Devon Chen is a freelance dancer hailing from the SF Bay Area. She has performed professionally with numerous dance companies, including Dancing Earth, Loose Change Dance, Visceral Roots, Soulskin, LV Dance Collective and FACT/SF. From her early years studying ballet, to her discovery of contemporary dance in college, to her more recent explorations of vertical dance with Bandaloop, she has continuously evolved as an artist. She embraces the art of storytelling through dance, seeking to connect with audiences on a deep and visceral level. She earned a Bachelor’s in Neuroscience and Behavior and later obtained her Doctorate in Physical Therapy and now specializes in dance and sports medicine. She is thrilled to be joining Ciarra D’Onofrio + Dancers for Heartstring!

Ciarra D’Onofrio (they/them) is a queer dancer, aerialist, and educator with a passion for using dance as a means of storytelling, social analysis, and community building. They specialize in vertical dance, dance trapeze, and contemporary dance. They have performed in redwood forests, cathedral spires, and on trampoline walls. Their current choreographic work explores grief, the co-creation of queer identity, and how gender lives in the body and in physical space. Recently their work has been presented in the San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival, the Tenderloin Arts Festival, and the CounterPulse Festival. They are a company member of Zaccho Dance Theater, where they recently performed for sold out crowds while suspended in the dome of San Francisco City Hall. Other favorite collaborations include Nina Sawant, Epiphany Dance Theater, Olallie Lackler, and Helen Wicks Works. In 2023 they were a member of Bandaloop’s Training Group, and they were recently awarded artist residencies at Shawl Anderson Dance Center and Zaccho Dance Theater, where they are developing their current choreographic project, Heart String.

Creator. Performer. Movement Artist. Bodyworker. Derek (he/him) embraces dance as a medium that can recontextualize how we take up space in the world. Drawn to moments of transformation, he is preoccupied with creating environments where the multiplicity of being can be revealed. As a performer, he effortlessly interweaves moments of full-bodied abandon with delicate tenderness and emotional authenticity. Derek is a founding member of Hypothetical Circus, and has performed with LEIMAY Ensemble (New York), Human Shakes, Epiphany Dance Theater, and Erik Wagner, among others. Follow him @derek.moves on Instagram.

Olallie Lackler is a queer, non-binary experimental dancer, creator, and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their work explores the universes between contact improvisation and contemporary/experimental dance. Frequent themes of exploration include relationships, queerness, the realms of the inner cosmos, and power. They have self-produced their work in the east bay, and have presented work through LABA Bay Area, Performance Primers and the SAFEhouse RAW Residency. They teach dance in various public schools and throughout the Bay Area.

Kriss dances writes makes twirls questions confronts doodles directs, holds space, creates space, and finds magic in the mundane. They find peace in holding their breath for long periods of time underwater, is a housing advocate for survivors of violence, researches emergent anchors in disorienting scenarios, are in constant practice of deconditioning the colonizers’ imprint, and ultimately dreams of a world where God is a flower. Kriss’s creative work surfaces visceral remembering and integration of stories that don’t follow a linear narrative. Their expression has been informed through contact improvisation, contemporary dance, house dance and music, aquatic therapy practices, vertical dance and free diving. Kriss trained in contemporary dance from Tanzfabrik Schule (Berlin) and was an Artcorps scholar at the Tamalpa Institute, studying Expressive Arts Therapy. They received their B.S. in Neurobiology Physiology and Behavior (UC Davis) and is currently an Axis Syllabus teacher candidate. They Co-direct Twin Moons Productions, offering aquatic experiences that supports embodiment in disorienting scenarios, freelances locally and internationally as a choreographer, dancer, and teacher. They have collaborated & performed with local and international artists such as Diana Lara, Krista DeNio, Scott Wells, James Graham, Mei Bao, and Jessica Yactine, and Artship. www.kristenrulifson.com

Liv Schaffer (she/her) is a dancer, choreographer, and educator with a focus on intergenerational practice. She has performed with AXIS Dance Company, DanceWorks Chicago, Robert Moses’ Kin, and the Dance Exchange. Liv is a Community Engagement Artist with Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and on faculty at University of San Francisco’s Performing Arts & Social Justice department, where she teaches contemporary technique and directs an on campus intergenerational dance company, Dance Generators. Liv’s choreography has been presented by Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, ODC Theater, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, RAWDance SF, The Big Muddy Dance Company, and Western Michigan University. Liv’s creative work is simultaneously anchored in social services and aging spaces; she is the Intergenerational Director with EngAge, designing experiences that bridge generational divides within affordable housing communities across California and Oregon. Liv was named a 2021 Gen2Gen Innovation Fellow by CoGenerate and serves on the Board of Directors for San Francisco Village, a membership organization that supports older adult San Franciscans age in place. Photo credit: Hillary Goidell

Hannah Westbrook (she/her) is a queer Oakland based dance artist, and educator. Her interests lie in the ever shifting web of dance, theater, improvisational practice, and site-specific dance. Hannah’s performance & choreography work has been seen on stages and in film festivals across the US and abroad, including choreography for the multi-award winning music video/protest prayer “Walk With Us”. Hannah is a graduate of UC Berkeley, earning the Departmental Citation for excellence in dance. Some performance credits include Stephan Koplowitz/AXIS Dance Company, Tim Rubel Human Shakes, animi motus, Tara Pilbrow Dance, and an ensemble role in Anna Halprin’s Parades and Changes.

Kate Munger has been passionate about community singing since she was 8 years old at Girl Scout Camp and has led community singing now for over 45 years. In 2000 she founded the first of now 200 Threshold Choirs around the world. Today at 73 she is retired and has returned to her passion of singing at the bedsides of people who are dying, in coma and with folks who are incarcerated. She is a popular speaker among palliative care and prison reform professionals at conferences and is a gracious, skillful musical host and choral director whose joy is reminding us that we are singing beings, bringing community singing back to “the community.” Kate knows that this work is deep and serious and she offers a fresh, lively, sometimes irreverent, always relevant perspective. The Threshold Choir is an international organization who's mission is to sing for those at the thresholds of life. Learn more about the powerful work of the Threshold Choir at thresholdchoir.org