choreographers.
MIA J. CHONG
founder + artistic director
MIA J. CHONG (she/they) was born and raised in San Francisco, the Indigenous lands of the Ramaytush Ohlone and Muwekma people. Mia is the founding Artistic Director of EIGHT/MOVES, a contemporary dance company dedicated to creating unity through movement and utilizing dance to generate cultural and social change. Through EIGHT/MOVES, she has collaborated with Rena Butler, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, KT Nelson, RJ Muna, and Sidney Chen. Mia’s choreography has been presented by Post:ballet, FACT/SF, RAWdance, NYU Tisch, UC Berkeley, Gonzaga University, BODYSONNET, and ODC/Dance, where she currently serves as Staging Director. Her choreography for film has been selected and screened by more than 15 festivals around the world, reaching audiences in South Korea, Japan, England, Turkey, and Italy. Mia received a Princess Grace Award, Chris Hellman Dance Honor, Jacob’s Pillow Hicks Choreography Fellowship, Aninstantia Grant, Zellerbach Community Arts Grant, Alonzo King LINES Ballet Homer Avila Award, and San Francisco Arts Commission Grant, among other honors. She earned a BA in Social Sciences with a concentration in Organizational Behavior and Change from New York University and an MS in Arts Administration and Cultural Entrepreneurship from Northeastern University.
miajchong.com
@miajchong
Photo by RJ Muna
TSAI HSI HUNG
TSAI HSI HUNG graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts in 2011 and studied abroad at Queensland University of Technology in Australia. She has worked with Australian Dance Theater, Tasdance, Expressions Dance Company, and Chunky Move, and since then her choreography has been commissioned and performed across the U.S. and Asia.
Upcoming projects include a new work for Hong Kong’s CCDC Dance Company in fall 2025, a commission from Indiana’s Dance Kaleidoscope (as recipient of the Jaffee and Hall Emerging Choreographer Award), a premiere with the Joffrey Concert Group in New York through the Creative Movers Choreography Commission, and a new piece for South Chicago Dance Theatre. Her work has also been presented by BalletX, Ballet Hispánico, Milwaukee Ballet, Arkansas Ballet, and the Joffrey Ballet. She has been in residence at Western Michigan University, Kennesaw State University, and her alma mater, the National University of the Arts in Taiwan, where she taught from 2022–24.
Hung’s choreography often explores the relationship between dance and painting. In 2022, Battery Dance Company premiered her work inspired by Hans Hofmann’s canvases. She received a Choreography Fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts in 2020. Earlier highlights include IO for METdance in Houston (2018), DOUBLEND at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Martha Graham Studio Theater, and NYU Skirball (2019), and Brushstroke 2X2 at APAP’s Peridance Showcase in New York (2020).
@tsaihsihung
Photo by Terry Lin
KT NELSON
KT NELSON joined ODC/Dance in 1976. From 1976- 2020 she danced, choreographed and partnered with Brenda Way in directing the ODC/Dance Company. KT has been awarded the Isadora Duncan Dance Award four times: in 1987 for Outstanding Performance, in 1996 and 2012 for Outstanding Choreography, and in 2001 for Sustained Achievement. Her collaborators have included Berkeley Symphony, Na Hoon Park, Shinichi Iova-Koga, and Joan Jeanrenaud. Path of Miracles, with ODC and the vocal ensemble Volti received a NEFA National Dance Production touring grant. Nelson’s Dead Reckoning was presented in 2018 at Jacob's Pillow and in the 2019 American Dance Platform at the Joyce Theater (see Fighting Climate Change with Dance | KQED Arts). Her collaboration with Brenda Way, boulders and bones, was presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2017 Next Wave Festival. Her collaboration RingRoundRozi, with French-Canadian Composer Linda Bouchard, was selected for the 2008 Tansmesse International Dance Festival. Since leaving ODC in 2020, KT has focused on mentoring independent and younger artists which has morphed into working side by side with these younger artists. Nelson is presently working as an independent artist.
dancers + co-creators.
CRYSTALDAWN BELL
dancer + co-creator
Crystaldawn Bell earned her BFA from California Institute of the Arts. Since relocating to the Bay Area, she has worked with Robert Moses’ KIN, Post: Ballet, AXIS, Garrett + Moulton Productions, Sharp & Fine, and ODC to name a few. She received an Isadora Duncan Award (Izzie) for Outstanding Achievement in Performance-Ensemble for her performance in Eckert’s duet “First Stab at Closure” and has been nominated on three other occasions for Outstanding Performance-Individual. Crystaldawn was recognized as a Refinery 29: 30 under 30 and was the recipient of the Aninstantia Grant. She is also grateful to have been featured in DANCE Magazine on two occasions. Crystaldawn loves teaching and is on faculty at Saint Mary’s College of California and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center.
Photo by Maximillian Tortoriello
ALLYSON CHIN
dancer + co-creator
Allyson Chin is a dedicated and talented dancer in her fourth year at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, with a concentration in composition and a minor in Arts Management. Allyson's dance journey began at Westlake School for the Performing Arts, where she trained in ballet, contemporary, jazz and hip hop. At SUNY Purchase, Allyson has had the privilege of performing works by renowned choreographers such as Loni Landon, Andrea Miller of Gallim, Cain Coleman, Alvin Ailey and many others. Her rigorous training and diverse performance experiences have honed her technical skills and artistic expression.
KIRA FARGAS
dancer + co-creator
Kira is a queer, first-generation Filipinx-American movement artist, choreographer, educator, and drag performer. She grew up dancing at the Westlake School for the Performing Arts in Daly City, CA, and received a BFA in Dance from the University of Arizona in 2017.
