An Exquisite Corpse Dance Film Project
WHO WE ARE
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20 Dancers over 40 days from all up and down the West Coast of the United States, from Portland to L.A. have participated in this dance film passing the video and the movement from one set of hands to the next. What began as a response to the sheltering in place order slowly evolved into a reflection of the times, the days, the places, the movements in which we are living: from the beginning of the COVID pandemic in the U.S. to the murder of George Floyd and through the protests of the Black Lives Matter movement. As dancers, we marched, protested, wept together and the pieces in this film reflect that.
How can we work together while we are apart?
we asked as we began this project; but as we witnessed, fought for justice, and created art during this time this dance collaboration has deepened into a even more sobering reality as we grapple with the bigger question that's come to the surface:
How can we heal from the spaces that already exist between us?
We offer this piece of art not only as a reflection of the times, but also with the hope that it opens hearts, sparks conversations, and provides a catalyst for change at the unconscious level. Click on the dots below to learn more>>
Director, Editor,
& Dance Contributor
Holly Shaw
Holly Shaw, author of the Amazon bestseller, The Creative Formula, is a life-long artist who has not only performed in film, TV and on stages all over the world as an actor, dancer and now stand up comedian, but has also coached and helped thousands of performing artists, some of them Emmy Award winning and Grammy nominated.
Before becoming a coach, Holly was a professional flamenco dancer for fifteen years, performing most notably with the internationally renowned company, Caminos Flamencos, and with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. Shaw's own choreographic work has been commissioned by the Hewlitt Foundation for the Arts, the Edinburgh Arts Festival, and the WestWave Festival. Comprised of mostly of contemporary flamenco dance theatre pieces, her most revelatory project, 365dances where she created a dance every day for an entire year, served as a profound turning point in her career. It was then that she fell in love with and began researching the nature of making things.
Inspired by this research, she has gone on to develop and offer creative “laboratory” workshops where participants can mine their most inspired work like The Deeper Lab Flamenco Dance Intensive and her now ongoing Comedy Lab Open Mic. She is a regular teacher at SAG/AFTRA's conservatories in SF as well as LA helping actors to manage their audition nerves, and hosts the award winning, Performers & Creators Lab Podcast. To stay up to date, follow her on Instagram @hollyshawspritely.
Composer
Dan Cantrell
Dan Cantrell is an Emmy award winning composer and multi-instrumentalist known for his innovative film scoring approach, and his virtuosic abilities on the accordion, piano and musical saw. “Hauntingly beautiful…quirky and energetic” says the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Dan’s compositions for film and television have earned him numerous awards including an Emmy Award for KQED’s Home-Front. Visit bellowhead.com
Co-Editor and Dance Contributor
Kimeiko Rae Vision
Kimeiko Rae Vision is a Professional Intuitive, a Women’s Business Coach, Amateur Brain Scientist, Lively Event Emcee and... a Nightly Shower Singer.
A founding member of LA Playback Theatre Company, she has acted in productions of Arsenic and Old Lace, Grease, & Las Vegas productions of The Vagina Monologues. She is a former dancer for the Alaska State Visitors Bureau and Dance Contempo.
Often referred to as a “Court Jester” offering her community a good, healing laugh, Kimeiko believes in the power of using mythology & storytelling, parables & analogies, faith & lore, as well as the fine arts, to tackle real world problems.
Kimeiko is a transformational speaker & author, published in the anthology 365 Days of Angel Prayers and is a Business Coach specializing in helping Women profit from their brilliance and enjoy the hell out of it! She can be contacted via Instagram @AngelWarriorVision or on Facebook as Kimeiko Rae Vision.
Dancer Choreographer Contributors
In Order of Appearance
Dance Contributor
Hannah Watson
I am Hannah Watson. I just want to love you in my own language. I find dance throughout my life in many forms, never trained professionally per say, but living in my prayer/ dancing, as I tell my stories through movement.
When I am not dancing, I am a hairdresser at Di Pietro Todd in San Francisco. Along with my passion for hair, I wear a multitude of other creative and artistic hats - literally and figuratively. I have accumulated a collection of stylish props that are sought after as rentals for photoshoots, set design; I have been a stylist on various photo shoots in fashion, costumed events and set design; Styled clothing for Foreverworn (an Etsy clothing site); I also design jewelry for adults and make tiaras for children (Tiastiaras.com)
I have exhibited my work at Canvas in Santa Cruz, Knimble in Oakland and Mudpie in San Francisco. One of my most unique artistic endeavors is “The Crimson Crow” a 35 foot bus which I refurbished and designed for special events.
"My favorite part of any day and my life in general is seeing the art and beauty in all people and all things. Seeing it, recognizing it, being it, bringing it out in women, especially giving young girls more confidence and helping people feel supported and connected....these are the activities that bring me the greatest joy.
