Alhassane "Sana" Bangoura

2024 DANCER FELLOW

Photo by Canaan Mattson

Alhassane "Sana" Bangoura comes from a family of traditional drummers and dancers
from Guinea, West Africa. As current and former members of the world-renowned Les
Ballets Africains and Ballet Merveilles, the Bangoura brothers' talents have brought
them all over the world and led them to make their homes in Italy, France, the US and
Iceland. Inspired by his brothers, Sana began his drum and dance training in 1999 as a
member of the company Wassasso, based in the capital city Conakry. In this company,
under the direction of Ballet Africains dancer, Sorel Conte, Sana rose to the position of
Principal Dancer, and in 2001 became Assistant Director.

During his sixteen years with Wasasso, Sana's duties were manifold. He managed
rehearsals for longtime company members as well as for youth who aspired to join the
group. He provided lessons for students from a myriad of countries to include Chile,
Argentina, France, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden and Portugal. He performed in the
national competition Stars Vacance when the company took 1st place. Sana also
choreographed Wassasso performances that appeared on Guinea National Television
and won his group a 3rd place finish in the nation in 2012.

After moving to Minnesota in 2015, Sana performs with his brother, master
drummer Fode Seydou Bangoura, in their group Duniya Drum and Dance, and teaches
community classes for adults. Performance highlights include Duniya’s many Fakoly
shows and appearances at The Cowles Center, The Cedar Cultural Center and
Orchestra Hall.

duniyadrumanddance.org

Kealoha Ferreira

2024 DANCER FELLOW

Photo By Canaan Mattson

Kealoha Ferreira is a Kanaka Maoli, Filipino, Chinese dance artist from Nuʻuanu, Oʻahu, now residing in Mni Sóta Makoce on the unceded lands of the Dakhóta Oyáte. She is the Artistic Associate of Ananya Dance Theatre and a Co-leader of the company's Saint Paul space, the Shawngrām Institute for Performance & Social Justice. A practitioner of Yorchhā and an emerging student of Oli and Hula, Kealoha's artistry activates at the intersection of these transnational feminist and aloha ʻāina embodied practices.

As a leader, teacher, performer, and maker her work investigates the tensile and expansive nature of relationality while remaining rooted in cultural and kinesthetic rigor . She is a recent participant of Red Eye Theater’s Works in Progress cohort (2020), Hālau ʻŌhiʻa- a land and water stewardship program (2021), BIPOC Leadership Circle (2022), and Chawrchā NextGen ChoreoLab (2023). Kealoha teaches Yoga at the University of Minnesota as an associate faculty member in the Theater Arts and Dance Department.

Tumelo Khupe

2024 DANCER FELLOW             

Photo by Canaan Mattson

Tumelo Khupe (alias Melo) is a performing artist, krumper, and emerging choreographer
based in the Twin Cities and from Botswana. Her artistry investigates and explores how the
body manifests lived experiences through movement. Krump is foundational in her work as it offers endless possibilities for storytelling through its technique and language. She makes use of some elements of theater to reveal these moments through freestyle or improvisation. The four pillars of her artistry are rawness, discovery, individuality, and spirituality.

She graduated with a BA in Music Theater with a minor in Dance. Some awards received are the David Wick Leadership Award, the David Wick Best Choreography Award, and The Mabel Meta Frey Outstanding Theater Artist Award. She is a Naked Stages Fellow, Generating Room Fellow, Next Step Fund grantee, and most recently, a Chawrchā, a next-generation choreographic lab Fellow and has performed with Emmy award-winning company, Hip Hop Nutcracker.

Demetrius McClendon

2023 DANCER FELLOW

Born and raised in the south side of Chicago, Demetrius McClendon, who is also known as ImagineJoy, began dancing with street hip-hop at the age of 15 and has traveled nationally and internationally as a professional dancer, teacher, and choreographer sharing their passion for the arts. They began their formal training at Northern Illinois University (where they also minored in Black and LGBT Studies) and were awarded scholarships to take summer intensives with the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Hubbard Street, and Deeply Rooted.

