Founded in 2001 by co-directors Debby Kajiyama & José Ome Mazatl, NAKA Dance Theater creates experimental performance works using dance, storytelling, multimedia installations, and site-specific environments. NAKA builds partnerships with communities, engages people's histories and folklore, and expresses experiences through accessible performances that challenge the viewer to think critically about social justice issues. NAKA brings together and creates rapport among diverse populations, encouraging dialogue and civic participation.

Over the years, they have collaborated with Eastside Arts Alliance. An organization of artists and community organizers of color in East Oakland and Skywatchers, an ensemble of residents from San Francisco’s Tenderloin.

They became fans of the Twin Cities when they toured to Minneapolis in 2008 and 2014, as San Francisco representatives in the SCUBA Touring Network. José Ome and Debby have been artists in residence at Djerassi Resident Artists Program (Woodside, CA) and the Lucas Artist Residency Program at Montalvo Arts Center.

NAKA developed Y Basta Ya! with Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA), a San Francisco Bay Area grassroots organization that promotes individual healing and community power. Y Basta Ya! engages in an intimate and personal exploration of issues of race, gender violence, and invisibility, and their individual and collective effects on survivors.

The June 10th presentation at Rosy Simas Danse of Y Basta Ya! was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.