The Taja Will Ensemble (TWE) is a social justice-minded dance collective, est. 2015, to support ongoing embodied research and collaboratively created contemporary dance.
TWE will perform Dearest Liberator, DISASTER! DISASTER! DISASTER! on August 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, 2025 at ODC Theater, San Francisco
Artistic Director Taja Will blends their lived experience as a disabled, queer, adoptee, somatic and Healing Justice practitioner in artistic synergy. TWE’s internal culture allows for an artistic workplace which courageously places relationships and collective wellness
in the foreground.
Historically, TWE establishes opportunities for artists with intersectional identities; centering BIPOC, disabled, queer voices in an ethos of equity, access, care, and creative collaboration. We integrate dance improvisation, cultural somatics, and original text/vocals in performance.
TWE also facilitates community connection opportunities: to build relationships with embodiment, Disability Justice, and decolonial connections to plants/land.
Taja Will:
Taja Will (they/them) is a non-binary, chronically ill, queer, Latinx (Chilean) adoptee. They are a performer, choreographer, somatic therapist, consultant and Healing Justice practitioner based in Mni Sota Makoce, on the ancestral lands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe. Taja’s approach integrates improvisation, somatic modalities, text and vocals in contemporary performance. Their aesthetic is one of spontaneity, bold choice making, sonic and kinetic partnership and the ability to move in relationship to risk and intimacy. Will’s artistic work explores visceral connections to current socio-cultural realities through a blend of ritual, dense multi-layered worldbuilding and everyday magic.
Taja initiates solo projects and teaching ventures and is a recent recipient of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, in the dance field, awarded in 2021. Their work has been presented throughout the Twin Cities and across the United States. Including local performances at the Walker Art Center Choreographer’s Evening, the Red Eye Theater’s New Works 4 Weeks, the Radical Recess series, Right Here Showcase and the Candy Box Dance Festival. They were the recipient of a 2018-’19 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, administered by the Cowles Center and funded by The McKnight Foundation. Will has recently received support from the National Association of Latinx Arts & Culture, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.
Marisol Herling:
Marisol Herling is a queer, Latine artist and chef based in the Twin Cities. Marisol began dancing with TWE in 2018 after relocating from Nebraska. She has since collaborated with other MN artists and created her own work as part of the 2018 MN Fringe Festival and as a 2022 Naked Stages Fellow. Marisol is also the co-producer of a multidisciplinary show with her spouse, aimed at highlighting local and national BIPOC artists, called The LIFT.
Alongside her performance work as a dance and burlesque artist, Marisol is a chef; prioritizing accessibility and sustainability in food.
Margaret Ogas:
Margaret Ogas is a choreographer and performer based in the Twin Cities. Working at the confluence of dance, storytelling, and experimental performance, her works tell surreal narratives through a collage of movement, text, sound, and object.
Ogas is a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow and was a 2021 Naked Stages Fellow at Pillsbury House + Theatre. Her work has been presented by the Walker Art Center, Red Eye Theater, Candy Box Dance Festival, Minnesota International Dance Festival, Center for Performing Arts, Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio, and others. She has been a core collaborator with the Taja Will Ensemble since 2018.
TWE is a fiscally sponsored group, with generous oversight from ARENA Dances.
Mo Eigen
Libby Herman
Veera Vasandani
Brian Evans
Gayatri Lakshmi
Previous committee members include Mathew Janczewski, Michelé Steinwald and Christy Bolingbroke.
22
23
24
August
Come see the Taja Will Ensemble perform as part of the
FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival: a mixed bill of 6 groups, curated through FACT/SF's Fieldwork Open Application process.
More details to be announced.
Where: ODC Theater, San Francisco, CA
3
September
Celebrating 10 Years of Dance Making!
A decade milestone calls for a party and this moment
coincides with some significant growth and
changes for the Taja Will Ensemble.
You are invited to join us for mini dances,
we’ll play archival videos, enjoy some yummy noshes in community with fellow artists and arts patrons.
More details to be announced.
Where: Resource, Minneapolis, MN
Small artist instigated organizations like the Taja Will Ensemble require
grant funding, community contribution and independent donors
to sustain the longevity of our projects and programs.
Your contributions of any size support the longevity of the company, its projects and the artists involved. To learn more about making a donation, find further information here.
