Andrew Lester
2025 DANCER FELLOW
Photo credit: V. Paul Virtucio
Andrew Lester is an award-winning artist who has been a staple in Twin Cities dance since 2003.
A passionate performer, educator, and arts advocate, his body of work bridges ballet and contemporary dance. A BFA graduate of the University of Minnesota, Andrew’s background includes training with American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Adriatico of Italy, and an esteemed roster of master instructors.
Since 2009, Andrew has proudly called Shapiro & Smith Dance his artistic home, where his performance in their work Family was recognized with a MN SAGE Award for Outstanding Performance in 2012. He has also been a company member with Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater, Twin Cities Ballet of Minnesota, and James Sewell Ballet, while guesting with Metropolitan Ballet, Ethnic Dance Theatre, Eclectic Edge Ensemble, The Minnesota Opera, and many other celebrated companies. His work extends beyond Minnesota, with performances in New York City and internationally at the Toronto International Film Festival and Festival de Danse in Cannes, France.
A dynamic collaborator, he has worked with renowned choreographers such as Joanie Smith, Joseph Morrisey, Yuki Tokuda, Gabrielle Lamb, Myron Johnson, and Darrius Strong. Also a dedicated educator, he has taught throughout the Twin Cities and beyond, helping to expand access to dance in rural and underserved communities.
In 2023, Andrew co-founded Alchemy Arts. That same year, he choreographed and starred in When You Hear the Chime, the company’s world premiere at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. This multi-genre production marked a new chapter in his expansive career, reflecting his commitment to innovative storytelling through movement.
Eva Mohn
2025 DANCER FELLOW
Photo courtesy of Cullberg Ballet
Eva Mohn works as a dancer, choreographer, composer, and bodyworker. Eva has her BA in Dance from the University of Minnesota. Starting in 2001, she began working locally with various companies and artists including TU Dance, Morgan Thorson, Carl Flink, Robin Stiem, Sarah Baumert, and Maggie
Bergeron.
In 2008, Eva went to Martha’s Vineyard, NYC and subsequently moved to Kassel, Germany, to work with German choreographer Johannes Wieland. In 2012, Eva relocated to Stockholm, Sweden, to begin her work with the Cullberg Ballet. In 2018, Eva became a Swedish Citizen, and in 2021, she received her MFA in New Performative Practices from Stockholm University for the Arts. Shortly thereafter, she gave birth to her first child and returned to Minnesota. Her second child was born in 2023. Eva has worked as a baker, barista, house painter, musician, song-writer, farm manager, farmers market vendor, mother, dancer, choreographer and teacher, and sees the choreographic nature in all these various types of work and labor.
Cecil Neal
2025 DANCER FELLOW
Photo credit: Laura Sukowatey
Cecil Neal, professionally known as Virgo: The Final Warning, is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and mentor specializing in krump.
Based in the Twin Cities, his dance journey began with a passion for performing, which he first experienced at his mom’s fundraising event in 2010. By 12, he was performing at venues like Stepping Stone Theater and Intermedia Arts, setting the stage for his artistic growth.
Cecil refined his craft at the St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, completing four years of intensive training. There, he discovered his passion for choreography, debuting his creative vision in a standout senior piece.
Since then, he has performed with esteemed companies such as Breakfast Dance Company and Meridian Movement Company, gracing stages like the Michael Kohler Arts Center and the Red Eye Theater. In 2024, he won House of Dance’s 10th Anniversary All-Styles Battle at The Fillmore.
As an educator, Cecil has taught at the University of Minnesota and Macalester College, fostering the next generation of dancers. His mentorship extends beyond movement—he is passionate about using dance as a tool for self-discovery, resilience, and connection. Whether in the classroom, on stage, or in battle, Cecil’s mission is to inspire others to embrace their potential and tell their unique stories through movement.
Pamela Gleason
2025 Choreography FELLOW
Photo credit: Edward Bock
Pamela Gleason has been creating, teaching and performing modern dance for over 40 years. From the mid-1980s to 2011, she was involved with the Nancy Hauser Dance Company/Hauser Dance as an apprentice, company member, teacher, and choreographer.
She has taught, performed, and presented her work in many Twin Cities venues, several US cities, in Taiwan, Japan, Russia, and Ireland. She has choreographed over 50 pieces, 8 theater productions, and has received support from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Commission.
