Sequoia Hauck (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, trans, Anishinaabe and Hupa multidisciplinary artist creating film, poetry, and performance art that decolonizes the process of art-making. Their work weaves together Indigenous epistemologies, queer and trans identity and the exploration and possibilities of Indigenous futurism. They make art surrounding the narratives of continuation and resiliency among their communities. Their films have been in the Minnesota International Film Festival and the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Film Festival. They are a Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) New Angles 2020-2021 Fellow, as well as a recipient of the SPNN Fresh Vantage Post Production grant supporting their upcoming documentary series They Didn't Deserve to Die. www.sequoiahauck.com

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

I am finishing my upcoming film They Didn’t Deserve to Die, a six episode documentary about six Native families across Turtle Island sharing their heart-wrenching stories of loved ones lost to police brutality. Through memories, stories, and home videos these families honor the lives their sons and brothers lived, not just the day they died. I plan to tour the film to the communities who contributed and shared their stories. This will be the first audiences of the film as a way to honor and celebrate the lives of those we have lost. I believe filmmaking is a powerful form of storytelling. I will take this time during my fellowship to intentionally further my artistic practices. To weave and connect more with ancestors and relatives. Learning from my queer, trans, indigiqueer, two-spirit kin to honor what they have to share and soak up the knowledge they are willing to gift.

Photo by Sam Malm.

Anh Vo is a Vietnamese dancer, writer, and activist. They create dances and produce texts about pornography and queer relations, about being and form, about identity and abstraction, about history and its colonial reality. They earned their degrees in Performance Studies from Brown University (BA) and New York University (MA). Currently based in Brooklyn, Anh is also developing a sustainable relationship to Hanoi, Vietnam.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

I create dances and produce texts about pornography and queer relations, about being and form, about identity and abstraction, about history and its colonial reality. I make art about the life of a Vietnamese desiring America, of a colonized being desiring its colonizer.

With this fellowship, I will deepen my “Weak Body” practice. This practice is loosely inspired by the Vietnamese phrase “yếu bóng vía” (clunkily translated as “weak aura”), which refers to people who are sensitive to spectral presence and susceptible to haunting. In thinking about this vulnerable altered state, “Weak Body” experiments with a repertoire of small, repetitive, rhythmic, vibrational, and durational movements that can softly loosen the connection to reality and heighten sensitivity to other entangled worlds in order to dance with ghostly beings emerging in the wake of wars. “Weak Body” is not just a mode of aesthetic exploration, but also a daily practice of survival that finds value in weakness, vulnerability, and interdependence.

Photo by Maria Baranova.

Joseph “MN JOE” Tran is a founding member of BRKFST Dance Company and also a member of the world-renowned breaking crew Knuckleheads Cali, respected for their uniquely intricate and non-traditional methods of movement. Tran is the recipient of the 2019 McKnight Dancer Fellowship and is known for his signature moves which have earned him multiple first-place victories in breaking competitions across the US, Europe, and South America. Tran has choreographed multiple original works which have premiered at various venues such as The Cowles Center, Southern Theater, and Orchestra Hall with the Minnesota Orchestra. He has toured internationally to Ireland for Dance 2 Connect Festival and nationally to Hartford, CT with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Tran has set repertoire with BRKFST at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Carleton College, and Bates Dance Festival. From 2007-2019, he was a dancer and choreographer for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves “First Avenue Breakers.” Tran currently works as a breaking instructor for Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists and Young Dance.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

The 2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship supports my mission as a dancer who pushes boundaries, provides alternative perspectives to conventional ideas, and inspires others to innovate. I will create and present original performances with BRKFST Dance Company and to continue my journey as a breaker at the highest levels of competition. I look forward to the various connections and opportunities it will provide!

Photo by Isabel Fajardo.

Kendra J. Ross is a Detroit native working as a dancer, choreographer, teaching artist, facilitator and community organizer in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. As a dancer, Kendra has worked with Urban Bush Women, Ase Dance Theater Collective, MBDance, Moving Spirits Dance Company, Movement of the People Dance Company and as a guest artist with Oyu Oro. Kendra’s choreographic work has been presented at Florida A&M University, the off Broadway show 7 Sins, Museu de Arte in Salvador, Brazil, Dixon Place, Ailey Citigroup Theater, and Actors Fund Theater. She has been an Artist in Residence at Brooklyn Studios for Dance, The Neighborhood Project Through 651Arts, and The Laundromat Project. Kendra serves as the Founder/Director of STooPS, an outdoors-based community building event that uses art strengthen ties between different entities in Bed-Stuy. She is also a teaching artist at Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

