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. One of the founding members of Kularts, Panis has served as the Director since 1985. She has created 20 full-length dance theater works since 1985. She received awards for her choreography from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, SF Arts Commision, California Arts Council, New Langton Arts, and Creative Work Fund. She was a board member of Brava! For Women in the Arts, Bay Area Dance Coalition, artist’s committee member of National Performance Network, and juror for Ethnic Dance Festival. She received the Dancers Group’s Dancers Choice Award in 2009. She was a 2010 fellow at the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute & at Rockwood Leadership Institute in 2012. 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.
JOSHUA ICBAN
ORIGINAL MUSIC, LYRICS, & SOUND DESIGN
Musician Joshua Icban is a proud son of Vallejo, CA, and has had the privilege to work with a wide array of prestigious talents and organizations such as Grammy winner Fantastic Negrito, KULARTS under the direction of SFAC Legacy Artist Alleluia Panis, Oakland Hip Hop Collective Grand Nationxl and The San Francisco Symphony orchestra with Michael Tilson Thomas. As a sound designer, arranger, and composer his work has been shared with Bindlestiff Studios, the Asian Art Museum, Chikahan Theater Co., and the Awesome Orchestra. Josh holds an MA in ethnomusicology from CSU East Bay, writing his thesis, Kapwa in the Land of Milk and Honey: Bay Area Filipino American Identity Community and Music, on the generational contributions of Filipinx-American musicians and immigrants to California culture and society through the years. Josh recently opened and operates Firebird School of Music and Arts in Vallejo, which he, along with his co-owners, hopes to establish as a premier POC-owned music school in Solano County. The school is also an inaugural Zoo Labs 2021 grantee.
WILFRED GALILA
CINEMATOGRAPHER & EDITOR
Wilfred Galila is a San Francisco Bay Area based multimedia artist. 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 nominee for the 2018 Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Design for the KULARTS production, Incarcerated 6×9. He collaborated with dance artist and choreographer Alleluia Panis on the multimedia dance theater productions She, Who Can See (2015) and Incarcerated 6x9 (2018), as well as the dance film She, Who Can See (2017), official selection at CAAMFest 2018. Their most recent collaboration is the dance film album Man@ng is Deity.
LADISLAO ‘JUNE’ ARELLANO
COSTUME DESIGNER
DANCE ARTIST • VALENTINO ‘BALENG’ PABLO
Ladislao ‘June’ Arellano was born in Bataan, Philippines. Inspired by street dancing, television, and performances by the Bayanihan Dance Company. 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 performs in all of Parangal’s major performances, including at the 6th Annual Las Vegas World Folk Dance Competition (2009), and at the SF Ethnic Dance Festival. He was a dancer for ODC Sandbox Dance Series and performed in Sydney Loyola’s Tagabanua (2012), Palau’an Bird Call-Huni Ng Tandikan (2012), Maseg: Typhoon (2014) & film Sayaw directed by Cecilio Asuncion.
GG TORRES
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Grisel Torres / gg (they/she) is a lighting and sound designer, dj, energy and body work practitioner based in Ohlone Chochenyo Territory. They studied Light Design, Stage Management, and Props Design at SFSU’s School of Theatre and Dance and has been a staff lighting designer, carpenter, production manager and venue manager for various theatre companies in the SF Bay Area since 2013. gg is currently a freelance lighting and props designer for live and filmed movement-based works. She has established her own style of empathetic-intuitive-adaptive improvisational lighting scores. They see the stage as an altar and light design as a guiding ritual towards catharsis. As an artist and healer, the intention is to open and safely close portals for whole healing and a chance to dance with ancestral relatives. This practice of art ritual healing is also found in gg’s sound and energy work explorations. Enjoy the show!
JOSE E ABAD
DANCE ARTIST • RENANTE RUBEN ROBINSON / DIWATA
jose e abad is a queer social practice performance artist based in San Francisco, CA who is exploring queer futurity through an intersectional lens. Born in Olongapo City, Philippines to a Filipinx Mother and a West Indian Father, jose uses dance and storytelling to explore the complexities of cultural identity, feelings of landlessness, and the memories and wisdom held within the body that the mind has forgotten, or history has erased. abad has had the opportunity to perform in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco in collaboration with a variety of companies and artists including Keith Hennessy, Scott Wells, Anne Bluethenthal, Brontez Purnell Dance Company, #DignityInProcess, and Detour Dance.
