Tickets here: https://sammaymfa.eventbrite.com
Nangan kan? (Did you eat yet?)
behind the house is the garden is an intimate retrospective ritual performance that prioritizes ancestral memory and the resilience in our veins. Conceived, choreographed, and directed by SAMMAY Peñaflor Dizon, this work honors the life of their late paternal grandmother Nanay Carling, her journey with Alzheimer’s disease, and their ongoing conversation between realms.
Dizon is an MFA Candidate in the Choreographic Inquiry program at the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance on the unceded ancestral lands of the Gabrieleno/Tongva peoples. Their research centers ritual performance as a site of re-membering and reclamation for diasporic peoples. As a contemporary dancemaker steeped in ancestral and spiritual tradition, Dizon is committed to finding pathways that bridge seemingly opposite worlds - finding resonance in shared critical dialogue and harmonious possibilities through embodied practice.
behind the house is the garden will be performed by Simon Chernow, Mikayla Knestrick, Aryeal Lands, Bianca Yen, and Lingfeng Yi - with live accompaniment by Pinay sistren dynamic duo Camille and JoJo Ramirez.
To witness their journey to April 27 and 28, follow @sammay.art on Instagram. #findmeinthegarden
behind the house is the garden will have two performances only: Thursday, April 27th at 8:00pm and Friday, April 28th at 8:00pm. All performances will take place at the UCLA Glorya Kaufman Dance Theater, 120 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095. Paid parking is available in UCLA Lot 4. Enter campus from Sunset Blvd, at Westwood Plaza. A reception in the Kaufman Courtyard will follow each performance.
While admission is free with required RSVP, all attendees are invited to make a tax-deductible donation to the Tongva Return the Land Fund and support all efforts to rematriate the land.
You can choose to make a recurring kuuyam nahwá’a (guest exchange) through the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy.
Learn more here: https://tongva.networkforgood.com/
SAMMAY Peñaflor Dizon (she/they/siya) is the daughter of Yolanda Peñaflor Dizon; granddaughter of Salvacion Orencillo Peñaflor and Carolina Agdeppa Dizon. Raised up in a migrant multigenerational environment in Carson, CA - SAMMAY is a Filipinx American choreographer, interdisciplinary artist, and cultural producer of Bikol, Kapampangan, and Ilokano descent. Through ritual performance, they explore the diasporic body as a site of re-membering, resisting, and reclaiming for collective healing and liberation. Their practice is rooted in the fundamental knowing that dance bridges the earth and ancestral realm. The sacred cipher becomes a passageway to transmute intergenerational trauma across cultural lines and geographical borders. Rooted in their inherent responsibility to the Divine, SAMMAY creates opportunities for intercultural and intergenerational exchange - igniting possibilities for decolonizing from a diasporic lens and embodying radical futures. By centering ancestral reverence in her work, she highlights the ongoing conversation between the material and the spiritual. Their work lives at the intersection of intergenerational healing, re-indigenization, and social justice - and is a direct call and response with their ancestors.
For more information, visit www.sammay.art or www.wacd.ucla.edu.