Time to Dream

Marianna Varviani was born in Athens, Greece. She has worked in the U.K., Brazil, Greece, Spain and U.S.A. as an actress, choreographer, dancer, director and instructor. In 2016, she founded ‘Selcouth’. Marianna graduated from Eat15 Drama school/University of Essex in Contemporary theatre in 2007, and from UCLA with an MFA in Dance in 2021. She has choreographed ‘Vortex’, ‘Ahtikos_ a dance of liberation’, ‘Phoenix_ rising from the ashes’, ‘Time to Dream’ a series of 7 dance films and ‘Untwine’. Her works have been presented at the ‘Arc for dance festival’, ‘Our festival’, ‘European Dance Network’, San Pedro Festival for the Arts, as well as theaters in Greece, U.K. and, U.S.A.

Miel Lei Apostol is originally from the Philippines, her background in dance technique consists of ballet and jazz, but highly focuses on modern, contemporary, hip hop, and improvisation. She has received many awards at Moorpark College in both dance and academia. Miel Lei transferred to UCLA with honors and earned the Tane Memorial Award for her skills in leadership, organization, and connecting her community with passion. After transferring with Associate Degrees in Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Dance, and General Studies: Natural Science, Miel Lei is pursuing her BA in dance and is double minoring in Visual and Performing Arts Education and Theater at UCLA.

Lane Fricke grew up in San Francisco, training in ballet and modern dance. She is a dance major at UCLA and has been involved in WACSmash (a student-choreographed and student-organized show), a virtual piece called When is Good (choreographed by Faye Driscoll), and has made a few short dance films. She has fallen in love with improvisation work and techniques, and values dance and movement practices as an appreciation and love of the human body. She enjoys fluid, rounded movement best and strives to achieve a sense of flow in her movement practice.

Alexis is currently a fourth year majoring in Dance and minoring in Food Studies. At her time at UCLA she was grateful to participate in multiple performance spaces including WAC/D Faculty Pieces, a Senior Project, four years of Wacsmash, and Marianna's MFA piece among others. Her other campus involvements include being a director for Icarus Contemporary Dance Company and volunteer teaching youth with UCLA's Movement Exchange. She aspires to continue creating and choreographing in her future endeavors, and is excited to see where her next steps lead!

Tyler Law is a Dance Major and Film, Television, and Digital Media Minor at UCLA. She grew up doing Chinese dance and ballet before discovering her love for hip hop and street-style choreography. She also participated in choir and theater throughout high school. Her involvement with UCLA’s institutional-level performance and study opportunities graciously provided her the chance to further explore the arts – a field she is very passionate about. This is her second project with Marianna, and she would like to thank Marianna and her peers for their support throughout this process. Despite difficult circumstances complicating the creation of this piece, Time To Dream is nevertheless a reflection of dedication, discipline, and hope.

Obiageli (Oby) Ogbodo is a fourth-year student at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is currently studying World Art and Cultures Dance and Global Health. Prior to attending UCLA, Oby attended Saint Mary’s College of California where she studied Psychology with a concentration in Neuroscience while actively participating as a dancer for students in the MFA program. In relation to her personal dance history, she has practiced dance all throughout her childhood up until now, and her dance vocabulary is heavily influenced by various African dance practices in correspondence with her Nigerian heritage. After UCLA, Oby plans to pursue a career in health after the completion of her degree, as well as continue to use her movement practices as a way of informing her knowledge of how bodies move and well-being.

Maya Peterson is currently a third-year Dance major and Cognitive Science and Film & Television double minor at UCLA. She started dancing at the Performing Arts Center in Van Nuys, California at the age of two, where she trained in the genres of ballet, jazz, tap, and modern. She has also been a part of the Musical Theater and Dance Departments throughout her years in middle and high school. Upon her acceptance into the WAC/D Department at UCLA, she has begun to delve more into contemporary styles of dance as well as the practice of choreographing.

Maasai Godwin is a graduating senior in the World Arts and Cultures/Dance program. She began dancing at 3 years old, and from ages 7 to 17 trained professionally at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in over 8 different techniques including, ballet, modern, Horton, Graham, hip hop, West African, tap, jazz, flamenco, and Dunham. She is graduating with a double major in Dance and African American studies and aims to use both her degrees to continue to create art that is both culturally informed, and socially significant.

