Burden of Proof is an immersive multimedia dance performance set in the near future, that draws inspiration from a true story to explore the lasting trauma of injustice endured by the fictional Calinao immigrant family. Original sound score by Joshua Icban features text drawn from the diary of Leonora Magabo Perez* and the writings of her son, Jason Magabo Perez, 2024 San Diego Poet Laureate.
*Pilipina Nurses, Leonora Perez and Filipina Narciso, were convicted in the 1975 unexplained deaths at the VA Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They were incarcerated, until a judge ordered their release due to prosecutors’ “overwhelming prejudice” against the nurses.
This production is created with funding from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Map Fund, Zellerbach Family Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, California Arts Council, and SF Grants for the Arts.
“The media set the scene so well, the sounds added exposition, and the dancers did their jobs beautifully, evoking emotions and demonstrating their joys, their fears, and their angers.”
ARTISTS
CREATIVE + PRODUCTION TEAM
ALLELUIA PANIS
DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER
Alleluia Panis, Artistic & Executive Director, is the driving force behind KULARTS and respected elder artist in the US and the Philippines. She has created 20 full-length dance theater works since 1985. She was awarded the prestigious 2017 SFAC Artist Legacy, 2019-20 Gerbode Special Artist Award, 2019-2020 Dance USA Artist Fellow, and 2020 Hewlett 50 Arts Commission.
JASON MAGOBO PEREZ, PHD
POET LAUREATE
Jason Magabo Perez is a writer, performer, and teacher. Perez is the author of the hybrid collection of poetry and prose This is for the mostless (WordTech Editions, 2017). Perez serves as Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at CSU Marcos and is the current AIR at the Center for Art + Thought and Arts Fellow at Bulosan Center.
JOSHUA ICBAN
COMPOSER
Joshua Icban is a musician, sound designer, and composer based in Vallejo, CA, and worked with prestigious talents and organizations such as Grammy winner Fantastic Negrito, KULARTS under the direction of Alleluia Panis, Oakland Hip Hop Collective Grand Nationxl and The SF Symphony orchestra with Michael Tilson Thomas.
LADISLAO ‘JUNE’ ARELLANO
COSTUME DESIGNER
Ladislao ‘June’ Arellano was born in Bataan, Philippines. He trained at the Philippine Women’s University and New York’s Broadway Dance School. He is a lead dancer in Parangal Dance Company since 2008 and performed in works by Alleluia Panis and Sydney Loyola.
WiLFRED GALILA
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR & MEDIA ARTIST
Wilfred Galila is a multimedia artist and writer who lives and runs trails in the San Francisco Bay Area. His films were screened at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and his art installations were exhibited at several venues in San Francisco. He is a 2018 nominee for the Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Design for the KULARTS production, Incarcerated 6×9.
HANA SUN LEE
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Hana Sun Lee is an arts organizer and administrator based in San Francisco/Bay Area. She is currently serving as the Managing Director at KULARTS. She has over 8 years of experience in multidisciplinary arts programming, administration, and project management. Prior to KULARTS, she was at the de Young Museum/Legion of Honor and Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco.
RAF SALAZAR
ILLUSTRATOR
Rafael ‘Raf"‘ Salazar (@rafsalazart) is a Bay Area artist, who by day focuses his talents in illustration and design, and by night perched on rooftops as this city’s ally of justice. Taking his passion for comics he decided to get off the sidelines and started making his own. Alongside his brother they started their webcomic ReGrBl back in 2009. He has since joined up with like-minded individuals to form In Hiatus Studios to continue to create comics.
DANCE ARTISTS
DRE ‘POKO’ DEVIS
Dre ‘Poko’ Devis is a multidisciplinary movement artist of boholano and ilokano lineage, hailing from daly city. their movement draws from gymnastics, muay thai, house dance, hip hop, vogue, and pilipinx folkloric forms, channeling ancestral memory and embodied storytelling through rhythm, ritual and dance.
JOHAN CASAL
Johan Casal is a multidisciplinary artist based in the Bay Area producing work in film, music, theater, and dance. He performed as a lead dancer in Netflix’s production of “The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Live Experience,” and directed and produced an original feature film, “Manalo: The Movie Musical,” highlighting the shared struggles of Filipinx-Americans and the diverse cultures of the Philippines.
JESS DEFRANCO
Jess DeFranco grew up in the Bay Area and is a San Francisco based dancer. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Asian American Studies from San Francisco State University, she began working as a freelance performing artist and dance educator. Her first collaboration with KULARTS was in 2022 and 2023 with “Nursing these Wounds”, followed by the “AntingAnting Project” and presenting her choreography in “Queering Pilipinx Aesthetics” in 2024.
FRANCIS ANTHONY CAILLES
Francis Anthony Cailles is a San Francisco Bay Area native that has grown into dance artistry as a movement across life. He first approached his movement practice as a scientist/athlete before embarking on this more holistic journey in understanding the body as artistic medium and created a deeper spiritual practice meditating on the social implications of dance. This practice became a healing modality in Francis’s life leading with the mantra, “life is a dance.”
GENEVIE DELA CRUZ
Genevie Dela Cruz (she/her) is a San Diego-born, San Francisco-based dance artist, choreographer, and arts administrator who has performed with MPWRD Collective, KULARTS, and various Bay Area choreographers. She holds degrees in Dance Performance and Kinesiology (Exercise and Movement Science) from San Francisco State University, which influence her approach to movement and the body-mind connection.
JONATHAN M. MERCADO
Jonathan Michael Mercado is an interdisciplinary Filipino-American artist in the Bay Area. His movement is inspired through his experiences of hip-hop/urban choreography and Filipino folk dancing. He currently dances with KULARTS under director Alleluia Panis and Parangal Dance Company under director Eric Solano.
JENELLE GAERLAN
Jenelle Gaerlan (she/they) is a multi-disciplined creative and freelance dancer from Portland, Oregon. Having trained in contemporary, jazz, modern, ballet, hip hop, house, waacking and movement improvisation/freestyle, Jenelle has done work for Nike Inc., DarVejon Jones Dance Ensemble, BodyVox Dance Company, Soulskin Dance, Fray Show by CandyBomber Productions (premiered at Stanford Live), and Robert Moses’ KIN.
FRANCIS “SENSES” AQUINO
Francis Eric Cabrera Aquino (he/they) is a Filipino multidisciplinary artist in the bay area who specializes in storytelling through dance, heavily influenced by the art of Krump, Contemporary, popping, and Animation. He strives to be a voice for his ancestors who didn’t really have a chance to speak up and express their human experience in a healthy way. Through their Gender Fluidity, Francis sees dance as a way to grasp the meaning of human experience.
ROSIKA DATER-MERTON
Rosika Dater-Merton is a dancer, teaching artist, and arts administrator. She grew up on the east coast studying classical ballet and then attended the LINES/Dominican University BFA program. She's grateful to be a part of the Bay Area dance community and has had the opportunity to work with companies such as Kambara+, eMotion Arts, Joe Landini Dance, Piñata Dance Collective, A Pulso Dance Project and others. She currently teaches for the LINES Community Program, Berkeley Ballet School, and the ODC School. Rosika is excited to dance with KULARTS and be a part of this project!
PERFORMANCES + EVENTS
2025
June 20-21, 2025 • Burden of Proof Work-in-Progress • Bindlestiff Studio, San Francisco
2026
Spring 2026 • Burden of Proof World Premiere
MEDIA + PRESS
PHOTOS
