dNaga Dance Company is a unique ensemble made up of multi-generational dancers including young artists, professionals, and elders. Through workshops, classes, choreography and productions, the dance company explores the nature of our human condition and its relationship to our greater community.

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. dNaga’s work was most recently presented at the 2023 World Parkinson’s Congress in Barcelona, Spain at the International Barcelona Convention Center. The company offers an annual performance season in the Bay Area and has also performed and worked extensively in collaboration with artists from Brooklyn. Company members and collaborators are located in both the Bay Area and the New York metropolitan area.

Chaityn Isaacson-Brewster is a professional dancer and choreographer based in Los Angeles. In addition to dancing with dNaga, she has also worked closely with a variety of artists including Ray J, Sasy, Jake Miller, and other international artists through the DCP Creative. Through her dancing, Chay consistently champions connectivity and well-being and works to integrate her artistry into everyday life. 

In addition to dance, she enjoys learning new skill sets and connecting with new people. She recently started her day trading business, where she’s learned that the fastest way to get to any destination is slowly. She is also a certified personal trainer and enjoys using this medium to help others reach their personal fitness goals.

Lihong Chan is a Bay Area native, New York City based freelance dance artist. She was an inaugural member of Limón2 and performed as a guest with the Limón Dance Company. Additionally in NYC, she has performed works by Audrey Thao Berger, Erin Landers, Ashley Lindsey, Lydia Johnson, among others. She graduated in 2020 from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) with a BFA in Dance. In the Bay Area she has performed with dNaga, under the direction of Claudine Naganuma, an inter-generational dance company and the ODC Dance Jam, directed by Kimi Okada. She has spent summers at San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and more recently diving into Countertechnique at their annual One Body One Career Intensive. She will be pursuing a MA in Dance Education at Hunter College starting in the Fall.

Raychel Hatch (she/her) is a movement artist based in the Bay Area. Her creative world explores embellished expressivity, interconnectedness, culture, and community building. She holds a B.A. in Performing Arts & Social Justice, with a concentration in dance, and a B.A. in Psychology from University of San Francisco. She has worked with the Dance Generators (an intergenerational dance company ages 18-90), Robert Moses, First Voice, dNaga Dance, Tracey Lindsay Chan and ODC's Pilot 74 mentorship program. She is currently in process of earning her M.A. in Counseling Psychology at Santa Clara University. 

Jhia Louise Jackson (she/they) is a movement-based scholar artist who regularly engages in interdisciplinary projects. They earned their BA in Dance, Sociology, and Ethics from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and have gained extensive commercial and theatre dance experience as a teacher, performer, and choreographer. She has worked with artists such as Flyaway Dance Productions, 13th Floor Dance Theater, Alexandra Pirici, Joya Powell/Movement of the People Dance Company, RAWdance, Cally Spooner, Kim Epifano/Epiphany Dance Theater, and Octavia Rose Projects. Her unique approach to movement and art is informed by her extensive experiences in community-based projects, particularly those concerned with the health and wellness of marginalized populations, as well as her development as an interdisciplinary qualitative researcher, including earning her MS in Bioethics from Columbia University in the City of New York and current pursuit of a doctorate in Sociology from the University of California San Francisco. As such, Jhia is a complex, dynamic storyteller who is known for enriching the creative process with curiosity and care, pushing the boundaries of both art and scholarship. As the founder of j.habitus, they create visceral explorations and presentations of topics drawn from their scholastic and community-based work, which have been shown at the African American Art & Culture Complex, Joe Goode Annex, Peridance Capezio Theatre, and more. Visit www.jhiajackson.com to learn more about her and her work

Catalina Jackson-Urueña, Colombian-American Bay Area native, began her dance training under Beth Hoge at Danspace in Oakland. She has had the pleasure of working closely with Claudine Naganuma (dNaga Dance Company), Paola Escobar, and Marissa Osato. She has presented her own work at CalArts, RedCat, MOCA Geffen, The Place London, Frame Rush Dance Film Festival ’19, Edinburgh Fringe Festival ’19, and Brockus Shift/WEST Spring Residency ‘20.

While in LA, she has performed with MashUp Contemporary Dance Company and in works by Tess Hewlett, Waeli Wang, Sarah Rodenhouse, Victoria Brown, Stephanie Heckert, Kevin Zambrano, MarieElena Martingano, and André Mergerdichian. Catalina has danced in productions featured at The BROAD Stage, the Getty Villa, and World Parkinson Congress. In 2023, she founded her own event company, Stadium Feedback, and is currently developing a dance app. Catalina is the Director of Invertigo Dance Theatre’s Dancing Through Parkinson’s program. Aside from the arts, dogs and cooking bring her the most fulfillment.

