Maya Billig & Camila Arana

Two new dance works burn through illusion and intimacy, where beauty turns perilous and love devours as it adores.

Maya Billig’s Not My Queen teeters between witch trial and 80s pageant — a delirious spectacle of female power, punishment, and performance. The work confronts the systems that commodify, police, and mythologize women, asking what it means to be objectified while also put to trial. Dancers: Marcella Thile, Quinn Wynacht, Maia Driz-Diaz, Lily Stockton

Camila Arana’s For Better or For Worse dissects love’s most exquisite brutality — the most in love you’ve ever hated each other. A raw letter to everyone she’s loved in the ugliest and most beautiful ways. Dancers: Santiago Villarreal, Donny Collinson, Camila Arana

Maya Billig (she/her) is a Los Angeles–based choreographer, director, and dancer whose work collides absurdity and dystopia at the intersection of dance, film, and theatre. Her creations interrogate contemporary mythologies to map contradiction through humor, chaos, and tension. Born in Miami, she draws from the city’s layered cultures and her travels to more than 35 countries. Billig’s work has been supported by Jacob’s Pillow, Knight Foundation, Miami Light Project, Live Arts Miami, Dance Magazine, Adrienne Arsht Center, Art Omi, and Locust Projects. She has presented two evening-length works, numerous short-form pieces, and site-specific performances, with films screened internationally. Billig holds an MFA in Choreographic Inquiry from UCLA and a BFA in Dance from New World School of the Arts. She currently teaches as adjunct dance faculty at UCLA and Pepperdine University.

Camila Arana (she/her) is a queer, Cuban-American choreographer, movement director, and dancer from Miami, Florida. A graduate of New World School of the Arts/University of Florida with a BFA in Dance Performance, Arana works across live performance, film, and editorial. She has collaborated with artists including Miley Cyrus, Kali Uchis, Foster the People, Amber Mark, Khalid, Audrey Nuna, and Alessia Cara, and with brands such as Ralph Lauren, Apple, Adidas, Essie, and Bowflex. Arana has performed with Ate9 Dance Company, Mike Tyus & Co., Clairobscur, and Acts of Matter. Beyond dance, she is a certified personal trainer, pilates, and barre instructor.