ROBERT MOSES' KIN

Yayoi Kambara

Yayoi Kambara (she/they) has been a Bay Area dance artist since 2000. Kambara was a company member with ODC/Dance from 2003 to 2015 and danced as a freelance artist with numerous Bay Area dance companies. She was the rehearsal director for AXIS Dance Company and integrated dance company with disabled and non-disabled dancers during Judith Smith's sabbatical in 2015. Kambara recently created staging for Opera Parallèle and in 2023 was recognized by Opera America as a female stage director. Kambara was in the 4th Cohort of APAP (Association of Performing Arts Professionals) Leadership Fellows Program which led to her research project "Aesthetic Shift", a year-long Community Engagement Residency for Bridge Live Arts analyzing aesthetic bias and relationality. She is co-interrogator of Dancing Around Race (DAR) which presents workshops locally and nationally on racial equity and published a workbook for the California Arts Council. Yayoi recently received an MFA from the University of The Arts. KAMBARA+ was founded in 2015, as a vehicle to produce her dance works. In her choreography, Kambara is interested in the authentic voice of the body and its inherent identity in performance. KAMBARA+ creates work for specific audiences to inform creative practice, its agenda and goals. 

 

Yayoi was honored as lead artist for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Hewlett 50 Award and premiered IKKAI means once:a transplanted pilgrimage in February 2023. Weaving together modern dance, Japanese American (JA) Obon dance and taiko, IKKAI explored the unjust incarceration of JAs and current solidarity with communities facing violence. 二度と(NI DO TO): an XR pilgrimage is a transformative lobby experience of shared connection that journeys through Kambara’s choreographic research. Audiences are invited to learn Kangie, an obon dance with interactive hologram, Janice Mirikitani poetry from a Zoltar-type machine, and play a video game to encounter JA culture.

 

Website: https://www.kambaraplus.org

Instagram: @kambaraplus / @kambarayayoi

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Loni Landon

Loni Landon is a choreographer, producer, curator, dance educator, and creative consultant based in New York City. In addition to creating dances for her own collective Loni Landon Dance Project, her work is commissioned by Dance Companies and Film Directors across the country.

Loni is a Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Winner and recognized as a Finalist for the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in the category of Choreography.  As a sought-after choreographer, her work has been commissioned by The Joyce Theater, Keigwin and Company, BODYTRAFFIC, James Sewell Ballet, Whim Whim, LEVY DANCE, The Juilliard School, American Dance Institute, Northwest Dance Project, Groundworks Dance Company, Hubbard Street II, BalletX, Ballet Austin, SUNY Purchase, NYU, Boston Conservatory, and Marymount Manhattan College. Her company has performed at The Joyce Theater, Pulse Art Fair, Jacob's Pillow, Insitu Dance Festival, Bryant Park, Greenwood Cemetery, Southampton Arts Center, Beach Sessions in Rockaway Beach, and Guggenheim Works and Process Series. Loni choreographed the feature film “Saturday Church,” which premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival and produced the highly acclaimed “Movement At The Still Point,” An Ode To Dance, with photographer Mark Mann published by Rizzoli Books. 

 

She has won numerous awards including NFAA YoungArts Modern Dance Winner,  1st Prize Winner of Ballet Austin’s New American Talent Competition, Northwest Dance Project’s “Pretty Creatives’” Choreographic Competition, Next Commission from CityDance Ensemble, Finalist in the International Solo Tanz Theater Competition in Stuttgart, Germany, Finalist in the Hannover International Choreography Competition and an Emerging Choreographer at Springboard Danse Montreal. Most recently her collaboration “Tapis Magique” with MIT technologists won the innovation award at SXSW.

 

Loni was a participant in the New Movement Residency at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab made possible through the generous support of the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Other residencies include YoungARTS, ITE, NYU, CUNY Dance Initiative, Kaatsbaan, Stephen Petronio’s Crow’s Nest, in collaboration with Dance Lab NY and Dancers Responding to Aids and has been adjunct faculty at NYU, Barnard, SUNY Purchase, Princeton University and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts.

 

Loni is passionate about Entrepreneurship in the Arts and has co-founded THE PLAYGROUND, an initiative designed to give emerging choreographers a place to experiment while allowing professional dancers to participate affordably. The Playground was recognized by Dance Magazine as a 25 To Watch. In 2020 she co-created FOUR/FOUR presents, a platform that commissions and presents collaborations between dancers and musicians. She has performed with Aszure Barton and Artists, Ballet Theater Munich, Tanz Munich Theater, and The Metropolitan Opera. She received her BFA from The Juilliard School and is an MFA from the University of The Arts. 

