Stefon Bionik Taylor
Like the part-human, part-machine allusions of his
nickname, Stefon Bionik Taylor is at one in both acoustic and electronic realms. As a composer, producer, multi-
instrumentalist and collaborator who brings out the best in those around him, that Bionik theory works. Taylor has
composed, arranged, and collaborated on countless
records with classic and contemporary artists ranging from Phil Collins to Lizzo. He’s been in the studio with legendary producers like George Martin (The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix) and Peter Mokran (Aaliyah, Mary J. Blige, The Flaming Lips). His original compositions and productions have been synced in the Fast and Furious movie series, Power
Rangers Movie, Empire, Insecure, Grownish, The New Negroes, NBA 2K, Trials Rising video game series, and many more. Bionik is a McKnight Composer Fellow, a COMPAS resident teaching artist, music director for the MIXTAPE mentorship program, and an instructor at Slam Academy.
Yan Pang
Yan Pang – composer and pianist (Western classical and Chinese folk) Yan Pang (she/they) is a composer, performer, and scholar. She is currently a visiting assistant professor of music at Point Park University. She received her Ph.D. in Music with a minor in Theater Arts & Dance at the University of Minnesota. Her work focuses on inter-cultural music composition and performance. As part of this interest, she has been commissioned to compose and invited to perform at music festivals throughout the world. She considers both her music composition and performance as a means to build multicultural understanding and tolerance.
A selection of her varied publications includes the album Glory Times (as songwriter and music director) by the China Scientific & Cultural Audio-Video Publishing Company, the scores “Nowhere Home” and “The Others” by Contemporary Music Score Collection 2020, UCLA, the peer-reviewed paper “Scene of Sichuan Opera” (co-author with Mingzhu Song), and the textbooks Cool Math for Hot Music, All About Music, Basic Music Technology, and The Future of Music (co-authored Guerino Mazzola et al.) by Springer.
Pang is the funder of Yan Pang Create LLC, and CEO of MIXTAPE, a Hip Hop theatre dance company. Her collaborations with choreographer Jason “J-Sun” Noer include “Dancing Upstream” (2019) and “Ground Theory” (2020 and 2021). Pang’s most recent work, “One Mother’s Children” (2022) will be featured in MIXTAPE 5G: The Sound of Movement.
Averie Mitchell-Brown
Averie has always found ways to entertain herself through art. After first dancing on stage at the age of 11. She strived to make any aspect of dance her life, taking classes in ballroom, West African, break dancing, jazz and contemporary. Averie Mitchell-Brown is a University of Minnesota – Twin Cities graduate aspiring to touch as many lives as possible with her love, light, and talent. She has worked with well known artists like Al TAW’AM – The Twins as a crew member for Best Ensemble Sage Award winning group S.H.E – She Who Holds Everything. As well as working with Kenna Cottman in Voice of Culture drum and Dance company, Aneka McMullen in Epitome No Question, Bboy J-Sun, Leah Nelson, and many more. “Working with other artists and dancers of different styles helped her improve as a dancer holistically and helped her become more knowledgeable about the origins of the dancing community here in the twin cities. She is lives her life as a multidisciplinary artist with a focus in dance. When not dancing, she is touching the lives of many as an educator and traveling with her family.
J-Sun
Jason “J-Sun” Noer is a practitioner of several street dance forms, which he teaches, choreographs, and performs. He is the artistic director of the MIXTAPE Collective, a group of Hip Hop choreographers, musical artists, and videographers that presents an annual performance at the Cowles Center (Mpls, MN). J-Sun is a Ph.D. student in the Theater Arts and Dance Department at the University of Minnesota and co-disciplinary head of the Urban and Street Dance track. His publication record includes The Future of Music: Towards a Computational Musical Theory of Everything (Springer 2020) and Creative Musicianship (Springer 2022). He believes in being accountable to community, challenging tradition, and that artistic collaboration is a key element of social change. His current choreographic work focuses on agency, vulnerability, and resistance through a mover’s lens.
