Thank you for coming to 30 Points of View! Our free, open studio event was a success, celebrating the varied performance styles and artistic processes of Bay Area choreographers. Our community of students, teachers, and artists showed up to watch, ask questions, interact, respond, and dance!
If you came, please help us out by filling out our feedback form. If you missed it, don’t worry! Thanks to Berkeley Community Media, all three days of the event can be viewed on our YouTube Channel.
Enjoy this highlight reel of our event.
Thank you to California Humanities for supporting arts education and sponsoring our event!
Meet the 2025 Choreographers
Afia Thompson received her acclaim 20 years ago in West African dance. She has performed nationally and internationally in genres including Afro-House, Hip-Hop, freestyle, and African dance. Afia founded Bahiya Movement in 2011 with her daughter Nafi Thompson-Artistic Director of Bahiya Movement. They established Bahiya Movement for dancers looking to deepen their ongoing artistic practice, create connectivity within urban communities, and instill skills to succeed as professional artists. Afia has ignited her commitment to be dedicated to urban communities as a BIPOC leader, activist, and equality seeker for all.
Megan Nicely is an artist/scholar whose research involves choreographic experimentation through the medium of the body. She combines performance theory with physical practice in release-based dance, Japanese butoh, and somatics. Nicely is Associate Professor at University of San Francisco, author of Experimental Dance and the Somatics of Language (2023), and director of Megan Nicely/Dance.
Deborah Slater, director/choreographer, is Artistic Director of DSDT, a multi-media dance company, creating physical, visual talking dance & dedicated to work exploring social issues, science & art through original dance, text & music. DSDT is the recipient of many grants, awards and commissions including Izzies and MAP, Rainin and Wattis grants. Photo by Robbie Sweeny.
With an affinity for dynamic places and partners, Megan Lowe Dances creates perspective shifting dance productions in the San Francisco Bay Area, situated on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land. Directed by a choreographer of Chinese and Irish descent, MLD explores complex identities and experiences by tackling unusual physical situations and inventing compelling solutions, opening up the imagination to what is possible. Photo by RJ Muna, Megan Lowe and Shira Yaziv in “Just a Shadow” by Megan Lowe Dances.
Since 1996, Alisa’s artistic career has included being a dance artist & educator, choreographer , filmmaker, audio describer and professional learning leader. Alisa spent significant time working with AXIS Dance Company and Luna Dance & Creativity. She continues to teach dance and is a dance credential supervisor at CSUEB. Alisa believes dance belongs to everyone and tries to convey that through her work. Photo by Walter Holden.
Vangie King and Nicole Stone met in 2002 at the Deborah Hay Solo Commissioning Project. A 2-week immersion using Deborah’s scores to create their own solos. Since then they have continued meeting to investigate improvisation. Vangie became part of Bay Area Dance in 1978 and Nicole in 2002. Photo by Phillip Stone.
NAKA Dance Theater creates experimental performance works using dance, storytelling, multimedia installations and site-specific environments. NAKA builds partnerships with communities, engages people’s histories and folklore and expresses experiences through accessible performances that challenge the viewer to think critically about social justice issues. Photo by Robbie Sweeny.
VERA!/Vera Hannush is an Armenian American drag king and dancer. They explore the reclamation of cultural dance through queer/trans chosen families. They are currently working on the next iteration of their Armenian dance and drag performance work to continue delving into and queering their cultural heritage. Photo by Kleos Captured Photography.
ChingChi is very proud of herself that at 64, she’s still dancing vigorously and making dances. ChingChi also enjoys teaching dance. She loves sharing the joy of dancing and connecting with people of all ages. You can find her teaching at Berkeley Public Library and Shawl Anderson Dance Center. Photo by Doug Kaye.
Emma Quan Dewey is a Bay Area-raised dancer, choreographer, and educator putting down roots in Huichiun (Oakland). Emma’s work grounds itself in dance as an imaginative, world-building act / as a ritual to move through the intimate ways identity, power structures, and history play out at the level of the body / as an offering to be in relationship with land, ancestors, and spirits. Photo by Justin Ebrahimi.
