Dance Improvisation program for her child. During her free time, Sally likes dance, music, food, fashion, and moving to any rhythm she enjoys with her 2 sons. 

Moriah Costa is a dancer, performer, and teaching artist from the Bay Area whose passion for movement inspired her to share her love with others. Moriah began moving and grooving at an early age, and began her formal dance training at the age of three in a studio environment. Moriah went on to study dance at Mills College, and eventually received a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Sonoma State University. Moriah has danced and taught in a variety of environments: studios, private schools, public schools, competitive, creative. Moriah has performed for companies such as Robert Moses’ Kin, specifically in their Bootstraps program as she places a high value on highlighting art in local communities. Her teaching career began at a new local studio that became a pillar of her community and where she had the privilege of working with children of all ages. Moriah’s choreographic pursuits often focus on themes of identity and belonging as these are also core to her teaching philosophies. Her passion for teaching stems from ideas of discovery and research as she believes there is always something new to uncover when it comes to the way we move and interact with the world around us.