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    • About
      • About Us
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      • AADF
      • AADF Collab Residency
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  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Joyce Lien Kushner
    • Collaborators
    • Team AADF
    • Wrecking
  • Events & Programs
    • AADF
    • AADF Collab Residency
    • AADF Community Showcase
    • AADF Film Screening
    • Spring ChoreoWreck
  • Classes & LABs
    • Classes
    • Open LAB
    • ChoreoWreck LAB
  • Calendar
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See what our Collaborative Residency choreographers have been up to...

Our resident choreographers are immersed in a 5-month long process, with multiple projects that lead up to a final showing at AADF2025 Collaborative Residency Showcase in August. Follow these inspiring artists as they progress through their dance making journey...come along as they explore themes of multiple identities, cross-cultural influences, and collaboration within community.

Projects Completed

Voices Across the Water (April 26, 2025)

Our Collaborative Residency choreographers were paired up with AAPI spoken word artists to offer a movement response to their poetry. The choreographers were allowed to improvise or create set material. AADF Co-Organizer Dr. grace shinae jun also participated, kicking off the show with a powerful response to spoken word artist Ant Black. Post performance, a lively panel discussion took place, with audiences asking thought-provoking questions. Afterwards, audiences were invited to sit with the artists and share their own stories.


Choreographer/Poet pairings:

Dr. grace shinae jun (AADF) / Ant Black (MindFull Movement)

Ian Isles (AADF) / Kauakanilehua Mahoe Adams (MindFull Movement)

Smrithi Suresh (AADF) / Tanya Lancaster (MindFull Movement)

Hybrid (MindFull Movement) / Dr. Jason Magabo Perez (MindFull Movement)


Voices Across the Water was presented in collaboration with MindFull Movement as part of their program ALL PLAY ONE, presented at the SoCal API Festival and inside the Oceanside Museum of Art.

Bridging Communities: Echoes of Identity & Resistance (May 25, 2025)

Our Collaborative Residency choreographers presented the next reiteration of their collabortive work with fellow AAPI spoken word artists. Presented in collaboration with MindFull Movement, Bridging Communities offered poetry, film, and dance in a cross-cultural and cross-genre celebration of AAPI story telling. Post performance, a thoughtful panel discussion took place, with deep refection by the artists.


Artists Featured:

  • Smrithi Suresh (AADF) dancing to the poem of Tanya Lancaster (MindFull Movement)
  • Ian Isles (AADF) dancing to the poem of Kauakanilehua Mahoe Adams (MindFull Movement)
  • Mikaila Sagapolutele dancing to the poem of Daja Marks, spoken by Raul Paulo Ragudo Jr.  (all MindFull Movement artists)
  • Adie San Diego (AADF) dancing to the poem of Daja Marks (MindFull Movement), spoken by Raul Paulo Ragudo Jr. (MindFull Movement)


Bridging Communities was presented in collaboration with MindFull Movement at the Oceanside Theater Company.

Projects to Come

June 29 - ChoreoWreck @ Light Box Theater in Liberty Station

July 13 - ChoreoLAB: Merging Influences workshop
August 22/23 - AADF2025 Residency Showcase (dates tentative)

Meet the Choreographers

Adie San Diego

Adie San Diego is a Filipina-American artist residing in Los Angeles. She received her BFA in Modern Dance from Point Park University, and in May 2025, Adie will receive an MFA in Choreography from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). As a dancer, Adie has had the honor to work with renowned artists including Helen Simoneau, Joanna Kotze, Yin Yue, Beth Gill, and more. Adie’s choreographic work has been presented in Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Durham, and Los Angeles, and she is excited to share with the San Diego dance community in AADF.  Additionally, Adie is a freelance photographer/videographer working with artists from the greater communities of Raleigh, NC and Los Angeles, CA.

Ian Isles

Ian Isles (he/him/his) is a San Diego based dance expressionist. He is a Filipino man who stands at 5'8", with brown skin, and brown eyes. He holds a degree in Dance from UCLA, has finished the programs for Laban Movement Analysis/Bartenieff Fundamentals and Contemporary Pilates which both inform his work as a Pilates instructor and Dance instructor. He enjoys practicing Gaga and the Alexander Technique, and loves working with local artists Grace Jun, Chelsea Zeffiro, and Erica Buechner.

