CalArts Winter Dance Festival

Bernard Brown is an award-winning choreographer, performer, arts activist, and educator who situates their work at the intersection of Blackness, Queerness, and belonging. With an extensive performing career, Bernard now serves as Director of Bernard Brown/bbmoves, choreographing for stage, specific sites, film, and opera presented globally with invitations, residencies and commissions from The Getty, On The Boards, REDCAT, Dance Camera West, ADF’s Movies by Movers, Oscar-qualifying African Diaspora Cinema Festival, Seoul International Dance Festival, The Music Center, Royce Hall and US Embassy sponsored tour to Burkina Faso, West Africa. Brown conducts lectures, workshops, and master classes internationally, namely in Korea, Panama, Israel, Brazil, and across the US. Performance highlights include “Letter to a Man” with Mikhail Baryshnikov, “Treemonisha” (Scott Joplin’s opera) for North Star Opera, Los Angeles Opera’s “Aida,” Penumbra Theater’s “Black Nativity,” Donald Byrd’s “Harlem Nutcracker,” the titular role in Nike’s “12 Miles North: The Nick Gabaldon Story,” and the Kennedy Center’s Masters of African American Choreography, as répétiteur and performer. He is a core member of Street Dance Activism and an ongoing collaborator with Dancing Through Prison Walls, an abolitionist project. Brown’s activism has been featured in major publications such as Dance Magazine, the Los Angeles, and New York Times. A first-generation college graduate, Brown earned his MFA from UCLA and BFA from Purchase College. He is an Associate Professor at UC San Diego, a Certified Katherine Dunham Technique Instructor, and was named a Cultural Trailblazer by the City of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times has called him “…the incomparable Bernard Brown…”.

Crystal Jackson Singletary is a movement artist, choreographer, and DJ from Tampa, FL. Her work spans commercial stages and the street dance scene. Since moving to LA, she has worked with brands including Nike,Red Bull, Foot Locker and Target. Via concert stages and music videos she’s been able to showcase her talents alongside artists including Doechii, Tinashe, Snoop Dogg, Camila Cabello and YG, to name a few. One of her proudest street dance accomplishments is winning Ladies of Hip Hop 2024. Her main goal is to show young dancers that they don’t have to be rigid about the lane that they pick. Jackson Singletary is Special Faculty in The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts. 

Rosanna Tavarez received an MFA in Choreography from The Ohio State University as a University Fellow and a Teaching Fellow and a BFA in Choreography from University of Michigan. She has a diverse background as a performer/entertainer and has had the honor of working with Marina Abramović, Ryan Heffington, Travis Payne, Tony Michaels, and Rosanna Gamson/Worldwide. She also toured with *NSYNC and Jessica Simpson as one-fifth of the girl group Eden’s Crush and covered the Emmys, Grammys and Oscars in addition to hosting her own shows as a television personality for FOX, E!, TVGuide Network, and Telemundo/NBC. Tavarez is one of eleven certified American Countertechnique teachers. In 2023, after co-leading her first One Body One Career Intensive with Founder Anouk Van Dijk at Gibney in New York City, she became a Senior Teacher. Tavarez has had the pleasure of teaching Countertechnique nationally and internationally. Tavarez’s work has been presented at The Broad Museum, ODC Theater, REDCAT, Dance Camera West, The Odyssey, Breaking Ground Dance Festival, LA Department of Cultural Affairs’ LA Dance Platform, Sarasota Contemporary Dance, and Highways Performance Space, and has been supported by Cal State LA’s Research, Scholarship and Creativity Awards, CalArts, ARC grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation, UCLA Hothouse Residency, and Show Box LA. As a dance educator, Tavarez has taught as faculty and guest artist at numerous institutions including USC Kaufman School of Dance, University of Michigan, Loyola Marymount University, Scripps College, CalState Long Beach, Studio School, University of Southern Mississippi, Texas State University, and Cal State LA. Currently she serves as the BFA Program Director at The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts.

Odessa Mae Uno is a movement based Filipino American artist currently working in Southern California. She received her BFA in Dance from California Institute of the Arts where she studied performance, choreography, and pedagogy. She has most recently performed with DISCO RIOT, Fresh Congress Dance, Maraya Performing Arts. She has also performed in works by Dimitri Chamblas, Gerard & Kelly, Solange, Jay Carlon, and Nina Flagg. Her choreographic commissions include Malashock Dance, San Diego Dance Theater, Canyon Crest Academy, Coronado School of the Arts, and San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts. She was the 2021 winner of San Diego Dance Theater’s Emerging Choreographers Showcase and Prize. Uno’s practice is centered on the belief that through movement we have the power to create crucial social connections by sharing our stories and providing support for others to cultivate and strengthen communities. The foundation of Uno’s work endlessly references her belief in the importance of community, connection, and integrity.

Photo by Josh Rose.