NAKA stands in solidarity with the boycott of YBCA, called on by the eight BAN 9 artists who publicly altered their works in the fight for the liberation of Palestine. We stand in solidarity with all the artists, all the people in the streets and blocking bridges, all the nations of the world, except the US, who have called for a Ceasefire. NAKA joins our community’s demands to boycott, and will not be performing at YBCA.
Read the Artists' Open Letter
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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.
NAKA Dance Theater will perform excerpts of Y Basta Ya!: The Performance, highlighting the stories of Indigenous and Latine immigrant women and their intimate and personal exploration of issues of race, gender violence, invisibility, and individual and collective power. NAKA co-directors José Ome Mazatl and Debby Kajiyama and their collaborators reflect on border crossings and the loss of languages to create a dreamlike, multidisciplinary-infused experience. The work is performed by Maria Vicente, Cindia Martinez, Ana Muñoz, Leticia Garcia, Adriana Perez, Adriana Embriz, Agustina Amiconi, Luciana Rodriguez, and Cristina López Suárez.
Lenora Lee Dance will perform excerpts from its newest work, Convergent Waves: EP, highlighting experiences of migration in El Paso, TX over the decades and leading up to the May 2023 end of Title 42, a COVID-19 public health restriction affecting migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. This piece is narrated through the voices of those living in these cities for generations, as well as those working on the ground providing resources and support for the individuals and families crossing the border. This work is performed by Gilberto Martínez Martínez and Catalina O’Connor.
Violeta Luna will perform Sanct·u·are, a dance piece merging the concept of a “sanctuary city”—a sheltering place for immigrants—with a basic principle of socially engaged performance: being a safe space to express the unsafe. Sanct·u·are casts a horizontal gaze to those under threat by virtue of being “foreign,” and ponders if embracing “them” is the act we must engage in to find our own hearts.
Undocumented Dance is presented as part of BAN9 Dance, which is curated by BAN9 curatorial council member José Ome Navarrete Mazatl.
