Since 1980 Joanna has been creating work that uses natural, architectural and cultural environments as points of departure for movement exploration and narrative. Her stages have included grain terminals, a clock tower, the pope’s palace, military forts, and a mile of urban neighborhood streets in the South Bronx. Her work has been commissioned by many arts institutions, including Dancing in the Streets, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Walker Arts Center, the Exploratorium Museum, the National Black Arts Festival, and Festival d'Avignon. She has also been honored with the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, the United States Artist Fellowship, and a New York Bessie Award. Haigood is also a recipient of the esteemed Doris Duke Artist Award. Joanna has had the privilege to mentor many extraordinary young artists internationally at the National École des Arts du Cirque in France, the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in England, Spelman College, the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University, the San Francisco Circus Center and at Zaccho Studio.

Anthony Brown has played a seminal role in contemporary California creative music from his pioneering work with the Asian American jazz movement in the early 1980s to his current leadership of the GRAMMY nominated Asian American Orchestra. Under his direction, the Orchestra has recorded six critically acclaimed CDs, including homages to American composers Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, George Gershwin and John Coltrane. His composition Rhymes (For Children) served as the theme music for KQED's Pacific Time, a Public Radio International syndicated weekly newsmagazine.
Dr. Brown holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in music (Ethnomusicology) from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a Master of Music from Rutgers University, and is the recipient of numerous grants and commissions from organizations such as Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, Arts International, and Asian Heritage Council. A Smithsonian Associate Scholar, Guggenheim and Ford Fellow, Dr. Brown has served as Curator of American Musical Culture at the Smithsonian Institution and as a Visiting Professor of Music at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jeff Raz has directed dozens of circus, puppet, and theater productions (The Bright River with Traveling Jewish Theater, Snake in the Basement with Lunitique Fantastique, Singing for Freedom with The Rose Ensemble) and performed nationally and internationally for decades, starring in circuses (Cirque du Soleil, Pickle Family Circus, and more) and plays, including Comedy of Errors on Broadway. He is a graduate of Dell’Arte International, has written 17 plays and recently launched his first book, “The Secret Life of Clowns” at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Jeff cofounded Vaudeville Nouveau in 1982, the S.F. New Vaudeville Festival in 1985, the Clown Conservatory in 2000 and the Medical Clown Project in 2010. He continues to direct, write, perform, and teach as well as work globally as a communications consultant.

Wayne Campbell has provided scenic design, props and aerial rigging for Zaccho Dance Theatre since 1998, participating in such projects as Invisible Wings, (1998) at Jacobs’ Pillow; Departure and Arrival (2007) at San Francisco International Airport; Dances around the House (2005), at the San Francisco Exploratorium; Ghost Architecture (2004) at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and Al Pozzo Di Sogno (2011) at Oliver Ranch among many others. He spends most of his time in his studio in West Marin making furniture and art.

Allen Willner (Lighting Designer) is an award winning lighting designer for theater, dance and music. Awards and nominations include: 3 Isadora Duncan Dance Awards for the lighting design of inkBoat’s “Line Between”, “Heaven’s Radio” and Deborah Slater's " Private Life". Nominations for Isadora Duncan Dance Awards for the Visual Designs of Erika Chong Shuch’s “51802” and inkBoat’s “Cockroach”. 2013 TBA Award Lighting Design Nomination for Theater of Yugen's "This Lingering Life". Bay Area Critics Circle Lighting Design Nomination for The Shotgun Players "Eurydice" and “God’s Ear", 2012 Broadway World Lighting and Set Design Nomination for Symmetry Theater’s “Patience Worth”. Lighting Artists in Dance Awards for inkBoat’s “Line Between” , Erika Chong Shuch’s “Sitting in a Circle”, Laura Arrington and Jesse Hewitt’s “Adult." And Scott Wells, Amy Seiwert and Shinichi Iova-Koga's "Take this Dance and Shove it!".

Sean Riley is a master rigger, engineering enthusiast and set designer with an expertise in suspension and load transfer involving large masses and difficult access. He has risen to the height of his field through creating functional and architecturally sound installations. Riley is the founder and principal rigging designer for Gravity Design Inc., a company based in San Francisco, CA, that provides innovative rigging and force management solutions for a wide variety of clients all over the world — from circus acts to industrial installations. He is always hands-on (welding, constructing, wiring), and though he is no stranger to high-risk responsibility, he has a flawless safety record. His passion for mechanics is matched only by his passion for extreme adventure. He drives heavy machinery, jumps off bridges, rock climbs and is a back-country solo survivalist. Riley studied theatre arts at University of California Santa Cruz and has taught college-level theatrical design.

David Freitag is an aerial rigging designer who is somehow lucky enough to still be based in San Francisco. Dave has spent the past 20 years (and hopefully the next 20 more) striving to perfect his craft as a rigger, and making his peace with Sir Isaac Newton. Along the way, he has held the honor of being one of the lead riggers on a wide range of site specific dance productions performing on walls and theaters both internationally and across the Bay Area, including Sens Productions, Zaccho, Capacitor, Flyaway, and Printz Dance Project. Dave spent 8 years touring internationally as lead rigger for Cirque Mechanics USA, and currently bides his time between aerial gigs as the house rigger at the Masonic Auditorium on Nob Hill. A master's graduate of UC Santa Barbara and SFSU, Dave holds rigging certifications in SPRAT, ETCP, and is a journeyman member of IATSE Local 16. When not holding the other end of the circus ropes, on dark days he can be found pursuing his habits of of off-beat adventure, exploring new places to climb, sea kayak, camp, fish, build treehouses, or soak in a remote hot spring. Currently, Dave is looking up, and always stands under his work.

