✨Meet the Artist! Negar will be sharing work at First Draft @theicala Friday 2/20 Link to RSVP in bio! Negar Kamali is a multidisciplinary artist and choreographer whose work investigates the relationship between space, movement, and cultural memory. Trained in architecture, she applies spatial analysis to choreographic practice, examining how built environments shape bodily knowledge and social relations. Since 2011, she has taught Persianate and Iranian dance as well as contemporary dance, and her extensive travels across Iran have profoundly shaped her creative practice. Her choreography draws on the country’s diverse geography and rich literary heritage. Currently pursuing an MFA in Experimental Choreography at the University of California, Riverside, Negar’s research asks: What do we carry when we move? Her methodology employs objects as live collaborators and draws on the Persian concept of Shuridegi a passionate transformation born from deep longing. Her work engages sensation as knowledge and acknowledges temporality’s imprint on movement, demonstrating how relocation across geographies shapes embodied understanding, and how movement itself becomes a living archive.

✨Meet the Artist! Valeria will be presenting work at First Draft on 2/20 @theicala Link to RSVP in bio! Valeria Tizol Vivas is an artist from Bayamón, Puerto Rico who lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She holds a B.EnvD from the School of Architecture, University of Puerto Rico, and an MFA in Sculpture from UCLA. Tizol Vivas is currently Faculty in the School of Arts at California Institute of the Arts. Tizol Vivas’ practice explores the morphology of materials, time, and ancient dialects with the Caribbean as a point of origin. Her work alludes to memory, cultural histories, traditions, elemental processes, and architectural sensibilities, all of which are investigated through introspection, material interventions, experimental arrangements, and mark-making techniques. Her hypotheses and observations transfigure the narratives and languages of displacement and marginalization through the instinctual nature and processes of the elements, materials, and forms she communicates with. Her recent work has been featured in Lenzner Gallery at Pitzer College, Transformative Arts

✨Meet this artists presenting work at the upcoming First Draft 2/20 @theicala ✨ RSVP in Bio!! Arushi Singh is a dance scholar, writer, educator, and performer from New Delhi, now based in Los Angeles. Moving between theory and practice, she traces how dance both shapes and is shaped by the worlds it inhabits. Holding a PhD in Culture and Performance from UCLA, her award-winning research examines contemporary and experimental dance in South Asia—its shifting institutional terrains, systems of patronage, and the political economies that sustain or unsettle performance. Her writing appears in South Asian Dance Intersections, Didaskalia, Conversations Across the Field of Dance Studies, Dance Chronicle, Race & Yoga, and Tilt Pause Shift: Dance Ecologies in India, with forthcoming essays in The Oxford Handbook of Dance Praxis and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive. Her choreographic practice runs in conversation with this scholarship—rooted in Indian movement vocabularies yet restless in its search for new temporalities, architectures, and relations. Recent collaborations in Los Angeles include works with Ajani Brannum, Emily Barasch, Victoria Marks, Lionel Popkin, and Christine Suarez. As a performance artist and emerging scholar, Moodzi (Abhijeet Mudgerikar) narrates stories at the intersection of social dance, gender experimentation, cultural geography, and interactive systems. They are currently pursuing an MFA in Choreographic Inquiry at UCLA, where they are investigating the etymology and cultural circulation of nazar—translated as gaze, perception, or the “evil eye”—from its Arabic origins to its regional transformations across South Asia. Their research is informed by a background in architecture and their practice of queer Black social dances in India, through which they draw relations among space, migration, and cross-cultural interaction.

🔔🔔🔔RSVP link for First Draft @theicala on Feb 20 is now live! FIRST DRAFT is an ongoing performance series that showcases works in progress by Los Angeles–based artists. Organized as a creative laboratory, the program centers community-building and artistic exchange, supporting experimental performance practices that challenge dominant social orders and prioritize self-directed research. Performance-making is often isolating, shaped by individualistic and extractive production models. FIRST DRAFT intervenes by activating shared resources, mutual support, and collective growth among local artists. The series position performance as a collaborative practice, providing space for rigorous artistic research, advocating for more equitable models of development, and strengthening the Los Angeles performance ecosystem. FIRST DRAFT at ICA LA on February 20 will present three performance works by local artists Arushi Singh and Moodzi (Abhijeet Mudgerikar), Valeria Tizol Vivas, and Negar Kamali, organized by choreographer and educator Emily Barasch in partnership with FIRST DRAFT. FIRST DRAFT x ICA LA builds connections between visual art and live performance, foregrounding shared lines of inquiry with the artists currently on view at ICA LA. Works by Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Samar Al Summary, and Liz Hernández examine systems of power and patriarchy, the relationship between bodies and political landscapes, displacement, and economic collapse. This collaboration seeks to deepen local artistic networks and foster institutional partnerships that expand the reach and sustainability of FIRST DRAFT.

