RIE YAMAGUCHI-BORDEN (Vocalist) born in Ehime, Japan, has been a part of New York City’s vibrant jazz and free-spirited music scene since 1999. Regardless of the medium she is working in, she has the desire to express most honestly and soulfully all that life has to offer. Mostly self-taught, Yamaguchi-Borden has received instruction from great masters, Billy Kaye, Byron Landham, Cliff Barbaro, Jason Tiemann, Tardo Hammer, and Ehud Asherie. She is a member of Musical Minds Orchestra (MMO), led by Lamy Istrefi Jr., and strives to refine her craft as both an independent jazz drummer and vocalist in NYC. rieyamaguchiborden.com
SABRINA CANAS (Dancer) is a first generation Argentine American artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She holds her BFA in Dance from the University of the Arts (UArts), where she performed works by Jesse Zaritt, Netta Yerushalmy, Helen Simoneau, Marguerite Hemmings, Beth Gill, Sidra Bell, and others. In January 2018, she performed and attended the International Association for Blacks in Dance Conference in Los Angeles, CA, under the direction of Tommie-Waheed Evans and Kim Bears-Bailey, and in November 2018, Sabrina produced and presented an immersive installation performance in Solmssen Court, under the direction of Niall Jones. Since moving to Brooklyn, Sabrina has presented a collaborative duet at The Craft: Late Night Performances and Brews, performed at Triskelion Arts, HATCH Performance Series, and Uptown Rising Performance Series, and was also featured in jazz musician Tony Glausi’s music video, When It All Comes Crashing Down, premiered in February 2021. Sabrina is currently working with ChrisMastersDance, HB² PROJECTS, and Kinesis Project in New York while continuing to make her own work. sabrinacanas.com
MAIRA DUARTE (Dancer) is a Mexican New Yorker artist, educator, and organizer. She directs Dance to the People/Danza para la Gente, a collective that creates waste-less art to demand justice for Indigenous peoples, people of color, and poor and working classes globally, and promotes humanity’s shared responsibility to value life and care for natural resources and the land. Maira has taught for over 14 years at innumerable public schools in NYC and New Jersey through the organizations Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Dancewave, The New Victory Theater, and Dance Theater of Harlem. She was also a dance professor at University of The Americas Puebla, Mexico in 2013, and holds an M.A. in Dance Education from New York University. Maira is part of the community project, Escuelita Arrecifes, located in a marginalized neighborhood of Tulum, Mexico where she has implemented several dance and environmental education programs. She also co-runs The Woods, a low-cost rehearsal and performance space in Ridgewood, Queens. dancetothepeople.org
KRISTINA HAY (Dancer) is a Norwegian dance artist who performs, collaborates, and creates across Europe and North America. Hay attended the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo, before graduating from London Studio Centre, where she was a member of INTOTO Dance, under the direction of Sue Booker and Leesa Phillips. During this time she toured works by Henri Oguike, Jose Agudo, and John Ross. In recent years Hay has had the privilege of working with Luke Birch, Diana Scarborough, Meredith Bruno Company, Robert Kenny, Feeling Blue Collective, Jessica Nina Barlow, Human Dance, and Same As Sister (S.A.S.). With S.A.S. she has presented works/commissions at Gibney (POP Performance: Women in Motion); La MaMa Experimental Theater Club (AUNTS @ La MaMa Moves!); Danspace Project (Platform 2018); Centre d'Art Marnay Art Centre (2017 Artist Program Residents); and Movement Research at the Judson Church. As an independent choreographer Hay has collaborated with artists in London and New York City to present her works: You Are Someone Else; Fix; Filter; and You Are Someone Else (Too), as well as the films, Mars and Horror in Yellowstone, acting as a movement coach alongside director, Kayla Arend.
LAMY ISTREFI (Composer) is a New York City based drummer, percussionist, composer, and conductor, originally from Mitrovice in the Republic of Kosovo. Istrefi attended the University of Music and Dramatic Arts Graz (KUG) in Austria, before moving to the United States. He is currently a member of Grammy Award-winning saxophonist and composer, Joe Lovano’s Classic Quartet, for which he has toured internationally to perform at such prestigious festivals and venues as Coltrane Day; Jazz Forum; Jazz Standard; Monterey Jazz Festival; Healdsburg Jazz Festival; Blue Note Milano; Bimhuis Amsterdam; and Bergamo Jazz Festival. Istrefi has also performed and toured with legendary and prominent musicians in the jazz and free music scenes in NYC and abroad including Mark Murphy, Shelia Jordan, Dennis Irwin, Butch Morris, Juini Booth, Mino Cinelu, Judi Silvano, Jay Clayton, Greg Tardy, Eddie Henderson, Josh Evans, Duane Eubanks, James Hurt, Leo Genovese, and Esperanza Spalding. For his independent projects he continues to collaborate with a notable and diverse group of musicians: The Lamy Istrefi Quartet featuring saxophonists, Dave Liebman (National Endowment for the Arts’ 2011 Jazz Master), George Garzone, and bassist, Ben Street, as well as Musical Minds Orchestra (MMO), a conceptually based free improvisation ensemble that he founded in 2010. smallslive.com/lamy-istrefi-jr
