Company Bios

Sandy Vazquez is an interdisciplinary teaching artist and educator based in Oakland by way of Los Angeles and the Artistic Associate of La Mezcla. Because she is the first generation daughter of Mexican immigrants, this work though La Mezcla is important to her because it speaks to the lineage of Mexican American folks in the US that ultimately has informed the way she navigates the world around her. She is excited to be a cast member for this run of Pachuquísmo and hopes that this show serves as a seed for future conversations around the multiplicity of the Latinx experience in the US and Latinidad as a whole.

Natalie John is a jazz singer, trumpet player and composer. With a deep knowledge of the roots of the musical tradition, Natalie performs and composes with open ears and broad brush strokes to create a style all her own. In support of her latest album release, Natalie recently toured western Europe, performing at such notable jazz venues as Jazzclub Unterfarht in Munich, Germany, L’Archiduc in Brussels, Belgium, and Jazzkeller in Frankfurt, Germany. She is currently involved in several San Francisco Bay Area music projects, including the Jazz Mafia, Oakadelic, Speakeasē, Shavon and the Boneyard, and the Klipptones.

Diana Aburto Vega was born and raised in Managua, Nicaragua where she started her dance career in a wide variety of Latin American rhythms, contemporary dance, modern techniques, belly dance and urban Latin styles like Reggaeton and Dancehall. She is also a professional Nicaraguan Folklore Dancer trained under Folkloric Ballet Macehuatl (“Worthy” in Nahuatl, the language of the first people in Nicaragua). Diana has served as a Nicaraguan cultural ambassador for the Bay Area through building and directing individuals from two Nicaraguan folklore groups. As a dancer, Diana is also part of the Bachata and Salsa semi professional teams of Inlakech Dance Academy. Her curiosity in ancestral dances besides her connection with the African Diaspora brought her to train with the Folkloric Ballet “Raíces Profundas” in Havana, Cuba in 2022. She has been one of the principal dancers for “Arenas Dance Company” in the Bay Area for 9 years under the esteemed Susana Arenas Pedroso. In 2021, she joined La Mezcla upon the dance film project “Ghostly Labor: A Dance Film.”

Micah Sallid was born in Los Angeles and began studying with Arlene Kennedy Universal Dance Design and performed with the Kennedy Tap Company, and later moved to the south to become a company member of Decatur City Dance. While trying to find her own choreographic and creative voice she toured, studied, and choreographed for the Broadway Dreams Foundation traveling all over the country. Micah graduated from Saint Mary’s College of California with a BA in Dance and a minor in Women & Gender Studies. Within her college career two of her choreographed pieces represented Saint Mary’s College at ACDA. Micah is currently a faculty member at Saint Mary’s College and performs with the Bay Area Tap company La Mezcla. Pachuquísmo gives Micah the opportunity to explore the combination of her academic studies in Gender and Sex and the study of her own black dance lineage and culture. She pays homage to those that came before her and have pushed her to live in this knowledge and be a part of continuing these traditions.

Argelia Arreola is a Mexican dancer, choreographer and musician. She enjoys performing as both musician and dancer for La Mezcla. She holds a Bachelor’s in Contemporary Dance from Universidad Veracruzana, México. Formally trained in traditional African Dance of Guinea for 19 years, Argelia has taught African dance workshops for more than 15 years in Mexico, United States, and Costa Rica. She seeks to make an artistic contribution to the field of contemporary dance by bringing to the fore the dynamic relationship between the music of percussion instruments and the language of African (Guinea & Senegal), Afro-Cuban and Mexican folk dance.

Casey Tessier (Performer, Understudy: world premiere of Ghostly Labor) is a tap dance artist and award-winning percussionist of Panamanian/Sicilian descent from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Based in Oakland, California, she is a member of Sarah Reich’s Tap Music Project Team, an executive board member for TapIN Youth Dance Ensemble (Oakland), and the percussion caption head at Fremont High School (Sunnyvale). She holds a B.S. in Pure Mathematics and Latin from the University of New Mexico and has performed as a tap dancer and jazz percussionist in Italy, Mexico, Canada, and throughout the United States. Tessier has devoted her life to honoring, sharing, and advancing percussive dance as a medium for representation, communication, and inspiration.

