Jo Kreiter is a nationally recognized choreographer and site artist with a background in political science. She makes large scale public art via apparatus-based dance. She engages physical innovation and the political conflicts we live within. Her work democratizes public space. Jo has spent 25 years building coalitions with women marginalized by race, class, gender, and workplace inequities. Noted partners include Essie Justice Group, UC Hastings Center for Work-life Law, Tenderloin Museum, Code Tenderloin, Au Co Vietnamese Cultural Center, and Tradeswomen Inc.

Recent awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship (2020); Rauschenberg Artist as Activist Fellowship (2017-2019); the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project Creation Grant (2017-2020); and the California Arts Council’s Creative California’s Communities Award (2017-2019). Additionally, Kreiter/Flyaway is a recipient of five Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (2010 to 2019).

(You can see more Awards and Honors in the following section)

Her articles have been published in Aerial Dance, Contact Quarterly, In Dance, STREET ART San Francisco, and Site Dance — the first book written on contemporary site specific performance. In the 2015 book, “Moving Sites: Investigating Site-Specific Dance Performances” by Victoria Hunter and published by Rutledge press, Jo Kreiter’s work is highlighted in the chapter, “Civic Interventions: Accessing Community” using her work as an example of “the politically-driven work of the experienced and prolific site dance artists.”

She is currently creating The Decarceration Trilogy: Dismantling the Prison Industrial Complex One Dance at a Time. PART ONE (2019), The Wait Room, honors women with incarcerated loved ones. It has been performed in San Francisco and Richmond, CA, and next to Sing Sing Prison in NY; PART TWO (2021), Meet Us Quickly With Your Mercy, calls Black and Jewish voices to work together to amplify racial justice via an end to mass incarceration; PART THREE (2022), The Apparatus of Repair, centers restorative justice via a creative process, from which material will be transformed into public art.

She is also the founder of GIRLFLY (founded 2006), an award-winning dance and activism program addressing the lack of arts training opportunities and gender-specific social pressures faced by low-income teen girls/GNC youth. She started GIRLFLY because she felt that her generation has failed to create a full state of equity for women and girls, and GIRLFLY is her way of addressing that challenge.

flyawayproductions.com
Instagram: @flyawayproductions_sf

My name is Ciarra D’Onofrio and I am a queer and nonbinary dancer, aerialist, and movement educator here in the Bay Area. I am passionate about using dance as a means of storytelling, social analysis, self discovery, and community building. My current interests as an artist focus on grief, death and loss, and queerness. My artistic work has been deeply impacted by the loss of both of my parents in recent years. This has sent me on a journey exploring death, grief, and healing through movement. For myself, dance has been my place of grounding and healing, as well as a way that I am able to move feelings of grief and loss through my body.

This personal experience has deeply impacted the work, connections, and art I create. I specialize in dance trapeze, contemporary dance, and vertical dance, and I am particularly drawn to site specific work and dancing with objects and sets. Recently my work has been featured in the San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival, the Tenderloin Arts Festival, and the CounterPulse Festival. I was a recent Shawl Anderson Dance Center Artist in Residency and member of Bandaloop’s Training Group, where I continue to train consistently. I have performed in redwood forests, cathedrals, on bridges, and on trampoline walls. In addition to my own work, I am a company member with Zaccho Dance Theater, and also dance with Epiphany Dance Theater, Olallie Lackler, and Helen Wicks Works. I am also a passionate movement educator: I am a head of the aerial department at Camp Winnarainbow and run my own aerial dance program here in the Bay Area.

My path as an artist began as a child in communities focused on using art and performance for protests, community building, and social change. This philosophy and approach to art was foundational for me, and is something I still hold near to my heart and artistic practice. I studied Dance, Sociology, and Gender Studies at Lewis & Clark College, where I received the 2015 Distinction in Dance Choreography Award for my work focused on queerness, gender, and the body. I was then accepted as a company member in the Circus Project’s Training & Performance Company (Portland, OR), where I specialized in trapeze and aerial silks. My training in circus and dance led to my discovery of vertical dance, and I have had the joy of training with Joanna Haigood, Suzanne Gallo, Roel Seeber, Helen Wicks, and Bandaloop. Vertical dance has expanded my realm of dance possibilities, dancing on high rigged tight wires, redwood trees, 98-foot ladders, and tall industrial buildings.

As an emerging artist, I am passionate about using movement to tell intimate and important stories. I have danced in other artists’ work, created my own solo pieces for years, and co-created projects with collaborators, and I am now moving into a new phase of creating and directing my own longer length, ensemble projects. The Zaccho Studio Residency would greatly benefit my creative process and artistic career, and help me bring my first full evening length project to fruition.

