imprint cohort 2026-27

We launched imprint, QTBIPOC dance writing program in 2025. For our second year of the fellowship, we extended the fellowship from the Bay Area to nation-wide, and accepted three fellows. You can read their published work on our blog here. If you are interested in applying for imprint, you can find more info about the program and upcoming application here.

Maddi Ghatak

Maddi Ghatak (she/they) is a queer Bengali American writer, poet, dancer, and choreographer, born and based in the Bay Area. She holds an MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation from the University of Oxford and has been writing poetically and academically since 2016. Inhabited by relational and existential longing, her critical and creative works explore the liminal, generative space between what we hold dear to us and the precarity of constant change.

Davianna Griffin

Davianna Griffin (pronounced Day – VEE – AH – nah) is a Black queer artist scholar who approaches her choreographic work like an archaeological dig, unearthing the traditions and shared experiences of Black life. Her practice bridges scholarly research and performance, taking her work to festivals, universities, and academic conferences alike. She is also the co-founder of the non-profit Thick Like Me (TLM), championing body liberation for Black women in dance and beyond.

José A. Luis

José A. Luis was born in Veracruz, Mexico and raised in Racine, WI. Currently based in Minneapolis, he graduated with a BFA in Dance from UW-Milwaukee. His works have appeared at “Inbox@Artbox,, at the Rochester Art Center, and at the Walker Art Center. Relocation, departure, and arrival are motifs in his personal life, but present in his works by shaping time and space.

imprint cohort 2025-26

We launched our inaugural imprint QTBIPOC dance writing program in 2025 and accepted four fellows. You can read their published work on our blog here. If you are interested in applying for imprint, you can find more info about the program and upcoming application here.

Jeffrey Gan

Jeffrey Gan is a dramaturg, curator and performance maker specializing in non-western and experimental performance. Gan holds a PhD in performance studies from the University of Texas at Austin, where his research explored popular performance in the Dutch-Indonesian diaspora. As a dancer, Gan trains and performs with Gamelan Sekar Jaya and Nā Lei Hulu i Ka Wēkiu. He currently serves as the Literary Manager of the Playwrights Foundation, where he curates the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. This past spring, he co-curated ART Gado Gado, the first juried exhibition of Indonesian diaspora art in the United States.

Nkechi Deanna Njaka

Nkechi Deanna Njaka (she/her) is a practice-based researcher whose work explores embodied presence as a modality for healing, transformation and somatic liberation. Integrating neuroscience, mindfulness, and performance, her research investigates how contemplative practices and guided mindfulness intersect with creative expression to foster individual and collective well-being. Currently pursuing doctoral studies in Creative Research at Transart/Liverpool John Moore’s University, Nkechi’s inquiry is grounded in her expertise as a neuroscientist, choreographer, and mindfulness guide.

Teo Lin-Bianco

Teo Lin-Bianco is a queer dance artist and writer based in San Francisco. They studied dance and performance at UC Berkeley, where their choreographic and academic work began to intertwine. Currently, they serve as co-director of Tether Dance Project, a company committed to interdisciplinary collaboration and embodied storytelling. With a background in circus, gymnastics, and modern dance, Teo brings an intuitive and critical eye to their writing. They are particularly interested in how movement can act as emotional language, cultural archive, and collective memory.

Marlena Gittleman

Marlena Gittleman (she/they) recently completed a PhD in ComparativeLiterature at UC Berkeley, where she taught writing and literature and researched gestures in US and Latin American queer and feminist literature and performance art. Marlena’s writing has been published in Feminist Studies, In Dance, and Life as a Modern Dancer, and their translations have been published in Critical Times, The Common, and Asymptote. She is a dancer and improviser who has performed in NACHMO SF and with 4Fish x RedEye Productions. Marlena is based in Oakland, CA on Ohlone land. They are an incoming postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry at UC Berkeley.