LLD’s 1st NEW WORKS Festival 4/10 – 4/12/26!
Lenora Lee Dance, Asian Improv aRts & API Cultural Center present
LLD’s 1st NEW WORKS Festival
Interdisciplinary dance works & film by choreographers from the Bay Area, NYC, and London
including Lynn Huang, Amber Julian, Flora Hyoin Kim (NYC), SanSan Kwan, Lenora Lee & Moyra Silva Rodríguez (London / Lima), Johnny Huy Nguyen, Catalina O’Connor, dazaun soleyn.
As part of the company’s 18th anniversary, LLD’s 1st NEW WORKS Festival amplifies and celebrates the interracial, intercultural perspectives that are richly unique to the choreographers and their experiences, the communities they are a part of, and to the diversity of their Chinese, African, Korean, Peruvian, Vietnamese, and Mexican ancestries. Through this festival, a collective of experiences bridge past and present, uncover family histories and cultural inheritance, examine the aftermath of death, war and forced displacement, and heal bodies burdened by generational trauma.
Dance Mission Theater – 3316 24th St (bt Mission & Valencia), SF, CA 94110
Friday, April 10, 2026 at 8pm
Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 8pm
Sunday, April 12, 2026 at 3pm
Tickets & Info: LLDs-1st-New-Works-Festival.eventbrite.com
More information: LenoraLeeDance.com, (415) 570-8615, LenoraLeeDance@gmail.com
Curated by Lenora Lee
Choreographers: Lynn Huang, Amber Julian, Flora Hyoin Kim (NYC), SanSan Kwan, Johnny Huy Nguyễn, Catalina O’Connor, and dazaun soleyn, in collaboration with
Dance / Performance Collaborators: Jordon Ellis Dabney, Rosika Dater-Merton, Claire Fisher-Mendez, Lily Gee, Raychel Hatch, Danny Nguyễn, Achieng Oseso, Tatianna Steiner, Tylee Styne
Filmmakers: Lenora Lee & Moyra Silva Rodríguez (London / Lima)
Light Design: Harry Rubeck
photos: Joan Dwiartanto (Flora Hyoin Kim), Empyrean Visuals (Amber Julian), Robbie Sweeney,
Stephen Texeira (dazaun soleyn) | graphic design: Olivia Ting
ABOUT LENORA LEE DANCE
For the last 18 years Lenora Lee Dance (LLD) has pushed the envelope of intimate and large-scale multimedia, immersive dance performance connecting various styles of movement/dance, film, text, research and music to culture, history, and human rights issues. LLD’s works are set in both public and private spaces, inspired by individual stories as well as community strength. From the proscenium, to underwater, the company’s pieces are site-responsive and immersive calling audiences into deep engagement with the work and environment. LLD’s work has grown to encompass the creation, presentation and screening of films, museum and gallery installations, civic engagement, and educational programming signifying the power of art as a movement for change. www.LenoraLeeDance.com, IG @LenoraLeeDance
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Flora Hyoin Kim (choreographer / dancer – NYC) is a Korean American dance artist, choreographer, and educator born in Seoul, South Korea, raised in Boston, MA, and currently based in New Jersey/NYC. She holds BFA in Dance from University of Wisconsin- Madison and has performed with Lenora Lee Dance, Prometheus Dance, Jenna Pollack, beheard.world, Jennifer Lin, among others. Flora is an artist in residence at Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company Studio to Stage program. Her works have been presented at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Harvard Kennedy School, Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, among others. Flora is a former assistant professor of dance at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and a lecturer of dance at Brandeis University. Photo by Joan Dwiartanto florakimdance.com
Lynn Huang (choreographer / dancer – SF) is a dancer, writer, and GYROTONIC(R) trainer. Originally from New York City, she arrived in San Francisco via Beijing, where she studied at Minzu University of China on a Fulbright grant. Trained in ballet, modern, and Chinese dance, she holds a BA in English literature from Barnard College, and has danced with New York based HT Chen & Dancers, compani javedani, among others and has performed throughout the US and Beijing. She currently dances with Lenora Lee Dance and was a 2023 Asian Improv Arts fellow. Photo by Robbie Sweeny. IG: lynnxspirals.