Since graduating from NIU in 2011, they have danced professionally with DanceWorks Chicago, TU Dance, Owen/Cox Dance Group, and as a guest artist with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Twin Cities Ballet, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, and the Minnesota Opera, among numerous other companies. As community organizer that believes wholeheARTedly in the power of loving action, political education, and spiritual practice, they co-create experiences with others that heal and empower BIPOC & Queer communities; engaging radical imagination as a revolutionary tool to awaken/expand creative genius, they utilize heART as a powerful vehicle to inspire and shape change.

Demetrius is currently a board member and organizer/facilitator for Million Artist Movement: a global vision that believes in the role of ART in the campaign to dismantle oppressive racist systems against Black, Brown, Indigenous and disenfranchised PEOPLES; they also lead the BIPOC practice for “Don’t You Feel It Too?,” a movement meditation social-justice based organization in the Twin Cities, where they were formerly an associate artistic associate.

Sam Aros-Mitchell

2023 DANCER FELLOW

Sam Aros-Mitchell (he/him/his) is an enrolled member of the Texas Band of Yaqui Indians. As an Indigenous art-maker and scholar, Aros-Mitchell ’s work spans the disciplines of performance, sound/light/scenic design, choreography, and embodied writing. Aros-Mitchell holds a Ph.D. in Drama and Theater from the joint doctoral program at UC San Diego/UC Irvine, an MFA in Dance Theatre from UC San Diego, and a BFA from UC Santa Barbara. As a choreographer, Aros-Mitchell has completed two recent works, a solo titled Ania Bwia Bwia Toochia, performed by Aros-Mitchell at Red Eye’s Works in Progress in May of 2023, and Finding Sentience, performed by Semaphore Dance Repertory in November of 2023.  

 Since 2017, Aros-Mitchell has worked with Rosy Simas Danse (RSD) as a performer, teacher, and community engagement organizer. He has performed with RSD in Skins (2018), Weave (2019) Simas short film, yödoishëndahgwa’geh (2021), and she lives on the road to war (2022-2024). Aros-Mitchell has also appeared in Prairie/Concrete with Aniccha Arts, founded by Pramila Vasudevan in 2023 and Morgan Thorson’s Untitled Night, commissioned by The Great Northern in 2024. Aros-Mitchell is currently collaborating with Dante Puleio, Director of Limón Dance in NYC by restaging/reconstructing two original Limón pieces, the Indio solo from Danzas Mexicanas (1939) and "the Deer solo" from The Unsung(1970). This marks a new passage for Aros-Mitchell and for Limón Dance, in that José Limón and Aros-Mitchell share the proud lineage of Yaqui ancestry.
www.samarosmitchell.com

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Yuki Tokuda

2023 DANCER FELLOW

Yuki Tokuda is a ballet dancer, choreographer, and teacher, based in the Twin Cities. She is originally from Japan and was trained under Mikiko Dei, Hideo Fukagawa, and Jun Ishii, internationally recognized dancers, teachers, and competition judges. She moved to the United States in 2000 to continue her training in New York at the Joffrey Ballet School. Ms. Tokuda has danced professionally with USA Ballet, Peoria Ballet, and the Metropolitan Ballet and she was the principal dancer at Continental Ballet for 7 years.

With diverse training in classical, contemporary, modern, and jazz, she is an international guest dancer and collaborator with many companies. She has expertise in pointe work, partnering, and class etiquette and enjoys teaching aspiring dancers. At Steps on Broadway as one of the first International Visa Program students. She is also trained with the Boston Ballet and the Connecticut Ballet. She has performed many principal roles in Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Coppelia, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ms.Tokuda is a faculty at Minnesota Dance Theatre, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and a certified STOTT Pilates teacher. She is a recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board and St. Louis Park Arts & Culture Grant. Her choreography was chosen for Choreographer’s Evening at The Walker Arts Center, Wayzata Symphony Orchestra, Wooddale Church, Japan America Society of Minnesota, and Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists. She is the owner/designer of YukiTard and the owner/instructor of Tokuda Ballet.
www.yukitokuda.com

Touring Information

Password: tokuda2023

Leila Awadallah

2022 DANCER FELLOW

photo by Canaan Mattson

Leila Awadallah ليلى عوض الله (she/her) is a dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker based in
Minneapolis and partly Beirut, Lebanon. Dancing with a body of Palestinian, Arab-American, Sicilian, and mixed Mediterranean ways and waves. Born on Dakota, Lakota land near the Thick Wooded River (Sioux Falls, SD) she moved to Minneapolis, Mni Sota in 2012 to pursue a BFA in Dance at the University of Minnesota, and found home here.

