Introducing our 2022/23 Dancer Roster:
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Danielle Archuleta
Company Member ​

Danielle Archuleta is originally from Littleton, Colorado. She received her early training at Belliston Academy of Ballet and went on to attend summer intensive programs at Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and Miami City Ballet, where she continued her training in their pre-professional program under the direction of Lordes Lopez and Arantxa Ochoa. In Miami, she had the opportunity to perform Balanchine's Western Symphony and Valse Fantaisie and a principal role in Ballabile (from Napoli). Upon graduating from Miami City Ballet, she joined City Ballet of San Diego, as a company dancer, where she performed in Balanchine's The Four Temperaments, Serenade, and danced the role of Clara in Elizabeth Wistrich's The Nutcracker. In 2019, Danielle accepted a position with Ballet Austin II where she performed in several productions, including Stephen Mills' The Nutcracker and Joshua Manculich's Menagerie. This will be Danielle’s fourth season dancing with Zikr Dance Ensemble.





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Zac Bigbee
Company Member 

Zac Bigbee was born in Taos, New Mexico where he exhibited oil paintings at several galleries and openings, studied Wing Chung style Kung Fu, and competed slam poetry. He began training in classical ballet with Amber Vasques of New York City Ballet and Megan Yackovich of Colorado Ballet at the end of his senior year. He went on to study mathematics and Russian language and culture at the University of Arizona. During this time he continued his training in dance as a scholarship student at LINES Ballet, San Francisco Conservatory, and Netherlands Dance Theater. He has also attended the Royal Danish Ballet’s Summer Course, and spent several months in Israel researching Gaga at the Suzanne Dallal Center.  Beyond dance, he is also a self-taught Cyr wheel practitioner and has trained in aerial acrobatics in Russia under Viktoriya Zhukotzova of the Moscow State Circus. He has danced for cocodāco in Chicago and Zikr Dance Ensemble in Denver and serves as guest teaching faculty at Tarab Retreat International and Ballet Taos. He has performed as a guest artist with Canyon Concert Ballet, Colorado Ballet and Convergence Ballet in Phoenix. Under seasonal contracts with the Russian American Foundation, he provides oral and textual translation services for the Bolshoi Ballet Academy's summer schools and teacher certification program. As co-producer on the Inertia and Mechanical Nature: Movement VII projects with Ballet Taos he set original choreography, contributed to styling, marketing and visual effects while also performing. He also served as technical and film director for project 20/20 - a series of benefit concerts for local arts. 

Sam Crouch
Company Member

Sam Crouch is a Michigan Native residing in Chicago, Illinois. In 2016, he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance from Western Michigan University. Through WMU he had the opportunity to perform Ohad Naharin’s Excerpts from Minus 16, Gerald Arpino’s Viva Vivaldi, Antony Tudor’s Continuo,and Lew Christensen’s Con Amore. In Chicago, Sam was privileged to work with The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dance In the Parks, Aerial Dance Chicago, Hot Crowd and Grit Dance. He has also travelled to work with, The Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Quixotic Fusion, and Wellspring Cori Terry and Dancers. He is very excited to be returning for his fifth season with the Zikr Dance Ensemble. 

Kindly sponsored for the 2023 Spring Season
​by Benjamin Benedict 
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Marian Faustino 
​​Company Member

Marian Faustino received her formal dance training in the Philippines with the country’s two premier dance companies: Ballet Manila and Ballet Philippines. She toured extensively with both companies across the Philippines, Southeast Asia, Russia, and the United States. In 2012, Marian joined Ballet Nouveau Colorado, and shortly after became a pioneering member of Denver based contemporary ballet company, Wonderbound (2012-2016). Throughout her career, Marian has had the honor of dancing works by Rena Butler, Caili Quan, Penny Saunders, Danielle Rowe, Sidra Bell, Alvin Ailey, Ma Cong, Alan Hineline, Kevin Jenkins, Jayne Persch, Maurya Kerr, Tony Fabella, & Agnes Locsin. As a freelance artist, she has performed with The Lyric Opera of Chicago (2017), Malashock Dance San Diego (2018), The Lyric Opera of Kansas City (2019), Owen Cox Dance Group (2019-2022). Most recently she performed with Dance Aspen at the Vail International Dance Festival (2022) and as a featured solo dancer in San Francisco Opera’s world premier of Orfeo ed Eurydice (2022). This is her 5th year working with David Taylor’s Zikr Dance Ensemble. An experienced and dedicated dance educator, Marian graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines (2008) with a Bachelor of Science in Family Life & Child Development, holds certification in Progressing Ballet Technique (2019), and Discover Dance Education for Preschool Age Children (2020). She has also completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training (2020), and the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Teacher Training Program (2021). 

