PROCESS:

Along with set, memorized movement sequences, I work collaboratively with my dancers to create material that feels right on their bodies and helps them have ownership of their presence on stage. I like to make theatrical work where narrative and character are driving forces, but through a lens of abstraction and using movement to build thematic worlds.

ARTIST:

Kaitlin McCarthy is a Seattle-based dance artist, journalist, and teacher. Her choreography has appeared repeatedly at On the Boards, Velocity Dance Center, 12th Ave Arts, and countless other venues, festivals, and self-produced evening-length performances. Her work is “fondly humorous and stunningly creepy” (SeattleDances) and “in the forefront of innovative contemporary Seattle dance” (Deconstruct Collective). In addition to her own work, she has developed a decade-long collaborative partnership with Jenny Peterson, performing under moniker “The Bonnies.”

Kaitlin graduated summa cum laude with a degree in dance from Mt Holyoke College in 2009. As a dancer she has performed for over a dozen local artists, including regularly with Alice Gosti/MALACARNE since 2014, with whom she has toured nationally and internationally. Kaitlin’s performance work specializes in improvisation, durational and site-specific work, theatricality, and technical foundation in ballet, modern, and contact improvisation.

She has spent the last nine years as a teaching artist for Velocity Dance Center and eXit SPACE. Specializing in adult beginning dance, Kaitlin prides herself on brings safe-body practices, down-to-earth vibes, and the joy of dance to the classroom.

As a dance journalist, Kaitlin has spent the last decade writing about the Seattle scene in publications such as City Arts Magazine, Dance Intl Magazine, PublicDisplay.Art, and SeattleDances.com, where she has been the Editor since 2016. During her leadership she grew SeattleDances from a volunteer site to one that paid its writers and staff, and realigned the organization’s mission to focus on local and independent dance. For her writing she received a 2022 fellowship to the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Center for Theatre.

Photo by Devin Muñoz

ARTIST:

Tracey Wong 黃麗塋 (she/her) is a queer Teochew-American interdisciplinary artist that lights up and inspires spaces through her dance, singing, DJ-ing, hosting, education, and space-holding work. One of her purposes is to help us remember to play, connect with our intuition, and for our bodies to genuinely express to heal and to connect to our humanity.

She was born and raised on Duwamish Land/ Seattle, WA with deep roots in the Southend, Beacon Hill, Central District, and Chinatown-International District neighborhoods. Tracey is the daughter of loving parents who were refugees from Vietnam that taught her the values of honesty and loving wholeheartedly. Tracey takes pride in representing her birthplace and continues to create spaces that empower many, especially for queer people, women, and communities of color.

Tracey currently teaches Waacking/Whacking and Honey n Sensualitea at The Beacon: Massive Monkees Studio, a place she considers her home. She is also an Artist Mentor and Communications Manager at Totem Star, a community-based organization that centers and empowers youth voice through accessible music mentorship & programming. This past year, Tracey also joined the faculty team at the University of Washington as a lecturer, helping to develop the street and club-styles curriculum. As a multi-faceted artist, she will be debuting a burlesque performance at What the Funk – a POC burlesque festival that pays tribute to the Black American music genre of funk this year.

She has had the privilege to travel and continues to showcase, teach, judge, host, and compete all around the world. She has won titles in Waacking such as Ladies of Hip Hop LA (2019), Waack, Crackle Lock (2019), and Vancouver Street Dance Festival (2018), in freestyle battles such as Vancity Get Lite 2v2 (2023), 4theluvofit (2022), and more.

Tracey is the co-director and co-founder of Malicious Vixens, a dance crew and sisterhood of Asian American women that perform globally. Together, they work to create art that honors their ancestors and histories, but also honors the African diaspora and cultures that they are guests of.

Throughout her past decade, Tracey has held spaces for and with community for the purpose of letting the people shine in their truth – from showcases, jams/ dance battles, dance parties, sessions, and workshops highlighting local, national and international dancers. Some events include Queen of the Hill (2015-2018), an all-ladies dance event series and Punk N Funk (2017-2019), Seattle’s largest Waacking/ Whacking battle, and House that Disco (2022).

In 2022, Tracey was deemed a legend in the PNW kiki ballroom scene to honor her years of achievements of winning trophies and creating memorable moments in the ballroom scene. In 2017, Tracey was honored at Seattle House Dance Project in recognition for her community work and in 2020 as a Seattle Dance Crush.

She would not be here today without the support of her loved ones and elders that have paved the way.

Photo by Amy Piñon

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