Leila is the creator, choreographer, and teacher of Body Watani dance project/practice in
collaboration with Noelle Awadallah. As a member of Ananya Dance Theatre (2014 - 2019), she trained in Yorchha, toured Nationally / Internationally, and was impacted by ADT’s commitment to intersecting dance and social justice. She is a founder of Kelvin Wailey (2015-2019), and performed works by Paula Mann, Leyya Tawil, Karla Grotting, Slo Dance, Emma Marlar,
HIJACK, Emily Gastineau, Morgan Thorsen, and Paulina Olowska. She lives and works part-time
in Beirut where she’s a collaborator with Theater of Women of the Camp.

Leila received multiple fellowships: Jerome Hill (2021-2023), Daring Dances (2019) and
Springboard 20/20 (2018). She has been an artist in residence at Hinge (MN), Arab American
National Museum (MI), Hammana Artist House and Amalgam (Lebanon), and the Camargo
Foundation (France). Her works/research received support from National Performance
Network, MSAB, and Goethe. She presented work at the Cedar Tree Project, MIZNA, and RAWI
Arab Lit conference. Leila received a MN SAGE Award for Outstanding Design (2016) for the film “Reflections on Ice: Climate Change in Peru” and Best Performance from the Lebanese National Theater (2019).

leilaawadallah.com

Sharon Picasso

2022 DANCER FELLOW

Photo by Canaan Mattson

Sharon Picasso (she/her) is a Minneapolis based movement, performance and transdisciplinary creative Artist and Founder/Artistic Director of Picasso Projects and Lupa Studio. Her work as a freelance performance and dance artist lives parallel to her work as a choreographer since 1995. Picasso’s creative and collaborative practice has expanded into design including sound, light and installation. Paramount in her collaborative process is cultivating an inclusive, respectful and sustaining creative environment where value is placed on the wholeness of an individual.

Her performance work provides the privilege of collaborating with a wide variety of artists, most recently Deborah Jinza Thayer/Movement Architecture, Rosy Simas Danse, Jennifer Glaws/Jagged Moves, Pedro Pablo/Viva La Pepa, Jess Forest, and Paula Mann/Time Track Productions. Picasso studied Theatre and Psychology at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and earned a degree in Dance Performance and Choreography from The Boston Conservatory.


Picasso is grateful to have been consistently performing and collaborating as a freelance dance artist for decades. The relationships cultivated through the moving performing arts have offered her diversity in artistry, growth and renewed energy. She considers her long-time collaborative relationships and community as the greatest rewards of her craft.



www.picassoprojects.com

Cheng Xiong

2022 DANCER FELLOW

Photo by Canaan Mattson

Cheng Xiong grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota and received his Bachelors of Art in Dance at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Though he began his journey as a street dancer, he currently collaborates with professional dance companies such as Black Label Movement, STRONGmovement and BRKFST Dance Company.

In 2015 Xiong and Black Label presented the “Bodystorming Hits Bangalore” initiative in partnership with the National Centre for Biological Science in Bangalore, India. Two years later in 2017, STRONGmovement and Xiong participated in the Momentum project, “New Dance Works Festival.” He participated in the “I’m From...Vol. 2,” evening show in 2018, where he also debuted his solo “Being Hmong, Being Free.” In 2019, Xiong participated in Rhythmically Speaking’s show, “The Cohort,” where he performed for the Rovaco Dance Company and the JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble. Later that year, he toured in Gainesville, Florida with Black Label and received a residency at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. After premiering “60/40” with BRKFST Dance in 2021, they did their first tour residency in Dublin, Ireland.

Alongside his repertoire of performances, Xiong is a Breakdance instructor and educator. He has taught at after-school programs such as Washington Technology Magnet Middle, Hazel Park Preparatory Academy, and Ramsey Middle through the East Side Arts Council. At present, Xiong is currently teaching at Cypher Side Dance School.

