Sammi Lopresti is a recent college graduate with her B.A. in Dance Performance from Grand Canyon University from Spring of 2025. After dancing in Phoenix for the past five years, she has moved back to her hometown of Portland, OR to continue her career as a dancer, choreographer, and educator. She has been training in various styles of dance, including ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, acro, contemporary, partnering, and modern for the past 20 years. Throughout this time, she has had the opportunities to train with dancers from BODYTRAFFFIC, Limon Dance, Jacob Jonas Company, The Royal Ballet, Parsons, Alvin Ailey, and NW Dance Project.
As a Christ-follower who is passionate about performance and creation, what she values most in her dancing is the ability to story tell and create an environment where the audience can empathize and relate with the art being presented. She also strongly values the importance of having a proper understanding of the body and learning new ways to articulate it through experimentation of movement.
At her time with GCU, she has been a part of over 18 dance concerts, including the Student Spotlight Shows and the Faculty Concerts, along with choreographing over 10 works to be presented at these shows as well. Throughout this time, the department has been able to provide her with outside choreographic opportunities in Arizona and Texas. These opportunities include winning first place and an honorable mention at the AzDEO student choreography contest for two years, performing and taking original work to the Breaking Ground festival, showcasing her first dance film at the Arizona Drive-In Dance Film Festival, and taking two of her original works to the American Collegiate Dance Association conferences in Tempe, AZ, Beaumont, TX, and Modesto, CA while performing at them as well.
Sammi hopes to continue in the concert dance world through performing, expanding on her choreographic portfolio, and teaching the next generation through direction from the Lord according to His purpose.