About the Artists

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Rachael Dichter is a San Francisco based dancer, performer, choreographer and curator. She makes work about closeness. About the shortest distance and shortening the distance between things - between people. She grew up on the ocean and in the mountains and forests of Northern California, performing as a ballerina attending Mills College. She studied performance and classical techniques in New York and Bangalore, India and danced with Fougere Dance in Brussels Belgium. Her own work has shown locally and in Berlin, Cork, St Erme France, Portland, and Seattle. She was a 2015 Danceweb Scholar, a 2017 Artist in Residence at Caldera, a 2019 Artist in Residence at Headlands Center for the Arts, and a Robert Rauschenberg Residency recipient. She has been lucky to collaborate with a number of fierce and talented folks and for four years she co-curated the San Francisco based live arts festival THIS IS WHAT I WANT.

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Yayoi Kambara: As a third culture kid, assimilation was crucial to Yayoi Kambara’s survival. The instinct to fit in kept her quiet for many years - perhaps she started dancing to talk less. During college, a conversation made Kambara evaluate whether she would want to be the token Asian dancer or dance with a predominantly Asian company. The reality of this was reflected in her career, where she first worked Pearl Ubungen Dancers and Musicians and STEAMROLLER Dance Company later moving to ODC/Dance for over 13 years. Kambara began choreographing in 2015 centering a Japanese American/POC audience creating dance experiences that cultivate a sense of belonging. Last year, she led a Community Engagement Residency for the Bridge Project, Aesthetic Shift, an exchange between dance educators, social justice activists, and choreographers to interrogate the overlap between equity values, creative practices, and organization. Kambara was in the 4th Cohort of APAP (Association of Performing Arts Professionals) Leadership Fellows Program and currently a member of the collective Dancing Around Race with Gerald Casel, David Herrera, Bhumi Patel, and Raissa Simpson. Her current project IKKAI means once: a transplanted pilgrimage is commissioned by the Japanese American Citizens League of San Jose and awarded a Hewlett 50 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation as well as a finalist for the National Dance Project Production Grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts. She is currently exploring ideas for IKKAI XR - an interactive Virtual Reality performance.

Liv Schaffer received her Bachelor’s degree from Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program at Dominican University of California in 2013, and has spent subsequent seasons performing with AXIS Dance Company, DanceWorks Chicago, The Dance Exchange, and Robert Moses’ Kin. Liv has been a Community Engagement Artist with Jacob’s Pillow since 2014, developing arts integration methods and working as a Lead Artist with the Pillow's Medicine in Motion program; investigating ways in which dance is a tool for medical practitioners to enhance humane and holistic practices. Liv teaches Contemporary Dance technique, community engaged dance pedagogy, and directs University of San Francisco’s intergenerational dance company; the Dance Generators. Liv was a Shawl Anderson Dance Center 2019 Artist in Residence, and her choreography has been presented by DanceWorks Chicago, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out Performance Series, Jacob’s Pillow Lab In Process Series, the JUNTOS Collective, The Big Muddy Dance Company, LINES BFA & Summer Programs, Western Michigan University, and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival ChoreoFest. Liv currently designs and implements arts and wellness programming within low income and senior housing facilities around the Bay Area as a Program Director with EngAGE, Inc. (Photo by Steve Disenhof)