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#superFRESH Program 1 – Program Credits

2021 FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL

20TH ANNIVERSARY

#superFRESH Program 1

Program Credits

(artist bios at bottom)

Angelica & Jahaira
Dame Corazón

WORLD PREMIERE

Performers: Angelica & Jahaira
Song: 
Dame Corazón
Artist: Raulin Rodriguez
Cinematography & Editing: Natalia Roberts
Lighting & Tech: Emily Paulson

This piece was created with support from a FRESH WORKS! Artist Commission, from Fresh Meat Productions.

Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi
Mary Jones

WORLD PREMIERE

Text & Performance: Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi
Cinematography & Editing: Shannon Braine
Lighting & Tech: Faryn Kelly

This piece was created with the support of a FRESH WORKS! Artist Commission, from Fresh Meat Productions. Special thanks to Dance Place (Washington DC) for their generous support in the filming of this new work.

lafemmebear
No More Time

Performer: LeahAnn “Lafemmebear” Mitchell
Cinematographer & Editor: Shanon Kay
Producers: Tammy Sanchez, LeahAnn Mitchell
Directors: Shanon Kay, LeahAnn Mitchell
Production Designer: Crystal Liu
Production Assistant: Sequoia Grettenberg
Makeup Designer: Dominique Victoria
Nails: Dollii Williams
Special Thanks: Kyle Stryker, Screen Printing Party
Shirts & Prints Featured: Dez Array, Suzi Analogue, Dewey Saunders
Co-commissioned by: Center for Cultural Power, Time’s Up, me too. International, National Women’s Law Center, & We, As Ourselves

Detour Dance
Up On High

Performer: Wiley Naman Strasser
Song: “Come Down” by Sylvan Esso, covered by Wiley Naman Strasser
Cinematographer & Editor: Eric Garcia
Choreography: Eric Garcia, Elissa Beth Stebbins, Erin Mei-Ling Stuart, Wiley Naman Strasser

Gabriel Christian
the beaten path I

Music: “Blues” by Lamin Fofana
Cinematographer: Esco Passalacqua
Editor: Gabriel Christian

Originally commissioned for RAWdance’s Concept series: Digital Edition 2, screened 3.26.2021

Vanessa Sanchez & La Mezcla
Selections of Pachuquísmo

Performers: Elena de Troya, Emmeline Gonzalez-Beban, Kirsten Millan, Monica Fimbrez, Sandy Vazquez, Vanessa Sanchez, Violeta Romero, Caroline Chung
Music: “Los Juiles,” Traditional Son Jarocho from Veracruz, Mexico
Cinematographer: Christian Figueroa
Editor: John Jota Leaños
Choreographed & Directed by Vanessa Sanchez
Presented by & filmed at Brava Theater
Technical Director: Justine Fernandez
Audio Engineer: David Molina
Videographer & Animator: John Jota Leaños
Light Designer: Cathy Anderson,
Hair by Ariana Cruz
Newspaper article courtesy of Los Angeles Daily Times 1943

Sean Dorsey Dance
PLACE/PORTAL

Choreographed, performed and edited by: Sean Dorsey
Movement created by: Sean Dorsey Dance (Sean Dorsey, Nol Simonse, Raul Torres-Bonilla, Will Woodward)
Music composed by: Anomie Belle
Cinematography by: Annalise Ophelian
Costume designed by: Tiffany Amundson

Shawna Virago
High Road No. 6

WORLD PREMIERE

Music & Lyrics: Shawna Virago
Performers: Eric Garcia, Wiley Naman Strasser, and Shawna Virago
Cinematography: Sean Dorsey
Edited by: Eric Garcia

Mark Travis Rivera
Yearning

WORLD PREMIERE

Choreography by Mark Travis Rivera
Performed by Tajh Stallworth
Videography: Clare Schweitzer
Editing: Genevieve Hand
Special thanks to Sean Dorsey for the commission and California 2727 for the space subsidy.

This piece was created with support from a FRESH WORKS! Artist Commission, from Fresh Meat Productions.

