LEADERSHIP TEAM

Founder, Director

Krystal Matsuyama-Tsai (she/her) is a Japanese American movement artist, researcher, and educator. 

A Southern California native, Krystal earned her BFA from the University of California, Irvine under the close mentorship of Jodie Gates, Douglas Becker, and the legendary late Donald McKayle and his Etude Ensemble. Professionally, Krystal has performed with Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, BARE Dance Company, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and is a founding member of Entity Contemporary Dance.

Krystal later returned to UC Irvine to complete and receive her MFA in Dance. Her thesis, titled “kNOw|BODY’s: The Effects of Communication in Dance Pedagogy on Artistic Voice and Personal Identity”, examines the relational power dynamics found in dance teaching practices. She explores and examines how the dance-learning experience can inform, mold, and shape the young dancer in their learning processes. As an educator, these ideas continue to heavily influence her own teaching practices, both at the pre-professional level and collegiate environment. 

Krystal’s movement and teaching philosophy centers holistic well-being, mind/body curiosity, and critical inquiry, which is a standard she holds for herself as an educator and her students. As a long time educator in the Orange County community, Krystal is privileged to be supporting a wide range of dancers, from the local dance studio to her role as a lecturer of dance at Chapman University in Orange, CA. She is proud to see her former students continue their dance journeys at educational institutions such as Juilliard and Arts Umbrella, and with companies Nederlands Dans Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and Gibney Dance Company. 

For more than a decade, Krystal has been a collaborator with Peter Chu’s chuthis. From performer to intensive educator to staging the company’s work, she is honored to work alongside a tight knit group of artists who are dedicated to cultivating their own artistry, while fostering the artistry of the next generation through intentionally curated educational programs nationwide.

Beyond performing and education, Krystal continues to foster her love for collaboration and community as Artistic Associate for the Laguna Dance Festival, curating the festival’s season programming. Working alongside her longtime mentor, Jodie Gates, Krystal continues to connect the local Orange County community to the arts by creating performance + education opportunities for movement artists from emerging to professional. 

As co-director of Hyphen Art House, Krystal is excited to bring her multifaceted experiences as a performer, her explorations as an educator, and overall love and appreciation of movement under one umbrella.

Megan Guise

Megan Guise is a multi-faceted artist currently residing in Southern California. Her creative practices include photography, videography, performing, choreographing, improvising, and movement research and educating. Her early dance training started in Santa Ana, California, at Orange County School of the Arts where she studied Commercial Dance and eventually led to her BFA in Dance from California State University, Long Beach. She has had the privilege of appearing in works created by Alex Ketley, Becca Lemme, Andy Vaca, Lorin Johnson, Christian Burns, Keith Johnson, Sophia Monat, amongst others. She has also participated in workshops with BodyTraffic, OBOC Countertechnique, Szalt, Ate9 Dance Company, and San Francisco Conservatory of Dance.

Megan's choreography has been well-recognized at the Youth America Grand Prix, American College Dance Association and the Southern California dance community at large. In recent years she co-directed Westside Dance Project for six years at Dmitri Kulev Classical Ballet Academy, where she was also on faculty. Her choreography stems from the curiosity and appreciation of her personal life experiences and the vast range between complexity and simplicity. Megan is elated to have supported students that now attend education institutions such as Juilliard, SUNY Purchase, California Institute of the Arts, Chapman University, USC, Pace University, CSU Long Beach, UC Irvine, Stanford University, and with companies Nederland’s Dans Theater, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, SALT Contemporary Dance, The TL Collective and Gibney Dance Company.

Megan finds joy in sharing her love of dance through a multiple movement forms including yoga, modern, jazz technique, somatics, composition, contemporary, and improvisation. In her personal movement practice, she finds inspiration through a variety of music, visual art and anatomy. Megan has always been fascinated with researching her identity, observing life and others and embodying her own thoughts and ideas in attempt to see herself and others with more compassion and understanding. Currently, Megan is on faculty at N10 Dance Studios and directs the Hyphen Conservatory program.

As co-founder and director of Hyphen Art House, Megan is interested in providing a creative space for dancers to find a closer relationship to their artistic voice and energetic potential through foundational dance forms, discussions, journaling, collaboration and improvisation.