punkkiCo

Photo by Rob Kunkle

Raisa

Punkki

Founder, Choreographer, Dancer

Raisa Punkki graduated with a MfA at the Department of Dance, Theatre Academy in Helsinki, Finland, in 1992. After several years as a freelancer she signed up with the Helsinki City Theatre Dance Company (96-98), where she danced in choreographies e.g. by Kenneth Kvarnström, Anzu Furukawa and Tero Saarinen. The following four years toured intensively with Kenneth Kvarnström & Co, in and outside Europe.

Raisa has taught contemporary dance at the dance departments of various Finnish art schools and at Skolen of Moderne Dance in Copenhagen. Raisa Punkki has made choreographies to both theater and dance companies. Her choreographies include "STUMP" (1999), "(CLINCH)" (2000), "XO"(2001).

In 1996 TANSSI magazine asked the leading dance critics to nominate "the best in dance". Raisa Punkki was nominated as the best dancer of the year. She received the state (Finland) grant for artists for a period of six months in 2001, and for a period of three years in 2003. 

Raisa Punkki’s choreographies has been presented at the Bay Area in e.g. Collaboration! 2005, 2006, 2008 and at the Women on the Way –festival. In 2006 she was commissioned to make a piece “all blue” for the Dance Theater Company Mecanique.

Raisa also teaches Pilates at the Peak Performance Pilates and the Pilates Collective.

She is a proud mother of two.

Photo by Rob Kunkle

Dancer, Choreographer

Kakuti Davis Lin began her professional performing career in Hawaii, dancing with Honolulu Dance Theatre and Diamond Head Theater.  She has a BA in Dance from Barnard College, Columbia University, where she worked with Wally Cardona, Nia Love, Kraig Patterson and Donlin Foreman, among others.  After graduating, she moved to Germany, where she danced and choreographed with Palindrome Inter-Media Performance Group.  In 2000 she relocated to California and has since danced with Erica Essner Performance Co-op, Nguyen Dance Company, Leyya Tawil's Dance Elixir, and California Contemporary Dancers, for which she also choreographed. She also teaches Ballroom and Latin dance and just graduated from U.C. Hastings College of the Law. 

Kakuti has been dancing with Raisa since 2005.

Photo by Rob Kunkle

  Julie

Sheetz 

Dancer

Julie Sheetz (Dancer) fled nevada for San Francisco in 2000 with a MS in Geography and extra credits from stage and independent film productions. Lacking serious dance training but not luck, she has been honored to work with EmSpace Dance, Huckaby McAllister ance, Fellow Travelers Performance Group, Company Mecanique, Lisa Townsend, Hilary Bryan, Leyya Tawil, Hope Mohr, L.Martina Young, Diane Rugg, rubber chickens, ceramic ducks, remote controlled bunny rabbits, chalk, shopping carts, outlawed plastic bags and leafy green vegetables on both coasts.

She worked first time with Raisa Punkki in Company Mecanique's "all blue" in 2006.

Photo by Rob Kunkle

  Jessica

Stephenson

Dancer

Jessica Stephenson began her dance training in Austin, Texas where she was a member of the Texas Youth Ballet and an apprentice with the Austin Contemporary Ballet from 1993-1996. After relocation to Maine, she participated on full scholarship in CORPS (Collaboration Outreach Recognition Performance Scholars) and joined the Portland Ballet Company, performing as soloist and member of the corps in “The Nutcracker,” “Carmina Burana,” “Bolero,” and others.

In 1999 Jessica was invited to perform with the Ram Island Dance Company and later that year moved to New York to study professionally at the Joffrey Ballet/ New School University’s BFA Program. There she studied with Rachel Berman, Eleanor D’Antuano, David Howard and Katharine Posin, Trinette Singleton, among others. In 2002 she moved to Maryland to pursue her BA Degree in Psychology and was an active member of Goucher College’s Dance Department, working with notable artists such as Christopher D’Amboise, Stephen Mills, Robert Moses, and Paul Vasterling. After graduating from Goucher College in 2004, Jessica moved back to New York to become certified under master Pilates instructors, Romana Kryzanowska and Sari Mejia-Santo.

Jessica has performed professionally with New York Dance Theater, VanDance Inc., ClancyWorks Dance Company, The Art of the Solo, and as free-lance artist on numerous projects. Jessica enjoys laughter, the ocean, and is delighted to be working with the lovely and diverse people of San Francisco.

Photo by Rob Kunkle

 Julia 

Hollas

Dancer

Julia Hollas has been dancing with the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance under the mentorship of Summer Lee Rhatigan and Alex Ketley since 2006, and is also an administrator with the Conservatory and Dandelion Dancetheater. While at the University of Utah, she performed in and photographed many departmental shows and organized the first Ballet Student Concert.

Photo by Rob Kunkle

  Patric

Cashman

Patric Cashman began his formal dance training by completing a two year diploma in dance (at the institute for dance & choreography) in his native Cork, Ireland. He continued his studies as a dance artist at The Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, England, where he graduated in 2001 with a B.A. in performing Arts. Since he moved to the United States, Patric has danced with Shift >>>physical Dance Theater, Element Dance Theater, Martt Lawrence, Company Mecanique and Lisa Townsend.

Photo by Rob Kunkle

  Phil

Halbert

 
Dancer
Phil Halbert is a multidisciplinary performing artist who jumped into modern dance at UC Berkeley,
where he also studied mechanical engineering. Phil has appeared e.g. with Huckabay McAllister Dance, Capasitor
the Joe Goode Performance Group, Lisa Townsend Company and Company Mecanique Dance Theater.
He worked first time with Raisa Punkki in Company Mecanique's "all blue" in 2006.
 

Picture by Claire Pasquier

 Claire  Pasquier

Costume Designer

Claire Pasquier is a French artist married to an American artist; she lives and works in San Francisco. Painting was such a revelation for her that it led her to study the history of art at the Sorbonne and afterwards to enter a school of decorative arts (Ensad) in Paris where she learned set and stage design in addition to costume design. After her degree Claire did several productions in theatre, children’s Opera, cinema (short films) and events. After an exhibition of painted portraits - which she still continues to produce - the firm Hermes engaged her to work as a decorative painter for the built-in village at the prestigious Hermes Diane Prize in Chantilly . Later the magazine Marie Claire illustrated an article about "the painter and his model" with her work in her workshop. In theater, she did her first stage creation from an original text, "Like brothers", by a young graduate of the National Conservatory of Acting in Paris. She also works closely with the author, David Leon. A definite highlight was the time she spent on David Mamet's piece "Sexual Perversity in Chicago ", with the acting school at the Chaillot Theater. Claire approaches creation as a self-renaissance: to find our freedom and to shape it until passes into others.

Having just arrived in California, Claire met Raisa Punkki and took part in a piece "all blue". The costumes were made with the same fabric in keeping with the “all” uniformity of the title. Their tops were basic shapes cut in a triangular rhythm to reveal or hide the body, emphasizing the movements and the continual meetings between the dancers.

Photo by Liz Payne

Lighting Designer 

Christian Mejia is a lighting and scenic designer working in the San Francisco Bay Area.  In 2004, he graduated with a B.F.A in Production Design from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.  After spending two years trying to juggle work in the downtown theatre circuit with a job in 3D animation, he decided to return to the Bay Area to pursue the performing arts full time.  Christian now works as the technical director and production manager of the Village Theatre in Danville, CA.  He also designs lighting and scenery for dance and theatrical productions across the Bay Area.