DAVID HERRERA PERFORMANCE COMPANY
Celebrating 16 years of innovative, thought-provoking dance;
Promoting Latinx Voices via modern American Movement
2007 -2023
Voted Best Dance Company-Runner Up 2022 by "Best of the Bay"
Moving Forward Together : Latinx Artists in Converation
Latinx Hispanic Dancers United (LHDU) , a community engagment progam of David Herrera Performance Company, is an intersectional culturally centered caucus, community, and network comprised of national working Latinx/e/a/o and Hispanic dance artists, educators, administrators, presenters, teachers, affiliates. This panel is one of a series of talks and conversations held by LHDU.
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LHDU current projects include creating the national register and directory of Latinx/e/a/o and Hispanic dance artists and presenting venues, developing an annual LHDU Conference (pilot Fall 2023), encouraging artistic exchange and championing cross country collaborations between artists, building a national Latinx and Hispanic dance artist archive, and bringing visibility to our members and community in the national dance ecosystem.
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This event is taking place on Yelamu , the ancestral lands of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples. Land that was stolen through colonization. Ohlone peoples continue to live here and continue to experience the traumas of displacement, genocide, and erasure of colonization. We recognize that many of us have benefitted unjustly from this history and that Native people are owed reparations and reconciliation. We will be making a donation to the Yunakin Land Tax and encourage all non-Indigenous folk who now take space in this region to make a contribution as well.
About the Panel
Karla Quintero (moderator), is a Latin-American, NYC-bred, Oakland-based female artist whose work explores intimacy, consumption, and biculturalism. Dance improvisation is her primary tool, but her creative work orients beyond dance. Recent highlights include the dance film Flavedoom, which screened at the 2021 SF Dance Film Festival (co-created with Shareen DeRyan) and the bilingual media series Danzacuentos: Voz, Cuerpo, Y Raíces (danzacuentos.org; co-curated with David Herrera & Mario Ismael Espinoza for BridgeLiveArts’s Anti-Racism in Dance Series). Karla also performs in the works of other artists, including Gerald Casel, Catherine Galasso (NYC), Hope Mohr, and Maxe Crandall. Off-stage, she co-directs BridgeLiveArts, an equity-driven presenting platform.
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Javier Stell-Frésquez (Xicanx, De-tribalized Piru & Tigua from El Paso, Texas) serves Indigenous communities of the San Francisco Bay, coordinating the Two-Spirits Powwow, and co-producing Weaving Spirits Festival of Two-Spirit Performance. With life-long experience in folklorico Mexicano, flamenco, and, more recently, vogue, and performance art, she has competed in the voguing House Ballroom Scene. She consults for various arts organizations and creative projects with skills amplified by a B.S. in Environmental Science with honors in Chican@ Studies from Stanford University. She tours Mother the Verb internationally. This year, Chaac & Yum, her collaborative short film based on a multimedia performance piece she made with Snowflake Calvert-Arizmendi, will be shown in Frameline, Inside Out, Mix Mexico, and other film festivals.
Andreína Maldonado (she/her) is a Venezuelan multidisciplinary performing artist, cultural worker, entrepreneur and registered Integral Yoga teacher based in Yelamu, Ohlone territory colonially known as San Francisco, California. She is a grant recipient of the San Francisco Arts Commission, the California Arts Council, the National Association for Latino Arts & Culture (NALAC), and Marin Headlands Center for the Arts for working with immigrant workers in arts and wellness projects that uplift the experiences of workers and centers self-care practices as a powerful tool for personal and collective transformation.
Kathryn Florez trained at the SF Conservatory of Dance beginning in 2010 under Summer Lee Rhatigan. Florez founded Fullstop Dance in 2015, a project-based contemporary dance company, and has since presented work at ODC Theater, Palace of Fine Arts, Cowell Theater, and others. In addition to performing Florez's work, the company hosts out-of-town artists for residencies and open workshops, including Tushrik Fredericks, Nicole von Arx, and Kirill Berezovski. Florez's choreography and teaching have been commissioned by Yerba Buena Gardens Dance Festival (SF), Concept Series (SF), The Merde Project (SF), TWObigsteps (Vancouver), SALT Dance's Link Program (SLC), ODC (SF), and Shawl Anderson Dance Center (Berkeley). Over the years she has worked with David Herrera Performance Company and ZiRu Dance. She was the Artist in Residence at Berkeley Ballet Theater from 2021-22 and has held residencies at LEVYdance. Florez is currently teaching a regular contemporary technique class at ODC.
Partially Supported by California Arts Council and San Francisco Arts Commission.