Collaborators

Bhumi B Patel directs pateldanceworks and is a queer, desi, home-seeker, and science fiction choreographer (she/they). In its purest form, her performance work is a love letter to her ancestors. Patel moves at the intersection of embodied research and generating new futures, using improvisational practice as a pursuit for liberation. She is a member of Dancing Around Race, founded by Gerald Casel, and has presented her choreographic work in the Bay Area, Manoa, Hawai’i, Los Angeles, California, and Columbus, Ohio. pateldanceworks.org

Diana Lara is a professional dancer, choreographer, and a registered somatic movement educator from Honduras. She graduated from the choreography program of the Center for Research and Choreography at the Mexican National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) in 2003 and from the Somatic Research and Participatory Arts program at Moving-on-Center in Oakland in 2007. She is a graduate from the Body-Mind Centering® certification program on Developmental Movement. Currently, Diana teaches and oversees a somatic movement and a taichi for arthritis program for older adults at On Lok 30th Street Senior Center. Diana holds a M.S. in Kinesiology with emphasis in movement science from San Francisco State University.  www.dianalara-somatics.com

Elizabeth Costello is a writer and collaborator with musicians, dancers, and jokers of all stripes. She has taught creative writing to incarcerated youth and to graduate students, has lived in a crumbling apartment in Istanbul, on an anarchist farm in Spain, and in a 14th-century castle in Southeastern France. Currently, she lives in Portland, Oregon, but maintains many connections to the Bay Area, including working as an editor in marketing and communications for UC Berkeley. She has written about arts and culture for venues including SFWeekly and 7×7, and her poetry chapbook, RELIC, can be found at Bird and Beckett books in San Francisco. Her debut novel, The Good War, is forthcoming from Regal House.  www.elizabethscostello.com www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethscostello

Esther Young performs locally while recording independent projects. Her dream is to create honest, lyrical work that raises awareness of our inner worlds and the stories we perpetuate. In her full-time role at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, she connects local organizations with venue access to hold accessible programs that engage the communities in San Jose. In her free time, she enjoys supporting her fellow creatives by writing their stories for Content Magazine and PUNCH Magazine. Her love for art, music and literature has guided her career as a program administrator for various arts organizations in the Bay Area, including Chopsticks Alley Art and Djerassi Resident Artists Program. You can experience more of her personal work at hyperfollow.com/estheryoung

Grace is an interdisciplinary artist, dancer, and somatic practitioner emphasizing joy in the everyday. Her goal is to make people feel full and appreciative of their bodies and the world around them. Learn more about Grace and her work at www.graceshaver.com

Heidi (she/hers) is a movement artist and arts administrator from Colorado, who has worked with MovingGround administratively and creatively since 2020. She graduated from the University of San Francisco in 2022 with a bachelor’s in Performing Arts and Social Justice. She has danced with the NETWORK project and EchoTheaterSuitcase, as well as the Dance Generators. She is also currently the Productions Coordinator for Fresh Meat Productions.

Kristen is inspired to make work that connects us with our humanity and interconnectedness with the environment. She has fostered this practice through the study of contemporary dance, contact improvisation, axis syllabus, break dance, amongst other families of movement. Her creative work has been received throughout the Bay Area and greater North West, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, and Germany. As a Director, she bring strategies for devising new work with multiple mediums and perspectives. She pulls from her studies in the Tamalpa Life Art Process to bridge intimate memoir to the public stage and the Yat Bentley approach to character development in finding dynamic, authentic relationships to self, other, and environment. These schools of theater and creative expression accompanied by her experiences in performance, teaching, and directing support the creation and development of current and responsive work. https://www.kristenrulifson.com/

Tanja London is a performing, haptic, visual and sound artist as well as a somatic educator based in West Oakland, CA. Topics such as the erosion of democracy, inherited stress and trauma, the cultural impact of military technology, climate change and resilience shape her theoretical and in studio research. With her electronic sound projects Tanja London alias qualia-c is dedicate to experimentation and to explore the somatic impact of vibrations, interconnection, as well as the edges of her emotions and thoughts. Besides a BA in Social Pedagogy and Contemporary Dance she majored in Math and Art in German High School, holds a MFA in Modern Dance including a Screendance Certificate, is a certified STOTT Pilates® Instructor and Medical QiGong Practitioner.  https://tanjalondon.com/