Guest Collaborators

Indigo Mateo is a Jersey-risen vocalist who currently lives in Oakland and is a writer and filmmaker. Mateo is co-owner of her social impact record label, Question Culture, and founder of Soul Showers, a space where survivors of sexual violence cleanse shame and ‘heal in the sun.’ Her debut album “Intuition” is available everywhere. Mateo has been working with dNaga over the past three years as a singing teacher in the GIRL Project and we are excited to take our artistic relationship into the collaborative realm for dNaga’s dance project Mom & Me.

Annamarta Dostourian was born in Massachusetts, received her BA from Clark University and attended San Francisco Art Institute. She has exhibited at 5 Claude Lane Gallery, Mina Dresden Gallery, SOMArts Cultural Center, and 111 Minna Gallery (San Francisco), Berkeley Art Center (Berkeley), Creative Growth Art Center, Studio Quercus (Oakland), O’Hanlon Center for the Arts (Mill Valley) and Abrams Claghorn Gallery (Albany). Her work was selected for the California Finale Juried Exhibition through RUSH Philanthropic Arts Foundation in collaboration with Bombay Sapphire and 5 Claude Lane Gallery, and has been worn by models in Hot Couture Runway Shows at The Crucible, at the Port Moody Art Center (BC, Canada), and in Vicarious Reality (short film) created by Oliver De Lantsheer, (Billboard Magazine, Supernatural Factory) for 2016 Film Fashion Award by Nick Knight, (SHOWstudio London). Hear more of Annamarta’s story and see more of her stunning art pieces.

Guest Dancers

Ceressa Allen began her lifelong relationship to physical art as a five year old in gymnastics. She built strength, character, and connections with her gymnastics team-mates over a period of 8 years. Jazz, Modern, Hip Hop, Hatian, Congolese, Guini, Contemporary and Afro-Brasilian are the dance forms she is most familiar with. In response to the current public health pandemic, she’s developed Tempo, an online dance experience specifically for folks who are either new to the Urban Dance form or who do not consider themselves dancers. She loves creating and facilitating meaningful connections, spending quality time with her two sons, living healthfully, and deepening her spiritual practices. Laughter is also an essential component of her everyday life.

Emilia Friedberg was born and raised in Oakland. As a child, she loved to swim, romp around in unitards and eat fruit straight off the trees and vines. Her eyes were opened to the world with travels as a youngster, thanks to her mother, and expanded through college in LA with two study abroad experiences as well as further international adventures postgrad. Emilia is now an occupational therapist, yoga instructor and reiki healer in San Luis Obispo who loves bikes, yoga, rock climbing and creating herbal concoctions.

Martha Friedberg is now retired from her 40-year immigration law practice in Oakland. As a child, she took ballet classes and over the years has enjoyed dabbling in other forms of dance including modern, Indian and salsa although, ironically, she never performed until having Parkinson’s. Martha was diagnosed with PD in 2010, and strives to face its challenges with courage, grace and grit. She is honored to be a part of our wonderful, whimsical dNaga dance company and Dance for PD classes.

Martha Friedberg マーサ・フリードバーグは2010年に診断が下りましたが、勇気と感謝と根性で、病気に明るく立ち向かっています。dNagaで踊ることは、今や生活の中心になりました。オークランドの患者を代表して、京都で踊れることを光栄に感じています。

Melanie Hilario is a student in the Adult Ballet program at Danspace and volunteers with Dance for PD. A Bay Area native and long-time Oakland resident, she received her MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Co-creator of the middle grade graphic novel, Debian Perl: Digital Detective (Lion Forge, 2019), she continues to work on projects as part of Triple Dream Comics. While she didn’t grow up dancing, she is very grateful to be doing so now.

Eric Kupers has co-directed, choreographed, and performed with Dandelion since its inception, creating numerous works that have been presented throughout California, nationally, and internationally. He is deeply influenced by his work as a performer in the companies of Della Davidson and Margaret Jenkins, as well as by important teachers Charles Edmondson, Bella Lewitzky and her company, Mel Wong, Silvia Martins, Ellie Klopp and Joe Goode. Eric is an Associate Professor of Dance at Cal State University East Bay and is heading up the development of an Inclusive Interdisciplinary Performance program at the university. Eric is the director of Bandelion, an ensemble of dance, music, theater and visual artists committed to ongoing interdisciplinary research, as well as the CSUEB Inclusive Interdisciplinary Ensemble, which brings together students, alumni, community members and professional performers with and without disabilities and from diverse cultures to create original performance works. Eric has created commissioned works for AXIS Dance Company (supported by a Princess Grace Award for Choreography), Big Moves, Cal State University East Bay, California Choreographers Festival, Dancing in the Streets/NYC, and choreography for projects by John Killacky, California Shakespeare Festival, and Highland Summer Theatre. He has been a resident artist at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, CELLspace, Jon Sims Center for the Arts, and ODC Theater.