Luis Gutierrez-Mock & Ngoc Huynh
Amateur Bachata Cabaret

Performed by Luis Gutierrez-Mock and Ngoc Huynh from Kathy Reyes Dance Company
Videography: @thesultanster

 

Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles
Así Son Los Hombres

Performed by Carlos Samaniego, Natalia Melendez, Ayan Vasquez-Lopez, Andrés Gamiño Cruz, Edwin Martinez, Mayra Martinez, Vaneza Calderon, Valentín Tril Jr., Brian Espinoza, David Ceja
Music and Lyrics by Juan Gabriel, arrangement by Juan Manuel Cortez

Cinematographer: Berna Choi
Editor: Ayan Vasquez-Lopez
Audio: Carlos Hernandez
Special Thanks: Victor, Cuco, Mariano

 

JanpiStar
La Plegaria 

Performed by JanpiStar
Music by JanpiStar
Commissioned by Shawl-Anderson Dance Center for the 2020 Queering Dance Festival (QDF). See the next iteration of the piece at QDF 2021, September 20-27, shawl-anderson.org

Special thanks to Queering Dance Festival for commissioning and sharing this piece with the #20thAnniversaryFreshMeatFest!

Kevin Gaytan
Undocu-Queer 

Choreography and Performance: Kevin Gaytan
Music & Composer: “Winds of Sleep ” – Native American Flute
Spoken word & Narration: Kevin Gaytan
Make up and Costume: Kevin Gaytan
Filming : Matt Han
Commissioned by Shawl-Anderson Dance Center for the 2020 Queering Dance Festival (QDF). See the next iteration of the piece at QDF 2021, September 20-27, shawl-anderson.org

Special thanks to Queering Dance Festival for commissioning and sharing this piece with the #20thAnniversaryFreshMeatFest!

DANDY
The Syllabus

WORLD PREMIERE

Song and Lyrics: Randy Ford and David Rue (Aísha + D-Money)
Music Production: Sassy Black
Cinematography and Editing: Vladimir Kremenovich

This piece was created with the support of a FRESH WORKS! Artist Commission, from Fresh Meat Productions. Special thanks to Velocity Dance Center and 12th Avenue Arts (Seattle WA) for their generous support in the filming of this new work.

Artist Bios

Angelica Medina and Jahaira Fajardo  are the Directors of In Lak’ech Dance Academy, in Oakland CA. They both share an immense passion for dance, and in 2014 they met and fell in love on the dance floor. They soon after decided to grow as dance partners while training for competition. In December 2015 they placed 1st in the Latin Ladies Same Gender Division, at the World Latin Dance Cup. Jahaira made history as the first Bachata female leader to become a World Champion. In 2018, they returned to WLDC as pros and placed first in the Bachata Couple Pro Cabaret division. In 2017, Jahaira and Angelica participated and completed the Alex and Desiree Bachata Instructor Certification Course. They also had the honor to Direct The AnD WW ~Team SF Season One. In 2018, In Lak’ech Dance Academy produced the first ever Queer Latin Dance Festival, where Queer and Trans Latinx dancers are highlighted and celebrated. This event continues on an annual basis. In Lak´ech Dance Academy is the direct result of the passion Angelica & Jahaira share for Latin Dance and for their community.

Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Lady Dane Figeuroa Edidi is a Black Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author, Educator, Speech Writer, a Helen Hayes Award winning Playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem (2020), For Black Trans Girls…, Ghost/Writer, The Diaz Family Talent Show, Quest of The Reed Marsh Daughter, The Dance of Memories), Advocate, Dramaturg, a 2x Helen Hayes Award Nominated choreographer (2016, 2018) and co-editor of the Black Trans Prayer Book. She is the curator and a co-producer of Long Wharf Theater’s Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays.

LeahAnn “Lafemmebear” Mitchell has long been featured and praised in the music industry for her talents as a musician, music producer, and sound engineer, having worked with major label studios and more recently as an independent artist under the moniker “Lafemmebear.”

As an up-and-coming producer, Mitchell worked alongside artists including Boyz II Men, Grammy-winners The Jackie Boyz, Eric Dawkins of The Underdogs, and Interscope Records producers from Nelly’s songwriting team. When she came out as a transgender woman in 2013, she was effectively blacklisted from the industry despite her skill and accomplishments, including a 2012 Grammy nomination for album engineering.

