October 12, 2022
Performance Performer and Production Bios:

Jessika Enoh Akpaka (performer) is a Creatrix born in Memphis and based in the Twin Cities. She is committed to liberation of self, humanity, and Earth through artistic expressions and spirituality. She is most recognized as a dancer and choreographer. Dancing , training , and performing while living in Memphis, her formal training began in musical theater at Lundstrum Center for the Performing Arts in 2009. She then trained at Perpich Center for Arts Education , TU Dance, and the University of Minnesota and received scholarships to study in New York at Garth Fagan Dance and Minnesota’s ARENA Dances. Currently a member of local companies Rosy Simas Danse and Atlantis13, Jessika has also worked and performed with STRONGMovement and SHAPESHIFT. She has choreographed for and taught students at Ballet Co. and Brooklyn Park. Jessika co-produced , choreographed , and performed in the sold out production “Listen.” that debuted at the Lab Theater in 2018.

Lelis Brito (performer) is a Venezuelan-American theater director, choreographer, educator, performer, writer and director of the Center for Moving Cultures. As an artist, Brito has performed with local and national companies, creating over 80 original works. The core of Brito’s work is the human body’s potential and activation—the work of clarifying choice-making through the knowledge gained within the direct experience of a moving sensing body. Brito’s recent work explores how to retain one’s cultural body within multiple demands for code-switching. 2021-22 projects include: Choreographer/Director of You Change Me for Northern Spark; The Roles of Queen B and Queenie in the musical QUEEN B and Aurora in Brujeria for Beginners; Co-Curator (with Harry Waters Jr.) of FUTURE NOW series; Srika writing residency in Croatia; Choreographer of A Binding Strangeness, Co-Director of Real Women Have Curves, and ongoing rehearsal and project development with Rosy Simas Danse Ensemble and Teatro del Pueblo.

Sequoia Hauck (production manager/community engagement) is a Native (Anishinaabe/Hupa) queer multidisciplinary artist based in the Twin Cities on the unceded and ancestral Dakota lands of the Wahpekute peoples. Sequoia's focus is on creating film, poetry, and performance art that decolonizes the process of art-making. They make art surrounding the narratives of continuation and resiliency among their communities. They are a graduate from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with a B.A. in American Indian Studies. Sequoia has worked on and offstage with organizations such as Aniccha Arts, Art Shanty Projects, Exposed Brick Theatre, The Jungle Theater, Māoriland, An Opera Theatre (AOT), Pangea World Theater, Patrick's Cabaret, Poetry and Pie, Rosy Simas Danse, The Southern Theater, Taja Will Ensemble and Turtle Theater Collective. Sequoia’s film “Resiliency is Inherited'' was in the 2022 North by North International Film Festival along with the dance film they created in collaboration with Taja Will, “LÍNEAS de SANGRE”.

Sam Aros Mitchell (performer) is an enrolled member of the Texas Band of Yaqui Indians. His research focuses on the transformative work of First Nations and Native American dance and theatre artists. Sam has danced in contemporary dance companies for 25 years, touring nationally and internationally.

Atim Opoka (production assistant) is Ugandan American artist from Acholi tribe of the LUO People.  As a Songwriter, Vocalist, Composer,  Producer, Actress, and Teaching Artist she is inspired to share authentic stories.  She believes that everyone has the power of being an artist. Storytelling is a birthright. It all depends on the environment that surrounds the individual.                                                                                   

Sharon Picasso (performer) is a Minneapolis, MN based movement, performance and transdisciplinary creative Artist and Founder/Artistic Director of Picasso Projects and Lupa Studio. Her work as a freelance performance and dance artist lives parallel to her work as a choreographer since 1995. Sharon’s creative and collaborative practice has expanded into design including sound, light and installation. Paramount in Sharon's collaborative process is cultivating an inclusive, respectful and sustaining creative environment where value is placed on the wholeness of an individual.

Lela Pierce (performer) is a multiracial black visual artist and dancer. Lela finds inspiration from her childhood home near Hoǧáŋ Waŋká kiŋ (Dakota) aka Jiibayaatigo-ziibi (Anishinaabe) aka the St. Croix River Valley. Lela is currently pursuing a masters of fine arts in the interdisciplinary area of visual arts at the University of Minnesota.

François Richomme (composer) is a musician, composer, sound engineer and sound designer based in Montpellier, France. His work investigates the relation between sound/music and movement/dance, how vibration affects the body, movements of sounds using multiple speaker installations, and explores how dance and choreography can become a source language defining musical structure in composition.

Judith H S Xiān (performer) is an interdisciplinary choreographer, improviser, and sound artist. She has enjoyed presenting works at venues including Paikka, Fresh Oysters Performance Research (R.I.P.), Public Functionary, Bryant Lake Bowl, Walker Art Center, The Southern Theater, Intermedia Arts (R.I.P.), Frey Theatre (Twin Cities, MN), Rochester Art Center and 9 Herkimer Place (Brooklyn, NY). She has recently enjoyed performing for/collaborating with others including Dua Saleh, Rosy Simas, Heather Kravas, Shayna Allen, lazer axelrood, Valerie Oliviero, Leila Awadallah, Judith Howard, Shayna Allen, Pramila Vasudevan, Megan Mayer, Emily Gastineau, and Erin Drummond. She is a 2017 Q-Stage: New Works and 2019 Momentum: New Dance Works recipient, and was part of the 2022 Red Eye Works-In-Progress cohort.

Jeffrey Wells (performer/fabricator) is an interdisciplinary performance creator and producer working in Minneapolis for the past 12 years. He is a co-founder of the performance ensemble SuperGroup, which has created over 30 performance projects since its inception in 2008. SuperGroup has performed throughout the Twin Cities and nationally and is the recipient of a 2017 McKnight Choreographer Fellowship. Aside from SuperGroup, Jeffrey has worked with several arts organizations in a producing and administrative capacity including Red Eye Theater, DanceMN, Project Success, and Cornerstone Theater. Jeffrey is an accomplished performer and has worked with many performance makers including Pramila Vasudevan, Eric Larson/Toot Performance, Karen Sherman, Fire Drill, and Judith Howard among others. Jeffrey is also a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner.

Taja Will (performer) is a queer, chronically ill, Latinx (Chilean) adoptee, performer, choreographer, somatic therapist and Healing Justice practitioner based in Mni Sota Makoce, on the ancestral lands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe. Taja’s approach integrates improvisation, somatic modalities, text and vocals in contemporary performance. Their aesthetic is one of spontaneity, bold choice making, sonic and kinetic partnership and the ability to move in relationship to risk and intimacy. Will’s work explores visceral connections to current socio-cultural realities through ritual, archetypes and everyday magic.