Jinza Thayer

Artistic Director/Choreographer/Dancer

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Genetically and experientially, Jinza Thayer, is a hybrid of both Japanese and American cultures which might explain her curiosities of worlds, both internal and external. After spending her first six years in Japan, Jinza grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University and received an MFA in Dance at George Mason University. As a somatic movement therapist and educator, she works with deep internal somatic processes to source the body's wisdom and instigate movement. Those ideas are then housed in immersive installations -- altered metaphorical spaces that inspire awareness of, and reflections on, how we express being in the world. She presents her work as Movement Architecture (MA).

As MA, Jinza has created over sixty original works including eight full-evening-length works at over twenty venues in the Twin Cities including Walker Art Center, Cowles Center for Dance, Red Eye Theater and Southern Theater. MA has also toured to New York City, Washington DC, Austin TX, and Montreal.

She has been a two-time semi-finalist for France’s Rencontres choregraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (Bagnolet) in 1999 and 2001; received two McKnight Artist Fellowship for Choreographers (2004, 2019), an Associate Artist Residency at Atlantic Center for the Arts (2006), a Blacklock Nature Sanctuary Fellowship (2010) and individual artist grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board (1999, 2002, 2009, 2014, 2018, 2022). Her collaborations with local composers have been awarded grants from the American Composer’s Forum (2006, 2011, 2014). In 2010, Jinza received the SAGE Award for Choreographic Concept and Design.

Stephanie Battle

Dancer

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Stephanie Battle is a New Jersey native, Brooklynite, dance artist, vocalist, somatic practitioner, and educator. In May 2025, she earned her MFA in Dance from Florida State University, where she studied the relationship between personal identity, movement, and the voice. A former member of Urban Bush Women, Stephanie is particularly drawn to dance theater and its interdisciplinary focus. In the 90’s she worked directly with legendary storytellers and dance
makers, Jawole Zollar, Donald McKayle, Dianne McIntyre, and Katherine Dunham, to name a few. In 2001, she joined the Broadway cast of The Lion King, and from 2003-2008, she had the great honor of working with Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon (Sweet Honey in the Rock) and Toshi Reagon (Big Lovely) in the cast of Robert Wilson’s rock opera The Temptation of St. Anthony.

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Stephanie is thrilled to join the cast of From Tokyo to Brooklyn and feels a special kinship with its material and raw process. While working on FTTB here in Minneapolis, Stephanie has also had the sheer delight of leading dance and interdisciplinary arts classes for the wonderfully talented kids of Frogtown Community Center’s summer camp in St Paul. She has learned so
much from them! Stephanie is so grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Jinza, make new friends, and create art with some of the coolest, most inspirational women around.

Erika Hansen

Dancer

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Erika Hansen is inspired by the unconventional. In the Twin Cities, she has performed in works by Charles Campbell, Laura Holway, Leslie O’Neill, Sandy Silva, and April Sellers among others. This is Erika's second project with Movement Architecture; she danced in All Hail the Queen in 2018. She continues to perform in JG Everest’s Sound Gardens throughout parks and nature centers in Minnesota during all four seasons. Erika lived and danced in New York City for nearly a decade, performing works by Rebecca Davis, De Facto Dance, Willi Dorner, Shannon Hummel, and Noémie Lafrance’s Bessie Award winning Descent. She toured with Johan Amselem - La Halte Garderie to Bogotá and Paris. In addition to her performance career, Erika has worked in various roles as an arts administrator and is the mother of two children.

Anne Lentz

Dancer

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Anne Lentz (she/her) is a Korean-American dance artist, born in Busan, South Korea and raised in Minneapolis. She studied ballet with Bonnie Mathis. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College where she studied dance with Viola Farber. Professionally, she studied with Merce Cunningham, Jackie Villamil, Christine Wright and Jocelyn Lorenz, among others. Anne’s professional experience spans many years of performing and teaching in New York City, Europe and Asia.

She was rehearsal director and a company member with Pam Tanowitz Dance in New York City for 15 years. She was awarded a Bessie Award in 2009 as a performer in Tanowitz’s “Be in the Gray With Me." This is her first project with Jinza Thayer/Movement Architecture.

Kavya Chirayil

Understudy/Performance Usher

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Kavya Kaviraj is a multi-stylistic dancer exploring the endless possibilities of movement. Born to Indian parents and raised in Oman, she was fortunate to inherit a rich musical and cultural heritage that runs in the family. Kavya began dancing at the age of four, training extensively in Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi for many years.

She is currently pursuing a BA in Dance at the University of Minnesota and has performed as a
company member with Ananya Dance Theatre. Beyond dance, Kavya is an aspiring violinist, studying both Indian and Western classical styles. She also enjoys painting and, on quieter days, watching cat videos.

