About the Event:

What does it mean to be at the helm of a generational shift in the performing arts? How do you build career sustainability as you create it?

 

Join us for an afternoon panel discussion featuring Mia J. Chong, Jocelyn Reyes, Erin Yen, and Jenelle Gaerlan, in conversation with Robert Moses. Mia is a choreographer and dancer, and the Artistic Director and Founder of EIGHT/MOVES. Jocelyne is a contemporary choreographer and the Artistic Director of REYES Dance. Erin is a dancer, choreographer, and the founder of Dragons Dance. Jenelle is a dancer, Bootstraps Lyric Legacies Teaching Artist, and Co-Director of ODC Seeds. Robert Moses, RMK’s Founder and Artistic Director, will moderate the conversation. Together the speakers will explore understandings of leadership, lessons from past arts leaders, ideas about creating a sustainable career in the performing arts, and ways in which they envision shifting the field.

 

Bay Area arts organizations B.L.A. and RMK are coming together, sharing resources to bring local artists into conversation publically for community-centered dialogues around leadership and legacy.

 

Accessibility:

ASL interpretation will be provided.

CAST is 0.3 miles/1.5 blocks from the Powell BART Station.

If you have any additional access needs, please contact admin@bridgelivearts.org.

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About the Speakers

 

Mia J. Chong (she/they) is a choreographer and dancer from San Francisco. Mia is the founder and Artistic Director of EIGHT/MOVES, a contemporary dance company dedicated to creating unity through movement and utilizing dance to generate cultural and social change. Her work has been performed by Post:ballet, BODYSONNET, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, UC Berkeley’s Chamber Chorus, ODC Dance Jam, Shawl Anderson Youth Ensemble, and more. Mia has danced with ODC/Dance, Robert Moses’ Kin, Dance Theatre of San Francisco, and Concept o4. She has received a Princess Grace Award and Chris Hellman Dance Honor, among other honors. Mia earned a BA in Social Sciences with a concentration in Organizational Behavior and Change from New York University and is currently pursuing an MS in Arts Administration and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Northeastern University.

Websites: miajchong.com, eightmoves.org

Instagram: @miajchong, @eightmoves

 

Jocelyn Reyes (she/her) is a Latin American contemporary choreographer based in San Francisco. 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, religion, and chronic pain within the context of Latin American culture. She aims to identify toxic behavioral patterns, heal and reimagine healthier ways of relating to ourselves and others, using choreography that blends everyday gestures, Latin social dance, humor, and storytelling into a contemporary movement base. Reyes’ work has received support from the California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commision, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation, CASH Dance, and the Berkeley Ballet Theater, Paul Dresher Ensemble, and Zaccho Dance Theater residency programs, among others.

Website: reyesdance.com

Instagram: @jocelynmreyes

 

Erin Yen (she/they) is a mixed-race professional dancer and choreographer currently residing in San Mateo, CA.  Erin is the founder of Dragons Dance 501c3, a dance company which believes empowered artists are the key to creating impactful artwork.  Erin’s choreography, which utilizes her experiences with contemporary, release, improvisation, physical theater and floorwork techniques, has been featured regularly throughout the Bay Area since Dragons Dance’s inception in 2020.  Most recently, Erin has begun to teach contemporary dance and other movement workshops for adults in the Bay Area.

Website: dragonsdance.com

Instagram: @_dragonsdance

 

Jenelle Gaerlan (she/they) is a multi-disciplined artist hailing from Portland, Oregon. A lifelong student of American vernacular dance and cultural movement practices, Jenelle’s perspective comes from a plethora of dance forms. She has worked for DarVejon Jones Dance Ensemble, Nike Inc., BodyVox Dance Company, Soulskin Dance, Robert Moses’ KIN, Embodiment Project, Concept o4, SF Symphony, and KULARTS, the premier presenter of contemporary and tribal Pilipino arts in the United States. Along with her concert dance experience, Jenelle (a.k.a. JaDu) proudly reps Assassins Crew Worldwide (U.S. chapter based in Washington, D.C.), an international hip-hop collective dedicated to shedding light on community, loyalty and solidarity.

 

Jenelle currently is the Co-Artistic Director of ODC Seeds Youth Company and teaches at the Alonzo King LINES Dance Center (SF Dance Center). She has taught workshops at Stanford University, the late MVMNT Arts Academia, the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, and the University of San Francisco.

Instagram: @jnls.world / @jnldancenvideo

YouTube: @jnlgaerlan

 

Robert Moses (he/him) Founder & Artistic Director, Robert Moses’ Kin

Choreographer, Writer and Composer Robert Moses has created numerous works of varying styles and genres for his highly praised dance company, as well as composing many of the sound and narrative scores for those works since 2008. Moses has choreographed for dance, opera, and theater companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, San Francisco Opera, and Lorraine Hansberry Theater. Robert has taught at festivals and on college campuses throughout the US and internationally, including OPEN LOOK St. Petersburg International Dance Festival, Serendipity Arts Festival (Kolkata, India),  Bates Dance Festival, UC Berkeley, and Stanford University, where he served as Dance Lecturer and Choreographer-in-Residence from 1995 to 2016.

Website: robertmoseskin.org/robert-moses

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About the Presenters

 

Robert Moses’ KIN

Founded in 1995, RMK uses movement as the medium through which race, class, culture and gender are used to voice the existence of our greater potential and unfulfilled possibilities. The diverse company is known for its eclectic movement vocabulary, demanding choreography, ferocious dancing, and provocative themes. Moses’ focus on the expressiveness of the human body and his desire to speak with the voices of his African American heritage have produced works with regional, national, and international recognition. Moses has collaborated with prominent dancers, musicians, composers, sculptors, authors, poets, and designers to realize the concept of dance as a unifying art form.  

 

RMK has presented an annual home season in San Francisco since 1995 as well as international touring to New York's City Center's Fall for Dance Festival, OPEN LOOK St. Petersburg International Dance Festival (Russia), Serendipity Arts Festival (Kolkata, India),  Jacob's Pillow, Bates Dance Festival, Colorado Dance Festival, Dance Center at Columbia College, Stockton University, University of South Florida, Dance Umbrella, Stanford University, ProArts Collective, Maine Festival, and more. 

Learn more at www.robertmoseskin.org.

 

Bridge Live Arts

Bridge Live Arts (B.L.A) creates and supports equity-driven live art that builds community and centers artists as agents of change. B.L.A. furthers this mission through arts and culture programming that deepens its core organizational values: cultural equity, anti-racism, exchange, artists as agents of change, the wisdom of the body, and putting dance in dialogue with the world. B.L.A.’s four-person artist-administrator staff operates within an evolving model of shared leadership.

Learn more at bridgelivearts.org.

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