Ebb & Flow: Chinatown

Andersmith
Andersmith is a multidisciplinary collaboration that brings together theater, movement, and music to create work that deals with the quotidian and the extraordinary, the body and effort, and the blurred lines between what is real and the absurd. Led by Arletta Anderson and Adam Smith, their work has been presented nationally. They have been artists-in-residence at CounterPulse in San Francisco and Bowling Green University and received commissions from the University of San Francisco, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, ZERO1, and Dancers’ Group.

Tori Cristi
Victoria Villamil, “Tori Cristi” is a queer Salvadoran Filipina artist, educator and organizer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Cal State Dominguez Hills. Utilizing her experience as a multi-hyphenated identity, Tori’s work focuses on the intersections between culture, gender, and psychology. In addition to specializing in Punking & Whacking, she has trained in multiple disciplines such as jazz, contemporary along with street and club forms of dance. She has trained alongside notable groups such as Versastyle Next Generation, Gunita Collective, and Femme Fatale. Tori has showcased work at venues such as  “Beyond the Facade” at San Francisco’s Art Foundation, as well as “Choreographer’s Carnival”  and “Blaktinx Dance Festival”  in Los Angeles. She has also worked with organizations such as RedBull Dance, Pieter Performance Space, AHRI For Justice, HYBE America and more. She is the founder of the organization Whacking Los Angeles which is dedicated to preserving the history and practice of Punking & Whacking as well as provide safe space for LGBTQ+ community. Tori aims to create purpose driven art, elevate multicultural stories, and empower individuals to nurture their authenticity.

Hibiscus TV
Hibiscus TV is the convergence of two artistic minds: Amy Kaps and Kaye Freeman.  The Genesis of their collaboration was “The Anatomy of a Painting” for the LA Painting exhibition at the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, CA.  Free from convention, Hibiscus TV is a platform for unbridled creativity. Grounded in the absurd and authentic expression, they explore infinite possibilities. Using iPhones, they have produced several films embodying the Elements including Air, Wood, Planting, Teatime, Chinatown, and Gift, as well as Ponderings on various subjects viewable on their YouTube channel and Instagram.  Amy Kaps is an international interdisciplinary artist recognizable by her signature palette of Black and White Stripes with Pink accents.  She has performed and exhibited in Germany, Spain, Cuba, and the US.  Born in Brooklyn, NY she currently resides in Venice, CA and occupies a studio in DTLA.  Kaye Freeman is a visual artist from Hong Kong via Tokyo and Australia. She is now a permanent resident of the US. She is the recipient of several awards, and her work is held in collections in the US, Australia, Japan and the UK.

MawusiSarah
MawusiSarah is a dance artist based in Los Angeles. Her work is driven by the timeless relationship between movement, human nature, and the living earth. 

She recently completed her MFA in Choreography at the University of Ghana, after receiving her BA in Dance Medicine & Management from Baldwin Wallace University. Throughout her career, she has performed with Cleveland Inner City Ballet, North Pointe Ballet,  and Zbu Entertainment. She has also presented her work at the Cleveland Dance Festival, American Dance Festival’s Student Showcase, Ballet Inc. The Series: IV Showcase, and The Ghana Dance Festival. She is extremely thankful for this opportunity and excited to participate in this collaborative experience.

Marie Osterman
Marie Osterman (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist working in performance, movement, improvisation, writing, and directing theatre. Their work centers around queer embodiment, environmental connections, and politics of the body. Marie’s generative art combines her classically-trained background in theatremaking and her contact improvisation practice with the mission of facilitating intimate, authentic and playful creative spaces that hold what needs to be held, and ignite conversation and community. They are a longtime collaborator and associate managing director of Project Nongenue, a queer theatre company focused on centralizing the voices of women and marginalized identities within classical theater and mythology. Marie is also a teaching artist for 24th Street Theatre and Unusual Suspects Theatre Company, as well as a facilitator and general rascal in the Contact Improvisation scene. Other passions include finding things on the ground, pleasure activism, and looking at the moon.

