Maxi Hawkeye Canion

Maxi Hawkeye Canion (they/them) is an improviser, durational performance/movement artist, and director based in Brooklyn, NY. They desire to communicate relatable narratives and invoke dialogue around identity, reality, and intimacy. They have been an artist-in-residence at MOtiVE Brooklyn, Otion Front Studio, New Dance Alliance, Gibney, and the 2023 GALLIM Moving Artist Residency, where they have been developing their current evening-length work, “willing to eat stars.” They have presented at Chelsea Factory, PAGEANT, Performance Mix Festival, Arts On Site, BOFFO Performance Festival, FUERZAfest, CPR, Otion Front Studio, JACK, Triskelion Arts, and BAAD!. As a performer, they have worked with Richard Kennedy, Sigrid Lauren, Monica Mirabile, Holly Blakey, Sidra Bell, Shikeith, J. Bouey, Ryan Ponder McNamara, UNA Productions, slowdanger, Fernando Melo, and Emilio Rojas; premiering works at notable venues such as RTA Collective x Frieze New York, Jeonnam Museum of Art (South Korea), Performance Space New York, Creamcake’s 3hd Festival at HAU2 (Berlin), The Watermill Center, LongHouse Reserve, The Kennedy Center, Performa Biennial, Judson Memorial Church, BAM Fisher, and 92nd Street Y. Commercially, they have been involved in productions for PUMA, Telfar, and Calvin Klein.

Adam Castaneda

Adam Castaneda (he/him) is a dancer, choreographer, and arts administrator living in Houston, Texas. He is the Executive and Artistic Director of the Pilot Dance Project, a non-profit arts organization that produces the annual Houston Fringe Festival, the Texas Latino/a/x Contemporary Dance Festival, Queer Fringe Houston, as well as a full season of professional Modern dance works. As a company member of the Pilot Dance Project, he has performed in repertory and evening-length work by Ashley Horn, jhon r. stronks, Jennifer Mabus, Lori Yuill ,Orlando Zane Hunter, Jr, Erica Gionfriddo, and Corian Ellisor, among others.

Alejandro Chávez Flores

Alejandro Chávez Flores (he/him), born in the city of Tijuana, Baja California, México. He is co-director of Flores TeatroDanza, México, whose search focuses on the expressive possibilities of the body and the construction of visual poetics that dialogue from the scene. Graduated from the Professional Dance School of Mazatlán-EPDM. His work has been presented in Mexico, United States, Argentina, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Colombia, Italy, and Finland.

Alexandra Eady

Alexandra Eady (she/her) is a contemporary dancer based in the Twin Cities of Mni Sota Makoce. Alexandra enjoys movement that is physically challenging and emotionally complex. She is interested in creating and dancing works that require sustainable intensity, maintain connection to story, and do not leave behind ancestral guidance. Alexandra practices the contemporary dance technique of Yorchhā created by Ananya Chatterjea. In 2011, she became a member of Ananya Dance Theatre and continues to train under Dr. Chatterjea, and perform, teach, and tour with the company. In 2021 she received the McKnight Fellowship for Dancers and worked in collaboration with Maria Bauman (MBDance) to perform a solo created by Maria as part of SOLO, presented by McKnight in Minneapolis. Alexandra is a teacher of movement in a variety of settings across the Twin Cities. Her training informs her teaching and she enjoys making different movement practices accessible for the communities she occupies. Alexandra works to bring her communities with her and dances in honor of those that have come before, the ones that are witnessing, and for future generations.

Jeremy D. Guyton

Guest Mentor, Art Omi Dance Alumni 2021

Jeremy D. Guyton (he/they) is an alchemist, dreamer, instigator, and new world conjurer moonlighting as a director, choreographer, multidisciplinary maker, scholar, and teaching artist. A first-generation Angeleno, he remembers exploring the movement vocabularies of krump and jerk on elementary playgrounds. His work still finds itself on these playgrounds, chasing his inner child god on this journey. Upon graduation from high school, he studied theater at Georgetown University. In 2012, he moved to New Orleans and returned to second-line footwork and bounce while working at the intersection of arts and advocacy as Youth Programs Director at Dancing Grounds. In May 2022, he received an MFA in Choreography and Performance at Florida State University. Credits include: Solange Knowles, Aluna, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Claws (TNT), Michael Donte, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women, MK Arts, the Shore Co., paris cyan cian, Owen/Cox Dance, Kesha McKey, Leyla McCalla and Kiyoko McCrae, Kristin Sudeikis, Maya Taylor, Chris Emile, KM Dance Project, Junebug Productions, B.U.K.U. Dance Krewe, and Goat in the Road Productions.

