Benjamin Akio Kimitch is an artist and producer living in Brooklyn, NY. “A major talent in contemporary dance” (The New York Times), Kimitch creates performances that draw from his Japanese American heritage, training in Chinese dance, and an ongoing relationship with New York City’s experimental dance community. He is the recipient of a Bessie Award for Outstanding Choreographer, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, and Creative Capital Award. Kimitch’s commissioned works have been presented by New York Live Arts, Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow, The Shed, The Noguchi Museum, The Kitchen, and Danspace Project. He has been awarded fellowships and residencies with Asian Cultural Council, MacDowell, Yaddo, Movement Research, MANCC, and others.

NiNi Dongnier (born Inner Mongolia, China) is a choreographer and artist living in New York. She creates ceremonial movement sculpture and perceptual scores grounded in the material study of gesture, intrinsic time, and site. Her practice enacts “every motion is a ritual” and “performative landscape” as both method and philosophy. Besides the Fūdo of the Mongolian Plateau, her work traces a lineage spanning her mother’s Mongolian dance and stage art, Chinese folk dance, early postmodern dance, and Tantric Buddhism.

Her work has been presented by Shanghai International Dance Center Theater, Watermill Center, Movement Research, La MaMa, and Aranya Art Center. She has received fellowships from Skowhegan, initial research, Monira Foundation, and North East Asia Art Archive. A two-time nominee for China Dance Lotus Award, she taught at Beijing Dance Academy and was assistant professor at Simon Fraser University. Dongnier is the curator at the Barnard Movement Lab at Columbia University.