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Burden of Proof

Work in Progress Performance
June 20-22, 2025
Bindlestiff Studio

 

KULARTS presents the latest project by Alleluia Panis, a work in progress performance for Burden of Proof. 

Alleluia Panis and her collaborators composer Joshua Icban, designer Wilfred Galila, illustrator Raf Salazar and the APTD dance artists, confront the injustice and ever lingering trauma foist upon the Leonora Magabo-Perez’ family in the creation of the fictional Calinao family of Burden of Proof. Set in the near future, BoP is an immersive multimedia performance by ten dance artists with text from Leonora Magabo Perez’ diary and works by  her son, 2024 San Diego Poet Laureate, Jason.  

*Pilipina Nurses, Leonora Perez and Filipina Narciso, were convicted  in the 1975 unexplained deaths at the VA Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They were  incarcerated, until a judge ordered their release due to prosecutors’ “overwhelming prejudice” against the nurses.

PERFORMANCE SHOW TIMES

Friday, June 20 at 7:00 PM
Saturday, June 21 at 7:00 PM
Sunday, June 22 at 3:00 PM

Bindlestiff Studio
185 6th St,
San Francisco, CA 94103

TICKETS AVAILABLE ON
Wednesday, April 30th, 2025

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Burden of Proof Concept Art (3).png

 

CREATIVE + PRODUCTION TEAM

ALLELUIA PANIS


DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER

Alleluia Panis, Artistic & Executive Director, is the driving force behind KULARTS and respected elder artist in the US and the Philippines. She has created 20 full-length dance theater works since 1985. She was awarded the prestigious 2017 SFAC Artist Legacy, 2019-20 Gerbode Special Artist Award, 2019-2020 Dance USA Artist Fellow, and 2020 Hewlett 50 Arts Commission.

WiLFRED GALILA


TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Wilfred Galila is a multimedia artist and writer who lives and runs trails in the San Francisco Bay Area. His films were screened at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and his art installations were exhibited at several venues in San Francisco. He is a 2018 nominee for the Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Design for the KULARTS production, Incarcerated 6×9.

JOSHUA ICBAN


COMPOSER

Joshua Icban is a musician, sound designer, and composer based in Vallejo, CA, and worked with prestigious talents and organizations such as Grammy winner Fantastic Negrito, KULARTS under the direction of Alleluia Panis, Oakland Hip Hop Collective Grand Nationxl and The SF Symphony orchestra with Michael Tilson Thomas.

RAF SALAZAR


MEDIA ARTIST

Rafael ‘Raf"‘ Salazar (@rafsalazart) is a Bay Area artist, who by day focuses his talents in illustration and design, and by night perched on rooftops as this city’s ally of justice. Taking his passion for comics he decided to get off the sidelines and started making his own. Alongside his brother they started their webcomic ReGrBl back in 2009. He has since joined up with like-minded individuals to form In Hiatus Studios to continue to create comics.

JASON MAGOBO PEREZ, PHD


POET LAUREATE

Jason Magabo Perez is a writer, performer, and teacher. Perez is the author of the hybrid collection of poetry and prose This is for the mostless (WordTech Editions, 2017). Perez serves as Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at CSU Marcos and is the current AIR at the Center for Art + Thought and Arts Fellow at Bulosan Center.

LADISLAO ‘JUNE’ ARELLANO

COSTUME DESIGNER

Ladislao ‘June’ Arellano was born in Bataan, Philippines. He trained at the Philippine Women’s University and New York’s Broadway Dance School. He is a lead dancer in Parangal Dance Company since 2008 and performed in works by Alleluia Panis and Sydney Loyola.

HANA SUN LEE


PRODUCTION MANAGER

Hana Sun Lee is an arts organizer and administrator based in San Francisco/Bay Area. She is currently serving as the Managing Director at KULARTS. She has over 8 years of experience in multidisciplinary arts programming, administration, and project management. Prior to KULARTS, she was at the de Young Museum/Legion of Honor and Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco.