As an avid student of folkloric traditions of the African Diaspora, my work is grounded in the Ghanian concept of Sankofa—looking back in order to move forward. I am working to develop a Sankofic praxis to collect embodied research that employs Black History as a springboard for imagining all aspects of community—art, culture, movements, people, lifestyles etc. This process will help me to not only navigate my contemporary life as a Black woman but also invite others to learn from the enriching lessons of these forms. Through intentional partnerships with collaborators, community members, especially elders, local organizations and businesses, I will work to collect, share, and interpret their stories. I will continue creating a collaborative archiving of history and culture with the development of my project, the Sankofa Residency. Through my artistic expression, I want to help shape the future of my community by interpreting and reimagining the narratives. My work is to dance Afrofuturism in action.

Photo by Bostock Images.

MX Oops is a multimedia performance artist and educator whose work centers hybridity, encouraging ecstatic disobedience as a path toward embodied wellness. Their creative practice links urban arts [breaking, house, vogue femme, rap, dj, vj, fashion], somatic studies [yoga, thai yoga massage, energy healing, sound baths], media and gender studies. Through this transdisciplinary approach, their work questions whether consciousness itself is the primary medium.

A certified yoga instructor (500hr RYT) and practitioner of Thai Yoga Massage, trained in various forms of energy healing, they completed a BA in dance and religion at the George Washington University and completed an Integrated Media Arts MFA at Hunter College. They are currently an Assistant Professor of Dance, Multimedia Performance, and Somatic Studies in the Department of Music, Multimedia, Theatre, and Dance at Lehman College CUNY. www.mxoops.com

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

During this fellowship I will develop UnFiNiShEd aNiMaL, a party and multimedia performance that uses the vibrant aesthetics of queer nightlife culture to reveal how cognitive bias connects us all. This piece tells the story of humanity coming to grips with our collective inheritance, a ramshackle meshwork of cognitive processes evolved to survive, not for self-awareness. An interdisciplinary approach invites the audience to meditate on what might be unfinished about human cognition and how these biases keep us from building a better world together.

With support from the National Performance Network Creation Fun, this work will be developed in the Live Feed Residency at New York Live Arts toward a Spring 2024 premiere. Additionally, this fellowship period will incubate [NONFATAL_ERROR], a multimedia ensemble of artists engaged in collaborative world-building. Ensemble members work in dance, new media, interactive video projection design, sound design, voice, and costume, fashion, sculpture and more. These mediums come together to welcome party people into a lush world of queer becoming.

Valerie Oliveiro is a dance and performance maker based in the Twin Cities and from Singapore. While they currently engage movement as their primary motor for expression, they also engage in other expressions, such as design, writing, drawing and photography, as generative, complexly relational proposals. Their choreographic work has been presented at Walker Art Center, Red Eye Theater, Hair+Nails Gallery and Bryant Lake Bowl and Cowles Center and has been supported by Minnesota State Arts Board, MRAC, Jerome Foundation and MAP Fund. Currently, they are a Co-Artistic Director at Red Eye Theater, ensemble member at Lighting Rod (QTBIPOC-led performance organism) and co-run a small performance incubator MOVO SPACE.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

Valerie is creating new work in 2023/2024 and will foreground their own artistic research in North America and Asia.

Photo credit: Valerie Oliveiro.

Margaret Ogas is a choreographer, performer, and teaching artist based in the Twin Cities. Using an interdisciplinary approach rooted in dance and informed by Chicana cultural sensibilities, her works tell surreal everyday stories through a collage of movement, text and sound. Ogas has been presented by the Walker Art Center, Candy Box Dance Festival, Red Eye Theater, Center for Performing Arts, FD13, Mizna, Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio and others. She was awarded a 2022 Next Step Fund grant by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and was a 2021 Naked Stages Fellow at Pillsbury House + Theatre.

Margaret is a core collaborator and performer with the Taja Will Ensemble. She has also performed for Laurie Van Weiren, Chris Schlicting, Sequoia Hauck and others. Margaret is a teaching artist, specializing in modern technique, improvisation, and composition. She is currently a youth instructor at Young Dance. She holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

I am a dancer and improviser who is interested in the way choreography can be used to tell stories and traverse the messy, layered nature of identity.

My dances weave personal narrative and thoughtful aesthetic choices to connect with audiences through humor and heartfelt storytelling, intentionally blending the everyday with the surreal. I am inspired by the political spirit of the Chicano art movement and the vibrancy of communities I find myself within and around.

During this fellowship, I will root into my choreographic practice, taking time to develop my voice and experiment in interdisciplinary modes. I will build on my connections with BIPOC and queer artists to develop and present a new ensemble work.

