H2O DANCERS & ARTISTS

Rebekah Brown – FOUNDER/DIRECTOR

Rebekah Brown is a San Diego-based choreographer, performer, and dance educator originally from Ashland, Ohio. She began training at age seven and later earned her BFA in Dance from SUNY Buffalo and her MFA in Choreography from Mills College, where she received the E.L. Weigand Award for Innovation in Choreography. Her interdisciplinary thesis merged painting and dance, a connection that continues to shape her work.

For over 20 years, Rebekah has worked as a choreographer and dance educator, drawing from her diverse training in ballet, modern, contemporary, and jazz. She enjoys teaching at studios and offering master classes throughout San Diego, and her choreographic work spans a wide range of styles and settings. Rebekah is the lead choreographer for Awaken Theater and has the pleasure of creating their annual Christmas spectacular, Night of Christmas, held at the renowned Rady Shell at Jacobs Park in downtown San Diego. As a performer, she has danced with companies across California and beyond, further deepening her perspective as both artist and collaborator.

She is the founder and artistic director of H2O Dance Company, known for producing accessible, visually rich contemporary work. She has produced and choreographed six evening-length performances since 2015, as well as various projects in San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Oakland, San Francisco, and Northeast Ohio. Her work draws inspiration from modern masters and visual artists alike, blending movement and musicality with passion and purpose.

Sara K. Blodgett
Grateful to have fallen into a dance career, Sara is living her passion and is currently active in the San Diego dance scene. She has performed with Jean Isaac’s San Diego Dance Theatre on projects including Trolley Dances (2010, 2011, 2012), Young Choreographers Showcase (2012, 2013, 2017), and The Magee House Project (2013). In 2012 she danced in Mojalet’s Progressive Steps and for Sadie Weinberg in Arts Alive on the Coastal Rail Trail. Sara presented choreography at the Encinitas Arts Festival (2013, 2014) and SDDT’s Studio Showcase in May 2013. She worked with NYC award-winning choreographer Tamara Saari performing at The Fringe Festival 2014. In 2016 Sara performed in Brianna Pilkinton’s full-length site specific project #thescreensbetweenus in conjunction with Malashock Dance. Also in 2016 she danced for Emily Miller’s ‘Get Down/Pick Up’ company as part of Art Walk Leucadia. In addition to performing, Sara is passionate about sharing her art. She spends her spare time dancing in the kitchen with her son Aiden.

Tina Carreras
Tina Carreras is a Dancer, Choreographer, Teaching Artist, and Personal Fitness Instructor. Her passion is movement as a form of creative expression, storytelling, self-care, and community building. She has been performing, choreographing, and volunteering in the San Diego dance community for the past 6 years with organizations such as San Diego Dance Theater, Disco Riot, H2O Dance, Malashock, Ballet Counterpointe, and Mounarath Powell Productions. Tina teaches an Aging Creatively Modern class for San Diego Dance Theater and Seated Dance classes in Memory Care and Assisted Living homes for Grey Matters. She is currently working on the Conrad Prebys Foundation‘s Healing Through The Arts Initiative with San Diego Dance Theater and Malashock Dance. Tina just recently co-created a theatrical dance production for the 2025 San Diego International Fringe Festival.

Abby Foster
Abby Foster started dancing when she was 8 years old in the styles ballet, jazz, tap, modern, contemporary, and more. She has been on Resident Faculty at The Ballet Company since its formation in 2021, where she specializes in Primary Division instruction. Abby graduated from Grossmont College with her Associate’s in Social and Behavioral Sciences and is on her journey to getting her Bachelor’s in Early Childhood Education. She loves working with all of her students and looks forward to years of continued growth as a Teacher, Dancer, and Choreographer.

Natalia Hill
Natalia Hill is a San Diego–based dancer, choreographer, and vocalist originally from Bogotá, Colombia. Raised in Pennsylvania, she earned her BFA in Modern Dance Education from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and holds certifications in Progressive Ballet Technique. Natalia’s diverse career includes performing with The Pointer Sisters, The Temptations, The Four Tops, City Opera of San Diego, Vox Dance Theater, and Malashock Dance Company. She has performed works by acclaimed choreographers such as Sean Curran and Jean Isaacs, and numerous San Diego-based choreographers such as Blythe Barton, Gina and Kyle Sorensen, and Cecily Holcombe. She also appeared in musical productions, including Annie, Peter Pan, Will Rogers Follies, and Evita.

Also a musician, Natalia has been a guest singer and recording artist and has opened for The English Beat and Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats. As a choreographer, her work spans high school musicals, professional companies, and television promotions in Times Square. She is honored to join H2O Dance Company in celebrating their 10th anniversary and congratulates them on a decade of artistry, creativity, and community.

Cathlin Houle
Cathlin Houle grew up in the world of ballet, training with Erin Duclos at To The Pointe Ballet, and performing lead roles in many classical works. She had the fortune to travel to Scotland with Burklyn Ballet to perform in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and attended UCLA where she was exposed to many contemporary works from international dance companies. Cathlin now loves trying every style of dance possible, but especially enjoys contemporary movement which she began when she joined H2O Dance Company in 2017.

Lilian Ibarra Pantoja
With a family tree rooted in art, Lilian is a multidisciplinary artist who draws inspiration from her heritage to create dynamic works. Beginning her dance journey at a very early age (1995) in Tijuana, Baja California, she focused in Folklorico before discovering Contemporary Ballet at eleven (2002). Throughout her teenage years Lilian participated in several dance productions by Susana Lopez Reyes at Casa de La Cultura. She continued her formal training in Lux Boreals Modern Dance and Stage Production Education program (2010-2012). In 2014 her Ballet Teacher Rafael Oseguera encouraged her to pursue a career in early childhood dance education. Her first choreographic work “III” was showcased at Live Arts Fest 2019. In 2022 she was selected to present her piece “diverting” at the Emerging Choreographers Showcase and Prize. She currently teaches early childhood dance at Malashock Dance and is one of the current Emerging Artists in Dance Arts at Arts District Liberty Station.

