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NAOMI BRAGIN, Founder and Artistic Director of DREAM Dance Company, is a multifaceted dancer, choreographer, teacher and director with a personal style that integrates the rhythms and spirit of Hip-Hop, House, African, Latin and Modern dance. Exposed to music at birth by her mother, a concert pianist, by the age of four Naomi was performing classical violin repertoire and soon entered competitions in and around Los Angeles and at the Idyllwild music camp. Her passion for dance developed in the underground clubs and parties of Los Angeles and New York in the 1990s and she was awarded the BA in Dance Choreography and Performance by Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1995.

Since moving to Oakland in 1997, Naomi has created and produced events celebrating the unique urban culture of the Bay Area. In 2001, she received a California Arts Council grant to create Free Style Fridays, a popular weekly freestyle dance session in West Oakland that connected Bay Area youth with professional dancers and DJs. This innovative event was among the first to introduce West Coast youth to House dance and music.

Her exploration into the cultural roots of the various dance forms performed by the DREAM company has brought Naomi to their source, studying with legendary dancers in New York, Cuba and Brazil. Most recently, she toured the islands of Mindanao and Kalinga, studying indigenous Pilipino tribal dance and culture. Support from the Zellerbach Foundation, Creative Work Fund, East Bay Community Foundation and PUEBLO among others has allowed DREAM to bring its unique blend of dance performance to national audiences exceeding 25,000.

Naomi is Artist-in-Residence for Youth-In-Arts and Performing Arts Workshop, has collaborated with theater director Ellen Sebastian-Chang and performed with Mambo Romero Dance Company, Pearl Ubungen and the Emma Said Dance Collective. She has served as Director of Dance for San Francisco's Robeson Rivera and Life Learning Academies and worked from 2000-2002 as Co-Director of Oaklandís Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company.

Naomi feeds her love of music as a party DJ, spinning Hip Hop, Soul, Dancehall and House.