MEET OUR STAFF
For as long as he can remember, Michael "Mappy" Mappala has lived his life through the different forms of artistic expression. Among the many facets of his artistic background are dance, photography, music, design and film.
Mappy is best known for his R&B and soulful influence, as well as his passion and commitment to dance and the community.
Mappy is the founder of Soulidified Project and reDEFINE Dance Company. He is also the owner of re.DEFINE Dance Studio based out of Hayward. Through his companies, Mappy connects with other dancers and artists to create, educate and entertain. He has also produced events in the Bay Area such as EVOLUTION: Urban Dance Competition, MECCA: Urban Dance Convention & ORGANIC: Urban Dance Showcase.
As a passionate creative and entrepreneur, Mappy is constantly teaching and inspiring the next generation of dancers, and looking for ways to bring recognition to the Bay Area dance community.
MICHAEL “MAPPY” MAPPALA
FOUNDER | OWNER | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | JUNIORS
At 3 years old, Margela was introduced to her first dance studio and has never left the dance floor since. She began her dance career with Ballet and Hula as a young child and later added competitive Jazz and Hip Hop. In 2007 Margela founded the Hip Hop Club “ERA” at St. Francis High School, which still exists today. Shortly after joining her first community dance team, thatONEcompany, she began to teach and eventually became Assistant Director. Her passion for dance led her to the Bay Area where she joined Soulidified Project and an all female dance team Silhouette. She began helping with re.DEFINE Youth Dance Team at the end of 2010 where she found her forever dance home. In 2016 the doors to re.DEFINE Dance Studio opened, where Margela is the Co-owner and Operations Manager. She feels blessed to be able to share her love and passion for the creative arts with her re.DEFINE Dance family.
MARGELA CRUZ
CO-OWNER| OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
ADMIN DIRECTOR | JUNIORS
Cole has been immersed in the dance world for almost 20 years. His introduction to dance was through Polynesian dance from his halau Kaulana Nā Pua O Hawai’i where he learned about storytelling through the body.
In late 2008, Cole was introduced to Hip-Hop and fell in love with it. He loved it so much that he wanted to explore it more through workshops, videos, and teaching classes. His unique smooth & crisp style is inspired by teams, such as GRV & The Company.
In 2008 Cole joined re.DEFINE Dance as a youth dancer, and later as an adult, started teaching weekly classes in 2017. now teaches as weekly classesCole taught Hip-Hop classes under the City of Fremont’s Dance Program for several years and continues to teach at re.DEFINE Dance Studio.
With all of that experience, Cole has been applying his knowledge as an Artistic Director for Collective & Co-Artistic Director for Juniors. He loves teaching people to watch them grow, but he also knows that he has much growth to do himself & hopes to inspire others! And when he’s not up to inspiring people, you might find him making some sub sandwiches, cooking at home, or playing Super Smash Bros. and Pokémon.
COLE LORENZO
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | COLLECTIVE
Gabe has been dancing since he was 14. He was first inspired to dance after watching America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV and soon after began taking countless dance classes in the pursuit of becoming the best dancer that he could be. Ranging from Hip Hop classes to classic styles such as Jazz and Tap, Gabe strives to constantly improve himself while learning from different teachers and dancers.
Since Gabe began his journey as a choreographer, he’s taught at dance studios such as On One Dance Studio, House of Movement (NYC), Dancemakers, Mission Dance, and Expressions Dance and Arts.
Gabe first joined re.DEFINE in 2013 when it was still a youth team, and after a break, he rejoined as an adult in 2018. He became the Co-Artistic Director of the re.DEFINE Recruits training team in 2020 and also began teaching weekly classes every Friday.
Gabe is excited to keep growing as a choreographer, director, and person. He is also an aspiring videographer who loves to make other choreographers’ visions come to life. By day, Gabe works as a personal banker and on his down time he loves to play video games.
GABRIEL FLORES
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | RECRUITS
GJ’s journey through dance takes place back in 2004. After suffering from a major critical injury which paused his athletic journey, he accidentally stumbled upon dance. Since then his passion for dance and the culture has brought him limitless inspiration. After taking his first class with Mappy and Rictor, he fell in love with Hip Hop and soulful R&B. His background through dance started with Booftroop, a dance competition team that was founded by Krisuan. Later in the years he finally got to join a dance/competition team he’s been dreaming to be on, Phoenix Dance Company. After all that GJ took his dance career to Las Vegas, NV. He danced and competed for a team called Meccamee. He also worked in the dance industry, opened up for the Kardashian Sisters in Mandalay Bay, Bite show in the Stratisphere, and the Beatles Show in Caesars Palace. In 2014, GJ moved back to California to settle and take time with his family. He then rediscovered a dance team called Soulidified Project, which was lead by his old director Mappy. GJ is now rooted in the re.DEFINE Dance Studio family where he is an active dancer on re.DEFINE Collective and Associate Director of re.DEFINE Recruits. He also teaches weekly classes for Adult Beginner Hip Hop. He will continue to strive with this family no matter what. The love and passion that they all share in re.DEFINE needs to be reflected to the world!