KT Nelson is an urban farmer, choreographer, and dedicated advocate for emerging artists and the environment. She was a dancer, choreographer, and co-artistic director of ODC/Dance from 1976 to 2020. Nelson has been awarded the Isadora Duncan Award four times: in 1987 for Outstanding Performance, in 1996 and 2012 for Outstanding Choreography, and in 2001 for Sustained Achievement. Her collaborators have included Berkeley Symphony, Bobby McFerrin, Geoff Hoyle, Shinichi Iova-Koga, Zap Mana, and Joan Jeanrenaud. Her most recent work, Path of Miracles, with ODC and Volti Vocal Ensemble received a NEFA National Dance Production touring grant. Nelson’s Dead Reckoning was presented in 2018 at Jacob’s Pillow and in the 2020 American Dance Platform at the Joyce Theater (see Fighting Climate Change with Dance | KQED Arts). Her collaboration with Brenda Way, boulders and bones, was presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2017 Next Wave Festival. In 2012, she created new work for the Western Michigan University as part of their Great Works Dance Project. In 2008, her work RingRoundRozi, in collaboration with French-Canadian Composer Linda Bouchard, was selected to be performed at the 2008 Tanzmesse International Dance Festival and her collaboration One Long Breath with Korean based artist Na-Hoon Park was presented at the 2018 MODAFE Festival. In 1986, Nelson choreographed and directed ODC’s family production, The Velveteen Rabbit, which has been part of the San Francisco holiday tradition for the past 36 years. In addition to her work as a choreographer, Nelson served on the Zellerbach Community Arts Panel, ran the summer dance department for the Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University 2003-2006, founded the ODC Dance Jam in 1997 and played a major role defining and implementing ODC’s outreach projects. She has mentored with Margaret Jenkin’s Chime Project and is a co-founder and mentor at RoundAntennae.

www.roundantennae.com

Chafin Seymour is a native of Brooklyn, NY with an investigative and eclectic experience in dance. He has had the pleasure to perform with Sage Ni’Ja Whitson/The NWA Project and Anneke Hansen Dance among others. As a choreographer, and with his group seymour::dancecollective, Chafin’s work has been presented throughout NYC and nationally at venues such as Center for Performance Research (CPR), Triskelion Arts, Dixon Place, Livestream Public, Gibney Dance, The Wild Project, New York Live Arts, Movement Research at Judson Church, ODC Theater, The Ohio Dance Festival and The American Dance Festival among many others. The collective works on a project to project basis with a rotating roster of curated artists. Chafin has taught contemporary forms at Gibney Dance in NYC since 2015 and at ODC San Francisco since 2023. He was an inaugural Ann & Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellow at Jacob’s Pillow in 2018 and was commissioned by The American Dance Festival and Limón Foundation to create ‘Suite Donuts’ for the Limón Dance Company in 2020. His most recent commissions ‘At Play’ for the Modern American Dance Company (MADCO) in St. Louis and ‘Glitch’ for the LINES Ballet Training Program (San Francisco) premiered in 2022. He holds a BFA with Distinction in Dance from The Ohio State University and an MFA in Choreography from the University of Iowa where he was granted an Iowa Arts Fellowship. Currently Chafin resides in the Bay Area, CA and serves as an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Dance at San Josè State University.

Jocelyn Reyes (she/her) is a Latin American contemporary choreographer, dancer and self-producer. A first generation LA native, Reyes holds a B.S. in Cognitive Science and a B.A. in Dance from UCLA, and is the artistic director of REYES Dance. Reyes’ works are informed by her past experiences with poverty, domestic abuse, chronic pain and religion within the context of Latin American culture. She blends athleticism, everyday gestures, humor, storytelling and abstraction to question traditions, belief systems, and toxic behavioral patterns, in order to heal and reimagine healthier ways of relating to ourselves and others. Since 2017, she has self-produced three evening length works, and presented choreography in many festivals and curated events, including the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers, West Wave Festival, and the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, among others. Reyes’ works have been supported by the San Francisco Arts Commission Artist Grant, Dancers’ Group CASH Grant Award, Joe Goode Performance Group Co-production program, RAWdance Radiate Fellowship, Berkeley Ballet Theater residency program and the Dresher Ensemble Residency Program, among others. Her newest work to be created, ¡Ay Dios Mio!, is currently supported by the California Arts Council Impact Projects grant, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Zellerbach Family foundation, FACT/SF co-production grant and the ODC Rental Initiative Award.

