Ms. Laura
Artistic Director/ Instructor
Laura P Wexler has been teaching Ballet, Jazz, Modern and Contemporary dance for over 25 years. In 2006, Ms. Wexler opened Noe Valley Dance Space and in 2016 moved the growing program to its current location where it was reborn as San Francisco Dance Space. Her passion for dance started in Miami, FL at Maria Verdeja School of the Arts. Her training includes: The American Dance Festival, Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and New World School of the Arts. In 2001, she graduated with honors from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance performance. She has had the opportunity to study, and perform with ODC/San Francisco, Les Ballet Africains, Dance Brazil, Dance Alive!, and Garth Fagan Dance. In 2005 she was a featured dancer in the movie Rent, directed by Christopher Columbus. Her choreography has been showcased throughout Florida and the bay area. In 2001 her piece Something for Everybody was selected for presentation at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Beyond the dance studio, she has her certification in Dance Healing from Shands Hospital in Gainesville, FL where she worked as an artist in residence. Since 2008, Ms. Laura has also served as the Director of Dance at Sacred Heart Cathedral High School in San Francisco.
Ms. Cookie
Cookie Harrist (she/they) is a dancer based in Berkeley. She recently premiered her first ever evening length work ANTIDOTE featuring all original music at Omni Commons in Oakland. She has performed in works by Joe Goode Performance Group, LEVY Dance, Sara Shelton Mann and many more. She is currently on faculty at Shawl Anderson Dance Center, Piedmont Ballet Academy, ASI Dance Elite and Motion Pacific and is thrilled to join the SF Dance Space team as well!
Ms. Brielle
Ms. Brielle began her training with the Joffrey Ballet and continued her pre-professional training with A&A Ballet in Chicago, IL. She is currently a Trainee with Alonzo King Lines Contemporary Ballet in San Francisco. Shehopes to pursue a career as a contemporary ballet dancer and choreographer. Prior to joining SFDS, Ms. Brielle ran the children’s division of A&A Ballet in Chicago. She has choreographed pieces in ballet and contemporary for dance studios, competitions and dancewear fashion shows.
Ms. Whitney
Whitney Ross is a professional San Francisco-based dancer and choreographer. Most recently, Whitney joined Robert Moses’ Kin for their 2023 Presidio Home Season. She graduated from UCSB with a B.F.A. in Dance alongside a B.S. in Ecology and Evolution. Whitney began her training as a member of the pre-collegiate program DACPAC, where she trained and competed in a multitude of styles with renowned choreographers such as Sidra Bell, Jonathan Campbell, Cindy Salgado, and Mike Esperanza. Throughout college she performed in many student works, as well as a solo work by Valerie Huston, a staging of Jose Limon’s Missa Brevis, an original work by house choreographer Ephrat Asherie, and a reconstruction of Re: III by Shen Wei. Whitney has presented her work as part of several dance festivals across California, including the Re:Emerge festival (2021) in Santa Barbara and Emergence Dance Festival (2022) in San Francisco
Mr. Caleb
Caleb Keime began dancing at the age of nine where he trained in Ballet at Miami City Ballet School. His training continued at the School of American Ballet in NYC where he attended their summer intensives on full merit scholarship. Post high school, Caleb worked locally in Miami on movies and small productions as a freelance choreographer and dancer while also on staff as an instructor and choreographer for Universal Dance Association. He received his B.A. from Florida State University where he was Captain and choreographer of several top routines which placed consistently in the top 10 at UDA college Nationals and include top 5 finishes in 2012 and 2013, and 3rd place rankings in 2011 and 2018. He also choreographed for the Miami Heat and Miami Marlins dancers, as well as the University of Miami dance team. This is his second year with SF Dance Space.
Ms. Allie
Miss Allie began dancing with San Francisco Dance Space at the age of three and continues to train in ballet, pointe, and contemporary. She has performed the roles of Coppelia (Coppelia), the Spring Fairy (Cinderella), and The Girl (Le Spectre de la Rose). In 2016, she was accepted to the Joffrey SF Summer Intensive Program where she trained with Artistic Director Josie Walsh, Andrew Brader, and Alison DeBona. From 2017-2021, she supplemented her training with ODC Teen Lab, working with Chris Lam, Kristin Damrow and Augusta Moore. In 2021, Ms. Allie joined the SF Dance Space staff as an assistant teacher working with our younger level students and taught ballet and jazz classes at our summer dance camp. Ms. Allie is excited to teach more students of all levels in the coming year.
Ms. Delila
Delila Bertelsen began her dance training when she was five at San Francisco Dance Space. She performs annually with San Francisco Dance Space, her most notable roles having been Sylvia in Sylvia and Ursula the Sea Witch in The Little Mermaid. During the summer of 2019, Delila attended the Joffrey San Francisco summer intensive on Scholarship, after which she was invited to join the pre-professional Joffrey Trainee program in New York City. In 2020 and 2021 she attended the Ballet West summer intensive, training under a myriad of wonderful instructors including Christopher Sellars, Calvin Kitten, and Kathryn Morgan. Ms. Delila is pursuing dance at UC Santa Barbara and continues to help us out at SFDS when in the Bay Area.
Ms. Cosette
Cosette Gagnon began her training at City Ballet School and the San Francisco Ballet School where she studied with Tina Leblanc and Anita Paciotti. While a student at SFB, she was selected to perform in their annual Nutcracker performing the roles of party girl, ladybug and soldier. In 2017, Cosette began training at SF Dance Space where she continues to train in Ballet, pointe and Contemporary and has performed the roles of Cinderella in Cinderella, and most recently Bert in Poppins the Ballet. In 2017, she was accepted into ODC/San Francisco's summer intensive program and worked with Christine Cali. She is currently a student at Sacred Heart Cathedral where she is a member of their student Ballet and Hip Hop Dance companies. Ms. Cosette was invited to join the staff in 2017 and now serves as our Summer Camp Director. She is currently pursuing her degree at UC San Diego.
Ms. Allegra
Allegra Bautista graduated from Saint Mary's College of California with a double major in Dance and Liberal & Civic Studies. A San Francisco native, she trained in classical ballet at San Francisco Ballet and City Ballet School. She has performed with Garrett + Moulton Productions, Davalos Dance Company and Emote Dance Theater and continues to perform professionally throughout the Bay Area. Most recently, she studied with Sidra Bell in New York. In addition to dance, Ms. Allegra also shares a love for yoga and music. She graduated from the S.F. Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division where she trained in classical guitar and is a certified yoga instructor. Ms. Allegra joined the faculty of SF Dance Space in 2015 and be seen on stage throughout the Bay Area and Europe when not substituting dance classes at SFDS.