MAGDA KACZMARSKA (Dancer) is a New York City based performer, choreographer, teaching artist, and creative aging advocate. She was born in Poland but grew up in the southwestern United States, where she received her MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography, as well as her BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Arizona. As a performer Kaczmarska was a soloist with the Lajkonik Polish Folk Ensemble and Evolve Dance~West, where she also held the position of co-founder and choreographer. In 2017 she began collaborating with choreographer, Hilary Brown-Istrefi through her platform, HB² PROJECTS, and collective, Same As Sister (S.A.S.). In the same year she was commissioned by visual artists, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy to perform the lead role in their film, CLEANER (2019), as part of their Workstations film trilogy. Drawing on her extensive ballet, modern, and folk training, Kaczmarska’s choreographic work explores infrastructures of language and identity. Her interdisciplinary work has been presented at Center for Performance Research and Shoestring Press in Brooklyn, New York; Scenofest, as part of World Stage Design 2017 in Taipei, Taiwan; LEGS Performance Festival in Giswil, Switzerland; the Tucson Museum of Art; Fred Fox School of Music; ZUZI! and Stevie Eller Theatres in Tucson, Arizona. Currently she is a lead teaching artist and performer with Dances For A Variable Population. Recent work includes a collaboration with visual artist, Laura Nova and the senior population of the Lower East Side, featuring dance performances as part of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s River to River Festival. magdakaczmarska.com
MARCO FARRONI LEONARDO (Dancer) is a movement and performance artist from Bonao, Dominican Republic who is based in Seattle and New York. They hold a BFA in dance from The University of the Arts. Their work engages with themes and ideas around home, the body as archive, the Diaspora, and memory. Artistic collaborations include nia love, dani tirrell, Nia-Amina Minor, Amanda Morgan, and Donald Byrd, among others. They have presented work in various venues in Seattle including Velocity Dance Center, Wa Na Wari, Base Arts Space, 10 Degrees Arts, The School of Spectrum Dance Theater, and The Aids Memorial Pathway.
MAHSA MATIN (Composer) is a Brooklyn-based trumpeter and producer whose music blends jazz and Afro-Latin rhythms. She was awarded Best One Woman Band as featured in The Best Of - San Francisco Weekly, and has performed at festivals in Mexico, China, and many other venues throughout the West and East Coasts. Mahsa earned her Bachelor of Music in Sonic Arts at the City College of New York. As a musician she believes that you have to have style -- slick, creative, imaginative, and innovative. Style is reflected by how you get from one note to another. It’s not what notes you play, it’s what you do with them. You’ll hear it. mahsamatin.com
JESSE SALAMAN (Guest Dancer) is a dance artist and choreographer working within the fields of theatre, performance art and education to create and promote dance works through a multidisciplinary and collaborative practice. Jesse began their vocational training at the Arts Educational School London before pursuing a BA Honours Degree at London Studio Centre, where they were awarded the Peter Brinson Award for Excellence in Contemporary Dance. As a performer they have worked with Tangled Feet Company, Meredith Bruno Company, and was a member of Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company’s International Programme in Israel. In 2018, they performed as both an actor and dancer in operas with the Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne Opera. Jesse’s choreographic works have been presented at Dance Umbrella Festival; Nitzoutzout; Kaleidoscopic; Linger/Beyond; and Resolution Festival at The Place, as well as receiving funding support from The Arts Council England. Currently they are developing a multidisciplinary collective with visual artists and musicians in London. jessesalaman.com
CONNOR SALE (Lighting Designer) is a New York based lighting designer who was raised in Arizona, but recently moved from Chicago. Recent design credits include Earth Temple (in collaboration with Nocturnal Medicine at SMUSH Gallery); Summation Dance/Sikora+Dance Double Bill (Gibney Dance); This is How We Remember (Triskelion Arts); Queen of the Night (Victory Gardens); and Sea Change (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago). He has worked as an Assistant Lighting Designer with the Juilliard School of Drama, The Feath3r Theory, Pig Iron, Urban Bush Women, McCarter Theater Center, JACK, and many more. Additionally, he has been touring with Sadler’s Wells’ production of Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring. Connor’s interested in the organic way that light moves, especially by the way light affects movement and the way movement affects light. connorsale.com
HEATHER WESTON (Visual Artist) is a multidisciplinary artist from New Jersey. Her practice speaks about material, mourning, grief, and gender. The work is realized through sculpture, painting, performance, installation, and hand-sewn tapestries. Weston uses iconography of the American West to speak about her inherited body and history within the context of national narratives of pain, power, and control. She creates compositions that appropriate rodeo aesthetics and reinterpret Americana tropes, ideals, tragic heroes, and their cultural associations with the male macho. Weston received her BFA from Parsons in 2012 and MFA from Stony Brook University in 2022. Her latest solo exhibition, Range of Mourning took place at Sagtikos Gallery on Long Island. Weston currently lives and works in NYC. heatherlweston.com
ANNA WOTRING (Production Director), a Pittsburgh native, is a community-minded dance artist, designer, and production stage manager committed to the practice of collaborative leadership. She currently works with Annie Heath, Lauren Horn, Jennifer Nugent and slowdanger as a technical design consultant, dancer, and production stage manager. Wotring obtained her BFA in Dance at the Five College Dance Department in Western Massachusetts. She has had the privilege of working with a multitude of dance organizations, including Alvin Ailey Studios, Attack Theater, Ballet Des Ameriques, BalletNext, Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Company, the Dance Conservatory of Pittsburgh, Dance Place, H2O Contemporary Dance, Monica Bill Barnes and Company, New York Live Arts, the Pillow Project, Prayers of the People, RoseAnne Spradlin, Scapegoat Garden, Time Lapse Dance, and many others. Wotring is beyond excited to begin working and imagining with the Trisk team.