2025-26 cross-cultural collaboration resident artists

Mariadela Belle Alvarez is a Central American dance artist born in Honduras, whose work blends Afro Latin arts, theatrical performance, and social dance to cultivate resilience and collective liberation. She is an ensemble artist with Ananya Dance Theatre and has collaborated with Teatro Del Pueblo, alongside residencies at the Painted Bride Art Center and Keshet Dance, and extensive teaching work recognized by the Bartol Foundation. Holding a BFA in Dance from Temple University, Alvarez creates and collaborates with the belief that dance is a futuristic technology for healing, organizing, and liberation.

Sam Aros-Mitchell is a Yaqui choreographer, cultural producer, scholar, and performer based in Minneapolis whose work bridges Indigenous cosmologies, experimental dance, and performance installation. He is the founder of SAROS field/works and a longtime collaborator with Rosy Simas Danse, creating embodied, land-based works that activate space as ceremony and resistance. Aros-Mitchell is a 2023 McKnight Dance Fellow and a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow (2025–2028), with recent works including Juya Nokakamea and Entering Aniam.

Angelica Bello Ayapantecatl is a spoken word artist rooted in Tlaxcala, the land of four volcanoes, and raised between Zacatelco by her abuelita and South Side Minneapolis by her mother, honoring a powerful lineage. Through spoken word, she finds voice, gratitude, and connection, carrying forward the tradition of storytelling as a tool for collective memory and liberation. Her work is created for and with community, offered as an act of love, resilience, and reciprocity—tlazohkamati to all relations.

Tearra Oso is a performing artist, healer, and culture protector who curates interactive performances and workshops rooted in traditional Afro Boricua music, Bomba, and mind–body medicine. Based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, her work spans national and international stages, including community healing spaces, touring with Juneteenth: Reckoning With Slavery, and releasing genre-defining music such as her Star Tribune–recognized album PREZ, which introduced BombaPop. Through music, storytelling, and collaboration, Oso creates art as a tool for healing, cultural preservation, and collective empowerment.

Masanari Kawahara 川原正也  is a butō artist, theatre maker, puppeteer, and arts educator based in the Twin Cities, and a founding member of the Compassionate Artists of the Heart Butō Club. His work spans solo and collaborative performance across venues including Red Eye Theater, the Cowles Center, Walker Art Center, and Pillsbury House + Theatre, with notable works focused on healing, embodiment, and collective care. Kawahara is currently Director of the Naked Stages program, a Resident Teaching Artist at Pillsbury House + Theatre, and a two-time McKnight Theater Artist Fellow.

Kay Joanne Carvajal Moran is a South Side Minneapolis–raised artist with roots in Puebla, Mexico, whose upbringing was filled with pride, color, music, and joy instilled by her mother. Dance and music became foundational tools for healing, expression, and connection, deeply reflecting the rhythms of her community through bailes, jaripeos, and celebrations. As a dancer and DJ in training, she is committed to creating spaces rooted in joy, cultural remembrance, and unapologetic vibrance.