Phil Chan is a co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface and the President of the Gold Standard Arts Foundation. He is a graduate of Carleton College and an alumnus of the Ailey School. He has held fellowships with Dance/USA, Drexel University, Jacob’s Pillow, Harvard University, the Manhattan School of Music, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, NYU, and the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art in Paris. As a writer, he is the author of Final Bow for Yellowface: Dancing between Intention and Impact and Banishing Orientalism, and has served as the Executive Editor for FLATT Magazine and contributed to Dance Europe Magazine, Dance Magazine, Dance Australia, and the Huffington Post, and currently serves on the Advisory Board of Dance Magazine. He served multiple years on the National Endowment for the Arts dance panel, the Jadin Wong Award panel presented by the Asian American Arts Alliance, and is currently on the advisory council for the Dance Data Project. He has taught as a visiting professor at Harvard University, Carleton College, and was named a Next 50 Arts Leader by the Kennedy Center. His recent projects include directing “Madama Butterfly” for Boston Lyric Opera (garnering “Best of 2023” in The Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Broadway World), staging a newly reimagined “La Bayadere” for Indiana University, and producing a series of 10,000 Dreams Asian Choreography Festivals (‘Best of 2024” in Minneapolis Star Tribune, Utah Review, and Pointe Magazine). His dances are currently in the repertory at Ballet West and Oakland Ballet, where he serves as Resident Choreographer. He received the 2024 Dance Advocate Award from Dance/NYC.

Lawrence Chen (he/him) grew up in Southern California, studying ballet, contemporary, and hip-hop from the age of thirteen under the care of Victor and Tatiana Kasatsky and their faculty. He went on to compete in the YAGP, placing in the Top 12 Pas De Deux in the New York Finals of 2014 as well as in the Top 3 soloist divisions at regional venues for several years. At Pomona College, Lawrence obtained a BA in chemistry with mathematics, took on collegiate ballroom, and performed as a principal dancer for the Inland Pacific Ballet under the watchful eye of Victoria Koenig. In addition to dancing with the Oakland Ballet Company, Lawrence teaches ballet at Berkeley Ballet Theater, Alameda Ballet Academy, and The Hills Swim and Tennis club. He also tutors high school STEM subjects. At OBC, he has performed as the deer in Graham Lustig’s Luna Mexicana, the titular role of The Nutcracker, and several other original works by Graham Lustig. Lawrence has also been featured in new works by choreographers Caili Quan, Megan and Shannon Kurashige, and Phil Chan, a co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface. Lawrence received an Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance by an Individual for his work in OBC’s 22-23 season and is a contributing choreographer to OBC’s Angel Island Project. This is his fourth full season with the Oakland Ballet.

Elaine Kudo raised in New York City, received her early ballet training at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School, later spent six years at the School of American Ballet and was a scholarship student at the American Ballet Theatre School.

Ms. Kudo was a member of American Ballet Theatre from 1975 – 1989 was promoted to soloist in 1981. She danced soloist and principal roles in a wide range of works mostly in the contemporary repertory. She has had the honor of working with choreographers Anthony Tudor, Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley, Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Eugene Loring and Sir. Kenneth MacMillan on featured roles in their ballets, and has had roles created for her by Twyla Tharp, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Chu San Gogh, and David Gordon.

In 1982 Ms. Kudo along with other members of ABT performed at the Spoleto Festival in Italy in a group assembled to recreate the Jerome Robbins Company Ballet USA. She also toured extensively during the summer seasons as a member of Baryshnikov & Co. from 1983 – 1986, and was Mr. Baryshnikov’s partner in “Sinatra Suite” and “Push Comes to Shove” in the PBS Great Performances special “Baryshnikov by Tharp”. In 1987 – 88 she joined the Tharp Dance Co. for a national tour and tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Directly after her retirement from the stage in 1990 Ms, Kudo began staging the works of Twyla Tharp, both nationally and abroad, with eight pieces in rotation, she continues to be one of the primary stagers of Tharp repertory.

Ms. Kudo assumed the position of ballet master for the New Jersey Ballet 1994-97 & American Repertory Ballet 1997-2003. Most recently the Washington Ballet from 2011 – 2020.

She with partner Buddy Balough founded and directed Theatre Arts Dance America – located in Verona NJ.  from 1997 through 20I0. In addition to teaching at TADA, Ms. Kudo has served on the faculty of the American Ballet Theatre summer intensive program from 1998 – 2003, Ballet Tech, Jacob’s Pillow – Contemporary Traditions in July 2007 as well as guest teacher at Princeton Ballet School and Steps on Broadway in 2011.

Ms. Kudo was given her first opportunity to choreograph at the New Jersey Ballet in 1997. That piece was later staged at the Carolina Ballet for its inaugural season in 1999. She choreographed four ballets for the American Repertory Ballet during her tenure as ballet master. One for director Septime Webre, three as part of director Graham Lustigs’, Dancing Through the Ceiling project designed to promote women choreographers. In addition to these works for professional companies she has choreographed a number of solos for her students receiving a choreography award from the Youth America Grand Prix. She has also contributed three ballets for the ABT summer intensive program and five pieces for TWB summer intensive as well as numerous pieces and a Pas de Duex for Theatre Arts Dance America.

Ashley Thopiah (they/she/he) holds a BFA in Dance Performance from Butler University. Their dance training began at the Christine Rich Dance Academy and was further honed through summer programs at State Street Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. At Butler, Ashley took on various roles including corps, soloist, and principal in productions such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Giselle, La Bayadere, Cinderella, and George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments. As a choreographer, Ashley has created two significant works for Butler University’s dance department: Jyoti and Ekta. These pieces intertwine modern dance with Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance form, reflecting the dual aspects of their identity. In the summer of 2018, Ekta was performed at the National Opera House in Warsaw, Poland, and traveled to Prague, Krakow, Poznan, and Bratislava. Since joining Oakland Ballet in 2019, Ashley has made notable contributions, including creating the role of Coffee in Graham Lustig’s The Nutcracker and performing in works such as Caili Quan’s Layer Upon Layer, Alyah Baker’s 4 Parts Jazz, Graham Lustig’s Dialogues, and Seyong Kim’s Duet from Exquisite Corpse. They are also a contributing choreographer for OBC’s Angel Island Project, collaborating with distinguished artists Natasha Adorlee, Ye Feng, Elaine Kudo, Phil Chan, and Lawrence Chen.