One of Dance Magazine’s 2019 “25 to Watch,” Artistic Director Tanya Chianese was also named by San Francisco Magazine as "100 Artists Putting the East Bay on the Map" alongside such individuals as Daveed Diggs from Broadway's Hamilton and Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther. For extensive choreographic credits as the Founder and Artistic Director of ka·nei·see | collective please see above, including endorsements by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Elizabeth Warren surrounding her dance and social justice work. She was the 2017 guest choreographer at San Francisco State University, and honored to be the Guest Speaker at their School of Theatre & Dance's 2017 Graduation Ceremony. Tanya is the Summer Dance Lab Manager at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, and in the Bay Area she teaches dance at primarily Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, ODC Dance, LINES Ballet, Roco Dance, Berkeley Ballet Theater, and Ace Dance Academy, Dance Mission Theater, City College of San Francisco, and San Francisco State University. An advocator for dance outreach, Tanya traveled to Guatemala as guest choreographer with JUNTOS Collective in 2018 to perform and teach daily workshops across the country; she taught ballet to visually impaired adults and children in Oklahoma City, OK through a grant funded by Devon Energy in 2010; she directed the Kids on Track outreach program of the San Francisco Trolley Dances in 2012; and she co-taught free dance classes in at-risk, low-income after school programs in Los Angeles, CA in 2006. Most recently Tanya has performed with Rogelio Lopez & Dancers, Garrett + Moulton Productions, Paufve | Dance, and Kristin Damrow & Company. She has worked as an administrator for Oklahoma City Ballet, Epiphany Productions and dance anywhere®. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, she holds a B.F.A. in Modern Dance and B.A. in Art History from the University of Oklahoma. She is presently coming out of a five year semi-hiatus where she focused on birthing and raising her two wonderful children. Most recently Tanya completed a commissioned residency with the Community College of Baltimore County’s accredited dance program.