Freeda Electra Handelsman

Freeda Electra Handelsman (she/her), born 1999, from Catskill, NY. She studied dance independently with Victoria Rinaldi and then at The Ailey School. Freeda Electra graduated from CalArts in 2021 under Dean Dimitri Chamblas with a BFA in Dance. She has danced internationally with choreographers including Wayne McGregor, Johannes Wieland, Saburo Teshigawara, Spenser Theberge, Yusha-Marie Sorzano, and Julie Bour. Freeda Electra has performed in works choreographed by Merce Cunningham and Jiri Kylian among others, and has performed at festivals and theaters including La Biennale Di Venezia Dance Festival 2022, CND (Paris), DOCK 11 (Berlin), MOCA (Los Angeles), REDCAT Theater (Los Angeles), Frieze (Los Angeles), ZHdK (Zürich), New York Live Arts, as well as dancing in PUMA’s FUTROGRADE NYFW 2022. Freeda Electra is a company member of Tabula Rasa Dance Theater (New York). Freeda also creates multimedia art dance films incorporating her voice, nature, and original artwork.

Giovanni Impellizzieri

Giovanni Impellizzieri (he/him) is a choreographer, performer, and teacher, crossing different means of artistic production: dance, visual arts, music, and poetry. He investigates themes such as perception, imagination, and power related to movement research and instant composition by questioning the techniques learned by movers in a discourse on “body technologies”, i.e. all necessary operations to adapt one’s structures (cognitive and anatomical) to the time and space of the dance to be generated. He combines his design studies with an anarchic dance education collaborating with public and private institutions, universities, and showing his works in art galleries and at MACRO — Museum of Contemporary Art Of Rome.

Domokos Kovács

Domokos Kovács (he/him), born 1993. He graduated from SZFE – University of Theatre and Film Arts of Budapest in 2017 as a puppeteer. Since then, he has worked as a freelance actor, puppeteer, dancer, and choreographer. He is based in Budapest and works abroad in the Netherlands, Germany, and Serbia. His projects focus on physical puppet theater and the combination of dance and puppetry. He has also researched these subjects as a teacher at SZFE – University of Theatre and Film Arts in 2019.

Kenia Noriega

Kenia Noriega (she/her) is a performer, choreographer, and instructor, graduated from the Bachelor of Arts/Dance at the University of Sonora. Her practice integrates different movement disciplines, dance styles, and yoga, among others. She has made the transdisciplinary research, experimentation, and artistic production diploma ‘Tránsitos’ at CENART – Centro Nacional de las Artes, and ‘¿Cómo encender un fósforo?’ research, choreography, and performance diploma in Mexico City. She participated in diverse national and international art festivals, and worked as a performer in several projects such as Producciones la Lágrima and Quiatora Monorriel. Her interest in interdisciplinary and space exploration has led her to collaborate with the independent collectives Fusson Multidisciplinary Art, Viso, and Tácticas e Incertidumbre, among others.

Ana Paula Ornelas

Ana Paula Ornelas (she/her) is a contemporary performer and choreographer based in the Sonoran Desert. Ana has been developing movement investigation, stage, and artistic work since 2009. Starting her artistic journey working as a dancer for choreographer Miguel Mancillas in Antares Danza Contemporánea, she has since branched out into collaborations for theater, dance film, and delved recently into choreography and direction. She also participates as assistant director for several stage artists in México. She currently investigates community work and artistic projects with social impact on marginalized groups in relation to her work.

Jaruam Xavier

Jaruam Xavier (he/him) is a Brazilian candidate pursuing an MFA in Dance with a focus on Choreography at the University of Iowa. With a wealth of experience as a dancer, he has showcased in various countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, China, Uruguay, United States, and Brazil. As a choreographer, he has delved into the exploration of Anthropophagic Body Formation, a metaphor he employs to illustrate the assimilation of knowledge through the embodiment of dance and cultural hybridity. His works bear the influence of Candomblé, Capoeira, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, evident in their distinctive traits. Jaruam has received prestigious scholarships and grants from the University of Iowa, enabling him to conduct research on Capoeira and Candomblé, both African-Brazilian diasporic embodied practices. He collaborated with programs including the International Writing Program—Grant Wood Art Colony, and at the University of Iowa, and was a rehearsal director for the guest FLOCK dance company. Jaruam has been actively involved as a teaching assistant for the University of Iowa’s Brazilian Cultural and Carnival course. He has also been invited as a guest presenter for the courses Performing Power/Performing Protest and African Caribbean Dance Practices, and teaches yoga.