Abigail Galleta Canafe is a music director, pianist/keyboardist, and accordionist who has worked in the NYC and Bay Area theater scenes. She recently performed in the Off-Broadway premiere of Maddie: A New Musical with Bennett Theatricals. Abigail has also collaborated with organizations such as Broadway Dreams Foundation, Amas Musical Theatre, Livin’ Broadway, Stagedoor Manor, Kairos Music Academy, Korsa Musical Theater, and New Conservatory Theatre Center. She's passionate about developing new works that fuse traditional art forms and original voices together.

Baigali is a member of the Urad tribe from Inner Mongolia, China. She earned her Bachelor of Arts at Minzu University (China College of Dance) prior to earning two Master's Degrees. First, she obtained her Master of Fine Arts in Choreography and Dance Directing in Mongolia at the Mongolian University of Art and Culture. After moving to the US, she proceeded to acquire her second Master's Degree in Dance Education from New York University. During her school years, Baigali won many dance competitions awards, such as the Lotus Cup and Taoli Cup. She also worked as a dance troupe choreographer and teacher for several years in the Primary School Affiliated to Capital Normal University and Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology for many years. Beyond her teaching experiences, Baigali served as Chief Director and dance choreographer for the 2019 Inner Mongolia Spring Festival Gala.

Shirley is a classically trained dancer with a foundation in both Chinese dance and ballet. Currently dancing with Peninsula Ballet Theatre, she has also performed with San Jose Dance Theatre, Cardinal Ballet, and American Repertory Ballet. In addition to performing, Shirely brings experience teaching dance and is a piano accompanist for ballet classes.

Natalia is a theatre artist based in San Diego and the Bay Area who focuses on dramaturgy, playwriting and sound design. Past credits include Call Your Mother (Dramaturg, CCAE Theatricals) and No Singing in the Navy (Dramaturg, Wagner New Play Festival). She's very interested in the development of new work and bringing together multiple perspectives to create this show.

Chevy began her dance journey with ballet lessons as a child, later expanding her interests to include modern pop. In high school, she joined the dance team, where she explored lyrical, jazz, and various technical styles. She continued to dance through occasional freelance gigs during and after college, keeping it as a valued hobby. Notably, she performed in the Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah Musical Theater Tribute at Istana Budaya in Malaysia and danced alongside the cast of Pilih Kasih, a Malaysian reality TV stage drama competition, in a televised musical drama production. Taking a step back from dancing this year, she will instead be assisting with the visual design and social media aspects of the show.

Genevieve Hodge comes from an artistic background molded by 21+ years of dance and performance experience; she first trained in dance forms such as ballet, tap, and jazz, then expanded her repertoire to incorporate Classical and Folk Chinese dance forms and street forms such as hip hop. As an Artistic Director for AFX Dance Company (a UC Berkeley competitive collegiate dance team) she co-led a team for 3 years, enjoying accolades such as “Best Theme” two years in a row at World Of Dance Orange County, and “Most Creative” at Maxt Out. Currently, in addition to BAICD, she continues her performance work as a company member of Ballet Afsaneh, a critically acclaimed ensemble performing dances from the Silk Road networks of Eurasia (primarily Persian and Afghan dance) and as a teaching artist with the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts and the Berkeley Arts Magnet School.

Benjamin Huang, working under the name Jujube Leaflet, is an aspiring photographer offering portrait, graduation, pet, event, and romantic photography across the Bay Area. Ben prefers focusing on his subject's emotions and photographing the dramatic. He believes there is no greater opportunity to photograph the meaningful than through a dance group, and he looks forward to discovering and appreciating his own heritage. (Photo credit: Catherine Yeh)

Jordan is a Bay Area native and former ballerina, who trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, Russia and the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is currently a researcher of dance history, with a specific focus on ballet and modernism in the interwar period. As a proud Chinese-American she is interested in exploring themes of identity, heritage, and tradition through embodiment, as well as understanding how those conceptions serve as platforms for dance to become more prominent in social understandings of community and diaspora.

