Event photo credit: Speakers at Dance/NYC's 2019 Diálogos: Arts, Social Justice, and Latinx Cultures Town Hall. Photo by Yijing Hong.
When: Wednesday, October 13, 2021 from 6 – 7:30 p.m. ET Where: YouTube Live Registration: This event has already occurred. Continue on for event details, post-event survey, and session resources.
If you require additional reasonable accommodation, please contact Izzy Dow at least two weeks prior to the event via email at idow@dance.nyc or call 212.966.4452 (voice only).
About the Event Redefining Practice | Oceanic Currents: Indigenous Pacific Islander Movement Artists
Weaving together womanist, queer/trans, and progressive Indigenous Pacific movement artists in New York City and the diaspora, this gathering seeks to strengthen internal and external community ties, and further Native dance futures.
Intersectional Pacific Islander choreographers and dancers, cultural practitioners and critics, artists and activists, will engage in conversation about the multiple current and historical challenges facing Oceanian movement makers and their larger creative communities. Through talk story and sharings of their movement practices, the moderators, presenters, and discussants will share aspects of their solo and collaborative artistry, and discuss how to create shared spaces of joy, innovation, mutual support, and resistance.
Surviving the economic and health challenges of disproportionate impacts of a multi-year coronavirus pandemic, ongoing and intensified intersectional violence and oppression, environmental assaults and challenges to Native sovereignty, and colonial conservative settler political systems, Indigenous Pacific movement artists remain resilient, mobile, and active continuers of sovereign movements.
Co-organized and co-moderated by Anthony Aiu and Kaina Quenga, Choreographers/Dancers and Co-Directors of Te Ao Mana. Curated and co-organized by Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, Multimedia Artist, Editor, Educator, and Activist/Organizer.
About the Series
As the landscape for dance as professional practice, living ritual and technical production continues to evolve,Redefining Practice explores how artists and institutions are adapting, unlearning and innovating new ways of being in creation––and the many phases that creation takes––to prioritise new learnings in racial justice, physical/emotional safety, and community care.
Confirmed participants - Click participant names to access their bios:
Co-Organizers
Anthony Aiu, Choreographer/Dancer and Co-Director of Te Ao Mana
Anthony Aiu was born and raised on the North Shore of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i; and received his MFA from SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance. While there, he co-authored A Choreographic Workbook with Professor Kazuko Hirabayashi. An artist, dancer, and choreographer who creates from his vibrant, rich Polynesian ancestry, he founded ‘Avei‘a to showcase his culturally-rooted movement style. As Co-founder of Te Ao Mana, he is dedicated to cultural expansion and giving voice to underrepresented Polynesians. Aiu works on the Global Harmony Project, building communities through the creative process. He has presented at Judson Church, Movement Research, Battery Dance Festival, Kūkulu Art Exhibit, Indigenous Peoples Day, NYC Dance Parade, Hawaiian Airlines Liberty Challenge, Hōkūle‘a’s Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage, and 92nd Street Y.
Kaina Quenga, Choreographer/Dancer and Co-Director of Te Ao Mana
A native of Hilo, Hawai‘i, Kaina has been dancing hula professionally in Hawaiʻi, Florida, New York, and throughout the East Coast. Under the direction of Kumu Hula, Johnny Lum Ho, of Hālau O Ka Ua Kani Lehua, she received formal Polynesian dance training. Quenga went on to perform professionally with Tihati Productions, and studied internationally at the Conservatoire De Tahiti. Her Hawaiʻi cultural stewardship is via education. Kaina was among the diverse Teaching Artists with Brooklyn Arts Council's Folk Feet Folk Arts and Arts in Education programming. She was a Hula instructor at Concourse House Day Care, 92Y Harkness Dance Center and Spoke The Hub in New York City. She also hosted free Hula and Ori Tahiti classes in NYC parks. Kaina is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Te Ao Mana, a Polynesian cultural arts group. Te Ao Mana has made appearances at Hawaiian Airlines Liberty Challenge, Dance Parade, Battery Dance, 92Y, Judson Church, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Indigenous People's Day Celebrations, among others. Director of Nā ‘Ōiwi NYC, a New York City–based education and advocacy group that helped develop a curriculum and residency in sustainability, community outreach, and the arrival of Hōkūlea Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage. As a member of the Indigenous Peoples Day NYC (IPDNYC) Coalition, Nāʻ ʻŌiwi NYC helped in organizing the annual IPDNYC celebrations at Randall's Island and coordinated fundraisers, workshops and travel accommodations for honored guests of Hawaiʻi. We are still advocating for New York to take action and officially recognize Indigenous Peoples Day NYC. At the end of January 2020 Kaina returned home to pursue her education and advocacy efforts globally.
Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, (He/Him/His) Tulsa Artist Fellow and National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, is a multimedia artist, critic, organizer, and educator, orchestrating visual, acoustic, performative, textual, and terrestrial techniques to produce work across 23 nations in the Américas, Africa, the Arab world, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Pacific. A Movement Research Artists of Color Council Core Member, he convened the Studies Project, “Decolonial Design, Indigenous Choreography, and Multicorporeal Sovereignties: A Womanist/Queer/Trans Indigenous Movement Dialogue.” He has collaborated with Rosy Simas Danse, as a multimedia artist, installationist, creative/critical/marketing/grant writer, journal editor, community outreach and engagement specialist, dialogue facilitator, and events organizer for Indigenous womanist performances, installations, and dialogues. In addition, he has collaborated with Valerie Oliveiro, Elisa Harkins, and Maggie Boyett on multimedia dance performances. As lead artist, he is developing multimedia performances with womanist and queer/trans Osage, Cherokee, Mvskoke, and Chicanx artists, activists/organizers, critics, curators, and educators. Bodhrán is author of Archipiélagos; Antes y después del Bronx: Lenapehoking; and South Bronx Breathing Lessons; editor of the international queer Indigenous issue of Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Thought; and co-editor of the Native issue of Movement Research Performance Journal.
Speakers
Carol Noelani Lau, Cultural Practitioner/Advocate & Co-Organizer of Pua Ali‘i ‘Ilima o Nuioka
Carol Noelani Lau was born, raised & educated through her undergraduate degree in Honolulu, HI. She obtained her advanced degree in NY as RN, Family Nurse Practitioner. After decades of clinical & administrative leadership work in NY, she retired in mid-2020 to focus on her lifelong interest in hula, & her cultural roots. She is an advocate for human rights for all, & for the protection of Native Hawaiian rights and cultural resources, & the natural environment of Hawai’i. She is one of two co-leaders of the NYC branch of Pua Ali’i ‘Ilima (PA’I), the O’ahu based halau directed by Kumu Vicky & Kumu Jeff Takamine, Pua Ali’i ‘Ilima o Nuioka, established in 2009. With Pua Ali’i ‘Ilima o Nuioka she has participated in multiple cultural festivals, community events & professional performances in the Tri-state area, & in Hawai’i, including LaMama Theatre, where PA’I o Nuioka is a house company. She is a board member of Hālāwai, NY, an organization whose mission is to advance & support an inclusive community with shared interests in culture & people of Hawai’i, & other Pacific Islands; & a board member of PA’I Foundation, Hawai’i, an arts & culture organization established to preserve, perpetuate a& educate regarding Hawaiian cultural traditions, now & for future generations.
Pele Bauch, Interdisciplinary Choreographer & Dance Dramaturg
Pele Bauch is an interdisciplinary choreographer. She combines dance with theater and weaves mixed media and set design into her choreography. Her work explores the sensation of human experience through abstraction, visual metaphor, and physical expression. Her current works focus on her journey as a Hapa Haole Kanaka Maoli (mixed-race Native Hawaiian) navigating her lack of knowledge from her birthright culture. A.K.A. Ka Inoa (also known as the name) will premiere at La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival in May 2022. The Distance Process / Dear Kanaloa, commissioned by Women in Motion, will premiere in Fall 2022. Her work has been selected for presentation at many venues including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Chocolate Factory, Danspace Project, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Joyce SoHo, HERE's TALR and the Best of TALR, Dixon Place, and BAX. She has received residencies from The Joyce Theater Foundation, Dance Theater Workshop, Chocolate Factory, and 92Y Harkness Dance Center. She has received funding from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Brooklyn Arts Council and Harkness Foundation for Dance. Pele resides in her hometown, New York City, in the land of the Lenape people. She supports fellow choreographers and artists as a Dance Dramaturg and Fieldwork facilitator; she has taught dance dramaturgy at Mount Holyoke College and choreography at Movement Research. “It’s a joy to see the bravery with which Ms. Bauch asks her questions, and the quiet force of her vision come to life and surround us,” - Dancing World.
