About Us

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Joyce Lien Kushner is a Taiwanese American  dance artist, teacher, and maker. She is also a certified Progressing Ballet Technique® instructor. Throughout her years, Joyce has trained dancers of all ages and has performed and collaborated with artists all over California – Modern City Repertoire, Strong Pulse Dance, Epiphany Dance Theater, Surhabi Suraf, Sarah Bush Dance, Amy Lewis, Five Feet Dance, and Chris Black Dance.

In  2015, Joyce founded TILTshift Dance in San Francisco. Now in San Diego, she continues to teach, make work, and holds space for other dance artists to create and work. In 2024, she was awarded an 18-month artist residency by NTC Foundation in ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station to help further these endeavors. In 2025 under TILTshift Dance, she co-organized and presented AADF, San Diego's first Asian American Dance Festival and residency program, centering AAPI dance artists and stories. 

Joyce currently teaches at Lynch Dance Institute and Malashock Dance, as well as guest teaches throughout San Diego County. She has proudly serves on the board of Disco Riot since 2014.

“The practice of training and educating dancers continually evolves. Dance techniques and styles change, and today's choreographers require versatile dancers. As a lifelong student myself, I continually research, learn, and add to my toolbox, focusing my practice on contemporary approaches.

I truly enjoy teaching all levels and ages. When working with trained dancers, particularly classically trained dancers, I help them find new movement pathways, ease in muscular effort, and added dimension in movement quality. How I teach reflects my concern for dancer longevity, incorporating functional anatomy and somatic approaches in my classes.  When working with novice dancers, the joy of dance is first and foremost. Adult beginning and returning dancers hold a special place in my heart, as I myself retuned to dance in my mid 40s after almost 20 years away and a having child.

Thankfully, "who can dance" has evolved. I believe that dance is for everyone and every BODY – if you can move, you can dance. My class is not only a place for training, it is a safe, inclusive space for exploration,  investigation, play, and above all, acceptance.”

“An American born child of immigrants, being Asian and being American are two polar identities that I navigate between. Depending upon who I’m around or what is expected of me, the expression of my identity often morphs, whether consciously or subconsciously. Being a practitioner of modern and contemporary forms, dance had sat firmly in my American identity for much of my life. Then unexpectedly at the ripe age of 48, I was invited to explore my Asian identity through dance making for the first time. Working with other AAPI dance artists on a similar journey, I finally realized what it was like to live and tell my multicultural story through this art form that I’ve held so dear. I uncovered a wholeness that I didn’t know I was missing and a creative well that continues to shape me today as an  artist.

AADF and the AADF residency program are born from a deep desire to share this journey with others, who like myself may have unconsciously suppressed sides of their identity, trying not to be too much of one or the other, but always feeling never enough. I hope our AADF participants can find validity in their many selves, liberate and celebrate those selves equally, and ultimately realize wholeness within their dance  making bodies.”

Artist

Trixi Anne Agyao’s first experience dancing was with traditional Igorot dance she learned from the Northern California chapter of BIBAK. Her first ties to dance were about heritage, community and joy. Trixi is a socially conscious performer, choreographer and filmmaker using the digital guise of The Thoughtful Beast. she creates work centered on fighting the stigma against mental illness. Utilizing her visual storytelling experience, she sets out to make work that kinesthetically connects with her audience. Trixi is currently a company dancer for Mounarath Powell Dance.

Trixi is also an active volunteer. She is a lead volunteer for the San Diego, Filipino Cinema, United AAPI Artists and Mental Wellness for Artistists. Agiao co-founded The Filam Film Collective which focuses on Filipino American representation in the media. TFFC also provides affinity spaces for the AAPI community.

Website thethoughtfulbeast.com

Instagram @thethoughtfulbeast

Artist

Forest Lee (they/them) is a queer dance artist and political organizer, residing on Kumeyaay land. They began their dance education at the age of 3, and danced competitively up to the age of 18, when they signed with Bloc LA Talent Agency. Forest has been fortunate enough to work with music artists such as Olivia Rodrigo and Doechii. Alongside their commercial dance career, Forest strives to use movement art and dance as tools for collective healing, liberation, and investigation of topics such as identity, connection, and the human experience as a whole. They are deeply informed by their work as an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and are dedicated to fighting for a world in which all people have the right to live dignified, happy, and healthy lives. Forest views art, especially dance, as an integral component for achieving the world we all deserve. 

PC: LIndsey Rose Photography

Instagram @_forestlee

Artist/Team AADF

Nicole Oga (she/her) is a radical thinking  dance artist, educator, and pedagogue who approaches her work through an  intersectional lens that is influenced by abolition, collective  liberation, anti-racist, black feminist praxis. In June 2024 she  graduated from the University of the Arts Helsinki with a Master’s in  Dance Pedagogy. Nicole works and resides on unceded Kumeyaay land, where  she currently does dance education and outreach work with DISCO RIOT  and teaches at Grossmont College. In her work she regularly questions  and evaluates her practices and methodologies to ensure she is inclusive  and in true solidarity with her community – listening to, collaborating  with, and following the lead of those who are most impacted. She  cultivates genuine empathy, compassion, and kindness, which she knows  will transform the world into an equitable society where all are truly  free.

PC: Antti Rintala

Instagram @dancingoga

Artist/Teacher/Team AADF

Combining partner acrobatics with movement research, Jade centers safety and celebrates creativity. Passionate about deconstructing the dance binary, Jade uses movement exploration to build confidence and encourage curiosity in movers of all ages and backgrounds. She has toured internationally with MOMIX, performed as guest artist with Pilobolus, and guided hundreds of students through their shared love of dance. New to San Diego, Jade is thrilled to join such a thriving dance ecosystem and is honored to be here. 

Instagram @jadeprime