About Me
Lisaun’s life was first put on course with a simple gift from her Grandmother. It may have been a Christmas present, but it was definitely given before Christmas day. It was a VHS tape recording of “The Nutcracker” with Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov and it sparked a passionate love in her that would never die.
She spent the next year begging to “be a ballerina” to anyone that would listen. Persistence paid off and it wasn’t long until Lisaun was enrolled in an after-school dance program called Bailey’s. They had a van service that would pick up your kid and take them to their dance class. You could have them dropped off after, or pick them up yourself; talk about a working parent’s dream come true!
As Lisaun’s passion grew her mother studied her dance education and researched how to get Lisaun the training needed to “be a ballerina.” She was enrolled at Orange County Dance Center under the tutelage of Anthony & Terry Sellars and Linda & Keith Clifton. Lisaun’s focus and work ethic helped her excel at an unusually quick pace. Within a few years she found a need and desire to expand her training. She went to Oregon for two summers to train and perform with the Oregon State Ballet under the direction of Eric Hyrst, formerly of the Saddlers Wells Ballet of England. She also attended summer programs at BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio as well as The Rock School of Pennsylvania under the Direction of Beau and Stephanie Spassoff.
She was also performing with Ballet Repretorie Theatre, Edge Performing Arts Center, as well as competing at the national level. She was named Miss Dance of Southern California and was selected to be the Demonstrator on the instructional videos for the Advanced Level of the New Zealand Association of Modern Dance Jazz technique syllabus created by Keith Clifton. She was guest artist with Carmel Ballet, The State Ballet of Oregon, and Irving Ballet.
Lisaun started teaching dance as a teenager and became a full-time dance teacher in her early twenties. During her teaching tenure, she was the director of both the ballet and jazz department at Laura Robert’s School of dance and was a competition level teacher/choreographer at Newport Dance Academy.
She directed and choreographed “The Nutcracker” for the Huntington Beach Ballet for 3 years and created/choreographed an adaptation of the Tran-Siberian Orchestra’s, “The Christmas Attic”. Her competition choreography received numerous awards at national competitions, the majority being for technique and creativity.
Upon graduation from High School Lisaun made the decision to accept a Cruise Ship contract as a Singer/Dancer for Holland American Cruise Lines. This was the ultimate in “on-the-job training”, and by the end of the contract she was determined to continue performing for a living. In her early twenties, she dabbled in film and television and had Taft Hartley to become a member of the Screen Actors Union.
In her mid-twenties Lisaun auditioned for another cruise ship and started a short stint of contracts working for Royal Caribbean for three contracts and Princess Cruises for one. Upon returning to her home town of Garden Grove, California, Lisaun decided that she wanted to develop her vocal ability as well as her acting chops. With no song book, but a go-and-get-it attitude, Lisaun auditioned for “Zorba the Greek” at Reprise, Broadway’s best, directed by David Lee and Choreographed by Dan Mojica with musical Direction by Gerald Sternbach. She booked the job and once again the on-the-job training was priceless!
She continued performing with every Equity theatre in the Southern California Region, acting as Dance Captain for Fullerton Civic Light Opera as well as South Bay Civic Light Opera. She had the pleasure of performing all over the country when she went on tour with Camelot, directed by Glenn Casale, choreographed by Dan Mojica with musical direction by Bruce Barnes.
She’s been on some amazing stages including the Hollywood Bowl, Disney Music Hall, Segerstrom Center etc. She’s had the good fortune to work with such amazing talents as Reba MacEntire, Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael McKean, Lesli Margarita, James Snyder, David Lee, Dan Mojica, Jon Engstrom, Bill Reilly, Matt Williamson, Juliet Landau, Aaron Lazar, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Paul Giamatti. She also lived in Tokyo working at Tokyo Disney for a 13-month contract performing as the female vocalist swing in the insanely popular show “Big Band Beat.”
Lisaun has often been told that she has a natural gift for humor and a very quick wit. To test and prove this to herself she trained in improv, sketch comedy and acting through various programs in L.A. including UCB and Groundlings. Her voice is also unique with a warm soothing quality, this opened up another avenue for her with voiceover work. She has started work as a narrator for audiobooks among other disciplines in the field.
Lisaun has been working since she was 16 as a Director and Choreographer. She has directed, created and choreographed full length ballets, award winning competition pieces, music videos, musical theatre and pantomime. She has received glowing reviews for her work from such publications as Broadway World, Stage Scene LA, Tolucan Times, L.A. Times etc. Her work has been nominated for awards from the Scenie’s and Fringe Festivals among others.
Lisaun has travelled the world as a performer, trained with world class coaches in multiple disciplines and created art that she is passionate to share with the world. She has been blessed in life and wants nothing more than to continue to share her passion with the world and help make the world a better place through art and expression.