30th Anniversary Dancers
Mojalet Dance Company

ROBBY JOHNSON, Assistant to the Director, is an actor, dancer, musician and scientist. He is a graduate of UCSD in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, with minors in both Dance and Theater. Robby has trained with a host of fantastic dance educators over the years including Jean Isaacs, Faith Jensen-Ismay, grace jun-mills, Peter Kalivas, Bradley Lundberg, Gabriel Masson, Christopher Pilafian and Terry Wilson to name a few. He has also had the pleasure of performing with Allyson Green, Betzi Roe, Erica Buechner, San Diego Dance Theater, Melissa Nunn, Patricia Rincon, Patricia Sandback, and Yolande Snaith. Robby works in neuroscience research, participates in music at his church, and even tries to cram in some acting on stage, film, or in a crowd of those seeking entertainment. He is currently enjoying his local and international adventures with Mojalet Dance Collective and has done so since 2005. Robby plays nicely with others, enjoys cooking, eating, traveling, and taking bubble baths.

LYNDSEY GEMMELL has been dancing with Mojalet since 2001 performing in Domestic and International Tours. She has been training with Faith Jensen-Ismay since 2000 currently serving as Assistant to The Director, and performs in Educational Outreach for Mojalet.   She started with a predominant background in jazz and musical theatre performing in numerous local productions including Moonlight and Lawrence Welk Theaters.   Lyndsey has enjoyed performing with Mojalet over the years and would like to thank Faith for affording her the opportunity to performing in a variety of projects: Europe Tours, Trolley Dances, and performing choreography by acclaimed artists such as Patricia Sandback and Betzi Roe.  She resides in Oceanside with her husband, Brian, and three healthy boys, Jack, Elliott, Lewis and her daughter Scarlet. She is happiest when she is dreaming up her next creative endeavor and sharing her artistic passions with her children.

ALIA ISMAY was born in Poway California and has danced basically her whole life, but started official training around the age of 8 in the annual Summer Dancin' Workshop in Ramona; soon after she began taking workshops and adult company classes taught by her mom, Faith Jensen-Ismay. She has been training with Mojalet ever since and has been a vital performer for the Mojalet Senior Co. Alia has performed and toured in Switzerland and Germany with Mojalet and served the company as a teaching artist and choreographer for Eclectic Expression Dance Co. ,  Jamolet and Core Group.  Alia received her Bachelor's degree in Journalism from San Diego State University in 2016, then moved to India for a year to do Public Relations work for an anti-human trafficking organization. In 2020, Alia spent a year in Lugano, Switzerland to earn a Masters of Science  in International Management . She is excited to be back in the US and performing with Mojalet and balances her life as Director of Sales and Marketing for Sparrow Imports. 

JASMYN HAMBLIN is a dancer, visual artist, choreographer, and teacher originally from Santa Rosa, California. She holds a BFA in Dance from Cal State University LongBeach, graduating with honors after transferring from San Diego Mesa College. Throughout her life, she has trained in contemporary, modern, jazz, ballet, improvisation, and musical theater, working with many incredible teachers including Faith Jensen-Ismay, Rosanna Tavarez (Countertechnique), Rebecca Lemme (Release), Rebecca Bryant (Improvisation), Keith Johnson, members of Pilobolus Nile H. Russel and Jordan Kriston, Donna Flournoy, Jan Ellis, Summer Brown (Limón), and Andrew Holmes. Jasmyn has performed internationally with Andre Delaroche for DanzARt festival in Italy and Rebecca Bryant for Joven Danza Universitaria Festival in Ecuador. In 2020, she continued to work with Bryant for the HHII Dance Festival in Santa Barbara. As a dance maker, her choreography has been performed by local dance artists, Core Group, the Mesa College Dance Department, and during her time at CSU Long Beach, where her work “Process” was selected to be adjudicated at the 2020 ACDA Baja Conference. She is the recipient of the Nicki Carano Scholarship from San Diego Mesa College and the Jamiesson-Pechstein College of the Arts Endowed Scholarship from Cal State Long Beach for her involvement in the dance community. She is currently teaching at the Vine Arts Village and performs throughout the Southern California area.

