Dance

Marie Lloyd Paspe is a Filipina American dance/vocal performer, choreographer, and writer. Bessie-awarded for Outstanding Choreography for contributions to Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane’s "Deep Blue Sea,” performer with BTJ/AZ since 2018, 2022 A4 Jadin Wong Fellow, 2023 Gallim Moving Artist Resident, and 2024 TMT Institute Fellow. Her work re-roots the diasporic Asian body through memory and empathetic belonging in ‘kapwa’ (“shared one-ness”) within foreign environments. Features include premieres in Philippines, China, Israel, Germany; MASS MoCA, and press in The NY Times.

Project and Title: in the belly of the crocodile

Taking place in the cavernous gorges of the two-chambered belly of the crocodile, Paspe’s curiosity of imagined memory, embodied herstories, and erased lineages reveals itself into the re-membering of the Philippine ‘babaylan’ – Filipinx shaman of pre-colonial Philippines.

‘in the belly of the crocodile’ is a treatise, expansion, and demarcation of the ‘babaylan’ spirit reincarnated into the mother migrants of today’s Philippine overseas labor force and the feminist spirit that leads movements calling for the end of genocide (Palestine, Congo, Sudan) and the end of U.S. war machines (Philippines, Israel). In pre-colonial Philippine hxstory, the ‘babaylans’ were female and transgender shamans who made up the four horizontal leaders of the ‘barangay’ (village). The babaylan healed and led the village from deeply integrated connections with the earth and the cosmos, living on the outskirts of town in huts surrounded by the skulls of their enemies. Feared by such power, Spanish colonizers, in ignorance, cut our babaylans’ bodies and fed them to the crocodiles – not knowing the sacred safe-keeping the throttled crocodile belly would have for our magic and wisdom to survive.

It is here in the crocodile belly–digested, dissociated, absorbed, and defecated–that the babaylan awakens Themself and manifests Their will in today’s world consumed with centuries of imbalance of the spirit. The theatrical dance alter-musical will include Paspe’s research of fascial archiving, postmodern choreography, pole and rope climbing, singing as a dancing body, and vocal scoring and found-sound music composition.

Dance

Barkha Patel is a kathak dancer, choreographer, educator, and the Artistic Director of Barkha Dance Company based in New York City. Barkha has performed solo, and ensemble works at dance festivals in India and the U.S. Her work has had the opportunity to present at venues such as Dance Theatre Harlem, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Joyce Theatre and Little Island Dance Festival, 92Y, and Chelsea Factory among others. 

Barkha was a Dance/USA Institute for Leadership mentee and fellow with Forge NYC consulting. She was named a 2022-2023 fellow with the National Arts Club and currently is in residency with Movement Research in NYC and was a Jerome Hill Artist Finalist 2023 (Jerome Foundation). Barkha was recently awarded the 2023 Juried Bessie Award. 

Project Title: ramti aave - her playful arrival

ramti aave - her playful arrival, explores surrendering to the Hindu goddess Kali's playfully destructive power to access the erotic. Incorporating Audre Lorde's insights, Patel’s work will emphasize that the erotic transcends explicit sexuality, celebrating its profound and limitless strength in everyday experiences. Weaving Lorde's ideas with Kali's symbolism, the performance aims to convey the importance of harnessing the erotic for personal and collective liberation.

Theater

Christopher Rivas s quickly becoming one of the most sought after multi-hyphenates as an actor, author, podcaster, playwright, and storyteller. His critically acclaimed debut book, Brown Enough, explores what it means to be Brown in America. The book is part memoir and part social commentary, a roller coaster of finding one's true self while simultaneously having a racial awakening amidst the struggle to be "perfectly" Latinx, woke, and as Brown as possible to make it in today's America. He's the host and executive producer of two podcasts with SiriusXM's Stitcher: Brown Enough, which explores the parallel themes of this book through interview-style episodes; and Rubirosa, a 10-episode documentary-style investigation of Porfirio Rubirosa, a Dominican diplomat, race car driver, soldier and polo player who’s believed to be the inspiration for the famous character ‘James Bond’. On screen, Rivas is known for his work on the Fox series, Call Me Kat, opposite Mayim Bialik.                                                              

Project Title: ROUGH MAGIC: An Operatic Ritual

ROUGH MAGIC is a three-act operatic ritual that leads the audience through three distinct immersive configurations, revealing how our contemporary lives bear striking parallels to the enduring curses of Sisyphus, Tantalus, and Narcissus. 

Theater

Marie Thomas is a published writer, independent producer, and director. As a modern-day renaissance woman, Thomas has shown her original theater production ‘The Noir Door’ in Denver and New York City, having sold out in both cities.                                                                       

She has appeared in New York Magazine’s ‘The Cut’ podcast and CNN’s Head Line News, as an advocate of women’s rights and against sexual abuse. She is a Black and Chicanisma woman from Denver, Colorado, with a Bachelor of Arts in Women’s Studies from Spelman College. While the multi-disciplinary writer has written, produced, and directed projects for others, her work often mirrors her persona. Her contemporary style, usage of humor, and otherwise bold and playful aesthetic can be found in her creations and brand. Her personal artistic ethos centers cultural awareness through Afro-surrealism, ancestral thought, and magical realism!

 Project Title: TBD

My project is one of reflective dialogue. I would like to create a piece where a father and daughter discuss their differences and similarities. In recent years, terms like “Girl Dad” “Narcissism” and “Childhood Trauma” have come to the forefront, but I would like to explore those concepts and what they look like applied to a theatrical interpersonal interaction.

Music

Alto saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins burst onto the musical scene in 2020 with the release of his Blue Note recording debut, Omega. Although just 22 at the time of its release, his quartet had already been together for years and their musicality is reflected in both the maturity of Wilkins’ sound and the sophistication and depth of his compositions. Accolades soon followed, including Omega being named the best new jazz release of 2020 by the New York Times and the best debut jazz album by NPR. Being a bandleader which has allowed Wilkins to grow both as a composer and as an arranger. He has received numerous commissions/grants including: The Kimmel Center Artist in Residence Commission, The Roulette Emerging Artist Commission, The South Arts Creativity Residency Grant, and the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Grant.  In 2022, Wilkins released his sophomore album on Blue Note, The 7th Hand.  Like his debut The 7th Hand topped year-end lists including Jazzwise, NPR, The New York Times, and The Financial Times. 2022 also opened up new touring opportunities. His quartet has toured throughout the US, Canada, Europe, and South America. In 2023, Wilkins was awarded with three Downbeat Critics Poll Awards: Best Alto Saxophonist, Best Rising Star Composer and Best Rising Star Group.  Wilkins has a bachelor’s degree in jazz studies from the Julliard School

Project Title: FLESH

FLESH is a piece for saxophone, synthesizer, percussion, guitar, and voice. It is a study on the black body, and the remix; repurposing the skin as a symbol and tool for unification. The performance explores the body as an instrument, skin contact, movement, and music that deals with modalities, dense orchestration, and improvisation. FLESH is about the aesthetics of the body — Miles Davis’ or my mother’s skin — how the patterns in flesh resemble a map, or a score. The performers use bronze castings that were made to be read as a score. Referencing bronzes use as a material of vessels, FLESH is in proximity to a larger preoccupation of mine with the idea of the body as a vessel in music — if the musicians on stage become a conduit or channel for a higher power.