Livya Howard-Yashar is a dancer, choreographer, educator and musician born and raised in Los Angeles. She holds an MFA in Choreography from California Institute of the Arts and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied under the mentorship of award winning dancer/choreographer Sara Rudner. Her work has been presented at various Los Angeles and New York based venues such as Stomping Ground LA, Highways Performance Space, Human Resources LA, The Electric Lodge, St. Marks Church, Center at Park West, Americas Society, and Theater for the New City. She has held workshops and participated in residencies in China, Greece, Israel, Ghana, Denmark and the UK. Her film work has also been selected by festivals such as Leeds International Film Festival. 

 

Livya’s movement language is deeply rooted in over twenty years of training in black vernacular dance, and dances of the Afro-Latin diaspora. Blending modern and contemporary dance with West African, Afro-Cuban, salsa, jazz, tap and hip hop influences, she approaches her choreographic work and teaching from a hybridized perspective. Her  storytelling lives in the whimsical, the confrontational, the humorous, and is deeply driven by her academic work in Ethnomusicology.

 

As a professional vocalist, world percussionist, and body percussionist, her work incorporates a forceful musicality, often acting as its own personage within her movement narratives. She deeply values the creative exchange between live musicians and dancers, emphasizing the inseparability between music and dance from various cultural perspectives. As an educator and performance coach, Livya’s work has centered around embodiment as a means of understanding and expressing cultural identity, enhancing relationship skills, and engaging in social action. She has been on the dance faculty at San Diego State University and Glendale Community College, and has most recently expanded her practice as a circle singing facilitator. 

 

Through live performance, film, and immersive installation work, Livya’s background as a dancer, musician, director and cross cultural facilitator, offers audiences an experience that transcends the vague classifications used to describe “concert”, “commercial” and “cultural” dance forms.