Jonathan Mercado is an inter-disciplinarian Filipino-American artist born within the bay area. As a part of the Filipino diaspora within the U.S. he has often looked to discover more about his Filipino heritage and culture through movement. His movement is inspired through his experiences of hip-hop/urban choreography and Filipino folk dancing. He currently dances with Kularts under director Alleuia Panis and Parangal Dance Company under director Eric Solano. His passion will continue to guide his efforts of discovering his own dance vocabulary that reflects his personal experiences.

Ladislao “June” Arellano was born in Bataan, Philippines. Inspired by street dancing, television, and performances by the Bayanihan Dance Company, he joined countless school productions and dance competitions. He trained at the Philippine Women’s University and New York’s Broadway Dance School He moved to SF and joined the Barangay Dance Company.

He is a lead dancer in Parangal Dance Company since 2008 and performs in all of Parangal’s major performances, including at the 6th Annual Las Vegas World Folk Dance Competition (2009), and at the SF Ethnic Dance Festival. He was a dancer for ODC Sandbox Dance Series and performed in Jay Loyola’s Tagabanua (2012), Palau’an Bird Call-Huni Ng Tandikan (2012), Maseg: Typhoon (2014) & film Sayaw directed by Cecilio Asuncion.

Dre 'Poko' Devis is a Boholano-Ilokano-Pinay-daughter-sister born and raised in Yelamu / Ohlone territory / San Francisco. As a movement artist dancer since conception, she has always known that her highest form of expression is dance. Since childhood, Poko has been honing her acrobatic, martial art and dance skills to become a well trained and disciplined vessel for creative spirit to flow through. To move what must be moved, to dance what must be danced and to honor what must be honored.

jose e. abad is a queer social practice performance artist based in San Francisco, CA who is exploring queer futurity through an intersectional lens. Born in Olongapo City, Philippines to a Filipinx Mother and a West Indian Father, jose uses dance and storytelling to explore the complexities of cultural identity, feelings of landlessness, and the memories and wisdom held within the body that the mind has forgotten, or history has erased. abad has had the opportunity to perform in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco in collaboration with a variety of companies and artists including Keith Hennessy, Scott Wells, Anne Bluethenthal, Brontez Purnell Dance Company, #DignityInProcess, and Detour Dance.

Stephanie Herrera, the company Choreographer was literally born into Filipino folk dance. A veteran of several Ethnic Dance Festivals as well as various cultural events both in the bay area as well as out of state, Stephanie started dancing at age 14 and never stopped. She's been a principal dancer and assistant choreographer for many years. She has also served as vocalist and instrumentalist for the company. Apart from Filipino folk dance, Stephanie is trained in modern jazz and tap dance. She also has American musical theater experience with Stars 2000 and the Diablo Light Opera Company in Pleasant Hill. Since the birth of Kariktan, Stephanie has served as it’s Cultural Director and Dance Mistress.

Johnny Huy Nguyen is a first generation Vietnamese-American multidisciplinary artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area and has been creating work since 2011. Centering his practice on the body, he weaves together dance, theatre, ritual, and performance art to navigate the intersections between the personal and political. In addition to his work as an individual artist, he has appeared in the works of Embodiment Project, Lenora Lee Dance Company, Kularts, and James Graham Dance Theater.

Drawing from a multifaceted movement practice integrating fluency in multiple street dance styles, contemporary dance, and martial arts, his vision is to activate dialogue, action, and collective healing through expressions of the body that are raw, vulnerable, and honest.

Isa Musni trained in musical theatre with San Francisco's ArtsEd and YPTMTC before committing to ODC’s pre-professional teen dance company, the Dance Jam. After graduating from CalArts' School of Dance BFA program, Isa was cast in Kularts’ production of Jay Loyola’s Bae Makiling as Bae Makiling herself. Her recent credits include “The Moon” in Mugwumpin’s In Event of Moon Disaster, a tribe member and dance captain for HAIR with Landmark Musical Theatre, and featured ensemble in SF BATCO’s La Posarela. She thanks Nick, her family, her friends, her teachers, BATCO, and her ‘Uli family for their support.