FRANCES SEDAYAO
DANCE ARTIST • NURSE
Frances Teves Sedayao, is a multi-disciplinary dance artist who has performed in the US and abroad over the past 20 years. She is an alumna of Alvin Ailey Dance School and CSU East Bay where she now teaches. Frances is a Featured Artist alum of SF Apature and Dance Resident alum of Art OMI International in NY. She’s currently a working artist and collaborator with Alleluia Panis’ Kularts, Yiddish Theater Ensemble (actor), Olivia Eng’s SCARS, and Sarah Bush Dance Project (SBDP). Her work, ‘I Am But a Mighty Bird’ was presented in the 2018 SF National Queer Arts Festival & Shawl- Anderson’s first Queerfest in 2019. Frances’ current artistic pursuits are focused on dance theater, ritual, story telling & poetry- most of which ignited by her collaborative work w/ SBDP residency w/ the Richardson Bay Audubon and collaboration with designer, Colleen Quen
JOHNNY HUY NGUYEN
DANCE ARTIST • BENITO ARANAN / DIWATA
Johnny Huy Nguyen is a second generation Vietnamese American multidisciplinary dance artist based in Yelamu (aka San Francisco). His practice is centered on the body, recognizing its power as a place of knowing, site of resistance, gateway to healing, and crucible of imagination. He is a 2020 recipient of the SFAC IAC, a 2021 APAture featured artist, and 2021/22 RAWDance Radiate fellow. Through his work, he aims to cultivate spaces of expansion for reclamation, transformation, and action, all in the service of ancestors, community, and collective liberation. He is honored to be paying homage to the Manong generation and sharing their stories through movement.
JONATHAN M. MERCADO
DANCE ARTIST • ELIAS LUNTIAN/DIWATA
Jonathan Michael Mercado is an inter-disciplinarian Filipino-American artist born within the bay area. As a part of the Filipino diaspora within the U.S. he has often looked to discover more about his Filipino heritage and culture through movement. His movement is inspired through his experiences of hip-hop/urban choreography and Filipino folk dancing. He currently dances with Kularts under director Alleuia Panis and Parangal Dance Company under director Eric Solano. His passion will continue to guide his efforts of discovering his own dance vocabulary that reflects his personal experiences.
KAO SEBASTIAN SAEPHANH
DANCE ARTIST • ANTONIO TIONGCO / DIWATA
Kao Vey Sebastian Saephanh, winner of a 2014 sjDANCEco ChoreoProject Award for Best Choreography, is based in San Francisco, CA. He is currently the co-artistic director of LV Dance Collective, and dancer for PUSH Dance Company and Kularts. He received his MFA at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts and BA from San Francisco State University. His choreographic works have won many invitational opportunities and/or have been commissioned by: the PUSHLab for PUSH Dance Company, Boston Conservatory Dance Festival, ODC Take 5, ODC Pilot 63, San Francisco State University, the College of Alameda, and American College Dance Festival, amongst many others. Saephanh has been described by SF Chronicle as a dancer who “moved with sinuous grace through the staging.”
HIEN HUYNH
DANCE ARTIST • DIWATA / FARMWORKER
Hien Huynh was born in Da Nang, Vietnam. Through the sacrifices, hardship, and journey of his parents, Hien dedicates his artistic and living practices to honor their story amongst the oceanic constellation of narratives. As a teaching artist and performer, he is committed to support the generation of now and beyond to contribute to human compassion and interconnectedness through the resiliency of improvisation. He is honored to have performed in the works of Lenora Lee Dance, Kim Epifano, Robert Moses’ Kin, Kinetech Arts, Christy Funch & Nol Simonse, PUSH, DSDT, and punkkiCO. Reflecting with immense gratitude for the sharing and generosity of the bay area, he wishes you all a year full of healing, joy, and rekindling of flame.
STEPHANIE HERRERA
DANCE ARTIST • BALENG’S MOTHER / DIWATA
Bay Area native Stephanie Herrera started dancing when she was 14. Taught by her mother, former Bayanihan dancer/director, Polly Manalo Herrera, dancing runs in the family. She has performed in various events and festivals with Kariktan Dance Company of which she is currently Dance Director. Stephanie has performed with Kularts under the direction of Alleluia Panis and Sydney Loyola in Maség (2014), BaeMakiling (2016), Lakbai Diwa (2020), and various projects since 2014. She is also part of the choreographic team for San Francisco State University’s annual Pilipino Cultural Night production. From Kariktan being a family business, to her best friends being fellow artists, dance is truly in her heart.
SYDNEY LOYOLA
DANCE ARTIST • DIWATA
For more than three decades, Sydney Loyola has created dance works performed by cultural groups in the US, Philippines, Asia, and Europe. She toured internationally as a principal dancer of the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk-Dance Company. She is the founding artistic director for the American Center of Philippine Arts and co-founder of Haraya Dance Project—an ensemble that encourages initiative and participation among Filipino-AMerican trans artists in San Francisco. She has received commission grant awards from National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Work Fund, East Bay Community Foundation, and Zellerbach Family Foundation. She has been a commissioned artist for several KULARTS productions including “Huni ng Tandikan-Palau’an Bird Call'' and “Ba-e Makiling”.
