Faculty

Paula van der Zwaan

Paula graduated from the Vlaamse Dance Academy in Belgium in 1989, where she was trained in Ballet, Jazz, Modern Dance and Tap. She has been dancing professionally since the age of 18, performing on European television programs and many authorized stage musicals, including The Fan of Lady Windermere, West Side Story and My Fair Lady, directed by the renowned Filipe La Feria. She has also danced with several dance companies in Greece, Spain and Portugal. She was chosen to perform for Nelson Mandela in Portugal with the company Oficina de Danca directed by Benvindo Fonseca.

Paula taught for 10 years at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center. She also taught Ballet at Belvedere Community center and the Berkeley YMCA for four years before starting her own school. Currently, Paula has over four hundred students under her supervision at the Van Der Zwaan Dance Studio.

Santia Andrews

Santia Andrews graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Major in Dance and Performance Studies and a Minor in Theater and Performance Studies. She has been dancing for over 25 years. Santia is an International Dance Champion, a 14-year California State Talent Competition Winner in Ballet, Pointe, Tap, Jazz, Contemporary, Lyrical, Creative, Modern, Hip Hop and Productions. She is also a Showstopper Competition Winner, a Showbiz Competition Winner and a former 3-year member of the University of California Dance Team (cheerleading team). During her junior year at Cal, she was accepted into the Alvin Ailey Summer Intensive Program in New York and was offered a coaching position at National Dance Alliance (NDA) in Los Angeles. In 2000, Santia was selected as a member of Team USA and traveled to the International Dance Competition in Prague, Czech Republic where they won first place in their Jazz routine.

Mario Ponce

Mario has been an instructor for over 15 years and has worked for many dance studios and different unified school districts around the Bay Area. He has also directed many award winning dance companies with accolades such as but not limited to America's Got Talent, Hip Hop International. Mario strives to educate youth through his passion for dance and music.

Theresa Knudson

Theresa is from Orange County, CA and received her ballet training from Lois Ellyn. She has danced professionally with Nouveau Chamber Ballet and Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet in Los Angeles, Wonderbound in Denver, Colorado, and in the Bay area with Oakland Ballet Company, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Contra Costa Ballet, and others. She studied at summer intensive programs with American Ballet Theatre in New York City, Boston Ballet, Jose Límon West, and Ballet Austin.
Theresa has been teaching for over 10 years. She has been on faculty at the Lois Ellyn Ballet Studio, Academy of American Ballet in Redwood City and Van der Zwaan Dance studio, and has been a guest teacher at schools across California including Orinda Ballet Academy and San Francisco Youth Ballet Academy.

Michelle Lynch

MICHELLE TARA LYNCH hails from Los Alamos, New Mexico. She earned a BA in Environmental Science and a BFA in Dance from the University of California, Santa Barbara. While at UCSB, she received the Patricia Sparrow Dance Scholarship, the Tonia Shimin Award for Excellence and Promise in the Field of Dance, and began her professional performing career with Nebula Dance Lab. Michelle then moved to New York City, where she was a company member and instructor for Jennifer Muller/The Works for five seasons, until moving to the Bay Area. While with JMTW, she had the privilege of touring throughout the United States, as well as internationally in China, and Italy. Michelle also worked as an assistant to Jennifer Muller in her teaching, including residencies at the University of California, Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, and Jacksonville University. Michelle taught regular technique classes to JMTW company members, scholarship students, and apprentices. She also coordinated programs for young choreographers, and taught creative workshops for elementary schools. Outside of her work with JMTW, Michelle presented her own choreography in California at the HH11 Festival in Santa Barbara, as well as in New York at such venues as Greenspace, Hatch Series, and Columbia University. Michelle moved to the Bay Area in 2018, and currently teaches at several studios, including Van der Zwaan Dance, ODC, and Castro Valley Performing Arts.

Zara Anwar

Zara Anwar was born and raised in Columbia, MD. She is currently dancing professionally with AXIS Dance Company in Berkeley, CA. She began her dance training at a small studio under the direction of former Joffrey Ballet company member Renee Meyer and former Kansas City Ballet dancer Angela Walker. Ms. Anwar continued her professional training at the Baltimore School for the Arts (BSA) under the direction of Norma Pera. During her time at BSA, she was a scholarship recipient and performed lead roles such as Dew Drop Fairy, Snow Queen, and Rat Queen in The Nutcracker staged by Barry Hughson; the Pioneer Woman in Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring; and a corps member in Serenade staged by former NYCB dancer Deborah Wingert. In addition, Ms. Anwar trained at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater on scholarship during her time at BSA.

She graduated from the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program at Dominican University of California summa cum laude with Honors in May of 2020. Throughout her college career, Ms. Anwar studied in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Colorado in furthering her professional dance training. After graduating, she trained with Oklahoma City Ballet on scholarship and Post:Ballet, and taught ballet technique and ballet private lessons at Marin Dance Theater. From there, she was led to live and work in Hawaii as a live-in nanny teaching dance to the kids living on her lane, and taught ballet, pointe, modern, conditioning, jazz and recreational dance at Rock City Dance Center in Little Rock, AR this past Fall of 2021.

During her summers, Zara has traveled abroad to Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico with JUNTOS Collective in bringing dance to underserved communities. Connecting through movement, she found dance as a means of fostering healing, human connection and enriching the lives of children, women, orphans, elders, the abused and the ill. She is passionate about using her gift of dance to create an impact in the lives of others, and she looks forward to sharing her knowledge, personal experience, and love for dance with her students at Van Der Zwaan Dance Studio.