Stephanie Sherwood and Katie Shanks
Stephanie Sherwood and Katie Shanks are visual artists based in Los Angeles with a collaborative art practice which began in 2015. Trained in traditional painting, their joint practice has traveled off the canvas into sculpture, immersive installation, and fashion. As their individual practices have developed into various series of works they have both become very sensitive and responsive to places – both cityscapes and natural landscapes. Sherwood with her distinctive way of painting onto three dimensional forms and found objects on city streets and Shanks with their fiber-based methods of processing and weaving, physically and digitally, visions of natural environments.

Rachael Lovinger
As a multi-disciplinary artist making her living designing synthetic worlds through film and TV sets lasting days (or even hours), Rachael Lovinger explores this relationship between creation and waste. She uses interactive experiences to challenge viewers to become more mindful of their part in creating a more symbiotic relationship between civilization and the natural world. Her background studying Art and Psychology at CU Boulder gives her a unique outlook on ecopsychology and the impact art has on changing human perspective.

Raymond Ejiofor, Artist in Residence
Raymond Ejiofor holds a Masters of Public Health Policy from University of Southern California and is a recipient of the prestigious Gates Millennium Fellowship. Raymond graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.S. in Decision Science and double minor in Engineering Studies and Technology and Policy. Raymond began his training under Judith Rhodes Calgaro in Arlington, VA and the Dance Theater of Harlem. While balancing academics and artistry Raymond has worked with various choreographers including Daniel Ezralow, Aszure Barton, Ryan Heffington, Lula Washington, Sidra Bell, Camille A. Brown, Kyle Abraham, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Cindy Salgado, Cindera Che, Nina McNeely, Bryan Arias, Danielle Agami, Christopher Huggins, and Robert Battle. Some of his performance credits include Audi | Shanghai, Toshiba International Industrial, Samsung, Apple, 59th Annual Grammy Awards, American Music Awards 2018, MTV VMAs 2017, Beijing Dance Festival, Israeli Opera House, Springboard Danse Montreal, LA Phil, SummerStage NYC, Jazz Dance World Congress and Pittsburgh Opera.

Ejiofor has danced for artists such as Katy Perry, Sia, Pharrell Williams, Dua Lipa, Little Boots, 30 Seconds to Mars, Gerard Way, The Acid, Moullinex, Fitz and the Tantrums and Daft Punk. Ejiofor joined the company of dance theater production PEARL, which premiered at Lincoln Center | David H. Koch Theater and continues to tour around the world. Under the direction of Greer Reed, Ejiofor was a founding member of August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble (AWCDE), which was named “25 to Watch” in 2012 by Dance Magazine. Ejiofor currently collaborates with various companies such as Ezralow Dance, Ate9 Dance Company, David Roussève / REALITY, Heidi Duckler Dance, Lula Washington Dance Theater, L.A. Contemporary Dance Company, Kevin Williamson Dance, Pony Box Dance Theater, Post Ballet, and Brice Mousset’s Oui Danse.

Heidi Duckler, Founder and Artistic Director
Heidi Duckler is the Founder and Artistic Director of Heidi Duckler Dance in Los Angeles, California and Heidi Duckler Dance/Northwest in Portland, Oregon. Titled the “reigning queen of site-specific performance” by the LA Times, Duckler is a pioneer of site-specific place based contemporary practice. Through the use of expanded techniques and a methodology that encourages us to understand how dance, born from our experience, can be a tool for awareness. Duckler was the recipient of the 2021 Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship and most recently, her film “Where We’re Going” has been selected for first prize by the Cinedanza Festival jury amongst 28 films from around the world. “Where We’re Going” was also selected for the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) Digital Media Wall in their new building in downtown Sacramento, scheduled to premiere in 2022. Currently, Duckler is on faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Film and Media Studies Department.

Duckler earned a BS in Dance from the University of Oregon and an MA in Choreography from UCLA, and served as a Board Member of the University of Oregon’s School of Music and Dance Advancement Council. Awards include the Distinguished Dance Alumna award from the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, the Dance/USA and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Engaging Dance Audiences award, and the National Endowment of the Arts American Masterpiece award. Duckler was a recipient of the 2019 Oregon Dance Film Commission and her work received the award for Best Choreography for the Lens at Verve Dance Film Festival.