SPARKS: a conversation & performance series featuring leaders and practitioners from varied disciplines—artists, authors, organizers, makers—who share a medium and an orientation toward liberation.
“The Journey of ReOrientation: A Parable of NOW”
Deep Waters Dance Theater/amara tabor-smith
June 26-28th at Eastside Arts Alliance
Friday 7pm
Saturday + Sunday 5pm
Eastside Arts Alliance is ADA accessible.
*ASL Interpretation on Saturday, June 27 only
*Haptic tour and audio description on Sunday, June 28 only
* Haptic tour begins at 4pm
Tickets- $20 (NOTAFLOF)
The Journey of ReOrientation: A Parable of NOW is a map, an oracle and a ritual to right our way. We belong here, on this road, in a time like no other, guided by whispers from the ancients, and the newly arrived spirits…the clearing of this path requires great tears, great rest, great laughter, and a remembering that the medicine for this moment is in our bones. Come be with us if it is where you need to be….we will be here calling forward our collective Ancestral Intelligence.
The Journey of ReOrientation: A Parable of NOW is part of a multi year project titled, “(may there be) Good Atmosphere Between Us: The Parables of Now.”
This multi-year ritual performance project is grounded in community stories, collective rituals and the re telling of African and Indigenous mythologies, Bible verses and Black feminist invocations, guided by the core question, “How do we activate our collective ancestral wisdom and spirit to survive, adapt, and heal from climate catastrophe and global political chaos in the Anthropocene.
These parables will be performed anywhere they are needed and called for over the next four years or for as long as you deem them necessary.
Created by amara tabor-smith
In collaboration with: Courtney Desiree Morris, Keisha Turner, Kaishin Unique Holland(performers) Alexa Christine Burrell (sound + music design), Alisha Wormsley (film)
LIVE ARTS IN RESISTANCE (LAIR) is a dynamic series of performance showcases, artist residencies, and community town halls that address racial inequity and white supremacy in popular culture. Collectively, we contribute to a new cultural consciousness of self-determination and indigenous knowledge as integral to our resistance to systemic oppression and imperialism. LAIR is a partnership between NAKA Dance Theater and EastSide Arts Alliance.
Mi Historia · Mi Telar brings together stories made by Maya Mam women, where the act of weaving is also an act of narrating, resisting and preserving ancestral knowledge. In each piece lives the continuity of language, land and community.
We are honored to launch our 25th Anniversary year by showing work at Movement Research at Judson Church.
January 12, 2026 at 7 PM, Judson Memorial Church, New York City
Featured Artists: NAKA Dance Theater, performing “Last Seen”, Jody Oberfelder Projects, and Symara Sarai.
NAKA Dance Theater’s Fugitivity is an interdisciplinary performance project exploring the theme of fugitivity: Who has lost the ability to move freely? Who is forced to flee?
Join us for a public talk with NAKA Dance Theater collaborators as they share insights into the artistic process for their upcoming performance, “Fugitivity” happening at Dance Mission Theater and in the 24th Street + Mission BART plaza, Saturday and Sunday, October 25 and 26, 2pm and 4pm.
Sumate al espacio de bordado, poesía, reflexión y Lucha. Voces Feministas es un colectivo incluyente de mujeres migrantes, latinas, indígenas y personas de géneros no conformativos del Área de la Bahía de San Francisco. Desde hace casi cinco años, hemos venido tejiendo espacios de confianza para animarnos a hablar y compartir las experiencias que nos hieren, nos atraviesan y nos resultan injustas. A través de círculos de aprendizaje, presentaciones artísticas y procesos de organización comunitaria, hemos iniciado un camino de denuncia colectiva utilizando el arte como herramienta de apoyo y transformación.
EastSide Arts Alliance and NAKA Present: LAIR Showcase
Featuring Diana Lara, Audrey Johnson, Kim Ip - with support from Asian Babe Gang (ABG)
Often, artists and fans find themselves saying, "Sorry I missed your show!" This series aims to revive those memorable performances, capturing their political and artistic significance from a specific era, space, and time.
Don't miss this rare opportunity for an intimate conversation with K.E.V, Leslie Lopez, Simone Nalls and others as they reflect on their contribution to the seminal work of the Anastacio Project.
A visual art and performance project created by members of the Indigenous Maya Mam immigrant community of East Oakland in collaboration with NAKA Dance Theater and EastSide Arts Alliance. Our project integrates personal and collective narratives, movement and textile art inspired by the weaving traditions practiced by women from Xjan Xwan Atitan, Chimb'al and Torasant, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.
Uniting nationally celebrated jazz artists, cultural workers, and local creatives for a full day of live jazz, Hip Hop, Spoken Word art, food, and liberation in the heart of East Oaklan
Singh's Ghadar Geet: Blood and Ink merges dance, poetry, and live music to chronicle the Bay Area's Ghadar Party, a revolutionary force in India's fight for independence from British rule. Rooted in Bhangra and Giddha, traditional Punjabi dances embodying both celebration and resistance, Singh intertwines her diverse dance vocabulary to describe the enduring legacy of anti-colonial struggles.
