Meet the Artists

Elise Go Haukenes
Founder, Go Girls Organization
Violinist, Dancer, Choreographer

Elise Haukenes is a triple-threat of passionately boundless creative proportions. She is an award-bearing violinist, nationally ranked gymnast, and renowned contemporary and ballet dancer. She is deeply captivated by the relationship between music and movement and strives to use her God given gifts to perform and choreograph interdisciplinary projects that tell stories and impact audiences. Specifically focusing on collaborating with female composers, choreographers, directors, and filmmakers to create works that encourage and support women in the arts.
As a violinist, Elise has been top prizewinner and finalist in several concerto competitions, invited to perform at Carnegie Hall and premier newly commissioned work at the Kennedy Center. Her unique talents have also led to international performance opportunities in Bolivia and the Dominican Republic. In addition to live features, Elise is equally adept in the studio, having participated in film scoring sessions at Warner Brothers and USC’s School for Cinematic Arts. By 21, Elise has concurrently nurtured her inherent musical talent all while cultivating her innately philanthropic spirit. This prodigious young artist has been featured as a violinist and dancer in the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center’s “The One I Feed” and Bald Ballerina benefits, actively engages in missionary work and informally provides music therapy at nursing homes. During the summer she has attended Heifetz Institute of Music, Meadowmount, and Curtis Young Artist Program. She previously studied with David Salness of the University of Maryland and currently studies under Margaret Batjer at the University of Southern California.

Jacqueline Akhmedova
Artistic Director, Choreographer

Mme. Jacqueline Akhmedova graduated with honors from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and the Ukrainian Academy of Dance in Kiev, with Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Ballet Performance, Pedagogy and Choreography, she quickly moved into the world of European classical dance performance.
In a professional career of more than 20 years, she was a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet in Tashkent, the Munich State Opera Ballet, and the Vienna State Opera Ballet, dancing every major role in the classical and contemporary repertoire.
She has worked with the world’s greatest choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, John Neumeier, Rudolph Nureyev, Hans van Manen, and Peter Wright. She has toured extensively across Europe and performed as guest artist in major companies worldwide.
Her students have won such prestigious competitions as the Youth America Grand Prix, Prix de Lausanne, and Tanzolymp. They have gone on to successful careers in such companies as American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Vienna State Opera Ballet, Dresden Ballet, Staatsballett Munich, Staatsballett Berlin and Stuttgart Ballet. She has also judged influential international ballet competitions and taught master classes in Mexico, Italy, Portugal, New York City, Austria and Japan.
In her professional teaching career, Mme. Akhmedova prepares students and choreographs for them for competitions and advises them on their careers, helping them pursue their dreams of dancing with professional companies. After retiring as a professional ballet dancer, she started a professional training program at the Anna Wyman School of Dance Arts in Vancouver, Canada. In 2001 she was invited to the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, DC where she taught as a senior teacher for 7 years. Then for 2 years, she was the ballet master for City Dance Ensemble and started the City Dance Conservatory Ballet Program at the Strathmore Center for the Arts.
She is the Founder and Artistic Director of her own school, the Akhmedova Ballet Academy, in Silver Spring, MD. ABA just celebrated its 10th anniversary. Her vision for ABA is to provide the finest quality ballet training utilizing the Vaganova Method. Her Professional Training Program offers a well-rounded training with personal and artistic mentoring to prepare young dancers to become strong and fully developed artists ready to take their places in major dance companies around the world.

Chelsey Green
Music Lover, Multi-instrumentalist, Professor

With performances often described as passionate, vivacious, electrifying, and innovative, Billboard-charting international recording artist Chelsey Green brings the vibrancy of violin and viola playing and unique, rich vocals to worldwide audiences in a whole new way.
A native of Houston, Texas, Dr. Chelsey Green was born into a family of jazz and funk musicians and started her performance career as a violinist at age 5. Dr. Green went on to receive a scholarship for classical viola studies at The University of Texas at Austin where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. Continuing her studies, she received a Master’s degree from The Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Maryland College Park. In August 2017, Dr. Green was appointed Associate Professor in the String Department at the prestigious Berklee College of Music and recently served as Acting Chair for the Spring 2021 term.
Dr. Chelsey Green and her ensemble, The Green Project, tear down stereotypes of the violin and viola by fusing traditional classical technique with popular favorites and enticing original songs in various genres– including R&B, Pop, Soul, Funk, Jazz, Alternative, Hip Hop, Gospel and more! Chelsey Green and The Green Project have released 5 studio projects independently and performed live shows, jazz festivals, masterclasses and educational workshops across America and in several countries throughout the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Japan and the Caribbean.
Classically soloing in New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall at age 16, Chelsey’s varied performance resume includes performances at the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards, CBS Late Show, NPR Tiny Desk, the opening of The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Essence Music Festival, Capital Jazz SuperCruise, Port-Au-Prince International Jazz Festival, Kuwait National Opera House, Seabreeze Jazz Festival and many more!