Modalities – Choreographer/Dancer: Breaking, House, Rocking, New Jack Swing, and All-Styles
Herbert Johnson III
Desaré Cox (she/her) is an artist native to Chicago, IL, raised in Minneapolis, MN. As a self taught dancer inspired by the movement, spirit, and community around her, she quickly learned, through embodiment, the true nature and essence of hip-hop. While she grew up loving and studying dance all her life, it wasn’t until high school and college that she began her performance career as a dancer and choreographer. In her most recent venture as a freestyle dancer, her movement style has developed into a mixture of smoothness and rhythmic grooves with a significant emphasis on musicality.
Desaré believes that dance is emotions personified and a powerful language that connects us all. Through that language, her work is fueled by the intention to grant viewers a moment to feel seen, understood, and represented, simultaneously allowing the expression of emotions and experiences— freely, and unapologetically. She has been apart of productions and events such as Target’s National Fall Conference, Abandoned Outlines Part 2, The Walker’s Choreogrpher’s Evening, Fall Forward Festival: Atlantis Origins, and MIXTAPE 5G to name a few.
Currently, Desaré is teaching choreography movement at HotHouse dance studio, is a flourishing model, forever student, and safe space; always striving to be a better teacher, artist, and human.
Maya Ntim
Maya “MIDA” Ntim is a music composer and producer from the Twin Cities area. Her passion for music has given her the privilege to share her sounds at the largest hiphop music festival in Minnesota: Soundset 2019. Since then, Maya has made it her primary focus to work with fellow artists around the city, including our MIXTAPE crew!
Mike Grogan
Mike Grogan has been active in the Twin Cities scene for decades. During that time he has created lights for artists spanning the fields of dance, theater and music. Mike has worked with several of the Mixtape Collective artists on individual projects, and is excited to join them, and the new members of the collective, for his fourth Mixtape. Mike was a 2012 and 2014 SAGE Dance Award recipient for outstanding design. Mike is currently a freelance lighting designer in the Twin Cities.
Tottiana Duffy
Selwyn Talley
Tottiana Duffy, and Selwyn Talley are best friends of 11 years. They met in high school, where they joined the Step team, and were involved in the dance department. They also competed together at a local dance studio where they trained under Herbert Johnson. Tottiana and Selly have had a few local unique opportunities. They have performed at We Day, Timberwolves games, the 2018 Super Bowl festivities, and Sparkle Women’s Conference. Further, they have choreographed for, and performed in shows: LISTEN, Mixtape, Generation Z, Pulling Back the Curtains, and more. A few months after having her baby last year, Tottiana was part of Domita Sanchez’s opening act for a well known artist, Todrick Hall, in Iowa. In their free time, Tottiana and Selly are always looking for ways to grow in their craft. That includes, constantly choreographing new material, teaching classes, taking classes, and working on pushing out their own dance concepts and projects. Tottiana and Selly are performers at heart. They both have dreams of one day performing as back up dancers for celebrity artists, and opening a dance studio together later down the line.
Cheng Xiong
Cheng Xiong grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota and received his Bachelors of Art in Dance at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; though he began his journey as a street dancer. He is currently a company member of Black Label Movement. He recently worked with other professional companies such STRONGmovement, BRKFST Dance, and Minnesota Timberwolves’s First Avenue Breakers.
Some highlights of his work were in 2015, when Xiong and Black Label presented the “Bodystorming Hits Bangalore” initiative in partnership with the National Centre for Biological Science in Bangalore, India. Two years later in 2017, Xiong participated with STRONGmovement in the Momentum project, “New Dance Works Festival.” Xiong participated in the “I’m From…Vol. 2,” evening show in 2018, where he also debuted his solo in collaboration with Tou Saiko Lee, called “Being Hmong, Being Free.” In 2019 Xiong participated in Rhythmically Speaking’s show, “The Cohort,” where he performed for the Rovaco Dance Company and the JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble. Later that year, Xiong toured in Gainesville, Florida with Black Label for a residency at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. After premiering “60/40” with BRKFST Dance in 2021, they did their first tour residency in Dublin, Ireland in summer of 2022. In 2022, Xiong was awarded as one of the McKnight Dancer Fellows.
Alongside his repertoire of performances, Xiong is a Breakdance instructor and educator. Through the East Side Arts Council and Flip Side, he has taught at after-school programs such as Ramsey Middle, Washington Technology Magnet, and Hazel Park Preparatory Academy. At present, Xiong is currently teaching at the University of Minnesota Minnesota Theater and Dance Program and Cypher Side Dance School.