Leadership Bios

Vanessa Sanchez is a Chicana dancer, choreographer, and educator whose work centers on community arts and traditional dance forms to uplift the voices and experiences of Latina, Chicana, and Indigenous womxn and youth. Based in San Francisco, Sanchez is the Founder and Executive Artistic Director of La Mezcla, a womxn-of-color-led rhythmic dance company that explores historical narratives and social justice through Tap dance, Son Jarocho, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. A 2019 Dance/USA Artist Fellow, Sanchez is deeply committed to community engagement, bringing often overlooked histories of communities of color to life on stages, in the streets, and in public spaces. Her work emphasizes accessibility to quality arts education and performance opportunities while mentoring emerging artists and youth of color in the Bay Area.

Sanchez’s current touring production, “Ghostly Labor,” a Hewlett 50 Arts Commission, is a polyrhythmic dance theater work that delves into the history of labor in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. Her NEFA-funded production, “Pachuquísmo”—an all-female tap and Son Jarocho performance exploring the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots—received the Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Production and has toured internationally to venues such as Lincoln Center (NY), Jacob’s Pillow (MA), and El Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris (Mexico City). From 2020-2023, Sanchez served as a dance lecturer at UC Santa Cruz and is currently an artist-in-residence at Brava! For Women in the Arts.

Sharon Benítez  manages the company’s productions and community programs by providing administrative support for La Mezcla projects and touring. Sharon is a musician, dancer, educator, and arts administrator who has taught and performed throughout California, México, and the UK. An SF Bay Area native, she holds an MA in Dance Anthropology from University of Roehampton London and graduated from Santa Clara University with dual degrees in English and Ethnomusicology. She has spent the last decade working as a program coordinator for various arts nonprofits, museums, and schools.

Sandy Vazquez is an interdisciplinary teaching artist and educator based in Oakland by way of Los Angeles and the Artistic Associate of La Mezcla. Because she is the first generation daughter of Mexican immigrants, this work though La Mezcla is important to her because it speaks to the lineage of Mexican American folks in the US that ultimately has informed the way she navigates the world around her. She is excited to be a cast member for this run of Pachuquísmo and hopes that this show serves as a seed for future conversations around the multiplicity of the Latinx experience in the US and Latinidad as a whole.

Kirsten Millan  is a Philippine-American multidisciplinary dancer born and raised in San Francisco. She graduated from SFSU with dual degrees in History and Dance. In addition to teaching tap dance and working in various arts administration organizations in the Bay Area for the last decade, she has performed work by esteemed choreographers around the Bay Area, the Netherlands, and most recently with La Mezcla at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Lincoln Center in New York City, Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, and Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris in Mexico City. She is currently a performer for Parangal Dance Company and has been a performer with the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation (REAF) since 2016. She also currently works as Marketing Associate for La Mezcla and as Communications Manager for Deborah Slater Dance Theater. She hopes to continue exploring identity in the context of race, culture, and society in her work on and offstage. @kirstenkmillan |  kmillan.com