Meet the Study Hall dancers

Image description: Jocelyn wears all blue and dances on a sidewalk in front of a wall painted various shades of blue. She spirals at the torso, her legs are crossed, arms are outstretched to the sides like airplane wings.

Jocelyn Reyes

One of my all time favorite shows I’ve seen in SF was Jocelyn’s LASOS in 2022. I respect her so much as a choreographer, even though our styles are super different from each other! It’s been so great having Jocelyn in the room for Study Hall—our differences have helped me to articulate my own interests and values more clearly. I admire Jocelyn’s willingness to try all the absurd things I ask of her, whether it’s dancing with hands full of props or attempting an intentionally ambiguous improv score. Jocelyn has also been a trusted, fellow arts administrator that I’ve been swapping questions and advice with for years. Her experience and sense of humor have been vital to our creative process, and Study Hall would not be Study Hall without her!

Image description: Erin wears various shades of blue and dances on a sidewalk in front of a wall painted various shades of blue. The twist sideways toward the camera with soft hands and one beveled foot.

Erin Yen

Erin Yen is a star! If you’ve ever seen them dance, you already know this. Erin and I have been dancing around each other in San Francisco for years. During the pandemic, we spent many Zoom hours organizing around livable wages for dancers and learning about unionizing. Something I’ve appreciated most about Erin’s choreography over the past several years is the way her sense of humor always shines through. During the Study Hall process, Erin has brought an interest in specificity, and I feel like she really understands the unique brand of logic that I’m using to piece different sections of the show together. A month or so ago, Erin shared a lovely mantra with us: do simple well. I’ve found this to be a helpful guidepost for choreographic choices, dance writing, and pretty much every element of producing the Study Hall performances.

Image description: Rebecca wears various shades of blue and dances on a sidewalk in front of a blue, metal structure filled with small circular holes. Her legs are crossed and one elbow jabs upward with face upturned toward the sun, and eyes closed.

Rebecca Fitton

Rebecca and I became close friends when we attended the LINES summer intensive in 2013 and have stayed friends for 11 years despite never living in the same city. Until recently! Rebecca just moved to the Bay this past fall, but is already forming deep relationships with many of my artist friends and omg our worlds are colliding it’s so much fun! The two of us hadn’t been in a studio together in ages, so it has been really cool to see how similar our movement instincts are (especially when responding to improvisational prompts) despite having had largely separate careers. Rebecca is also one of my most trusted co-conspirators in the realm of arts admin + activism. Fun fact: Rebecca helped me edit the grant that I ended up receiving from the SF Arts Commission, which is my main source of funding for Study Hall—thanks Rebecca!

Image description: gizeh wears various shades of blue and dances in front of a blue wall on a slope. She grins and stands on one leg, with the other high in the air in a side split and her torso hanging upside down.

gizeh muñiz vengel

gizeh is an artist I’ve admired mostly from afar for many years, but we’ve gotten to know each other much better in the last year or so. gizeh and I work together on the gatherings admin team and frequently stumble into conversations about equity and curatorial responsibility in our field. gizeh’s floorwork class is one of my all time favorites and her teaching continues to push me to discover new skills and pathways. I find gizeh so impressive that I was actually nervous to ask her to perform in Study Hall and I was so honored when she said yes! gizeh has tremendous talent when it comes to bodily coordination, artistic metaphor, and improvisational instincts. In rehearsal, gizeh is known for defying prompts and following her whims, which has been a seriously awesome energy to have in the room. She has helped imbue Study Hall with a thoughtfulness around subverting expectations.

Image description: Four smiling people, wearing various shades of blue, dance and lean against a blue wall. The wall contains alternating shades of blue that fill the left two-thirds of the image with stripes.Attend the Study Hall performances!

Attend the Study Hall shows!

Study Hall performances take place May 16-18 at the iMPACt Center for Art & Dance in SF. Tickets are available on a sliding scale starting at $15, plus no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Seating is limited, so get your tickets early. More details + accessibility info at emilyhansel.me/studyhall.

Study Hall is supported in part by the San Francisco Arts Commission.