{"id":491249,"date":"2026-10-10T06:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T06:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/491249\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T06:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T06:20:17","slug":"arts-district-liberty-station-welcomes-dancers-for-residencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/491249\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts District Liberty Station welcomes dancers for residencies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Four<\/a>The four dancers in residence, from left, Aisha Reddick, Nick McGhee, Diane Campa\u00f1a and Odessa Uno.\u00a0(Photo by Argel Valdez\/Arts District Liberty Station) <\/p>\n

The commute to Liberty Station begins hours before sunrise for Diane Campa\u00f1a, with a wait at the San Ysidro border crossing that can stretch one, two, sometimes three hours before she reaches the trolley that carries her the rest of the way.<\/p>\n

That waiting, the ache of moving between two countries, two homes, has become the raw material for the work she is creating as one of four dancers selected for Arts District Liberty Station\u2019s Emerging Artists Residency Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m interested in the body, memory, belonging and what it means to move in between these different places,\u201d said Campa\u00f1a, a contemporary dance artist and choreographer who was born in San Diego and grew up in Tijuana.<\/p>\n

Campa\u00f1a is joined in the 11-month residency, which runs through May 2027, by fellow dancers Nick McGhee, Aisha Reddick and Odessa Uno. The program, part of the district\u2019s Art in Public Places<\/a> initiative, gives the artists free studio space, mentorship and a request that each stage at least four public activations during the residency.<\/p>\n

\"Person<\/a>Campa\u00f1a performs at Liberty Station as part of her residency activation. (Photo by Argel Valdez\/Arts District Liberty Station) <\/p>\n

That studio time has become a way for Campa\u00f1a to translate the border crossing itself into movement. She is developing a piece exploring \u201cthis idea of a threshold,\u201d questioning what happens \u201cwhen we are between places, identities and emotional states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campa\u00f1a has already staged an activation inviting the public to contribute anonymous notes \u2014 things they wished they had said \u2014 which she read aloud as she improvised movement on Liberty Station\u2019s north promenade. A workshop took place this fall, with a work-in-progress performance planned for November and a final piece to close out the residency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI like when the artwork gives you a question, not the answer,\u201d Campa\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>A note exploring things people wished they had said from Campa\u00f1a\u2019s activation. (Photo by Argel Valdez\/Arts District Liberty Station) <\/p>\n

McGhee, who trained in modern dance, ballet and improvisation before returning to his hometown of San Diego after studying in Long Beach, said connection is central to his art. When he choreographs, he wants dancers to feel connected to one another regardless of their distance onstage and he wants that bond to ripple into the audience, including between strangers sitting side by side.<\/p>\n

Watching two performers move together, an audience member can\u2019t know exactly what their relationship is, he said, \u201cbut you know they have a very profound influence on each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

That ambiguity, McGhee suggested, leaves room for viewers to project their own experiences onto what they\u2019re watching.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re able to imbue your own story, your own identity into whatever it is you\u2019re seeing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

McGhee is working on his first activation with a composer, planned for the fall, and described performing as a kind of transcendence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere aren\u2019t enough words in the English language to really describe what that feels like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He credits his mother, his biggest champion, with instilling the mindset that keeps him growing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always students,\u201d he said, \u201cand we always love to maintain that questioning of how can I improve, how can I get better, how can I take in other people\u2019s perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Binational character<\/p>\n

Overseeing the program is Gaby Quevedo, Arts District Liberty Station\u2019s associate director of creative programs, who grew up in Tijuana and is now based in San Diego. Quevedo said the residency\u2019s binational character reflects a reality that border communities have long lived but rarely seen publicly celebrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t really spoken about in such a nuanced and real way,\u201d Quevedo said. \u201cIt\u2019s so important to highlight and elevate places where we\u2019re making it work. We\u2019re a beautiful example of how much benefit can be drawn from a multicultural space where everyone gets to see so much beauty from both of our countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arts District Liberty Station launched its residency program for visual artists in 2019 and added dance in 2022. Since then, the dance cohort has grown into a fixture of the district\u2019s programming.<\/p>\n

Quevedo said watching an artist emerge from the residency and go on to bigger opportunities, or simply seeing the finished work at a showcase, reminds her why she does the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me emotional to see the impact that something you could consider minimal in terms of being able to offer studio space, how much impact it has on a single individual\u2019s life, someone who is local and you can see reflected in your own family members and your own ancestry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel lucky to be in this position,\u201d Quevedo said. \u201cI get so excited that we dedicate this whole program to the artists in this region.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Visitors can meet Campa\u00f1a, McGhee and their fellow residents during open studio hours and community workshops throughout the year, with culminating showcases planned as each artist\u2019s residency draws to a close.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More information is available at www.artsdistrictlibertystation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The four dancers in residence, from left, Aisha Reddick, Nick McGhee, Diane Campa\u00f1a and Odessa Uno.\u00a0(Photo by Argel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2248,1472,191605,5469,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-491249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-choreography","tag-dance","tag-emerging-artist-residency-program","tag-liberty-station","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}