Mission

dNaga Dance Co. creates dance experiences that foster connection across generations, cultures, and lived experiences. Rooted in curiosity, creativity, and long-term collaboration, our work strengthens community and supports each person's capacity to move, express, and thrive.

As part of the vision to inspire the amplification of the qualities of dance, dNaga’s primary goal is to increase each person’s agency and ability to take up space both energetically and physically despite their age, race and socio-economic status. These values steer the creation of the work of the dance company and our community programs. 

 dNaga is in residence at Danspace, where we have been offering a Dance for Parkinson’s program since 2007 have trained and rehearsed. dNaga’s company members live in Oakland and Brooklyn, and are currently rehearsing in Oakland. Intergenerational community members are always included in our performances. dNaga’s GIRL Project is in residence at EastSide Cultural Center, where we have been offering a multi-disciplinary art and empowerment program for POC girls 11 and up since 2014.

History

Founded in 2001, dNaga Dance Co. creates original interdisciplinary performances that blend contemporary dance, live music, visual design, and storytelling. Over the past twenty-five years, the company has developed a distinctive body of work exploring memory, identity, social justice, transformation, and belonging through an Asian American lens. Known for its longstanding collaborations with composer Joel Davel and a wide range of visual artists, dNaga's performances have been presented throughout the United States and internationally in Japan, Spain, and beyond.

Central to the company's artistic vision is the belief that dance can bridge generations and experiences. This commitment has led to the creation of acclaimed community-based initiatives including Dance for Parkinson's®, Oakland and the PEACE Project, which brings together professional dancers and people living with Parkinson's disease, as well as GIRL Project, an arts and empowerment program for Oakland youth. Rather than existing alongside the company's artistic work, these programs help shape and inform dNaga's creative practice, expanding who participates in the making of art and whose stories are represented on stage.

Our Work

dNaga’s performing company creates work rooted in the interview process, tackling themes such as the incarceration of Japanese Americans, racial profiling, mental health, systemic issues facing our youth, medication, surgery and palliative care. The company is based in Oakland, with members living in SF, and the New York Tri-state area. The company recently performed in Barcelona, Spain at the World Parkinson Congress (2023) and published a book entitled PEACE About Life: Dancing with Parkinson’s.

Much of our work is about developing a better understanding of our world and our place within it. By collecting the wisdom and personal stories of our elders, we can learn how to better care for ourselves and our communities, like SHIFT: Political Prisoners.