Tastes Like Bitterness, Moves Like Love

Celebrating its 24th year of dance making in the Bay Area, dNaga Dance Co., directed and choreographed by Claudine Naganuma, presents Tastes Like Bitterness, Moves Like Love, at the Dresher Ensemble Studio in West Oakland, July 10-12th, 2025.

Join us for an exclusive performance of dNaga Dance Co., providing a unique pairing of dance, bites, and beverages. Driven by a longstanding collaborative team, and celebrating its 24th year, Tastes Like Bitterness, Moves Like Love offers a powerful and restorative evening. Hors d'oeuvres and drinks to match the exploration of grief, fury, grace, and love will be included in the price of admission.

Included in the evening is a suite of dances from Unbound, which premiered at the Mondavi Center in October 2024 and was commissioned by the Anti-Asian Violence: Origins and Trajectories Research Initiative (AAVOT). Tastes Like Bitterness, Moves Like Love is supported by individual donations and the generous support of Musical Traditions. dNaga Dance Co. is fiscally sponsored by Dancers’ Group.

“Hard times require furious dancing” - Alice Walker.

Photo by Robbie Sweeny; Dancer: Raychel Hatch

CAST & COLLABORATORS

Conceived and Directed by Claudine Naganuma

Choreography by Claudine Naganuma and dNaga Dance Co.

Musical Director and Composer: Joel Davel

Lighting and Technical Direction: Dale MacDonald

Video and Animation: Elmira Bagherzadeh

Dancers: Lihong Chan, Mana Hayakowa, Catalina Jackson-Uruena, Erin Landers, Leila Massoudi, and Gabby Wei.

ABOUT dNaga Dance Co.

dNaga Dance Co. started in 2001 and is rooted in creativity and community building. Through dance, their mission is to explore that which challenges us and to uplift our commonalities in order to inspire compassion and hope. dNaga is licensed to offer the Dance for PD® program in Oakland and founded the GIRL Project at EastSide Cultural Center. dNaga’s community programs are driven by the cultivation of creativity and connection. By cultivating creative thinking, we are directly affecting our ability to build new pathways to problem-solving. We can help to heal trauma, interrupt systemic oppression, and use art as a tool to liberate ourselves and our communities. dNaga is in residence at Danspace and its company members live in California and New York.  dNaga Dance Co. is fiscally sponsored by Dancers’ Group based in San Francisco.

More information>>

photo by Robbie Sweeny

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Claudine Naganuma (Choreographer) was born and raised in San Francisco and currently lives in Oakland where she directs her dance company, dNaga. Naganuma is the founder of the GIRL Project, a free art and empowerment workshop for girls living in East Oakland and is the Program Director for Dance for PD®, Oakland. After receiving her M.F.A. in Dance from Mills College, she served as the Artistic Director of Asian American Dance Performances and was a founding board member of the SF Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center. Her choreography was part of Dave Iverson's 2014 documentary Capturing Grace and the company recently performed in Barcelona at the World Parkinson's Congress. www.dNaga.org

Joel Davel (Composer and Live Musician/ Audio Technician) has been working with dNaga since before the inception of dNaga. He is the lead engineer of Buchla USA and plays the invented instrument called the Marimba Lumina designed in collaboration with Don Buchla. He plays with Paul Dresher and several Bay Area opera companies as a composer/sound designer on invented innovative controllers.

Dale MacDonald (Lighting Designer & Technical Director) revels in the play of light. In addition to being the Lighting Designer and Technical Director of dNaga, he has worked with Moving Arts Dance, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep Chorus, Terrain Dance Collective, and Ruth Botchan Dance Company. He received his M.F.A. at UC Berkeley where studied with David Elliot. He combines his experiences as an artist, scientist, designer, and engineer to bring a certain alchemy to interactions with information. Much of this work has been done for public settings, which adds a significant social component to the design space. 

Link to dNaga Dance Co.’s Company Dancer Biographies: Company Dancers Biographies

photo by Robbie Sweeny

DONATE

In addition to dNaga offering powerful and healing work through dance productions, they also provide crucial community programs to at-risk youth through the GIRL Project program and elders with Parkinson’s disease through Dance for PD®.

To learn more about and to support their FREE programs, please donate now:

https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/ODUxMg==

Their. Their services cannot be fulfilled if it were not for the generosity of donors like YOU.

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