This week's profile features Bay Area artist Nadia Oka - a fierce, powerful, and elegant performer. Please note that the first three artist profiles have been from the Bay Area, and upcoming profiles include artists from Florida, New York, and Oregon. The goal is to feature at least one artist from all 50 states over the next year and a half.
Hometown: Oak Brook, IL
Current city: Oakland, CA
Age: 34
When you started to dance: age 5
When you first took a modern dance class: my first year of college
College and degree: Haverford College, BA in History and Latin American Studies
Graduate school and degree: Mills College, MFA in Choreography and Performance (age 27)
How you pay the bills: yoga instructor, restaurant server, ergonomics consultant
All of the dance hats you wear: dancer, choreographer, teacher
Talk about your skills set and many movement interests - modern dance, yoga, Aikido, and LMA:
I love all things related to movement and the human body. I’ve meandered down many paths to examine movement from varied angles and approaches—from ballet and figure skating as a kid, to modern dance, yoga and Aikido in the present day—much of which is framed from the context of my studies as a Certified Movement Analyst from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. I am also fascinated by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s Body-Mind Centering approach, in its examination of our inner and outer movement lives.
I am in a constant state of awe at the varied and complex nature of our bodies. It seems that the more familiar and knowable movement is, the more mysterious it becomes, which of course makes me want to know more. My studies in LMA have given me important tools with which to examine and delve into the myriad expressive ways we move in relationship to the world and to each other.
I came to Aikido because as I entered into my 30s, I felt the need to be a beginner at something, to go into a space in which I knew absolutely nothing and start from scratch, and here is this martial discipline that spirals and dances but approaches movement and partnering from a different expressive perspective. I also love the vocal outlet (it’s so fun to kiai—aka exhale and yell!) and falling and rolling and moving from your center and connecting with your partner—it’s the best kind of release technique I’ve found.
Can you talk about the role of waitressing in your life? Has it been your bread and butter since college? How does a non-dance job support or hinder your dancing?
I attended and graduated from college with no intention of pursuing dance. Throughout my young adulthood, however, I kept finding myself in class, fascinated by all that modern dance had to offer to my burgeoning artistic interests. And still, even when I moved to New York—the mecca of the contemporary dance world—I actually went there to be a community organizer, of all things. Dance was my “hobby” while I pursued more “legitimate” pursuits, like going to law school (which I deferred and then decided that was not the path for me). I wandered into the LMA world with the idea that I could become a movement therapist, and instead became fascinated so wholly with movement, dance and its potential for its own sake as a form of expression, that eventually, finally, I decided to dedicate myself to it fully. That’s when I found (read: lied my way into) my first job waiting tables in New York as a way to have the days free to take class and have a flexible schedule for rehearsals. In that way, it has been invaluable to me to really follow this path. The older I get, however, the more my body feels the effects of being on my feet for six hours straight, often working right after/before teaching or rehearsing. There is a definite trade-off between flexibility of schedule and the achiness of my poor joints. I have been fortunate in the last couple years to have to rely less on waiting tables and more on teaching to financially support myself.
What draws you into a dance project?
The choreographer, her strength of vision and a collaborative choreographic process.
What’s ahead for you in terms of dance (performing, choreographing, teaching, etc)?
I’ll be starting a new project with Peiling Kao, whom I admire so deeply as a performer and am excited to be a part of her choreographic vision. I am determined to get into the studio myself and dig into some ideas that have been knocking around my head for a while. I will continue to teach yoga, both group and private classes.
Name/list 1-3 performances in recent years that have really inspired you.
These are not all performances but I have found inspiration in the following works recently:
-InkBoat’s performance The Line Between (ODC)
-Janet Cardiff’s sound installation 20-part Motet (P.S.1)
-William Kentridge’s sound and video installation The Magic Flute (SF MoMA)
Advice to young dancers:
Even if you find yourself wandering in and out of the dance world, yet you find yourself returning to it in some form again and again, trust yourself and dig deeper to find what moves you about dance and dance-making and then dig even deeper to follow it to its illogical ends.
To read Nadia's updated profile from 2017, please click here.
You go, Girl! What a fantastic review. I am so honored to know you, Nadia. Miss you a lot!
Posted by: Tatiana | 09/04/2012 at 12:44 PM