Musco Center Presents:
Ever A Dancer:
Panorama: Eastern Viewpoints 
VIRTUAL EVENT Livestream

Wednesday, March 10, 2021 | 7:00 p.m. PST

Dance-makers and educators Tomas Tamayo (Chapman University), Hiroko Hojo, Dulce Capadocia, and Malathi Iyengar (Rangoli Dance Company) engage in an in-depth conversation exploring the rich global tradition of non-western movement such as Bharatanatyam, Philippine Dance, Balinese and Javanese dance drama. Through performance selections, these Asian artists illustrate the American intersections of identity and how modern choreography is blended in a personal way with their wide variety of influences.

About the Panelists:

Tomas Tamayo is a performer and educator in the music, dance, and theatre arts.  He directs professional and student ensembles of dancers, musicians and actors in collaborative art making and performance. Tamayo choreographs and performs in concert modern dance, Philippine dance, Balinese and Javanese dance drama, film, musical theater, television and video. He studied dance with Johanna Weikel at Southwestern College and was recognized with an Ensemble Acting Award from the American College Theater Festival for his performance in Southwestern College's production of HAIR-The American Tribal Love Rock Musical. He toured nationally as the Lion in the National Theatre for Children’s production of The Wizard of Oz. Tamayo continued his dance education at CalArts in Los Angeles, as an Ahmanson and Irvine Foundation Scholar. He also studied at Harvard University, Santa Reparata Graphic Art Center in Florence, Italy and the London Contemporary Dance School, before receiving his BFA and MFA degrees from the School of Dance at CalArts. Tamayo danced with the CalArts Dance Ensemble, Silayan Dance Company and TRIP Dance Theater. His TRIP performances included Breath and Bone at the Joyce Soho in NYC, Synergy at the Ford Amphitheater and Poisoning the Well at the Unknown Theater in Hollywood. His solo Toxic Agenda premiered at REDCAT. Tamayo has choreographed and performed in Indonesia, the Philippines and London. As a singer, Tamayo has performed with Lea Salonga, the CalArts Salsa Band, Kyai Kumbul–CalArts Javanese Gamelan Ensemble and the Spartan Singers–Mira Costa College Vocal Jazz Ensemble. He is a vocalist on Capitol Records’ CalArts Jazz CD and on the soundtrack from the film Wild Bill. Tamayo has been on the dance faculty at Southwestern College, CalArts Community Arts Partnership and CSU Summer Arts Program. Tamayo was a Full-time Lecturer and an Assistant Professor in Dance at CSU Dominguez Hills and an Associate Professor in Dance at Eastern New Mexico University. Currently, Tamayo is adjunct faculty at Chapman University and Cypress College. He teaches Mask and Physical Theatre for the La Jolla Playhouse Young Performer’s Conservatory, and is also a certified instructor for the Arthritis Foundation Aquatic Program in San Diego.

Hiroko Hojo, a native of Japan, came to the U.S.A in 1985 as a visiting artist for the World Music Festival at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. She was granted her stage name from the Fujima school of traditional Japanese Dance in 1975 and was a frequent performer in the National Theater of Japan in Tokyo. Upon her appearance as a visiting artist at CalArts, she enrolled as a student of Modern Dance and other forms of Western and World dances. After graduating with both bachelor and master degrees in Dance from CalArts, where she taught as a faculty member for three years. She was ultimately granted a working visa in the Extraordinary Achievement Category as a dance artist in 1994, and since then has been active as a dancer, choreographer, and dance educator in the greater Los Angeles area. Currently, Hojo is an adjunct faculty member of El Camino, Pierce, Los Angeles Mission, Orange Coast, and Los Angeles City Colleges. She also teaches online Dance Appreciation, Dance in Stage and Film, and Yoga and has appeared as a presenter in the Etudes Online Teaching Conference in 2017. Her works have been recognized with several awards, such as the Lester Horton Dance Award and the Meritorious Achievement Award by the National Broadcasting Company, to name a few. She wishes to share her expertise and experiences with many dance enthusiasts who are in search of expanding their knowledge.

Malathi Iyengar is a Los Angeles based choreographer, educator, and visual artist. Iyengar holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Choreography and Performance from University of California, Los Angeles. Iyengar studied Bharatanatyam (classical dance of India) from guru Narmada of Bangalore, India and choreography and improvisation under the mentorship of Marion Scott. Iyengar is the artistic director of the Rangoli Dance Company & Rangoli Foundation for Art & Culture, a non-profit organization, which was founded in 1985. Malathi Iyengar is the recipient of the 2013 COLA Choreography Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles and the 2010 Lester Horton Award for Outstanding Achievement in World Dance for her choreography ‘Shivaya’. Iyengar is a recipient of numerous awards for her choreographic works and is recognized as a Master Artist of Bharatanatyam dance by the Alliance for California Traditional Artists.

Dulce Capadocia was born in the seaside village of San Jose, Antique but raised in urban L.A.'s Historic Filipinotown. Initially trained in a dance home by her mother to perform in major venues as a young child, she holds degrees in dance from Loyola Marymount University and Temple University (where she received her Master of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis on Choreography and Performance). Inquisitive by nature, she has traveled around the globe to conduct field work on indigenous Philippine cultures staying in the villages of the Ati and Igorot tribes. A maverick in the forefront of redefining Philippine Dance in her U.S. home, she was a finalist for the coveted James Irvine Foundation's Dancemaker fellowship and has garnered individual artist grants from Counterpulse Performing Diaspora, the Durfee Foundation, the Brody Arts Fund Award from the California Community Foundation and the prestigious COLA award from the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department (given annually to five of the city's most exemplary mid-career performing artists) for translating native folklore into acclaimed contemporary dance theatre. 

The former assistant of the late arts luminary C. Bernard Jackson of the Inner City Cultural Center, Dulce Capadocia has had her work shown throughout well-known theaters, schools, universities, community centers and in more experimental venues. These include the John Anson Ford Theatre, Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Japan America Theatre, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Ivar Theater, Keck Theatre, Strub Theatre, Conwell Dance Theatre, Scottish Rite Auditorium, Highways Performance Space, Barnsdall Art Gallery, California Plaza's Watercourt, Shakespeare Festival and LACE, among many others. Her artistic collaborations include well-known Filipino artists such as National Artist Ramon Obusan, NEA National Heritage Award winner and kulintang gong master Danongan Kalanduyan, pop diva Kuh Ledesma and visual artist Faustino Caigoy. A community activist, she has served as a grants panelist for the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department and the California Community Foundation, and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles.

Artist, date, time, and program subject to change.