Alyssa Mitchel is a San Francisco-based choreographer who creates an extremely physical, highly technical and dynamic style of movement. Her project values collaboration, connection and creativity. Mitchel was named an awardee of San Francisco Arts Commission’s 2023 San Francisco Artist grant, 2023 Yerba Buena Community Benefit District Mini Grant and Joe Goode Performance Group’s COVID Relief Space Grant in support of her most recent production, Regard, a collaborative work celebrating authentic, soulful connections between humans. For Regard, Mitchel collaborated with a cast of six dancers, a Bay-Area based muralist and two live musicians in a creative partnership with The Contemporary Jewish Museum where the production premiered in August of 2023. The July 2023 issue of the Jewish Magazine of Northern California featured Mitchel in their cover story. In partnership with San Francisco’s Exploratorium, she received an arts grant for the premiere of her outdoor production, Here. Now. (2021), an hour-length dance work exploring meditation, mindfulness and connection. Here. Now. featured ten Bay Area dancers and original music by Julian Drucker. Mitchel was selected as the Summer 2022 Artist in Residence at Berkeley Ballet Theatre and Winter 2023 Resident Artist at Studio 210/Deborah Slater Dance Theater. She’s been granted residencies and commissions at ODC Pilot, Bay Pointe Ballet, Moving Arts, LEVYdance, SAFEhouse Arts and Marin Dance Theatre. Mitchel collaborates with diverse teams of artists and makes sure that everyone has a voice and feels supported throughout the creation process. She strives to make art accessible to a wide range of communities. In 2021, she held a virtual dance workshop for the Shupin Social Club of the Jewish Family and Children’s Services, a group of adults with autism and developmental disabilities. You can find more about Alyssa Mitchel and her work at www.alyssaevemitchel.com.

Natasha Adorlee is an Emmy Award-winning choreographer, filmmaker, composer, and educator in San Francisco, CA. A first-generation Asian American woman, she was the last Artistic Fellow with Amy Sewiert’s Imagery. Natasha began choreographing in 2014 while maintaining an award-winning dance career with Robert Moses’ Kin, ODC/Dance, Kate Weare and Co., and The San Francisco Symphony. After winning over ten international awards for her acclaimed short film. “Take Your Time” in 2018, she has been a sought-after filmmaker, choreographer, and composer ever since. After attending SUNY Purchase and graduating from UC Berkeley, Natasha was invited to join ODC/Dance. As a performer, Natasha has danced a vast repertoire of works and contributed original choreography, sound design, and art direction to over 20+ ODC/Dance repertory works. In addition, Natasha has created over 20 original dance-based works- spanning stage, film, and immersive performance mediums. Most recently, she was commissioned to create for Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Works, Ceprodac (Mexico), Kansas City Ballet, Kawaguchi Ballet (Japan), Ballare Carmel, Ballet22, and Imagery. In addition to working for dance companies, Natasha has created original work for Pixar Animation Studios, Occulus, National Geographic, and New Yorker Magazine. Natasha founded Concept o4 to create multimedia dance-based experiences advocating for more accessibility to the arts. Awarded an NEA Grant, Dresher Fellowship, and Jacob’s Pillow Choreographic Fellowship in 2023, Natasha is pursuing a prolific creation period in 2024 while sharing her deep knowledge of movement and film with the greater community through Dance on Camera workshops. She is also an Artistic Advisor for Ballet22.

Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, a contemporary ballet company in San Francisco, believes that ballet is an expressive and vital voice relevant to our times. Imagery’s artists share the belief that through collaboration & experimentation, vibrant and courageous ideas are expressed and habitual reactions are discouraged. Imagery’s mission is to expand the definition of ballet by exploding preconceptions of what ballet is and can be.

amyseiwert.com

Dan Griffiths is an award winning theatre maker, director, and teacher. He has created and performed numerous original theatrical works in over 45 states and 25 countries since 1988. and has served as faculty for Clown Conservatory San Francisco, The School for Mime Theater, Columbia College Chicago, Roosevelt University, Academy of Art University and Indiana University Northwest. Most recently he taught Clown at The Wu Qiao International Circus Festival in Shijiazhuang China and at The Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theater. Dan has studied with Marcel Marceau, Gregg Goldston, Moni Yakim, David Shiner, Stefan Niedzialkowski, at The School for Mime Theatre and The Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theater. Dan holds an M.A. in Experimental Performance from New College of California and an M.F.A in Interdisciplinary Art from the California Institute of Integral Studies.

www.dangriffiths.us
Instagram: @dangriffithsart

BODYSONNET
Founded in 2019, BODYSONNET is a collective of contemporary dance makers and performers committed to making work in non-traditional spaces. BODYSONNET initiates projects in an array of communities that provide unique and inclusive performance experiences. While the collective’s most fluent language is dance, the work also demonstrates the intersection of many mediums. To create highly collaborative work, BODYSONNET employs horizontal working practices and considers every artist in the room equal parts dancer and creator. The collective has produced full length performances, dance films, zines, and mixed bills for virtual and live audiences in Northwest Arkansas, San Francisco, The Hudson Valley, New York City, and Western Massachusetts​.