Towards Opulence, the Opera is part of an ongoing act of creative resistance and imaginative reclamation. Skywatchers believe that Tenderloin residents, and other marginalized people, are the truth tellers of our society, akin to the mythical Cassandras. By breathing life into often overlooked or discredited truths, we remember our interdependence and expose the roots of power and oppression. Towards Opulence invites us to conjure and claim our most audacious and glorious selves and step into a future where we truly belong to each other.
Trapitos al sol / Airing our Dirty Laundry
Proyecto de bordados feministas / A Feminist Embroidery Project
Mujeres Poderosas + NAKA Dance Theater.
We warmly invite you to the last in a series of three events about the Okinawan Diaspora.
Organized by the Beyond the Fence Collective
Hosted by J-Sei and sponsored by the Northern California Okinawa Kenjin-Kai
Beyond the Fence: A Memoir Reading with Mieko Anne Walden
A cry for revolution through dance, music, art and poetry by international collaborators from the SF Bay Area and beyond.
The Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers has built a cultural coalition of artists who are focusing on social justice issues that center local immigrant, queer, feminist and indigenous perspectives that extend to Palestine. Join us for Community Care workshops, Co-Resistant Discussions, Ofrendas + Art Sale for Gaza, Cuban-Palestinian food, Performances and Community. Your participation is a meaningful act of solidarity for artists and activists who are giving a voice to the voiceless.
In addition to presenting local choreographers and culture bearers, FLACC is inviting musicians, poets, activists and healing artists to share their work, to bring truth, hope and care for our communities.
This series features informal and intimate conversations using archival media to reflect on past performances by Bay Area artists that have left a lasting impact on our performance community. Often, artists and fans find themselves saying, "Sorry I missed your show!" This series aims to revive those memorable performances, capturing their political and artistic significance from a specific era, space, and time.
A group of Central American and Mexican day laborers in Fruitvale formed the Teatro Jornalero/Day Laborers Theater to share their stories.
What does it mean for Japanese Americans to have ancestors from Okinawa? How is it different from the histories and experiences of other Japanese Americans? This workshop is for people with at least one family member/ancestor (e.g., parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc.) from Okinawa, specifically welcoming people of all ages who don't know much about Japanese or Okinawan cultures, languages, and histories; people of multiple ancestries; and people who identify with multiple marginalized communities (in terms of ability, sexuality, gender, etc.).
We invite you to join us to learn from a cohort of women weavers originally from the following municipalities in Huehuetenango Guatemala, about their weaving practices, view their creations and listen to their stories.
We warmly invite you to the first in a series of three events about the Okinawan Diaspora
Organized by the Beyond the Fence Collective, Hosted by J-Sei and sponsored by the Northern California Okinawa Kenjinkai
Okinawans have been migrating to the United States for over 100 years. They have come in two major waves - before World War II and after World War II. What have been the circumstances for their leaving Okinawa and coming to the United States?
We’re going to Cornell University in New York to present a touring version of the project and to work with immigrant women in the Ithaca area. We know that there is no better lucha than to keep walking, creating, and connecting with other grassroots communities.
We’re traveling to Los Angeles to perform two shows in the Boyle Heights neighborhood in celebration of International Women's Day and in support of tenants' rights, thanks to our friends from Unión de Vecinos.
We’re traveling to Los Angeles to perform two shows in the Boyle Heights neighborhood in celebration of International Women's Day and in support of tenants' rights, thanks to our friends from Unión de Vecinos.
Jody Stillwater’s short documentary film Y Basta Ya!/Enough! highlights the stories of several grassroots immigrant women who work as caretakers/domestic workers in the Bay Area, and also have performed with NAKA Dance Theater.
CANCELLED IN SUPPORT OF BOYCOTT - Jody Stillwater’s short documentary film Y Basta Ya!/Enough! highlights the stories of several grassroots immigrant women who work as caretakers/domestic workers in the Bay Area, and also have performed with NAKA Dance Theater.
CANCELLED IN SUPPORT OF BOYCOT — Join us for a dynamic afternoon of dance performances exploring the experiences of migration and immigration. Shaped as “choreopoems,” the pieces explore border crossing, sanctuary cities, and lived experience by sharing personal stories and narratives through choreography and sound.
CANCELLED IN SUPPORT OF BOYCOTT - Watch a film screening of NAKA Dance Theater’s seminal work The Anastasio Project (2015), followed by a conversation with artists from the project.
Now Jose Ome Mazatl and Debby Kajiyama focus the camera back on themselves to reflect on their own experiences of creating the piece. They zoom in on key artifacts, costumes and photos; zoom out in time; reflect on border-crossings and the loss of languages to create a dream-like, multimedia-infused Performance of the Performance.
NAKA Dance Theater y Mujeres Unidas y Activas les invitan cordialmente a la celebración del grupo de Telares Maya Mam!
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Join NAKA Dance Theater and Mujeres Unidas y Activas for a celebration with our Indigenous Maya Mam Weaving Circle participants!
MU-칠성새남굿 Chilseong Saenamgut (Duringut)
Ritual contra Las Enfermedades
Obra creada por la galardonada artista de artes tradicionales y contemporáneas Dohee Lee, directora artística de Puri Arts, como una acción ritual performática inspirada en los rituales sagrados de la ciudad natal de la artista, la isla de Jeju, en Corea. La ceremonia está acompañada por tres percusionistas y cantantes creando así, un altar público. Proyecto que continúa la exploración de las representaciones rituales que comenzó en 2004.
