EQUINOX 2026

About the Co-Artistic Directors

Gesel Mason is Artistic Director of Gesel Mason Performance Projects and Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Austin. As a choreographer, performer and artist scholar, she uses dance and performance as a vehicle to examine the human condition and challenge the status quo. She was a member of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and Ralph Lemon/Cross Performance Projects. Curated and performed by Mason, her solo project, NO BOUNDARIES: Dancing the Visions of Contemporary Black Choreographers, celebrates the work and legacies of ten choreographers: Kyle Abraham, Robert Battle, Rennie Harris, Dianne McIntyre, Donald McKayle, Bebe Miller, David Rousséve, Reggie Wilson, Andrea E. Woods Valdés and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. In 2020, in collaboration with Rebecca Salzer of Dancing Digital, the No Boundaries Archive Project was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Humanities Advancement grant to support its evolution into an innovative, sustainable and accessible archive. Mason utilizes dance, theater, humor and storytelling to bring visibility to voices unheard, situations neglected or perspectives deemed taboo. A 2020 recipient of a New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project Production Grant, Mason’s work has been presented by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival and Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

Joel Valentín-Martínez toured throughout the world as a dancer with Garth Fagan Dance from 1990-2003. Valentín-Martínez’s most recent choreographic commissions include Last Dance (2023) for Serafín Aponte in Mexico City; Dear Brother (2023) with Toronto’s KasheDance; otros dias de guardar (2022) and De aquí, de allá (2019) with Mexico City’s Barro Rojo Arte Escénico and #rupturapasaje2 (2019) for Andanza Compañia Puertorriqueña de Danza Contemporánea.