David Karagianis, Music Director, Resident Composer                                                                  
David Karagianis, composer, sound designer, and musician is the Music Director of Loyola Marymount University’s Department of Theater and Dance.  David’s eclectic range and interests span film, dance, concert recital, theater and multi-media performance genres as well as classical, experimental, electronica, jazz, world, rock, pop and ambient stylistic boundaries.  Having served as Senior Musician for the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures (formerly the UCLA Department of Dance) for over 20 years and before that as Music Director of the Kinetikos Dance Foundation/Dance LA, David has collaborated in a variety of roles with several generations of Modern, and Post-Modern dance makers.  David has worked as a composer, sound designer and/or music director with numerous choreographers, dance companies, performance artists and videographers including David Rousseve, Holly Johnston, Chad Michael Hall, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, UCLA Dance Company, Bode Lawal, Pat Catterson, Victoria Marks, Dan Wagoner, Doug Neilsen, Sen Hea Ha, Ann Ludwig, John Pennington, Denise Uyehara, Liam Clancy, Janet Roston, Sharon Kinney, Cheng-Cheih Yu, Maria Gillespie and Janis Brenner.  An accomplished improvisatory pianist and percussionist, David has served as accompanist for Alwin Nikolais, Joe Goode, Bill T. Jones, Donald Byrd, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, the Martha Graham Company, the Limon Dance Company, and many others.  Awarded the Lester Horton Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound:  Music/Sound/Text, a winner in the Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur Competition for Music Composition for Dance and a recipient of Meet The Composer grants, over seventy of David’s scores for dance, concert, theater, video and multi-media have been performed or screened throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.  A Music Theory and Composition graduate of UCLA, David studied composition with Henri Lazarof and film scoring with David Raksin and Walter Scharf.  David is a Founding Member and a recent former Vice President of the International Guild of Musicians in Dance (2001-2004).  David has created three full length CDs of music he has composed, performed and produced for his Sound Dance® label: “Timeless” (1997), “Without Words” (2001), and “Brave New Age” (2004) and is presently at work on his soon to be released fourth CD.  Information about recordings, projects and workshops by David may be found at www.sounddance.net.


Gywnne Clark, Designer and Costume Director
Gywnne Clark, designer and costumer, has a BFA in Costume Design from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her professional experience includes the Area Stage in Washington, D.C. , and several shows on and off Broadway. Gwynne has been with LMU for the past eighteen years and has designed and created the costumes for plays, musicals, dance concerts and performance projects.


John Garofalo, Master Electrician
John A. Garofalo, Assistant Technical Director and Master Electrician, has been Assistant Lighting Designer at the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, Lighting Designer for the Harvard Ratcliffe Summer Theatre and Master Electrician at the American Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre of San Francisco and the La Jolla Playhouse. He has an MBA from Loyola Marymount University and a BA from Boston College. John teaches the Stage Craft labs.


Layne A. McGhee, Administrative Assistant
Layne McGhee has a BFA in Dance from California State University Long Beach and most recently has worked with BLOCH, a World renowned dance shoe and apparrel company that provides shoes to most of the major dance companies in the United States and abroad. For information regarding LMU Dance Program, please contact Layne McGhee at 310-338-5233 lmcghee1@lmu.edu.


Mavis Rode, Physical Therapist
Mavis Rode began her career as a Physical Therapist in 1989, graduating from California State University Northridge with degrees in Biology and Physical Therapy.  She has worked in both hospital and outpatient settings; her specialty is outpatient orthopedics/sports medicine.  She is currently Physical Therapist for the Dance Wellness Program, Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and also maintains a private practice.  Mavis has studied modern dance, ballet, jazz, tap, and hip hop.  Her interests in functional movement and rehabilitation developed during her years as a dancer.  She has also worked as a fitness instructor, teaching aerobics and dance aerobics classes.  Mavis combines her manual therapy skills with her experience in dance, Pilates, and other forms of movement re-education in her work with her patients and fitness clients.


F. Jason Sheppard, Technical Director
F. Jason Sheppard has designed sets for Loyola Marymount productions including Noises Off, Once In a Lifetime, A Raisin In the Sun, and Macbeth. Off campus he has designed sets for several companies in Los Angeles. Some favorites include Beast On the Moon (Long Beach Playhouse), The Architect (The Gascon Theater), and Modigliani (Buffalo Knights). Jason has also stage managed and directed several plays in L.A. Jason has worked as Technical Director for the Department of Theater Arts and Dance for the past five years.


Dan Weingarten, Lighting Designer
Dan Weingarten has created lighting for over 200 productions including concert dance, awards shows, dinner theater, trade shows, and straight plays. He designed lighting for the highly acclaimed company Circle X, the 1998 American Choreography Awards, the 1999 LA Weekly Awards, and Nijinsky Speaks off-Broadway at the Harold Clurman Theater in NYC. Dan has also designed productions of Great Men of Science, Numbers 21 & 22, The Rover, Show and Tell, Louis Slotin Sonata, Fathers and Sons, and In Flegrante Gothicto.