Ex Nihilo (San Francisco premiere)

Choreography: Zaquia Mahler Salinas

Performance: Guillermo Castro, Lauren Christie, Marty Dorado, Zaquia Mahler Salinas, and Odessa Uno

Original Sound Composition: Jonny Tarr

Lighting Design & Technical Direction: Del Medoff

Technicians: Cole Stuart Johnson & Del Medoff

In the beginning, desire - the first seed of the mind - arose in that. Seer poets, searching in their heart with wisdom, found the bond of existence in nonexistence."
- Hymn of creation, Rig Veda (10:129)

Ex Nihilo, Latin for “out of nothing” is a meditation on the creative spark that must underlie all beginnings in order to bring them to fruition, and the humbling awe of never truly knowing where it comes from. Excerpts of lecture recordings from Alan Watts provide a roadmap to examine origins, nothingness, and the magic of interconnectedness that makes all of existence possible.

Click here to read a transcription of the Alan Watts lectures played during the piece.

DISCO RIOT exists to elevate a collaborative art culture in San Diego and beyond — because the world needs more movement-based art. We connect dancers and artists who want to move themselves and audiences in ways that push boundaries to make high impact art that promotes community, justice, and movement as a form of radical expression. DISCO RIOT produces and supports innovative dance programming, connects artists across media and form to grow and intensify our community, and provide an educational space that reflects contemporary and progressive professional realities. Our intent is to incite the exploration and (r)evolution of what our arts community can truly be, and to change the culture of how dance exists within it. Dance is potent; dance should move people. DISCO RIOT is here to make people feel and see something significant, and to move them towards the unexpected.

Zaquia Mahler Salinas, is a dance artist working with live and filmed dance, invested in movement-art as an act of reclamation and resistance. She is the Artistic Director and Founder of movement-arts organization, DISCO RIOT, based in San Diego, CA. Zaquia holds a BA in Dance from UC Santa Barbara, and an MFA in Dance: Creative Practice from Saint Mary’s College of California where she focused on social justice and storytelling in movement. She believes that revolution is possible through a collective awakening of mindful, embodied art practice, and that dance is a critical tool for building a better world. With movement as the central medium, her work is a mixture of dance, text, and video, in both live and digital platforms, connecting audiences to visceral, intimate, thoughtful, and introspective narratives

Guillermo Castro from San Diego, CA, is a University of California, Santa Barbara graduate with a BFA in Dance and Choreography with honors. His formal dance training began at the age of 13, training under Rayna Stohl and Ericka Moore. After high school, Guillermo stayed local and continued at MiraCosta, training and performing. During his time in San Diego, he had the pleasure of working with choreographers Khamala Somphanh, Zaquia Mahler Salinas, and Sadie Weinberg. He has performed with Unity Dance Ensemble, Selah Dance Collective, Nebula Dance Lab, The UCSB Dance Company and was an apprentice with Santa Barbara Dance Theater under the direction of Christopher Pilafian. Guillermo has performed works by Jose Limon, Shen Wei, Andrea Shermoly, Stephanie Miracle, Brandon Whited, Nancy Colahan, Edgar Zendejar, and Ephrat Ashire, amongst others. Guillermo has recently moved to NYC, but is excited to continue working with DISCO RIOT when possible.

Lauren Christie has been a member of DISCO RIOT since its inception. She also performs with Malashock Dance and San Diego Dance Theater. Since moving to San Diego, Lauren has been honored to work with many local artists including: Blythe Barton Dance, Erica Buechner, Thom Dancy, Jean Isaacs, John Malashock, Zaquia Mahler Salinas, Khamla Somphanh, Gina and Kyle Sorenson (somebodies dance theater), and Chelsea Zeffiro. She has also performed throughout the Mid-Atlantic region with DC-based Christopher K. Morgan & Artists (2012-2018). Carmel Morgan of CriticalDance writes that Lauren is “captivating…an agile performer with a knack for getting under your skin.” She received her early training at the Ballet Memphis School, and earned her BA with Honors in Public Communication and French with a dance minor from American University. In addition to her work as a performing artist, Lauren also teaches yoga and movement, and occasionally choreographs her own work.

Marty Dorado graduated with a BA in Dance from New Mexico State University in 2011. He performed in San Diego Dance Theater's Annual Trolley Dances in the Fall 2011, which inspired a relocation to San Diego. Since then, Marty continues to perform in Trolley Dances each year and danced for many local San Diego dance artists and companies including Visionary Dance Theater (2012-2015), The PGK Dance Project (2014-2020) , Compulsion Dance and Theater (2014-2019), as a guest artist for San Diego Dance Theater (2019), and he’s currently a company dancer for Malashock Dance (2014-present). He has also been exploring his creative side more recently, choreographing work for productions with Diversionary Theater and DISCO RIOT. Marty is thrilled with his decision to move to Southern California and be part of such a wonderful community of devoted artists.