Alexandra Eady

2021 DANCER FELLOW

photo by Canaan Mattson

Alexandra Eady was born and raised in Minneapolis and began dancing at the age of seven. While in high school at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, she was introduced to the contemporary dance technique of Yorchhā created by Ananya Chatterjea, the Artistic Director of Ananya Dance Theatre. In 2011, she became a company member with Ananya Dance Theatre and continues to perform, teach and tour with the company. Ananya Dance Theatre’s commitment to social justice and intentional choreographic creations is what fuels her performance on stage.

Alexandra teaches Yorchhā workshops and masterclasses in schools across the Twin Cities and nationally and internationally while on tour with the company. Her international performance and teaching experience includes the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe, New Waves Performance Institute in Trinidad, the Bethlehem International Performing Arts Festival in Palestine, and the Aavejak Aavaaz Festival in Delhi. In 2020 she was a collaborator in residence at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. Alexandra is committed to performing and creating works grounded in narrative and story that do not leave behind ancestral guidance. She works to bring her communities with her and perform in honor of those that have come before, the ones that are witnessing, and future generations. She is incredibly thankful for her wonderful mentors, teachers, students, friends, family, and most significantly, her parents and sister that give her endless energy and light.

2022 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer: Maria Bauman

Hassan Ingraham

2021 DANCER FELLOW

photo by Canaan Mattson

Hassan Ingraham, born and raised in Miami, FL, first discovered dance while attending Charles R. Drew Middle School. He continued his dance training at the New World School of the Arts and then received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at The Juilliard School in New York City. Hassan has worked with various prominent artists from the likes of Alexander Ekman, Christopher Huggins, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Dwight Rhoden, among many others. He has been a guest artist with Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Theater, Urban Spectrum Theater Company, and Peter London Global Dance Company. He was a dance specialist at the Promise Academy at the Harlem Children’s Zone and a faculty member at the Harlem School of the Arts. In 2011, Hassan moved to Minnesota to join TU Dance, where he danced with the company for 5 years. He also has been teaching ballet, modern, and jazz techniques for over 15 years.

With the combination of his experience and education, Hassan brings a fresh contemporary approach to his class that allows dancers to investigate new possibilities while learning how to operate their human anatomy efficiently. Aside from his dancing career and establishing himself as a master teacher, teaching the young aspiring to professionals, Hassan has choreographed for numerous dance schools and programs across the U.S. Currently, you can find Hassan teaching, dancing, and setting his choreography throughout the Twin Cities.

2022 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer: Norbert De La Cruz III

David Stalter Jr.

2021 Dancer FELLOW

Photo by Canaan Mattson

David Stalter Jr., born and raised in Minnesota. He started dancing the summer after freshman year of high school, dancing as an outlet to express himself. He’s self-taught, teaching himself all sorts of styles like Hip Hop Freestyle, Animation, Breaking, House, and many more. He’s danced with the 612 Timberwolves crew, where he’s danced with G-Eazy, Lil Jon, and Skee-Lo.

Winning over 15+ competitions in his dance career. He focuses on musicality, control, and becoming one with the music. He comes from a street background but has built studio experience throughout his dance career. He’s been teaching since 2015. Dance has taught him many different things and has made him the person he is today. His ultimate goal is to inspire as many people as possible with his art to spread love and light and help those in need. He believes it's important to be yourself no matter what because that's what makes you special, and that's what makes you, you. He's based in Minnesota, but his passion, art and dance have allowed him to travel to many different places so far like Chicago, Texas, L.A, Paris, and more. Currently, he works hard to become an even more versed artist and a better teacher. He has faith that one day he’ll travel the world teaching about self-love and dance, while continuing to be a student learning new things along the way.

2022 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer: Sheopatra

Melissa Clark

2020 DANCER FELLOW

photo by V. Paul Virtucio

Melissa Clark is originally from Gary, Indiana. She began studying dance at the age of two, and teaching at fourteen. She is the founder of COHORTS, a collective for artists that creates opportunities for artists to stage, perform, contribute, and expand artistically through cross-genre collaboration.

