2022 FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL: Program 5

Marcus Zebra (He/Him) like the Animal from Bermuda like the Triangle is a Dancer, Actor, Model and Magic Maker based in NYC! Self proclaimed Human Sunshine, his credits include: The Art of Killin’ It, Clue but Black and Bunnies In Space  (Theygottime Productions), Skyscrapers and I Couldn’t Tell You Why (Refracted Theatre Company/Kipp Republic), Sea II (Streb Extreme Action Company) and The NYU Reality Show (Barclays Center). He has been featured in music videos by Missy Elliot, Afrojack, David Guetta, Todrick Hall and Grace Kelly and in many personal creations including The Petals of Pride, Someone MASKED/To Love Me UNMASKED and SCOOP!  He can also be seen lighting up the stage with the Guncles of Burlesque, Gogo Gadget and Jack Barrow and back up dancing for A Kay A, Toddy Dozier and Jack Tracy.

Una Aya Osato aka exHOTic other is a performer, writer, sex educator, community CareBear, stripper, and clown from NYC. They are an award-winning actor and playwright who tours her original work nationally and internationally. Una is also a co-founding member of brASS: Brown RadicalAss Burlesque, a BIPOC femme burlesque collective. Una has been featured in the New York Times, Teen Vogue, NPR’s CodeSwitch, NowThis, and many other publications and platforms.

For more of their happenings find them on IG @ ThisIsUna

| www.unaosato.com |

David Slaney II is a choreographer/dancer based in Southern California. He was first introduced to dance at the age of 13 and by 16, he fell in love with teaching and has been sharing his passion with others ever since. David currently teaches at three studios: Millennium Dance Complex OC, Offstagebygrv, S1L studio and Snowglobe Perspective. He also travels in and out of state to teach and choreograph at various studios and schools. He is very passionate about sharing his gift of dance and bringing out the inner fire in every student.

Aside from teaching, David has had the opportunity to choreograph/dance for several up & coming young artists as well as create online dance tutorials for the Global dance platform Steezy Studio. He was also a performer at Disneyland from 2011-2018. Some of David’s professional credits include dancing for R & B singer, Mary J. Blige, at the Teen Nick Halo Awards, choreography for World of dance fitness, and dancing with actress, Jennifer Love Hewitt. 

Recently, David founded an all inclusive heels dance company called The Vixens (@vixens.dance). When David is not teaching, he continues to hone his craft by taking class and pushing himself to grow as a person and an artist. Pursuing his passion while training up the next generation to do the same is what motivates David, and he is grateful to be doing what he loves.

Angélica Medina (she/her) and Jahaira Fajardo (she/her) Directors of In Lak’ech Dance Academy Angélica and Jahaira met and fell in love on the dance floor in 2014. They soon after decided to grow as dance partners while training for competitions. In December 2015, they placed 1st in the Latin Ladies Same Gender Division at the World Latin Dance Cup (WLDC). Jahaira also made history as the first Bachata female leader to become a World Champion. In 2018, they returned to the WLDC and placed first in the Bachata Couple Pro Cabaret Division. That same year, Angélica and Jahaira started In Lak’ech Dance Academy to create a community of queer, trans, and ally dancers to celebrate their resilience, nurture their collective strength, and heal from oppression. Presently, they teach classes and direct performance teams in Salsa and Bachata for the LGBTQ+ community. In 2018, In Lak’ech Dance Academy was proud to produce the FIRST EVER Queer Afro Latin Dance Festival, which has its 4th annual production in 2022. 

Founded in 2020 by Roberto Vega Ortiz and Theresa Knudson, Ballet22 exists to push the boundaries of what is possible in ballet. The company produces and presents works, ranging from classical to contemporary ballet, that break gender normative traditions, specifically by presenting men, mxn, and non-binary artists “en pointe.” Since its founding, Ballet22 has commissioned seven new ballets that contribute to representation in the ballet world. Ballet22 has performed repertoire by many contemporary choreographers including Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Myles Thatcher, Omar Román de Jesús, Ramon Oller, and Joshua A. Stayton, as well as excerpts from classic ballet repertoire including Swan Lake, Giselle, Paquita, and Le Corsaire. Named by Dance Magazine as “25 to Watch in 2022,” the company continues to prioritize commissioning works that bring inclusion to the LGBTQ+ community and experience in ballet.

Tosha (they/them) is a Rapper, Dancer, and Music Engineer who was born and raised in CO. Tosha has their MA in Clinical Counseling with a specialty in Dance Movement Therapy and Social Justice. As a therapist, Tosha works with youth and adults utilizing dance to support one’s healing journey. Tosha also has a clothing company with their wife called Awkwrd Almnd. This company’s values are to stop bullying, another way we recognize this is to say stop OPPRESSION. We embrace Awkwrd and strive to support people who have been impacted by police violence or gun violence.

Tina Cavicchio (she/her) is an international dance artist and founder/director of Next Level Fusion Dance Company. 

Tina has trained in various styles such as Afro-latin, street dance, and codified dance techniques. Tina has choreographed for multiple dance teams, performances, and college showcases. She has also taught at various congresses/weekenders around the world. She is known and sought after for her social dancing as both a lead and follow, and teaches others her methodology. 

Tina is known for her creative fusion choreography and inspiring story telling through her dance. As a queer female lead, follow, and solo dancer, Tina has become a major advocate for individual empowerment and expression. Tina’s goals as a teacher is to challenge her students to push past their limitations, helping them to see their potential, and to empower others along the way.

