Elena is a Dance-Maker, Educator, Artistic Director, Dance/Movement Therapist, Mother, and all-around creative currently residing in California’s Central Valley with her husband, son, and Great Pyrenees. 

She holds her MA in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling from Columbia College Chicago, and will complete her MFA in Dance at St. Mary's College of California in June 2024, when she will present her thesis, The Ways We Know, on the theme of kinesthetic empathy. She holds her BA in Dance from UC Irvine, where she trained with the renowned Donald McKayle, Loretta Livingston and Lisa Naugle, and participated in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program where she conducted research in the field of dance and technology.

Elena is currently on faculty at both Fresno City College and Clovis Community College. She is also on faculty at Fresno State University, where she taught during the 2022-2023 academic year. She is the founder and Artistic Director of (Kin)esphere Dance Project, a modern and contemporary dance company which began in 2022 and is based in Fresno, CA, that focuses on themes of connection, community, healing, and how we communicate with ourselves and others. 

Elena is passionate about using dance as a powerful connecting force that unites us in community, and enjoys working with upcoming generations of dancers to help them find meaningful ways to weave dance throughout the entirety of their lives. She believes that movement helps us understand one another, that dance is a universal and healing experience that we know from our earliest days, and that every living human is, in their inmost essence, a dancer.