As a Diasporic artist, Clark travels both domestically and internationally to research the anthropologic roots of traditional dance and rhythms, and the influence of historical events on the evolution of dance and culture in the Diaspora. Her specific interests focus on identifying and promoting cross-cultural intersections in dance and arts aesthetics, musicality, historical content, and curative elements. Melissa’s background includes: Afro–Brazilian Contemporary, Afro–Cuban, Ballet, Capoeira, Chicago House and Footwork, Contemporary, Hip Hop, Modern, Samba, Tap, Traditional Haitian Dance, as well as Traditional West African Dance from Ghana, Guinea, and Mali.

More Information

2022 SOLO Commissioned Choreographers: Alhassan Bangoura, John “Boodilla” King & René Thompson

Non Edwards

2020 Dancer FELLOW

photo by V. Paul Virtucio

Non Edwards is a dancer, choreographer, and ​GYROKINESIS® Method​ Trainer. Originally from Iowa, she has been in the Twin Cities since 2009.

Non has performed in small, DIY, and non-art spaces as well as the Twin Cities’ Fitzgerald, McGuire, and Goodale Theaters; on the East Coast at Jacob’s Pillow and as far west as the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Her dancing interests include improvisation, the phenomenology of dancing, and site-specific choreography. She has created original roles in compositions by HIJACK, Mathew Janczewski, Valerie Oliveiro, Kerry Parker, Jinza Thayer, Morgan Thorson, and Laurie Van Wieren.

She has produced and made work parallel to her performing career, most recently ​The Thank You Videos (2016-2017), a 27-video series; ​Repressed Midwest​ (2017); ​Scarlet Gesture​ (2018); and ​Habitat​ (2019). Her choreography investigates the intersection of live and video dance and prioritizes the agency of the performer.

As a ​GYROKINESIS® Method ​Trainer, Non teaches online and out of her home studio in the Phillips West neighborhood of Minneapolis. She is passionate about creating an environment for students to feel better - - - physically, emotionally, and mentally.

In addition to teaching, dancing, and making dances, Non is a freelance writer, grant writer, and editor for DanceMN.

2022 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer: Anna Shogren

Marciano Silva dos Santos

2020 DANCER FELLOW

photo by V. Paul Virtucio

A native of Brazil, Marciano Silva dos Santos is recognized by the American Folkloric Society as a “Brazilian artist of unique and exceptional ability and merit.” he has performed with renowned companies such as TU Dance, Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater, Penumbra Theatre, and in his dance company Contempo Physical Dance. Marciano has been named “Best Dancer” by City Pages and “one of the most graceful movers on any Twin Cities stage” by the StarTribune and “one of the hottest choreographers in town” by Minnesota Monthly Magazine

Silva dos Santos has established a much-celebrated dance company Contempo Physical Dance with a mission to create work that is artistically exceptional, riveting to watch and that speaks to the cultural dynamics of his ancestry. Marciano is both Afro-Brazilian and indigenous. He is interested in contemporary movement and the ways it intersects with traditional movement forms. Marciano has garnered numerous recognitions as a choreographer and a performer. He has worked in residence at the University of Campinas (Brazil), Minnesota State University- Mankato, St. Olaf College, Macalester College, the University of Minnesota, and many others.

Contempophysicaldance.org

Touring Information

2022 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer: Gil Mendes Coelho

Erin Thompson

2019 Dancer FELLOW

Erin Thompson’s dance performance career began in 1970 with the Minnesota Dance Theatre and continued in New York City in the companies of Nina Wiener and Bebe Miller. She received a New York Dance and Performance award, “BESSIE”, in 1986 for her dancing in Nina Wiener's ​Enclosed Time​ at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. Erin moved back to Minneapolis in 1990, danced with Zenon Dance Company for two years, and founded ​45 Chartreuse Dance Company​ with her husband, Byron Richard, in 1992. They received Choreographer Fellowships from the McKnight Foundation (1993) and from the National Endowment for the Arts (1994, 1996). Since 1992, Erin has been on the faculty of the University of Minnesota's Department of Theater Arts and Dance as well as at Zenon Dance Company where she continues to provide advanced professional contemporary/modern dance training for the Twin Cities’ dance community. In the past five years, she has appeared in the work of choreographers Joanie Smith, Judith Howard, Penny Freeh, Sharon Picasso and Deborah Jinza Thayer. Erin received a Minnesota SAGE Award for Outstanding Dance Educator in 2008 and the City Pages Best Dancer Award in 2016. She is an ATI certified Alexander Technique teacher. 