Only love. . H.
Dance Contributor
Sara Mosser
Sara has been dancing for nearly 37 years as she was place in her first dance class at 3 years old! Throughout her life, Sara has studied contemporary, hip hop, jazz, tap, African, partner dance, and dabbled in many more styles of dance. She has been a performer all her life and continues to look for ways to express through movement.
Dance Contributor
May Yang
May is a Belly dancer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Growing up in Seoul, South Korea, May began her delightful journey at age 10. She started her training with traditional Korean dance and starred in many performances. May’s passion for dance has inspired her study of other forms of world dance – eventually focusing on belly dancing. Traveling around the world to find a way to express herself, May found San Francisco. She then fell in love with Tribal belly dancing and began pursuing her dream. May has been developing her own style by working with great tribal dancers. Currently she is a member of the world famous Zoe Jake’s “House of Tarot” " “Coven Dance Company” and "Beats Antique". She thinks that her new path as a Belly dancer makes her strong yet humble. Her dreams have brought her a long way, but she knows there is much more to learn and love.
Dance Contributor
Renee Naleppa
I'm an interior designer based in San Francisco and have a passion for creating. I started to understand the freedom of self-expression through dance when I was in high school and began to search for music that wasn't showcased on MTV's top 20 countdowns. I explored music from the past and different cultures to understand music, fashion, and dance that influenced the present. I listened to my parent's albums, and I got exposed to the music that flowed un-composed and created a jam between musicians. I gravitated towards the sounds of jazz, rock-n-roll, funk, and reggae. A jamming style of music in any genre resonated with my style of creativity and the subcultures that surround these types of shows had a captivating sense of dance that inspired me. When I dance, I tell an unwritten story with my movements and feel as though my body is an instrument creating a visual sound in the performance.
Dance Contributor
Kellita Maloof
For the last 20 years, Kellita Maloof has been working and creating at the intersection where burlesque dance meets depth psychology meets attachment theory meets individuation meets autoimmune recovery meets spirituality. She’s a performing and teaching artist, soulful mentor and conscious burlesque coach.
Some highlights in Kellita's performing career include: founding award-winning troupe Hot Pink Feathers, Queen of Carnaval San Francisco 2008, 1st Place in Original World Fusion Dance + Choreography in Carnaval San Francisco and 5-time finalist at the Burlesque Hall of Fame. She’s taught and performed from San Francisco to New Orleans, Hollywood to Montreal, and Paris to Tokyo.
Kellita helps kind, smart, soulful, sensitive women who've been over-editing, over-managing and over-giving--and are attracted to dance theater and performance--to trust themselves & express themselves with confidence, presence & radiance. She integrates into her work over a decade of practice in transformative modalities, primarily Holographic NLP, EFT, Systemic Constellations and Interpersonal Neurobiology. Kellita's mission is to support women in being SEEN on their own terms and in dusting off the fountain of Self-Love that was hiding right in the center of their very own shimmy.
Find out more: www.showgirlawakening.com
Follow Kellita here: https://www.facebook.com/showgirlshaman + https://www.instagram.com/kellitatheshowgirlshaman/
Discover your Showgirl Archetype: https://showgirlawakening.com/quiz/
Dance Contributor
Jessica Klinke
Jessica Klinke is a life-long dancer - studying ballet from a young age and going on to perform professionally - and now a (re)emerging audio artist, producer, and folklorist. She started out spinning records on WXYC in Chapel Hill, while working on a Master’s Degree in Folklore. She moved on to become a senior producer of Carolina Breakdown, a weekly interview program and podcast. Her ethnographic fieldwork has taken her from the Piedmont of North Carolina, to the heart of downtown Chicago, to the deep desert playa of Black Rock City. She managed to drag her son to four countries on three continents before he was two. Recently dusting off her microphone, Jessica launched, The Secret Lives of Mothers, a new podcast series exploring the lost identities of women who have chosen to raise children, and how they can get their lives back. Find out more at http://www.audiblemuse.com
Dance Contributor
Katy Alaniz Barnhill
Katy Alaniz Barnhill is a San Francisco native who, over the last quarter century, has studied over 30 forms of cultural dance in addition to ballet, modern, tap, jazz, and hip-hop. She received a scholarship to San Francisco Ballet for 10 years then attended high schools of the arts in San Francisco and Los Angeles. She expanded her study of cultural dance with Pdt. Chitresh Das (Kathak of India), Vladimir Riasantsev (Russian Character), El Farruquito (Flamenco), and received her BA in World Arts and Cultures from UCLA. Katy has danced with Deli Ritmo (Flamenco), Mora Reyna (Belly Dance), Ballet Afsaneh (Central Asian), Nai-Ni Chen (Chinese), As a Pasista in Rio Carnaval (Samba), Ballet Casquelourd (Congolese), Siete Potencias (Afro-Cuban), Mirwa Sacre, the first Haitian Vodou tour in the United States.