Odessa Mae Uno is a Filipino American movement based artist currently working in Southern California. With a mission to make dance an accessible art form, her current practice involves developing and nurturing spaces that encourage movement as therapy, investigation, and celebration. The foundation of all of her work endlessly references her belief in the importance of community, love, and integrity. She currently choreographs her own works and performs with various projects and companies throughout San Diego including Fresh Congress Dance, Maraya Performing Arts, Malashock Dance, and San Diego Dance Theater. Uno received her BFA in Dance from California Institute of the Arts where she studied performance, choreography, and pedagogy.

Jonny Tarr is originally from Wales, UK, but somehow always knew he would end up in California. He started playing the saxophone when he was 11 years of age because he thought it would get him girls and he ended up really loving it. Jonny got involved with Jazz early on and found that this was a solid foundation for understanding many more genres of music. He went to Paul McCartney's Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts to get his music degree and after college he toured Europe, the US and Japan and played nearly every major festival in the UK. He was one of the first people in Europe to play saxophone with House music DJs and found that he was very interested in music that made people dance. This is the music Jonny want to create. With the realization that the Sax is not really a writing tool, he taught himself guitar and piano. He used his understanding of music theory to help me form bands and a unique solo show where he can pretty much incorporate all of his skills at once. Jonny is DISCO RIOT's go-to composer and has collaborated with Zaquia and other artists on many projects.

For a (world premiere)

Concept & Direction: Charles Slender-White

Choreography & Performance: Katherine Neumann, LizAnne Roman Roberts, & Charles Slender-White (and Del Medoff)

With additional choreographic contributions from past FACT/SF collaborators: Justin Andrews, Keanu Brady, Liane Burns, Michaela Cruze, Eric Garcia, Evan Hart Marsh, Emily Hansel, Erin Kraemer, Shannon Leypoldt, Kegan Marling, Morganne Mazeika, Samuel Melecio-Zambrano, Wiley Naman Strasser, Catherine Newman, Isabel Rosenstock, Maggie Stack, Amanda Whitehead, Erin Yen

Music: P. I. Tchaikovsky as performed by Ray Chen and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Lighting Design: Del Medoff

Costumes: Sporadic Assembly with original construction by Melissa Castaneda and Miyuki Bierlein

Set Design: Charles Slender-White

Set Construction: Charles Slender-White & Jax Blaska

Technical Direction: Del Medoff

Technicians: Cole Stuart Johnson & Del Medoff

FACT/SF is a San Francisco-based contemporary dance company, founded in 2008 by Charles Slender-White as a platform for organizing collaborators, building community, and creating choreography. FACT/SF regularly performs in the San Francisco Bay Area, maintains a core group of local collaborators, and has developed an extensive international network of partners. FACT/SF has premiered 42 works, with tours throughout the US, across Russia, and to Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Macedonia. FACT/SF’s Fieldwork programs provide support and material resources to contemporary dance artists outside FACT/SF.

Charles Slender-White (he/him/any) is a San Francisco-based queer contemporary dance artist of mixed European and Roma descent. He is an instigator, organizer, dad, husband, and the Artistic Director of FACT/SF. Charles is one of 36 Countertechnique Teachers worldwide, and he has taught, performed, and made choreography across North America, Europe, Russia, and in Hong Kong and Australia. Charles is currently a faculty member at the American Dance Festival, and a Guest Curator and Resident Strategist at ODC Theater. Charles graduated with honors from UC Berkeley with degrees in English Literature and Dance & Performance Studies.

Katherine Neumann (she/her) is a dancer and choreographer based in San Francisco. She holds a BFA in contemporary dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). Katherine has worked professionally with FACT/SF, Robert Moses’ Kin, the Mari Meade Dance Collective, ka·nei·see | collective, Stephanie Unger & Artists, Alyssa Mitchel, Alex Law, Hannah Ayasse, and Hannah Young.

LizAnne Roman Roberts (she/her) fell in love with dance at age four after seeing Giselle on TV in her hometown Tulsa, Oklahoma. Honored and humbled to have been working in the profession of her dreams for over twenty years, LizAnne began her career with Tulsa Ballet while finishing high school and while earning a BFA at the University of Oklahoma. LizAnne has been collaborating with FACT/SF for the past decade. She has performed in the Bay Area for over fifteen years, and has participated in tours as close to home as Santa Cruz, CA, and as far as Sofia, Bulgaria. LizAnne thanks you for sharing in the work with us today.

Delayne (Del) Medoff (Lighting Design & Technical Direction) loves lighting dance. Really loves it. Like, really, really really, didn't realize how much it enriched his life but now does because he was completely cut off from the art and people that he loves for 2 years and now when he makes a light cue that he thinks looks really good and the dancers are happy he get weepy, loves it.

Jax Blaska (FACT/SF Operations & Production Manager, they/she) is a San Francisco-bred, East Coast-baked creative collaborator now living in Oakland. As a theatremaker, they create work that is collaborative & curious, queer & feminist, and balances ritual & spectacle. They do administrative, research & archival, and production management work with various Bay Area artists and organizations, including FACT/SF, Seth Eisen (EyeZen Presents), and Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens (E.A.R.T.H.LabSF). They hold a BA with honors from Yale University.