Dance, 2017
Stephanie Wonchala is an Anchorage choreographer and dance educator. She is the artistic director of Pulse Dance Company, founded in 2010, and owner/operator of Studio Pulse Center for Dance, opened in 2013. Wonchala served as artistic director of the 2014 Arctic Winter Games and has held the position of adjunct faculty with UAA’s department of Theatre & Dance. She was awarded a Rasmuson Fellowship for choreography in May 2015 and announced an Alaska Journal of Commerce “Top Forty Under 40” member in January 2016.
She has produced and directed seven evening-length concerts for Pulse Dance Company and creates new work for numerous productions state-wide annually. She has choreographed for the Anchorage Concert Association and Cyrano’s Theatre, and her work has been commissioned by the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, the Anchorage Museum, the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Wonchala is a UAA dance ensemble alumna and has trained in acclaimed studios in New York, Vancouver and Long Beach as well as attended multiple American College Dance Festivals across the U.S. She has interned, instructed, performed and choreographed for Homer, Seward and Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival dance intensives. She has studied under Jake Casey, Manuel Vignoulle, Mia Michaels, Graciela Kozak, former XSIGHT! director Brian Jeffery, Pauline Souter, Billy Siegenfeld of the Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Katherine Kramer of Rhythm Explosion, Peter Carpenter, Annie Arnoult-Bessera of Striding Lion, Alice Bassler Sullivan, Krenly Guzman, Lillian Manansala, and Ines Moroni. In addition to 13 years as a dance educator, she is Pilates Barre and Zumba certified.
She has also held the titles of Miss Anchorage 2005, Miss Chugiak/Eagle River 2006, Miss Alaska 2006, and competed in the Miss America 2007 pageant.
Wonchala is incredibly grateful to live a life in dance – especially in Alaska. She continues to be inspired by the beautiful hearts and minds that make up the Anchorage performing arts community and feels deeply privileged to work within that community every day.
Wonchala is incredibly grateful to live a life in dance – especially in Alaska. She continues to be inspired by the beautiful hearts and minds that make up the Anchorage performing arts community and feels deeply privileged to work within that community every day.