In 1996, World Dance Fusion (Katy’s style) was created as a result of her upbringing in the rich multi-cultural dance community of the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2001 Katy’s dance company, also called World Dance Fusion, premiered Too Late for Hip-Hop as the first dance work to be shown at the Canvas art gallery in San Francisco. Since then, her work has been shown at Peak Center for Performing Arts in New Jersey, Asociación Cultural Antigua de Sevilla, Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open, Z-Gallery, The Palace of Fine Arts, Santa Clara Convention Center, Dance Mission Theater, and The Alambra in Lahore, Pakistan, among others. In 2007 the U.S government asked Katy to be an ambassador for dance. She has traveled the world teaching cultural understanding through dance.
Dance Contributor
Shoshanna
Shoshanna lives, dances, and teaches in Arcata, amongst the redwoods on California’s north coast. She has spent the last decade building a world dance studio that is now a non profit organization, created an enchanting party business for children, developed a fairy festival and took part in innumerable community celebrations. All of that is currently on hold as the world holds its breath and we wait to see what the future holds for events in spaces together. Until then Shoshanna is open to possibilities, ready to create, and dancing barefoot in the rain... and gardening.
www.shoshannaland.com
Shoshanna with her filmographer, husband, Adam Wanden
Dance Contributor
Gigi
Gigi Ferrozzo was born and raised in San Francisco, CA. Gigi's first love of dance was ballet at the age of 7yrs. At the age of 14 she auditioned and entered the School of Dance and Arts (SODA) in San Francisco where she trained as a dancer and studied many forms of dance. Gigi continues to dance and is a strong supporter of the electronic dance community and it's artists for over 20+yrs. Gigi lives in Bernal-Glen and is a licensed Realtor in San Francisco and volunteers for the nonprofit Urban Angels which supports the transitions of the homeless of San Francisco https://www.urbanangelssf.org/
Dance Contributor
Bernadette LaNoue
I am an Oakland Unified early childhood educator. I’ve been in this field for 25 years. After completing my Masters in ECE I have dedicated myself to coaching other early childhood programs and educators in yoga/mindfulness strategies, creating a playful environment/curriculum, as well as dance and movement.
As a dancer from an early age and the daughter of a professional ballerina, I use dance as a therapy for my soul. I’ve been dancing salsa since I was a very small child and fusion flamenco in my adulthood. I have performed with a fusion flamenco group called Garnada since 2006. Fusion dancing has really helped me grow as a dancer, it has allowed me to move and feel the music in my own way and has given me a sense of freedom in the dance world. As I’ve matured, I notice that my ability to let go as a dancer can pull me to feel so deeply. I can put myself into a transient state and conjure my native ancestral spirits. I don’t know if I would be able to do this if it wasn’t for dance and for this I am forever grateful.
Dance Contributor
Kysha Mitchell
Kysha Mitchell has studied and performed traditional African, modern and Diaspora dance since she was a teenager. She is currently a certified success coach, speaker, and a fierce advocate for women owning and living in their truth.
She has guided dozens of women to re-imagine their lives, take action and sustain a personal heart-driven version of success. Using her Triple C System of Clarity, Courage & Confidence, her clients receive strategies to reveal where their power lies, tools to apply it, and the encouragement to move forward in alignment with who they truly are.
Kysha credits her own success in entrepreneurship, community advocacy and public speaking to multiple business certifications, ongoing mindset & transformation studies, and a strong, active spiritual foundation. She lives in Oakland, supported by her irreplaceable husband of 23 years, her 2 thoughtful & energetic teenagers and a strong inner circle of sisterhood & mentors.
https://www.facebook.com/ElevateyourNOW/
https://linkedin.com/in/elevateyournow/
Message from Kysha:
I am encouraging you to support and donate to Flourish Agenda. This organization offers needed guidance and strategies for the healing and transformation that youth of color need.
Dance Contributor
Stacey Detwiler
Stacey Detwiler has danced non-professionally for more than 20 years, practicing everything from ballet to salsa to hip hop. She is currently a member of Company & Clark Dancers in Ashland, Oregon. When she’s not at the studio or hiking in the woods, Stacey works for a non-profit in southern Oregon to protect the Rogue River. For the past 11 years, she has dedicated her career to advocating for clean water and healthy rivers in Washington, DC and Oregon. Stacey first learned her love of rivers along the banks of the Schuylkill in Pennsylvania and now calls southern Oregon home, where she loves exploring the beautiful Rogue watershed.
