Artists in Residency.
Mike Tyus & Luca Rezi
Mike Tyus & Luca Renzi are a Los Angeles–based creative duo working across dance, film, and multidisciplinary performance. Together they lead Mike Tyus & Co., a movement-driven company creating works for stage, film, museums, and brands.
Tyus has performed with Cirque du Soleil, Pilobolus Dance Theater, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Eastman, while Renzi brings a wide range of expertise in theater, film, and design.
Their choreographic commissions include Le Ballet Opéra d’Avignon, Whim W’Him, Visceral Dance Chicago, Peridance, and other companies across the U.S. and Europe. Commercial collaborations span projects with Zendaya, FKA Twigs, Grace VanderWaal, Apple, and Lancôme, with recent work featured in the Netflix documentary Songs From the Hole.
Blending acrobatics, theater, and contemporary dance, Tyus and Renzi explore themes of nature, spirituality, and human resilience, creating bold, ritualistic movement experiences that blur the lines between disciplines.
Savea Kagan
Savea Kagan is a freelance choreographer/dancer /writer trained at Los Angeles County High School For The Arts (LACHSA) and Degas Dance Studio. During this time, she received national recognition from YoungArts, Music Center Spotlight, and Youth America Grand Prix, and attended programs such as Jacobs Pillow, Orsolina28, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and Nederlans Dans Theater X Project Amare. She then received her Bachelor’s degree at Codarts Rotterdam University Of The Arts and danced with Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, where she now works as an Academy Teacher, along with guest teaching/choreographing at Henny Jurriens, Codarts, The Movers Amsterdam, Korzo Theater, and other institutions in the Netherlands and abroad. In addition, she’s an avid creator and has choreographed full length productions, multimedia dance theater performances, short films, music videos, and site specific exhibitions.
LEX ISHIMOTO
Lex Ishimoto is a Dance Artist, originally from California. He was trained vigorously in jazz, lyrical, tap, hip-hop, ballet, and contemporary. He debuted his first professional dance job as “Billy” on the 1st and 2nd national tour of “Billy Elliot the Musical” in 2011. He trained at Boston Ballet School as a trainee in 2015 and was promoted to Boston Ballet II the following year. He later joined Travis Wall’s Shaping Sound company for the tour of “After The Curtain” In 2017, Ishimoto was crowned America’s Favorite Dancer on So You Think You Can Dance season 14, and he appeared as an All-Star for the 15th season. Lex can be seen in music videos such as Sia’s “The Greatest,” Judith Hill’s “The Pepper Club,” BeBe Rexha’s “I’m a Mess,” and more. His most recent works include World tour with rock band “MUSE,” William Forsythe rep, and setting work for Boston ballet.
MARIE OSTERMAN
Marie is an improviser, teacher, and theatre artist based in Los Angeles. Marie (literally) fell in love with Contact Improv at 15 yrs. old, and has been performing and practicing since. Marie taught Contact Improvisation since 2019 in the US, CAN, and EU, as well as performing and creating improvised work at festivals, galleries, and public spaces. Marie is curious about approaching CI through a lens of compassionate mischief, inviting readiness and chaos through play and physically rigorous curiosity. Among others, Marie has studied with Nita Little, Anya Cloud, Sara Shelton Mann, Lower Left Collective, Ezra LeBank. Other large influences in their work draw upon Anna Halprin, Augusto Boal, Viewpoints, Ensemble Thinking, Flying Low technique, and Nancy Stark Smith. They are a longtime collaborator and associate managing director of Project Nongenue-- a queer theatre company focused on centralizing the voices of women and marginalized identities within classical theater and mythology. Marie teaches CI and ensemble movement at dance spaces, universities, and youth programs in LA, and festivals throughout the continent. They also organize the LA Underscore, and co-organize Long Beach CI Fest and California CI Teachers Exchange in Berkeley.