Liv'art Dance Studio

Congratulations to and on their wedding day today! Sending you both love and grateful for you both!! 💜❤️💜

Happy Birthday to our very own 💜. We are so grateful for you! Hope you have the best day!

Happy Birthday to our very own ! Thank you for all that you do! 💜🎉

We are so proud of our Pre-Pointe class! Congratulations on your new/first pair of pointe shoes 💜🩰💜

Happy Belated to our 💜 Thank you for all that you do! We love you!

NEW ADULT CLASS! Every Wednesday at 7:30 with 💜 See you there!

Happy Birthday .heinen ! ✨Hope you have the best day! We are so grateful to have you in the Liv’art Fam 💜

Happy Birthday Kelsey!! We’re all so lucky to have you on our team 💜🤍 Wishing you an amazing day!!

Wishing the happiest of birthdays to our one and only, Liv 🤍🖤💜

Happy Birthday Ash! We love you, and we appreciate you! 💜🤍🖤

We’re sending (belated) birthday wishes to our fabulous, Steph! We’re grateful for you, and love you tons! Hope your birthday was AMAZING! 💜🥳

CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
Our (delayed) 4th week of our AAPI artist recognition!
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Alexa Capareda
Capareda was born in the Philippines, where she began her dance training at Ballet Regina, following the Royal Academy of Dance curriculum. She also received training in classical ballet and contemporary dance at the Philippine High School for the Arts. After moving to Texas at 16, she started a three-year traineeship with Ballet Austin while attending college, and continued her studies with several companies across Europe. She began exploring her own choreography before leaving Europe, winning 3rd prize at the 2013 Festival of Choreographic Miniatures in Serbia. Capareda joined Ballet Austin’s artistic staff and Academy faculty in 2015, and currently serves as Rehearsal Director for Ballet Austin II. In addition to re-staging works, Capareda sets her original pieces. Her work, Maria and the Mouse Deer, her new ballet for BAII based on Philippine folk stories, has been awarded a Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts. 
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Kyle Hanagami
    Kyle Hanagami is a Los Angeles-based Choreographer and Creative Director and has become one of the industry's most sought after talents. YouTube is coincidentally how Hanagami’s career took off during his sophomore year at UC Berkeley, when he began sharing his dance videos online. In the massive commercial success since then, Hanagami has choreographed for artists such as BlackPink, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, CNCO, Justin Beiber and NSync, l Though Hanagami doesn’t typically star in his videos himself, his passion translates through emotion-based moves that are fluid with the rhythm, yet sharp with the beat of each song. While hip-hop plays a role in inspiring the moves, Hanagami insists that his work is a fusion of different styles, and what it ultimately comes down to is “how you interpret the music.”

CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
Our (delayed) 4th week of our AAPI artist recognition!
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Brian Puspos
    Puspos is a Filipino choreographer, dancer, and recording artist from Texas. He comes from an artistic family - his sister also sings, and his parents were ballroom dancers. Puspos spent his childhood years as a backup dancer, choreographing and performing at local talent shows and for various upcoming Houston artists. He was a member of SoReal Cru, who were declared runners up in Season 2 of the America's Best Dance Crew championship in 2008. Later, in season 7 of ABDC, Puspos performed with Most Wanted Crew in 2012. Puspos was also named “Male Choreographer of the Year” multiple years by World of Dance, and has worked with incredible artists like Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Anderson Paak, and BTS. Soon, Puspos will sit as a mentor on the upcoming talent search, “Top Class: The Rise to P-Pop Stardom” in the Philippines.
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Jin Xing
    Chinese dancer, choreographer, actress, founder and artistic director of the China’s first private dance troupe, Jin Xing Dance Theater, in Shanghai. At age 9, she joined the People’s Liberation Army to receive dance and military training from an arts academy affiliated with the region, graduating in 1984. She later won the national dance contest with a Central Asian ethnic dance piece, and in 1989, won a scholarship to dance in New York and study modern dance for four years, studying under modern dance pioneers such as Limon, Cunningham, and Graham. She underwent gender affirming surgery in 1995 in Beijing. Easily the most famous public figure in China to undergo the surgery, the fact that she was allowed to do it and return to Chinese public life was somewhat shocking at the time. She later became one of the most prominent public figures in China through her appearance on the Chinese version of So You Think You Can Dance, before being given her own talk show, The Jin Xing Show, which became the most-viewed TV show in China during its run.

CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
Our (delayed) 4th week of our AAPI artist recognition!
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Thang Dao
    Vietnameses freelance choreographer, teacher, and coach. Dao came to the USA from Viet Nam as a young teenager, and attended LACHSA during his final high school years. He holds a MA degree from New York University’s Gallatin School. Dao received his formal dance education from the Juilliard School and The Boston Conservatory. Dao danced with the Stephen Petronio Company and the Metropolitan Opera until 2006, leaving to choreograph for Ballet Austin, Ballet Austin II, Ailey II, Ballet X, Philadanco, Missouri Contemporary Ballet, the Boston Conservatory along with many universities and performing arts schools nationally and internationally. His works have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Dao has also established his own company, Thang Dao Dance Company. It is neither fellow choreographers nor dancers that most inspire choreographer Thang Dao. “The most influential mentors, teachers, and inspirations in my life are my parents,” he says. It was their determination to be free, to escape war-torn Vietnam, that today forms a backdrop to all Dao’s choreography.
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Hannahlei Cabanilla
    American dancer of Filipino descent - As one of the youngest artists were recognizing this month, Cabanilla’s bio is still growing, but already starts off with a big bang the Season 15 winner of the U.S. So You Think You Can Dance.  Cabanilla grew up in Anaheim, training and competing from a young age. She auditioned for the show right at age 18! Since winning the competition, she performed at the American Music Awards with Selena Gomez in 2017, and appeared in Sia’s “The Greatest” music video and Rent (Live!). She continues to teach and train in Orange County and Los Angeles. Can’t wait to see what the future brings for her!

CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
Our (delayed) 4th week of our AAPI artist recognition!
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Ananya Chatterjea
Growing up in India, Chatterjea struggled to reconcile the beauty of dance she was learning and practicing with the injustices around her. This began her journey to explore contemporary Indian dance rooted in social justice. In the early 90s she moved to New York City to begin studying at Columbia University. Her work as choreographer, dancer, and thinker brings together contemporary dance, social justice, and healing justice. Her company, Ananya Dance Theatre, is a company of BIPOC cultural activists and women and femme dance artists who believe in the transformative power of dance. They invite audiences to participate in their strategy of , the movement of dancing as civic action.
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Alex Wong
Wong was born in Canada and began his tap and jazz training at the age of 7. At age 10, he started his ballet studies with the Goh Ballet Academy in Vancouver, Canada. In 2005, he danced briefly with American Ballet Theatre before joining Miami City Ballet, and in early 2007, was promoted to the rank of soloist at MCB. Wong originally auditioned for “So You Think You Can Dance” in 2009, but was forced to withdraw due to contractual issues with MCB. However in 2010, he declined the soloist position to pursue another shot at SYTYCD and made it to the Top 10 before an unfortunate injury. Since his SYTYCD days, Wong has appeared in numerous films, Broadway productions, and advertisements. He has been a guest speaker at several prominent universities, and has received several awards for his work on Broadway. In 2012. He returned to SYTYCD as an All Star and has since worked on Dancing With The Stars, SYTYCD Vietnam, and Glee (to name a few!)

REMINDER!
This is the last week of classes for the school year.