Kira currently performs and collaborates with UNA Productions (Chuck Wilt), EIGHT/MOVES (Mia Chong), and Detour Productions (Eric Garcia and Kat Gorospe Cole). She has also worked with New Dialect (Banning Bouldin), Rosie Herrera, Alex Ketley, Ariel Freedman, KT Nelson, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, and Rena Butler, among others.
Her own work has been showcased at UNA Productions' Glimpse, ODC’s State of Play, and BODYSONNET's OTHER/self. Central to her artistic practice are explorations of her Filipinx and queer identity—honoring both her cultural history and her chosen family.
Kira co-directs the Contemporary Training Program at the Westlake School for the Performing Arts alongside Hadassah Perry and is deeply committed to advancing the field through mentorship and collaboration with the next generation of dancers.
WILLIAM BREWTON FOWLER JR.
dancer + co-creator
William Brewton Fowler Jr. is a Christian freelance dancer and emerging choreographer from Augusta, Georgia. Throughout his career he has worked with companies such as Zaccho Dance Theatre, Gallim Dance, Company SBB, dawsondancesf, EIGHT/MOVES, SFBATCO, Joe Goode Performance Group, Deborah Slater Dance Theatre and Alex Ketley’s company The Foundry. William has also participated in works under the direction of artists such as Maurya Kerr, Melecio Estrella, Natasha Adorlee, and Destiny Muhammad. As an emerging choreographer, he dedicates his creations to his faith and recently created a solo, Gentleness in His hands, during his 2024/2025 fellowship with Zaccho Dance Theatre’s Black Futures residency. William has received an Isadora Duncan award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance in the Individual category (2023-2024) for Zaccho Dance Theatre's "THE PEOPLE'S PALACE.”
COLIN FREDERICK
dancer + co-creator
Colin Frederick (they/he) is a multidisciplinary artist, choreographer and movement instructor based in San Francisco, California. Colin attended the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where they obtained their B.F.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography with an emphasis in Ballet and Modern. Since then, they have been freelancing professionally around the Bay Area with a variety of companies and choreographers including Garrett + Moulton Productions, Deborah Slater Dance Theatre, Post:ballet, under the direction of Robin Dekkers and Mia J. Chong’s EIGHT/MOVES. Colin has choreographed and co-produced bicoastal shows with BODYSONNET and is on faculty at Berkeley Ballet and also a yoga instructor at CustomFit SF.
DOUGLAS GILLESPIE
dancer + co-creator
Douglas Gillespie is a dance artist and choreographer passionate in the making, teaching and embodying dance as an art form. He teaches at colleges and dance centers around the world, including Festival Danza Urbana and Piroutteando in Mexico, The Juilliard School, NYU Tisch Summer Program, ODC Dance, Mark Morris Dance Group, National Taiwan University of the Arts and Gibney Dance Center in New York, among others. Gillespie is an avid dance maker; in 2023 he premiered Squid, a duet co-choreographed with long time dance partner Leslie Kraus for the Oklahoma Contemporary Museum. Douglas' company choreography includes works for the Teoria De Gravidad company of Monterrey, Mx., Limon Professional Training Program and Sarasota Contemporary Dance. Gillespie has created his own student commissions for colleges and festivals around the US and Mexico; with two works having been showcased at American College Dance Association. Currently Gillespie is in his inaugural season with EIGHT/MOVES and also performing as a guest artist for ODC. More recently in New York Douglas was with Company SBB, Stefanie Batten-Bland and a performer and co-creator in Life and Trust, Emursive's newly premiered dance-theater immersive project. Douglas was a performer for David Dorfman Dance from 2018-2021 and an originating member, creative contributor, rehearsal director and choreographic assistant for Kate Weare Company from 2007-2021. Gillespie has performed in Punchdrunk Emursive’s Sleep No More and Third Rail Projects’ Then She Fell. Douglas is thrilled to be in his second season as Associate Director of the ODC Dance Jam. Gillespie was born in San Diego, raised in Jacksonville, Fl. and received his BFA in Dance from Florida State University in 2005.
LANI YAMANAKA
dancer + co-creator
Lani Yamanaka is a fourth-generation Japanese American artist with a history in both concert and commercial dance industries. She began training in Judo and Dance and graduated from UC Irvine with dual Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Dance Performance and Choreography.
As a storyteller and collaborator, she has performed works by the late Donald McKayle, JA Collective, Jodie, Gates, Jennifer White, Bryan Arias, Edward Clug, Yin Yue, Daniel Ezralow, Alba Castillo, Kate Weare, Kat Burns, Yayoi Kambara, and Shanda Sawyer, et al. As a company member, she’s danced with Akram Khan Company, SFDanceworks, EightMoves, ODC Dance, and Entity Contemporary Dance.
Beyond performing, Lani is passionate about educating future movement artists. As a certified personal trainer (NASM), she has collaborated with DancePrehab, emphasizing injury prevention and wellness, carrying these principles into all her teaching, whether in dance, personal training, or martial arts. In her free time, she is working toward her next black belt degree in Judo.
resources
WASTELAND
Audience Resource Guide
To learn more about the realities of waste that inspired Mia J. Chong’s Wasteland, please visit the Audience Resource Guide compiled by Cora Cliburn, Energy & Resources Group, UC Berkeley.
board of directors.
Donn Ginoza
Wendy Chin
Frank Chong
Yvonne Chong
Joanne Kim
KT Nelson
Leigh Sata
Lina Woo
other support.
EIGHT/MOVES is fiscally sponsored by InterMusic SF.
Wasteland was made possible by the support of the San Francisco Arts Commission.