ABOUT US
Our Team
Creative Collaborator; Video Artist
Meena Murugesan (they/them) is a video and movement artist is living on Tongva-Kizh land. Meena creates experimental non-linear narratives at the intersection of live performance, video art installation and social issues. Grappling with the practises of collage, projection mapping, contemplative documentary, improvisation, somatic bodywork and bharatanatyam, Meena centers an anti-racist, anti-caste, feminist, queer, melanin-rich creative liberatory practice.
They are directing a multimedia series titled Dravidian Futurities about African-Dravidian connections, casteism, colorism and trance/possession movement rituals.
Meena is a current founding member of two collectives: SAEDA (South Asian Experimental Dance Artists, Mellon awardee 2021-2022); and SiriusShapeShifters (with d. Sabela grimes).
Meena has presented their films or video projection design work at: The Getty Museum; The Getty Villa; Underground Museum; The Broad Museum; MOCA LA; Jacob's Pillow; SOPHIENSALE: 651 Arts; EMPAC; BLACKSTAR; among other venues.
Founder, Artistic Director; Co-Executive Director
Nicole Klaymoon founded Embodiment Project in 2008, and has directed and choreographed ten original evening-length productions since EP’s inception including Music of the Actualized Child and The Isadora Duncan Dance Award-winning Chalk Outlines for all original music by Valerie Troutt. Klaymoon was selected as a KQED Woman to Watch and a resident choreographer at ODC Theater, Headlands Center for the Arts, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the National Center for Choreography Akron. In 2014 Klaymoon co-founded Seeds, the first hip hop youth dance company at the ODC dance school.
Klaymoon has served on faculty in the Department of Performing Arts and Social Justice at the University of San Francisco since 2014 and has worked as a guest artist at Arizona State University, Mills College, UC Riverside, UC Berkeley, and Bates College Summer Dance Festival.
She choreographed the dance films The Wind Telephone and Chrysalis, sponsored by the San Francisco Dance Film Festival’s Co-Lab, which was selected by several international film festivals including MARFA Film Festival, Bucharest INTL Dance Film Festival and Barcelona’s Choreoscope Dance Film Festival.
As a solo artist, she has created and toured a dance theater production titled Sixth Vowel, choreographed by Rennie Harris, and directed by Kamilah Forbes of the NYC Hip Hop Theater Festival. Miami New Times wrote: “Sixth Vowel was THE BEST small theatrical production I have seen in this city in a decade.”
Klaymoon relates to poems as living beings that she seeks to set free through her body. She carries ashkenazi jewish ancestry and identifies as a choreo-poet, dance-maker, freestyle house dancer, eco-feminist, and is devoted to internal and social transformation. She comes from a lineage of female artists and carries her grandmother's commitment to the force of the feminine through artistic expression.
Restorative Justice Facilitator
Nuri Nusrat hopes to bring love and compassion to those she has the honor of working with. She’s had the privilege of training incredible people in circle process and restorative community conferencing models and has co-facilitated direct dialogues about harm, accountability, and support. She believes the collective has more wisdom than she could ever hold alone and values collaboration as a fundamental part of restorative justice work.
Creative Collaborator / Educator; Get Free Festival Guest Artist / Teacher
Born and raised in the D.M.V. (D.C., Maryland, Virginia) area, Oluwatoyin Sogunro – better known as Toyin – is a professional dancer and educator. She is a cultural ambassador of Black street dance and club dance forms.
Sogunro spends her time traveling extensively to different urban arts communities globally. Through her travels, she broadens her perspective and understanding in all sorts of dance forms, and shares her own talents and teachings in these spaces. Most, if not all, of her work revolves around preserving the authenticity of Black culture through street and club dance.
As an artistic director of ‘Urban Artistry’ dance company for 10 years, Sogunro gained experience teaching historical techniques and applications. She mentored students to become a preservationist and innovator of urban arts. With the company, she also gained the opportunity to perform for the grand opening dedication ceremony for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
The other half of her dance life exists in competitive spaces. In 2011, Sogunro and her partner LaTasha Barnes made history by being the first American team and the first female team to take home first place in the world championship for House Dance in the Juste Debout competition. Since then, she has gained respect as one of the best “House dancers” of this generation. She is perhaps most well-known for performing, winning and judging some of the top dance competitions in the world, including Juste Debout, Summer Dance Forever and I Love This Dance to name a few.
Currently, Sogunro finds herself putting her energy into higher and new realms. She is creating and directing a new collective called Nefer Global Movement. It was recently mentioned in Red Bull’s magazine, The Red Bulletin. Nefer is a group that consists of active influential women in the hip-hop dance scene. The collective’s goal is to come together to celebrate dance, culture and empower sisterhood. While managing this collective, she has shared her artistry on stages across the country, including touring as one of Omarion’s dancers on the Millenium Tour 2021.
Using her talent and message, she continues to inspire fellow artists and arts enthusiasts. From her knowledge and with over a decade of experiences in different mediums as a working Black dance artist, she has plenty to give. Sogunro strives to be a true pillar of artistic excellence and uses art as a tool to propel personal empowerment and communal engagement.