Summer Camps begin next week!! ☀️

CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
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Peggy Myo-Young Choy
American choreographer and dancer of Korean descent who explores Afro-Asian dance forms and founded Peggy Choy Dance (2010). Her women-centered stories created since the mid-1990s, integrate her foundations in Korean dance, Javanese dance, and martial arts as well as urban vernacular forms. She is also President of The Ki Project, Inc., a non-profit organization that committed to performance and creative thinking for future generations. They are interested in how performance connects with diverse cultural legacies, histories, and varying views of science and the mind, to then inspire sustainable environments and generational transformation.
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Beverly Noa
(Beverly Kauiokanahele Rivera Noa Kennedy) Renowned Hawaiian hula soloist who began dancing hula at the age of six, and at age 18, was crowned Miss Hawaii 1952. She traveled throughout the continental US promoting Hawaii and performed as a soloist at the top showrooms in Hawaii and with notable singers and musicians. She was also a model and became the Hawaii Visitor Bureau's "poster girl" which won her national recognition and acclaim. Noa was inducted as a legendary hula dancer into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 2015.
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Eiko & Koma
Eiko Otake and Takashi Koma Otake are a Japanese multi-disciplinary performance duo. Since 1972, they have worked as co-artistic directors, choreographers, and performers, creating a unique theater of movement out of stillness, shape, light, sound, and time. For most of their works, they create their own sets and costumes, and are usually the sole performers. In the early 70’s, they worked with avant-garde theatrical movement artists in Japan, soon after traveling throughout Europe to present their own works. Although neither has studied Butoh, they cite Kazoo Ohno, a Butoh pioneer, as a main inspiration. They incorporate exaggerated slowness, extreme environments and imagery, as well as themes of darkness, vulnerability, and transformation familiar to the movement style. The duo believes that humans are a part of nature and through their work, they hope for humans to remember that connection.

CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
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Yuan Yuan Tan
Chinese ballet dancer who is principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet. Tan began dancing at 11 years old, and at age 18, became the youngest soloist dancer with the San Francisco Ballet. In 1997, just two years later, she was promoted to principal dancer, entirely bypassing the corps and attaining the highest position for a ballet dancer at an unusually rapid upward path. She was at that time the youngest principal dancer ever in the history of the SF Ballet. Tan has danced a plethora of notable roles throughout her career, and has been recognized by multiple platforms for her talent. A mayoral proclamation in SF reads “Her grace, skill, versatility and strength have helped her become the first Chinese prima ballerina in the United States and one of the greatest Chinese ballerinas of all time. She has gracefully served as cultural ambassador for San Francisco and the United States. We are immensely grateful for her contributions to our city’s cultural history.” In 2004, she made the cover of Time as one of 20 people under 40 considered to be heroes from Asia. In 2019, she received the Shanghai Magnolia Silver Award, “bestowed to people who contribute to the development of Shanghai.”
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Akram Khan
    English dancer and choreographer of Bangladeshi descent. He began dancing at age 7, training in the classical South Asian dance form of Kathak. At the age of 13, he was cast in a Shakespeare Company production of Mahabharata, touring the world between 1987 and 1989 and appearing in the televised version of the play broadcast in 1988. He began presenting solo performances of his work in the 1990s, and in August 2000, he founded Akram Khan Company, alongside former dancer Farooq Chaudhry. Khan is known for his innovative and experimental kathak influenced contemporary choreography , including his re-imaginings of well-known stories/ productions like Giselle and The Jungle Book. For him, his contemporary work is not fusion but “confusion". Khan states, ”The intelligence of dance is far superior to intellectualism – the body is more honest and direct,"

CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
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Minh Tran
Vietnamese American choreographer, dancer, and director who started Minh Tran & Co. He immigrated to the US in 1980 as a political refugee when he was 13 years old. He received dance training in classical Vietnamese opera at the National School of Fine and Performing Arts in Saigon. He has created over forty choreographic works since 1989, which blends western modern dance with traditional Southeast Asian dance, and has received numerous grants, fellowships and commissions. As an educator, his research specializes in Southeast Asian Dance & Culture and Dance Training Toward Performance.
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Li Chiao-Ping
American choreographer and dancer of The Extreme Moves Training Method and Li Chiao-Ping Dance (1990). Known for her originality, trademark physicality, humanism, and visual design, she creates layered works that combine multiple art forms to explore themes of culture and identity. She was named by Dance Magazine as one of the “25 to Watch” and makes work for the stage, screen, and other sites for individuals and organizations around the country. She has choreographed for musical theater, opera, and ballet, in addition to concert dance, dance theater, and screen dance and creates works for dance companies, university dance programs, and individuals around the country.
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Baayork Lee
American actress, singer, dancer, choreographer, theatre director, and author of Chinese and Indian descent. She started dancing at an early age, and was casted at age 5 in the original Broadway production of The King and I and appeared in Balanchine's original production of The Nutcracker. Lee’s Broadway career continued to thrive, eventually landing her her most notable role, Connie Wong in the original A Chorus Line (a role that was in part based off of Lee!). Over the years, she has directed and choreographed more than thirty-five international productions of the musical, in addition to various other Broadway productions. Lee is a co-founder of the National Asian Artists Project, a non-profit that showcases the work of Asian-American theatre artists through performance, outreach, and educational programming.

CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
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Mallika Sarabhai
Indian activist and classical dancer and actress who has specialized in using the arts for social change and transformation. As the daughter of a classical dancer, she began learning to dance when she was young, and started her film career in cinema when she was 15. She appeared in many Hindi- and Gujarati-language films, and won a number of critics’ and government acting awards for her film and tv work. Sarabhai was a leading teachers of the bharata natyam and kuchipudi dance forms, and she took over the leadership of the performing arts academy Darpana, which her mother had established decades earlier. She used her choreography to focus on dance as a tool for social critique and change, and she expressed her particular interest in fostering women’s rights, seeking to convey statements against female infanticide, sexual abuse, and child marriage. She used gestures and movements from everyday life and from the martial arts of southern and northeastern India. She also used multimedia tools to incorporate sound and visual imagery in her works, receiving international acclaim and recognition for her dance compositions.
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Dana Tai Soon Burgess
American choreographer, dancer, and performance artist of Korean descent who founded Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company. His work explores the idea of cultural confluence with many of his dances focusing on the “hyphenated person” – someone who is of mixed ethnic or cultural heritage – and the emotions of belonging and societal acceptance. He has served as a Cultural Ambassador for the U.S. State Department for over two decades, an appointment he uses to promote international cultural dialogue through “the global language of dance. Since 2016, Burgess has been the Smithsonian Institution’s first-ever Choreographer-in-Residence. In this role, he creates new works inspired by museum exhibitions and participates in public discussions about dance and art. He began dancing at the age of 16 after a brief childhood career as a competitive martial artist. His mother is descended from the first group of Korean immigrants to come to America in 1903 and 1904.

CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
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Mallika Sarabhai
Indian activist and classical dancer and actress who specialized in using the arts for social change and transformation. As the daughter of a classical dancer, she began learning to dance when she was young, and started her film career when she was 15. She appeared in many Hindi- and Gujarati-language films, and won a number of critics’ and government acting awards for her film and tv work. Sarabhai was a leading teacher of the bharata natyam and kuchipudi dance forms, and took over the leadership of the performing arts academy Darpana, which her mother had established decades earlier. She used her choreography to focus on dance as a tool for social critique and change, and she expressed her particular interest in fostering women’s rights, seeking to convey statements against female infanticide, sexual abuse, and child marriage. She used gestures and movements from everyday life and from the martial arts of southern and northeastern India. She also used multimedia tools to incorporate sound and visual imagery in her works. She received international acclaim and recognition for her dance compositions.
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Dana Tai Soon Burgess
    American choreographer, dancer, and performance artist of Korean descent who founded Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company. His work explores the idea of cultural confluence with many of his dances focusing on the “hyphenated person” – someone who is of mixed ethnic or cultural heritage – and the emotions of belonging and societal acceptance. He has served as a Cultural Ambassador for the U.S. State Department for over two decades, an appointment he uses to promote international cultural dialogue through “the global language of dance. Since 2016, Burgess has been the Smithsonian Institution’s first-ever Choreographer-in-Residence. In this role, he creates new works inspired by museum exhibitions and participates in public discussions about dance and art. He began dancing at the age of 16 after a brief childhood career as a competitive martial artist. His mother is descended from the first group of Korean immigrants to come to America in 1903.