Laurence Gonzalez
​Company Member

Laurence Gonzalez began his classical ballet training at the age of 9 in the Elementary Ballet School in La Habana, Cuba. At the age of 18 he graduated as a professional ballet dancer from the School National Ballet of Cuba. He began his professional career at Laura Alonso Ballet in Havana, Cuba where he had the opportunity to dance in large production ballets i.e. The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Dracula, Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, where he danced both Principal and corps de ballet roles. Since arriving in the states Laurence has been exposed to other styles of dances like modern, and contemporary works by top and emerging choreographers like Septime Webre, Christopher Rudd, Kevin Jenkings, Kyle Wang, Adrienne Canterna. Also, he has performed with the San Diego Opera several times dancing as a lead (Maria de Buenos Aires, Carmen, Great Scott). He has traveled worldwide during his professional career, touring Europe with Sweetbirds Productions being his most recent international commitment dancing "Rock The Ballet". He currently resides in San Diego, California, and guests with various local studios and companies in Southern California and beyond.  

Elise Haley
​​Company Member

Elise Haley was born and raised in Littleton Colorado. She began her dancing at the local recreation center and went on to train at multiple studios in the local area. At Denver Academy of Ballet she had opportunities to perform a wide variety of principal roles in both classical and contemporary works. She graduated from Denver Ballet Theatre and went on to train with Oregon Ballet Theatre's second company. Since coming back to Denver she has had the privilege of working with Mercury Dance Company while exploring her other hobbies. This is Elise’s first appearance with Zikr Dance Ensemble.

Kindly sponsored for the 2023 Spring Season
​by Roberta Haley 

Brandon Penn
​Company Member

Brandon Penn was born and raised in Richmond, VA. At the age of 10 he began his dance training at the Pine Camp Cultural Arts Center where he studied with Annette Holt, Rodney Williams and Willie Hinton learning a variety of styles. He later enrolled into the School of Richmond Ballet where he studied under Igor Antanov, Malcolm Burn, and more. After spending three years at the Richmond Ballet Mr. Penn was accepted as a trainee of the company whilst completing his senior year. After graduating, Brandon spent one year at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Purchase College Conservatory for Dance, studying under Larry Clark, Taryn Russell, and Ted Kivitt and others. After spending a year at SUNY, Penn was offered a position with Atlanta Ballet 2.  After two years there, Brandon was offered a company position with the Columbia City Ballet. Later, after much experience and repertory under his belt, Brandon accepted a principal contract with the Fort Wayne Ballet where he spent two successful seasons. Since, he has taken upon a freelance career and guested across the country and further. He would like to immensely thank his family for all of their love, support and words of wisdom. This is Brandon’s third season with Zikr Dance Ensemble.

Gaby Rodriguez
​Company Member

Gaby Rodriguez began her dance instruction at the age of 10 with Dance Conservatory of Denver. After three years of training, she moved to Philadelphia where she continued dancing at the Rock School on scholarship. She moved back to Denver for high school and joined Colorado Ballet’s Pre-Professional Program. Soon after, she accepted a contract to dance professionally with Colorado Ballet where she had the opportunity to dance in numerous ballets, including but not limited to: George Balanchine’s Serenade and Theme and Variations, Don Quixote, Giselle andRomeo and Juliet and was also a soloist in Michael Pink’s production of Peter Pan. Gaby is so excited to be returning to Zikr Dance ensemble for her second season! 


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Brandon Talbott
​​Company Member

Brandon Talbott is originally from Manassas, VA, and was trained at numerous studios and conservatories throughout the DMV area. Within his competitive dance years, he was featured on multiple episodes of a variety of reality TV dance shows. After finishing his senior year of high school in 2017, he attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) where he studied concert dance with a focus in contemporary work. At UNCSA he had the opportunity to appear in work by choreographers Doug Varone, Ashley Lindsey, Juel D. Lane and Stephanie Martinez and also worked closely with the ballet department, where he appeared in numerous performances, including their annual production of The Nutcracker.  Graduating in 2021, Brandon moved to Chicago and joined Visceral Dance Chicago and while living in the Chicago area, developed a freelance resume which included AJA Talent, The Candlelight Series, Freckled Sky, Noelle Kayser, and Sancta.   
Brandon is very excited to join the Zikr Dance Ensemble in his first season! 