DAP was created in 2017 out of necessity as the collaborators found themselves grappling with what it means to be a dancer/dancemaker while also taking on roles as provider and caretaker. The group uses movement as a language of solidarity, resistance and self-expression while also considering the dynamics of listening, being heard and yielding. Spoken word, organic movement and song are tools they lean on in their dancemaking.
Mary Armentrout is an experimental choreographer working primarily with repetition and duration to problematize aspects of intentionality and presence. She calls her site-specific genre-mixing works performance installations; recent awards include an Isadora Duncan Dance Award and an EMPAC commission. Also: dance, composition, and Feldenkrais teacher, co-curator of the Milkbar.
The Embodiment Project is a Performing Arts Organization that blends dance, theater, and live songs to address social justice issues. Through trauma-informed storytelling and street dance culture, they uplift marginalized voices, fostering healing and dialogue. Their work challenges systemic oppression and promotes collective empowerment through deeply immersive, emotional performances. Photo by Amber Nicole @create.elevate.
Dana Lawton wears multiple hats as the Artistic Director of Dana Lawton Dances (DLD), a position she has held since its establishment in 2007. Alongside her role at DLD, she serves as a tenured faculty member in the Performing Arts Department at Saint Mary’s College and teaches at the renowned Shawl-Anderson Dance Center.
Dr. Anak Agung Anom Putra, S.S.T. is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, performance jurist, and arts theorist from Ubud, Bali, Indonesia who has won many awards and accolades. He has been the Artistic Director of Semara Ratih since 1988, and is an exceptional baris dancer. Ayu Sukmawati, S.H. has been the Dance Director of Semara Ratih since 1988. Her home village is well-known for a dance style called Legong. She stands out for the energetic and dramatic power of her dance. Come take class with them at Gamelan Sekar Jaya in Berkeley (sign up at gsj.org).
Claudine Naganuma is the founding director of dNaga Dance Co., the GIRL Project (housed at the EastSide Cultural Center) and Dance for PD®, Oakland, (serving dancers with Parkinson’s disease), at Danspace. Like Luna, dNaga is committed to fostering the next generation of dance makers and innovative thinkers.
Monique Jenkinson is an artist, choreographer, performer and writer. Her alter-ego Fauxnique made herstory as the first cis-woman ever, anywhere, crowned as a pageant-winning drag queen. Her original works have toured nationally and internationally in wide-ranging contexts from nightclubs to museums. Her memoir, Faux Queen is out on Amble Press. Photo by Arturo Cosenza.
Founded in 2024 and led by Zach Fish and Sydney Lozier, On Beyond is a new multidisciplinary performance and production company dedicated to creating interactive, immersive, and audience-responsive experiences. Drawing from diverse artistic backgrounds, we aim to craft stories that outlast us via experiences that impact. Photo by Alex “Animal” Swehla.
Karla Quintero’s cross-genre improvisation practice is informed by contemporary, club and partner dance, somatics, and a deep love of genre (ie. horror, telenovelas). Across her 13+ years performing, she has danced works by Gerald Casel, Hope Mohr, Catherine Galasso, Robert Moses, and others. Karla collaborates closely with dance artist Belinda He under the shared identity ALLOYED METTLES, recently in residence at Dance Nucleus (Singapore) & featured by MR at Judson Church. Karla is based in Huichin/Oakland.
John-Mario Sevilla’s work has appeared at The Met Museum, LaMaMa, Movement Research, 92NY, Dance Theatre Workshop, Lower East Side Tenement Museum, The Asia Society and Bronx Academy of Art and Dance. He performed with Pilobolus, Alison Chase, Nikolais/Louis, Anna Sokolow, among others. He currently studies hula with Kumu Hula Kawika Alfiche at Hālau O Keikialiʻi.
Algin “Align” Ford (he/they) is a visionary whose multidisciplinary practice is rooted in the intersections of music, movement, film and cultural activism. An SF, Fillmore native and Dance & Performance Art graduate. He trained in Modern Dance, Contemporary, Hip-Hop, West African, House, Waacking and Vogue. Align’s recent performances include the Black Choreographers Festival at MoAD SF, The Guggenheim NY and The Armory with Bill T. Jones. Align is a DJ, musician, choreographer, curator & activist.
We have worked together in different combinations for many years with Risa directing. RESearch arose from the shared desire for an experimental, and truly equal collaboration. Using improvisation we tease out moments of interest in each other’s movement. Using those moments, we create choreography through our different lenses. We range in age from 42 to 78.