Kavya hopes to have a fruitful interdisciplinary career merging the worlds she is involved with, to be an artist in a more excellent way.

Tumelo Khupe

Understudy/Performance Usher

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With roots in Botswana and South Africa, but born in Saint Paul, MN, Tumelo Khupe, alias Melo is a dance and movement artist and choreographer, specializing in the Krump dance form. Her artistic practice centers on four pillars; rawness, discovery, individuality and spirituality, which emerged over the decade of her art and faith journey. As a middle child of three, she believes being a bridge is part of her purpose - linking perspectives and discovering artistic wisdom along the way, a bridge between the studio and concrete, and a bridge between the seen and unseen. Her research continues to explore how the human body manifests and communicates human experiences. She currently teaches Krump, Improvisation and has been a mentor and choreographer at TU Dance, Saint Olaf College and Macalester College. Also, since receiving massive recognition on an international Krump platform, she has been travelling more and teaching her artistic approach (most recently in Lausanne, Switzerland and Toronto, Canada).

Education and Career Highlights: BA in Music Theater (dance minor) (2020), David Wick Leadership and David Wick Best Choreography (2019), Naked Stages Fellowship (2022), NexGen ChoreoLab Fellowship (2023), Trailblazer Award (2024), McKnight Dance Fellowship (2024-2025), International Revelation Krump (2024), King of the Ring Krump tournament winner (2019), Battle Night 8Bucks and 7-to-smoke winner (2025), Battle at the Beacon tournament winner (2025), Like a Woman tournament winner (2025).

Dane Cree

Performance Usher

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Dane Cree is an interdisciplinary artist based in Minnesota. He obtained a BFA in Fine Art from MCAD in 2013 where he explored performance, experimental animation, mural painting, and installation artwork. He has been a regular contributor to the Minneapolis, MN based animation group Hellavision Television since 2017, where he has blended a variety of animation techniques. Many of Dane’s animations have gone on to be featured in film festivals around the world and have received awards and nominations.

In addition to animation, he has used his body and dance background to create video reference material to help explore his animation concepts. His dance background involves contemporary movement with roots in breakdancing, contact improv and musical theatre. Recent stage performances of note include—Two solo performances at the 2025 {Re}Happening art festival on the historic Black Mountain College Campus in Asheville, NC. In 2024 he performed on the McGuire stage of the Walker Art Center for the annual Choreographers’ Evening event, which was curated by Jess Pretty.

Within 2025, Dane has also created a series of short animations for Cow Tipping Press, Hellavision Television contributions and has shown artwork at
local galleries including Artspace Jac Flats and After Hours Skateshop gallery. With upcoming opportunities on the horizon, Dane looks forward to the evolution of his art practice and the continued exploration of blending many art forms in the future.

Starla Larson

Performance Usher/Danceteer

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Hi, I’m Starla. I’m a performer and visual artist with a passion for collaborative, story-driven work. In the
Twin Cities, I’ve worked with companies like Savage Umbrella, Theater Unbound, Nimbus Theater, and
Gadfly Theater—often helping develop new plays. I’ve also trained in Meisner, Viewpoints, and on-
camera technique in Atlanta, Houston, and the Midwest. Beyond acting, I create mosaic art, with
commissioned pieces in cities from Minneapolis to Houston. Directors describe me as a ‘performative
powerhouse,’ and I’m always looking for the next bold, creative challenge—on stage or on screen.

Lelis Brito

Installation Artist/Danceteer

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Lelis Brito is a Venezuelan-American theater director, choreographer, installation artist, educator, performer, writer and director of the Center for Moving Cultures. As director of CMC Brito advocates for tactile/kinaesthetic knowledge in education and cultural transmission. As an artist, Brito has performed with local and national companies and has created over 80 original works, varying from 6 minute dance solos, to one-hour plays and 3-hour long movement-theatre works. The core of Brito’s work is the human body’s potential and activation—the work of clarifying choice-making through the knowledge gained within the direct experience of a moving sensing body. Brito’s recent work explores how to retain one’s cultural body within multiple demands for code-switching.

2021-25 projects include: Choreographer/Director of You Change Me for Northern Spark and A Binding Strangeness for the Red Eye Theater; The Roles of Queenie in the musical QUEEN B, Aurora in Brujeria for Beginners, and Mother in Flamenco Song of Living and Dying; Co-Curator (with Harry Waters Jr.) of FUTURE NOW series; Srika writing residency in Croatia; Choreographer for Mushaq Mushtaq Dean’s The Speed of Life, Co-Director of Real Women Have Curves, Dancer in Rosy Simas Danse Ensemble’s She Who Lives On The Road To War, Creating Moving Sets for Movement Architecture and Arena Dances,  and ongoing development of the piece Los Profanandores de la Calle Arenas with Teatro del Pueblo. Brito is a 2024 MAP Fund recipient.

