TWIGS

Ja Coates ’06

Ja Coates is a proud Baltimore native, TWIGS alum, and graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts Theatre Class of 2006. Now, as TWIGS Program Manager, Ja brings it full circle by supporting the next generation of Baltimore City youth as they explore their creative voices.

With over a decade of experience in the learning and development field, Ja is passionate about creating spaces where students can thrive artistically and academically. They hold a background in Film and Theatre and are known for their dynamic communication style, dedication to access and equity, and joyful commitment to arts education. Ja believes deeply in TWIGS as a powerful launchpad that offers students an unparalleled foundation in the arts.

Samantha Christiansen ’91

Samantha Christiansen has been on the BSA faculty since 2002. She received her early training through Baltimore Ballet and Peabody Preparatory doing the strict Royal Academy of Dancing syllabus. In 1987, Christiansen was accepted into the Baltimore School for the Arts where she studied under Norma Pera, Sylvester Campbell, Stephanie Powell, and Debra Robinson. In 1997, she was awarded the only distinction for the Royal Academy of Dance Grade 8 syllabus in the United States. Christiansen also performed with the Stephanie Powell Danse Ensembles I and II for five years, as well as with Movement Addiction in How to Disappear Completely.

In 1997, Christiansen began teaching privately and at various dance schools around Baltimore. She then went on to open her own school, the Northwest School of Dance based in Finksburg. During this time, she helped students get into top dance programs and win numerous awards at local and national dance competitions. She has also completed the Russian Vaganova Syllabus under John White and the José Limón teachers training workshop in New York.

Michael Solomon

Professor Solomon has written and published eight books, including “How to Find Lost Objects,” “Japan in a Nutshell,” and “Coney Island.”

Anita Horwath

Anita Horwath holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and has taught creative drama for TWIGS for the past 20 years. She also teaches an after-school drama program for Roland Park Country School. She directs Ages on Stages, an intergenerational improvisational group that includes the BSA sophomores. The group performs in senior centers and high schools around the city.

Tony Tsendeas

Kaya is a multi-faceted performing artist. Kaya has been a part of the BSA family since 2006 when they were in TWIGS, graduated from the BSA acting department in 2012, and came back to BSA to teach TWIGS in 2017 and began teac

Tony Tsendeas is a core acting instructor at The Baltimore School for the Arts.  He is the former Artistic Director of Action Theater; named Baltimore’s Best Theater by Baltimore Magazine, and featured in national theater publications American Theater Magazine and The Drama Review.   

Action theater’s initial production of David Mamet’s American Buffalo was met with tremendous critical enthusiasm.  The News American’s Scott Fosdick enthused that Action was “…the type of company that has reshaped the American Theater…go see it, at the least you will see an excellent production of a hard-hitting play, whether or not you’ve seen theater history remains to be seen.”   Tony directed Beckett’s Happy Days (later moved to Barnard College for a Beckett Festival), The Water Engine by David Mamet, Albee’s American Dream – named Best Production by the Baltimore City Paper, The Madman and the Nun by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, and I Married a Fly by company member Thomas E. Cole.  For many years, Action Theater was in residence at The Baltimore Theater project and presented many productions at this venerable venue.

Tony conceived and directed, BeckettLand .  This collection of short dramatic pieces by Samuel Beckett was set in a ‘Ghost Carnival’ or ‘Bemusement Park’.  Action presented BeckettLand at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show was a tremendous hit. London Stage Magazine called the production, “A marvelous production and a must for all Beckett Fans.”  Scotland’s largest daily paper, The Scotsman opined that the show was “A boldly conceived and memorably luminous production”.  BeckettLand earned the company representation by renowned European Impresario, Hans de Visser who booked a multi-city tour for the company in The Netherlands.

Tony then directed Action company member Robb Bauer’s adaptation of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.  Presented at Goucher College as part of the company’s residency there, this multi-media, trip-hop, dark clown show phantasmagoria was named best production of the year by The Baltimore City Paper.  This was the 2nd time a show directed by Tony earned this distinction; the first being Action Theater’s production of Edward Albee’s The American Dream. 

For The Clown Theater troupe – Theatrics, Tony directed Circus Berserkus at Wolf Trap, Café Quikus for The Theater by the Sea and Payatz! at Roundhouse Theater in DC and The Baltimore Theater Project.   For The Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Tony directed Macbeth, Othello, Julius Caesar and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. At Rep Stage, Tony directed I Am My Own Wife and Wittenberg by David Davelos, for which Tony was nominated for a Helen Hayes award as best director.

