2026 WAA Intersections Fellows
Congratulations to this year’s Intersections Fellows and their work at WAA Oakland 2026.
The Intersections Fellows Program is an initiative that supports rising leaders committed to advancing equity and belonging among historically underrepresented people within the WAA community. Rooted in the understanding that meaningful change begins with conversation along with WAA's bias for action, this fellowship translates ideas into impact by elevating individuals who demonstrate both leadership potential and dedication to fostering inclusive spaces where all members can thrive.
Black Arts @ WAA Fellow
Bernard Brown, bbmoves
Bernard Brown, bbmoves
Bernard Brown is an award-winning performer, choreographer, arts activist, and educator who situates their work at the intersection of Blackness, Queerness, and belonging. With an extensive performing career, Bernard now serves as Director of Bernard Brown/bbmoves, choreographing for stage, specific sites, film, and opera presented globally including invitations, residencies and commissions from The Getty, On The Boards, REDCAT, Dance Camera West, ADF’s Movies by Movers, Oscar-qualifying African Diaspora Cinema Festival, Seoul International Dance Festival, The Music Center, Royce Hall and US Embassy sponsored tour to Burkina Faso, West Africa. Brown conducts lectures, workshops, and master classes internationally, namely in Korea, Panama, Israel, Brazil, and across the US. A first-generation college graduate, Brown earned his MFA from UCLA and BFA from Purchase College. He is an Associate Professor at UC San Diego, a Certified Katherine Dunham Technique Instructor, and was named a Cultural Trailblazer by the City of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times has called him “…the incomparable Bernard Brown…”
WAA NextGen Fellow
Dóri Bosynyák, The Grand 1894 Opera House
Dóri Bosnyák, The Grand 1894 Opera House
Dóri Bosnyák is an arts administrator hailing from Budapest, Hungary, who knows no strangers due to her approachable, welcoming personality. Dóri currently serves as the Director of Marketing at the Grand 1894 Opera House of Galveston, TX just outside Houston, and her background is rooted in the visual arts & theatre management. She is grateful to join her 4th WAA as an Intersections Fellow, through which she is eager to greet NextGen WAA members to foster conversation due to her direct background mostly on - but not inclusive to - immigration, disabilities & queer identity in the performing arts realm. Make sure to say hello to her at WAA!
Conexiones: Latino Arts @ WAA Fellow
Nina Seul, Delirium Musicum
Antonio M. Gómez, Early Music Seattle & Trío Guadalevín
Antonio M. Gómez works across education, the arts and public media. As Director of Community Engagement & Extended Learning at Tacoma Arts Live, Tony focuses on creating economically and culturally accessible experiences for all ages. He is a former K12 classroom teacher, a curriculum designer for PBS and cultural organizations, and a producer of live and public media content. Tony has been a board member of WAA since 2019 and has been a Jubilation Foundation Fellow in Arts Education, an Artist Trust awardee, a speaker for Humanities Washington, and is currently an Associate Folklorist for the Center for Washington Cultural Traditions. A working percussionist who focuses on Afro Latin and Mediterranean genres, he co-founded Trío Guadalevín, and works with Tango del Cielo and Pacific MusicWorks, in addition to curating Deep Roots, New Branches for Early Music Seattle. He completed his MA in Education at UC Berkeley and has studied music and culture in Latin America, North Africa, and Southern Europe.
Hyphen+Asian Fellow
Achinta McDaniel, Blue13 Dance Company
Achinta S. McDaniel is a powerful voice of the Indian diaspora, a pioneer of American dance, and the Founding Artistic Director of Blue13 Dance Company. A prolific choreographer, performer, and instructor, McDaniel’s contemporary style draws from techniques including Bhangra, Kathak, and Bollywood, Hip Hop, Ballet, Jazz, Tap, and Modern Dance. Her choreography reflects her upbringing: Eastern and Western, curious, wild, rebellious and unconventional, traversing commercial, concert, and community engagement, and challenging monolithic representations of Indianness. Her work questions hierarchies of pop culture and high art, and is at once disobedient and joyful. She is known for her dismantling notions of American contemporary dance while creating dramatic and immersive works in her signature first generation style. McDaniel’s work is fearless and inventive, always exploring the nuances of contemporary dance as a South Asian American woman.
McDaniel’s recent works include Terpsichore in Ghungroos, presented at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts; Restless autumn, restless spring., presented as part of the 2022 REDCAT New Original Works Festival; 1947, based on the partition of India and Pakistan; Sounds Like Whoop. Looks Like Flash., exploring invisible disability, addiction, and keeping up appearances; and Soliloquy, a multimedia immersive collaboration with dancers, film, museums, and theater groups.
McDaniel, a faculty member at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, teaches and choreographs for educational institutions across the U.S. She has worked as a choreographer for commercials and brands, including Madden NFL, Heineken, and Snapple, and has worked with artists The Strokes, DJ Snake, Timbaland, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, and A.R. Rahman at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl. Her TV/Film work includes So You Think You Can Dance, New Girl, and The Amazing Race. She designs live productions at Disney parks, and choreographs a multitude of multidisciplinary and film projects in comedy, contemporary, and Bollywood and Bhangra dance styles.
Responsible for coining the “ABIDE” (Access, Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity) guide in the dance field, McDaniel’s research, pedagogy, and dance making centers the Global Majority, emphasizes women, and supports the collaborative decolonization of dance.
Achinta McDaniel, Blue13 Dance Company
QWAA: Queer WAA Fellow
Socks Whitmore
Socks Whitmore
Socks Whitmore (they/them) is a neuroqueer performer, creative, educator, producer, and otherwise professional overachiever. As a crossdisciplinary artist rooted in voice and text, their work spans from live performance to digital media to print — including theater, film, music, VO, games, poetry, essays, & more. As an organizer, Socks works with queer, trans, & disabled communities to create spaces built on radical compassion, accessibility, and joy. They are a co-founder & company manager of the all-trans polystylistic vocal collective 8TPS, the marketing & communications director at the gender-expansive Bolero Game Studio and the advocacy organization CIPA (the Creative & Independent Producers Alliance) and the 2024 recipient of Celebration Theatre's Vibrant Voice Award. For those who are curious, they hold a BFA Performer-Composer degree from the California Institute of the Arts with minors in Digital Arts and Creative Writing. Learn more on their website.