Erin Kracht
Erin is a San Diego based dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist with a BFA in Dance from San José State University (SJSU), graduating summa cum laude and receiving the Virginia Ann Excellence in Dance Scholarship. As a member of SJSU’s University Dance Theater, she performed works by renowned choreographers including Missa Brevis (José Limón), Octet (Doug Varone), and New Second Line (Camille A. Brown). She has danced professionally with San Diego Dance Theater for Trolley Dances as well as with the Mark Foreigner Dance Project. Erin currently collaborates with Negative Space Dance Collective and serves as Regional Director of NACHMO San Diego. She also teaches with Malashock Dance and Creative Dance Theatre, fostering creativity and movement literacy in students of all ages.

Taylor Lazo
Taylor grew up dancing in her home town of Ramona where she was introduced to ballet, jazz, lyrical, and contemporary. She was on the dance team throughout high school but shortly after, she set dance aside. Eight years later, she stepped out of her comfort zone and danced on stage again after joining Awaken Theater in San Diego. She fell back in love with dance, and knew it had to be a big part of her life again. Taylor also met Rebekah at Awaken, and had her first opportunity to dance with H2O in the summer of 2022. She now works for Awaken Theater as the Visuals Coordinator, and remains dancing as much as she can with Awaken, H2O, and all the wonderful ladies she has met along this journey.  

Brianna Pilkinton
Brianna (sounds like banana) Pilkinton can be described by the following titles: Wife, Mom, Environmental Scientist, Dancer, Choreographer, Self-Made Thousandaire, and Epic Multitasker. She earned a BS in General Biology from San Diego State University and works full time in the environmental consulting industry. She has been fortunate to have choreographed and danced professionally in our San Diego community for the last 14 years. She is the founder of a project-based modern dance collective, AccipiterDance, and is inspired by creating work that reflects the parallels and conflicts between the natural world and our human world. Brianna has danced as a guest artist with many local dance companies and independent choreographers including; Isadora Now, Bottled Light Dance Theater, GetDown/PickUp Company, Malashock Dance, Lara Segura, Tamara Saari Dance, Ion Theatre, San Diego Dance Theater, and H2O Dance Company.

Crystal Ramos
Crystal loves to dance whenever she can! She began dancing a little later in life and quickly fell in love with it. She danced for a contemporary modern dance company in hometown West Virginia, and also trained in Graham technique under Steve Rooks, one of her favorite styles. Crystal has had multiple opportunities to perform for Project Dance in New York and attend classes at Broadway Dance Center a few times a year. She has also taught dance classes for kids at a variety of studios.

Shortly after graduating high school, while attending Bible College, Crystal directed her own dance group and choreographed her first theatrical production in 2013. Even though Crystal took a long break from dancing before moving to San Diego, she rekindled her love for dance and in the last five years has performed in musicals and other performance opportunities with Awaken Theater and H2O Dance Company. Crystal is happily married and currently lives in San Diego. 

Leigh Ratcliffe
Leigh took her first ballet class at age eight and was hooked! She studied ballet and jazz at her studio in Bakersfield, CA and danced in so many Nutcrackers that she can no longer celebrate Christmas without hearing something by Tchaikovsky. By age 15, she was teaching ballet and jazz and by 17 she was choreographing for her studio. In college, Leigh danced ballet and modern and while studying for her degree in Biology. After college, Leigh took a hiatus from dance while she taught marine biology camps for kids, SCUBA classes both locally and abroad, and worked in the biotech industry. After having her first child, Leigh began teaching dance and fitness classes, was the coordinator for Expressions, the YMCA dance team, and began dancing and performing with H2O. She loves working with the amazing San Diego dance community!

Luci Salinas
Luci’s passion for dancing started as a child when she started her ballet training with Felicity Cunningham in Las Vegas. After moving to San Diego at age 10, Luci continued her dance training with Kathy Roach at Fine Pointe Ballet Studio. There she has had many opportunities to dance, teach and choreograph dance. Luci graduated with a BA in Dance from University of California, San Diego in Spring of 2019. While at UCSD, Luci has enjoyed exploring many different dance styles such as contemporary, improvisation, jazz, hip hop, and tap. Since graduating, she has continued as a company member with H2O, teaches dance regularly, is a company dancer with San Diego Dance Theater, and hopes to continue her career in dance with more opportunities to perform, choreograph, and teach dance in many capacities.

Anita Von Kalinowski
Anita was born and raised in Chile. From an early age and to this day she has always enjoyed learning different styles of dance such as Ballet, Modern Dance, Contemporary Dance, and Latin Ballroom. Anita loves to share the joy of dance. She has a degree in Physical Education from the university of Playa Ancha. She studied in the Department of Contemporary Dance (Graham and Leeder technique) at the Conservatorio Hizidor Handler in Vina del Mar Chile. She was a dancer for the Contemporary Dance Company Creadanza for more than 7 years where she participated in various exhibitions and dance festivals throughout Chile. Through her love of dance she always looked to improve and learn in which she regularly attended different dance seminars/workshops such as: Danzalborde (Chile), Erre que Erre (Spain), and SDC (Australia). She is the Mom of Lucca (a Dinosaur lover!) and Gianni and Donatella (two amazing/sweet tuxedo cats!). [Photo: Julia Daria]