 

Website: https://www.lonilandonprojects.com

Instagram: @lonifaye

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Janesta Edmonds

Janesta Edmonds (they/them) is a writer, choreographer, performance artist and community collaborator dedicated to creating sustainable and thriving BIPOC communities through the arts. A Santa Clara University graduate with a major in Theater (Dance emphasis) and History (Education emphasis), Janesta specializes in inclusive and culturally relevant artistic expressions.

 

Janesta has assisted in production of events celebrating cultural diversity, such as co-managing production for San Francisco Trolley Dances with Epiphany Dance Theater. Their experience includes stage management and participation in Bay Area queer events like “Oaklash” as well as “THE SHOW” and the “Tenderloin Arts Festival” at CounterPulse Theater.

 

As Director of Programs at SAFEhouse Arts, Janesta ran dance residencies, bilingual children's ballet workshops, and LGBTQIAA+ programming, partnering with organizations such as TAG, TNDC, and the Transgender District. Currently, as Studio Manager for The Sanctuary by PUSH, Janesta currently manages classes, workshops and programs that give voice, expert training and holistic healing for and by Artists of the Global Majority.

 

Instagram: @Thamagicalien / @violetgemsprods

 

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Angela Yam

Hailed as “a sweetly poisonous, scene-stealing schemer with a sultry sparkle in her voice” by the Boston Globe, Angela Yam (she/her) returned to Boston Lyric Opera as an Emerging Artist for the 2024-25 season, performing the role of Ismene in Mozart’s Mitridate. Upcoming projects include the world premiere of The Pigeon Keeper by David Hanlon & Stephanie Fleischmann with Opera Parallèle, New Year’s Celebration with Boston Baroque, and a return to the title role of Cavalli’s La Calisto (Opera Memphis).

 

Recent credits include the title role of Cavalli’s La Calisto (Opera Memphis), Josephine Young understudy in Huang Ruo & David Henry Hwang’s An American Soldier (PAC NYC), Johanna in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (Chautauqua Opera, Opera Saratoga), and Diana in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride (Boston Baroque), a role for which she was praised by the Boston Globe as “radiant”, as “Yam brought gleaming clarity” and “fitting rococo brilliance” (Boston Classical Review, The Arts Fuse).

 

World premieres include an “adorable and vocally excellent” Mumei in Kenji Oh’s The Emissary with Opera Parallèle (San Francisco Classical Voice), Siren 1 in Ellis Ludwig-Leone & Karen Russel’s The Night Falls (BalletCollective), Agave (cover) in John Corigliano’s The Lord of Cries (Santa Fe Opera) and the Bird in Jones & Tinley’s ICELAND (Overtone Industries), a role for which she was described as “stellar…a Puccini-esque soprano with incredible highs” (Poison Put to Sound).

 

Yam’s solo concert appearances include the New York City Ballet (Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Opera Saratoga (Rossini: Petite messe solennelle), and Music at Co-Cath (Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine). As an ensemble singer, Yam has sung with the New York Philharmonic Chorus, Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble, and Nightingale Vocal Ensemble.

 

Yam was a New York City District Winner in the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, and her self-directed Visual Recital was awarded 3rd place in the 2022 American Prize Competition. She composed for and directed Nightingale Vocal Ensemble’s award-winning 2023 choral opera ADRIFT. She has been an Apprentice Artist at Boston Lyric Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, and Opera Saratoga, and received a Graduate Diploma from New England Conservatory.

Website: https://angelayamsoprano.com/

Instagram: angelayamsoprano

 

 

Nol Simonse

Nol Simonse grew up in Washington, D.C., and trained at the Boston Conservatory of Music. He moved to San Francisco in 1997 and is a founding member of Kunst-Stoff, Janice Garrett and Dancers, Garrett+Moulton Productions, and Sean Dorsey Dance. He is also a longtime collaborator/performer of Sue Roginski, Eric Kupers, Christy Funsch, Stephen Pelton, and Kara Davis. Nol has worked with many  Bay Area artists, including Mark Foehringer, Mary Armentrout, Della Davidson, Carey Perloff, Val Caniparoli, Nancy Karp, and Mary Carbonara. Nol was awarded an Isadora Duncan Bay Area Dance Award in 2011 for individual performance, and in 2009 received a GOLDIE for dance (Guardian Outstanding Local Discovery). Nol currently teaches modern at the Alonzo King's Lines Dance Center, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, ODC, and Dance Mission. He has taught choreography, repertory, and performance workshops for adults and teens, and has made dances for Diablo Ballet, the Lines summer program, students at USF, Shawl-Anderson Youth Ensemble, ODC's Dance Jam, and Dance Mission Theater's Grrrl Brigade. Nol produced eight seasons of 'Shared Space' with Todd Eckert at Dance Mission Theater from 2007-2016 and has had residencies at Dance Mission, Studio 210, and the iMPACt center. Nol was one of the 25 nominated artists to create a dance for the 25th anniversary season of the West Wave Dance Festival, and was a mentee of Margaret Jenkins in 2017 for her CHIME Program. Nol has self- produced much of his own artistic work, including ‘death pod’ at Counterpulse in 2022, and ‘Process and Community’ at Dance Mission in 2023. He is a member of the choreographic collaborative ‘the Straw Dogs’, and created a piece for the Queering Dance Festival in 2024.