Claudine del Rosario teaches "Philippine History: Early Times to 1900", "Philippine History: 1900 to Present", "Filipino Culture and Society" and "Knowledge Activism". A community activist, Prof Del Rosario started her academic career as a Research Associate with USF's The Religion and Immigration Project.


Outside of USF, Professor del Rosario works at San Francisco City Hall as Deputy Director of the Mayor's Office of Community Investment and Administrator of the South of Market Fund. Professor del Rosario holds a BA in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and an MA in Asian American Studies from San Francisco State University.

Malia Byrne (she/her) is a movement artist whose practice is centered around ancestral lineage, body reclamation, collaboration, and storytelling. she aims to use her work to create spaces for dialogue and QTBIPOC coalition-building. she is a founding member of ABG, a horizontally-led collective of femme artists within the Asian diaspora, and is co-associate artistic director of skywatchers, a community arts ensemble based in the tenderloin.

Frances Gay Teves Sedayao is a Philippine native whose dance and martial arts training began at CSU, Hayward. She has danced and performed since throughout the Bay Area, studied at the Alvin Ailey School in NYC, and toured locally and nationally with Pilipino composer and recording artist, Joey Ayala and Pearl Ubungen Dancers and Musicians.

Her background includes works with NUBA Dance Theatre, Dandelion Dancetheater, Veronica Combs’ Liquid Fire Project, Anne Bluethenthal and Dancers, Laura Ellis, Robert Henry Johnson, Paufve Dance, Nina Haft & Company, Purple Moon Dance Project, Facing East Dance & Music, among others. Also an independent artist, Frances has presented original works in several SF/ Bay Area venues as well as Vancouver BC. She is a Serpent Source Foundation grant recipient and was honored as The Dance Featured Artist for the 2003 APAture in San Francisco.

Frances recently co-founded and co-produced Vortex Collective, a dance/theatre collective that launched its first San Francisco premiere December, 2003. She is currently working on new works for the John Sims Center’s "Coming Up, Coming Out Festival" and is also in collaboration with several artists and choreographers for upcoming projects and shows in the Bay Area.

She is forever grateful to all her teachers, mentors, friends and family who continue to inspire and nurture her journey as an artist and person.

Kao Vey Sebastian Saephanh (Co-Artistic Director, Co-Founder and Co-Choreographer of LVDC) received his Master of Fine Arts in dance at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts in 2009. He received his Bachelor of Arts in dance from San Francisco State University in 2005. He is currently the co-artistic director of LV Dance Collective, and dancer for PUSH Dance Company and Kularts.

Allan Ulrich, dance correspondent for the SF Chronicle, described "Quest For Truth," one of his choreographic work, which was co-choreographed by Zepeda as filled with “intelligence and intensity” and “strikes sparks”.

His choreographic works have won many invitational opportunities and/or have been commissioned by, among others: the PUSHLab for PUSH Dance Company, PUSHFest, Boston Conservatory Dance Festival, Grace Cathedral: part of San Francisco Movement Arts Festival, ODC Take 5, ODC Pilot 63, San Francisco State University, SFSU Dance Theater, the College of Alameda, sjDANCEco ChoreoProject, sjDANCEco Santana Festival, LUNA ChoreoFund, The Garage RAW Artist, SafeHouse for the Performing Arts SPF8, American College Dance Festival, Dance Mission Winter Showcase, Center For Lao Studies, East Oakland Sports Center, Orinda Academy and Shawl-Anderson Dance.

Saephanh has been described by San Francisco Chronicle as a dancer who “moved with sinuous grace through the staging.”

His dance credits include dancing for PUSH Dance Company, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Understudy Robert Moses’ Kin, Nguyen Dance Company, New York University Second Avenue Dance Company, UNUM Dance, Cathleen McCarthy, Annie Rosenthal Parr, Booke Notary, SFSU Dance Theater, Serene Dance Collective, and has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Beside being a Dance Artist, he is an Entrepreneur as well. Saephanh own a one person hair salon in San Francisco financial district called Salon KaoVey.