Djerassi Resident Artists Program

Join us at our Open Studios for Leonardo@Djerassi on Saturday, July 25!

Wander the ranch, meet this year’s Leonardo@Djerassi cohort, and experience the ideas, experiments, and collaborations that have emerged during their five-week residency.

Bring a picnic blanket, grab lunch, and spend the day immersed in creativity, conversation, and discovery. We can’t wait to share this extraordinary cohort with you! If you’ve been meaning to visit us, there’s no better opportunity to see it while the artists are in full swing!

Grab your ticket through the link in our bio!

Leonardo ISAST
Memo Akten
Katie Hofstadter
Lina Bondarenko
Nina Elder
SUNGJAE (SJ) LEE 이승재
Christine Marie
Anna Madeleine Raupach
harpreetsareen_
Saul Villegas

Images 2-4 by Bogdan Pastor

“it was at Djerassi that I really encountered the mysterious, powerful, omnipresent fog.”
-Sara C. Sun (2003 Alum)

the fog rolls in,
reshaping the landscape
shifting, gathering, dissolving.
sometimes obscuring it completely
sometimes revealing it anew.

the fog has been a critical presence
of Djerassi’s landscape and ecology,
inspiring artists across four decades.

Top photos by Sara C. Sun

We are thrilled to welcome the 2026 Leonardo@Djerassi cohort!

For five weeks, this interdisciplinary group of artists, scientists, technologists, researchers, and thinkers will live and work together on Djerassi’s 583-acre ranch. Through experimentation, dialogue, and creative inquiry, participants explore the intersections of art, science, and technology by developing new ideas in an environment shaped around curiosity, risk-taking, and collaboration.

Now in its 12th year, Leonardo@Djerassi is a partnership between the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and Leonardo/ISAST, dedicated to cross-disciplinary exchange and co-creation. We are honored to host this remarkable cohort and look forward to witnessing what emerges during their time in residence.

Leonardo ISAST
Memo Akten
Katie Hofstadter
Lina Bo Bardi Del Rey
Nina Elder
SUNGJAE (SJ) LEE 이승재
Christine Marie
Anna Madeleine Raupach
harpreetsareen_
Saul Villegas

Join us this Saturday, June 20, for Djerassi Unplugged, a one-day silent retreat for presence, attention, and mental rest.

In a world shaped by constant notifications, conversations, and demands on our attention, Djerassi Unplugged offers something increasingly rare: uninterrupted time and space to simply be.

Set across Djerassi’s 583-acre landscape, the day begins with a guided silent hike through the property. The retreat continues with optional mindfulness and reflection sessions, a seasonal bento lunch and sunset dinner by Chef Yusuke Konno, and spacious time for quiet observation, contemplation, and renewal.

Inspired by the same values that have guided Djerassi’s artist residency for over four decades, Djerassi Unplugged creates the conditions for clarity, focus, and meaningful connection - with ourselves, one another, and the natural world.

This is not about rejecting technology. It’s about remembering what becomes possible when distractions are reduced and attention is restored.

Limited capacity remains. Visit the link in bio to register✨

Tyson
Maria Sperduto
michelle lee
yusuke konno

Image 1 by Cera Hensley
Image 2 by Tyson Fok
Image 3 by Cera Hensley
Image 2 by Tyson Fok
Image 3 by Bogdan Pastor

Johnny Huy Nguyễn | Djerassi x ODC Theater

Johnny Huy Nguyễn is a Vietnamese multidisciplinary dance artist and son of refugees based in unceded Ramaytush - Ohlone territory. He weaves together movement, theater, multimedia, spoken word, ritual, and installation to create body-based works characterized by sweeping physicality and dramaturgical depth. His works deal with themes of masculinity, spirituality, lineage, loss, and inheritance while interrogating the social, political, and cultural forces that shape us. Nguyễn is a 2025 Walter & Elise Haas Creative Power Award Finalist, 2025 Caldera Artist-in-Residence, 2023 United States of Asian America Festival Featured Artist, 2022 Isadora Duncan Dance Award recipient, and 2021 APAture Festival Featured Artist.

Johnny Huy Nguyen ODC

Babatunji Johnson | Djerassi x ODC Theater
Babatunji Johnson is an Oakland-based dance artist and choreographer whose work blends ballet, contemporary, breaking, and hip hop. A former member of Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, he has performed internationally and collaborated with companies including Post and SFDanceworks. His work spans stage and film, including appearances in Blindspotting and Misty Copeland’s Flower. He is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award and Chris Hellman Award.

Hadassah Perry | Djerassi x ODC Theater | Babatunji Johnson’s Collaborator
Hadassah Perry is a q***r dance artist and musician based in San Francisco. Originally from Riga, Latvia, she trained in dance and piano before studying with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company and performing with New Dialect and UNA Productions. She is co-director of the contemporary program at Westlake School of the Performing Arts and creates performance work throughout the Bay Area.

