​Sandra Paola López Ramírez (Ed.M. - M.F.A.)
​Co-founder and Director

Photo by Laura Bustillos Jáquez

Sandra Paola is a latinoamericana dancemaker, improviser and performance activist. Her community-based interdisciplinary work plays with gender, identity, and sociality, and it has taken her through the US, Colombia, Brazil, Cyprus, France, Denmark, Germany, Canada and Mexico. Since moving to the United States from her native Colombia in 2004, she has studied with renowned artist such as Kirstie Simson, Ruth Zaporah, Cynthia Oliver and Jennifer Monson and has developed her art practice to integrate her creative process and her community organizing efforts. Driven by her commitment to social transformation, Sandra Paola co-founded and directs the Institute for Improvisation and Social Action (ImprovISA) – an organization empowering diverse populations to develop through performance and improvisation in the U.S.-Mexico border. In her work, she combines movement improvisation, Latin American vernacular dances, Africana dance practices, meditation and Social Therapeutics, to create developmental approaches to social change and decolonization. She is currently dance faculty at the University of Texas at El Paso.
For more information visit sandrapaolalopez.com

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​Chris Reyman (D.M.A.)
​Co-founder and Assistant Director

Chris Reyman comes from a musical family and began performing professionally with his father when he was fifteen. He completed his BM in Commercial Music at Millikin University (2003) and his MM (2006) and DMA in Jazz Performance (2011) at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He performs in jazz and improvisation ensembles, most notably the Koan Ensemble. In addition to performing, he has composed scores for award winning short films that have been screened at over one hundred film festivals in twenty-five countries. His research focusing on improvisation has been presented in New York City, Paris, at the Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium 2014 and 2016, New Mexico and throughout Texas. Chris Reyman is a dedicated professor of music at the University of Texas at El Paso where he works with students on creative music practices through performance, composition, and collaborative music making. For more information visit chrisreyman.com