Walking in Layers Festival

Walking In Layers is a multidisciplinary 2-day festival merging Vietnamese, French, and American influences and artists through improv music, dance, video, eco-fashion, and more.

Fri, March 22
6PM: Documentary projection (The Nodey Process, 62mn)
Break: Light reception food bites (Bánh NY) + Art exhibition (Brian Hoang Art)
8PM: end of residency showing (featuring dancers Mai Lê Hô, Deydey, Lâm Sedechu, Video animation artist Vincent Nguyen, LayeRhythm band, Kilomet109 clothing)

Sat, March 23
6PM: Documentary projection (Les Rivières, 97mn)
Break: Art exhibition (Brian Hoang Art)
8PM: end of residency showing (featuring dancers Mai Lê Hô, Deydey, Lâm Sedechu, Video animation artist Vincent Nguyen, LayeRhythm band, Kilomet109 clothing)
Talk back post show facilitated by Maura Donohue

PERFORMERS BIOS

Mai Lê Hô
Mai Lê is a French-Vietnamese street/club dance artist & educator, curator, and the founder of LayeRhythm Productions INC, a NYC-based non-profit organization dedicated to highlighting freestyle voices in the performing arts landscape.
In 2015, she created LayeRhythm, a cutting­ edge monthly jam session that layers live musicians & vocalists with freestyle dancers, acclaimed by the New York Times (2018).
Mai Lê has won 1st place in various international house dance competitions such as Ladies of Hip-Hop (NYC, 2015), Universole (Detroit, 2015), Step Ya Game Up (NYC, 2013) and has served a judge for Footwork Frenzy (2022), House Dance UK (London, 2015), Slick City (Chicago, 2015), The Blueprint (Houston, 2013).

DEYDEY
DEYDEY is a dancer and choreographer from France with Vietnamese roots. She is one of the top Popping dancers in the world and travels all around the globe to teach, compete, perform
and judge. She made Popping history when she became the first female World Popping Champion after winning the UK Bboy Championships Solo Mixed Battle in 2009, then Juste Debout in 2010. DEYDEY has since worked with numerous artists such as Madonna, DJ Martin Solveig, Patrick Bruel, Katy Perry and brands like Fendi, Nike, Adidas, Peugeot, Siemen, Smirnoff etc…

Vincent Nguyen
With a degree in animation from Ensad, Vincent Nguyen began his career as a director in France under the pseudonym Francis Cutter. He won awards for his first video clips, and has continued to direct commercials and documentaries while working in the VFX industry for the past 10 years.

Lâm Sedechu
Lâm Đăng Nguyễn, also known as Lâm Sedechu, is a dancer and visual artist based in Chicago, IL. Born and raised in Danang, Vietnam.
Lâm has been dancing and exploring the possibilities of his body for more than 15 years – starting with Hip Hop freestyle alongside the South East Asia renowned crews BJS, Urban Warriorz, and Natural Groove. Lâm is passionate about the street dance culture and supporting his community. His passion later brought him to Chicago, IL.

LayeRhythm band
LayeRhythm, created and led by Mai Lê Hô since 2015, weaves a singular mix of dance, live music, and audience interaction, celebrating the vibrancy of street/club dance cultures and the brilliance of freestyle artistry. The project features a rotating cast of elite freestyle artists from NYC and beyond, and has been presented at venues/festivals such as the Guggenheim Museum, Lincoln Center, 92nd Street Y, NY Public Library for the Performing Arts, SummerStage, Gibney, Movement Research at Judson Church, The Church (Sag Harbor), Jacob’s Pillow (MA), Bridge Street Theater (Catskill).

Osyris Antham, LayeRhythm, Emcee
Osyris is a Brooklyn-bred rapper from Flatbush, started his artist life as a poet and slowly grew
into the hip hop world. Since jumping into the NY underground scene at his first official rap
contest in August 2013, he has won 40+ competitions. These include Freestyle Mondays
(17-time champion) + 3-time US champ (2017-19) and back-to-back End of the Weak World
champion (2017-18). Alpha Phi Omega, Nicholas Brooklyn and End of The Weak have been the
most important environments to his growth as a rapper.

Rodney Harrison, LayeRhythm, Musician
Born and raised in Queens NY and the son of a drummer and a singer, Rodney has been playing professionally since age 8. As a student at Hampton University, Rodney held the drum chair for the university’s jazz ensemble and gospel choir and led his own Jazz combo that would play in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Rodney has played for a number of different artists, including Melba Moore, Andrew White and Peter Gunz. Rodney continues to use his gifts at churches, in wedding bands, and as an active member of the LayeRhythm family.

Axel Tosca, LayeRhythm, Musician (Friday only)
Axel Tosca is a Cuban-born pianist, a dynamic performer known for his genre-bending mix of
Jazz, Latin, and Timba music. Born in Cuba in 1983, Tosca grew up in a prestigious musical
family. His mother is renowned Trova singer Xiomara Laugart and his father, folk singer-guitarist
Alberto Tosca. One of his teachers was Miriam Valdez, the daughter of Cuban piano legends
Bebo Valdez and sister of Chucho Valdez. With this first-class education, it enabled him to gain
a wide range of experiences playing with groups like Dennis & Swing, the Afro-Cuban All-Stars,
Bobby Carcases, Teresa Garcia Caturla, Jose Miguel Crego, and more. Along with classical
music, jazz, and Latin traditions, he also discovered hip-hop and played with The Roots.

Kaleb Alexander Hopkins, LayeRhythm, Musician (Saturday only)
Kaleb Alexander Hopkins, a New York City native, is a singer of various backgrounds (Opera, Jazz, NeoSoul). Born with a speech impediment, music was the vehicle that gifted him the power of speech. Frank Sinatra School of the Arts is where he would be Introduced to Opera and later studied at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. Currently, Kaleb sings, arranges, teaches and produces for various artists of all genres; under the persona “Klassiq K-Man”.

Ksenia Vasileva, LayeRhythm, Musician (Saturday only)
Ksenia Vasileva is a professional bass player from Saint Petersburg, Russia. After years of touring Europe and Russia with a number of bands, she moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of music to study Electronic production and design. After graduating in the summer of 2021 she relocated to NYC to pursue her career as a bass player and a sound designer.

This performance is presented by Pepatián’s Dancing Futures residency program, co-commissioned by Works & Process, and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.