This only prompted Mitchell to take her music into her own hands under the name Lafemmebear in 2018. The arrival of her first indie release, Blaq* A Note to the World, showed that her sound has evolved into a genre-blending experience speaking to the trials of Black queer, trans femmes. The music video for the EP single “SHUTUP! (feat. Bella King)” premiered on Billboard.com in March of 2019; she subsequently became the first Black trans woman to headline the state of Utah’s Pride Festival in June, performing original music to an audience of over 60,000. Her words and work have since been featured by The Guardian, GLAAD, Queerty, Out.Tv Euro, Autostraddle, and Billboard once more.

Her first full album, Blaq: the Story of Me, premiered Fall 2019 and is available on all platforms. She is composing, mixing, and sound designing part of the original score for Alice Sheppard and Kinetic Light’s new work WIRED, set to premiere soon. She collaborated with PEG Records, Cody Belew, and Dustin Ransom to co-write and produce the first mainstream Pop-R&B single “What You’re Looking For” for the artist Peppermint (Rupaul’s Drag Race, Head Over Heels original Broadway cast, God Friended Me on CBS), which premiered on Valentine’s Day 2020.

Detour Dance is a devised dance-theater ensemble based in San Francisco. Our mission is to center the prismatic experiences of queers & people of color. Detour is committed to creating bold performance that promotes intersectional justice through collective storytelling. We produce the annual Tiny Dance Film Festival, host devised theater workshops, and present Clutch The Pearls drag cabaret. Founded in 2009 by Artistic Directors Kat Cole + Eric Garcia.

Gabriel Christian is an american artist specializing in experimental composition, high dramatics, social practice, and poetics. For more than ten years, their work has metabolized the vernaculars within the BlaQ (Black+Queer) diaspora—futurity, afrovivalism, slippage—through body-based live stage or public space performances, collaborations, and digital interventions on their IG: @doom_body. At the heart of all of their work, they strive to center oral traditions and movement as conduits for equitable conversations around belonging, spirit, abundance, and care.

La Mezcla is a polyrhythmic, multidisciplinary San Francisco-based dance and music ensemble rooted in Chicanx and Latinx traditions and social justice. Founded in by Dance/USA artist fellow Vanessa Sanchez, their work brings together Tap dance, Son Jarocho and Afro-Caribbean rhythms to bring the histories and experiences of communities of color to stages, streets and fields. Vanessa Sanchez & La Mezcla have been featured in KQED Arts “If Cities Could Dance” and The Joyce Theater’s JoyceStream.

Sean Dorsey Dance is directed by Sean Dorsey, a San Francisco-based transgender choreographer, dancer, writer, educator and activist. Dorsey is the founder and Artistic Director of Fresh Meat Productions and the Fresh Meat Festival. Dorsey is a 2020 Doris Duke Artist and an inaugural Dance/USA Artist Fellow.

Sean Dorsey Dance is currently working on a new multi-year project: THE LOST ART OF DREAMING investigates and imagines expansive futures. Sean Dorsey Dance has toured to more than 30 cities across the US and internationally.

SDD company dancers are: Sean Dorsey, Nol Simonse (who also performs with Garrett+Moulton Productions and Christy Funch, has collaborated with Sue Roginski, Eric Kupers, Stephen Pelton and Kara Davis, and creates his own work), Will Woodward (who also performs with Printz Dance Project and Baloney, and who has collaborated with Blue Scorpion Dance Theatre, Palanza Dance, Peninsula Ballet Theatre, Tim Rubel Human Shakes, James Graham Dance Theatre and more) and Raul Torres-Bonilla (who has collaborated with Aguas Dance Company, Presidio Dance Company, Tika Morgan Dance, Sarah Bush Project, James Graham Theater, Catherine Turocy, Sammay Dizon and more). www.seandorseydance.com

Shawna Virago is a songwriter celebrated for her lyric-based songs. She is one of the nation’s first openly transgender women to perform and tour nationally, and has performed as an out transwoman since the early 1990’s. She has been profiled online, in print and on radio including Bitch, the Advocate, Huffington Post Louder ThanWar, No Depression, Paste magazine, on NPR and PBS. POP DOSE Magazine wrote “In these turbulent times, you may often wonder, ‘Where’s our Bob Dylan? Where’s the bard of the 2010s translating the dicey political and social climate into musical stanzas?’… Enter Shawna Virago.” Virago is also a published writer and her work appears in several anthologies. She is also the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival. www.shawnavirago.com