GJ PEÑA
CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | RECRUITS
Jo began dancing in 2001 with a team called TruElement at UC Berkeley. She later auditioned and joined Culture Shock Oakland where she quickly became their Artistic Director. After several years of maturing as a dancer, she spread her wings to become part of Phoenix Dance Company where she learned how to hone her dance style. Since then, Jo has trained with Groove Against the Machine, Academy of Villains, Co-Directored Expressive Doubt SF, showcased her choreography at DAMSF, and created Sweet Beats Productions. She’s taught classes throughout the Bay Area, Irvine, Las Vegas, and New Jersey. Jo also had the privilege of putting on Indulge Dance Showcase and several industry level workshops. All of this experience influenced and inspired her dance style -- a mix of hip hop, house, contemporary, and hard hitting choreo.
Jo joined re.DEFINE Collective in 2016, and now is also a Co-Director of Recruits. Through dance, she hopes to give back to the community while bringing them together.
JO MULSON
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR | RECRUITS
Jazzy was born and raised in the Bay Area and graduated from James Logan Highschool. Growing up her life was centered around dance, she trained in Polynesian dance under her mom, Julie Bugarin, and her halau Merahi O Tehani. She has danced competitively and became a teacher under her family’s halau at thirteen years old and is now certified to teach Tahitian dance and culture after her trip to Tahiti in 2019. Her background in Polynesian styles has a great influence in her flowy and smooth style today in hip hop, a passion she discovered in her early teen years. Jazzy’s interest in hip hop was sparked by Youtube videos from Willdabeast Adams, Matt Steffanina, Keone and Mari. She would watch them religiously and constantly show them to her parents in hopes to dance like that one day. While her parents began to feel it was impossible to find a place for Jazzy to dance, she began dancing in her bedroom, mostly freestyling or making up her own moves. Finally, she joined re.DEFINE Juniors in 2016, after sharing studio space for some time.
Today, Jazzy has received a notable amount of training. She has moved from re.DEFINE Juniors and now trains with re.CRUITS and re.DEFINE Collective. She has also attended a generous amount of workshops, a few camps/intensives, and also danced at her highschool. And now she teaches her own weekly class at re.DEFINE! Her love for dancers such as Ysabelle Capitule, Isidro Rafael, and Lyle Beniga carved out her style in hip hop today. She has grown to love not only the feeling she gets from dancing, but also the connection it brings between people, the effects it can bring on other people’s lives, the safe space it can provide, the endless possibilities. Jazzy has a lot of goals in dance, but mostly she aspires to travel the world to teach her choreography.
JAZZY BUGARIN
INSTRUCTOR | TEEN HIP HOP II | WEDNESDAY 5PM
In the summer of 2006, Anthony awkwardly stepped into his first dance class at Ohlone College. By the end of the summer, he did not want to dance again. Fast-forward to 2007, when his sister strongly encouraged him to try the summer Hip Hop class again, and this time, something just clicked, and he has never wanted to stop dancing since then.
reDEFINE was the first dance company that Anthony joined in 2008. He had the opportunity to learn from countless choreographers from across California, showing him the beauty of Hip Hop and the celebration of unique style and movement. Through his college years, he continued his training with Soulidified Project, Pandora’s Myth, Hungry Bumz, and spent several summers performing as a dancer at California’s Great America.
Although Anthony’s training is rooted in the fundamental styles of Hip Hop, his own style is one that he does not want to label as something that would misrepresent the genre or community, which he deeply respects. His choreography can be described as strong yet fluid, fierce but flirty, and unapologetically bold. As an instructor, he focuses on physical awareness and strength in movement, and his goal is for his students to build their confidence that will take their dancing to the next level.
ANTHONY OSHIRO
INSTRUCTOR | ADV CHOREO | THURSDAY 6PM
In middle school, Edzel was enamored with a video of someone tutting and was inspired to learn how to do what they did. He had taught himself how to make intricate shapes with his arms and fingers, and learned how to add feetwork to his combinations by relentlessly watching videos of tutters. It wasn't until highschool that he found other dancers that pushed him to learn how to Breakdance and Hip-hop through cypher circles and battles. Joining his high school’s dance club, Creator’s University, he learned how to make, teach, and block choreography and eventually became the secretary of the club in 2017. In 2016, his sophomore year of highschool, he was invited by Jazzy Bugarin to join re.DEFINE Juniors and ever since has made lifelong friends/family within the studio. Graduating highschool and entering college in 2018, Edzel had left Juniors to join the training team, Recruits and has stayed with them since.
EDZEL OCHOA
INSTRUCTOR | KIDS & TEEN HIP HOP | FRIDAY 5PM
Carol’s dance journey began in the church as a praise dancer at the little age of 10. She joined her church’s praise team as a way to find healing from losing a loved one at an early age. From then on she searched for other ways to incorporate dance into her life as she found so much joy from it. She learned West African dance from a teacher at her elementary school and fell in love with the rich cultural history that comes with movement. She began to take dance seriously when she got to high school and was introduced to the world of Contemporary, Modern, Hip Hop, and African dance.
In 2016, Carol graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Sociology and a Minor in Education. During her four years at UC Santa Cruz, she danced with Haluan, a hip-hop dance team on campus. She performed and competed in multiple dance competitions during her time on that team.
In 2018, Carol joined reDEFINE dance team and is currently the Marketing Coordinator for the studio. She is able to continue to grow in her foundation of Hip Hop while incorporating her own style freely. In her day-to-day, Carol is a College Coach at Beyond 12 where she is closing the opportunity gap for first-generation college students. She is a lover of all things tea-related and is in the process of developing her own teas business called Lujune Teas.