Kim Euell is a dramaturg , writer and educator who is passionately committed to developing and promoting socially relevant new work. She has collaborated with Joanna Haigood and Zaccho on Invisible Wings, Sailing Away and The Monkey and The Devil. She also worked with Joanna Haigood and the company on Remembering 1619, a devised performance piece commissioned by the Equal Justice Society. During her four year term as Playwright in Residence at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Kim had the pleasure of sponsoring a Five College Residency with Zaccho which culminated with a performance of Dying While Black and Brown. Kim has served as a resident dramaturg at The Mark Taper Forum, San Jose Repertory Theater, Penumbra Theatre Company and the Tony Award-winning Hartford Stage Company. She has worked as a new play dramaturg at The Humana Festival, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor Residency, the Sundance Theatre Lab and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Kim’s plays interrogating issues of race, class and cultural assimilation have been performed at theaters in every region of the country as well as at Cape Town’s Magnet Theater in South Africa. Kim’s play Princeton Junction was part of the University of Iowa’s season opener last Fall, 6 by 6: Perspectives on Social Justice. She edited Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy – Theater from the Hip-Hop Generation for TCG Publications. Kim currently teaches in the Theatre Department and the Digital Cinema Program at Southern Oregon University.

Yohana A. Junker, Ph.D., is Faculty Associate in Theology, Spirituality, and the Arts at the Pacific School of Religion, in Berkeley, California. Her ongoing research probes the salient intersections among the fields of art history, eco-criticism, decolonial studies and contemporary Indigenous aesthetics. She recently earned her doctorate in art and religion from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Her dissertation entitled “Unsettling the Landscape: Appropriation, Representation, and Indigenous Aesthetics in the Land Art of the American Southwest” investigated how the Land Art movement of the American Southwest displays a colonial reminiscence and theological vibrancy while the Indigenous artistic production of North America encapsulates a decolonial poetics of resistance. In her writing, art, and activism, she investigates the ways artists create poetic spaces that allow viewers to come together, to reclaim agency, and to work collectively toward what Paulo Freire calls conscientização, which restores our sense of purpose, our thirst for justice, and our desire for transformation.

Walter Kitundu is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on kinetic sculpture and sound installation, composition, public art, and teaching. He builds (and performs on) extraordinary musical instruments, while researching and documenting the natural world. Kitundu has created hand-built record players driven by the wind and rain, fire and earthquakes, birds, light, and the force of ocean waves. In 2008 he received a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of his art practice, and his capacity to make important cultural contributions. Kitundu was a visiting professor at Northwestern University’s Department of Art Theory and Practice, and in the Sound Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was a Bay Area resident for 15 years and is honored to be a collaborator on Picture Bayview Hunters Point.

Marcus Anthony Shelby is an accomplished teacher, composer, arranger, and bassist. From 1990-1996, Shelby was bandleader of Columbia Records and GRP Impulse! Recording Artists Black/Note and is currently the Artistic Director and leader of The Marcus Shelby Orchestra, The Marcus Shelby Hot 7, and The Marcus Shelby Trio. Shelby was awarded a Black Metropolis Research Consortium Fellowship in Chicago and a Fellow in the Resident Dialogues Program of the Committee for Black Performing Arts at Stanford University. Shelby also has had the honor of arranging for and conducting the Count Basie Orchestra featuring Ledisi, performing and recording with Tom Waits, and receiving the City Flight Magazine 2005 award as one of the “Top Ten Most Influential African Americans in the Bay Area”. As the 1991 winner of the Charles Mingus Scholarship, Shelby’s studies include work under the tutelage of composer James Newton and legendary bassist Charlie Haden.

Mary Ellen Strom is an artist, curator and educator. Her installations and site-specific projects unearth submerged narratives within art, history and cultural discourse. Her work has been exhibited in a wide range of contexts including museums, galleries, passenger trains, on rivers, cattle ranches, large-scale video projections onto industrial sites and mountain rock faces, in empty retail stores and horse arenas. Recent awards include an International Fulbright Scholar Fellowship, a Bogliasco Fellowship to the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities, The MAP Fund, Artadia The Fund for Art and Dialogue, Art Matters and Creative Capital. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art, NYC, the ICA Philadelphia, The Contemporary Art Museum Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Walker Art Center, Mpls., the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH, the Pompidou Centre-Metz, Paris, the Satouchi Triennial in Japan, the Hayward Gallery, London, Nagoya Museum of Fine Arts, Nagoya, Japan, Fundacion Union-Espacio Cultural Contemporaneo, Montevideo, Uruguay and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia. Strom is a Senior Researcher and Project Director for the Center for Art, Design and Social Research. She is a professor, Media Arts at Tufts University in Boston, MA.