Her body of work includes solos, group pieces, several evening-length dance concerts, and films. Pam is the director of MotionArt (founded in 2013), an organization dedicated to making dance and the joy of movement accessible to people of all ages and abilities. MotionArt ‘s recent evening-length shows, Space Encounters (2017), Games People Play (2018), and Collabulous (2019) were staged at the Conn Theater in Minneapolis, and Reel Imaginings (2024), a production of four short dance films, was presented at Center for Performing Arts and Parkway Theater in Minneapolis.
Originally from St. Paul, Pam taught in the University of Minnesota Dance Department for 15 years and continues to teach modern dance and host monthly improv gatherings through MotionArt. She is committed to enhancing the mental and physical well-being of others through her classes, choreography, and film work.
https://motionartmn.org/
Emily Michaels King
2025 Choreography FELLOW
Photo credit: Dan Norman
Emily Michaels King is an interdisciplinary performing artist based in St. Paul, Minnesota, exploring authentic expression and human depth through movement, multimedia, and visual compositions for the stage. Emily is known for her fearless personal work, provocative style, and collaged evening-length solo performances, including: her award winning show MAGIC GIRL, multimedia online work DIGITAL; IN PERSON, a companion to DIGITAL; the raucous CHICKEN WING, which was featured in Red Eye Theater’s 2023 New Works 4 Weeks Festival, and STAR KEEPER. An in-progress version of her piece, ELECTRIC, was performed at Arena Dance’s 2022 CandyBox Festival. Additionally, her work has been presented at the Walker Art Center, the Guthrie Theater, and Movement Research, among others.
Pairing minimalism and subtlety with cacophony and bared irreverence, Emily’s works employ the lush landscape of the inner world and the power of unapologetic vulnerability. They combine movement with text, graphics, sound, and technology to focus on themes of self discovery and reclamation, womanhood, and bold expressions of personal truth.
www.emilymichaelsking.com
Kayla Schiltgen
2025 Choreography FELLOW
Photo credit: CC Boyle Photography
Kayla Schiltgen is an interdisciplinary dance artist based in rural Two Harbors, Minnesota. Blending dance and film, she is hands-on in all aspects of her work as choreographer/editor, dancer, and cinematographer creating screendance, installation, and performance as a way to cope with and communicate her existence. Her work is deeply personal, visceral, curious, and cathartic, driven by the belief that subjectivity and vulnerability serve as an echo palette for others, offering a tender exchange affirming, affecting, and inspiring artist and audience.
Her work has been presented at the Walker Art Center, the International Meeting on Video-Dance and Video-Performance (Spain & France), North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival, InShadow Screendance Festival (Portugal), Duluth Superior Film Festival, DanceBARN Screendance Festival, Wolf Tree Film Festival (MI), Arena Dance’s CandyBox Festival, RAD Fest, The Lab at NorShor Theatre, and the Minnesota Fringe Festival, among others. Her work is supported by multiple Minnesota State Arts Board and Arrowhead Regional Arts Council awards.
Kayla is an Upstream Artist Fellow and has been recognized as a Creative Rural Leader in the Upper Midwest by Springboard for the Arts. Rooted in her rural lineage, Kayla’s practice is shaped by the belief that the well-being of all begins with the well-being of rural communities – seeing art as a pathway to this vision.
www.kaylaschiltgen.com
Alhassane "Sana" Bangoura
2024 DANCER FELLOW
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Alhassane "Sana" Bangoura comes from a family of traditional drummers and dancers
from Guinea, West Africa. As current and former members of the world-renowned Les
Ballets Africains and Ballet Merveilles, the Bangoura brothers' talents have brought
them all over the world and led them to make their homes in Italy, France, the US and
Iceland. Inspired by his brothers, Sana began his drum and dance training in 1999 as a
member of the company Wassasso, based in the capital city Conakry. In this company,
under the direction of Ballet Africains dancer, Sorel Conte, Sana rose to the position of
Principal Dancer, and in 2001 became Assistant Director.
During his sixteen years with Wasasso, Sana's duties were manifold. He managed
rehearsals for longtime company members as well as for youth who aspired to join the
group. He provided lessons for students from a myriad of countries to include Chile,
Argentina, France, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden and Portugal. He performed in the
national competition Stars Vacance when the company took 1st place. Sana also
choreographed Wassasso performances that appeared on Guinea National Television
and won his group a 3rd place finish in the nation in 2012.
