Alex & Victoria Arizpe
Uptown Productions

Patricia Astorga
Sabor Mexico

Robin Rettig Carlson
Dance Force Productions

Gary Connor
Wyld Styl

Kenneth Epting
Exclamation Dance Company

Harrison Guy
Urban Souls Dance Company

Monica Hand
Ocular Expressions

Reetu Jain
Samudra Fusion Dance Company

Barbara King
Barbara King’s Dance Company

Shakira Massood-Ali (Debbie Scheel)
Solange

Amber Thornton
Bay Area Ballet & Theatre

Anjaly Thakkar
Urban Indian Beat

Anjaly Thakkar started dancing 21 years ago and hasn’t stopped since. Her professional training began with the Houston Metropolitan Dance Company where she studied Jazz, Tap, Modern, and Ballet. She specialized in ballet at the Houston Ballet Academy, enhanced by modern and jazz training through the University of Houston where she received her degree in Mathematics in 2000. Whiling earning her graduation from the Anjali Center for the Performing Arts in both the Kuchipudi and Bharatnatyam disciplines, she concentrated in Kathak through summer workshops in which the Center commissioned Kathak masters from India to teach in Houston. Anjaly’s credits include works with Dance Worx (Berkeley, CA), The Houston Met, and Uptown Street Dance Company. She has also enjoyed performing Classical Indian Dance both independently and through the Anjali Center for the Performing Arts. Anjaly co-founded and became the Artistic Director of the Urban Indian Beat, Inc. (UIB), incorporated as a nonprofit in 2000. Anjaly utilizes her appreciation and thorough knowledge of both Western and Indian disciplines to fuse dance cultures in the symbiotic expressions for which UIB is known. Her 2-year respite in Ann Arbor, Michigan as an instructor at Sylvia Studio of Dance and the Fine Arts Dance Academy facilitated her development as a dancer and choreographer with outside perspectives. She was a guest faculty member of the Summer 2003 International Chechetti Conference and performed regularly with companies such as the University of Michigan faculty’s resident company Ann Arbor Dance Works. After coming home to Houston in July of 2004 and beginning her Master of Science in Mathematics at the University of Houston, Anjaly is thrilled to be back as the Artistic Director of the Urban Indian Beat!

Amber Thornton
Bay Area Ballet & Theatre

Tesia Truitt
Planet Funk

Sophia Torres
Psophonia Dance Company

Adrian Walter
Tartanic

Shawn Welling
Planet Funk

Janie Yao
Dance of Asian America