Photo by Caroline Yang.

Christopher “Unpezverde” Núñez is a Costa Rican/American artist working in the fields of choreography, film, installation, and sound. Núñez is a Mellon Foundation Grant Recipient 23′, a Princeton University Arts Fellow 22’, a Jerome Hill Fellow 22’, a Dance/USA Fellow 22’, and a Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art Fellow 18’. His work been presented by Abrons Arts Center, The Joyce Theater, Princeton University, The Kitchen, Danspace Project, Movement Research at The Judson Church, The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, CUE Art Foundation, Performance Mix Festival, and Battery Dance Festival, among others. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Art In America, The Brooklyn Rail and The Dance Enthusiast. He’s been an Artist In Residence at Loghaven Artist Residency, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), The Kitchen, Danspace Project, Abrons Arts Center, Movement Research, and Center for Performance Research. In 2023, Núñez was selected by the Art In America as one of 20 New Talent artists on a global scale. The same year, he was nominated for a “Bessie,” The New York Dance and Performance Awards in the Best Performer category.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

My practice comprises three elements: physicality (named vortex), sound and audio description.

Vortex centers movement in circular motion supported by diaphragmatic breathing. It is born out of the principle that the human body is 70% water and has a 95% level of oxygen. By moving the body in circles, water and air rotate, causing internal whirlwinds and tornadoes that renew energy. Vortex teaches principles of proprioception to Visually Impaired dancers using the sagittal, transverse and frontal planes safely.

Music and sound are created with a frequency of 432 Hz, known as the frequency of the universe. It allows the body to re energize through the power of the creative source.

My Audio Description is manifested through storytelling, song and poetry as a form of resistance, preservation, cultural continuity, and perseverance of my indigenous identity.

Photo by Sam Polcer for Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

Hamilton’s work expands on themes at the intersection of race and Disability. She uses elements of her training in traditional West-African and Postmodern Dance, as well different access practices, mainly Audio Description, as an integral part of the creative process and final product of everything she makes.

Hamilton’s work as a performance maker has been presented at the Whitney Museum, Gibney, Performance Space New York, New York Live Arts, Abrons Arts Center, and the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD). As a performer, Hamilton has worked with Skeleton Architecture, Maria Bauman/MBDance, Sydnie L. Mosley Dances and Gesel Mason Performance Projects.

Hamilton has taught dance at several colleges and has been a special education teacher in the New York public school system for the past 12 years. As a Disability Arts consultant, she has worked with the Mellon Foundation, ArtSpeak, Dance USA, The Shed and Movement Research.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

I am currently working on two different projects:

An Immersive, multidisciplinary installation and performance titled How to Bend Down/How to Pick it Up, which explores the growth, use and medicalization of cotton as a historical thread between Blackness and Disability. This piece utilizes a multimedia design, multiple Audio Descriptors and a performance structure that can reconfigure every night based on the performer's changing needs.

A trio between myself, a D/deaf movement artist and an ASL interpreter. In this trio, we will utilize a narrow platform as a stage, and embody the conflicts that can arise when certain existing access practices contradict, or exist at the expense of one another. Through the rigor of dancing with and thinking through the differences of our specific Disabilities and where they meet, we will also move towards the tangible and/or utopian longing to find a space that can attend to the needs of every-body.

Photo by Travis Magee.

Efraín Rozas is a Peruvian interdisciplinary artist, researcher and robotics maker. His work was described as “An incredible physical presence that transformed the stage into a soundscape” by the New York Times, “A heady confluence of technology, culture and cognition” by The New Yorker, and “A deep psychonautic dive” by Wire Magazine. He was a resident at The Kitchen in 2021. He is a recipient of the NY State Council on the Arts/ Wavefarm Media Arts Assistance Fund, Jerome Foundation/Harvestworks New Works Commission, and Knockdown Center (NYC) residency for time-based art.

He has performed at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, Levitation Festival, Museum of Contemporary art of Lima and Central Park Summerstage Fania Records 50th anniversary. His album Roza Cruz with his Latin American experimental project La Mecánica Popular was named one of the best Latin American albums of the decade by Zona Sucia and Estereofonía. Featured at CNN, BBC, Washington Post, Daily News, and NPR. He holds a PhD from NYU and published the book Fusión: A Soundtrack for Peru.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

I am interested in synesthesia, the cross-pollination of the senses, and polyrhythm. I want to generate pieces across time/space contexts that use polyrhythm and synesthesia as tools to generate a state of contemplation. For this I will develop a series of pieces that combine robotics, video, music, performance art and sculpture.

Photo by Juan Pablo Aragón.