Ephrat Asherie Dance
with Arturo O'Farrill
Shadow Cities

Saturday, February 28, 2026

Artistic Director: Ephrat Asherie
Choreography: Ephrat Asherie, in collaboration with the company 
Original Music: Arturo O’Farrill
Lighting Design: Kathy Kaufmann
Costume Design: David Dalrymple 
Artistic Advisor: Nick Minas

Performed with Live Music

Dancers: Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie, Manon Bal, Ron "Stealth-1" Chunn, Teena Marie, Val "Ms Vee" Ho, Eriko Jimbo, Dorren “Moglii” Smith

Musicians: Arturo O’Farrill (piano), Gui Duvignau (bass), Juan Carlos Polo (percussion), Larry Bustamante (woodwinds)

Company Manager: Bridget Caston
Production Manager and Lighting Supervisor: LD DeArmon
Audio Engineer: Will Stanton
Prop Supervisor: Val "Ms Vee" Ho 

Duration: Approximately 1 hour, no intermission

World Premiere
November 14, 2025 at the Zellerbach Theatre - Annenberg Center in Philadelphia, PA

Premiere Cast
Dancers: Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie, Manon Bal, Ron "Stealth-1" Chunn, Teena Marie, Val "Ms Vee" Ho, Eriko Jimbo, Dorren “Moglii” Smith
Musicians: Arturo O’Farrill (piano), Eduardo Belo (bass), Juan Carlos Polo (percussion), Alfredo Colon (woodwinds)

Shadow Cities is made possible by Lead Commissioning support provided by Modlin Center for the Arts, University of Richmond, Jody and John Arnhold, and in part by Harkness Dance Center’s Artist-in-Residence Program at 92NY. Co-commissioning support is provided by Penn Live Arts Accelerator Program, Duke Arts, La Jolla Music Society, and the ProtoStar Foundation. Additional support provided by O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, One World Fund, New Music USA’s Organization Fund, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Development support provided by the Studio Artists program of the NYC Public Schools’ Arts Office. Additionally, Ephrat Asherie Dance gratefully acknowledges the support from members of its Commissioning Circle, with lead gift provided by Deborah and Charles Adelman. 

Special thanks to dedicated EAD colleagues and supporters: Sandy Garcia, Bridget Caston, Amy Lam, Sarah Long Holland, and Owen Burnham. 

Ephrat Asherie Dance (EAD) collaborates with Grammy® Award-winning pianist and composer Arturo O’Farrill on its newest creation, Shadow Cities, a contemplative and multi-faceted reflection on the beauty, vastness and joy of the in-between. With a cast of seven dancers and four musicians, the performers explore the myriad ways they feel split between cities, memories and generations, encountering their most enlivened selves in unexpected moments. EAD, rooted in a multitude of Afro-diasporic vernacular dances, explores the expansive narrative qualities of breaking, hip hop, house and waacking to tell stories and find new modes of expression. Featuring live music by Arturo O’Farrill and friends, Shadow Cities is a conversation between O’Farrill’s vast compositional voice and EAD’s dynamic, rigorous, and idiosyncratic choreography.

About Ephrat Asherie Dance

Founded in 2012, New York City-based Ephrat Asherie Dance (EAD) is made up of a dynamic group of multi-faceted street and club dance artists. A dance company dedicated to honoring the ethos of the underground club community, EAD is rooted in Black and Latine vernacular dance, including breaking, hip hop, house, waacking, and the New York style hustle. A two-time National Dance Project awardee, EAD has presented work at 92NY, Apollo Theater, ChangMu International Festival (Korea), El Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Firatarrega (Spain), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Joyce Theater, Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences, La MaMa, La Mercé Festival (Spain), River to River Festival, New York City Center, New Victory Theater, New York Live Arts, Spoleto Festival USA, Vail Dance Festival, White Bird, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, and The Yard, among others. EAD is committed to celebrating and bringing awareness to the history, expansiveness, and vastness of street and club dance culture by creating and sharing innovative performance works, teaching workshops and classes, and creating platforms for dialogue across the field. 

For more information, please visit: www.ephratasheriedance.com
IG: @ephratasheriedance
Facebook: Ephrat Asherie Dance

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BRIDGET CASTON (Company Manager)
Bridget Caston has worked in arts administration since 2021. A graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography and a BBA in Consulting and Change Management, she has held roles with Gesel Mason Performance Projects, K.DMC, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance’s 90th Anniversary Festival. From 2022–2024, Caston was Associate Producer at the Joyce Theater Foundation’s in-house producing entity, Joyce Theater Productions (JTP), where she contributed to projects including serpentwithfeet’s Heart of Brick, Hope Boykin’s States of Hope, and Caleb Teicher’s Bzzz, and served as company manager for touring productions. She also helped launch and manage the Joyce’s New York Center for Creativity & Dance. In 2024, she supported Max Roach 100, a centennial celebration featuring Ayodele Casel, Rennie Harris, and Ronald K. Brown, among others. Most recently, she was Company Manager for A.I.M by Kyle Abraham (2024–2025). Caston is dedicated to advancing the growth, efficiency, and sustainability of performing arts and artists for years to come.

LD DEARMON (Production Manager/Lighting Supervisor)
LD DeArmon worked in New York City from 2008-2020 in the field of dance as a performer, stage manager, production manager and lighting designer. Now they live in Richmond, VA and tour with a handful of talented artists. When they’re not on the road, DeArmon works for Virginia State Parks as a Maintenance Ranger. They can be found at @yesmoredaysoff on instagram.

WILLIAM STANTON (Audio Engineer)
William Stanton is an audio engineer with a breadth of experience in live sound and studio engineering. He has engineered for a wide range of artists and musicians. He frequently engineers for the Reflections Concert series–working with luminaries like Daniel Lanois, Suzanna Ciani, Laraaji, Ben Neill, Eric Calvi, and Sarah Davachi. He has also engineered projects as a freelancer, mixing and recording artists like Terry Allen and Jo Harvey Allen, Tim Robbins, Travis Scott, Pink Siifu, Ethan Hawke, Meshell Ndegeocello, Snarky Puppy, Xenia Rubinos, Nels Cline, Miho Hatori, and Marshall Allen. Recent experiences include collaborations with choreographer Mark Morris and chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound on a staging of David T. Little's opera ‘What Belongs To You,’ mixing projects for news outlet The Intercept, live performances with The Martha Graham Dance Company, and producing a live multi-night taping of John Cameron Mitchell’s ‘Cancellation Island’ starring Holly Hunter. Most recently, Will completed a six-week North American tour with Noga Erez. Previously, Will has worked as a front-of-house engineer for tours with Julian Koster’s Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air), and Virgil Moorefield. He is a native of New Baltimore, Michigan and a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Performing Arts Technology program.