Erin Conney's Aire Libre
Restive Moves: A Multimedia Festival of Dance, Music, Film & Mindfulness
S. Ama Wray, performance architect
Nakya Solomin, collaborator
The University of California, Irvine will host Restive Moves: A Multimedia Festival — Dance, Music, Film & Mindfulness from April 30 to May 3, 2026, a four-day.
The festival was conceived and curated by Dr. S. Ama Wray, Professor of Dance at UC Irvine and Director of MOVE LAB. Developed in collaboration with Nakya Solomon, a UC Irvine senior majoring in Business Economics with a minor in Film & Media Studies, it will be presented in the xMPL at UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts.
The festival gathers artists, educators, scientific researchers, students and community members to engage with dance and music as pathways to creativity, courage, wellness, empathy, resilience and cultural expression.
Restive Moves invites the UCI and wider Orange County communities to experience dance, music, film and mindfulness with social and scientific insight as vital tools for restoration and connection. From educators integrating balance and vitality practices, to community members readying to dance together, the festival offers multiple entry points into a shared, moving conversation.
Festival Schedule
All events take place in the xMPL.
Paid event ticket prices:
Full price: $20
Group of 10+, senior and UCI affiliate $15
Student/youth $10
Package of all four paid events $40 ($10 each)
Thursday, April 30 | 7:30 p.m.
Breath, Justice & Jazz: Restive Moves
A program in three parts: Restive Moves opens in shared reflection with a community meditation led by Tina Orduno Calderon, a Culture Bearer of Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash, Yoeme and Chicana descent. She invites us into deeper alignment with life, land and one another. From that grounding, the evening lifts into Erin Cooney’s poetic documentary Aire Libre, created in collaboration with Los Angeles activist dance company CONTRA-TIEMPO, a work that moves through air, body and resistance in a call for environmental justice.
In the second half, the program flips the script, illuminating the stage with the sleek power and cinematic energy of the LA Jazz Dance Company from Hollywood. Here, the dancers move in the light of their own fire, shifting the evening into a bold new register of style, presence and performance.
The audience is invited to a post-performance Q&A moderated by Dr. Dominic J. Bednar, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at UC Irvine's School of Social Ecology, where he directs the Just Energy Transformation Lab. A scholar of energy justice and just energy transitions, Dr. Bednar is also a Sonic Artist/DJ, Dancer and Co-Founder of Black in Environment — an organization that celebrates and amplifies the work of Black environmentalists globally through annual Earth Week programming. Central to his work is facilitating the dreaming of energy and environmentally just futures, creating space for communities to envision and co-build the equitable world they deserve.
Running Time: 1hr 30 min
Intermission: 15 min
Friday, May 1 | 7:30 p.m.
The Virtuosity of Play
Exploring the neuroscience of dopamine: movement, anticipation, reward, timing and risk in a dance between improvisation, music and the audience.
Performance Architecture by S. Ama Wray with neuroscientist Amal Alachkar, also performing live. Collaborating as improvisers are dancers and choreographers Challyce Brogdon, Khilea Douglass, Ongelle Johnson, Anisa Johnson and Violeta Lemoh; musicians, singers and composers Bruno Cilloniz, Daniel Manoiu, Vera Mackay, Hayley Qin and Daniel Richardson and Kai Tregre.
Genesis Tanner (Scenic Design)
Sorlie Reeves II (Lighting)
Lala Ukita and Violeta Zapeda (Production)
Have you ever noticed the collective anxiety surrounding dancing? Does some of it live within you? These feelings are real and widely shared. Yet dance, especially when amplified by music, activates powerful neural systems. Dance and music can profoundly influence brain states linked to mood, motivation and wellbeing.
When we groove to a beat or improvise freely, dopamine surges reward our efforts, sharpens our sense of rhythm and prediction and fosters that liberating joy of play. Yet this liberating power comes with nuance. The same dopamine pathways that heal through connection and pleasure can also spiral into addictions relentless hunger or fracture into dissonant chords of schizophrenia. This neurochemical paradox promises ecstatic freedom and the perils of untamed pleasure.
