Artists &
Collaborators
Season 9
ARTISTS
ISAAC BATES-VINUEZA
DANCER
Isaac Bates-Vinueza is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher who lives and works in San Francisco. As a performer, Isaac has danced with the Sacramento Ballet, SFDanceworks, Post:ballet, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, and LED Boise. He’s worked with artists like Bryan Arias, Rena Butler, Lauren Edson, Jodie Gates, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Laura O’Malley, Mosceleyne ParkeHarrison, Penny Saunders, and Amy Seiwert. Isaac made his professional choreographic debut with Sacramento Ballet in 2022, and that same year, he was awarded the Ann and Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow. He is an alumnus of Pacific Northwest Ballet School and holds a B.A. in English from UC Berkeley.
SARAH CHOU
DANCER
Sarah Chou is a San Francisco-based dancer and arts administrator. Throughout her career, she has performed works by Rena Butler, Edward Clug, Laura O’Malley, Yue Yin, and JA Collective, among others. She received her early training at Southern California Ballet and Danceology. After graduating with honors from Wellesley College with a B.A. in History, she attended the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program, under the direction of Karah Abiog. Sarah bridges her passion for creativity, equity, and artist sustainability through her work in fiscal sponsorship.
EMILY HANSEL
DANCER
Emily Hansel (they/she) is a San Francisco-based dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, arts administrator, and artist advocate. Emily has danced with the San Francisco Opera, SFDanceworks, Post:ballet, Flyaway Productions, Christy Funsch, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Robert Moses’ KIN, Garrett-Moulton Productions, Alexandra Pirici’s Re-collection at SFMOMA, Cunningham repertory in Signals from the West, and many other companies. Emily has received numerous honors for their performance and choreographic work, which is centered around dismantling systems of oppression in the dance field. Through their choreography, writing, speaking engagements, and Community Study Hall discussion series, Emily advocates for healthy and equitable working conditions for dancers. They also offer contemporary classes for professional and pre-professional dancers and regularly teach ballet and contemporary classes for kids ages 4-14. Emily is originally from Rochester, MN and holds a BFA in Dance from the University of South Florida.
SILAS RIENER
Silas Riener is a dance artist. His ongoing work involves the building of collaborative worlds through improvisational techniques, digital technologies, and material construction. He makes dances as collisions of games, formal vocabularies, athletics, and building and renovation. He has worked with Rashaun Mitchell since 2010 and collaborates with sculptor Martha Friedman. He danced in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, with Tere O’Connor, and many others, most recently in Sarah Michelson’s nowhere at the Museum of Modern Art. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and a graduate of Princeton University and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. As an educator he has taught at Princeton, Bard College, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, and as a guest at USC Kaufman, The Juilliard School, Miami New World School of the Arts, FSU, and Barnard College, among others.
His solo work has been commissioned by The Chocolate Factory, EMPAC, and The Serpentine Pavilion. Together with Rashaun Mitchell he has received two National Dance Project Awards, a 2024 Creative Capital Award, and has been a fellow and artist-in-residence at numerous institutions. Their work has been commissioned by venues such as BAM/Next Wave, NYU Skirball, The Joyce Theater, The Barbican, REDCAT, EMPAC, The Walker Art Center, Danspace Project, SFMOMA and MoMA PS1.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Walker Art Center
NAT WILSON
DANCER AND STAGER, A MEASURABLE EXISTENCE
Nat Wilson is a dancer, teacher, and choreographer based in Brooklyn, New York, whose work focuses on cross-cultural communication and a passion for expansive physicality. In 2016, they joined Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, giving them the opportunity to perform and teach around the world, including China, Peru, South Korea, and India. Since 2020, they have lived and worked in New York as a freelance dance artist, continuing to share their love of dance in New York and on tour. Nat works closely with Yue Yin as a dancer in YY Dance Company, certified FoCo Technique™ instructor, and repetiteur for Yue Yin’s choreography. Nat is also a valued member of kNoname Artist | Roderick George and Boca Tuya, among other freelance work. In 2026, they founded Jackalope Dance as a home for their choreographic vision and platform to connect to new audiences. Nat is always happy to connect on Instagram via the handle @natattax
LANI YAMANAKA
DANCER
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 a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography. She’s equally at home on stage, in rehearsal, or helping someone break their fall—with proper ukemi, of course.
As a storyteller and collaborator, she has performed works by the late Donald McKayle, JA Collective, 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 in Jungle Book Reimagined, Father: Vision of the Floating World and Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise, EightMoves, ODC Dance, and Entity Contemporary Dance. You can also find Lani dancing on screen in Move, The Sympathizer, Interior Chinatown, and on tour with Basement Jaxx.
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. Lani strives to instill safe, sustainable movement practices that support long-term health and performance. In her free time, she is working toward her next black belt degree in Judo.
dancer images: peter wei unless noted
DESIGNERS & COLLABORATORS
JOHN CAGE
COMPOSER, INDETERMINACY FOR OCEAN SOLO BY MERCE CUNNINGHAM
John Cage (1912–1992), one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, created genre-expanding works encompassing music, performance, writing, and visual art, including his landmark 4’ 33”—a work where a performer or performers simply exist without intentionally making any explicit sounds—which alone redefined the very concept of what music might be. His oft-quoted phrase “there is no such thing as silence” is synonymous with his influence. From his work while teaching at Black Mountain College to his decades of collaboration with Merce Cunningham, much of Cage’s output developed and offered concepts and methods of using indeterminacy, non-intention, and experimentation with materials that have significantly expanded the boundaries of music and other forms of art-making.