Jack Carpenter designs lighting and scenery for Dance, Music, Theater, and Museum Exhibits and consults on permanent installations. His work can be seen with the Bishop Museum, Oakland Museum, Exploratorium, SF Ballet, SF Symphony, Kronos Quartet, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Joe Goode Performance Group, Zaccho Dance Theatre, and Project Bandaloop. Notable productions for Mr. Carpenter include, the world premiere of Angels In America, for the Eureka Theater Company, Ghost Architecture, Picture: Powderhorn, Invisible Wings and Departure and Arrival for Zaccho Dance Theatre, Bound(less), for Project Bandaloop, Beauty Queen of Leenane for Berkeley Repertory Theater, Traveling Light, and Rambler, for Joe Goode Performance Group, Concerto Romantique for San Francisco Ballet, and MLADA for SF Symphony. Mr. Carpenter was recently appointed lighting design lecturer at UC Berkeley Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, and has received four Bay Area Critics Circle Awards, and five Isadora Duncan Awards.

José Joaquín García began his professional acting career in 1986 with Pregones Theatre Company, located in the poorest congressional district in the United States, the South Bronx. He has continued to work extensively with Pregones, and has performed in New York with The Public Theater, The New Group and worked on Paul Simon’s The Capeman on Broadway. As a director, Garcia has worked extensively to bring the New York Latino voice to the stage, namely through Rubí Theater Company, which he co-founded in 2001. He directed Martín Espada's Imagine the Angels of Bread (New York Hip Hop Theater Festival, New World Theater, University of Massachusetts/Amherst) and has appeared as a tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, and Schumann’s Dichterliebe, among other pieces. He is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and has pursued advanced studies at the Westminster Choir College and the International New Theatre School at Essen, Germany. Recording credits include Tanga Sweet by Mario Bauzá, and the Grammy winning album Catch That Train by Dan Zanes.

Robert Henry Johns was a member of the first graduating class of San Francisco School of the Arts where he majored in Dance Performance and Choreography. Dance instructor Yvonne McClung took a special interest in his talents and commissioned several pieces from him which were featured in the annual dance recitals at the J. Eugene McAteer Theater. He was acknowledged by the Bay Area community for his choreographic talents and appeared on several local television shows such as KRON’s Hot Streak and KGO’s People Are Talking. He also appeared in the documentary SOTA Jam Box. In 1985, he received a full scholarship at the San Francisco Ballet School where he studied for four years.

Johnson’s first play Five Stages, a one act based on psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s theory of five stages of grief, was commissioned in 1990 by choreographer Frank Everett for Frank Everett Company, and performed at The San Francisco Institute of Choreography. His next piece Brown Crayon, a light hearted, humorous monologue about the consequence of a black boy’s depiction of a black Christ in a class room drawing contest, premiered in the 1992 Afro Solo Festival at Buriel Clay Theater in San Francisco. He was honored with the Levi’s & Strauss Certificate of Literary Appreciation in 1992.

In 1993, he formed his own dance troupe, Robert Henry Johnson Dance Company (RHJDC) which performed to local and national critical acclaim. For his repertory season, he often wrote poems, monologues and radio plays which he directed, layering movement with the text. In his first repertory season, he premiered his signature solo choreopoem A Nappyred Summer: Vesper, an excerpt from an as yet finished novella dedicated to and inspired by his mother.

The same year, his first full length play Poison Ground was featured in the 1993 Bay Area Playwrights Festival at Magic Theater in San Francisco. He was invited to perform in the 1994 Solo Mio Festival where he unveiled his one man show Seven Bantu Knots, seven narratives from the transatlantic slave trade. The following year, Poison Ground was further developed by Hartford Stage in the 1995 Spring Voices Play Reading Series. The Hartford version was directed by Reggie Montgomery, and it’s cast featured Tony award winner LaChanze.

He also joined Zaccho Dance Theatre in 1997, creating many original roles in productions such as Invisible Wings, Sailing Away, Shifting Cornerstone and Departure and Arrival, among other.

In 2000, Robey Theater Company honored Johnson as one of thirteen promising new American literary voices. On a star studded program titled Discovered Voices which included Delroy Lindo, Marla Gibbs, Glenn Thurman and Peter Broch, an excerpt of Poison Ground was performed by Danny Glover and Victoria Rowell at The Skirvall Museum in Los Angeles.

His one act, Remyth: The Horse Project, was beautifully staged by choreographer Shakiri in the 2001 Bay Area Playwrights Festival at Z Space Studio in San Francisco.

In 2006, he founded the Buriel Clay Playwrights Festival, an annual play reading series currently in residency at the African American Art and Culture Complex in San Francisco.

His new play The Othello Papers was commissioned by African American Shakespeare Company which will premiere in its 2010/11 season. He was also developing a script for a new piece titled Maafa, a meditation on The Middle Passage which will be performed this October 25-27 in the commemoration of Maafa, the African holocaust.