2021 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer Bebe Miller

Joseph "MN Joe" Tran

2019 Dancer FELLOW

Joseph “MN Joe” Tran has been a professional breaker since 2005. He is a member of the world-renowned crew Knuckleheads Cali and a founding member of BRKFST Dance Company, an exploratory dance company rooted in breaking. He has worked as a dancer and choreographer for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves “First Avenue Breakers” from 2007-2019, choreographed original works, and has set repertoire with BRKFST at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He currently works as a breaking instructor for Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists and Concordia University. He has accumulated multiple first-place victories in breaking competitions across the US, Europe, and South America.

brkfstdance.com

Touring Information

2021 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer Rudi Goblen

Elayna Waxse

2019 Dancer FELLOW

Photo credit: Michael Slobodian

Elayna Waxse is a Twin Cities-based performer, dance educator, and choreographer who hails from Overland Park, Kansas. She received her early dance training with Alecia Good-Boresow and at the Kansas City Ballet School, spending summers at the School of American Ballet in New York City. At the age of sixteen she was invited to Seattle to study in the Professional Division program at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, where she frequently performed with the company.

Waxse has worked professionally with Minnesota Dance Theatre, Colorado Ballet, Black Label Movement, BodyCartography Project, and TU Dance. Over the course of her career she has performed works by Uri Sands, Loyce Houlton, Alvin Ailey, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Dwight Rhoden, George Balanchine, Carl Flink, Francesca Harper, and Katrin Hall among many others. In the summer of 2014 she was selected to perform with Cie. Ismael Ivo e Grupo Biblioteca do Corpo at ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival as well as in ​São Paulo​, Brazil.

In addition to performing, Waxse’s choreographic work has been commissioned and/or presented by Minnesota Dance Theatre, Ballet Minnesota’s MN Dance Festival, The School at TU Dance Center, Zenon Dance Zone, JSB TekBox Theatre, Bryant Lake Bowl, Detroit Dance Race, and Public Functionary. 

https://www.elaynawaxse.com

2021 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer: Bobbi Jene Smith

Renée Copeland

2018 Dancer FELLOW

Photo by Tim Rummelhoff

Renée Copeland is a Twin Cities-based artist originally from the wooded valleys south of Winona, Minnesota. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BFA in Dance and minor in American Indian Studies. Upon graduating in 2010, she joined Ananya Dance Theatre and continues to perform and teach with the company, touring all over the world.

She co-founded the dance/performance-art duo Hiponymous in 2012 with Genevieve Muench and became a founding member and collaborator of hip-hop-based dance company BRKFST in 2014. She is also a poet, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter. She is indebted to her parents for their abundant support and participation in all things creative, nourishing, and sacred. 

2021 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer Erika Bettin

 Hiponymous Touring Information

Yeniel ‘Chini’ Perez Domenech

2018 Dancer Fellow

Photo by Tim Rummelhoff

Born in Matanzas, Cuba, Yeniel ‘Chini’ Perez Domenech has been a professional dancer for over 25 years. He graduated from the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana, Cuba in 1991. Chini then became a member of Afrocuba de Matanzas, under the direction of Francisco Zamora Chirino ‘Minini’. He danced in both national and international tours, taught and was invited to choreograph for the company.

In 2006, he moved to Mexico and danced with a variety of groups and performed as a guest dance artist with famous Latin bands including Latin Grammy award winning Los Van Van and Pupy y Los Que Son Son.

In 2011, Chini moved to Minnesota. He immediately began dancing with Rene Thompson’s Street to Stage group. He went on to work with Patrick Scully, Curio Dance and has connected with Brazilian, West African and Hip Hop artists in the Twin Cities. Chini now performs and choreographs for Rueda de la Calle and his own performance identity Chini Company. He is a passionate dance educator teaching Cuban and other Latin dances in a variety of venues from school workshops to nightclubs to Chini Studio. Throughout his career he has performed in theaters, festivals and nightclubs reaching a broad range of audiences and communities. 

2021 SOLO Commissioned Choreographer Ephrat Asherie