Dear Community, First Draft has not disappeared this Fall, I’ve just been scheming behind the scenes! I am thrilled to announce the upcoming iteration of First Draft will be held at @theicala and will be free!! Featuring performances by @sing_arushi @moodziisamood @negarkli @vacholas , First Draft at ICA LA on February 20 aims to create deeper roots within the local arts ecosystem and establish institutional partners to expand the reach of First Draft.  The intention for  First Draft @ ICA LA  is to create bridges between visual art and live performance; showcasing performances that are engaging in similar inquiries and conceptual frameworks to that of the artists whose works are currently display at ICA LA. The current artists, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Samar Al Summary, and Liz Hernández works’ explore systems of power and patriarchy, the relationship between bodies and political landscapes, displacement, and economic collapse. I can’t wait to see the through lines that emerge between these incredible visual artists works and the live performances that will be shared! First Draft is a performance series showcasing works-in-progress by curated local makers. Grounded in community-building through artistic exchange, First Draft a low-tech, high- visibility creative laboratory for experimental performers and audiences in Los Angeles. The series highlights risk-taking projects that push the boundaries of dominant social orders and cultivate self-directed research practices. The state of performance-making often isolates artists, forcing them into an individualistic cycle of creation, development, and production. First Draft intervenes in this isolating, capitalist system by mobilizing local artists’ assets for resource-sharing and mutual support. First Draft aims to reimagine performance as a site of shared artistic growth, where artists can actively participate in building sustainable creative practices together. First Draft provides a platform for sharing rigorous artistic research, advocates for equitable models of artistic development, and contributes to the Los Angeles’ performance landscape.

Please join us Saturday June 7 @ 8 pm for the Summer lineup of @first_draft_la @pieterperformancespace Link for tickets in bio!!! @_szalt_ @sammay.art @wildbonesjones @saydaqp

Introducing cojo @wildbonesjones who will be performing at First Draft on June 7 @pieterperformancespace cultural, and sexual identity through textile sculptures that take the shape of puppetry, soft sculpture, and production design. Most recently, Jones employs drag and cabaret aesthetics to communicate personal tragedies and successes to a humorous approach to the self.

📸 @gema.galiana Meet @_szalt_ who will be sharing work on June 7 @first_draft_la @pieterperformancespace STEPHANIE ZALETEL (they/she) is a choreographer, dance artist, trauma-aware somatic facilitator, educator, performance curator, poet, caregiver, and environmentalist. They create captivating and voyeuristic choreographic works for various mediums, collaborating with musicians, filmmakers, theater and opera companies and love to dance for others. Stephanie is the founding artistic director of “szalt”, a project based dance company, and “I care about your body” - a trauma informed methodology for folks tasked with positions of caregiving holding quarterly offerings around the country. Stephanie is the Programming Director and co-founder of “WIP LA”, a monthly choreography series at Gson Studios. They hold a certificate in somatic and psychotherapy practices from Antioch University and are an MFA candidate in Choreography at California Institute of the Arts. For “First Draft” Stephanie will be sharing early research towards their graduate thesis “prayer” collaborating with performers: Joe Davis, Murphy Martin, Kensaku Shinohara, and sam wentz.

Meet @saydaqp who will be sharing work at First Draft on June 7 @pieterperformancespace Sayda Trujillo was born in Montreal and grew up in Canada, Guatemala and the USA. A theatre-maker specializing in voice and movement, as well as devising original physical theatre performances. Identity and storytelling inspire her personal and collective work with communities around the world. Sayda has written and performed four solo shows presented nationally and internationally. She holds a BFA in Acting from CalArts; a post-graduate Physical Theatre certificate from the Dell’ Arte International; and a Masters in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She is a Professor of Theatre at Cal Poly Pomona, and lives in Los Angeles.

Introducing @sammay.art who will be sharing work at Summer First Draft June 7 @pieterperformancespace 8 pm! SAMMAY Peñaflor Dizon (she/they/siya) is a Filipinx American choreographer, performer, writer, educator, and cultural steward working within and across dance, theatre, film, ancestral veneration, and experimental performance. Born and raised in the City of Carson, she believes embodied practice is preventive care, and cultivates cross-cultural, intergenerational spaces of deep joy, radical pleasure, and dream-swimming. Their work explores the body as a site of memory, resistance, and reclamation for earth’s healing and liberation. Dizon is a recipient of the Gerbode Special Award in the Arts for Dance & Movement (2024); Izzie Award for Special Achievement in Dance (2021); and Rainin New & Experimental Works Award (2021) among others. Dizon holds an MFA in Choreographic Inquiry from UCLA and a BA in Media Studies and Sociology from UC Berkeley.

Summer First Draft is coming!! Let’s kick off summer with a gorgeous night of live performance and community! Last chance to catch some local experimental performance makers share what they’re working on until the Fall! You don’t want to miss what these generous, creative artists have in store for you!! Come catch @sammay.art @_szalt_ @wildbonesjones @saydaqp Saturday June 7 @ 8 pm @pieterperformancespace 💜💜💜

Check out this awesome write up about @khfdance piece at last @first_draft_la !! /brave-new-world