Tristan Cunningham started performing when she was ten with Vermont’s Circus Smirkus. After touring for eight years, she changed her focus to acting and graduated with a B.F.A from S.U.N.Y Purchase Acting Conservatory. Her Bay Area credits include A Winter’s Tale, The Comedy of Errors, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with California Shakespeare Theater, The Arsonists with Aurora Theater and Tree with the San Francisco Playhouse. She is a proud member of Actors Equity Association and a TBA and BATCC Award winner for her work in The Taming at Marin Shakespeare Theater. She is honored to be working with Zaccho for the second time. Up next: Around the World in 80 Days at Theaterworks.

Alex Allan is an aerialist and dancer from Sydney, Australia. In 2008 he completed a BA in Communications (Theatre/Media) with a focus in physical theatre creation. 6 months later Alex was accepted into the Professional Aerial Program at the San Francisco Circus Center where he specialized in Aerial Rope. Alex has performed and taught workshops in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. He currently resides in Seattle, WA. Alex combines his background of Theatre, Dance and Circus to create unique and original work. Whether in coaching or onstage, Alex utilizes directionality and momentum-based movement to create choreography that is both fluid and dynamic. Alex is also a LMP and Certified SOMA Practitioner.

A Bay Area native, Antoine Hunter is an award-winning African-American Deaf and Hard of Hearing choreographer, dancer, dance instructor, actor, poet and Deaf advocate. The founder and artistic director of Urban Jazz Dance, Hunter has performed with Savage Jazz Dance Company, Nuba Dance Theater, Alayo Dance Company, Robert Moses’ KIN, Man Dance, Sins Invalid, Amara Tabor-Smith, Kim Epifano, Push Dance Company, Flyaway Productions, Joanna Haigood and the Lorraine Hansberry Theater. He has performed throughout the Bay Area and the world including Cuba, Rome and Paris. Hunter is a faculty member at East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, Shawl-Anderson, Youth in Arts and Dance-A-Vision. He is the founder of Iron Tri-Angel Urban Ballet in Richmond, was an instructor and rehearsal director for the Ross Dance Company, and dance captain for Expedia.com commercials.

Awards include the 2011 National Dance Week Dancer's Choice Award, Margaret Jenkin's CHIME award, the 2009 VRS Award (the international organization on arts and disabilities), and the 2000 Bay Area Star Award. He has been featured in Dance Spirit Magazine and Dance Magazine, and is the former president of the Bay Area Black Deaf Advocate and Director-at-Large for the Northern California chapter of the California Association of the Deaf. He has been featured in Oakland North and is a representative for Purple Technologies, which sells Deaf services and products. Mr. Hunter is an active supporter of DeafHope, an organization whose mission is to end domestic and sexual violence in Deaf communities through empowerment, education, and services. He teaches dance and ASL in both Hearing and Deaf communities and is the founder and artistic director of Urban Jazz Dance Company and has been producing the Bay Area Deaf Dance Festival since 2013. His projects have been awarded funding by both CA$H Theater Bay Area and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

As a performer of many talents, Calvin Ku has entertained audiences in all varieties of stages from International Festivals to large production shows in theaters and theme parks, and even performs at private events. Using elements of magic, circus, and theater, he creates unique performances in all of his shows. You can also find him performing in hospitals for CPMC, Kaiser, On Lok, and Laguna Honda through the Medical Clown Project, a San Francisco Bay Area organization founded by a former Cirque Du Soleil artist.

Adonis Damian Martin Quiñones was born in Contramaestre, a province of Santiago de Cuba. He is a graduate from Jose Maria Heredia Heredia Dance Academy with a degree in Modern Dance. He was a soloist for The Danza del Caribe for 2 years. In the Bay Area, he has danced with Kim Epiphano, Dance Brigade, Berkeley Ballet Theater, Joanna Haigood and Alayo Dance Company.

Danielle Sandia Sexton is a San Francisco based aerial artist and instructor. An alumnus of the Circus Center’s Professional Aerial Program, Sandia uses her conservatory training as a foundation for exploring acrobatic and aerial techniques in immersive theater and traditional vaudeville performance, and as a platform for social commentary. Sandia choreographs solo performance as well as collaborates with Bay Area innovators of aerial dance, walking the line between stuntwoman, fine artist, and circus performer. She has performed for Zaccho Dance Theatre, Vau De Vire Society, Flyaway Productions, Treat Social Club, Cielo Vertical Arts, Capacitor Dance, Extra Action Marching Band as well as in festivals and supper clubs locally and internationally.

Travis Santell Rowland is an American interdisciplinary performing artist who holds BA degrees in both Drama (Popular Theatre) and Dance (Performance & Choreography) from San Francisco State University. His solo performance and choreography of Residual Sugar (2006) was featured in the American College Dance Festival Association's (ACDFA) Southwest Regional Conference Gala Awards Concert in January 2007. He has performed for Paco Gomes & Dancers, Della Davidson’s Sideshow Physical Theatre, Emily Keeler, Printz Dance Project, TalisMANIC Physical Theatre, Aura Fischbeck Dance, Natalie Greene, Fauxnique/Monique Jenkinson, the Tim Carr Project, Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble, Cathleen McCarthy & Dancers, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Kevin Clarke/Falsetta Knockers, Raissa Simpson’s Push Dance Company, requisitedance, Jetta Martin, Funsch Dance Experience, Amie Dowling, trixxie carr, Crowded Fire Theater, Urban Opera, and in Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge at Magic Theatre. Presently, he enjoys performing as a creative collaborator with the Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project, the House of Glitter, Erling Wold's Fabrications, California Shakespeare Theater, Joanna Haigood’s Zaccho Dance Theatre, and Peter Griggs’ Burning Monk Collective.

