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.

www.teaomana.com

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.

www.teaomana.com

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.

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 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.

www.pelebauch.org

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 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.

www.dakotacamacho.com

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.

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.

www.nourevilla.com