Smrithi Suresh

Smrithi Suresh has been learning Bharatanatyam for the past 17 years under the tutelage of her Gurus Smt. Suganda Sreenath and Smt. Shreya Iyer of Jayendra Kalenkendra. After coming to San Diego for university, she pursued further training under Smt. Radhika Karandikar. She has performed in numerous locations across the world including Dallas, Bay Area, Cleveland, and India. She is also an IndianRaga Fellow. Passionate about choreography, she co-founded Fuchsia Dance, a platform for dancers to collaborate and innovate. Notably, they have performed at TedXBerkeley and the Erasing Borders Dance Festival in New York. She is currently a senior at the UCSD studying nanoengineering.

About the Residency

AADF2025 Collaborative Residency: Dance, Spoken Word & Community is a 5-month cohort residency for early to mid-career AAPI  choreographers that runs April - August 2025. Their research and work culminates in a final showing at AADF2025 Collaborative Residency Showcase.

Research & Community Engagement

For the first two months, resident choreographers are paired with AAPI spoken word artists for interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration, creating joint work through community engagement and storytelling. Together, resident choreographers and spoken word artists explore the complexities of identity, migration, and resistance cross-culturally within the AAPI diaspora. Through the powerful mediums of poetry and movement, the artists reflect and amplify AAPI stories of shared struggles, celebrate cultural heritage, and foster collective resilience. Two performance opportunities are provided to share this collaborative work.


Voices Across the Water

This initial presentation of work consists of movement responses by the resident choreographers to the poetry of the spoken word artists. Time is also given for public interaction and sharing of stories.


Bridging Communities: Echoes of Identity & Resistance

This follow-up presentation is the evolution of the choreographer/poet collaboration. Coming together in an evening of work, the artists present a multi-disciplinary showcase that features spoken word, film, and dance.

Independent Exploration of Identity

During the final three months of their residency, the choreographers dive into independent research of their own questions of identity. They explore themes of inhabiting multiple cultural spaces, how to navigate conflicting expectations, what it means to live in that liminal place of being both Asian and American. The collaborative aspect during this period comes in the form of support between the choreographers for one another and from mentorship and guidance from the AADF co-organizers. 


Spring ChoreoWreck 2025: De/Reconstructing Dances - AADF Edition

As part of their choreographic research, the residents take part in a public "wrecking", where they offer up their work-in-progress to be reinterpreted by their fellow residents and invited dance artists. The "wreckers" are given permission to play and remake the resident choreographers' work (the "wreckees") live in front of an audience. Through this process, choreographers are able to gain valuable insight into their works that go deeper than simple verbal feedback. Learn more about "wrecking".


ChoreoLAB: Merging Influences

ChoreoLAB is a series of dance making workshops led by co-organizer Joyce Lien Kushner, where participants experiment and play with various tools used for movement generation, movement manipulation, and phrase making. Since the choreographers are delving into their multi-cultural identities, this particular ChoreoLAB looks at dance making through the lens of cultural heritage. Participants explore ways to merge cultural influences of their particular heritage with their practiced dance form, which may have no connection to their heritage or to their American identity. The choreographers play with cross-cultural ideas not only within the subject matter of their works, but also with the movements themselves. ChoreoLAB: Merging Influences is held in collaboration with Disco Riot and is open for anyone to attend.


AADF2025 Collaborative Residency Showcase

After months of research and exploration, the choreographers' work culminates in a final presentation held during AADF2025. The format of this showcase is left open to the choreographers - some may present finished works, some may present their research in the form of a lecture/demonstration, and some may choose an audience participation format. For all, this is a presentation of what they have excavated for themselves so far, and it will most likely be the starting point for deeper work in the future. 

Our Partners & Sponsors

TILTshift Dance and AADF2025 are fiscally sponsored by San Diego Dance Theater.

Copyright © 2025 TILTshift Dance - All Rights Reserved.

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