 

DANCE ARTIST

DRE ‘POKO’ DEVIS

Dre ‘Poko’ Devis is a multidisciplinary movement artist of boholano and ilokano lineage, hailing from daly city. their movement draws from gymnastics, muay thai, house dance, hip hop, vogue, and pilipinx folkloric forms, channeling ancestral memory and embodied storytelling through rhythm, ritual and dance.

JOHAN CASAL

Johan Casal is a multidisciplinary artist based in the Bay Area producing work in film, music, theater, and dance. He performed as a lead dancer in Netflix’s production of “The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Live Experience,” and directed and produced an original feature film, “Manalo: The Movie Musical,” highlighting the shared struggles of Filipinx-Americans and the diverse cultures of the Philippines.

JESS DEFRANCO

Jess DeFranco grew up in the Bay Area and is a San Francisco based dancer. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Asian American Studies from San Francisco State University, she began working as a freelance performing artist and dance educator. Her first collaboration with KULARTS was in 2022 and 2023 with “Nursing these Wounds”, followed by the “AntingAnting Project” and presenting her choreography in “Queering Pilipinx Aesthetics” in 2024.

FRANCIS ANTHONY CAILLES

Francis Anthony Cailles is a San Francisco Bay Area native that has grown into dance artistry as a movement across life. He first approached his movement practice as a scientist/athlete before embarking on this more holistic journey in understanding the body as artistic medium and created a deeper spiritual practice meditating on the social implications of dance. This practice became a healing modality in Francis’s life leading with the mantra, “life is a dance.”

ANGEL VELEZ

Angel Velez (they/them) is a dance artist who has performed works by Parangal, eMotion Arts, LV Dance Collective, Embodiment Project, and notable others in the Bay Area. Trained in multiple dance lineages from a young age, Angel draws from Laban/Bartenieff fundamentals and is informed by internal sensations, emotions, and visualizations.

JONATHAN M. MERCADO

Jonathan Michael Mercado is an interdisciplinary Filipino-American artist in the Bay Area. His movement is inspired through his experiences of hip-hop/urban choreography and Filipino folk dancing. He currently dances with KULARTS under director Alleluia Panis and Parangal Dance Company under director Eric Solano.

JENELLE GAERLAN

Jenelle Gaerlan (she/they) is a multi-disciplined creative and freelance dancer from Portland, Oregon. Having trained in contemporary, jazz, modern, ballet, hip hop, house, waacking and movement improvisation/freestyle, Jenelle has done work for Nike Inc., DarVejon Jones Dance Ensemble, BodyVox Dance Company, Soulskin Dance, Fray Show by CandyBomber Productions (premiered at Stanford Live), and Robert Moses’ KIN.

JUSTIN LAYUGAN

Justin Layugan is a Fil-Am with Ibanag, Gaddang, and Kabiteno roots. Justin channels self expression through Filipino Ancestral movements such as Philippine dance and martial arts. He is a dance performer in Parangal Dance Company under the direction of Eric Solano and Visayan style corto Kadena mentored by Guro Jasper Pugao.

ROSIKA DATER-MERTON

Rosika Dater-Merton is a dancer, teaching artist, and arts administrator. She grew up on the east coast studying classical ballet and then attended the LINES/Dominican University BFA program. She's grateful to be a part of the Bay Area dance community and has had the opportunity to work with companies such as Kambara+, eMotion Arts, Joe Landini Dance, Piñata Dance Collective, A Pulso Dance Project and others. She currently teaches for the LINES Community Program, Berkeley Ballet School, and the ODC School. Rosika is excited to dance with KULARTS and be a part of this project!

GENEVIE DELA CRUZ

Genevie Dela Cruz (she/her) is a San Diego-born, San Francisco-based dance artist, choreographer, and arts administrator who has performed with MPWRD Collective, KULARTS, and various Bay Area choreographers. She holds degrees in Dance Performance and Kinesiology (Exercise and Movement Science) from San Francisco State University, which influence her approach to movement and the body-mind connection.