Dance Contributor
Heather Shaw
Heather Shaw is a writer, editor, bookkeeper, and lindy hopper living in Berkeley, CA with her husband and 8-year-old son, River. She’s the fiction editor at the new pro-SF zine, Persistent Visions (persistentvisionsmag.com). She’s had short fiction published in Strange Horizons, The Year’s Best Fantasy, Escape Pod, PodCastle, and other nice places. She’s been a featured author at the SF in SF Reading series in San Francisco and read her poetry in front of disgruntled grunge concert-goers at Lollapalooza back when it was a thing.
Dance Contributor
Rose Nisker
Rose Nisker has been involved in dance and performing arts for over 35 years as a performer, teacher, director and arts administrator. At the age of eight, she made her debut dance performance with Gamelan Sekar Jaya at the Bali Arts Festival in Denpasar, and has performed across the globe including several tours to Indonesia, Europe, China and throughout the US and Canada. She received her BA from UCLA in World Arts and Cultures with study abroad at universities in India and Spain. Rose has served as the Artistic Director of Les Aerielles, a youth aerial arts company in Oakland. She is the Program Manager of renowned Balinese music and dance troupe Gamelan Sekar Jaya, and a principal actor in the internationally-touring Iranian theater production, “Feathers of Fire.” Follow her on Instagram: @rosenisker
Dance Contributor
Sheila Ames
I'm a single mom, nurse, knitter, who loves to dance in her living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom (just be careful in the shower). I took a free dance classes growing up, but found my love for dancing in high school (where I met Holly Shaw) in color guard dancing with flags and rifles. We participated in many competitions and won WGI Internationals my junior year in high school. Since then, I’ve taken a few college dance classes, but never danced professionally.
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Dance Contributor
Shelley Davis Roberts
Originally from Las Vegas, Nevada, Shelley Roberts earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA and a Master of Architecture Degree from U.C. Berkeley. Her multi-disciplinary interests have guided her work and exploration in architecture, diversified community development, identity and culture while working as a visual & performing artist and educator for 20 years. She is currently a project manager and designer with Designing Justice Designing Spaces focusing on social justice architecture which impacts underserved communities of color. As a former Chapter President for the San Francisco Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects she researched and presented on the contributions of African American Architects in her lecture “Evolution of the African American Architect”. She also taught Architecture and Diversity, as a former instructor at the City College of San Francisco.
Shelley began studying dance while attending UC Berkeley. She is formerly a gymnast and studied Modern, Ballet, Samba, and Capoeira in the Bay Area, Brazil and Cuba. She enjoyed nine seasons with the Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble and five seasons with Alayo Dance Company. She has also completed large-scale art installations as a collaborator of House Full of Black Women for their 2016 -2019 Black Women Dreaming Episodes.
Photo by Bethanie Hines
Dance Contributor
Nicole Maria Dance
Nicole Maria is a multi-award-winning dancer based out of Oakland, California. She has been studying, teaching, and performing contemporary and traditional forms of Arabic dance for over a decade. Most recently she was a featured soloist in the prestigious 2019 San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, representing Egyptian Raqs Sharqi. Nicole teaches and performs as a solo dancer and in several dance companies throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. She is currently co-director, choreographer, and solo dancer of Asheq Collective (Group Champions - 2019 Belly Dancer of the Year Competition), Shahrzad Dance Company (Contemporary Persian Ballet), and Tsiftetelli Delights (Balkan Fusion).
Dance Contributor
Laura Elan
Though she identifies as an acupuncturist and healing professional first and dancer/artist second, Laura defines herself intimately an eternal student of life, a perceiver of the unseen, and a fighter for humanity and justice. Laura has been a multi-disciplinary dancer and performing artist for 25 years. She co-founded the band, Korkealla, in 2010 with Emmy award winning composer, Ken Carlson, where she sang and danced to original works with a Pacific Northwest world music flair. She has studied the art of flamenco for the past 15 years and has performed flamenco in productions, restaurants, and wineries. She recently participated in the filming of an up and coming flamenco documentary, a four-part series examining the roots and evolution of this complex and extraordinary art form.
Laura holds a Master’s of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine and is the Founder, Acupuncturist and Herbalist of the thriving clinic, Golden Summit Acupuncture, a practice driven by compassionate, collaborative health care and empowering both women and men to discover the nuances in care of their bodies. Additionally, she is a clinical aesthetician and internationally recognized CIDESCO diplomat, an organization holding the highest standards for beauty therapists in the world.
Laura has recently founded the activist organization MAGIC “Make America Grow in Consciousness” as a fundraiser and protest and play on words of “Make America Great Again”. Proceeds received from clothing sales will go to social justice and climate change organizations. She is also working on a screenplay based on a poem she wrote long ago that will incorporate the elements of her life’s studies and include song, dance, and mythology. You can find her regularly communing with the redwoods and at her Oakland-based private acupuncture practice, www.goldensummitacu.com.