Program for ChoreoFest 2021 – July 10

YBGF presents classical, world, and jazz music, contemporary and traditional dance, theater, children’s and family programs, and cultural events reflecting the rich cultures and creativity of the region. Artistic excellence, inclusion, diversity and innovation are at the heart of its mission. As the only curated arts park dedicated to the longterm presentation of free arts and cultural programs, Yerba Buena Gardens has a unique place in the cultural landscape of San Francisco. ybgfestival.org

RAWdance is an award-winning contemporary dance company known for transforming theaters and public spaces through performance, curation, collaboration, and film. The company creates adventurous, thoughtful, and welcoming programming that challenges what contemporary dance is, where it happens, who it includes, and the role it plays in our lives. A “rare treasure” (Critical Dance) and ”witty, whip-smart, and beautiful to watch” (San Francisco Chronicle), RAWdance has performed throughout the U.S. and in Asia. rawdance.org

Lynie Abadilla is a performer and storyteller. She is a member of the sketch comedy troupe Granny Cart Gangstas and has acted in various productions within the Bindlestiff Studio community. She has a mission to fearlessly tell stories that need to be heard and has a fascination with capturing moments of reimagined nostalgia. She last appeared in Jeannie Barroga’s BANYAN, playing Ona in Bindlestiff’s KWENTO TIMES series. She was also a dramaturg for Lauren Andrei Garcia’s short film KILIG GIRL: A PROLOGUE.

AstraLogik is a Queer Filipinx musical Duo residing in the Bay Area, California. They are life partners in life & music, experimenting with different musical genres, technology, bands — and performing for various communities/philanthropic causes. Since the pandemic began, they have been exploring soundscaping with connection to energy flow within the body.

Byb Chanel Bibene, an MFA graduate and award winner is a dance educator, choreographer and performer working in theater, ethnic, urban, and contemporary dance forms. His own technical and aesthetic sensibility is rooted in the culture and dances of his country of origin, the Republic of Congo. He has toured the world and performed internationally with companies and choreographers originating from Africa, Asia, Europe and the USA. He owns a Bachelor in Science, Economics/Finances from Marien Ngouabi University/Congo, an MFA in Dance Creative Practice, earning the Dean’s award for Academic Excellence from Saint Mary’s College of California. kiandandadt.com / mbonguifest.org

Poko ‘Dre’ Devis (she/they)  is a 2nd generation granddaughter | daughter | sister pilipinx creative of Boholano & Ilokano descent. Born and raised on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land. Since childhood, Poko has been honing her movement healing and dance expression allowing her to be a vessel for creative spirit to flow through. To move what must be moved, dance what must be danced and honor what must be honored.

Danielle Galvez (she/they) is a dance artist and tarot card reader weaving together her practices of dance, yoga, and tarot. They founded Archive Dance Collective in 2016, a dance collective that aims to create spaces to express, reflect, and relate. Through her tarot practice, Danielle offers her studies of yoga philosophy and interest in Philippine psychology to promote self study and resilience.

Cara Zamora Palanca is a verbal processor, a facilitator of soft spaces and another womxn intent on bringing people back to their heart. She is an active site for breaking generational cycles of hurting your most beloved ones and supplanting colonial mentality within the self. Having been born, raised and conditioned in the capital of her motherland (Manila, Philippines), she navigates being away from all that you know, living in honor of your roots while reimagining life beyond what we’ve been taught we deserve.

Camille Ramirez is a graduate of the CSU Northridge Jazz Studies music program. She studied traditional Philippine music under Kayamanan Ng Lahi, Rondalla Club of Los Angeles, Guro Dan Kalanduyan, and Ramon Obusan.

SAMMAY (she/they) is a Filipinx American choreographer, interdisciplinary artist, and cultural producer of Bikol, Kapampangan, and Ilokano descent who bridges the traditional and contemporary in centering embodied storytelling as a vehicle for collective healing and liberation. Through multimedia dance theatre, she invokes rituals for remembering and decolonizing — creating to honor the tapestry of indigenous epistemologies embedded in our urban landscapes. Raised on Tongva Land/LA County and a settler on Yelamu/San Francisco, her practice is rooted in the fundamental knowing that dance is the medium that connects the earth and ancestral realm — the passageway to transmute intergenerational trauma across cultural lines and geographical borders. She is the founder and artistic executive director of SAMMAY Productions and chief curator of Urban x Indigenous intercultural arts festival. sammaydizon.com

Juliann Witt was born in Marin and began dancing at the age of three. As a young dancer, she trained at the California Academy of Performing Arts and attended summer programs with American Ballet Theatre and Alonzo King LINES Ballet. After receiving her BFA in Dance Performance from SUNY Purchase she performed briefly in New York City before returning to the Bay Area. Since her return, she has had the pleasure of dancing with many great artists and companies including DTSF, Nol Simonse, Bellwether Dance Project, Dexandro “D” Montalvo, Fullstop Dance, Robert Moses’ Kin, Liv Schaffer, Concept o4, and RAWdance.

Katerina (Katie) Wong is a choreographer, movement artist, and Co-Artistic Director of RAWdance. Since graduating from Princeton University, she’s had the honor of performing with more than 15 Bay Area dance companies including Printz Dance Project, PUSH Dance Company, LEVYdance, Concept o4, and the San Francisco Symphony. Her work has been commissioned by Pop-Up Magazine, PUSH Dance Company, FACT/SF, Cutting Ball Theater, California Academy of Sciences, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, ACLU of Northern California, and more. Katie has been invited to participate in arts leadership programs by Dance/USA, Women of Color in the Arts, APAP, and Asylum Arts. Katie’s practice is rooted in meaningful collaboration, community bridge building, and artistic partnership. katerinawong.com / rawdance.org

Stacey Yuen, a Bay Area native, received her BFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She went on to work with Seán Curran and the Santa Fe Opera, and to travel to Greece to perform in works by Johannes Wieland and Stella Zannou at the one small step dance festival. She spent three seasons as a dancer and rehearsal director with the Sticky Trace Company in Germany. Since returning to the Bay, Stacey has worked with Robert Moses, Katie Faulkner, Jennifer Perfilio, Lenora Lee Dance, Alyssandra Katherine Dance Project, and RAWdance. staceyyuen.com