Toni M. Kemehana Pasion

Toni M. Kemehana Pasion (she/they) is a Creative Director, Multi-disciplinary Artist, and Educator of Dance. She is of Ilocano, Tagalog, and Kapampangan descent, born on Ohlone territory/San Jose, California, and raised on Tongva territory/Los Angeles, California. Toni’s embodied practices are Hawaiian hula, Filipino dance, Filipino martial arts, and yoga. While her work is centered on her Filipinx-Hawaiian diaspora upbringing, Toni focuses on articulating mind-body and spirit connection, and shared experiences among diasporic societies. Toni’s practice integrates conversations on culture, art, ceremony, mental wellness, social change, and intergenerational collaboration. 

Toni is the Founder and Director of Pasion Performance Group. PPG dedicates their work to the vision of a self-sovereign future through inter-cultural, embodied storytelling. Toni serves as a Dance Lecturer at the University of California, Riverside, Company Choreographer at Salt Dance Studio, and Advisor of Mental Health/Healing Arts for PINAYSPHERE. Toni has extensive dance experience between the Philippines, Hawai’i, and California, and continues to be with communities in her local surroundings through shared spaces of Dance, Culture, and Healing.

Offered Piece: ‘Iā ‘Oe, Para Sayo: An Ancestral Immersion, through experimentation and embodiment, this piece considers our placement within the larger, woven living world; our connections to our ancestors; and the manifestation of voice when we are attuned in kinship with each other.

www.tonipasion8.com & www.pasionperformancegroup.com / @toni.pasion8