Dance Faculty

Amber McCall (Dance Director) as a Bay Area native, has been directing the dance program at San Jose City College since Fall 2008. She completed her MFA in Dance from the University of California, Irvine in 2004 and received her BA in Dance Pedagogy from Butler University in 1998. Her graduate studies focused on the integration of dance, media and interactive technologies, which she continues to bring to City College.  Ms. McCall's previous teaching experience includes Saint Mary's College of California, where she was on faculty for four years, University of California Irvine, Marin Civic Ballet, Petaluma School of Ballet and Orinda Community Center. Amber was also pleased to be an Arts Bridge Scholar during her graduate studies at UCI, where she taught dance to urban Kinder-5th graders.

Amber has previously produced work at The American College Dance Festival, Winter Showcase, sjDANCEco's Dancin' Downtown, Collaboration! Dance and Music, Raw and Uncut, and Work in the Works. She has performed with several Bay Area dance companies including Davalos Dance Company, Dance Outre, Zero Gravity Dance Theater, Landini Dance Company, NOMADance Company as well as with Los Angeles based choreographers Loretta Livingston and Christine Chrest. Amber had the honor of performing with internationally recognized choreographer David Dorfman in fall 2006 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.  Amber's Dance for the Camera work titled The Duel has been screened at several festivals including Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, Dance Camera West and UCI Dance Film Festival. In addition to teaching dance, Amber has been a certified Pilates instructor since 2001.

Carol Abohatab (Adjunct Faculty) has been making dances for herself and groups for over 20 years. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Mills College in Oakland, she earned her BS and MFA degrees in Dance Performance and Choreography, and formed Vanguard Dance Company shortly after, in the Fall of 1998. VDC has performed consistently in the bay area, including Summerfest, Westwave, in Marin, Concord, and at SJDanceCo's Choreoproject. Teaching modern dance consistently nationwide since 1987 for hundreds of youth in the Drum & Bugle Corps and Color Guard activity, Carol has been encouraging students to pursue dance in both performance and choreographic areas. She has also taught at UW-Madison,  in NYC, since 2002, at West Valley College, and from 1998 – 2002 at San Jose City College. She was very happy to return to SJCC in 2006.

Carol created and directed Children's Adventures in Movement, a dance outreach program of the Santa Clara Vanguard. She has had the opportunity to study and perform with many choreographers including Janice Garrett, Li Ciao Ping, Joe Goode, Viola Farber, Alwin Nikolais, and Murray Louis, but has primarily focused on her own company and solo works. Influenced by Murray Louis and Alwin Nikolais with whom she studied extensively in New York on scholarship, her pieces are a direct result of motional musicality - i.e., getting to speak out loud using gesture instead of words. 

Dr. Susan Cashion (Adjunct Faculty) is one of the pioneers of Mexican Folklórico dance in the United States.  In conjunction with Ramon Morones, she founded Los Lupeños de San Jose  Mexican Dance Company in 1969,  and is currently co-director of the organization. In 1974 she was one of the founding members of the Associación Nacional de Grupos Folkloricos, a national consortium of Mexican Dance Performance Ensembles. For her work in this field she received an award from the Mexican Government (1980) for her "Contribution to the Teaching of Mexican Folklore within the United States", and an NEA Honor Award (1999) for pioneer work in the “Convergence of Traditional Hispanic/Latino Music and Dance in the USA.”

Susan Cashion is an emerita of the Stanford University Dance Division, where she taught for thirty-five years, in which she chaired the program for thirteen years.   Her undergraduate work was at UCLA under dance educator Dr. Alma Hawkins, who emphasized the choreographic process of modern dance.  The focus of Dr. Cashion's MA degree at UCLA was on dance ethnology, specifically Mexican dance.  During her first ten years on faculty at Stanford, she simultaneously completed a second MA in Anthropology and a PhD in the School of Education.

Holly Lampe Brosius (Adjunct Faculty) graduated with a MFA in Dance from the University of California, Irvine and a BA degree in Dance from San Jose State University. While attending graduate school, Holly received a fellowship for her studies and a travel grant to research world-renowned dance teacher, Lynn Simonson and she performed with the Jazz Dance Ensemble directed by Bob Boross.

Prior to Holly's start at SJCC in Fall 2011, she had been a faculty member with Missouri Valley College, Cypress College, Orange Coast College, Santa Ana College, Mt. San Antonio College, El Camino College, Cerritos College, Rio Hondo College, and Long Beach City College.  Her performance and choreography experience encompasses Musical Theatre, Hip Hop, Jazz, Modern, and Tap for various college dance concerts, musicals, master classes and events. Holly has received awards for choreography and academics as well as recognition in competitive dance circuits.

Lydia Martinez Campos (Adjunct Faculty) graduated from the University of California at Irvine with an M.F.A. degree in Dance.  The focus of her graduate studies  included dance history research, Labanotation studies, motion capture, ballet technique, modern dance and ballroom.   At UCI, Lydia had the privilege of reconstructing 20th century choreographer Anthony Tudor's ballet "Soirée Musicale."  Lydia was born and raised in Mexico City where she began her professional classical ballet training  at the National Institute of Fine Arts.  In the United States she danced professionally for over 15 years in numerous ballets including The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Swan Lake, and many other classical and contemporary ballet repertory works.

Lydia has been adjunct faculty at UC Irvine, Riverside Community College, San Jose State University, and Evergreen Valley College.  Lydia has over 20 years of experience sharing her love and passion for dance to children, adolescents and adults.  She graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelors of Arts degree and a Single Subject Credential in French.    Since 2002, she has been a full time faculty member at Silver Creek High School where she has taught French and currently directs Silver Creek High  School's Dance  Program.  Lydia is now proud and excited to join San Jose City College as adjunct faculty.