Olallie Lackler is a queer, non-binary experimental dancer, creator, and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their work explores the universes between contact improvisation and contemporary/experimental dance. Frequent themes of exploration include relationships, queerness, the realms of the inner cosmos, and power.
Carol Kueffer is a choreographer, dancer and teacher in the Bay Area. She was a founding member of David Dorfman Dance and performed internationally with the company for eleven years. Carol is also an avid swimmer and will be spilling her love of moving through water onto the dance floor in her 30 minutes at Luna.
Dandelion Dancetheater is situated at the crossroads of dance, theater, music, writing, community activism, healing, and new performance forms. The Wandering Ensemble is a collaboration of The CSUEB Inclusive Interdisciplinary Ensemble (IIE) and Dandelion, directed by Eric Kupers. “Wandering in the Wilderness” is inspired by the Torah story of the Jews escaping slavery, crossing the Red Sea, then wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, even though their “destination” was only a few months away. We’ve decided to take 40 years to create this performance work.
Moriah Costa is a Dancer, Choreographer, and Teaching Artist from the Bay Area. She attended Mills College and Sonoma State University and graduated as a dance major. She has choreographed for University of California, Berkeley productions, and Diablo Valley College. She has also participated in festivals, and other showings. Moriah is currently working as a Teaching Artist at Luna Dance & Creativity. She is always exploring new ways to move, groove, and understand the world around her.
Grace Shaver is a dancer, doula, and movement educator whose choreographic works are deeply informed by the natural world and often materialize as an ode to ecology. She is currently creating a work with her sister exploring their relationships with the ocean and each other.
Māhealani Uchiyama is an award-winning dancer, musician, composer, choreographer, recording artist, author and teacher. She is the founder of the Māhea Uchiyama Center for International Dance. She trained in traditional hula under the late Kumu Hula Joseph Kahā’ulelio, and is the only lineally recognized Kumu Hula of African descent.
J. Andrea Amezcua – Porras / yAyA is an IndigiQueer, Two -Spirit, Coahuiltecan descendant/ChicanIndia, madre, cultura cura curator/producer, transdisciplinary movement artist/practitioner; with over 25 years’ experience in performance, organizing, facilitation, grant making, grant reviewing, teaching and mentoring. They continue on their Charcoal Foot Travels as relative and guest upon Sacred Indigenous lands through commissions, invitations, collaborations, research, creating site specific installations, ritual performance, teatro y flor y canto movimiento usually in a duet and or collective offering if not a solo.
Eric Solano is native of Aklan and a Philippine dance practitioner since 1993. He is the Artistic Director of Parangal, founded in 2008. He collaborates with 80 culture bearers from 30 indigenous communities in the Philippines. His choreography has been showcased globally, including at Carnegie Hall, the White House, and Merrie Monarch. He teaches at the University of San Francisco, inspiring future cultural ambassadors. In 2024, Eric received a President Biden’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the The Outstanding Filipino Awards.
2025 Artist Schedule
10:00 NAKA Dance Theater
10:30 Mary Armentrout
11:00 Chingchi Yu
11:30 Claudine Naganuma
12:00 Deborah Slater
12:30 Irene Hsi
1:00 BREAK
3:30 Algin Ford
4:00 Dana Lawton
4:30 Olallie Lackler
5:00 Eric Solano
5:30 Vera Hannush
6:00 Megan Lowe
10:00 Dandelion Dancetheater
10:30 Moriah Costa
11:00 Monique Jenkinson
11:30 Gamelan Sekar Jaya
12:00 Alisa Rasera
12:30 Aja Randall + Patricia West of DAP
1:00 BREAK
3:30 BREAK
4:00 John-Mario Sevilla
4:30 Carol Kueffer
5:00 Emma Dewey
5:30 Grace Shaver
3:30 Megan Nicely
4:00 Embodiment Project
4:30 Karla Quintero
5:00 Evangel King & Nicole Stone
5:30 Bahiya Movement & J. Andrea Amezcua-Porras / yAyA
6:00 Māhealani Uchiyama
6:30 On Beyond
7:00 RESearch (Risa Jaroslow, Elise Knudson, Scott Marlowe)