The LiftOff Residency takes place at NDA’s Studio in Tribeca and provides six physical-based performance artists with 30 hours of rehearsal space each, an introductory meeting, and two feedback sessions.
In early February, the artists wrapped up their residencies with a final studio showing. Artists shared some powerful works in progress, followed by a discussion moderated by Executive Director Karen Bernard and board member Lisa Parra.
We can’t to see the LiftOff Artists’ finished works at Performance Mix Festival #40 in June, at Abrons Arts Center! Stay tuned for more.
Liiiam is a dance artist and sound creative based out of Brooklyn, NY. His artistic practice roots itself in “stutter/dancing”, a movement exploration that weaves the deeply embodied experience of stuttering into choreographic and pedagogical frameworks. By utilizing the unruly potential of stuttering, he aims to disrupt societal expectations around efficiency, communication, and clarity that so often embed themselves into everyday life. His work actively revolves around two overarching questions: What can stuttering teach movement? What can movement teach stuttering?
Maho Ogawa is a Japanese-born multidisciplinary movement artist working in NY. Her work has delved into building a choreographic language based on nuances and isolated body movements, and she has built a database, “Minimum Movement Catalog“. Her recent works partly decontextualize and research the minimum movement in Japanese tea culture. She crafts public events inspired by Japanese tea rituals to build new thinking methods about “silence.” Her aim is to empower erased cultures by dismantling oppressed body gestures and their context as choreography, fighting for cultural equality in nonviolent ways. Maho’s works have been shown in Asia at Korea & Japan Dance Festival (Seoul), Za Koenji (Tokyo), Whenever Wherever Festival (Tokyo), and in the U.S. including Princeton University, Invisible Dog Art Center, JACK, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Center for Performance Research, New York University Grey Gallery, and Emily Harvey Foundation, to name a few. Ogawa received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant and creation support at Culture Push, Emily Harvey Foundation, LEIMAY, Marble House Project, MOtiVE, and New Dance Alliance. She is a 2024-2026 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence.
Nikkie Samreth (They/Them) is a first generation Cambodian-Chinese multidisciplinary artist originally from Dallas, TX. Their work pulls from the sprinkle of information that has been passed down through generations by their Khmer/Sino-Khmer ancestors while growing up in the Western world to create impressionist-like yet surreal movement installations. Narratives, folktales, moral systems, beauty standards, education, are some of the concepts of human design that interest and inform their artistic practice by looking through these different lenses to reckon with the philosophies of human nature.
As a performer Nikkie has been in works by Raja Feather Kelly, Brendan Drake, Gordon Hall, and other artists. They have a BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch and studied at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. They also have a Bachelor of Science from FIT in International Trade & Marketing with a triple minor in Economics, Creative Technology, and Ethics & Sustainability.
We are so excited to have the Winter/Spring 2026 artists in the studio!
Photo credits: Gif 1 – Emilio Wettlaufer and Andrea Soto in the studio, photos by Natalia Fernández. Photo 2 – Liam McLaughlin, photo by David Ullman. Photo 3 – Maho Ogawa, photo by Rachel Keane. Photo 4 – Nikkie Samreth, photo by isis rayne. Photo 5 – Andrea Soto & co. in rehearsal, photo by Natalia Fernández.
MOLLY&NOLA
“This current global situation is immensely sad and challenging, including the necessary cancellations/ postponements/ restructuring of opportunities, but we are so grateful for how you and the Performance Mix #34: Remotely Yours team has honored all of the artists involved – artistically, financially, and emotionally. In these uncertain, confusing times, we feel taken care of & clearly communicated with. Thank you.”
–MOLLY&NOLA
New Dance Alliance
182 Duane Street
New York, NY 10013
(646) 510-1824
All venues are wheelchair accessible.
