When
Where
our bodies are also stories
an introduction to dance theater with JGPG company members
Damara Vita Ganley and Wailana Simcock
Dates + Times:
9 week series March 3rd – April 28th
Mondays 5:30-7pm
Your attendance for the full series is preferred but not required
$180 for full series | $25 for drop in
(Please reach out if finances are a barrier to attending. [email protected])
You are invited:
To move and be moved.
To feel the full expression of your body.
To be curious and led by your senses.
To live into life through your body.
No previous dance or theater experience is necessary.
This 9 week series will offer:
- Intro to contemporary dance techniques – cultivating generative energy through momentum-based floorwork, improvisations in “kinesthetic delight”, inversions and phrase work across the floor.
- our bodies have stories too – story sharing and writing from our personal experiences, dreams, and longings as an invocation for our lived experiences to come through our felt senses.
- creation reciprocity – performance practices for being together
Bios:
Wailana Simcock was born in the Philippines and raised in Hawai‘i. They were born to a Waray-Waray (Samar) mother and Scottish father from Aotearoa (New Zealand). They speak Tagalog, ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i, and Hawaiian Pidgin. Wailana is a performing artist, choreographer, and director. They have also been known to moonlight as drag artist and curator, Magdalena. Outside of the performing arts, they work as licensed massage therapist and have started a small textile/fashion design company, We Blood. Wailana earned an MFA degree in Dance from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 2016. While in Hawaii they formed their own aerial and contemporary dance company, Wai Company (2010-16). In Hawai‘i, they performed and taught with Samadhi Hawaii, Tau Dance Theatre, IONA Contemporary Dance Theatre, ‘Ulalena (Lāhaina) and studied with Hālau o Kekuhi (Keaukaha). They also taught creative movement in ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i at the Hawaiian immersions schools Nāwahīokalani‘ōpu‘u (Kea‘au) and Ka ‘Umeke Kā‘eo (Keaukaha). They were also the founding and artistic director of both Kalani Performing Arts Festival (2010-2012) and Puna Music Festival (2012). Back in the mid 1990’s in Ohlone Territory, Wailana began their performance career as principal dancer to Pearl Ubungen Dancers and Musicians (1995-2000) and also worked with Steamroller during that time. Returning in 2017, also from Hawai‘i, they worked again with Steamroller, and joined groups KAMBARA + DANCERS and Fogbeast. Presently, they are a teaching artist and core dancer to both BANDALOOP and Joe Goode Performance Group since 2018. Wailana is living in their Philippine diaspora on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone people – a land colonially known as San Francisco.
Damara Vita Ganley (she/they) is a Bay Area dance theater artist dedicated to alchemical creativity. They are grateful to be in long time creative collaborations with the Joe Goode Performance Group, BANDALOOP, Fog Beast Dance and D.A.P collective. These creative connections have generously invited her on many national and international journeys in performance, teaching and learning. Following degrees in Anthropology, Critical Feminist Theory and Performance, Play and Design, her artistic career has included opportunities to perform with Mel Wong, Ellen Webb, Nancy Karp, Jo Kreiter/Flyaway Productions, Gerald Casel Dance, Cid Pearlman, Holcombe Waller, Erin Mei-ling Stuart/emspace dance, Manuelito Biag/Shift Dance Theatre, and Lisa Townsend. She currently shares dance practices as a lecturer at UCSC, with people with Parkinson’s, Veterans, Care Providers, At Bay Area High Schools, SFArtsEd Middle School performers, Broadway performers and anyone inspired to feel and move.
Image Description: Photo on the right is of Wailana standing at the bottom of the staircase with their hand pointing to their other elbow making an “L shape”. Photo on the left is of Damara holding a rock and wearing a large skirt—lifting the rock upward in a high released position facing a wall.