Lehuanani DeFranco is a mixed Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) protector for Indigenous rights and a Brooklyn-based dancer. She organizes with Uprooted & Rising to end higher education’s support for Big Food and white supremacy in the food system. She is currently campaigning for the University of California to divest from the Thirty-Meter Telescope in order to protect Mauna Kea from desecration. Lehuanani is the Interim Coordinator for Roadwork Center, an organization formed in 1978 to build multi-racial coalitions through women’s culture by focusing on the intersection of arts and BIPOC- and LGBTQIA-led social justice movements. She is also the Development Director for The Heartbeat Music Project, a tuition-free music program that supports Diné K-12 youth through the intergenerational transfer of culture, language, and music on Navajo Nation. Lehuanani is a performer with Te Ao Mana, a performance group expanding the presence of Polynesian culture worldwide through creative projects, dance classes, workshops, and community gathering. She is a student of Hālau ʻŌhiʻa Hawaiʻi Stewardship Training Program under the direction of Kekuhi Kealiʻikanakaole. While learning her ancestral language, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, Lehuanani explores how the study of language lends itself to the creation of movement scores in her own performance work. Her work investigates how our brains and bodies recognize and form coalitions with others through this intersection of movement and language.
Photo credit: John Mazlish
Dakota Camacho, Artist/Researcher and Co-Founder/Creative Director of Gi Matan Guma'
Dakota Camacho believes in creativity as a record of interaction with the spirit realm. Exploring the overlap between integrity, ancestral/indigenous life ways, true love, and accountability, guiya (they) activate a Matao worldview to make offerings towards inafa’maolek (Balance and harmony with all of life). Weaving through languages of altar-making, movement, film, music, and prayer, guiya (they) generate moments of encounter with self, each other, spirit, and the natural world. Yo’ña (their) work enacts spaces where multiple worlds, ways of knowing, being, and doing speak to each other to unearth embodied pathways towards collective liberation.
Leiana San Agustin Naholowaʻa is a CHamoru and Hawaiian writer, editor, and teacher. She is a founding member of Ta Tuge' Mo'na, a nonprofit that supports literary communities in Guåhan. She has co-edited Kinalamten gi Pasifiku: Insights from Oceania and Storyboard: A Journal of Pacific Imagery, and she produced and directed the documentary film Mothering Guahan. Leiana is currently studying in the English PhD program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and co-editing Queernesia: An Anthology of Indigenous Queer Oceania.
No‘u Revilla, ‘Ōiwi queer poet, performer & educator based in Hawaiʻi nei
Noʻu Revilla is an ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) poet, performer, and educator. Born on the island of Maui, she currently lives and loves on Oʻahu. Her debut book of poems Ask the Brindled won the 2021 National Poetry Series and will be published by Milkweed Editions in the fall 2022. Her poetry has also been featured or is forthcoming in Poetry, Lit Hub, ANMLY, Beloit, the Honolulu Museum of Art, and the Library of Congress. She has performed throughout Hawaiʻi as well as in Canada, Papua New Guinea, and the United Nations. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa, where she teaches creative writing with an emphasis on ʻŌiwi literature, spoken word, and decolonial poetics. In the summer 2019, she had the privilege of teaching a poetry workshop on the first day of classes at Puʻuhuluhulu University while standing with her lāhui to protect Maunakea.
Kaina Quenga, Anthony Aiu, and Dakota Camacho all have work in Sovereign Movements: Native Dance and Performance, the Native issue of Movement Research Performance Journal co-edited by Rosy Simas and Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán. Order a copy of the print journal.
Dance/NYC's justice, equity, and inclusion initiatives are made possible with leadership support from the Mellon Foundation. Dance/NYC convening is made possible, in part, by support from the Howard Gilman Foundation and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts and from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Dance/NYC seeks partners and speakers with a variety of viewpoints for its events with the goal of generating discussion. The inclusion of any partner or speaker does not constitute an endorsement by Dance/NYC of that partner's or speaker's views.
ASL interpretation provided by SignNexus. 
Closed captioning provided the Viscardi Center.
