New Directions
June 6 - June 8 | Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre
About The Show
NEW DIRECTIONS features the work of student choreographers and will welcome dance makers and movers from across all areas, and beyond the department. The purpose of New Directions will be to engage dancers and choreographers across campus, and to support the next generation of embodied storytellers and movement makers.
Join us in an evening of new work by student choreographers. Through these exciting new works, student choreographers are asking questions of lineage, community resilience empowerment, liberation and peace!
This year's concert features works by:
Elizabeth You
Gage Stixrude-Bertelloni
Italy Clark
Fabricio Apuy-novella
Saryah Colbert
Yali Alsberg
Mira Mitre
Vrisika Chauhan
Yvente Situ
Lauren Lee
Sage Kowalkowski
Tickets
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The Creative Team
Director: Ana Maria Alvarez
Dancers
Elizabeth You's Piece
Takeharu Mokudai
Maile Wong
Alexia Demiroska
Vivian Wu
Hannah Lucas
J'Sean Wiley
Mars Stern
Juliana Bates
Gage Stixrude-Bertelloni's Piece
Alexis Stahl
Mark Betancourt
Cece Carton
Hongbin Miao
Alexia Demiroska
Yali Alsberg
Elizabeth You
Mars Stern
Mirelle Nakoud
Emmerson Lahey
Italy Clark's Piece
Litzy Martinez
Denisse Cardoso
Julia Schweitzer
Mark Dyachuk
Hongbin Miao
Leela Noguchi
Adela Gonzales
Kylah Whittaker
Mark Betancourt
Fabricio Apuy-novella & Saryah Colbert's Piece
Roxy Ong
Majesty Byrd
Juliana Bates
Vivian Wu
Alexis Stahl
Alondra Santiago
Carly Villongco
Denise Cardoso
Kylah Whittaker
Litzy Martinez
Vicky Pham
Sophia Bokovikova
Kaylin Poblete
Q Thwreatt
Matthew Ford
Yongyun Zhang
Yali Alsberg's Piece
Jillian Curry
Kaitlyn Fong
Cece Carton
Nazia Quadir
Majesty Byrd
Ella Ricchio
Jyzelle Tena
Ajahna Amore
Oriela Oiknine
Arianna Kricun
Yael Sela
Mira Mitre's Piece
Elaine Zhao
Maile Wong
Leela Noguchi
Leana Cortez
Zoe Pasley
Alondra Santigago
Courtney Cheung
Ella Ricchio
Caroline Tjoe
Michelle Shen
Alice (Xiaoxue) Lin
Natasha Balingit
Tamia Morris
Sujal Nahata
Elizabeth You's Piece
Takeharu Mokudai
Maile Wong
Alexia Demiroska
Vivian Wu
Hannah Lucas
J'Sean Wiley
Mars Stern
Juliana Bates
Vrisika Chauhan's Piece
Aanya Choksi
Yvente Situ's Piece
Hannah Lucas
Monica Park
Joanne (Juwon) Shin
Ailinna Zhang
Lauren Lee's Piece
Nazia Quadir
Jillian Curry
Clara Williams
Nicole Constan
Kaitlyn Fong
Lauren Pak
Sage Kowalkowski's Piece
Josie Marasco
Ella Breaux
Elaine Zhao
Lauren Pak
Mirelle Nakoud ick image to view a full digital pro
About the Director
Ana María Alvarez, a 2020 Doris Duke Artist and an inaugural Dance/USA Artist Fellow, is a prolific choreographer, skilled dancer, masterful teaching artist, and movement activist who has achieved multiple accolades for her dynamic works. Her thesis work explored the abstraction of Latine dance, specifically Salsa, as a way to express social resistance as related to the U.S. immigration battle. This work became the impetus for founding CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater in 2005 in Los Angeles. Her most recent work with the company, ¡azúcar! was commissioned by APAP Arts Forward and NC State Live in Raleigh, NC. She will continue to work with CONTRA-TIEMPO on further developing the work as part of Jacob's Pillow, Pillow Lab, in February 2024 and will work with local dancers as part of WinterWorks 2024. After this, ¡azúcar! will be shared as part of the 20th season of Art & Power at UCSD in Spring 2024.
Alvarez and CONTRA-TIEMPO have continued to tour “joyUS justUS” (2017). This signature work is a radical celebration of humanity and the feminine, centering joy as a more loving and just future is imagined. Her work has been presented in theaters across the country and the world, including in Germany, Bulgaria, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and El Salvador. She was selected as the 2018 BiNational Artist in Residence, connecting communities in the Sonoran Desert, Phoenix (U.S.), Douglas (U.S.), Tucson (U.S.), and Agua Prieta (M.X.), through leading artistic workshops, collaborative performances, and public talks, and concluding with a performance at the U.S.-Mexico border. Alvarez and CONTRA-TIEMPO were also invited to represent the best of American Contemporary Dance Abroad through The Obama Administration’s U.S. Department of State cultural exchange program, produced by BAM, DanceMotionUSA. In the Fall of 2022, Alvarez was invited to join the UC San Diego Theatre and Dance Department as a tenured faculty member. In this exciting new chapter of her career, Alvarez, in collaboration with her colleagues and students, is imagining and designing a new future for embodied performance and practice at UCSD.
Alvarez has been recognized with a number of awards and grants including NEFA’s National Dance Project, the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, LA City Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles County and the California Arts Council among others. She is the recipient of the Mujeres Destacadas award from LA Opinion and a Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival Rainbow Award for her work with CONTRA-TIEMPO called “Agua Furiosa.” She received a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Politics from Oberlin College and a Master of Fine Arts in Choreography from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures. Alvarez lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.