As a stage actor Tony has played a wide variety of roles in a broad array of theaters and venues in the US and abroad, including: Action Theater, Center Stage, The Lyric, The Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, The Edinburgh Fringe, Scena Theater, The Meyerhoff, Theater J, Woolly Mammoth Theater, Denver’s The Verizon Center, and Verizon Hall in Philadelphia and most city theaters in The Netherlands.  Roles assailed at these venues include Teach (American Buffalo), Chebutykin (The Three Sisters), Beethoven (CSI:Beethoven), Sigmund Freud (Analyze This), Bam (What Where – BeckettLand), Claudius (Hamlet), Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing), Buckinham (Richard III).  Tony was formerly actor-in-residence at The Baltimore Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum and his one man show – The Poe Show has toured extensively.  

Tony’s voice has graced Audible and he has narrated shows for The Discovery Channel, The History Channel and The Learning Channel.   Film work includes the features, Her Alibi, The Fall from Paradise, Television: HBO’s The Wire, HBO’s Autopsy and NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Streets, The learning Channel’s Great Books Series,  

While writing and directing Look Alive Baltimore 2, for the City of Baltimore, Mr. Tsendeas cast Tony award winning actress Trazana Beverly as civil rights icon Lilly Carrol Jackson.  Out of this work, mutual respect and friendship evolved.  Mr. Tsendeas’ first exposure to BSA came as a substitute teacher for Trazana.  When Trazana prepared to leave BSA, she asked Tony to take over her classes and thus began a long and productive artistic and educational journey.

hing in the Theatre Department in 2019. Having graduated from Towson University with a BFA in Acting, Kaya has maintained their local roots having performed with notable Baltimore theatre companies such as Single Carrot, Submersive Productions, Center Stage, and ACME Corporation. Kaya is currently a company member with the ACME Corporation. While Kaya is a Voice teacher for the Acting department, their passions lie in merging both the voice and the body in all forms of performing arts, specifically in poetic language.

Denis Karp

A native of Baltimore, Denis Karp began studying flute at the age of six at the Peabody Preparatory. In 1989, he performed John Corigliano’s Pied Piper Fantasy with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and James Galway on a two-week East Coast tour. In 2002, he received a bachelor of science degree in music from Towson University, where he studied with Sara Nichols.  He frequently records in studio as a member of the Washington Winds and performs with many groups throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC. Karp is the flutist in the Gallery Winds woodwind quintet and is the co-founder and co-director of the Gallery Winds Chamber Music Sumer Camp. Karp teaches private flute lessons throughout Maryland and has served as a judge for Maryland All-State Band, Maryland State Solo and Ensemble Festival, Howard County GT Band, and many local competitions.

Tyrone Page

An accomplished saxophonist and educator, Tyrone Page Jr. has had tremendous success working with composers and other musicians to expand contemporary saxophone repertoire. Actively involved in the performance of new works, Tyrone performs regularly in the Baltimore area and across the United States as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. Tyrone recently joined the Symphony of the Mountains in a performance of Glazunov’s Concerto in E-flat Major. Recent commissions include collaborations with Gabriella Ortiz, James David Young, and Stacy Garrop.

In collaborations with his alma mater, Tyrone was featured in performances with the Peabody Concert Orchestra, Peabody Modern Orchestra, and the Peabody Wind Ensemble. Gaining proficiency with the contemporary repertoire, he’s a regular performer with Mind on Fire, a musical arts cooperative that strives to engage with an inclusive community through engaging concerts, outreach programs, and special events. In collaboration with the group’s Artistic Director, composer James Young, Tyrone recently released an album recording of “True Fluorescent Skeleton” with Ehse Records. The piece is a 50 minute, unaccompanied, work for tenor saxophone.

Tyrone is a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied with Dr. Chris Ford. He holds degrees in Saxophone Performance and Music Education from Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University as well as a Master of Music in Saxophone Performance and Wind Conducting.

Sofia Tsanova

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Sofia Tsanova grew up in a family of principal dancers, watching rehearsals and performances at The National Opera and Ballet Theatre. She started her ballet education at the age of five at the pre-professional school of Masha Ilieva and during her early dance education she participated in performances at the National Opera and Ballet Theatre. Sofia was later accepted into the National School of Dance Art, under the instruction of Katya Petrovska and Lyubov Fominih.

 In 2001, Sofia’s dance journey took her to Seoul, South Korea, to study at the Sunhwa Arts School – Ballet Division under Vera Solovyeva and Nikolay Levitsky, where she also had the opportunity to dance and tour with the Universal Ballet Company, directed by Oleg Vinogradov and Julia Moon. In 2004 Sofia moved to the United States and joined The Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, and later received scholarships to continue her studies at The New World School of the Arts and The Kirov Academy in D.C.

 Sofia Tsanova began teaching the Vaganova method in 2010, in various studios in the DC metro area, including the Academy of Russian Ballet, The Washington School of Ballet, and guest teaching at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet. Over the past decade, Sofia has honed her skills as a ballet instructor and also has worked extensively as a movement and conditioning coach for rhythmic gymnasts at Gymnastics World VA, including members of the National Team and the Elite Squad who competed internationally.

 Sofia is honored to be a faculty member at the Baltimore School for the Arts and the TWIGS program.

Amelia Voos ’14