Erina Tanaka
Company Member 

Erina Tanaka began her training in New York, with Logrea Dance Academy and Westchesier Ballet Company. She continued her training with SLK Ballet, under the direction of Sara Knight. While training with SLK Ballet, Erina was selected for an exchange program with the English
National Ballet School in London in the spring of 2015 and 2016. She also spent summers training at American Ballet Theatre, Bolshoi Ballet, and Cincinnati Ballet. Erina started her professional career as an apprentice with Eugene Ballet where she performed classical roles such as Spanish and Arabian in The Nutcracker as well as Cygnets in Swan Lake. She was also featured in contemporary work by Suzanne Haag, Val Caniparoli, Stephen Mills, and Gerald Arpino. Erina joined Canada's Ballet Jorgen in 2019 as a company dancer where she was featured as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Josie Pye in Bengt Jorgen's production of Anne of Green Gables - The Ballet, and performed original works by Hanna Kiel, Mafa Makhubalo, and Bengt Jorgen. Erina returned to the United States last fall where she has performed as a quest artist with Boulder Ballet as well as numerous other schools and companies across the United States. This will be Erina's second season with Zikr Dance Ensemble.

Anaka Weiss-Jones
Company Member

Anaka Weiss-Jones was born and raised in Colorado! She began dancing in the Boulder area at age 8, most notably under Jayne Persch. In 2018, she joined in the inaugural year of Ballet Melange and spent three years training with Elizabeth Shipiatsky, Sergii Sydorskyi, Maureen Breeze, and Rya Merschat. In addition to her classical training, Anaka nurtured her love of contemporary ballet and modern dance by attending summer intensives at Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Ballet X, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theater and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Her professional career began after competing in the International Ballet Competition in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020, where she was presented with multiple Special Judges' Awards and asked to join the Klaipėda State Music Theater in Lithuania as a company dancer for the 2021-2022 season. She returned to the States last spring and has been dancing as a professional freelance artist in the Greater Denver and New York City areas. Fun Fact: She doesn’t remember it, but the very first dance performance that Anaka’s parents took her to see when she was a toddler was an outdoor performance by Zikr Dance Ensemble. She is excited to have come full circle and make her second appearance with the company this spring.

Aidan Wolf
​Company Member 

Aidan Wolf began her dance career at the age of three in Colorado. In 2015 Aidan completed her training at the Colorado Ballet Academy to then accept merit scholarships to study as a trainee at the Joffrey Ballet in New York City. She spent her summers with Belliston Ballet, Kinetic Arts Dance, Artistic Fusion, Sweatshop, MODAS, Joffrey NYC & LA, Francisco Gella, SONDER, and Complexions. Aidan then worked with Arch Ballet and taught for Virginia Beach Ballet Academy before joining Complexions Contemporary Ballet Company. She spent the next 4 seasons with Complexions, and following this performed with the Queer Ballet at the Joyce Theatre in 2023. She is currently in her 7th year of online college. This is Aidan's first project with Zikr Dance Ensemble.


Kindly sponsored for the 22-23 Season by Richard Wolf

​Zikr Dance Ensemble Apprentice Company

Alyssa Muller is a Los Angeles native who began her training at Pasadena Dance Theatre under the direction of Cynthia Young. She attended Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, graduating in 2015 with a specialization in Dance, learning from renowned artists such as Don Martin, Eduard Kouzmitch, and Anne Adair. In 2019 shegraduated with a B.A. in Dance and a minor in Sociology, training in a variety of styles under Tong Wang, Ama Wray, and Diane Diefenderfer at University of California, Irvine. Since then, she has continued her ballet training with Preston Li and Ido Tadmor in addition to picking up new skills such as stilt walking and fire dancing through her involvement with Insomniac Events. This is her first season with Zikr Dance Ensemble. ​

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​To support our Apprentice Program and help us to expand in the future by offering scholarships to young dancers, please click on the Donor button here.


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