Amara Tabor Smith is a San Francisco native and Oakland resident whose dance theater work can best be described as Afro futurist conjure art. She is the Artistic Director of Deep Waters Dance Theater and co artistic director of Headmistress, an ongoing performing collaboration with movement artist Sherwood Chen. Tabor-Smith has performed in the works of Ed Mock, Joanna Haigood, Pearl Ubungen, Ronald K. Brown, Faustin Linyekula, Adia Tamar Whitaker, Marc Bamuthi Joseph and is the former Associate Artistic Director and dancer with Urban Bush Women. She has also performed in the works of theater artists such as, Anna Deveare Smith, Aya de Leon, Herbert Siquenza, and The San Francisco Mime Troupe.
Amara choreographed and appeared in Shakti Butler’s documentary film, “Making Whiteness Visible”. She has performed with her companies, DWDT and Headmistress in Salvador, Bahia, The Republic of the Congo, Judson Church/Movement Research and many venues throughout the San Francisco/Bay Area and United States.
Tabor-Smith has taught her version of contemporary dance which she calls Roots Modern Experience technique, and Capoeira at Naropa University in Boulder, CO; University of Omaha, NE; SUNY Pottsdam; Columbia College in Chicago; The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM; San Francisco State University; Mills College in Oakland, Ca. Amara is currently on faculty in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley.

Helen Wicks is a dance artist and teacher based in the Bay Area. She’s been training in gymnastics, acrobatics, modern dance, and ballet since early childhood. As a dancer, she’s worked with Cielo Vertical Arts, Abby Crain, Leah Cox, and Paul Matteson. Helen currently performs with Zaccho Dance Theatre and El Circo Dia. She received a BA in Dance and Psychology from Bard College, where she had the opportunity to perform works by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and Merce Cunningham. Her own choreographic work has been presented at OMNI Commons, Eighth Street Studios, SAFEhouse Arts, and ODC. She teaches creative movement, acrobatics and circus arts in the Young Creative Program at ODC, Zaccho Center for Dance & Aerial Arts, and East Bay Center for Performing Arts.

jose e abad jose e abad is a queer social practice performance artist exploring queer futurity through an intersectional lens. Their artistic practice is rooted in collaboration and community engaged arts as a form of resistance and liberation and uses dance, storytelling, and ritual, to unearth lost histories, memories, and wisdom that are held within the body that the mind has forgotten or dominant culture has erased. abad is a collaborator in two queer performance collectives, Yum Yum Club and Lxs Des, and has performed solo and collaborative works nationally and internationally with artists including Joanna Haigood, Keith Hennessy, Scott Wells, Anne Bluethenthal & Dancers, NAKA Dance Theatre, Ivo Dimchev, Alleluia Panis, Seth Eisen, Brontez Purnell Dance Company, and Detour Dance. In 2018, jose was accepted into the DanceWEB scholarship program at Impulstanz in Vienna, Austria and was the inaugural artist in resident at Les Amis de la Maison Baldwin in Saint-Paul-De-Vence, France.

Delvis Friñon was born in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. He is graduates of the José María Heredia, Academy of Art with a degree in Modern,Contemporary and Folkloric cuban dance.He was evaluated by the national court and gained the place of solist dance.In Cuba he danced professionally with “Danza Teatro del Caribe.” His career extended abroad, dancing in Spain at the Expo Zaragoza, the biggest water festival in the world. He was invited also to perform several times with NDTC-National Dance Theater Company of Jamaica. Delvis came to San Francisco in 2013 to collaborate with the Ramón Ramos Alayo’s Cuba Caribe and to dance with Krissy Keefer-Dance Brigade, Zaccho Dance Theatre, Kim Epifano production, Nicole Klaymoon, Robert Moses’s Kin and Soulskin Dance Company. Delvis is a passionate artist who gives back to the community where he teaches both private and group modern and salsa dance classes.

Lydia Clinton, a Bay Area native, went to Point Park University receiving a BA in Dance (Modern) under the direction of Susan Stowe and Rubén Graciani. During college, she attended the American Dance Festival on scholarship and San Francisco Conservatory of Dance’s summer program performing pieces by Ohad Naharin, Robert Moses, and Alex Ketley. Since returning home, she has worked with Stephan Koplowitz with AXIS Dance Company, SAFEhouse Arts, Garrett+Moulton Productions, Cali & Co, Sarah Berges with West Edge Opera, Capacitor, and PUSH Dance Company. She also attended Northwest Dance Project’s LAUNCH program performing works by Menghan Lou and Kristen Céré.

Jarrel Phillips is a Capoeira performer and instructor from San Francisco. Recently, he’s been featured in When We Move, a short film by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and Picture Bayview Hunters Point, a production by choreographer Joanna Haigood. Phillips believes that through movement we embody, explore and share our stories; enriched with information, feelings and experiences.

