LAUREN CHRISTIE

Lauren Christie (she/her) joined Malashock Dance in the spring of 2019, and became Rehearsal Director in 2024. She grew up in Memphis, TN, where she trained at the Ballet Memphis School. She earned her BA with Honors in Public Communication and French Language with a minor in Dance from American University in Washington, DC. While living in the DC area, Lauren danced with Christopher K. Morgan & Artists (2012-2018), as well as Alight Dance Theater, Jane Franklin Dance, and Bowen McCauley Dance, with whom she performed at the Kennedy Center and the Guangdong Dance Festival (China). Since moving to San Diego, Lauren has danced with San Diego Dance Theater (2018-present) and Malashock Dance (2019-present). She is also a founding member of DISCO RIOT, with whom she has toured to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Lauren has served as Rehearsal Director at Malashock Dance and San Diego Dance Theater, staged work for Jean Isaacs, and assisted in both staging and creation for John Malashock and Christopher K. Morgan.

  @lauren___christie

JOSEPH LISTER

Joseph Lister (he/they) began their dance training at California State University, Channel Islands at age 19, where they founded and captained the university’s first dance team, Breaking Pointe. They then transferred to the University of California, Riverside, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Dance in 2015. During their time at UCR, Joseph was awarded the GLUCK Fellowship and the Chancellor’s Performance Award and apprenticed with Lula Washington Dance Theatre while attending its Professional Development Program. Post-graduation, Joseph danced with No) One Art House during a residency at Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and completed a character folk dance intensive at Voronezh Ballet School in Russia. Originally from Wildomar, CA, they joined Malashock Dance in 2022, where they currently work as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Joseph is also a soloist with San Diego Ballet, Artistic Director of CalliOpus Contemporary based in Temecula, and currently guest faculty at Mount San Jacinto College.

  @brosephlister_

NICHOLAS MCGHEE

Nick McGhee (he/him) started dancing at 15 at Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego, CA. After attending Mira Costa College, he received his BFA in dance from Cal State Long Beach. While attending his undergrad, Nick had the opportunity to perform for several highly esteemed choreographers such as Keith Johnson, Kevin Williamson, and Micaela Taylor. Nick dances for the LITVAKdance company based in Encinitas, CA, and joined Malashock Dance at the end of 2023. Nick has had the privilege to work with Josh Manculich, Ronen Izhaki, Chuck Wilt, Rebecca Margolick, and Ido Gidron. He has also performed in the CDC Fest in Orlando, FL, and in the Seattle International Dance Festival. Nick also works as a bartender at California Pizza Kitchen, does graphic design, and is currently studying to achieve his master’s in psychotherapy.

 

MICAH PARRA

Micah Parra (she/they) is a multidisciplinary movement artist and educator from Washington State. She is experienced in classical and contemporary dance as well as circus, acrobatics and aerial arts. Her personal style is a fusion of these elements and highlights her curiosity and playful approach to creating art. Micah’s dance education includes learning from companies like Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, B12 Research or Die, The TL Collective, and Springboard Danse Montreal. Micah joined Malashock Dance at the beginning of 2023. She has also worked with local companies like San Diego Dance Theater, San Diego Circus Center, Disco Riot, The San Diego Zoo and more. Earlier this year, she was awarded a residency through the NTC Foundation and will be an ARTS DISTRICT Emerging Artist at Dorothea Laub Dance Place until June 2025.

  @micahparra

CHELSEA ZEFFIRO

Chelsea Zeffiro joined Malashock Dance Company in the spring of 2022. She has since had the pleasure of performing works by John Malashock and Christopher K. Morgan among many other guest artists, as well as having her choreography commissioned for the company. She holds an MFA in Dance from the University of the Arts’ International program and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. Chelsea received a post-graduate fellowship from UArts to pursue international exchange at the Institut Chorégraphique International-CCN Montpellier in 2023. She was the 2018 winner of San Diego Dance Theater’s Young Choreographer’s Prize and was awarded for her Contemporary Solo Performance at Vienna Int’l Ballet Festival in 2016. In addition to Malashock, her work has been presented by Los Angeles Performance Practice, Human Resources LA, Coronado Playhouse, the La Jolla Playhouse WoW Festival, LAX Festival, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego-La Jolla, Theorist Fest, DISCO RIOT, University of the Arts School of Dance, Art of Elan, and San Diego Dance Theater. She co-directed, curated, and toured 40 NORTH Dance Film Festival from 2015-2019. She is currently Dance and Theater Faculty at Coronado School of the Arts, and a guest artist with Bennington College’s Low-Residency Dance MFA (Montpellier, France).

@chelsea_zeffiro          www.chelseazeffiro.com

Born in Fairbanks, AK, and raised in San Diego, CA, Marshall was a nationally-ranked ice hockey player by the age of 9. While attending the San Diego School for Creative and Performing Arts, he developed his interest in theatrical and innovative works. At the age of 13, he began training at the San Diego Academy of Ballet. He later trained and performed for two years at the Dmitri Kulev Classical Ballet Academy in Orange County before moving to the Washington School of Ballet in D.C. on scholarship. 

​After working his way up through TWB Studio Company, Marshall had the opportunity to audition for and later join American Ballet Theater (ABT), in New York.

​During his time with ABT, he performed in classics such as Don Quixote, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, and La Bayadere. He also helped create/was featured in neoclassical ballets like Whipped Cream, Songs of Bukovina, The Firebird, and Daphnis and Chloe. His performances have taken him all over the United States, through Canada and South America. He has also toured overseas: from Paris to Oman, Hong Kong to Singapore, and to Cape Town, South Africa.

​In the future, Marshall hopes to invite fresh audiences to our ballet culture by broadening the genre palette, and at present strives to bring a sense of joy to every class he teaches or takes.

 

Justin Viernes has been entertaining audiences nationally and internationally since the age of 5. Departing from years of professional singing and musical theater productions, he fell in love with dance and began his dance career at the age of 16. Justin is extensively trained in ballet, jazz, modern, and hip-hop. He has danced for Fusion Dance Company, d’Shire Dance, Sound Dance Company, DK Dance, Patricia Rincon Dance Collective, Imago Moves, The PGK Dance Project, Anjanette Maraya-Ramey and Dancers, Khamla Somphanh and Dancers, The Southern California Ballet, Compulsion Dance and Theater and various artists and professional companies across the Nation. Justin’s dancing has traveled him to Kazakhstan and Belize as a U.S. Cultural Envoy, San Miguel de Allende, Buenos Aires, on stages all over the nation. Justin is a senior company dancer for Malashock Dance, a guest artist for The Southern California Ballet, modern dance faculty for the California State Summer School for the Arts program (CSSSA) at CalArts University, and is Artistic Director of brown paper bag dance co. Justin currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.