Onyx is an all-Black, femme dance collective rooted in traditions such as Hip Hop, Afrofusion, and House, led by choreographer Amber Julian (choreographer / dancer – SF). Onyx honors healing, ancestry, and Black visibility, blending tender and powerful expressions to embody the radical act of being fully seen. Amber Julian is an Afro-Indigenous multi-disciplinary performance artist, choreographer, educator, mentor, and community organizer dedicated to exploring themes of identity, gender, social justice activism, and ancestral wisdom. Photo by Empyrean Visuals
SanSan Kwan (choreographer – SF) is the Mary Tu Chancellor’s Chair in Dance in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley. Performance: Lenora Lee Dance, Chingchi Yu, H.T. Chen and Dancers, Maura Nguyen Donohue, among others. SanSan premiered her own work, titled Two Doors, in 2024, and is also a dance scholar. Books: Love Dances: Loss and Mourning in Intercultural Collaboration, Kinesthetic City: Dance and Movement in Chinese Urban Spaces. Articles: Dance Research Journal, TDR, Performance Research, and more. Awards: 2024 Dance Studies Association Mid-Career Award, de la Torre Bueno© Book Award, Isadora Duncan Dance Award, Beatrice Manz Faculty Award. Photo by Cheri Hudnut https://sansankwan.wixsite.com/my-site
Lenora Lee (artistic director, filmmaker) The company is directed by San Francisco (Yelamu) native Lenora Lee, who has been a dancer, choreographer & artistic director for the past 27 years. She has been an Artist Fellow at the deYoung Museum, a Djerassi Resident Artist, a Visiting Scholar at NYU, a 2019 United States Artists Fellow, an Artist in Residence at Dance Mission, Pao Arts Center & ArtsEmerson. Photo by Hien Huynh www.LenoraLeeDance.com, IG @LenoraLeeDance
Johnny Huy Nguyễn (choreographer / dancer – SF) is a Vietnamese multidisciplinary dance artist incorporating movement, theater, text, ritual, installation, and humor to interrogate the social, political, and cultural forces that shape us. Nguyễn is a 2023 United States of Asian America Festival Featured Artist, 2022 Isadora Duncan Dance Award recipient, and 2021 APAture Festival Featured Artist. His work has been presented by 500 Capp St, and Asian Art Museum. His films have shown at CAAMfest, Sans Souci Festival, Contact Dance International Film Festival (Canada), Dance Camera Istanbul (Turkey). Photo by Robbie Sweeny. IG: johnny.huy.nguyen.
Catalina O’Connor (choreographer / dancer – SF) is a modern/contemporary dancer & teacher. She is currently teachingwith LINES Ballet Community Programs, Shawl-Anderson Youth Program, and Nagata Dance. They have had the honor to work with Lenora Lee Dance, pateldanceworks, Rogelio Lopez & Dancers, Andrew Merrell/Slack Dance, Davalos Dance, Chingchi Yu, and Andi Salazar/A Pulso Dance Project in various Bay Area theaters as well as beautiful nature spaces like the National AIDS Memorial Grove and the Yerba Buena Gardens. Photo by Robbie Sweeny. IG: @catalina_oconnor Facebook: Catalina O’Connor
Moyra Cecilia Silva Rodriguez (filmmaker, choreographer, dancer – London / Lima) from Lima, Peru, holds a Master’s in Dance Anthropology and a Bachelor’s in Communication Science and Arts. Her Chinese-Peruvian heritage influences her exploration of art and identity, blending academic research with movement and visual arts. Awarded by the 2023 Economic Stimulus for Cultural and Arts Industries, Instituto Cultural Peruano Norte-Americano, Festival Artes Escenicas Lima, the German Federal Foreign Office, and Goethe-Institut, she is an Erasmus Mundus scholar (2020-2022). Photo by Fatima Sastre www.moyrasilva.com / @moyra_silva.
dazaun soleyn (choreographer / dancer – SF). With an intention to create art that aims to illuminate the human soul, dazaun soleyn (he/she/they), has presented work in the Bay Area since 2013. He received a BFA in Modern Dance Performance and Choreography from the University of South Florida and continued his dance education at the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program. Recently, dazaun graduated from California College of the Arts with a Masters in Architecture (MArch). Dazaun is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco, a Gyrotonic Instructor, Reiki Master and Apprentice Herbalists. His mediums include dance, architecture, sculpture and interactive. Photo by Julien James installations.dazaunsoleyn.org social media: dazaun_s. website: dazaunsoleyn.org.
ABOUT THE PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS
Since 1987, Asian Improv aRts (AIR) has built a national cross-cultural, interdisciplinary community rooted in social justice and equity, advancing artists who create innovative works representing Asian and Asian American experiences with deep connections to BIPOC communities. Over its 38 years, AIR has produced more than 100 recordings of Asian American artists, chronicling a legacy of Asian artistic excellence in the U.S. and mentored many artists in their early stages, some of whom are now luminaries in their field, such as Vijay Iyer and Jen Shyu. Today, AIR continues this legacy supporting the next generation of artistic leaders in the field. http://www.asianimprov.org, IG: asian.improvarts
The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center’s (APICC) mission is to support and produce multidisciplinary art reflective of the unique experiences of Asian Pacific Islanders living in the United States. Since 1998, the center has promoted the artistic and organizational growth of San Francisco’s API arts community by organizing and presenting the annual United States of Asian America Festival as well as commissioning contemporary art for and by the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. www.apiculturalcenter.org, IG: apicc_sf
LLD is supported in part by Asian Improv aRts, Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, Good Medicine Picture Company, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, Zellerbach Family Foundation, and by Generous Individuals.