Mark Travis Rivera is an award-winning professional storyteller––telling stories is at the core of Mark’s purpose in life. A graduate of William Paterson University of New Jersey, Rivera earned a bachelor’s in women’s & gender studies with a minor in public relations. Rivera is the youngest person to found an integrated dance company in the United States, marked dance project, a contemporary company for dancers with and without disabilities, established in March 2009, made its debut at Rutgers University. The company has also performed at the Silk City Summer Arts Festival, the Painted Bride Art Center, the Mandell Theater, the Actor’s Fund Arts Center in Brooklyn, NY and New York University. Through MDP, Rivera has worked with choreographers such as Caitlin Trainor, Stacey Tookey, Todrick Hall, Tyce Diorio, and Marinda Davis. After ten years of remarkable dancing, Rivera decided to dissolve the marked dance project and continue working as an independent disabled choreographer.

Luis Gutierrez-Mock and Ngoc Huynh began their dance partnership in 2018, when Luis became the first (out) trans person to compete at the World Latin Dance Cup. The next year they placed first at the 2019 World Latin Dance Cup in Medellin, Colombia, making Luis the first (out) trans person to win! As a queer trans Chicano and a cis Vietnamese ally, they enjoy bringing visibility to their respective communities through dance. Ngoc launched her own dance company mid-pandemic; follow @Ngoc_loves_romeo to learn more about her kids and adult Latin dance fusion teams and classes! Luis is currently dancing on Ngoc’s Latin heels team and dancing/training with Kathy Reyes Dance.

Led by director Carlos Samaniego, Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles performs its repertoire to suit the LGBTQ community while it maintains the highest level of musicality.

Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles is proud to have the first transgender female, Natalia Melendez, in the history of mariachi as one of its members. Natalia has been featured in a two-part special for Univision news, which depicts her life and struggles as a transgender woman in the mariachi world. Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles has also performed for Los Angeles and Long Beach Pride, Transgender Pride at the LGBT Center in Los Angeles, South Bay Pride, Oceanside Pride, The Abbey, Club Tempo, Hamburger Mary’s, #SchoolsNotPrisons tour for the California Endowment, and many other LGBTQ establishments as well as for many same-sex and “traditional” weddings.

JanpiStar was born and raised in Puerto Rico. In the Island they worked with different artists doing plays , performances and teaching movement workshops. JanpiStar moved to Oakland in January 2018 to join AXIS Dance Company and had the opportunity to work with artists like Robert Dekkers, Arthur Pita and Jennifer Archibald. Their most recent work was for QDF, “FROLIC” in 2020.

Kevin Gaytan graduated San Jose State University as a double major in Sociology and a bachelor’s in fine arts. He has worked and trained under Bay Area choreographers and lecturers such as Heather Cooper, Raphael Boumaila, Jill Yager and Dominique Lomuljo. In his time at SJSU, he studied composition and choreography under Fred Mathews. Some of Mr. Gaytan’s performing highlights include classical Jose Limon works such as Psalm and Misa Brevis. He has also had the honor of performing and working for Tandy Beal & Company. As part of a choreographer-in-residence program, he performed with Doug Varone and dancers in Doug Varone’s “In the shelter of the fold” in 2018. Mr. Gaytan is currently an active company member of SjDanceCo (under Artistic Directors Gary Masters and Maria Basile); Rogelio Lopez and Dancers; and Cypher Dance Company (under Artistic Director Karina Cervantes).

DANDY is a creative partnership designed to celebrate and elevate the Black cultural landscape of Seattle, WA. David Rue (Liberian-born) and Randy Ford (Seattle-born) use art, dance, fashion, and pop-culture as forms of activism, story-telling, and joy centering. Together and separately they take Seattle by storm by curating events like A Dandy Affair, SAMRemix (Rue), and QUEEN STREET Festival (Ford). You can follow them on IG @dandyaffair @davidrue212 @randybaby11.