A local to San Diego, Erica Buechner began her professional dance training while still in high school with Faith Jensen-Ismay and Jean Isaacs. She began performing professionally in 1999 with Mojalet Dance Collective under the direction of Faith Jensen-Ismay, and has had the opportunity to perform both locally and abroad in her 11 years with the company. Erica has also performed with Eveoke Dance Theatre, Patricia Sandback and Dancers, Malashock Dance, The PGK Project, Opus Mixtus Post Jazz, and the Joe Alter Dance Group, among other individual choreographers. In 2008, Janice Steinberg of The San Diego Union-Tribune stated, “The precise, focused Buechner…(has) emerged as (one) of San Diego’s strongest dancers.”
Erica Buechner first attended Palomar College and received her AA in Dance along with being named Dancer of the Year. She transferred to San Diego State University where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and was named the Outstanding Graduate of the Year in Dance. In 2011, Erica was awarded with the Alumni To Watch Award from SDSU’s School of Music and Dance.
Erica’s choreography has been shown throughout San Diego. Her work was selected to be a part of the La Jolla Music Society’s inaugural CHOREOLab and San Diego Dance Theatre’s second annual Young Choreographer’s Prize. It has also been seen at the Celebrate Dance Festival, San Diego Dances, and The Vine, among other festivals, workshops and studio performances. She has been asked to set work on Mojalet Dance Collective, d’shire Dance Collective, Canyon Crest Academy, Mission Hills High School, Carlsbad High School, and Orange Glen High School. Erica is a regular guest artist at Canyon Crest Academy, teaches for Young Audiences of San Diego and Malashock Dance School. She has also been asked to teach master classes at San Diego State University and California State University, San Marcos. In 2011, Erica Buechner started Sound Dance Company, which debuted at the youTurn Contemporary Arts Exhibition 2011.