After moving to Minnesota in 2015, Sana performs with his brother, master
drummer Fode Seydou Bangoura, in their group Duniya Drum and Dance, and teaches
community classes for adults. Performance highlights include Duniya’s many Fakoly
shows and appearances at The Cowles Center, The Cedar Cultural Center and
Orchestra Hall.
duniyadrumanddance.org
Kealoha Ferreira
2024 DANCER FELLOW
Photo By Canaan Mattson
Kealoha Ferreira is a Kanaka Maoli, Filipino, Chinese dance artist from Nuʻuanu, Oʻahu, now residing in Mni Sóta Makoce on the unceded lands of the Dakhóta Oyáte. She is the Artistic Associate of Ananya Dance Theatre and a Co-leader of the company's Saint Paul space, the Shawngrām Institute for Performance & Social Justice. A practitioner of Yorchhā and an emerging student of Oli and Hula, Kealoha's artistry activates at the intersection of these transnational feminist and aloha ʻāina embodied practices.
As a leader, teacher, performer, and maker her work investigates the tensile and expansive nature of relationality while remaining rooted in cultural and kinesthetic rigor . She is a recent participant of Red Eye Theater’s Works in Progress cohort (2020), Hālau ʻŌhiʻa- a land and water stewardship program (2021), BIPOC Leadership Circle (2022), and Chawrchā NextGen ChoreoLab (2023). Kealoha teaches Yoga at the University of Minnesota as an associate faculty member in the Theater Arts and Dance Department.
Tumelo Khupe
2024 DANCER FELLOW
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Tumelo Khupe (alias Melo) is a performing artist, krumper, and emerging choreographer
based in the Twin Cities and from Botswana. Her artistry investigates and explores how the
body manifests lived experiences through movement. Krump is foundational in her work as it offers endless possibilities for storytelling through its technique and language. She makes use of some elements of theater to reveal these moments through freestyle or improvisation. The four pillars of her artistry are rawness, discovery, individuality, and spirituality.
She graduated with a BA in Music Theater with a minor in Dance. Some awards received are the David Wick Leadership Award, the David Wick Best Choreography Award, and The Mabel Meta Frey Outstanding Theater Artist Award. She is a Naked Stages Fellow, Generating Room Fellow, Next Step Fund grantee, and most recently, a Chawrchā, a next-generation choreographic lab Fellow and has performed with Emmy award-winning company, Hip Hop Nutcracker.
Vie Boheme
2024 Choreography FELLOW
Photo by: Canaan Mattson
Vie Boheme is a Motown native, blossomed creatively in Pittsburgh and refined in Minneapolis. She’s a multimodal artist; a choreographer, a dancer, actress, and poet. Her work brings athletic agility to her vocal performance by singing and dancing in unison, eliminating the boundary between the visual and audio experience. She designs theatrical dance experiences that weave sentiment and storytelling through poetry and monologues
using dance as the site of embodiment for the story being told. As a choreographer, her
work's intentionality produces a pathway and an environment for viewers to connect to
their own visceral human experience.
Chitra Vairavan
2024 Choreography FELLOW
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Chitra Vairavan is a contemporary Indian dancer, choreographer and educator of South
Indian-American descent, with roots in Kandanur and Rayavaram. Vairavan is immersed in both Thamizh/Tamil culture and progressive brown politics in the U.S. Her embodied practice and experimental process is rooted in deep listening, spatial observation, freedoms, poetry, vulnerability and ancestral memory.
She chooses to gesture towards and embody within the practice of liberation
and decolonization in creative and collaborative choices. The aesthetic of her movement is through
both yoga and contemporary Indian dance forms – mainly a mixture of training in Bharatanatyam,
Odissi and Yorchha™. For more please visit: www.chitravairavan.com or https://linktr.ee/vair0002.
Vairavan has been a proud part of the Mni Sota Makoce dance community for 20 years. Her dance work has been featured transnationally as a founding member and company dancer with Ananya Dance Theatre for 14 seasons, and her choreographic works have been featured in spaces such as The Cowles Center, the Walker Art Center, The Southern Theater, Intermedia Arts, Red Eye Theater, Pillsbury House Theatre and Patrick's Cabaret over the years. Vairavan has been the recipient of the 2016 McKnight Dancer Fellowship, 2018 Naked Stages Fellowship with Pillsbury House Theatre, and the 2020-2021 Springboard for the Artsʼ 20/20 Fellowship among other honors.
