Parable of Belonging - Cycle 1

You are invited to immerse yourself in an interdisciplinary performance experience designed to meet the challenges of our times with vibrant creativity and adaptability. Parable of Belonging is based on the books Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler and Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown. The Wandering Ensemble (Dandelion Dancetheater and CSU East Bay) is collaborating with artists, community members, academics, students, and un-categorizable beings from diverse disciplines to use visionary imagination, dance, music, theatre, and community ritual to explore what life in the Bay Area could be like in 30 years.

The Wandering Ensemble

The Wandering Ensemble sprouted in the wake of the COVID Pandemic to experiment with inclusive, creative, and sustainable ways of collaborating that responded directly to the massive changes rippling through our world. Directed by Eric Kupers, the ensemble is a fusion of Dandelion Dancetheater and the CSUEB Inclusive Interdisciplinary Ensemble. Committed to honoring the complexities of creating work by and for people of all abilities/disabilities, shapes, sizes, cultures, ancestries, body identities, neuro-types, art forms, modes of perception, and walks of life, they collaborate year-round, welcoming new members online or in person.

Artist Biographies

Eric Ray Kupers

Eric Kupers’ work lives at the intersections of inclusive dance, music, storytelling, community ritual, activism, and spiritual practice. He is a grateful visitor on the lands of the Yrgin/Chochenyo/Ohlone & Pomo peoples and his ancestors are Ashkenazi Jews that came to Turtle Island in the early 1900’s from Eastern Europe. He is also of the Walks-Between people, including Queer folks, Artists, Outsiders, Mystics, and Divergent people across time. A Professor at CSUEB and co-director of Dandelion Dancetheater, he creates with Dandelion, Bandelion, Mandolion, the CSUEB IIE, Ultrasonic Current, the Wandering Ensemble, and a diverse, intersecting web of artists.

Kimiko Guthrie

Kimiko Guthrie grew up in Berkeley, California, dancing like her mother and writing like her father. She is the professional learning manager at Luna Dance & Creativity, teaches dance and theater at CSU East Bay, and is the co-artistic director of Dandelion Dancetheater. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from UC Santa Cruz and an MFA in Choreography from Mills College. Kimiko has worked with many Bay Area-based dance companies, including Asian American Dance Performances and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. BLOCK SEVENTEEN, inspired by her experience growing up with a mother who was held in a Japanese American incarceration camp during WWII, was published in 2020. She is currently writing a new novel inspired by the life of her grandmother and exploring the theme of female hunger.