Riss Myung is an Indonesian Korean young womxn born in Northern California and raised in Southern California. She studies Public Health and Global Poverty and Practice at UC Berkeley. Serving as a Youth Consultant at Banteay Srei, an anti-sex trafficking and anti-sexual assault organization that provides culturally competent resources and programs for at-risk youth, her path crossed with dNaga. Having no prior dance experience, she enjoyed the opportunity to explore and reflect upon her relationship with her mother through modern art. Through the Mom & Me project, Riss has continued her journey in finding healing – especially by learning different mediums to express her intersectional identity, specifically the love and wisdom passed down through generations from womxn in her community.

Rose Nisker is a performer, teacher, director and arts administrator. At the age of eight, she made her debut with Gamelan Sekar Jaya at the Bali Arts Festival in Denpasar, and has performed across the globe including tours to Indonesia, Europe, China and throughout the US and Canada. She received her BA from UCLA in World Arts and has served as the Artistic Director of Les Aerielles, a youth aerial arts company in Oakland. She is the Program Manager of the renowned Balinese music and dance troupe Gamelan Sekar Jaya, and a principal actor in the internationally-touring Iranian theater production, “Feathers of Fire.”

Mudita Ostrin Nisker is a recently retired licensed Marriage Family Therapist. She received her B. A. and M. A. in psychology from the University of Minnesota. A strong advocate of lifelong learning, she’s led women’s communication training groups for more than 35 years. She’s also offered training and coaching locally and nationally with private, public, and non-profit organizations for 35 years. Her articles in Tricycle Magazine and The Inquiring Mind Journal explore the Buddhist idea of Right Speech in daily life. Mudita is a musician and founding member of Gamelan Sekar Jaya, a 64 member company of musicians and dancers specializing in the performing arts of Bali. She has performed Balinese music and dance both nationally and internationally since 1980. Mudita is fortunate to share her love of dance with her grown daughter Rose.

Pei Yi Tam Peng moved to California when she was 11 years old, following four years of traveling to different countries. She is preparing at the College of Alameda to transfer as a biology or public health major. She is working as a young consultant at Banteay Srei, an anti-sex trafficking and sex-assaulted organization that intends to heal and empower young womxn at risk of trafficking by providing accessible community resources to meet their needs. The goal of dNaga’s project Mom & Me; The Warrior Heart empowers young womxn and their mothers by exploring their relationship while building a sense of connection and support to each other; this goal overlapped with the core of Banteay Srei. With the guidance of Claudine and the inspiration of other dancers, Pei Yi had learned to express her winding relationship with her mother via modern art moves. The winding caused by some disparity between her and her mother in the aspects of age, immigration, language, and overall cultural environment often caused a lot of conflicts between them. She is still in the process of adjusting herself to have the best relationship she could have with her mom.

Harriette Ray is a Florida-born, Oakland-raised artist, educator, mother of two, grandmother of four. Harriette has explored various career paths-symbolic of her eclectic interests. After graduating from Oakland High School, she attended University of California Berkeley where she received a BA in Social Science and Ethnic Studies. Harriette served as a social worker while pursuing her love of sculpture which evolved into a thriving porcelain doll making business. Harriette shared her skills as a sculpting instructor and also taught doll making classes at local art studios. A career change led Harriette to a trade school to learn carpentry and welding which she did until she pursued a career as an educator receiving a masters degree in education from Saint Mary’s College, as well as attending Patten University for K-12 education. With a wealth of knowledge in hand Harriette became a school teacher in Alameda County, an experience which she took with her into retirement as special and rewarding. Underlining all of these roads on her journey Harriette was a young mother and raised two children and four grandbabies. Continuing to share her gifts of art and education with her family, she remains curious and creative.

Ruth Tavlin has always loved acting, and for the past three years she has been taking acting classes and performing in showcases at Stagebridge, an expressive arts program for adults 55 and older located in Oakland for the past 25 years. The first professional production Ruth participated in was the Elders Project, which was the first year that elders were included in a Destiny Arts production. She was also in a community theater group connected to a secular Jewish community organization in Los Angeles called the Sholom Players. During her time there, she took part in putting on a series of five plays chronicling the history of the Jewish people. Ruth also enjoyed doing volunteer work for the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles where she worked with high school students to introduce them to community theater. In addition, Ruth is passionate in being a part of community organizations committed to social justice, peace, empowerment of young people, and equality.