Erin Landers is a dancer, choreographer, mime, and teacher, currently based in the Twin Cities, MN. She has been performing with dNaga since 2005. Erin is a creative partner with performance technology incubator Brooklyn Motion Capture Dance Ensemble (NYC), and was a cofounder of New York based repertory dance company A-Y/dancers where she performed in works by José Limón, Merce Cunningham, Doug Varone, and others. Her choreographic work has been presented by Arts On Site (NYC), PRELUDE Festival (NYC), The Neuberger Museum (NY), and MOtiVE Brooklyn (NYC), and commissioned by Zenon Dance’s Zone Program (MN), The Trust Performing Arts Center (PA), and University of Minnesota Opera Theatre (MN). Raised in a musical household in Northern California, Erin grew up immersing herself in ballet, modern dance, and traditional styles including Irish, Zimbabwean, and Balkan dance, before earning her BFA at SUNY Purchase. She is excited to be back with the dNaga team for Tastes Like Bitterness, Moves Like Love.

Sebastian Le (he/him) graduated from the University of San Francisco with a major in Business Management and a minor in Dance. He is a contemporary dancer and has worked with Liv Schaffer and Dazaun Soleyn. Throughout his time with Dance Generators, a USF-based intergenerational dance company, he performed in Liv and Dazaun’s piece, Pause to Bridge, which was performed at ODC in 2023. With Liv and Dazaun he also worked on an interactive quartet with Adia Millett’s quilted sculpture piece, “Quilted Ancestors”. He has also danced in Lenora Lee’s In Visibility and Convergent Waves: EP in early 2024. 

Leila Massoudi (she/her) is a Bay Area freelance dancer, born in Berkeley, has a backgound in Modern, Ballet, Jazz, and Persian dance. Leila is half Iranian and through the local Iranian community she had her earliest dance experiences in Persian Dance, training with the Shahrzad Dance Academy. She later joined dNaga Dance Company in 2018. Leila has since been involved in numerous projects with dNaga including performing at the World Parkinson’s Congress in Portland, Oregon (2016), Kyoto, Japan (2019) and Barcelona, Spain (2023). In training & professionally she has worked with Nicole Duffy & Davis Robertson from the New York Dance Project, Natasha Diamond-Walker, Michael Nickerson-Rossi, Jamila Glass, Clarence Brooks, Meg Madorin, and Stephanie Liapis. After graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a BA in Dance, she continues her training in the Bay Area & involves herself in numerous freelance dance projects. Leila remains passionate and committed to showing how beneficial movement and dance is for individuals beyond the artistic community.

Ki' Shae Qetlah is a multi-disciplinary Artist called to express herself with movement in her formative years. She first began traditional African Dance and Martial Arts at five years of age. She then trained with Derrick Minter of Ailey II, Denise Vale from the Martha Graham Dance Company and Mary Margaret Holt of Houston Ballet at the University of Oklahoma. She went on to join the University of Oklahoma Ballet Performance and Pedagogy Program, where she danced with the Oklahoma Festival Ballet. Ki' Shae is a Faculty Member for the ODC Youth & Teen Dance Program and at Sunset Movement Arts. She has danced with the Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble and is a company member for RammDance & Tim Rubel HumanShakes. Ki' Shae's desires in her dance practice are most fully realized through the art of storytelling, in the pursuit of continued peace, and in human connection.

Gabby Wei is a freelance dance artist born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She finds great joy through the process of researching her own body, mind and spirit, and is continually inspired by the magical reality of what it means to exist with the ability to create and experience art. She grew up training in various forms of dance including traditional Chinese dance from a young age. After spending a year at UC Santa Barbara, she returned to the bay to attend the Alonzo King LINES Training Program in 2022. Through LINES she has been able to perform new works by Kayla Farrish, Chafin Seymour, Chuck Wilt, Alex Ketley and Natasha Adorlee. Outside of LINES Gabby has spent summers studying at B12, Dancefarm Oregon and Vim Vigor. She has also worked with Selah Dance, Tara Pilbrow Dance and Ziru Dance. Gabby is delighted to be joining UNA Productions and dNaga Dance for their upcoming seasons.