Pramila Vasudevan
2024 Choreography FELLOW
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Pramila Vasudevan is a movement-centered artist, cultural worker, and maker of
community-rooted/routed transdisciplinary work. Vasudevan is the founder and artistic
director of Aniccha Arts (est. 2004), an arts collaborative producing site-specific
performances that examine agency, voice, and group dynamics within community
histories, institutions, and systems. She is an artist associate of Pillsbury House Theatre.
She has been honored with a Joyce Award (2022), and also United States Artists (2022),
Guggenheim (2017) and McKnight Choreography Fellowship (2016). Vasudevan has been
invested in cultivating art spaces and artist growth as the director of Naked Stages
(2016–21), a fellowship program for early-career performance artists at Pillsbury House
Theatre, and as a teaching artist with Upstream Arts (2015–19), which activates and
amplifies the voice and choice of individuals with disabilities at every stage of life.
Her current practice involves gardening, hosting conversations and community
gatherings, and developing improvisational movement sessions inspired by growing
practices in gardens and greenhouses and by plant cycles in the urban park systems.
Her work engages with physical sites, ranging from human-constructed locations (like a
suburban parking ramp) to natural environments (such as along the Mississippi River).
In this process, she learns about the site’s history and current uses, the people that
have come and gone, the embedded politics, and the materials that physically make it
what it is. In responding artistically, Vasudevan orients from the body while layering in
other media (sound, drawings, sculptural elements, and so on) that illuminate a
multiplicity of perspectives.
Meryl Zaytoun Murman
2024 McKnight International Choreographer
Photo credit: Hanna Hrabarsk
Meryl Zaytoun Murman is a Lebanese American choreographer and filmmaker and a permanent resident of Thessaloniki, Greece. Her art juxtaposes choreographic, cinematic and live art practices to create movement pieces that emphasize interactivity and intimacy and have been presented in Mexico, Turkey and throughout Europe. Her queer films and choreographies derived from experiments at the intersection of cinema and dance disrupt popular notions of spectacle, the body, virtuosity and gender, and her film le Pain was an official selection at international festivals receiving the Audience Choice award at East End Film Festival in London.
Murman has guest taught at ImpulsTanz International Dance Festival in Vienna, Companhia Instavel in Porto, Zelyonka International Dance Festival in Kyiv, and at Tulane University, CalState Long Beach University, and The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Thematically, her work is engaged with moving bodies, particularly between borders and across binaries, and human rights in transitional spaces. She has twice received international fellowships through the US Embassy to implement multi-faceted projects with female and LGBTQ+ refugee populations in Ukraine and Northern Greece exploring sexuality, gender, and the effects of assimilation and migration on the body. These projects integrate trauma informed pedagogy, a kinesthetic approach to media, ritual and public performance intervention. Her work has been supported by the National Performance Network, the Arab American Museum, and the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. She is currently in development on her first feature film, ways of forgetting.
For more info, visit: merylmurman.me
Demetrius McClendon
2023 DANCER FELLOW
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Born and raised in the south side of Chicago, Demetrius McClendon, who is also known as ImagineJoy, began dancing with street hip-hop at the age of 15 and has traveled nationally and internationally as a professional dancer, teacher, and choreographer sharing their passion for the arts. They began their formal training at Northern Illinois University (where they also minored in Black and LGBT Studies) and were awarded scholarships to take summer intensives with the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Hubbard Street, and Deeply Rooted.
Since graduating from NIU in 2011, they have danced professionally with DanceWorks Chicago, TU Dance, Owen/Cox Dance Group, and as a guest artist with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Twin Cities Ballet, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, and the Minnesota Opera, among numerous other companies. As community organizer that believes wholeheARTedly in the power of loving action, political education, and spiritual practice, they co-create experiences with others that heal and empower BIPOC & Queer communities; engaging radical imagination as a revolutionary tool to awaken/expand creative genius, they utilize heART as a powerful vehicle to inspire and shape change.
Demetrius is currently a board member and organizer/facilitator for Million Artist Movement: a global vision that believes in the role of ART in the campaign to dismantle oppressive racist systems against Black, Brown, Indigenous and disenfranchised PEOPLES; they also lead the BIPOC practice for “Don’t You Feel It Too?,” a movement meditation social-justice based organization in the Twin Cities, where they were formerly an associate artistic associate.