Charmaine Butcher | Djerassi x ODC Theater | Babatunji Johnson’s Collaborator
Charmaine Butcher (they/them) is a San Francisco-based dance and visual artist. They have performed with Ballet22, Ballare Carmel, Seattle Opera, SFJazz, Post, Sharp & Fine, and BODYSONNET. Charmaine frequently collaborates with Babatunji Johnson and presents work independently across the Bay Area. Alongside movement, their visual art practice includes floral design, painting, and clay.

David Harvey | Djerassi x ODC Theater | Babatunji Johnson’s Collaborator
David Harvey is a Seattle-based dance artist and former member of Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet. He has collaborated with artists including Bobbi Jene Smith, Sarah Foster-Sproull, and Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, and was a 2021 Artistic Partnership Initiative Fellow at NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts. His recent collaboration with Babatunji Johnson, Chimera, was presented at ODC Theater’s 2024 State of Play Festival.

Babatunji Johnson Hadassah Perry ODC
Image 1 by Quinn B Wharton

gizeh muñiz | Djerassi x ODC Theater
gizeh muñiz is a movement, teaching, and performing artist based on Ohlone land whose work explores the breathing body through movement and stillness. Their choreographic and teaching practices create space for play, experimentation, and freedom beyond linear creative processes. Their work has been presented across the U.S., Mexico, and Europe, and they have held residencies with CounterPulse, PUSH, BANDALOOP, and Bridge Live Arts. gizeh is the 2023–25 Radiate Fellow of RAWdance and curator of Gatherings, a free Bay Area movement workshop series.

Rebecca Fitton | Djerassi x ODC Theater | gizeh muñiz collaborator
Rebecca Fitton is a q***r, mixed-race Asian American artist-scholar, administrator, and advocate whose work focuses on arts infrastructure, Asian American identity, and disability justice. Their writing has appeared in publications including InDance, The Dancer-Citizen, and Dance Research Journal. They have held residencies with NCCAkron, LEIMAY/CAVE, EMERGENYC, and The Croft, and serve as co-director of Bridge Live Arts and GRAVITY.

Kevin CK Lo | Djerassi x ODC Theater | gizeh muñiz collaborator
Kevin CK Lo is a composer, choreographer, writer, and artist based in Oakland. Working across performance, installation, and sound-based practices, he uses instruments, digital sound processing, and generative programming to explore space, perception, and movement. He is one half of the interdisciplinary duo DROUGHT SPA with alex cruse, whose work has been presented nationally and internationally at venues including the Oakland Museum of California, Gray Area, CounterPulse, and the International Symposium of Electronic Art.

fitton

Khala Brannigan | Djerassi x ODC Theater

Khala Brannigan is a Los Angeles–based choreographer, filmmaker, educator, and somatic trauma practitioner. Her practice centers embodiment, emotional resilience, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She has created 15 dance-based works for the stage, film, and multimedia productions.

Originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, Brannigan studied on scholarship at Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet Training Program in San Francisco from 2011–2013. She was a resident choreographer with SAFEhouse Arts from 2013–2019 and received awards from the Zellerbach Family Foundation and Dancers’ Group CA$H Grant. Her work has been presented at ODC Theater, Joe Goode Annex, Z Space, and festivals including SF Dance Film Festival. From 2017–2019, she was also a company member with Robert Moses’ Kin.

After relocating to New York City in 2019, Brannigan participated in a choreographic fellowship with Sidra Bell Dance New York and presented work at Peridance, Arts On Site, Three’s Brewing, The Woods, and Dual Rivet’s Made By Women Festival. She choreographed for the short films Amor Fati (dir. Katherine Huggard) and An Unwanted Guest (dir. Nicole Rinaldi), and was commissioned in 2024 to create a new work for Robert Moses’ Kin. She presented work at Hartford’s Dance Festival and released her short film Blood & Innocence in 2025.

Since moving to Los Angeles in 2024, Brannigan has been a guest artist in the CalArts Residency at The Reef, premiered MEND to a sold-out audience at Arts On Site in New York City, and choreographed and performed in multiple music videos. She also received an award from The Rauschenberg Foundation in June 2025. She holds a Somatic Trauma Therapy Certificate from Embody Lab and works as a yoga instructor and somatic therapy practitioner. Brannigan is currently developing ‘Maura,’ an evening-length dance work and short film to be presented in 2026.

We’re thrilled to announce a new partnership with ODC Theater !

We look forward to welcoming a cohort of choreographers for a week-long residency on our 583-acre grounds, offering uninterrupted time and space to reflect, experiment, and deepen creative inquiry ahead of State of Play, ODC Theater’s end-of-summer dance festival!

State of Play takes place August 27–30, 2026, bringing together dance artists from the Bay Area and across the United States for performances, works in progress, studio presentations, workshops, and artist gatherings, centering play as essential to the making of new work.� This partnership reflects a shared commitment to supporting artists, creative risk-taking, and the conditions that allow new work to emerge.


gizeh fitton


huy.nguyen