About Me
Maikalani means Sent from Heaven in Hawaiian.
Born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaii and now living, working and dancing in San Francisco.
Due to musical and theatrical parents, dance, theater and art were a big part of my upbringing. In college, I fell in love with photography and the magic of the dark room. The combination of technical skills and artistic creativity in photography, inspired me. A study abroad to Mexico, led to a minor in Spanish Language as well as a great appreciation for Hispanic Culture. Upon completion of a Bachelors Degree in Art, I enjoyed a short stint of painting murals on gates and building sand mermaids at the beach until being hired as a photographer and graphic designer for a photo studio in Honolulu. In this position I created stunning portraits in the studio with both film and digital cameras. I became especially skilled at "disappearing" imperfections in Photoshop with a quick and delicate hand.
A desire to improve my skills and knowledge led to a Master's degree in Communications of which I completed in December 2006. My education and experience is comprised of marketing, corporate communications, graphic design, web site design, studio photography and photo retouching. Presently I do freelance graphic design with a focus on print media. I use Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator on a daily basis and enjoy using Keynote and Pages for presentations and corporate documents. I also design websites with Dreamweaver and am competent with HTML and CSS.
Click here to view PDF of Resume
About Dancing
My love of dance began as a child when at the age of 9 was enrolled in Ballet classes. Throughout the years I continued to learn a variety of dances such as Modern, Jazz, African, Ballroom and West Coast Swing. In 1994 I signed up for my first Salsa class and was hooked. Salsa and Argentine Tango quickly became my two favorites dances. In 2001 I was invited to join my first salsa dance group, Son D'Hawaii and that same year we represented Hawaii at the West Coast Salsa Congress in Los Angeles. Soon after I became the co-director of the Salsa performance group, Aloha Rumberos Dance Company. My partner and I taught Salsa classes to adults and children as well as performed around Hawaii and in California.
Due to a shoulder injury I decided to take a break from Salsa and further pursue Argentine Tango. in 2007 and 2008 I traveled to Buenos Aires to continue my Tango training. While there I studied with top Tango instructors such as Rodolfo Dinzel, Lucianna Valle and Gustavo Naviera. In San Francisco, I have studied with Felipe Martinez, Andrea Fuchilieri, Homer& Christina and David & Mariana. I enjoy dancing both close embrace and open styles of Tango.
Recently I have been the assistant Tango instructor for George Garcia from Honolulu, Hawaii. George Garcia and I performed at Cafe Cocomo in San Francisco in March 2009: View Performance Here. This second clip is a class demo at City College in SF on Colgadas and Volcadas: View Class Demo Here.
About TangoTees.com
I love dancing Tango so much that I decided to design my own Tango T-Shirts. These are fun, witty and unique prints designed with the passionate tango dancer in mind.
Tango Tees will hold up well to hours of dancing and multiple washings. Select from the latest styles and colors. Each shirt is printed to order.