Sam Aros-Mitchell
2023 DANCER FELLOW
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Sam Aros-Mitchell (he/him/his) is an enrolled member of the Texas Band of Yaqui Indians. As an Indigenous art-maker and scholar, Aros-Mitchell ’s work spans the disciplines of performance, sound/light/scenic design, choreography, and embodied writing. Aros-Mitchell holds a Ph.D. in Drama and Theater from the joint doctoral program at UC San Diego/UC Irvine, an MFA in Dance Theatre from UC San Diego, and a BFA from UC Santa Barbara. As a choreographer, Aros-Mitchell has completed two recent works, a solo titled Ania Bwia Bwia Toochia, performed by Aros-Mitchell at Red Eye’s Works in Progress in May of 2023, and Finding Sentience, performed by Semaphore Dance Repertory in November of 2023.
Since 2017, Aros-Mitchell has worked with Rosy Simas Danse (RSD) as a performer, teacher, and community engagement organizer. He has performed with RSD in Skins (2018), Weave (2019) Simas short film, yödoishëndahgwa’geh (2021), and she lives on the road to war (2022-2024). Aros-Mitchell has also appeared in Prairie/Concrete with Aniccha Arts, founded by Pramila Vasudevan in 2023 and Morgan Thorson’s Untitled Night, commissioned by The Great Northern in 2024. Aros-Mitchell is currently collaborating with Dante Puleio, Director of Limón Dance in NYC by restaging/reconstructing two original Limón pieces, the Indio solo from Danzas Mexicanas (1939) and "the Deer solo" from The Unsung(1970). This marks a new passage for Aros-Mitchell and for Limón Dance, in that José Limón and Aros-Mitchell share the proud lineage of Yaqui ancestry.
www.samarosmitchell.com
Password: mitchell
Yuki Tokuda
2023 DANCER FELLOW
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Yuki Tokuda is a ballet dancer, choreographer, and teacher, based in the Twin Cities. She is originally from Japan and was trained under Mikiko Dei, Hideo Fukagawa, and Jun Ishii, internationally recognized dancers, teachers, and competition judges. She moved to the United States in 2000 to continue her training in New York at the Joffrey Ballet School. Ms. Tokuda has danced professionally with USA Ballet, Peoria Ballet, and the Metropolitan Ballet and she was the principal dancer at Continental Ballet for 7 years.
With diverse training in classical, contemporary, modern, and jazz, she is an international guest dancer and collaborator with many companies. She has expertise in pointe work, partnering, and class etiquette and enjoys teaching aspiring dancers. At Steps on Broadway as one of the first International Visa Program students. She is also trained with the Boston Ballet and the Connecticut Ballet. She has performed many principal roles in Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Coppelia, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ms.Tokuda is a faculty at Minnesota Dance Theatre, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and a certified STOTT Pilates teacher. She is a recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board and St. Louis Park Arts & Culture Grant. Her choreography was chosen for Choreographer’s Evening at The Walker Arts Center, Wayzata Symphony Orchestra, Wooddale Church, Japan America Society of Minnesota, and Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists. She is the owner/designer of YukiTard and the owner/instructor of Tokuda Ballet.
www.yukitokuda.com
Password: tokuda2023
Joe Chvala
2023 Choreography FELLOW
Joe Chvala has created over 30 original works for the stage that have toured from New York to Paris and from Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival to Litle Falls, MN. He is the founder and artistic director of the highly acclaimed percussive dance company, Flying Foot Forum. Articles and reviews of his work have appeared in national and international magazines and newspapers including the New York Times, La Monde, the Chicago Tribune, Dance Magazine, and the Village Voice. The range of his work has been described as "somewhere between Sammy Davis, Jr. and Samuel Becket" and has
earned such accolades as "Fred Astaire on acid" and "the Agnes DeMille of the tap."
Chvala has also choreographed, directed, and/or been commissioned to create new work for a variety of venues including the Walker Art Center, The Ordway Center, the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, the Minnesota Opera, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, The Children’s Theatre Company (to name a few). He has received Ivey and Minnesota SAGE Awards for theater and dance, as well as numerous other awards, fellowships, and grants from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board, Target, and McKnight Foundation. Chvala also choreographs and directs dance for films. His first short film, COOKAPHONY, has been chosen as an official selection at 14 film festivals, winning four awards at various festivals including Paris Short Film Festival, Sedona International Film Festival, Vasteras International Film Festival (Sweden) and the Minneapolis/St. Paul Internatonal Film Festval.
