BRIDGE PROJECT 2024
with
TARIQ MITRI, HSIN-YU HUANG + SONAM TSHEDZOM TINGKHYE
We begin the year with a celebration of the new with the Bridge Project, our program for emerging Seattle dance-makers. Bridge Project is a chance for audiences to get in at the ground floor of an artist’s career – to be acquainted with choreographers who, today, have been making work in Seattle for five years or less, but who could become the Seattle mainstays of the future. The performances you will see are the result of an intensive 6-week rehearsal process undertaken by three choreographers and their cast of dancers. You’ll be invited to share what you see, and engage in a written feedback process that provides the choreographers with valuable feedback and affirmation.
Bridge Project is a beloved program because it is a chance for us to come together to welcome a new year and new artists into our community, and to celebrate the generative power of creating work together.
ARTIST BIOS
Tariq Mitri is a half-palestinian gay freelance dance artist based in Seattle, WA. Originally from Abu Dhabi, U.A.E and raised in Portland, OR, he graduated from California Institute of the Arts in 2015. He’s worked in Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York and has danced with MADBOOTS Dance, Kate Wallich + The YC, WHYTEBERG, Acts of Matter, and RGWW, among many others. From 2019 to 2021 he was the Rehearsal Director and Co-Director of Brooklyn-based company HEIDCO, assisting with the creation of METALBODY and The Heaping Kind. Returning to Seattle in 2022, he has danced for Andrew McShea, Emily Schoen Branch, Beth Twigs, Alana Rogers, and Alyza Del-Pan Monley. Tariq has been presented at SAM Remix, the Seattle Erotic Arts Festival, FOUR organized by Co–, XO Seattle via The Seattle Project in collaboration with Maya Tacon, and now Velocity’s Bridge Project.
Project Research: My work explores the essence of collective memory to achieve emotional resonance. It’s energetically charged, set in semi-narrative structures, and influenced by: ideas of exile, human error, media saturation, sociocultural norms of acceptance, queerness, and dramatics.
Sonam Tshedzom Tingkhye is a first-generation Tibetan artist who merges dance, film, and story to highlight the interdependent relationship between people, society, and nature. Originally from Seattle, Washington, she grew up dancing at the Creative Dance Center and later explored the local scene by working with artists including Etienne Cakpo, Wade Madsen, Maya Soto, and Veronica Lee-Baik. In 2022 she received her BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
While in Boston she was in process and performed works by Jennifer Archibald, Juel D. Lane, Robert Moses’ Kin, Edisa Weeks, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. These artists have inspired her creative approach along with her identity as a Tibetan-American which is rooted in cultural heritage, social ecology, and music. Her work has been shown at Tibet Film Festival, Dance Film Lab, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, The Brooklyn Museum, Kaleidoscope Dance Company, Henry Purcell Society of Boston, and Tibet Fest. Tshedzom is currently a member of Motlee Party and Boston Early Music Festival, and continues to grow a body of work while actively performing across coasts.
Project Research: I synthesize narrative movement, experimental video, and music to create stories that remind us of our interdependence with nature. “The Roof is Leaking”, aims to reveal the ecological and spiritual sacredness of the Tibetan plateau.
黃心妤 Hsin-Yu Huang (they/he/she) is originally from Taichung, Taiwan, same as boba tea. They recently received a BA in Food System, Nutrition & Health and Medical Anthropology from University of Washington, with a minor in Dance. They move, talk, make, think, cook, laugh, cry, and do all kinds of stuff, separately and/or together. They like waves, sunshine, good food, weird stories, tight hugs, and lying on the floor contemplating their own mortality. During their time in Seattle, they’ve performed and/or shared their works in multiple UW Dance concerts, 12 Minutes Max, Fuck It! We’ll Do It Live, and at some random corners around the town.
Project Research: What’s in The Black Box? What’s out of The Black Box? What is The Black Box? Now, look around, where are you? Are you in, out, or at somewhere else?
PROGRAM SUPPORT
The Bridge Project is a core residency program, and supported by Velocity’s season sponsors and community of individual donors. The Bridge Project is presented in partnership with Base.
Interested in joining the community of support to make the Bridge Project possible? Contact erin@velocitydancecenter.org to learn how you can be involved.