Giuliana Ciabo

Danceteer

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Giuliana is not really a dancer, not really a musician, not really a painter, not really a performer, yet she has danced, played, painted and performed for many years. Painting with Julie JAO in Buildings with Eyes as part of Out There Series at the Southern Theater, performing in various Barebones Halloween Extravaganzas, dancing with Lelis Brito in Dust for Puppet Lab.

In the performance painting duo The Unruly Julies she co-created may performances including I not I, Beauty Express, The Anguish of Composure and La Sistina Infinita, The Unruly Julies paint the Sistine Ceiling. She was born in Italy and continues to eat pasta, drink wine and gesture wildly while speaking. She is committed to being creative, learning, stretching and challenging boundaries.

Alejandra Iannone

Danceteer

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Alejandra Iannone’s foundational dance training was in the Cecchetti method of ballet. She holds a BFA cum laude in Dance from Fordham University/The Ailey School and an MA in Philosophy, specializing in Art and Aesthetics, from Temple University. Alejandra also trained at New Haven Ballet, Dance Connecticut, Ballet Chicago, and The School at Jacob's Pillow. Her performance career spans over 25 years as a freelance artist in New York City and the Twin Cities, and she is a 2025 MSAB Creative Individuals Grantee whose recent notable engagements include work with Pillsbury House & Theatre, Teatro del Pueblo, Minnesota Opera, and the Playwrights' Center. Alejandra also had the honor of performing in Jennifer Lopez’s Super Bowl LII Halftime Show.

With over two decades of teaching experience, Alejandra has taught at The Ailey School, Minnesota Dance Theatre, Saint Paul Ballet, CREO Arts, and as a guest instructor both nationally and internationally. She is an American Ballet Theatre® Affiliate Instructor, certified through Levels 6, 7 & Partnering, whose classes focus on clarity, expressive movement, and anatomical integrity. Beyond dance, Alejandra is a published author and an award-winning arts and culture speaker. Since 2015, she has co-directed Sparkle Theatricals, a dynamic performing arts company dedicated to producing original, inclusive, and fun theatre experiences in the Twin Cities. Her personal interests include creating visual art, gardening, swimming, and cooking. She has also recently begun learning to tango.

Masanari Kawahara

Danceteer

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Masanari Kawahara 川原正也 (he/him) is a butō doer, theatre artist, puppeteer, arts educator, and a founder of Compassionate Artists of the Heart Butō Club (CAHBC), led by Lelis Brito and Malia Burkhart, will share a short work for Center for Performing Arts’ fall festival in September, 2025 / past butō/movement works are: doro doro (2024) soundscape by Sho Nikaido, created as part of Isolated Acts at red eye theater; performed in Akiko’s Fever Dream (2025) and Lelis K. Brito’s A Binding Strangeness (2023) as part of Isolated Acts at red eye theater; Valerie Oliveiro’s SOFT FREEDOMS as part of MERGE at the Cowles Center (2022); His solo butō piece 8’46” (movement for healing), featuring a recorded soundscape by Sho Nikaido, performed as part of Offerings: BareBones 2020 along the East Lake Street; a member of the butō group Nenkin Butoh Dan, received a 2015 Sage Award for outstanding dance ensemble for Fu.Ku.Shi.Ma with Gadu Doushin and Dustin Maxwell / Other movement projects include: Anthea Hamilton’s Cabbage Four Ways (2021) as part of Paradox of Stillness at Walker Art Center; Throw Open The Heavy Curtain (2018) by Sharon Picasso Projects; prairie/concrete (2023), Census (2016), Every Other (2015) and Fold (2014) by Aniccha Arts /Currently the Director of Naked Stages program as well as a Resident Teaching Artist at Pillsbury House + Theatre / a Playwrights’ Center McKnight Theater Artist Fellow 2018-2019 and 2010-2011//

Daniel Grove

Production Manager/Stage Manager

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Daniel Grove is a movement artist, artistic facilitator, and life-long questioner who is interested in centering intentionality in both creative and mundane processes. They graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a BA in Dance and a Certificate in Hip-Hop Studies, and became a credentialed Facilitator through Turning the Wheel, an organization that uses movement-based activities to foster communal connection and expression.

While in Colorado he performed with Summer Mountain Dance Project and DJed for Alpine Arts Collective. Upon returning to the Twin Cities, they led communal movement workshops for the staff at Walker Art Center and co-facilitated CONTRIBUTION, a 6-week movement experiment to see what becomes possible when a group of people commit to dancing together for an hour per day. He also has stage managed for a number of projects in Colorado and the Twin Cities, most notably TRACES (after Sophie Calle), presented by the Walker Art Center.