Rita Mustaphi
2023 Choreography FELLOW
Rita Mustaphi is a choreographer, dancer, educator and disciple of the legendary master late Pandit Birju Maharaj in the Kathak style of Indian classical dance. She is known for her innovations in Kathak dance, her multi-disciplinary productions incorporating spoken word, live and commissioned music, and the utilization of production elements. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Katha Dance Theatre. Under her vision and leadership, the company has become renowned for its dynamic productions, distinctive movement style, and technical virtuosity. Her work, intelligently crafted storytelling, is recognized as being profoundly moving and effortlessly intimate.
Ms. Mustaphi is a recipient of a Leadership award from the Council of Asian Pacific Minnesotans, a Lifetime Achievement award from the India Association of Minnesota, and an Education award from the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in the category of Excellence in Vision. Most recently, she received the 2021 “Nari Shakti Award” from the Indian Government in New Delhi, India, given for her work in the cause of women empowerment.
With a career and a commitment to Kathak dance spanning 30+ years, over 500 performances, and 50+ original choreographic works, she still revels in the process of directing bodies in space, creating movement on her own body, and exploring what “moves” an audience to become engaged emotionally, intellectually and musically. Her works have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board, The McKnight Foundation, three past McKnight Choreography Fellowships (‘88, ‘92, ‘98) the Jerome Foundation, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Target Foundation, and the 3M Foundation.
Deneane Richburg
2023 Choreography FELLOW
Photo by Canaan Mattson
Deneane Richburg (Choreographer, Dancer, former Competitive Figure Skater, Founder/Artistic Director of Brownbody) grew up a competitive figure skater—in spaces where she had to check her blackness at the door, as world skating was dominated by whiteness and rooted in values that subjugated her ancestry’s truths; to quote Zora Neale Hurston, she always felt “most colored when [she was] thrown against a sharp white background.” Richburg realized the need to carve out space for her ancestral history hence her decision to establish Brownbody.
Since 2013 Brownbody has honored complex narratives of U.S.-based Black communities by disrupting assumptions, and disenfranchising ideologies, around blackness. She received her MFA in dance and choreography from Temple University in 2007, an MA in Afro-American Studies from UW Madison, and a BA in English and African American Studies from Carleton College. Richburg has been choreographing work for both the stage and ice since 2007 most recently completing an evening-length work called “Tracing Sacred Steps” which brings ring shout onto the ice. Deneane was a recipient of a 2017 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, a 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, and a Dance/USA Fellowship to Artists made possible with generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Sandy Silva
2023 McKnight International Choreographer
Photo by Jules DeNiverville
Sandy Silva is an award-winning performer, choreographer, composer, producer, and internationally acclaimed pioneer of percussive dance. She draws from global percussive dance practices infusing themes with movement, voice, theater, and impeccable musicality. The result is a unique and powerful form of performance and storytelling. After 35 years of performing and teaching around the world, Silva started the Migration Dance Film Project (MDFP) with award-winning director Marlene Millar. Their films have been screened internationally and won numerous awards. Sandy is also a teacher/mentor, artistic curator, and co-founder of the International percussive dance lab based in Montreal.
In her artistic practice, compositions and body percussion draw upon traditional art practices of Turkish Usul rhythms, African-American juba, Québécois gigue, Celtic mouth music, Andalusian palmas, and Hungarian legends. Through 35 years of study and deconstruction of these vocabularies, Silva’s new vocalized choreographies integrate rooted sounds and gestures to evoke a sense of travel, journey, and migration.
Silva’s teaching sequences and her public choreographies are designed around themes that explore the human condition. She explores and combines vocal melodies that support a narrative to her percussive movement, which ultimately becomes an orchestral body of work. In her teaching, whether with pedestrian beginners or experienced professionals, she grounds the group experience through a common pulse. based on sonic gestures, which can also move into more complex polyrhythmic explorations. The intent is to build a personal practice suited to each person’s skill, capacity, and genre. The requirement and commitment for each participant is to take the time to go deeper in their listening and to embody the elements of the work in a way that is meaningful to them so that this touches the human experience in each of us.
For more information about the residency activities, visit our International Choreographer page.