So, come to Virtuosity of Play — as spectator or fearless participant — and step into our living experiment. Feel dopamine’s wild orchestra in real time.
Saturday, May 2 | 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
Restore the Awe and Play: Vital Renewal for Educators
Are you seeking professional development that not only supports your work as an educator, but also restores your energy, creativity and sense of possibility?
Led by Robin Branch-Scott and S. Ama Wray, this restorative workshop especially welcomes K–12 educators while inviting educators of all kinds to participate. Through meditation, movement, mindfulness, play and creative reflection, participants will explore practices that open the way to increase sensory awareness that supports the nervous system’s regulation. The session offers practical tools to take away, supporting buoyancy, resilience and overall vitality in both personal and professional life.
Virtual access available. Click here for the Zoom link.
Saturday, May 2 | 7:30 p.m.
Boundless Imaginaries — Buried Inheritances
A restive evening of bold contrast and cinematic power, this program brings together two striking halves in one experience. The first half features award-winning short films by Black artists centering Black life. The choreo-poetic works includes Quilan Arnold’s Lowlyfe, Jade Robertson’s Gold Sphere, Wideman & Davis’ We Dance and Cyrian Reed’s Melanin Vibes exploring migration, spirituality, justice and speculative imagination.
The second half turns to a haunting documentary by Darshan Singh Bhuller, Das Modell, The Dancer and Lola, it follows a white male dancer as he confronts a hidden family history tied to Hitler’s regime. The film opens questions of whiteness, legacy and the afterlife of history in the body. Together, these works create a gripping evening of film that moves from boundless Black imaginaries to buried white ancestry, all with beauty, choreographic wit, tension and force.
The audience is invited to a post-performance Q&A moderated by Dr. Dasha Chapman, UC Santa Barbara.
Running Time: 1hr 30 min
Intermission: 15 min
Sunday, May 3 | 3–5 p.m.
MOVE Lab – Community Dance Gota with Nani Agbeli
The festival culminates in an open community dance experience led by renowned artist Nani Agbeli. This MOVE Lab session invites participants of all ages and backgrounds into a traditional Gota dance-drumming practice, emphasizing rhythm, collective energy and shared joy. No prior dance experience is required — community members are warmly encouraged to attend and move together.
Sunday, May 3 | 6:30 p.m.
Women Make Films That Dance!
Restive Moves closes with a spirited final program of award-winning screendance, emerging artists and a moving documentary, all shaped by a strong thread of women’s creative vision. Playful, embodied and deeply engaged with the multi-generational performers, urban and natural environments, these films explore the intersections of choreography, poetry, cinema, place and care.
The program features Mama Dancers by Dr. Jingqiu Guan, a 50-minute documentary exploring dance and motherhood, alongside celebrated works by Charlotte Griffin, Ariyan Johnson, Meena Murugesan and Ana Maria Alvarez. The evening also introduces emerging dance filmmakers Kendal Villa and Kasi Kirkpatrick, featuring UC Irvine dancers. They are also the subjects in a documentary about ARCHAEA, co-choregraphed by Cyrian Reed, S. Ama Wray, in dialogue with biological and environmental scientists.
Post screening Q&A with artists
Running Time: 2hrs
Intermission: 20 min
About S. Ama Wray
Dr. S. Ama Wray is a Professor of Dance at the University of California, Irvine and the Director of MOVE Lab. Internationally recognized for her work at the intersection of improvisation, embodied knowledge and social healing, Dr. Wray is the creator of Embodiology®, a research-based methodology that centers polyrhythm, intuition and breath as forms of embodied intelligence. Her work engages communities, artists and institutions in re-imagining how we learn, connect and thrive through this time of compounded change and social disruption.
Restive Moves is proudly sponsored by UC Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts, The Newkirk Center for Science and Society, MOVE Lab, Hughes Media Lab, Alec Glasser Center for the Power of Music and Social Change and Dance Arts Academy OC. Together, these partners support a festival that bridges art, research, education and community engagement, highlighting UCI’s leadership in innovative, interdisciplinary work at the nexus of creativity and wellbeing.
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