The Healer is a holistic online experience and virtual dance performance designed to offer space for communal breath, processing, and reflection. Prior to each live streaming of the dance, a guest speaker will share insights into their healing practices, inviting us to ground ourselves and setting the stage for the performance. Each performance will conclude with a live Q&A with artistic collaborators. Learn more about the guests speakers and our Q&A moderator below.
Performance #1: Friday, January 29 at 6pm PT / 9pm ET
Shawna Seth – An Intro to Traditional Chinese Medicine Themes + the Creative Process
Shawna Seth, L.Ac. (she/her/hers) is a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist, trained at the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College in Berkeley. She ran her own practice in San Francisco using gentle traditional Japanese and Chinese methods to help patients regulate their cycles, prepare for pregnancy, and thrive and recover postpartum. While preparing for her second masters as a physician assistant, Shawna applies her creativity to dance consulting and lightsaber choreography. shawnaseth.com or Instagram @acuppaqi
Performance #2: Saturday, January 30 at 5pm PT / 8pm ET*
Rebecca KellyG – A Sensory Soundscape on Growing through Discomfort
Rebecca KellyG (she/her) is an Equity and Justice facilitator/consultant, interdisciplinary artist, and former civil rights attorney committed to fostering self-care for collective justice. Founder of Rebecca KellyG Consulting, her practice is rooted in anti-racism and centers on working with creative communities to heal from internalized oppression and move culture and institutional practices toward equity. Select speaking appearances include The United State of Women, Lincoln Center Theatre-LCT3, and The Broadway Advocacy Coalition. She holds such honors as The Diversity and International Action Council Adjunct Professor Award for Diversity and Inclusion from Wagner College and the George N. Lindsay Civil Rights Legal Fellow with The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Her artistic and equity work has been included in The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Black Girl Magik, and the Every Woman Biennial NYC. For more information on Rebecca, please visit her website rebeccakellyg.com or follow her on Instagram at @rebeccakelly_g. (Painting and photo credit by Nichole Washington)
*Closed captioning and audio description will be available for this performance
Performance #3: Saturday, January 30 at 8pm PT / 11pm ET
Xan West – Community Healing and Daily Meditation Practices
Xan West (she/her) is the Executive Director of OneLife Institute for Spirituality & Social Change which provides healing justice for marginalized communities through retreats, classes and workshops. She is also a preacher of Black Lives Matter and other millennial liberation theologies, a teacher of direct action, and a grassroots organizer. Proud to have been born & raised in Oakland, Xan has over 20 years of experience in social justice movement work, mostly related to police accountability, queer rights and community healing. She is a Black queer femme and most importantly a mama to her toddler, Glory. onelifeinstitute.org
Q&A Moderator after every performance:
Yutian Wong
Yutian Wong (she, her, hers) is a Professor of Dance in the School of Theatre & Dance at San Francisco State University where she teaches courses in critical dance studies. Wong is the author of Choreographing Asian American (Wesleyan University Press, 2010), editor of Contemporary Directions in Asian American Dance (University of Wisconsin Press, 2016), and co-editor with Jens Richard Giersdorf of The Routledge Dance Studies Reader 3rd Edition (Routledge, 2018). Learn more