Rande' Dorn

Artistic Director and Founder

Rande Dorn is a choreographer, dancer, singer, and artistic director of The Ciagio Collective. She was born and raised just south of Los Angeles in Gardena, CA. Her dance training began formally at the University of California San Diego under the direction of Jean Isaacs, Patricia Rincon, and Margaret Marshall. During her junior year she spent a semester abroad in Prague, Czech Republic. There she realized her intense desire to pursue dance on a professional level. In the semester to follow she performed her first choreographic piece, establishing herself as a force within UCSD’s artistic community. With no dance major, she pursued a theater degree with a dance emphasis by completing all the theater requirements including playwriting, set design, theater history and acting, on top of a full dance load. In the two years to follow Rande would developed a distinct voice in choreography based on training in contact improvisation taught by Nina Martin. She would go on to create several new works that were presented at UCSD, Berkley, Mexicali, and throughout the San Diego community, two of which were recognized for choreographic excellence. (Stewart Award 96 and Stewart Award honorable mention 95) Before receiving her BA in Theater, she was also an assistant theater director for two thesis plays, and an actor in several others.

After graduation, Rande took a year to study a variety of dance in New York City. She took classes throughout the NYC dance scene, finally finding kinship with the teachers of Dance Space. While studying modern, jazz, and ballet, she interned with a broadway producer, and began studying Gyrotonics at Studio Riverside. Her year ended early when she was accepted into the graduate dance program at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. CalArts led Rande’s choreography into a new direction. With a new emphasis on placement and technique, her work began to focus on the complexities found in the transition between shapes and gestures. She began working on a more intimate level with her dancers, creating smaller works that highlighted the individual performer and choreography as a craft. She exposed herself to the different levels of production by working as an assistant theatre director, sound technician, and for two years assistant costume director for the dance school. She successfully completed her MFA in 2000.

Since CalArts, Rande has reconnected with a number of alumni from both UCSD and CalArts. Due to her scholastic connections she was able to present work throughout her MFA candidacy in San Francisco, and soon after graduation in Los Angeles. With a lot of encouragement and support Rande began The Ciagio Collective (count it all joy) last year with talented alumni from CalArts and UCSD. Rande is a dance teacher at Marymount High School, and a certified Pilates and Gyrotonics instructor throughout Los Angeles.

Rande's Resume