Mr. Ocampo served as school director of the Giordano Dance Center, as well as the director of Giordano II and the Giordano Merit Scholarship program, and as a master jazz teacher, Eddy has taught in Europe, Mexico, Canada, Turkey, the Russian Republic and throughout the U.S. He is also the founding artistic director the American Jazz Dance Festival-New Generation in the Russian Republic and continues to travel to Russia yearly to spread his passion of jazz dance to many who may have never been exposed to the art form.

As a choreographer, Mr. Ocampo's works can be seen on such companies as Houston Metropolitan Dance Company, Odyssey Dance Theatre (Salt Lake City, UT), Kannon Dance (St. Petersburg, Russia), Lisa Clark Dancers (San Francisco, CA), Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, Thodos Dance Chicago, Cerqua Rivera Art Experience and many regional ballet companies across the U.S. He has worked with recording artists Josie Aeillo, Suzanne Palmer and London-based recording artist, Affe Adel.

Mr Ocampo received the Dance Chicago 2004 Outstanding Choreography Award as well as the Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation Choreography Award for Dance Chicago in 2005. He was a featured jazz dance teacher in the June 2005 issue of Dance Teacher Magazine as well as named one of the best jazz dance teachers in the country by Dance Spirit Magazine. In the December 2005 issue of Chicago Magazine, Mr. Ocampo was featured as an up and coming choreographer and in November 2005 he was honored as Filipino American of the Year – 2005 by the Filipino Association of America. Eddy Ocampo currently works as an independent teacher and choreographer for his own production company, Bento Box Productions, and resides in Chicago, IL.

Troy Powell, a native New Yorker, began his dance training at the age of nine at The Ailey School. Following his graduation from The High School of Performing Arts, he became a member of Ailey II. Mr. Powell joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1991. He toured throughout the United States, South America, Europe and South Africa for ten years before becoming a master teacher at The Ailey School and resident choreographer of Ailey II.
Mr. Powell has choreographed ballets for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Dallas Black Dance Theater and Alaska Dance Theater. His guest artist credits include performing with companies such as Batsheva, Dallas Black Dance Theater and Complexions. Featured in an American Express commercial with AAADT, Mr. Powell has also appeared on television in George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum and the PBS Great Performances: Dance In America, A Hymn for Alvin Ailey, choreographed by Judith Jamison.
Mr. Powell teaches master classes and workshops throughout the country. In 2002, Mr. Powell choreographed a ballet for Ailey II with music by McCoy Tyner for the Verizon Arts festival at Alice Tully Hall in New York City.

Dawn Scannell received her training from Victoria Leigh, Ruth Petrinovic, and James Franklin. She spent two summers on full scholarship at Houston Ballet Academy, and joined the company for the 1985-1986 season and rose to the rank of principal dancer with Houston Ballet. Ms. Scannell danced leading roles in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Gloria; George Balanchine’s Agon and Western Symphony; principal roles she danced in Ben Stevenson’s works include Cinderella, Don Quixote, and Dracula. Other roles include Stanton Welch’s Indigo; Jiří Kylián’s Sinfonietta and Symphony in D; Trey McIntyre’s Second Before the Ground and Touched; and Christopher Bruce’s Rooster, Gautama Buddha and Ghost Dances. Ms. Scannell retired as principal dancer in 2001 after 16 years, and has since worked with Houston Ballet as a guest teacher and coach.

Barbara Bears, a native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, joined the Houston Ballet in 1988 and was unexpectedly chosen by choreographer Sir Kenneth MacMillan for his ballet Gloria, an honor Bears regards as her most profound defining moment. She was awarded the silver medal at the International Ballet Competition in 1991 and promoted to principal dancer four years later. In 2001, Bears took a two-year hiatus from performing with the Houston Ballet to teach dance and to choreograph her own ballet, and finally retired in 2009.

She has had numerous roles created for her by such choreographers as Ben Stevenson (Svetlana, the female lead in Dracula in 1997) and Stanton Welch (Indigo in 1999 and the Big Sky and Cline Time sections of his evening-length work Tales of Texas in 2004). She was twice selected "best dancer" in the city of Houston by The Houston Press, first in 2001 and again in 2004. Reviewing her performance in Ben Stevenson's Five Poems, dance critic Lauren Kern observed, "Five Poems is an ensemble piece, but Barbara Bears steals the show. She captures the frustrated passion of Wagner's score, lingering in Stevenson's sad and sensual choreography. You can't buy moments like these."

Susan Quinn Williams trained under the famed Gus Giordano, becoming a Faculty member, Principal Dancer with Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago and later its Associate Artistic Director. Susan owned a professional school and became founding co-director of First City Dance Theatre, the only jazz company funded by the state if Florida. Her choreography opened the 1st Jazz Dance World Congress in Chicago, her Oriental flavored jazz work, FANtasy, was televised by Japan's largest station, NHK Television. Invited to be the first jazz choreographer of the festival Cours des Capucins in Luxemburg, Susan's choreography has been performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. to the Amsterdam School of the Arts in Amsterdam, Holland.

Her Spanish flavored Sabor a Mi was performed at the 1998 International Jazz Dance World Congress. Susan's work, Texas Canyon won a choreographer's award at the National Association of Regional Ballet and will be submitted in the dance archives, The Craft of Choreography. The adjudicator's from N.A.R.B. chose Texas Canyon to be performed at the 1998 International Ballet Festival in Jackson, Mississippi. In the Summer of 2000, Susan was invited to teach master classes in jazz and lyrical dance techniques in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her award winning piece, St. Teresa was performed at the prestigious "Kings's Theatre". A Master Teacher for D.M.A and D.E.A, she is the director of the 10th Annual Arizona Jazz Dance Showcase, with former guest artists Joe Tremaine, Sherry Zunker-Dow, and Mia Michaels. Along with Michael Williams', Susan was honored with the 2005 Jazz Dance Congress Award for her contributions in jazz dance.

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