Xiaoyu (Mary) Liu, is a director, creative producer, and dramaturg. She moved from Shanghai to the United States as a first-generation college student and received her theater degree with honors from UC San Diego. She's a proud alumnus of La Jolla Playhouse artistic internship and Berkeley Repertory Theatre Artistic Fellowship. She served as the assistant director on three mainstage productions of Berkeley Rep's 2024/2025 season, and was integral to the Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab as a dramaturg. She believes in the power of collective wisdom and is dedicated to creating transformational, multidisciplinary art.

Naomi (Qianxun) started learning traditional chinese dance in elementary school, where she got to develop flexibility and coordination for dance. Later she became a ballet student and was classically trained at École supérieure de Ballet du Québec for 3 years in Montreal, Canada. After her ankle injury, she carried on her dance life by exploring a new form of dance – hiphop. Currently, she is an active contemporary dancer in the UC Berkeley dance community, where she seeks to create choreography merging chinese dance, ballet and street dance together.

Erin grew up in the Bay Area. She spent the last two years as a dancer with Bay Area Independent Chinese Dancers, developing her skills from being a student dancer to choreographing her own solo piece. Although not dancing in the showcase, she's excited to highlight other dancers and their stories through visual design and social media.

Arabella (she/her) is a Bay Area native who has over 15 years of dance practice, predominantly in ballet. She has most recently danced with Ballet Fantastique, UC Berkeley's Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies department (graduating with a minor in Dance & Performance Studies ), NachmoSF, and 4 Fish x Red Eye Productions. She is excited to expand her Chinese classical and folk dance practice with BAICD and connect to her roots by exploring the stories of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. (Photo credit: Dominique Barrera)

Laura Lowe Uyeki is a producer, writer and artist based out of the Bay Area in Orinda, California. She graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 2017, with a B.A in Theatre Arts and a minor in English. She has been involved in the arts in various ways since she was a little kid, and as a result has a career that spans over a decade long. Her previous experience includes being a theatrical designer, producer, and assistant stage manager, as well as being the co-founder of Rainy Day Artistic Collective (an independent virtual theater company based out of Washington State).

Jimmy is a Music Producer, Singer, and Songwriter based in Walnut, California. An alumnus of Musicians Institute Hollywood, Jimmy holds degrees in Recording, Keyboard Performance, and Music Business. Further enriching his academic portfolio, he participated in a two-year foreign exchange program at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China, specializing in composition. Throughout his illustrious career, Jimmy has collaborated with a diverse array of artists and musicians on a multitude of international projects. Notably, he has made significant contributions to a Buddhist Organization known worldwide by composing ceremonial mantra music that has been showcased in stadiums globally. Furthermore, Jimmy played a pivotal role as the music director and composer for Hong Kong’s pioneering and one of the largest bodybuilding competition, marking a milestone in the region’s entertainment and sports industry. His career is marked by a continuous quest for innovation, pushing the boundaries of music by experimenting with new elements and challenging traditional musical norms. This drive is exemplified by his collaboration with the Min Bridges project alongside the Bay Area Independent Chinese Dancers, showcasing his commitment to creating art that transcends conventional boundaries and promotes cultural integration.

Alex is a software engineer and lighting designer with over 15 years experience in theatre, dance and live events in the SF Bay Area and Boston. He is thrilled to be working with BAICD on the Min Bridges project, his first in several years.

Kevin Wong is a Queer Asian-American experimental artist from San Francisco, California with a background in contemporary-modern, hip-hop, and Chinese dance techniques. After receiving his MFA in Experimental Choreography from UC Riverside, Kevin continues to engage his communities through public performances, residencies, and workshops. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Flying Angels Chinese Dance Company, an advisor for Collective Faction (a collegiate dance team in Riverside), and a collaborator with his childhood best friend Matthew Wong at various artist-in-residence programs while teaching various adult and youth classes across the Bay Area.