Sophie Poe is from Oak Park, Illinois and has been dancing for most of her life. She is currently pursuing a double major in dance and political science at UCLA. Prior to coming to college, Sophie received most of her dance training at The Academy of Movement and Music. She trained mainly in ballet and Graham techniques. As a member of MOMENTA, her studio's resident company, she had the opportunity to perform many historical modern works including Doris Humphrey's Water Study and various works my Martha Graham. MOMENTA also gave her the chance to perform classical ballets, contemporary works, and physically integrated dance projects that worked with dancers with and without disabilities. Sophie also had the opportunity to attend the Alonzo King LINES Ballet summer intensive in 2016, as well as choreograph and perform in her high school's student dance company. So far at UCLA, she has been so grateful to work with the amazing faculty and students in the WACD department. This includes co-creating and performing in Marianna Varviani’s Phoenix in 2020. She is excited to continue to develop her newer interests in choreography and filmmaking in her final year at UCLA.

Bella Stenvall is a current senior at UCLA, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Arabic along with a minor in Global Studies. In her free time, Bella enjoys dance parties, cooking elaborate meals, and exploring LA. She aspires to work in foreign service and eventually earn a J.D. in international law.

Yifeng Yvonne Yuan is a Chinese Composer and sound artist. Yifeng’s works explore the intersection of music and soundscapes of human bodies, nature and cities. Under the heavy influence of dance and theater art, she centers her works around narrating untouchable yet audible stories. Yifeng’s composition repertoire ranges from solo instrument music, music for chamber ensembles, music for Orchestra, music for mixed media, and music for film and dance. Her music has been featured at Atlantic Music Festival, EAMA Institute and more. Currently, Yifeng is working on her master’s thesis at UCLA with a mixed ensemble piece. She will be a part of the Nomadic Soundster artist residency (online) from March 2021 to March 2022.

Eva Zapata is an interdisciplinary scholar and practitioner involved in research and artistic innovative projects at the University of California, Los Angeles. After years working in Russian media, Eva relocated to the United States to focus on topics in theatrical production, design, and development. For over ten years she has been working with experimental costuming, incorporating wearable electronics and non-traditional materials into garments and accessories for live performance. Eva’s credits include costume design for Snapchat Cheerleader lens, designing projections for modern interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays, designing costumes for experimental dance performances and theatrical productions in the greater Los Angeles area.

Shelby is a Costume Designer and Maker. Shelby started her costuming journey by sewing clothing for her stuffed animals to enhance the stories she created with her friends. Now Shelby is a senior bachelor's student at UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television, Studying Costume Design and Construction. Shelby has designed for TFT first-year masters student short film and design-assisted for Maeve Kiely on a production of Into the Woods in Ventura. After this project, she is looking forward to her summer apprenticeship, where she will be moving to Santa Fe and creating hats for Santa Fe Opera's summer season.

Filippos is an award-winning film and commercial director and video editor based in Los Angeles, originally from Athens, Greece. He started his career as a copywriter. As a director, he has directed more than 20 projects for multiple international clients, including TV commercials, short films, music videos, promotional videos, and more. He has been behind the scenes more than 50 memorable ads in Europe over the past decade. Filippos' academic experience includes a Bachelor's degree in Communication and Advertising at the American College of Greece, a One-year Filmmaking program, and a Master's degree in Filmmaking at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles. His latest short film Nine to Five presented to American students at Yale and New York University. It is also available via Dust TV on Apple Tv, Samsung Tv plus, Roku channel, Xumo, Vizio, IMDB Tv, Xfinity stream.

Qiang Wang is a graphic designer making identity systems, printed matters, and interactive projects.

Annie Kahane is a first year MFA student in Choreographic Inquiry at UCLA, and the Artistic Director of the interdisciplinary performance group Alive & Well Productions. She is the recipient of two awards from the Zellerbach Family Foundation and a Rainin Opportunity Fund Award, a program of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and ODC Theater. Her poetry has been featured on San Francisco & Chicago Public Radio stations and she is the author of the poetry chapbook No Time Like the Present to Be, which was sold to raise money for Youth Speaks, an organization that offers free writing programs to teens in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Stephanie Singh is a first year student at UCLA working towards a B.A. in Dance. Her background focuses mainly on tap, jazz, ballet, acrobatics, contemporary, and hip hop dance as she grew up dancing at her home studio in Portland, Oregon. Alongside her education at UCLA, she is also currently training with the international tap dance company, Sole Talk Youth. To compliment her dance training, Stephanie also has a passion for photography and film and would like to thank Marianna for the wonderful opportunity to get first hand experience with the productional aspects of creating Time To Dream. After UCLA, Stephanie plans to pursue a career in both professional dance, film, and photography.