Andrew Vaca

      Andrew Vaca, Artistic Director of Jazzworks - Long Beach, is the Department Chair of the CSULB Department of Dance where he has taught for over 15 years.  He holds a BA in Communication Studies from CSU Sacramento and an MFA in Dance from UCLA.  Vaca began training with Dale Scholl in Jazz-ee Dance Company and Jazzworks-A Dance Company, and later performed with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Keith Johnson/Dancers, Bodytalk, and Roman DanceTheatre.  Dance teachers who have greatly influenced Vaca’s career include Terri Best, Ronald E. Brown, Pat Catterson, MaDonna Grimes, Sharon Kinney, Doug Nielsen, Dale Scholl, Risa Steinberg, Dan Wagoner, and Joan Woodbury. 

      As a choreographer, Vaca is known in the worlds of both sports entertainment and concert dance.  Since 1999, Vaca has premiered 19 original dances for the CSULB Department of Dance.  He has received commissions from the Nannette Brodie Dance Theater, the Pulse Dance Company, Texas A&M University, and the University of Utah.  His choreography has also been produced at the Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival, the South Coast Dance Arts Alliance Festival, and most recently at the L.A. SoCal Dance Invitational.  For over 25 years, Vaca has choreographed dance material for NBA and NFL dance teams across the country including the Los Angeles Laker Girls, the Pro Bowl Cheerleaders, the Boston Celtics Dancers, and the San Francisco 49ers Gold Rush.  As a part of his on-going connection to the Boston Celtics Dancers, Vaca was featured in a 2010 Comcast reality series, The Celtics Dancers:  the Dance for 18.  Vaca has choreographed large halftime spectaculars for the NFL including the 2001 and 2007 United Way Thanksgiving halftime shows and the 2009 NFL Pro Bowl.         Currently, he is a featured teacher at the LA Music Center’s Taste of Dance and Dance Downtown programs, and teaches for Pro Action Dance, the leader in professional sports choreography.  In his spare time, Vaca is the Baja Regional Director for the American College Dance Association, and enjoys pedaling his bike around Belmont Heights in Long Beach.