Beginning with his early, rhythmic works for percussion ensemble through to his late, uniquely spacious, time-based “number pieces,” Cage’s output remains actively performed around the globe. His experimental, curious, and generative thinking, not only about music, art, philosophy, and literature, but also about how to live one’s life, continues to influence and invite new ways of art-making and being. His collaborations with Merce Cunningham remain important contributions to the history of dance and how dance might be in dialogue with music, even if performed autonomously. His poetry and performance texts represent a unique contribution to the literary cannon. The John Cage Trust, located at Bard College, preserves and serves his legacy as a living archive.
Photo Credit: John Cage, image provided by John Cage Trust.
RITA BULLWINKEL
READER, INDETERMINACY FOR OCEAN SOLO BY MERCE CUNNINGHAM
Rita Bullwinkel is the author of two books: Headshot (2024) and Belly Up (2018). Headshot was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize. It was also longlisted for the Booker Prize and the Dublin Literary Award. In 2025 Bullwinkel was awarded the Addison M. Metcalf Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which biennially honors a young American writer of great promise. She is also a 2022 recipient of a Whiting Award, the Editor of McSweeney's Quarterly, a Contributing Editor at NOON, the creator of Oral Florist, the former Deputy Editor of The Believer, and the former Assistant Fiction Editor of The Brooklyn Rail. As an Assistant Professor of English at University of San Francisco, and the Picador Guest Professor of American Literature at Leipzig University in Germany, she taught courses on creative writing, zines, and the uses of invented and foreign languages as tools for world building. In addition to editing Mcsweeney’s Quarterly (the house’s magazine of art and literature) she also edits one book-length work a year for Mcsweeney’s Books Division. Books for which she has served as editor have been longlisted for National Book Award and named a best book of the year by The Chicago Review of Books.
Photo Credit: Beowulf Sheehan
SIGUR RÓS
COMPOSERS, ENTER AND SCENARIO SOLOS BY MERCE CUNNINGHAM
First a quartet, then a trio after multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson left in 2013, a duo following the departure of drummer Orri Páll Dýrason in 2018, and a serene-sounding threesome again when Kjartan rejoined to make Átta, they were initially labelled a post-rock band, but no scene or sub-genre has ever managed to hold them. A band that can sell over 10 million albums worldwide without a hit single or a Grammy, while singing mostly in Icelandic, a language spoken by fewer than 400,000 people, is ploughing a highly individual furrow.
Across three decades of matchless output, the group’s sound has consistently scaled monumental heights. Jónsi Birgisson’s bowed guitar and spectral voice have been joined by ambient chamber music on Ágætis byrjun, a folkier more energetic style on Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (2008) and something quieter, stiller, slightly more electronic on Valtari (2012). Away from their albums they have provided hypnotic music for Old Norse poetry (Odin’s Raven Magic, 2020), a 24-hour drive around Iceland’s perimeter (Route One, 2016) a documentary about a bus terminal (Hlemmur, 2002) and ambient sound baths (Liminal Sleep, 2019).
Accompanied by New York’s Wordless Music Orchestra for eight dates in North America in the summer of 2023, the trio have since been joined on stage by numerous others including Symphony+81 in Japan, the Balvig Orchestra in Sweden and Denmark, and the city orchestras of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide on their 2025 Australian tour. In September 2025 they cross Europe again, including four nights at the iconic Royal Albert Hall in London, completing their journey in the company of the Noordpool Orkest in Amsterdam.
At the same time, Takk… will reappear in its 20th anniversary finery. The major label debut and commercial high point for a band that has never sought the mainstream, the album was a platinum seller in the UK and shifted over 200,000 copies in the US. Then there was ‘Hoppípolla’ – the one everyone knows even if they might not know who wrote it. Sigur Rós called it ‘The Hit Song’ before it had a title. Numerous film and TV moments have all reached new emotional heights thanks to that majestic piano motif.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sigur Rós
JIM FRENCH
LIGHTING ADVISOR
Jim French (he/him) designs lighting for the performing arts and live events, with work seen in twenty five countries around the globe. Highlights of Jim's work in dance include over twenty five world premieres for San Francisco Ballet, nine seasons as resident designer for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and long running collaborations with the choreographers Val Caniparoli, Pascal Rioult, and Amy Seiwert, with vertical dance company Bandaloop, and with Ballet West. At home in the San Francisco Bay Area, he has collaborated with Alonzo King Lines Ballet, RAW Dance, Shotgun Players, Kronos Quartet, Joe Goode Performance Group, ODC Dance, Post:Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Imagery, Marin Theater Company, West Edge Opera, and has been house LD at SF Jazz. Favorite credits from further afield include Finnish National Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Nederlands Dance Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Ballett Basel, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Carte Blanche, Royal Ballet of Flanders, and LA Dance Project. Jim designed lighting for the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit, and volunteers for Dancers Responding to AIDS and Bike East Bay.