FRANKIE LEE III is an Izzie Award nominee, freelance artist, who received his BFA from UNCSA. He has performed with Zion Dance Project, dawsondancesf, dendy/donavan projects, RAWdance & Oakland Ballet, among others and has choreographed for the Bay Area Ballet Conservatory, Gritty City Repertory Youth Ensemble, and Zion Dance Project. He was recently an Adjunct Professor at Mills College and teaches for LINES Dance Center, Bay Area Ballet Conservatory, the Boys & Girls Club and Dance Mission. His brand is, “fLEE dance”; which stands for the acronym: fleeked, loving, enlightened & educating.

Born and raised in Oakland, California, Erik K. Raymond Lee began his dance journey UC Berkeley where he trained and earned a BA in Dance & Performance Studies and Art Practice with a concentration in painting [2010]. Erik since has Joined Dimensions Dance Theater under the direction of Deborah Vaughn, as a company member and choreographer; debuted choreographic work as a participant in the Artist in Mentorship Program (AMP) with Black Choreographer’s Festival (BCF) directors Laura Elaine Ellis and Kendra Kimbrough Barnes (2015) earned his MFA in Dance from Mills College. Erik also volunteers in dance ministry with the Worship in Arts Ministry (WAM) at Covenant Church for now 10 years functioning as Artistic Director/choreographer since 2014. His work whether within the realm of dance theater or faith-based events aims to inspire, give hope and uplift the community.

Veronica Blair has emerged as one of the top Black aerialists in the country, and has taken her high-flying talents all around the world.

Blair, a Bay Area native, began her career at the age of 14 at the former San Francisco School of Circus Arts, now known as the Circus Center San Francisco. Shortly after making her debut at 17, she was noticed by Cedric Walker, the founder of the Universoul Circus. Walker named Blair as a solo trapeze artist, and she was Universoul’s Resident Aerialist for over five years.

Blair has performed in “Afrika! Afrika!,” Germany’s largest circus event, and also worked for Universal Studios Japan. She still works with the Circus Center, and has put on shows featuring other Black aerialists and circus performers for themed events, such as a tribute to recording artist Prince that took place in 2014.

Black circus performers are rarely recognized, and Blair has taken on the task of filming a documentary that puts a new light on those who work in the industry. Blair’s The Uncle Junior Project came about after the death of little-known Black circus animal trainer of the same name. In an attempt to uphold Junior’s legacy and that of the Black circus, Blair has the ambitious aim of bringing those unknown entertainers to the forefront.

Azraa Muhammad is an emerging aerial artist, dancer and performer. She received her training from artistic director of Zaccho Dance Theatre, Joanna Haigood, and began flying with the Zaccho Youth Company at the age of 7. After 10 years of training she began apprenticing as a member of Zaccho Dance Theatre. A native of San Francisco, Azraa believes in drawing inspiration from current social and political issues, such as racial profiling, poverty, identity, and ancestry as a way of expression in her choreography. As a member of the Zaccho Youth Company, she has collaborated with and performed for Flyaway Productions, Baycat, Dance Vision Series Festival, California Youth Circus Center Festival, Circus for Arts in the Schools and much more. Her most recent projects include performing for the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) 2016 New Strands Festival and being featured in a promotional video for the Golden State Warriors honoring Black History Month. Apart from creating and performing, Azraa also enjoys teaching at Zaccho for the Youth Program of Center for Dance and Aerial Arts with a class of Aerial Dance technique for beginners.

Clarissa Dyas is from Berkeley, CA and graduated from San Francisco State University in 2017 with a B.A. in Dance and a B.S. in Health Education. Clarissa is a company member of Flyaway Productions and ka·nei·see | collective along with being a collaborating member of bananarama. Additionally, she was a company member of Robert Moses’ Kin from 2017-2018 and has performed in works by Talli Jackson, Raissa Simpson, Sarah Bush and many others.

Ciarra D’Onofrio is a dancer and aerialist with a passion for art, social justice, and creating community through movement arts. She was born and raised here in the Bay Area where she began exploring dance and aerial arts at age 5. Since then, she has trained in movement arts ranging from circus arts to contemporary and jazz dance. She studied dance and choreography at Lewis & Clark College where she received the 2015 Distinction in Dance Choreography award, an award given to one graduating choreographer each year. As a member of the Circus Project’s Training and Performance Company (Portland, OR), she specialized in trapeze and aerial silks. Her performance background includes work with the Circus Project, Aerial Arts Fairfax, Aerial Dance Marin, Evening Star Presents, Camp Winnarainbow, and Lewis & Clark College. Ciarra has completed 3 aerial teacher training programs with Carrie Heller of the Circus Arts Institute and Camp Winnarainbow. She has taught aerial arts to youth and adults for over 7 years and loves seeing the growth, confidence, and joy her classes bring to her students.