We wanted to give a HUGE SHOUTOUT to Liv’art Alum, Nicole Jefferson!! 🥳

She is graduating Yale this year and was recently awarded the 2022 Willam Pickens Prize for her essay “ Race, Space, and Place: Infrastructural Vulnerability and Cultural Community Organizing in Broadmoor, New Orleans after Katrina”.

The Yale Department of African American Studies awards the William Pickens Prize annually for outstanding senior essays in the field of African and African American Studies. Nicole is the ONLY recipient of this year’s prize!!

We’re so proud of you Nicole and cannot wait to see how you continue to thrive! 💜

✨ SPRING SHOW 2022 ✨
Sunday, May 22nd
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Sunday, May 29th
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There’s still time left to purchase your tickets!
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Confused about your show times?
Use the color coded schedule above to confirm which show(s) their class(es) will perform in.
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Be sure to email us with any questions, or for the ticket purchasing link!

CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
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This month we’ll we taking a look at some important dancers/ movers/ artists in the APPI community!
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SUN OCK LEE
Korean choreographer, dancer, professor, and author who created ZenDance, a mix of meditation and movement. Lee began studying traditional Korean dance at the age of nine, training under three "Intangible National Treasures” (a national title awarded to great performers). She relocated to the United States in 1969 and performed worldwide, forming the Lee Sun-ock Zen Dance Company in 1974. In the 1980s she published two volumes about Zen dance and she began collecting traditional Korean dance forms and coordinating dance festivals featuring Korean and Asian dance in New York. She continues to teach and perform Zen Dance: Meditation in Movement, a combination of modern and zen practices. 
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YURIKO KIKUCHI
American dancer of Japanese descent. As a child, she was sent to live in Japan to escape the flu epidemic that took 3 members of her immediate family. Unfortunately upon her return she was interned at Gila River War Relocation Center internment camp. There, she continued to teach dance classes, and upon her release from the camp, made her way to New York City. After just a week of classes with Martha Graham, she was invited her to join the company—but only after first requesting permission from the other company dancers for an Asian dancer to join during wartime. She was the first non-white dancer to join the company. Kikuchi danced principal roles with the Graham company from 1944 to 1967, founded its pre-professional company (now Graham 2), played featured roles in the original Broadway productions of The King and I and Flower Drum Song, and has restaged numerous Graham works. Until her passing in March 2022 (at 102 years old!), she was the last living dancer from the original cast of Appalachian Spring.

CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
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This month we’ll we taking a look at some important dancers/ movers/ artists in the APPI community!
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ELEANOR YUNG
 Chinese choreographer and dancer who co-founded Asian American Dance Theatre. Established in 1974, the Asian American Arts Centre (AAAC) is one of the earliest Asian American community arts organizations in the country. The theatre offered dance lessons and performances out of the New York Public Library and eventually grew to include a visual arts program. In 1978 AADT began an Arts-in-Education program through the NYC Department of Education’s Arts and Cultural Education Network program, presenting lecture performances on traditional Asian dance in public schools throughout NYC. Yung was also a founding member of the Basement Workshop, which emerged as the first Asian American political and arts organization in New York City (1970 - 1986). Created during the Asian American Movement, it became an umbrella organization for a diverse group of young Asian Americans seeking creative and new ways of intersecting artistic expression with political and community activism.