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Jim CAve

For the past forty years, Jim has focused on the development of new theater, multi-disciplinary and site-specific performances, demonstrations and general disruption. He has directed and designed plays, dance, dance-theater, opera, new music theater, site-specific spectaculars, and a flea circus for San Francisco's Exploratorium.

 

He recently performed in Death Pod, with choreographer Nol Simonse at Counter Pulse & designed and co-directed recent experiments with choreographer Margaret Fisher: Color Theory and Heaven’s Dark Side.  He directed Colm Tóibín’s Silence, and co-directed (with Sheila Balter) Octavio Solis’ Retablos and S. T. Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner (with Delia MacDougal) for Word for Word Performing Arts Company at Z Space in San Francisco. 

 

Other directing credits include Erling Wold's operas UKSUS, based on the work of Russian absurdist Daniil Kharms; Certitude & Joy, the prayer of a mother on drowning her three children in the Bay, which was chosen as one of the ten best classical music events of 2012 by critic Joshua Kosman; Queer, based on the novel by William Burroughs and A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil, based on Max Ernst’s collage novel of the same name.  

 

He designed lighting and assisted in directing Bay Area dance legend Anna Halprin’s iconic Parades and Changes at BAM/PFA and at Centre Pompidou in Paris.  He designs regularly for Word for Word Performing Arts Company at Z Space in San Francisco and for the Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, where he recently designed A Number by Caryl Churchill and Creditors by August Strindberg. His design work has received numerous awards, including a Bay Area Critics’ Award for the premier production of Angels in America at the 

Eureka Theater in 1991. 

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Lawrence Tome

Lawrence Tome is an Okinawan-American musician born and raised in the Bay Area, and currently living in Oakland on unceded Ohlone land. They work with a blend of acoustic and electronic elements and sampled sounds, tuning into the resonances of movement and story to build supportive scores. They have worked as a sonic collaborator with dance and performance makers including Nol Simonse, Nina Haft, Megan Lowe, Rebecca Fitton, and Melissa Lewis Wong. Outside of music, they also dance and work on environmental policy. 

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Website: www.lawrenceto.me

 

Megan & Shannon Kurashige

Megan & Shannon Kurashige are sisters and the co-directors of Sharp & Fine, a San Francisco-based dance theater company creating devised storytelling that provokes deep feeling and instigates transformation. We believe that telling and receiving a story is a potent act of shared empathy and our work combines exuberant choreography, physical rigor, spoken text, live music, and surreal elements that invite you to discover your own meaning.

 

Megan & Shannon have been commissioned by Oakland Ballet, the US/Japan Cultural Trade Network, and Soundwave, and their work has been presented by FACT/SF, the RAWdance CONCEPT series, and the Merde Project. As dancers, they worked with Liss Fain Dance, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Christian Burns, Alex Ketley, Ballet Pacifica, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal.

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Website: https://sharpandfine.org/

Instagram: @sharpandfine

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharpandfine

 

 

Erika Oba

Erika Oba is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and educator based in the SF Bay Area. As a composer, she has written works for jazz ensembles, chamber groups, dance and theater. She is active as a performer on both piano and flute, and performs with her own groups the Erika Oba Trio, Ends Meat’ Catastrophe Jazz Ensemble, Rice Kings, and The Sl(e)ight Ensemble. She has also performed with Meredith Monk, Frances Wong, Jon Jang, Peter Apfelbaum, Lisa Mezzacappa, Jean Fineberg, Rent Romus, and many other jazz and experimental musicians in the Bay Area. In addition to her own private teaching studio, she is a private jazz piano instructor for UC Berkeley’s Music Department. As an artist, she is interested in exploring ritual, diasporic identities, and community through performance.

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Website: https://erikaoba.com/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/erikaobamusic

Instagram: @erika_oba

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