Dance Teachers

Maria Rendina Frantz, artistic director is  dancer, teacher, artist, choreographer and actor has worked in various mediums: performance art theatre, video, film and television for the past thirty years.  Ms. Frantz studied extensively with the companies of Erick Hawkins, Martha Graham, Judith Leifer, June Lewis and Twyla Tharp and studied choreography with Leonide Massine, Bessie Schonberg, June Lewis and Pearl Lang.  Ms. Frantz danced with Dance June Lewis & Company and with choreographer Dan Wagoner, Tome Cousins and Ryan Gober and many others, before founding her first company in 1983, which premiered her first original dance/ play at the Merce Cunningham Studio Theater. Ms. Frantz earned a M.A. in Dance and Dance Education from Columbia University and a B.A. in Dance from Point Park University.  Maria Rendina / Motion Theatre co -produced with the Pennsylvania Dance Theatre and since presented her original works in N.Y.C., Washington, D.C., Maine, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California and in Avignon, France.   In 1995 she founded the Movement Arts Studio in Santa Fe, NM before moving to Santa Barbara in 1997. Most recently Maria co-taught with Katherine Duke, Artistic Director the Erick Hawkins Dance Company the Hawkins Winter Dance Intensive in January 2009. She is a member of National Dance Association, Congress Of Research in Dance, Congress of International Dance, Screen Actors Guild, and the SB Dance Alliance.

Thea Vandervoort, assistant director, is a native Santa Barbaran and trained locally and nationally in ballet, modern, flamenco, and Spanish classical dance. Thea holds a BFA in Dance from UC Irvine, and an MS in Arts Administration & Nonprofit Management from the University of Oregon. Ms. Vandervoort has performed locally, regionally and throughout the Midwest. She has taught in professional academies in Santa Barbara, Iowa, Oregon, and Southern California. Thea most recently served as Director of the Mêlée Dance Ensemble at Lawrence University in Wisconsin and rehearsal assistant for Santa Barbara Festival Ballet. Ms. Vandervoort also holds a passion for choreography and K-12 arts education. Thea joined the Motion Theatre Dance Company in 2003.