Angie and Audrey are a Queer Afro-Latin dance couple with the mission to decolonize Caribbean dances by challenging the traditional binary form of partner dance and by uplifting the Afro roots within Caribbean dances, culture and people. The couple met while training Afro-Brazillian dances and martial arts back in 2012. They began their work together in 2016 while teaching for Hyde Square Task Force where they touched the lives of hundreds of Boston inner city youth, through dance. At this art youth development organization they helped direct El Barrio, a production on Boston gentrification, and Raices, a combination of folk stories stemming from indigenous and African culture in Latin America. Simultaneously, Angie and Audrey coached several salsa on2 and afro-fusion classes, at world renowned Masacote Dance Company. There, they had the opportunity to travel and perform nationally and internationally. It was here where they both reconnected about their passion for afro-rooted dances and thus began their journey as a performing duo.

Angie and Audrey now specialize in Salsa and Afro-Cuban dance movement, most times fusioned with flamenco, modern, and hip hop/phunk. They currently reside in Austin, TX and so far have trained various student teams, performed across the state, and have taught various workshops with the vision to expand the Austin Salsa community and share their love for dance. 

Felipe and Tiago are the founders of RoleRotation. They are both dance instructors, coaches, choreographers, and event organizers of the first Spanish Dance Congress free of gender roles: Terra Livre Dance Festival.

Well known for their new take on social dances where the dancers rotate roles during the whole song. It is not about a leader and a follower anymore, but about two people speaking through a song. They are full instructors and activists fighting to end gender stereotypes in social dances.

Firm believers that movement, and dance, has no gender and that everyone should be free to express themselves and reach their full potential free of prejudice and judgement.

They started to show Role Rotation in international events, festivals and schools and have taught around different countries such as United Kingdom, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, United States…

Their background and teachings vary from Bachata, Salsa, Kizomba, ballroom, lyrical jazz, reggaeton, among others.

From Spain and Portugal, they live in Madrid, Spain, where the biggest dance scene in the country is set.

Shrouk El-Attar (She/They) is a Senior Electronics Engineer, Egyptian belly dancer, and a queer refugee. She was named BBC 100 Most Influential Women, IET Top 6 Young Women Engineers in the UK, and United Nations Refugee Agency Young Woman of the Year. She is also a drag performance artist known as Dancing Queer.

Bio coming soon

JanpiStar was born and raised in Puerto Rico. Janpi with a Degree in Drama at the University of Puerto Rico had the opportunity of working with important actresses and choreographers in the island. This Star worked with the theater group “Jóvenes del 98” ( 2016 -2018) in Puerto Rico until they move to Oakland California to joined AXIS Dance Company. JanpiStar has done works with choreographers like Petra Bravo with “instalaciones Coreograficas , las casitas de Santurce” in The fine arts center of Puerto Rico in 2016. One of their most recent solo work was commissioned for the Queering Dance Festival, “FROLIC“ 2019.

SEAN DORSEY DANCE (SDD) creates deeply human dance-theater with their signature fusion of full-throttle dance, intimate storytelling, exquisite queer partnering and theater. Led by award-winning transgender choreographer Sean Dorsey, SDD is based in San Francisco and has toured to more than 30 cities across the US and internationally. Sean Dorsey Dance is currently working on a new multi-year project: THE LOST ART OF DREAMING investigates and imagines expansive Futures. THE LOST ART OF DREAMING makes its world premiere November 17-20, 2022 before launching an international tour. Sean Dorsey Dance has been awarded commissions by American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Dance Place (Washington DC), 7 Stages (Atlanta), Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Queer Cultural Center (San Francisco), Highways Performance Space (Los Angeles), The Theater Offensive (Boston), Links Hall (Chicago) and Velocity Dance Center (Seattle). Highly physical, accessible, rooted in story, and danced with precision and guts and deep humanity, Sean Dorsey Dance’s works have been praised as “exquisite…poignant and important” (BalletTanz), “trailblazing” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “evocative, compelling, elegant” (LA Weekly).

SEAN DORSEY is a white, transgender, queer, disabled/Hard-of-hearing choreographer, dancer, writer, educator and activist. He is a longtime social practice artist who creates dance-theater work with/in community. Dorsey is a 2020 Doris Duke Artist, is an inaugural Dance/USA Artist Fellow, has been awarded five Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, and was the first openly-transgender artist on the cover of Dance Magazine. Sean Dorsey is also the founder and Artistic Director of Fresh Meat Productions.

Omar Monroy and Milton Martinez are World Salsa Champion dancers. Both Omar and Milton are from Mexico and share a passion for Latin dance. They placed first at the World Salsa Summit in the Salsa Same Gender division in 2021 and continue to create new work, compete, and teach Salsa at dance studios and around the world at Salsa Congresses.

Jocquese Whitfield (SirJoQ) is a dancer/choreographer/MC born and raised in San Francisco. They are the first Vogue instructor of San Francisco and has been teaching their Vogue & Tone classes since 2010. They first began their career in the improvisation of freestyle hip-hop, Jocquese has now added modern, classical, and Diasporic dance traditions over the last several years. A shape-shifter, Jocquese challenges assumptions of sexual identity in dance as they play with both “masculine” and “feminine” aspects. Jocquese’s current movement vocabulary revisits the bold, rebellious statements of the 1980’s as expressed through fashion, nightlife, and a love of the abstract. Jocquese currently teaches their Vogue & Tone classes at Dance Mission Theater (Mondays, 7-8:30PM, SF).