LEE MAE-BANG
Korean traditional dancer who created the Lee Mae-bang school techniques. Dedicated to the preservation and transmission of traditional Korean dance over the course of his entire life, Lee established a unique dancing style known as the Lee Mae-bang school in the two most representative traditional Korean dances, seungmu (Buddhist monk dance) and salpurichum (exorcism dance). He not only preserved the existing forms of traditional Korean dance, but also gave birth to various creative innovations. Among them are the hallyang, boryeommu, the drum dance, and the long-sword dance, which blends the sword dance he learned from the Chinese dancer Mei Lanfang with the traditional Korean form of sword dance. He was designated as the Master (or Living Human Treasure) of Buddhist monk dance in 1987 and of exorcism dance in 1990.



CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
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This month we’ll we taking a look at some important dancers/ movers/ artists in the APPI community!
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DEVI DJA
Devi Dja (full name - Abu Devi Dja Assan) was an Indonesian dancer who was considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on Indonesian dancing. Dja,whose troupes featured dances and costumes from India, China, Japan Micronesia, and Indonesia, was discovered by conductor Leopold Stokowski when he visited Bali in 1930. She had come from a theatrical tradition and had been performing publicly since she was a girl, as her father had taken her to Bali to study temple dances when she was 6. Stokowski urged Dja to come to the U.S. in the late 1930s. By the time World War II began, she had established a company of 200 dancers in the states. In 1954, Dja was credited with being the first Indonesian woman ever to become a naturalized citizen.
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MICHIKO ISERI
American dancer and choreographer of Japanese descent. Iseri was interned at Heart Mountain War Relocation Center during WWII. She had studied Japanese dance and kabuki from early childhood, and just before World War II had joined Teiko Ono’s pan-Asian dance company on the West Coast. Fortunately she was able to continue dancing while interned, and upon release in October 1944, she moved in with Ono, who sponsored Iseri so she could come to New York. With Ono, she learned Chinese, Korean, Javanese, Balinese, Burmese, Japanese, and Thai dancing. Iseri began performing across the city under choreographers like Pearl Primus and Devi Dja. Iseri became so notable as a dancer/ choreographer that she became a (much needed) cultural consultant for Jerome Robbins and Rodger and Hammerstein in the original opening of The King and I. 



CELEBRATING AAPI MONTH!
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This month we’ll we taking a look at some important dancers/ movers/ artists in the APPI community!
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TOY + WING
American tap dance duo composed of Dorothy Toy (real name Shigeko Takahashi) and Paul Wing (real name Paul Wing Jew). They were billed as the "Chinese Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers", though only Wing was Chinese-American; Toy was of Japanese descent. The duo was the first Asian-Americans to enter the American tap dance scene during the 1930s and ‘40s. “We went through a lot of prejudice,” Toy said in a 2016 documentary, Dancing Through Life: The Dorothy Toy Story, “But you have to face it.” The duo began as a trio including Toy’s sister, Helen, then known as “The Three Mahjongs”. Helen eventually left the group to pursue a singing career, but Toy and Wing continued to dance together for some years. They headlined vaudeville venues, danced on Broadway and were the first Asian-Americans to perform at the London Palladium Theater. They were married in 1940 (so that it would be easier for them to travel together), however were soon separated by WWII when Wing was drafted and Toy left to New York to avoid internment.
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MEL WONG
 American choreographer, dancer, and painter of Chinese descent who established the Mel Wong Dance Foundation, and taught and performed nationwide. As a child, he took both gymnastics and ballet. He also secretly practiced yoyo-ing, which he excelled at! His ballet career took off, leading him to dance with notable dancers like Anna Halprin, Robert Joffrey, and Merce Cunningham. He danced with Cunningham’s company and was influenced in his personal style by both Cunningham and his partner, composer John Cage. Wong choreographed non-stop from 1970 on, making more than 180 works, many of them boldly experimental. His 1989 solo Childhood Secrets from Growing Up Asian American in the 50s pioneered what later became known as dances of cultural identity. He wittily remarked on the discrimination he endured growing up in California, punctuating his monologue with spectacular yoyo tricks.