Website: bodysonnet.org
Instagram: @bodysonnet_
Vimeo: click here

OTHERSELF
OtherSelf is a mixed bill of three duets produced by BODYSONNET. Each duet takes a different stance on the dynamic of the two bodies in space as a vulnerable and evocative performance device. OtherSelf features world premieres by a cohort of dance artists who harness the power of self production to present an evening of post contemporary dance through the lens of the next generation of multi hyphenate creatives. June 3-4 2023

PRODUCER BIOGRAPHIES
Charmaine Butcher (she/they) is a dance artist based out of San Francisco. They received training from Alonzo King LINES Ballet's Training Program in San Francisco. Charmaine has worked with Coriolis Dance, Post:Ballet, the Seattle Opera, Sharp & Fine, and Verlaine & McCann’s. Charmaine is a co-producer of OtherSelf.

Babatunji (he/him) began as a self-taught street performer, developing a unique approach to various styles of hip hop such as breakdance, popping, and krump. Babatunji has danced professionally with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, Post:ballet, Ballare Carmel. He is a Princess Grace Award and Chris Hellman Award recipient. Babatunji is a co-producer of OtherSelf.

Moscelyne ParkeHarrison is a bi-coastal dance maker currently living in San Francisco. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she received the Joseph W. Polisi Award for Artist as Citizen. ParkeHarrison is Artistic Director of BODYSONNET, Resident Choreographer of Post:ballet, and a director of OtherSelves.
website: mzparkeharrison.com

Hope Mohr (she/her) has woven art and activism for decades as a choreographer, curator, community organizer, and writer.

As a dancer, Mohr trained at S.F. Ballet School and on scholarship at the Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown Studios in New York City. She performed in the companies of dance pioneers Lucinda Childs and Trisha Brown.

As a choreographer, Mohr makes work that “conveys emotional and socio-political contents that just ride underneath the surface of a rigorous vocabulary.” (Dance View Times). Her work has been presented by the Baltimore Museum of Art, Highways Performance Space (LA), di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art (Sonoma), Moody Center for the Arts (Houston), SFMOMA, ODC Theater, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

She was named to the YBCA 100 in 2015 and was a 2016 YBCA Fellow. In 2014, Dance Magazine editor-in-chief Wendy Perron named Mohr as one of the “women leaders” in the dance field. She has held artist residencies at the Petronio Residency Center, Stanford Arts Institute, Bethany Arts Center, ODC Theater, Montalvo Arts Center, and the Interdisciplinary Center for Art, Nature and Dance. Mohr's book, Shifting Cultural Power, is out now from the National Center for Choreography.

In 2007, she founded Hope Mohr Dance to create, present and foster outstanding art at the intersection of the body and the brain. In 2010, she founded HMD's core program, The Bridge Project, to create and support equity-driven live art and center artists as agents of change. In 2020, she co-stewarded the organization’s transition to a model of distributed leadership and name change to Bridge Live Arts.

www.hopemohr.org
Instagram: @hopemohr

Yayoi Kambara has been a Bay Area artist since 2000. Kambara was a company member with ODC/Dance 2003–2015 and danced as a freelance artist with numerous Bay Area Dance Companies including Sara Shelton Mann Contraband, Scott Wells and Dancers, Flyaway Productions, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, STEAMROLLER, and Pearl Ubungen Dancers and Musicians. She was the Rehearsal Director for AXIS Dance Company during Judith Smith's sabbatical in 2015 and continues to teach company class for AXIS. Kambara currently choreographs and creates staging for Opera Parallel, and Center for Contemporary Opera integrating visual design, including film, with voice and physical storytelling.

KAMBARA+ was founded in 2015 after her retirement from ODC Dance as a vehicle to produce her choreography, focusing on producing dance performance experiences that cultivate a sense of belonging. KAMBARA+ defines equity as belonging. As a creative partner in the studio, performer, or in the audience, belonging is the bridge built to narrate and perform new dynamic works. In her choreographic work, Kambara is interested in the authentic voice of the body and its inherent identity in performance. She focuses her choreography on diverse cultural, economic, and ethnic differences by creating space for empathy and dialogue. In a world becoming alarmingly more conservative and segregated, taking time to create with a diverse cast is her way of preserving optimism as dance can represent the ineffable resiliency of the human spirit to continue in the face of uncertainty.

Currently Kambara is curating a dance performance series at the Asian Art Museum responding to the varied diasporic histories within the Asian American community. She is finishing the final months of the 4th cohort of Association of Performing Arts Professionals Leadership Fellows, a program co-directed by Kenneth Foster and Krista Bradely. She is also a lead artist for Hope Mohr Dance's Bridge Project and leads Aesthetic Shift, a yearlong Community Engagement Residency. Aesthetic Shift is an exchange between dance educators, social justice activists, dancers and choreographers dedicated to interrogating and analyzing the overlap between equity values, creative practices, and organizations.

kambaraplus.org
Instagram: @kambarayayoi