Ayan Felix (NC Based) is a Gulf Coast-bred movement artist, dreamy storyteller, and cultural organizer. They perform Southern Black American cultures of excess, slowness, and dirt indoors and under dusky skies. Independently, they have birthed live performances for Barnstorm Dance Festival (Houston; 2018, 2019, 2022), Kuumba Dance Fest (Houston; 2021), and Houston Fringe Festival (2021). Their site-responsive and collaborative practice with spirit, co-conspirators, and the environment has produced screen dances shown at the Collegium for African Diasporic Dance (2022), freeskewl (NYC), and the Black Endurance Community Series at The Movement Lab ATL (2021). Their MFA thesis production How to avoid gas stations and other shit I want to do at night (2021) is also documented in a paper we, present in space: Queer Performance Cultures of Transience and Care based in Black Feminisms as the culmination ofthe MFA experience through the Duke Dance Program. Ayan has joined the dance legacies of SUCHU Dance/Jennifer Wood, Pilot Dance Project, Andrea E Woods-Valdez, and Dance Afrikana. Collaborations ongoing and past include time with SLIPPAGE performance lab, jhon r. Stronks, Brittany J. Green, and Ivy Nicole-Jonet. They also co-host queer burlesque experiences with Les Bimbos in Raleigh, NC. Most of their mornings are spent trying to recall nighttime dreams, playing in the earth, and building bandwidth for a neurodiverse world.
“My creative history with New Dance Alliance goes a way long. Since my friend, Chivas Sandage brought me to New Dance Alliance to rehearse in early 90’s, the place has become a part of my creative life. The long time existence of the studio and Performance Mix Festival are vital to the artists who seek and explore deep into their process. Whenever I step into the studio, it’s a new space with a lot of memories. I lie down on the floor, listen to my body, and I dance. It is valuable. The time in the space nurtures my practice and artistic vision. Karen’s vision of Lift-Off residency, feedback sessions, providing peer to peer connections are more significant than ever. It has been helping us to get through 2020 and we are going into 2021.”
– Nami Yamamoto
New Dance Alliance
182 Duane Street
New York, NY 10013