AADF2025 Mainstage Showcase

AADF2025: MAINSTAGE SHOWCASE

SUNDAY, AUGUST 31ST @6:30PM

SAVILLE THEATER
San Diego City College
14th St & C St, San Diego, CA 92101

A curated evening of live dance, AAPI dance makers present works that tell stories of “Becoming Asian American”. This year's invited choreographers work primarily in modern and contemporary dance forms. Each come from different cultural backgrounds and are inspirational and accomplished artists in their own right. Together, they will present an evening of profound sharing and deep questioning. We hope audiences will come away with a richer understanding and appreciation of our AAPI communities and identities.

This event is offered at three ticket tiers:
     Support the Artists - $45
     General Admission - $35
     Artist/Student/Low-Income - $15

Learn more about AADF2025 Mainstage Showcase, and read more about the dancer makers - https://tiltshiftdance.org/aadf-mainstage-showcase

Learn more about AADF2025 and all festival events - https://tiltshiftdance.org/aadf

BECOMING ASIAN AMERICAN
As Asian Americans we are continually navigating our identity, weaving together our ancestral heritage with our current day lives. Through this festival, AAPI dance artists tell our stories of heritage, family, immigration, colonization, and assimilation. We remember the struggles and hardships of the first generations who came to the United States. We celebrate their resilience and triumphs. We recognize what we as Asian and Pacific Islanders inherit, and we uncover what we as Americans take on or let go of. We recognize and embrace our journey to become not just Asians and Pacific Islanders in America, but to become Asian Americans...finding our place in this melting pot of cultures.

MEET THE DANCE MAKERS
(alphabetical order)

Trixi Anne Agyao’s first experience dancing was with traditional Igorot dance she learned from the Northern California chapter of BIBAK. Her first ties to dance were about heritage, community and joy. She is a socially conscious performer, choreographer and filmmaker using the digital guise of The Thoughtful Beast. She creates work centered on fighting the stigma against mental illness. Utilizing her visual storytelling experience, she sets out to make work that kinesthetically connects with her audience. She is currently a company dancer for Mounarath Powell Dance. She is also an active volunteer. She is a lead volunteer for the San Diego, Filipino Cinema, United AAPI Artists and Mental Wellness for Artistists. Agyao co-founded The Filam Film Collective which focuses on Filipino American representation in the media. TFFC also provides affinity spaces for the AAPI community.

holly johnston is a movement-based artist, somatic ecologist, healer, and educator. She’s the Envisioning Director of RESPONSIVE BODY, a social movement and body liberation practice. As the founding Artistic Director of LEDGES AND BONES holly has received critical acclaim and awards for choreography, performance, and costume design. She loves working with CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater as a somatic ecologist centering operational systems around bodied health, wellness, and vitality. Through ancestral practices of collective and communal knowledge sharing as dance her work celebrates resistance and rebellion. She lives in Long Beach, CA with her son who is her most profound teacher.

Dr. grace shinhae jun (she/her) is a mother, wife, artist, scholar, educator, and mover. She has performed nationally and internationally with bkSOUL performance collective which she founded in 2001. Her research and artistic practices are grounded in Hip Hop culture and cross cultural collaborations that challenge the systems of violence and oppression steeped in anti-Blackness. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance at San Diego City College, teaches with transcenDANCE Youth Arts, and at UCSD where she was the recipient of the 2022/2023 Barbara and Paul Saltman Distinguished Teaching Award. Ph.D. Drama & Theatre UCSD/UCI, MFA Dance Sarah Lawrence College.

TILTshift Dance Founder/Director, Joyce Lien Kushner (she/her), is a Taiwanese-American dance artist, teacher, and maker. Throughout her years, she has trained dancers of all ages and has performed and collaborated with artists all over California – Modern City Repertoire, Strong Pulse Dance, Epiphany Dance Theater, Surhabi Suraf, Sarah Bush Dance, Amy Lewis, Five Feet Dance, and Chris Black Dance. In 2015, she founded TILTshift Dance in San Francisco. Now in San Diego, she continues to teach, make work, and holds open space for other dance artists to create and work. In 2024, she was awarded an 18-month artist residency by NTC Foundation in ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station to help further these endeavors. She currently teaches youth and adults throughout San Diego County. She also proudly serves on the board of Disco Riot.

Christopher Kaui Morgan is a Native Hawaiian choreographer, performer, educator, and arts leader known for championing cultural integrity and inclusion in dance. His international work blends movement, storytelling, music, and multimedia to explore identity and social issues. He founded Christopher K. Morgan & Artists in 2011 and currently serves as Artistic Director of Malashock Dance. Morgan has directed Art Omi: Dance since 2006 and held leadership roles at Dance Place and the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. A member of the National Council on the Arts, he also serves on the board of the National Performance Network and regularly teaches nationwide.

TILTshift Dance and AADF2025 are fiscally sponsored by San Diego Dance Theater. AADF2025 is funded in part by City of San Diego Cultural Affairs.