Jillian Holstad

Assistant Stage Manager

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Jillian Holstad is a Minneapolis-based art events professional. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a Linguistics degree and is getting a lot of use out of it! Her arts background is in dance, film, creative writing, and is now trying her hand at embroidery. She has worked with the Walker Art Center, Guthrie Theater, and film festivals around the country. Her favorite movie is The Devil Wears Prada, but she'd also love to talk with you about the latest horror movie. This is her first show with Movement Architecture and she's just happy to be here.

Anju Kataria

Costume Designer

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Anju Kataria is the owner of Khazana, a boutique gallery highlighting folk artists from around the world and connecting them directly with collectors. She started Khazana more than 30 years ago, inspired by her passion for the handmade objects that surrounded her as she grew up in India, and her discoveries as she traveled the world.

In addition to her work as an independent gallerist, she has curated exhibits such as 100 Weaves of India, a showcase of the country’s dazzling textile ingenuity and heritage, and Woven Lights, a collaborative project with the nationally renowned Ragamala Dance Company.

A storyteller and bridge builder, she relishes sharing knowledge and fostering relationships, as exemplified by Khazana’s gatherings that explore textile history and origins through conversation and hands-on interaction. Her ongoing goal is to support artists and expand the reach of folk art to new audiences, honoring traditional practices and celebrating the unique and precious quality that only handmade objects can bring to our lives.

Boo McCaleb

Projection Artist

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Boo McCaleb, (Booscapes) is a Projection artist, VJ, Filmmaker and Public Art Consultant, born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. His key memories were growing up as a student in the Minneapolis public school system where he began to create art as a form of participation, connection and belonging. Booscapes began to self identify as an artist much later after finishing his undergrad at Macalester College in 2019 graduating with a BA in Media and Cultural Studies.

Returning home in 2020 he began to make experimental films and immersive soundscapes for site installations at the height of the uprisings and during the pandemic in Minneapolis. During this time he also began to medically transition, aligning his practice with the entirety of his becoming. From then on he fell in a deep love with participatory community art, seeing it as the light and salvation for transmuting his personal pain along with his communities. In 2021 he completed Project Night Light, a pilot program by Public Art Saint Paul and where he began to learn projection mapping. Upon successful completion of the fellowship, he began to teach himself motion graphics, animation, and lighting design that he produced in the underground nightlife scene alongside DJs, dancers, and community changemakers.

Booscapes continues to this day sharing his connection to spirituality, his beloved devotion to community, changemaking and believing in the powerful potential of public art. He has been featured on WCCO, Edina TV, and MPLS Connections radio. In 2023 he received the Youth Leadership award from the Link MN, Digital artist of the year in 2024 from the Loring collective, and was elected as a Public Arts Commissioner for the City of Minneapolis. Booscapes has completed work as a new media artist for Forecast Public Art, Public Functionary, The Graves Foundation, Mixed Blood Theater, Saint Paul Public Neighborhood Network, Filmnorth, Springboard for the Arts, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Institute of Art and the Walker Art Center.

Janika Vandervelde (L) & Rhonda Lund (R)

Sound Design

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Called “a passionate experimenter and ingenious explorer of new sonorities” by the All Music Guide, composer Janika Vandervelde has written more than 100 works for orchestras, choirs, chamber ensembles, soloists, and the stage. Her scores have been commissioned and performed by groups at all levels, from professionals to children, including Chanticleer, the Dale Warland Singers, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the New Zealand String Quartet, the Melbourne (Australia) Chamber Choir, the Kitka Women’s Choir (San Francisco), the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Chorale, the Glen Ellyn Children’s Choir (Chicago), the Guthrie Theatre, and numerous church, school, community, and festival ensembles. Her more innovative works are electro-acoustic and have included collaborations with Zeitgeist, violinist Jennifer Lang, and choreographer Deborah Jinza Thayer (Diana Takes a Swim and All Hail The Queen). 

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Rhonda Lund is a student and teacher of world flutes, concentrating on traditional Chinese flutes and minority folk instruments such as the hulusi and bawu. A long-term student of Chinese flute master Ying Zhang, who apprenticed with dizi legends Liu Guanyue and Feng Zichun, Rhonda played dizi and hulusi with the MN Chinese Music Ensemble for 20 years. She traveled to China five times to study, collect music, and research folk instruments from the Dai and Hani minorities. Rhonda has taught traditional Chinese dizi, hulusi, and bawu at the Yinghua Academy Conservatory of Music for the last eight years, and has performed on various flutes in theater pieces, ceremonies, meditation events, and in flute/storytelling shows throughout MN as a COMPAS roster artist. She has also studied with Mayan/Aztec flute master and maker Xavier Quijas Yxayotl.