Christelle Durandy fuses Afro-Caribbean, jazz and other polyrhythmic sounds in a provocative exploration of the African diaspora’s diffuse and powerful musical energy – a multicultural complexity Christelle herself embodies, having been raised in France by a mother from Reunion Island and a father from Guadeloupe. Backed by her band Sanktet (a play on the French “cinq têtes,” or “five heads”), Christelle draws upon her polyglot background to celebrate and expand the diaspora’s vibrant musical conversation, ranging joyfully amongst – and fearlessly blending – such varied forms as Cuban guaguanco, Guadeloupe’s gwo ka, traditional jazz and myriad others.

Kirsten Millan  is a Philippine-American multidisciplinary dancer born and raised in San Francisco. She graduated from SFSU with dual degrees in History and Dance. In addition to teaching tap dance and working in various arts administration organizations in the Bay Area for the last decade, she has performed work by esteemed choreographers around the Bay Area, the Netherlands, and most recently with La Mezcla at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Lincoln Center in New York City, Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, and Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris in Mexico City. She is currently a performer for Parangal Dance Company and has been a performer with the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation (REAF) since 2016. She also currently works as Marketing Associate for La Mezcla and as Communications Manager for Deborah Slater Dance Theater. She hopes to continue exploring identity in the context of race, culture, and society in her work on and offstage. @kirstenkmillan |  kmillan.com

Luna Fuentes is a multi-instrumentalist, music teacher, and graphic designer based in Oakland, California – originally from Valparaíso, Chile. She provides guitar and vocal harmonies for feminist-indie-folk-pop group Coraza; percussion, guitars and vocal harmonies for latin-flamenco-rock group LoCura; drums for folk-punk group That Band Frank and indie-folk group Mount Saint Elias, and rhythm guitar in jazz manouche duo Coucou, among other many projects. Loves cats and dogs, coffee, and disrupting the patriarchy through her work with La Mezcla.

Tanya Benítez is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, actress, and educator who is deeply committed to building community through the performing arts and is thrilled to be able to continue that work with La Mezcla. As a multi-genre vocalist and Mexican folk artist, she is active throughout California and México. She is the Music Director of Los Panaderos; Artistic Director of Casita de las Artes; and is the Performing Arts Coordinator of Luther Burbank School District in San José.

Pedro Gomez was introduced to the drum at age 13 during a neighborhood rumba circle in San Francisco’s Mission district. His connection to music has always come from a place of community, rooted in the African/Indigenous diaspora. With 25 years of studying, performing and teaching through out the Caribbean, Central America, South America and the U.S. Pedro has had the opportunity to learn from masters like, Jorge Alabe, Gamo da Paz, Giovanni Hidalgo, John Santos, Malonga Casquelourd, Bongo Sidibe, Lalo Izquierdo to name a few. Collaborating with so many musical and performing artists has fueled the passion. His drive as an artist and educator stems from the belief that musical expression is a form of healing and power. Pedro Gomez is committed to working hard and passing on traditions that uplift, bring joy and a sense of worth to young people and their communities.

Carlos Medrano Brindis came to the US after having trained with one of Cuba’s most famous congueros, Jose Luis “Changuito” Quintana. While in Cuba, he played extensively with some of Havana’s best known Latin Jazz and Salsa groups, and since coming to the US has played with many of the Bay Area’s finest Latin groups. After extensive participation in various musical groups, he decided to start his own projects with local Bay Area musicians – Cuban-style salsa performed by Sabor De Mi Cuba where he debuted his musical talents through original songwriting and composition. The fundamental characteristics of this project are fusions of Afro-Cuban roots influenced by world music. Sabor De Mi Cuba hopes to bring forth edginess to local exponents of music in the Bay Area. In December 2012, he decided to create his own recording entitled Sabor De Mi Cuba, where he experimented with composition and arrangements. The project was recorded and mastered in the prestigious Egrem Studios in Havana, Cuba.