ALYSSA KINNEAR joined the Mojalet family in 2011. She has toured nationally and internationally with the company and performed in Mojalet's Educational Outreach programs. Alyssa is a native San Diegan who began her dance training with Lorna Diamond and Donna Flournoy studying ballet, tap, jazz, flamenco and regional Spanish dancing.  Alyssa graduated from UC San Diego with a B.A. in Dance and went on to obtain her Doctor of Physical Therapy at University of Southern California.  She recently became a Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Pediatric Physical Therapy.  Alyssa is thrilled to be sharing her love of dance with her daughter, Coralie, who is performing with her in Mojalet's 30th Anniversary Concert.

KATHRYN MCLEAN first discovered her love of dance at a young age while growing up in the small town of Fallbrook, Ca. She began training with Faith Jensen-Ismay while a student at Palomar College and continued her journey in dance with Mojalet in 2001.  Kathryn has had the privilege of performing works by artists Patricia Sandback and Betzi Roe throughout the years and is forever grateful for the many performance opportunities and global adventures with Mojalet.  Kathryn is part of Mojalet's Educational Outreach programs performing for thousands of children each year.  She currently teaches an Eclectic Expression class at The Vine Arts Village.  When she is not dancing, Kathryn is busy raising her two children Juliette and James with her husband Jakob in Oceanside.  Kathryn has a passion for the arts, horticulture and the outdoors and thrives on new adventures with her family!

NICOLE WOODING has been training in classical ballet since she was 4 years old. Her training includes San Diego Civic Youth Ballet for 14 years under Xavier Hicks and Penny Huffor and she performed roles such as Sugar Plum, Snow Queen, Dew Drop (Nutcracker)  Evil Stepsister (Cinderella) Hippolyta (A Midsummer Night's Dream).  Nicole has  performed and choreographed with the Mesa College Dance Company from 2009-2014. Outside of SD, she preformed at the Detroit Opera House Theater with the American Ballet Theater for 3 summer seasons from 2004-200, and trained under Andre De La Roche and Rosy Loconte at DanzARt.srl in Bari, Italy in the 2015 summer season. Nicole works as a coach and ballet teacher for Emerald City Academy of Rhythmic Gymnastics (since 2010).  She is currently working towards becoming a physical therapist assistant.  Nicole began training with Faith Jensen-Ismay at Mesa college in 2012,  and has been dancing with Core Group & Mojalet Dance Collective since 2014  and is so happy and in love with the wonderful dance environment it provides.

NEFTALI VALLE His full name is Neftali Valle, but you can call him Nef or Neft for short. Nef was born and raised in southern San Diego in Barrio Logan. He attended the University of California, San Diego and graduated with a BA in Ethnic Studies and Critical Gender Studies with a minor in Law and Society. He started his formal dance training after college at at San Diego Mesa Community College. He took hip hop, modern, jazz and ballet with instructors such as Donna Flournoy, Blythe Barton and of course Faith Jensen-Ismay. Faith started Nef in Core Group, the dance company in training, then proceeded to invite him to Mojalet. Nef has participated in Mojalet’s Educational Outreach Programs in which the company visits schools to teach children how they can incorporate dance into everyday activities and learning. Other dance related experiences include dancing at Culture Shock Dance Center in the Shock Army dance group led by Anthony Rodriguez as well as San Diego Dance Theatre’s Trolley Dances. Outside of dance, Nef works as a secretary for the County of San Diego during the week, and a barista at Peet’s Coffee & Tea on the weekend. Nef brings a lot of passion and commitment to the work he does and hopes to continue dancing for the rest of his life in any capacity, whether it be professionally or as a personal hobby.

 CHRISTINA WURZ is originally from the Bronx, NY and started training at the Bronx Dance Theater. From there she attended the famous New York City High school of Performing Arts. She completed her formal dance education with a B.F.A. in dance at the University of Hartford, Hartt School in Connecticut; there she was trained by the world famous ballerina Alla Osipenko and Martha Graham protégé Peggy Lyman. Some of her accomplishments include Mojalet Core Group, Full Force Dance Theater, BalletNeo, San Diego Dance Theater, Terry Wilson and Dancers, Burklyn Ballet Theater, Dance Connecticut’s Touring Ensemble, New West Ballet Theater and West Coast Ballet Theater. Christina currently owns New West Ballet School in San Marcos where she directs classical ballet productions and trains the next generation of ballet dancers. Christina began training with Faith Jensen-Ismay in 2013 and performing with Mojalet in 2014 in the Rhythm Talk Swiss collaboration production, "On The Move".