Kevin Jenkins

Creative Director & Choreographer

Dance Magazine has praised Kevin’s work as “riveting,” and he travels throughout the country choreographing for State Street Ballet, St. Louis Ballet, San Diego Dance Theater, the School of Ballet Arizona, SUNY Purchase, CPYB, Island Moving Company, Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami, The Big Muddy Dance Company, among others. He has served on faculty at Boston Ballet School, Joffrey Ballet School, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, the University of San Diego, and Master Ballet Academy.  

His choreography has been performed on the Inside/Out Series at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and he has been awarded residencies with Djerassi and the National Choreographers Initiative. Kevin trained in San Diego under Dave Mullen, Kathy Meyer, Teresa Wells, Erik Saradpon, Kevin Patterson, and Ahita Ardalan. His diverse training led to working with a variety of companies, including Mirable Ballet, Butterworth Dance Company, and San Diego Dance Theater, and in productions of Guys and Dolls and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Outside the concert dance realm, he appeared in commercials for Allstate Insurance, Latinva Fitness, and Verizon Wireless, danced backup in Las Vegas for the band NRG, and performed in ballroom productions with Mary Murphy. Stepping away from performing in 2006 he founded Garage Contemporary Ballet with Ryan Orion Beck and served as co-artistic director through 2012. The company was featured in festivals such as 4×4, Breaking Ground, Ignite, Celebrate Dance Festival, and San Diego Young Choreographer’s Prize, while also presenting their own annual season. During this period his work in dance films won him three Editor’s Choice Awards from Dance and Pointe Magazine. His films went on to be featured in the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Greensboro Dance Film Festival, San Diego Asian Film Festival, and American Dance Festival.  

Focusing on freelance choreography, Kevin moved to San Francisco where he choreographed for Western Ballet, Emote Dance Theatre, the Orchestra Institute of Napa Valley, and Bay Pointe Ballet. He began creating for Convergence Ballet, Terpsicore Dance Company, Southwest Classical Youth Ballet, and Darian Lane’s film At The Ballet. Kevin enjoyed a two-year tenure with Boston Ballet School. He now lives in San Diego while creating for companies and productions around the country. He choreographed and directed Gayle Skidmore’s Hourglass music video, worked under Jeremy Lapp at Musical Theatre Guild choreographing Minnie’s Boys, choreographed Natalie Bancroft’s 2019 European musical tour, and has created for dance companies and universities such as Ballet Dallas, Bellingham Repertory Dance, Columbia Repertory Ballet, Ketchikan Theatre Ballet, Muhlenberg College, Grossmont College, LITVAK Dance, Wanderlust Dance Project, Ballet 5:8, Belhaven University, and Columbia Ballet Collaborative. 

Trisha Carter 

Repetiteur 

Trisha began her training in Maine with Bossov Ballet Theater and continued training abroad under the instruction of Alla Sizova, Dimitri Simkin, Irina Trofimova Golovkina, Natalia Papinashvilli, and Vadim Pisarev, ultimately leading to her acceptance into the Vaganova School in St. Petersburg, Russia. She completed her schooling at the Harid Conservatory and Kirov Academy in the United States before joining Houston Ballet II and later Ballet Florida.  

Trisha has performed with multiple companies and choreographers touring both locally and internationally: Houston Ballet, Ballet Florida, Cuban Classical Ballet, Miami Contemporary Dance Company, and Dance Now Miami. She was a founding member with Dimensions Dance Theater of Miami. Her classical repertoire includes soloist roles in Anna Karenina, Cinderella, Coppelia, Don Quixote, Giselle, La Bayadere, La Vivandiere, La Sylphide, Les Sylphides, Nutcracker, Paquita, Peer Gynt, Raymonda, Romeo & Juliet, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Talisman, as well as contemporary works by the likes of Gerald Arpino, Kevin Jenkins, Leonardo Reale, Paolo Mohovic, Tara Lee, Vicente Nebrada, and Yanis Pikeris, among others.  

Trisha holds a B.B.A. in International Business & Trade and a B.S. in International Economics, which she uses to develop the performing arts. Her greatest off-stage achievement is founding Miami Dance Hub, the dance alliance organization for South Florida, where she served as Executive Director for three years. When not dancing on stage, Trisha works with her husband, Kevin Jenkins, as his repetiteur and performs with his company, Ballet Counterpoint. 

Carolyn Carter  

Production Manager & Stage Manager  

Carolyn is overjoyed to be on staff here at COCA as the Production Manager. She is so grateful to be a part of this community and the incredible work and teaching that happens here. She graduated with a B.F.A. in Stage Management from The Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University. Some of her favorite credits include Stage Manager for Matilda The Musical, Assistant Stage Manager for The Gradient, and Stage Manager for the Imaginary Theatre Company seasons at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Stage Manager for Avengeance and Love at the River’s Edge at Shakespeare in The Streets, Production Coordinator for The Conservatory’s 50th Anniversary, and new mom to baby Joy-Anna Ivy. She is grateful for her officemates in this time of great transition! 

Shevaré Perry 

Costume Designer 

Shevaré is a costume designer, artist, poet, and fashion educator. She explores creative expression through the overlap of visual art, theatre, and fashion. In 2021, Shevaré debuted, She Is Her, I Am She, as the inaugural artist for Saks Fifth Avenue Gallery and collaborated with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for their Saints Gala fundraiser. Over the last few years, her art has been featured at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and galleries in Chicago, New York, and London. She lives her life passion focused; a true example of, “Love what you do, do what you love.” Shevaré holds a B.S. Fashion Design from Philadelphia University and attended graduate school in London, England. She has also completed the Community Artist Training and Teaching Artist Institute programs at the Regional Arts Commission.  

