spoken movement UK

Kwame Asafo-Adjei is a dance artist blending hip-hop, contemporary dance, and his Ghanaian heritage to create a unique movement style that reflects his social reality. His work often explores Black culture’s evolution, shaped by his experiences in programs like Sadler’s Wells Open Art Surgery. Mentored by Jonzi D and Jonathan Burrows, he refined his artistic identity—blunt, raw, and truthful. As Founder and Artistic Director of Spoken Movement, Asafo-Adjei challenges audiences to engage beyond analysis, embracing Black culture’s perspective. With his Sadler’s Wells Wild Card evening, he continues pushing boundaries in contemporary dance.

Motion Tribe 

​Motion Tribe is a contemporary dance collective based in Korea, exploring themes of balance, transformation, and resilience through raw, physical movement. Their featured work Balance incorporates symbolic objects such as a ceramic jar and tree branches to reflect the coexistence of fragility and strength. Known for their use of poetic imagery and grounded group dynamics, Motion Tribe creates performances that blur the boundary between performer and audience. Led by choreographer Yoon Seungjin, the group has been active in site-specific works, festivals, and cross-disciplinary collaborations across Korea, and is proud to make its New York debut at the 2025 DUMBO Dance Festival.

Bruce McCormick 

Bruce McCormick (independent artist) earned his BFA from The Juilliard School and his MFA from the University of Washington, where he was also on faculty. He performed in twelve countries on four continents as a member of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Bavarian State Ballet, and the Bern Ballet, where he was a soloist and ballet master. He also served as Assistant Artistic Director of North Netherlands Dance and Rehearsal Director with Ballet BC. McCormick has choreographed throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia for the concert stage, opera, site-specific work and film. His approach investigates ballet’s contemporaneity, not only through movement creation but also through cultivating inclusive rehearsal spaces where past harms are not perpetuated.

Katia Raj

Katia Raj began her professional training at the Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington, D.C.  where she graduated with honors. Upon graduation, she began her professional career as a soloist with the Gelsey Kirkland Ballet in New York City and then joined the Yacobson Ballet Theatre, in St. Petersburg, Russia.  Katia is currently working as a freelance artist based in NYC, performing in various guest performances and galas.  In 2024, she began filming for an upcoming TV show "Etoile" with directors Amy and Dan Palladino and is currently a part of "Reunited in Dance," a new company of dancers who all formerly danced in Russia.  

Obremski/Works   

​Founded by Jesse Obremski and associate founders in 2018, Obremski/Works (O/W) was a choreographic hub for Obremski’s choreography. With deepened purpose from the 2021 AAPI hate crimes, Obremski/Works is now an internationally presented contemporary ensemble and community of AAPI equity-minded individuals, with a deep dedication to life-affirming / why-driven performance art, support fellowships, and AAPI culture. The organization consists of two equal cornerstones, the Company and Fellowships, which are the vehicles for showcasing the richness and beauty of AAPI cultures through the contemporary field while promoting equitable opportunities and representation.

WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company  

Formed in 1988, WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company strives to inspire audiences through multi-dimensional dance productions reflecting themes and philosophies both modern and timeless. For nearly four decades, Ms. Kim and WHITE WAVE have appeared globally on principal stages including Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Joyce Theater, Kennedy Center, Dance Theater Workshop, Jacob’s Pillow, American Dance Festival, National Theater of Seoul (Korea), National Theater of Taipei (Taiwan), Hong Kong Academy of the Performing Arts, as well as Theatre de la Ville in Paris, Maison de la Culture in Le Havre, France; Teatro Nazionale in Milan, Teatro Tendu Striscie in Rome, Italy; Schauspielhaus in Cologne, Germany; as well as the Festival d’Avignon in Avignon, France, among others.