CASSIE BARNES
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Cassie Barnes has been involved in technical theatre for the last 15 years, and it was under the instruction of Joan Arhelger at San Francisco State University that her passion for lighting design was born. After graduating from SFSU, where she studied Theatre Arts and Women and Gender Studies, she began her freelance career. Cassie is the resident lighting designer for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Opera and Musical Theatre Program, Diablo Ballet, Bayer Ballet Academy, Golden Thread Productions, and Applegate Dance Company. She’s also had the fortune to work under Justin Partier as an Assistant Designer and a Lighting Intern at San Francisco Opera.
Photo Credit: Keith Allen Phillips
ASAMI MORITA
LIGHTING DESIGN, A MEASURABLE EXISTENCE
Asami Morita is a lighting designer, primarily for dance. She has worked with choreographers such as Peter Chu, Hilary Easton, Gina Gibney, Mthuthuzeli November, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Makiko Tamura, Makini, Sonya Tayeh, Caleb Teicher, Gwen Welliver, Nami Yamamoto, Yue Yin among many others. Her designs have been seen nationally and internationally at venues including the Joyce Theater, New York City Center, ICA Boston, Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur (Canada), Meridian Hall (Toronto, Canada), Montréal Arts Interculturels (Canada), Suzzane Dellal Hall (Tel Aviv, Israel), Theater Ann Het Spui (The Hague, The Netherlands). Other recent work includes the Off Broadway Play: My Man Kono (Pan Asian Repertory Theater).
JARRED GARZA
COSTUME DESIGNER JERMAINE SPIVEY AND BRETT CONWAY WORLD PREMIERES
Jarred Garza is a costume designer, patternmaker, and tailor based in San Francisco, where he works full time on the costume staff of San Francisco Ballet. His work spans ballet, opera, circus, film, and drag — including San Francisco Opera, LA Opera, Teatro ZinZanni, and Zhukov Dance Theatre, with additional work for Disney and the Frameline Film Festival. A 2003 graduate of FIDM, he began his career interning for designer Jeremy Scott before assisting independent designer Joseph Walker. He went on to found Ric Rac Clothing and to open Archetype Boutique on Market Street, and was named SF Weekly's Best Local Designer in 2013.He has taught patternmaking and garment construction at California College of the Arts and The Sewing Workshop, and produced CCA's annual runway production for three years. He works from Archetype Studios in Alamo Square, building for dancers, acrobats, performers, and independent labels.
CORRIDA GODBOLD
WARDROBE MANAGER
Corrida is pleased to be once again working with SF Danceworks! Raised in Northern California, Corrida has been sewing since the age of 12. What started as a hobby turned into a career in 2010, when she started making costumes for theater productions around the Bay Area. Corrida has worked with Starbound Children’s Theater, New Conservatory Theater, African American Shakespeare Company, Magic Theater, Altarena Playhouse, and dressed for other theaters. She currently works for San Francisco Ballet as the Head of Mens Wardrobe.
BYRON ROMAN
PRODUCTION AND STAGE MANAGER
Byron was born in Los Angeles, California, and is a first-generation American of Guatemalan descent. He recognizes Eartha Robinson, Karah Abiog, Milton Myers, and Seah Johnson as his key mentors. He has worked as a stage manager since 2018, with favorite credits including Ballet22, dawsondancesf, and David Harvey|Babatunji. Byron joined Alonzo King LINES Ballet in 2022 as Stage Manager and currently serves as their Rehearsal & Stage Manager. This is his first season with SFDanceworks.
Photo Credit: Steve Disenhof
MIA SNAPE
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
Mia Snape is a creative from San Francisco, California. She began her dance training at the San Francisco Ballet school and where she attributes formative early experiences performing alongside the company at the opera house. In high school, she began to broaden her dance training to include jazz, modern, contemporary, and composition at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. Deepening her scholarship in dance, she joined the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance where she now holds a BFA and a minor in Psychology. Under generous mentorship from the teachers at Kaufman, she began conversations with the traditions of house, whacking, locking, musical theater, dancehall, Horton, and Dunham, and was given the opportunity to perform in works from choreographers such as Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, Jiří Kylián, Kenny Ortega, and debut new works from Caili Quan, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Janie Taylor, and Jillian Meyers.
Mia is enthused by collaboration and performance across many different mediums. During her time at USC, Mia trained in classical voice, acted/danced/choreographed for various student film and multimedia projects, and worked as a dancer on the set of the upcoming season of The Gilded Age. Having a particular interest in the collaborative process, Mia created work for the CoLab Festival 2024 at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. She continues to seek spaces for cross-disciplinary collaboration and engaging in artistic conversation.
Throughout her years of training, Mia has retained a passion for the classroom space, viewing the exchange between student and teacher as central to a dancer's experience. She aims to integrate her ongoing inquiries about dance, the brain, and the mind-body connection into her learning and teaching experiences to explore holistic pedagogical approaches in dance classrooms and beyond.