OLIVIA MALABUYO TABLANTE
MODERATOR • ART MAKING PANEL
Olivia Malabuyo Tablante is currently the Gerbode Foundation’s Administrative Manager and Program Director of the Special Awards in the Arts Program. The Special Awards Program has funded arts Bay Area presenting organizations to commission the works of individual artists since 1989. The Special Awards in the Arts Program currently supports the creation of new works in dance, theater production, and music composition. These nationally respected awards have helped underwrite culturally and aesthetically diverse, acclaimed new works by prominent artists and emerging ones. Prior to joining the Gerbode Foundation in 2006, Olivia served as Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center’s Administrative Manager as well as Post Production Manager and Production Manager for Los Cenzontles's PBS-series Cultures of Mexico in California from 2004-06. Olivia also served as San Francisco’s Filipinx American Bindlestiff Studio’s Managing Director and Project Manager for the construction of the new blackbox theater from 2002-2004.
GIOVANNI ORTEGA
MODERATOR • SOUND FOR STAGE & FILM PANEL
Giovanni Ortega is a is a multidisciplinary artist, author, director, international collaborator, and professor in Theater and Asian American Studies at Pomona College core member of Theater Without Borders, they have the distinct opportunity to work with communities and artists across the globe, to engage, investigate and create stories that usually go untold. He As a core member of Theatre Without Borders, they have the distinct opportunity to work with communities and artists from across the globe to engage, investigate and create stories that usually go untold but are relevant and important to share with everyone. As a multidisciplinary artist, a public speaker in over one-hundred-forty college campuses and an international collaborator, these experiences have given Giovanni the opportunity to see the variety and diversity of what our society has to offer. This is what he continuously instills with the people that he interacts with in communities, organizations and academia.
BRYAN PANGILINAN
PANELIST • SOUND FOR STAGE & FILM PANEL
Bryan Pangilinan has been rooted in the Filipino American and arts communities for nearly four decades. He holds degrees in ethnic studies from the University of California, San Diego, and music from San Francisco State University. Trained in Filipino rondalla music by composer and ethnomusicologist Bayani Mendoza de Leon, Bryan served as Music Director with the PASACAT Philippine Performing Arts Company and LIKHA Pilipino Folk Ensemble performing in local, regional, national, and international tours. His compositions and arrangements for rondalla have been performed by Filipino American folk dance companies across California. In the past decade, Bryan has been featured in nearly twenty musical theater productions in the San Francisco Bay Area, most recently as Tatsuo Kimura in the Bay Area premiere of the musical “Allegiance.” Bryan is honored to join Brava Theater as an Artist in Residence to co-compose the first musical about Filipino American labor leader Larry Itliong with Gayle Romasanta. He is a San Francisco Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Commission grantee to compose Larry: A New Musical which will have its world premiere in October 2023.
LUCY SAN PABLO BURNS, PHD
MODERATOR • ARTS & COMMUNITY ORGANIZING PANEL
Lucy San Pablo Burns, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Asian American Studies Department at UCLA, a land grant/land grab institution in the homeland of Gabrielino/Tongva peoples. Burns’s writings include Puro Arte: Filipinos on the Stages of Global Empire and the co-edited anthology California Dreaming: Place and Movement in Asian American Imaginary (with Professor Christine Bacareza-Balance). As a dramaturg, Burns has collaborated with BIPOC inter/multidisciplinary theater- and dance-makers David Rousseve/REALITY; Leilani Chan/TeAda Productions; Priya Srinivasan; Jay Carlon; and R. Zamora Linmark. Burns a long time supporter of KULARTS, Inc!
TERRY VALEN
PANLIST • ARTS & COMMUNITY ORGANIZING PANEL
Terry Valen is the Organizational Director and one of the founders of the Filipino Community Center (FCC) in San Francisco, California. He currently serves as the President of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) and is also an organizer with the International Migrants Alliance-USA (IMA-USA). He is a graduate of the UCLA School of Public Health with a Masters in Environmental Health Sciences and holds a Bachelor's Degree from Duke University in Environmental Science and Policy.
JOEL B. TAN
PANLIST • ARTS & COMMUNITY ORGANIZING PANEL
Joël Barraquiel Tan (siya/he/him/they/them) was born in Manila in 1968. He is the award-winning author of “Type O Negative” (Red Hen) and various works on identity, AIDS, & queer politics appear in academic and commercial venues. Joël is a cofounder of LA's Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team Health Center and has served as the Director of Community Engagement at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF’s premier contemporary arts venue from 2004-2015. He currently lives in Hawai'i Island where he provides executive coaching for BIPOC changemakers and serves as Touching the Earth's Director of Social Impact.