Sung Ho Kim 

Scenic Designer

Sung Ho earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design and an AA Diploma from Architectural Association of London, UK, with Royal Institute of British Architects Part I and II. He also earned his Master of Science in Architecture Studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a project designer for Nasrine Seraji in Paris, France, and Wellington Reiter in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Currently, Sung Ho is a tenured full professor of architecture, engaged in research with biology and computer science, at Washington University in St. Louis, and received the 2018 Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award. He was a founding director of Axi:Ome llc of Providence, RI, in 2001, and has been co-director of Axi:Ome llc of St. Louis since 2003. 

Heather Woofter 

Scenic Designer  

Heather is a tenured professor and director of the College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design at Washington University in St. Louis, with more than 15 years of teaching experience. Before, she was a project architect for Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Marks Barfield in London, United Kingdom; and Robert Luchetti Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is a registered architect in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Missouri and passed RIBA Parts I and II in the UK. Heather curated the exhibition Metabolic City—which featured works by the Japanese Metabolists, the architecture collaborative Archigram from Britain, and Dutch artist Constant—at the Kemper Art Museum in 2009–2010. Since 2003, Heather has been a founding director and owner of Axi:Ome llc of St. Louis with Sung Ho Kim. Their practice has received national and international design awards for architecture, master planning, and industrial design. 

Jayson Lawshee 

Lighting Designer

Jayson is a St. Louis-based production director and designer whose experience includes musical theatre, opera, new work, and dance. An alum of The Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University, Jayson earned a B.F.A. in Lighting Design. Jayson has designed for Metro Theater Company and COCA, as well as St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. Lighting design credits include Billy Elliot, wUNDERland, Four Little Girls: Birmingham 1963 (COCA); Last Stop on Market Street and Ghost (Metro); and Love at the River’s Edge (SFSTL). He has additionally served as the Assistant Lighting Designer on The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis’ production of Pride and Prejudice. He was the Lighting Programmer for St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s production of King Lear and the first Electrics Intern at Wolf Trap Opera in Washington, DC. Jayson often refers to the tech table as his “home” and is passionate about making theatre in all forms accessible to all people. @the_lawshee  

Jamie McKittrick 

Dramaturg 

Jamie is an interdisciplinary artist who works in theatre as a performer, devisor, director, choreographer, intimacy choreographer, somatic practitioner, and educator. Notable original work includes Sparkle- TA DAAA!!! (Critic’s Choice Award St. Louis Fringe Festival), SURVIVE! with Swim Pony Performance Arts (“Best of the Year” by Philadelphia Weekly), and Lady M with Swim Pony Performance Arts (Curated by LiveArts Fest). She also helped develop and devise Enchantment Theatre Company’s productions of Scheherazade, The Velveteen Rabbit, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, and Ma mère l’Oye. Notable work as a director includes Gruesome Playground Injuries for Creative Inhabitor (Best of St. Louis Theatre), Wonderland: Alice’s Rock & Roll Adventure for Metro Theatre Company, Lysistrata for Webster University’s Conservatory, The Birds for UMSL, as an assistant director to Wendell Beavers for the world premiere production of The Siddhartha Project, and as an assistant director to Leslie Reidel for Stravinsky’s Firebird, and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. Notable work as an actor includes the world premiere of Mac Wellman’s Anything’s Dream, Fefu and Her Friends with Theatre Nuevo, and Eric Coble’s new one woman play, The Girl Who Swallowed a Cactus, for Metro Theater Company that toured for three months before it was streamed for TYAUSA for the duration of the 2020 digital conference. Notable work as a choreographer and movement director includes SURVIVE! and Lady M for Swim Pony Performance Arts, Purr, Pull, Reign for the Philly Fringe for Johnny Showcase and Lefty Lucy, Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, Frida Libre, and Wonderland: Alice’s Rock & Roll Adventure for Metro Theater Company, and Four Little Girls: Birmingham 1963 for COCA and The Black Rep. She’s been on faculty at Webster University Conservatory of the Arts, Lindenwood University, Muhlenberg College, and UMSL. 

Clay Smith 

Sound Designer 

Clay picked up his first guitar at age eight after seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, just like a million other kids. Unlike most of those kids, Clay grew his initial interest in music into a lifelong passion and career. By age ten, Clay had joined The Arsenal, his first band, and in middle school he rocked with The Odyssey. Clay studied classical guitar in college and traveled the Pacific Northwest performing with a variety of rock groups: Good Question, Pilot, CPR, Rod and Clay, and The Click, to name a few. While Clay enjoyed performing and always knew music would be integral to his life, he had yet to discover his true calling. The demand for Clay’s recording and producing skills, coupled with his love of the work, led him to officially create SoundSmith Studios. SoundSmith has now been in business and thriving for more than 20 years. In that time, the business continued to grow and expand, both in the physical space of the studio and in the variety of services offered. Clay’s deepest joy comes from collaborating with musicians and businesses to help them realize their creative aspirations. 

Paula Dreyer 

Composer 

Paula Dreyer is a classically trained contemporary composer and pianist living in the Pacific Northwest who seeks to inspire, include, and connect individuals through music. She has created her own, unique sound—weaving a wide range of influences from the Romantic and Impressionistic eras, film composers, Spanish music, and solo improvisation albums from the masters. Listeners are transported through her music that is sophisticated yet intimate, melancholic yet hopeful, hauntingly melodic, and rhythmically alive.