Denise Woods, a native of southern California, has extensively studied ballet, contemporary, and various forms of dance for over 25 years. Her training began at California Dance Theatre with Kim Masseli, Nader Hamed and Stanley Holden. She then went on to receive her B.A. in Communications and minor in Dance as an honorable mention undergraduate from Cal State University of Long Beach, in addition to performing with Long Beach State Dance Team and Long Beach Ballet Theater. Soon after college, she returned to California Dance Theater as guest artist in their Pacific Festival Ballet Theatre with featured roles in contemporary ballet works.
Craving a taste of the big city she moved on to N.Y.C., dancing at Avery Fischer Hall with the Little Orchestra Society and at Gould Hall in Ballet Builders. Upon returning to California in 2006 she began a two year partnership with Ballet Santa Barbara. In addition to performing with BSB, she collaborated and performed in Santa Barbara's New Works, the Fusion Dance Company showcase and State Street Ballet's performance of Swan Lake at the Granada Theater.
Now residing in Los Angeles, her most recent work includes music videos by One Direction, Kesha, and Lovers Drugs. In addition stage performances include works at Highways, The Sweat Spot, and the McCallum Theatre choreography festival Dance Under the Stars. She has most recently been signed with Go 2 Talent Agency and looks forward to future projects with them. Denise has cultivated a few other loves aside from dance in her life, that of Yoga, Surfing and serving as a Birth Doula. Denise currently works as a full time Yoga and Dance Instructor throughout Los Angeles, leading retreats abroad yearly that fuse together Yoga and Surf. In addition she works part time throughout the year as a birth Doula to women and their familiies. She finds that all aspects of her career overlap, each a path, to cultivate a deeper connection to mind, body and soul.
Demo Reel
Had a blast getting back into my pointe shoes for One Direction's
"Steal My Girl"
Evening length piece The Longest Distance Chor: Rosana Tavarez
THE LONGEST DISTANCE from ROSANNA DANCES on Vimeo.
A snippet from independent film La Femme Americana.
Chor: Abbie Rose and Denise Woods.
Honored to be a soloist in The Sweat Spot's holiday show Babes in Toyland
Chor: Justine Clark
Lots of throwing color fun in Kesha's "Take It Off" Chor: Ryan Heffington
Lovers Drugs "1925" Chor : Brookelin Gottlieb
"I'm not saying anyone should ever have to suffer. But if something is extremely difficult, and you've got to keep asking yourself over and over, 'Is this really worth it?' it helps you decide if you really want to be an artist" - Twyla Tharp