Born Curtis R. Brown April 18, 1960 in the Bronx, NYC got his start in Hip-Hop in 1974. Originally known as DJ Casanova Fly he teamed up with his high school friend Louie Lou aka DJ Disco Wiz and began his storied journey through the annals of Hip-Hop history. Caz and Wiz were in a Bronx park having dj battle in the summer of 1977 during the NYC Blackout! In 1978 Caz would pen the lyrics that would eventually be used in Rap music's first hit song "Rappers Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang, inadvertantly making Caz "Hip-Hop's first ghostwriter! In 1980 Caz became Captain of the Legendary Coldcrush Brothers and they proceeded to become one of the most influential groups in Hip-Hop history. Everyone from Run DMC to Big Daddy Kane, Will Smith, Rakim, Tupac, Nas, Biggie, Wu Tang Freddie Foxx, Jay Z and more credit Caz and his Coldcrush Brothers as early influences and some have made their declarations on record....." I'm overchargin ni**as for what they did to the Coldcrush" Jay Z H to the Izzo! "I remember Mr. Magic, Flaaash, Grandmaster Caz" Tupac Shakur "Aint Nothin Like The Old School" "Shout out to Grandmaster Flash and to Caz....." Jay Z " I Do it for Hip-Hop" Dedication from Will Smith aka The Fresh Prince on "Live at Union Square"

Caz’s Coldcrush Brothers recorded a single on the Elite Records label call Weekend in 1981 then proceeded to make their film debut in the Hip-Hop movie Wildstyle. They then traveled to Japan and introduced Hip-Hop to a whole new audience! Caz recorded a few singles with the group on the Tuff City label as well as recorded a few solo singles and eventually an album entitled "The Grandest of Them All"!
Since the resurgence and interests in the early days of Hip-Hop, Caz has been a frequent panelist, speaker, historian and ambassador for the culture and an example of steadfastness and longevity. He has continued to re-invent himself and remain current in skill, know how and old school swagger and was just featured on Grammy winning artists Macklemore and Lewis's first single off their new 2016 Album. The song Downtown went platinum and the video featuring Caz, Melle Mel and Kool Mo Dee won a European MTV Video Award as well. For 18 Years Caz has been taking tourists from around the world on his Hush Hip-Hop sightseeing Tours of NYC and is the Host of the Tools of War Summer Park Jams as well! Caz is in constant demand for interviews from media outlets around the world and collaborations from artists. Caz has published a book of his lyrics aptly titled "Written" and appeared in rapper/actor Ice T's directorial film debut "Something From Nothing, The Art Of Rap" which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. Caz is prominently featured in the Netflix Documentary "Hip Hop Evolution" and his Casanova Fly persona featured in Netflix series "The Get Down". He's been voted 11th. of the 50 Greatest MC's by Blaze magazine, 6th Greatest of all time by Kool Moe Dee in his book "There's a God on the Mic" and voted #1 of the great MC’s starting from 1979 by Complex Magazine. He (Caz) is widely regarded as one of the best mf'rs to ever do this sh*t". (Ice T The Art of Rap!) Caz has been recognized by the Hip-Hop community and industry as well and acknowledged for his many contribution to the culture. A member of the DMC Technics DJ Hall of Fame, The Zulu Nation Hall of Fame and The Bronx Walk of Fame with Proclamations from The UN, Brooklyn Councilwoman's Office, The Brooklyn Borough President, The NYC Council, The Bronx Chamber of Commerce and two Bronx Borough Presidents Adolfo Carrion and current BP Ruben Diaz Jr. Grandmaster Caz also serves on the board of The Bronx Music Heritage Center, The Windows of Hip-Hop Advisory Council and The Kennedy Center's Hip Hop Council and Advisory Board and host a show on LL Cool J’s Rock the Bells Radio Platform as one of it’s icons. His name is synonymous with the words Hip-Hop and Legendary!

Discography Coldcrush Brothers Weekend, Punk Rock Rap, Fresh, Wild, Fly & Bold, Heartbreakers, Live in 82, Live from Harlem World, Fresh, Wild, Fly & Bold LP, Stylewild ( Terminator X ), Live at The Dixie ( Wildstyle ), Do you Wanna Get Funky With Me ( C&C Music Factory), Ressurected, Hut, Throwndown w KRS1, I Like to Move in Here (Moby), Ringtone Murder w LL Cool J, Downtown w Macklemore and Lewis, Notice w Kool Mo Dee, Frontline w Ceelo Green, Raekwon, Melle Mel, Masters of the Ceremony w Cactus 23 Skidoo, ROLLIN 50 DEEP, ROLLIN 110 DEEP, ROLLIN 200 DEEP DJ KAYSLAY!

Grandmaster Caz Tuff City, The Judge, Punk, Mr. Bill, Count Basey, Casanova's Rap, I'm Caz, Get Down Grandmaster, Creston Ave, You Need Stitches, Star Search
EP The Grandest of Them All With dj Parker Lee
Mid Life Crisis LP Subway Theme: Wildstyle Soundtrack
Collaborations......Melle Mel, LL Cool J, Moby, Macklemore and Lewis, Busy Bee, Prince Whipper Whip, Donald D, KRS 1, DJ Yutaka, Jazzy Jeff, Capitol 1212, Diamond D, Biz Markie, C Rayz Walz, Jaz-O, Kool Moe Dee, C&C Music Factory, Fokis & RP, Haitian Starr aka MC Torch, Chuck D, Ice T, Nas and more.

