Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre Introduces New Dancers

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre introduces three new dancers into the company for the 2018-2019 Season: Misaki Hayama, Yoshi Pineda and Fabricio Seraphin.

These new dancers will perform in Crossroads, a new work in development by Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre, scheduled to premiere in June 2019 at New York Live Arts. The piece explores forging into unchartered waters and that tumultuous process of self-discovery. Inspired by the work of Margritte and Escher, Selwyn will collaborate with scenic & costume designer, Anna-Alisa Belous to shape a surrealistic landscape that highlights these lingering moments at the crossroads, choosing one path or another, and how these moments steer the course of our lives.

New Dancer Biographies

Misaki Hayama was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She graduated Saitama Prefectures High School of Arts and studied dance at Japan University of Art. During her schooling, she studied modern, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, Japanese traditional dance, tap and singing. She has won many dance competitions in modern dance and also won first place in a hip-hop dance competition in the Philippines. Misaki performed in a dance ensemble for The Lion King and A Chorus Line in Tokyo, Sapporo and Osaka in Japan for four years. Upon moving to New York in 2015, she attended The Alvin Ailey School as a Fellowship Student. She has had the opportunity to perform at The Apollo Theatre and has worked with she worked with Oberdiah Wright, Leslie Dockery, and Alfredo Gillman in new musical Night Songs at Actors Theatre Workshop. In 2016, she danced as a guest artist with George William Faison at gospel festival. Misaki danced with Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre in the Ensemble in 2017 and joined as a full Company Member in 2018.

Yoshi Pineda is a driven performer and choreographer, as well as dance adjudicator at the international level. He has a strong passion for contemporary based movement and aerial acrobatics. He was born and raised in Brownsville, TX, and continued his professional training at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, where he was a ballet major. Yoshi is heavily involved in the commercial dance industry. He is represented in Los Angeles by The Movement Talent Agency. He travels the country as a lead instructor and choreographer for MA Dance and DX Events. His love for travel and culture led him to perform with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines vessels as a dance captain and aerial coordinator. He now choreographs for the RCCL Productions and has directed shows for the fleet. Yoshi toured internationally with aerial acrobatics company On the FLY as choreographer, dancer, and aerialist. With On the FLY, he has performed on season 9 of hit TV showAmerica's Got Talent and was runner-up on the second season of TruTV'sFakeOff. In 2018, Yoshi transplanted to NYC and has become a Teaching Artist for Notes in Motion Outreach Dance Theatre and a Company Member of Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre.

Fabricio Seraphin was born in Haiti and was raised in Florida, where had the opportunity to attend many arts institutes from high school on. He attended many dance programs as such as the American Dance Festival and has worked with artists such as Sonya Tayeh and Bill T. Jones. He graduated with a BA in Theatre, Minor in dance and nutrition from Millikin University, where his featured solo placed top in the American College Dance Association. Fabricio has previously worked as an aerialist and dancer for The Rainbow Circus in Miami. He is currently working with I-kada contemporary dance and is thrilled to be a new member of Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre.

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre creates original and dynamic dance theatre that raises questions, challenges social norms and values, and magnifies humanity through dance. Productions pivot around core themes and through an interplay between athletic and pedestrian motion, activate emotional expression, character, and narrative in a rich and abstract collage. Presenting dance in an immediate, mature, and inclusive way, we engage audiences from start to finish and beckon a response of thought, feeling, and soul. www.amandaselwyndance.org

Founded in 2000, Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre has presented over 75 productions at NYC venues including Tribeca Performing Arts Center, New York Live Arts, Dance Theatre Workshop, Mark Morris Dance Group, Dance New Amsterdam, Danspace Project, Ailey Citigroup Theater, The Kumble Theater, John Jay College, and Mark Morris Dance Center. We have been presented twice at Jacob's Pillow, Tribeca Performance Arts Center, Westfest, DUMBO Dance Festival, Dixon Place, Dance Teacher Summit, COOL NY, Movement Research, and Pushing Progress Series. We have toured to festivals, presented open rehearsals, interactive performance events and workshops, and offer arts-in-education programming through Notes in Motion Outreach Dance Theatre to children in the NYC public schools.