Year: 2025-2026
DanceForce Member: Paz Tanjuaquio
Artists: Yin Mei; Marie Lloyd Paspe; Nami Yamamoto; Shannon Yu
Community Partner: Topaz Arts
Audience: 400
County: Queens

TOPAZ ARTS 2025-26 AAPI Dance Residencies celebrates dance artists of Asian American and Pacific Islanders heritage. TOPAZ ARTS gives choreographers the opportunity and freedom to create in a focused and inspired atmosphere. Being situated in the most diverse county in the nation – Queens – we continue to cultivate new audiences for dance from within our community, largely of immigrant population. AAPI Dance Artists Residencies engages both artists and the community, raising awareness and empowering voices through the stories, bodies and experiences of Asian American and Pacific Islanders.

Celebrating 25 Years in 2025 and a fourth cohort of choreographers, TOPAZ ARTS’ AAPI Dance Residencies have proven to be significant for the artists and for our community. Especially at this time, in our largely immigrant community whose rights are threatened, the need for gatherings and artistic production in Queens County is much needed, and cultural experiences for both artists & audiences ever more essential.

In Queens, TOPAZ ARTS will support AAPI Dance Artists with time and space to focus and develop the creation of new works. Each choreographer will receive fully subsidized rehearsal space and an artist stipend. Topaz Arts supports the creative process and fosters cultural exchange, allowing for experimentation, visibility, and access to diverse audiences. In FY26, the following artists will participate in creative residencies at TOPAZ ARTS: Yin Mei, Marie Lloyd Paspe, Nami Yamamoto, Shannon Yu.

Artist Bios:
Yin Mei is a dancer, choreographer, and educator known for creating work that bridges cultural divides. Yin Mei grew up in China and was a principal dancer with the Hong Kong Dance Company. Through the Asian Cultural Council award she came to New York City for dance, subsequently she received her BA, MFA at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Fulbright scholar, the Asian Cultural Council Fellow, the Choreography Fellow of the New York Foundation for the Arts, was nominated twice for a Cal-Arts Alpert Award in Choreography. Her dance productions have been supported by the Rockefeller MAP Fund, the National Dance Project New England Foundation, Live Music for Dance, Greenwall Foundation, Dance/NYC, NYSCA, Danse Mirage Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Yin Mei is a professor and director of graduate dance at Queens College. She is also the artistic director of YINMEIDANCE and creator of the dance program of the Jackie Chan Film Academy, WIDS in China.

Marie Lloyd Paspe (she/her) is a Filipina-American dance and vocal performer, choreographer, director, educator, and writer based in lenapehoking/Brooklyn, NY. Paspe is Bessie-awarded for Outstanding Choreography for contributions to Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane’s “Deep Blue Sea,” performer with BTJ/AZ since 2018, 2022 A4 Jadin Wong Fellow, 2023 Gallim Moving Artist Resident, and 2024 TMT Institute Fellow. Her work re-roots the diasporic Asian body-voice, focusing on harmonious belonging in ‘kapwa’ (“shared one-ness”) that exists within and juxtaposes the patrionormative space. Paspe’s work was presented in Germany, the Philippines, and China; and nationally across the States. Features include film performance at Taikang Space (Beijing, China), resident artist at TOPAZ ARTS (Queens, NYC), choreographic director for treya lam at MASS MoCA, Joe’s Pub, Lincoln Center. Press features include The New York Times and Fjord Review.

Nami Yamamoto, from Matsuyama, Japan, holds an MA in Dance Education from New York University and a BA in Physical Education from Ehime University. Nami is a Bessie awardee (The New York Dance and Performance Award) for the outstanding production of Headless Wolf presented at Roulette in 2017. Her work has been funded by Creative Capital, Jim Henson Foundation, City Artist Corps, Foundation for Contemporary Arts and others. She has been nurtured and inspired by her residency experience at Movement Research, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, New Dance Alliance, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Gibney DiP Resident Artist, CPR-Center for Performance Research and Baryshnikov Arts Center. Nami served as a core member of Artists of Color Council at Movement Research in 2020-2023. She is honored to be a Hodder Fellow at Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University in 2024-2025 and a 2025 USA Fellow. She currently teaches at Lehman College and NYC public schools through Together in Dance.

Shannon Yu 余香儒(sha/shas) is a Brooklyn, New York based artist from Taiwan. Sha holds an MFA in Performance and Performance Studies from Pratt Institute. Shannon identifies as a dancer-choreographer and queer-creator. Shannon practices Breaking, Hip Hop, Contemporary floorwork, Wing Tsun Martial Arts as well as photography and videography. Shannon is the founder and Artistic Director of multimedia dance company SHA Creative Outlet. Shannon has shown work in Judson Memorial Church, Arts On Site, Triskelion Arts, Abrons Arts Center, The Landmark Loew’s Theater, and the Center at West Park. Shannon was named 2023 Asian American Arts Alliance’s Jadin Wong Fellow for Dance, and 2024 BanDung residency fellow.