Booking contact: Mrs. Cora Brown@
GMC ENTERTAINMENT INC.
5 Brewster Street Suite 177
Glen Cove Long Island 11542
Mobile 347-902-4677
E-mail:

Grandwizzard Theodore creator of the scratch and needle drop featured in the first hiphop movie Wild style and featured in the movie Scratch, travels around the world teaching hiphop classes and playing venues. His life story was detailed in the Netflix series The Get Down.. He is genuinely regarded as the creator of the scratch and needle drop all DJ’s still use today

As a child growing up in The South Bronx. young Theodore was always attracted to the music emulating from the Speakers of his Brothers Mean Gene and Cordios equipment. The legendary L Brothers. As fate would have it he eventually began experimenting on his brothers turntable when no one was watching. One fateful day in P.S 63 schoolyard young Theodore to everyone’s surprise stood on a milk crate (as he was too small to reach the mixer) and began cutting the record back and forth and forth and back. He was a blur going side to side when in the middle of the mix he backspinned the record and began scratching to the beat. Little did he know that at that instance he invented the art of Scratching and the rest shall we say is history!

GRANDWIZZARD THEODORE, AKA THEODORE LIVINGSTON/ MARCH 5TH 1963. AWARDS, 2001 VANGARD LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD/,2002 RANE BEST PERFORMER AWARD/ 2002 DMC DJ HALL OF FAME AWARD/GLOBLE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD/ 2000 SOURCE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD/2007 PREMIER PARTY AWARD/ 2006 NUMARK MILESTONE AWARD DJ INOVATION/WALK OF FAME AWARD 2009/TEMPLE OF HIP-HOP AWARD 2012/FEARLESS AWARD LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT/BACK TO MECCA AWARD 2009/ITF LIFETIME AWARD../4 PROCLAMATIONS 2003,2006,2008.2014.

I TEACH CLASSES AT THE NYC SCRATCH ACADEMY SINCE 2002, DJ FOR ‪KURTIS BLOW‬,ROXANNE SHANT'E, MELE MELL,FORCE MDS. BIG DADDY KANE, ‪KRS ONE‬. DONE 2 MOVIES SCRATCH AND WILDSTYLE...2014 FIRST DJ TO RECEIVE GUITAR CENTER ROCK WALK OF FAME AWARD WITH ‪GRANDMASTER FLASH‬ AND DXT..

As a life-long dancer, Suzanne Gallo has performed with the San Francisco Opera, the Atlanta Ballet, Ballet West, Ballet Met, Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet, ODC, Dance Brigade, Sonya Delwaide, the Native American Foundation for the Arts, Cielo, and Zaccho. She is a founding member of vertical dance company BANDALOOP where she has danced for more than twenty years. In 2021 Suzanne toured with Bandaloop to Atlanta as a practicing artist and teaching facilitator, offering workshops to the Moving In The Spirit dance school and working with young professional dancers at Atlanta’s Immerse ATL. During the pandemic, Suzanne was invited as a co-collaborator to dance on a film project by Patricia Reedy, Director of Luna Dance Institute. In January 2022, Suzanne toured with BANDALOOP to Indianapolis, opening for Doja Cat at the College Football Playoff National Championship.

At BANDALOOP, Suzanne is the Youth Program Director, teaching BANDALOOP’s vertical methodology to adults, teens, and children at the company’s West Oakland studio. She teaches workshops on tour nationally and internationally serving a diverse constituency of students. She built the curriculum for BANDALOOP’s vertical creatives kids’ intensive, and coordinates teachers and curriculum for the company’s school. Suzanne has a wide range of teaching experience at public and private Bay Area schools and as faculty with Zaccho Dance Theatre. For the last 16 years, she has led BANDALOOP’s rich annual collaboration with Destiny Arts Center, teaching vertical curriculum to Destiny Senior and their production of Black Whole 2020 and, in 2021, collaborating on their production of Low Tide Rising.

Nina Sawant is a multidisciplinary circus artist with a fascination for visual storytelling. Nina began her career as a dancer at Busch Gardens Tampa in 2006, where she discovered circus through fellow cast mate Vitaliy Krymskyi. She went on to tour with Vitaliy and his family in Ukraine, and has since performed across the US and Europe. She is a founding member of The Dahlias, a woman of color led circus ensemble, and performs locally for Vespertine Circus, Sweet Can Productions, and Misfit Cabaret. When she's not on stage, Nina can be found making costumes, short films, and more for her Patreon.

Saharla Vetsch (she/her) is a Somali American independent dance/drag artist born and raised in Minnesota. Now residing in the Bay Area, Saharla has earned a degree in Performing Arts and Social Justice with a concentration in dance from the University of San Francisco. Her work centers around questions and curiosities about individuals’ intersecting identities and how they relate to one another. Her drag persona Major Hammy seeks to spread joy and love by being the life of the party, and bringing the freedom of self expression he experiences through dance to others.

Saharla was recently a collaborating artist in Detour Dance's "WORK MORE! 9" and participated in other pieces as part of their "Up On High" film series. She has also performed with Joe Goode Performance Group in "Time of Change" and is currently a RAWdance Radiate fellow.