Kimberly Stuckwisch
Director, Producer

Kimberly Stuckwisch is an award-winning film, commercial, theatre, and music video director and producer whose work blends magical realism with everyday life. She built a career as a vocal supporter of bold creative ideas, with her work often bringing awareness to timely social issues and breaking conventional expectations. Her works have showcased at Cannes, Sundance, TIFF, Camerimage, SXSW, Ciclope, The Clios, Kinsale, The UKMVA’s, The Berlin Commercial Awards, The Hammer Museum, The Public Theatre, MTV, and in theaters across the world. Kimberly skipped film school and dove right into production where she began her career as a feature film First Assistant Director. By the age of 26, Kimberly had Assistant Directed over a dozen indie films, calling this her "Film School" and second unit directed numerous films including "Remarkable Power" with Evan Peters, Tom Arnold, and Kevin Nealon, "Play the Game" with Andy Griffith, Doris Roberts, and Liz Sheridan, and "The Deadline" with Brittany Murphy and Thora Birch.
This last year, she exploded onto the directorial scene by helming videos for Margo Price (Best New Artist Grammy Nominee), Jeremy Ivey’s “Someone Else’s Problem” which competed at SXSW and the 1.4 Awards, Samm Henshaw's "The World Is Mine" which received Gold for Best International Music Video at the Kinsale Shark Awards and competed at the MVPAs, and Broken Bells, "Good Luck" which won the New Generation Award at the Berlin Commercial Awards, was in competition at Camerimage 2020 and Shots Awards 2021 for "Best Music Video," was shortlisted for a 2020 UK Music Video Award, and won two bronze Clios for "Best Music Video" and "Direction." She recently directed Olivia Rodrigo's "Sour Prom," a 27-minute concert film that garnered over 11 Million views in two weeks and was #1 trending for two consecutive days. She also co-directed Jeremy Scott’s FW21 Moschino Fashion Film “Jungle Red” as well as Moschino's SS22 Musical "Lighting Strikes" starring Karen Elson. She is currently in competition at the MVPA's for "Best New Director" and was shortlisted at the 2021 Shots Awards for "New Director of the Year."
She is slated to direct her first feature film "Canvas" fall 2021.
On the producorial side, in 2016, Kimberly produced the “Hamilton Mixtape- Immigrants We Get the Job Done” music video with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Robert Rodriguez executive producing, which went on to win an MTV VMA for “Best Music Video with a Message," a Bronze Clio, a Silver Ciclope, and was an official selection at Camerimage. In 2017, Kimberly partnered with EndHIV to create a music video for Sia’s “Free Me” starring Zoe Saldana and Julianne Moore, where all proceeds from the single were donated to the #endHIV campaign. In 2018, Kimberly produced "K-12", an album movie shot in Budapest with Melanie Martinez, which opened in theaters across 32 countries and garnered over 20 million YouTube views within its first week.
She premiered her first narrative feature "Summertime," directed by Carlos López Estrada, on opening night Sundance 2020 in the NEXT category. The movie, a poetic love letter to Los Angeles, was written and performed by 27 diverse Los Angeles youth. She is currently finishing production on her first feature documentary, "The Kids Are Not Alright."

Linda Insook Diaz
Composer, Multi-media Artist

Linda Insook Diaz (_dansdi, da.ns.Di) is a multi-media artist who desires to bring people together in the pursuit of filling the world with joy, peace, and love. No story is too small to tell, and no distance is too wide.
Linda is in her fourth year pursuing a B.M. in Music Composition at the USC Thornton School of Music and a Minor in Game Audio at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. She is currently studying composition with Veronika Krausas. In her time at USC, she has collaborated as both a flutist and composer with film production students from the School of Cinematic Arts, choreographers from the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, and for student recitals in composition, choir, and classical and jazz performance.
As a sound designer, she has had the opportunity to intern at System Era Softworks working on the hit-indie game Astroneer, and is currently an audio designer on the Advanced Game Project Wheelin’ & Mealin’.
When Linda isn’t immersed in her own work, she serves as Vice President and Production Chair of the Student Symphony Orchestra of USC, sings as a member of the USC Concert Choir, dances as a member of Grupo Folkórico de USC, and serves as a Soonjang for USC Soon Movement.
Linda is where she is because of her family, friends, peers, and professors that have supported and inspired her on her artistic journey every step of the way.