This site includes an archive of selected projects from my body of work in performance and writing.  

The inspiration behind my scholarly and creative practice is revisionist and compassionate. My hope is to challenge and transform negative, societal perceptions about cultural producers who have been stigmatized or marginalized. By attending to their contributions to art, culture, and history, my scholarship expands narratives and genealogies of performance and visual culture, with the intention to open hearts and minds to alternative perspectives into the human experience.  

I situate my research at the intersection of performance studies, visual studies, and critical studies in race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. As an educator, I design and teach courses in these areas, as well as at the generative nexus of creativity and contemplation. My mission is to help students discover their unique gifts and to reconnect to their bodies at a time when humanity is highly disembodied. I invite them to think critically and compassionately, as well as to cultivate joy and embodied wisdom through performing arts and healing modalities such as theater for social change, laughter yoga, qigong, and other contemplative practices focused on play.  

For more news, publications, and upcoming events, visit the News & Events page.

Discussing the potential for collective joy as a form of resistance, when I was featured at Galería de la Raza’s “lunada” (their monthly full moon poetry and art event) in April of 2025. Photo by Robert Gomez. 

The first-ever qigong class offered for academic credit at Stanford University, that also counted toward the general education requirement for Creative Expression, the major in TAPS (Theater & Performance Studies) and the minor in Dance Studies.

“Supporting Well-Being Through the Integration of Qigong, the Arts, and Social Justice” at the first-ever Science of Tai Chi and Qigong Conference, sponsored by the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

BANNER PHOTO CREDITS (LEFT TO RIGHT):

Intertwining Roots (2015), photo Frank Chen

Alchemy (2016), photo: Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa

Author photo by Kari Orvik (2023)

Alchemy (2016), photo: Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa

Inverted Minstrel (2001), photo Eugenio Castro