And what have you done w/ my body, god |a conversation instigated by barry brannum
Many dancers believe that somatics, postmodern experimentalism, and practices rooted in East/South Asian, Indigenous, or Afro-diasporic forms necessarily make experimental concert dance a progressive field. But what kinds of agency do dancers actually experience? Barry invited Dixon Li, Jade Charon, Gregory Barnett, Zena Bibler, & myself to discuss via Pieter Performance Space in Los Angeles.
CounterPulse, Grand Re-Union | Dec. curation by Hannah meleokaiao ayasse
How do we understand consent, power, and agency in dance from the rehearsal to the class to the nightclub? You are invited to listen in on a roundtable discussion on issues of consent in dance featuring perspectives from choreography, contact improvisation, dance education, and nightlife. If we choose to ask our body and the bodies of others to create our art/work/joy, we must also choose to build our muscle of communicating about consent.
A conversation between mayfield brooks, Emma Kaywin, Aiano Nakagawa, & myself.
Williams college Dance Alumni real real forreal talk
Deborah Chen, a Williams Alum who danced in the African Diasporic Williams dance company, Kusika, invited me to chat with some current undergrad students in the existing dance companies as well as students taking current dance courses and alumni who attended Williams back in the day. I attended Williams between 2010 - 2014 and self-designed a BA in Dance & Performance Studies.
a reflection on real talk #1: vectors of adverse desires by margit galanter
margit galanter wrote a beautiful piece in response to my recent body of work titled Real Talk #1: Vectors of Adverse Desires, which I performed in San Francisco as a live-stream from the Joe Goode Annex on the Full Moon on Oct. 2, 2020.
CCA@CCA Hosts Virtual Brunch: A Conversation on Art in Times of Social Distance
For performance art in the age of social distancing, the show must go online. This live Zoom event featured randy reyes and CCA alum Maria Clara Merçon, two performance artists who continue to engage with their interactive projects by making videos, sharing work virtually, and collaborating with others. Co-moderated by Sam Vernon (Assistant Professor, Printmedia Program) and Menaja Ganesh (student outreach fellow for Creative Citizens in Action | Oct. 21, 2020)
in conversation w/Princess grace foundation dance & choreography fellows
Diana Kemppainen, Princess Grace Foundation's Program Director, invited Tommie-Waheed Evans, Margaret Mullin, and myself to be in conversation with one another and renowned choreographer, Kyle Abraham to discuss the ways in which our practices and creative work have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kyle, Tommie-Waheed, Margaret, and I have each been awarded Film and Choreography based fellowships from the Princess Grace Foundation.
Shawl anderson's frolic | Queering dance festival reflection by: aiano nakagawa
I was one of 5 artists curated this year into Shawl Anderson's 2nd Annual Queering Dance Festival titled Frolic. Due to COVID-19, this year's performances needed to be scaled back and the full length performances of all artists has been pushed to Sept. 2021, pending COVID-19 advancements.
Aiano Nakagawa, a local Bay Area artist, was asked to respond to all of the works that took place on the first evening of Frolic including mine, which was titled, "un retablo on rupture & liberation."
real talk #1: Vectors of adverse desires
I performed the first part of this work on Oct. 2, 2020 in San Francisco at the Joe Goode Annex as part of Hope Mohr Dances' The Bridge Project, Power Shift Festival.
The work functions as both a love letter to the Bay Area where I first began to dive more deeply into my personal healing journey around integrating various traumas (inherited and personal) as well as a grief ritual that calls in more space, ease, effervescence, clarity, and forgiveness.
This is also the art (ODC Theatre)
Chloë Zimberg, ODC's Theatre Program & Operations Manager, invited randy reyes to have a discussion on their recent hxstory of works including Vulture Invocation Realness, me gusta andar con el pelo sueltx, another iteration of not the same old thing, and green river study. randy invited guests, colleagues, dramaturg and friends Barry Brannum, María Regina Firmino-Castillo, margit galanter, maïa nunes, y tt owen into the conversation, which took place on Oct. 1, 2020.
Berkshire School Q&A for the berkshire bulletin
A cute and brief interview conducted by Berkshire School's Communications Consultant, Megan Tady, this past spring 2020.
Berkshire School is the high school I attended between Fall 2006 - Spring 2010, located in Sheffield, MA
me das asco, pero i still want your spit dripping down my face (Edicion pegada)
I wrote a reflection on the pandemic and my time abroad being a part of the Advanced Performing Arts Programme (PACAP 4) in this publication titled PEGADA that was co-written by the cohort of the residency program. PACAP 4 took place in Lisbon, Portugal at a space called Forum Dança. Lead curator for the program was João Dos Santos Martins and Rita Natálio was the co-editor / facilitator / theory goddess for the excavation of this writing. I choose to focus on the element of fire and its capacity for transmutation and transformation (Spring 2020).
Creative capital | Encuentro 33: LINE/AGE | Queer Neuro-Cognitive Architectures Hidden in Plain Site(s)
Encuentro 33 is a multiphase project supported through a 2020 Creative Capital grant seeking to engender a platform by and for Black, Indigenous, First-Generation, Queer, Trans Artists, Activists, Healers, and Herbalists of Color in the Bay Area, nationally, and abroad. The aim is to develop a series of performances centering ecology, lineage, and ritual through a choreographic lens. These works provide infrastructure for bringing my vision of opening La Escuela de Corporealidad y Artes Sutiles (working title) to fruition (Winter 2020).
Zena Bibler and Barry Brannum on An Instance of This (Instigated by los)
DANCING WITH GHOSTS: A CONVERSATION WITH RANDY REYES
randy reyes’s new work borrows Chinese Energetics and systems of improvisation to weave queer ancestral lineages throughout an elaborate number. Lxs Desaparecidxs is a work that seeks to inquire more than answer. randy embarks on the rigorous process of asking around displacement, assimilation, decomposition, and queer futurism. This was an interview between randy and CounterPulse's Communications Director, Justin Ebrahemi, Winter 2017).