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Kaia Makihara

@kaiamakihara

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Design Coordinator with @dmarinteriors

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Thank you @coquero & @kaiamakihara for the amazing improvisational piece! 🖤
Half vest, sleeveless top, skirt on her & organza dress, shorts on him
All TOUCH collection by @akikotsuji
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#akikotsuji #langlosangeles #akikotsujifashion #dancecostume by @kaiamakihara

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12 days ago

Dreaming in LANG

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.

Art Director/Producer/Stylist: @hannnroquero
Choreographers: @coquero & @kaiamakihara
Dancers: @hope.a.spears, @marcoavega, @coquero, @kaiamakihara
Videographer: @irissaur
Assistants: @karen__llc, @aliceyechoi by @kaiamakihara

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2 months ago

love scene
an archived duet exploration w/ @kaiamakihara ♥️

this choreography for “Loiter with me long” (2026) was supposed to make its way to stage but Kaia got sick a week prior to stage & we had to change our plan. The foundation work of what the final product came to grow into!

thank you for filming with @divoordman !
dance home: @stompinggroundla
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#LADance #ContemporaryDance #contemporarypartnering #tanz #danz by @kaiamakihara

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2 months ago

Summer Workshop guest instructor highlights continue! We are so excited to welcome back Chelsea Roquero and Kaia Makihara as guest faculty at our summer workshop on July 31st. For the full workshop schedule and registration, visit litvakdance.org/classes

Learn more about Chelsea’s technique class and Chelsea + Kaia’s creative process below. Visit our website for their bios and more information:

Concert Contemporary & Floorwork is a teaching practice blending all of Chelsea’s loves from her hip hop & concert contemporary training. Class focuses on layering effort, sensation, musicality & performance practice. Movement Vocabulary is built through across the floor grooves, momentum based floorwork & phrase work. Let’s sweat & jam out!

Dive into Chelsea & Kaia’s, “Remain” choreographers, creative process! Building a world using theatrical practices, partnering & exploring how two contradicting ideas can exist at the same time; whether that’s inhabited in a physical, emotional, or conceptual sense.

Photo by Hope Spears taken in San Diego, California by @kaiamakihara

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4 months ago

“Loiter with me long” (2026)
choreographed & performed by chelsea Roquero & kaia Makihara
premiered at Hyphen Art House Showcase

me & Kaia’s mini return to the stage pre-30– I can say, we will still got it. I am very lucky to still be performing with kaia after all of these years💃🏻🕺🏻

thank you @megankyleallen & @hyphenarthouse for having us as guests to share the stage with your talented dancers 🫶🏼
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#LADance #ContemporaryDance #dancetheatre #tanz #danza taken in L.A. Dance Project by @kaiamakihara

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5 months ago

🖤 3️⃣0️⃣ 🖤

one of my favorite things about loving Kaia is that our birthdays are only 2 days apart. may is always chaotic BUT we get older at the same time together each year. it’s so special!

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR LOVE THIS WEEKEND. ENTERING THIS NEW DECADE CHIC, HOT & GROUNDED 😘 taken in Los Angeles, California by @kaiamakihara

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5 months ago

“remain” pre-process to LITVAK premiere ⏳⌛️
work commissioned by: LITVAKdance
choreography: Chelsea Roquero & Kaia Makihara
premiere: November 22, 2025
show videography: Ernesto Gonzalez

a major 2025 reflection 💃🏻🕺🏻

I usually have to take a bit of time before watching a piece I had a hand in creating & I finally got to a place to reflect on me & kaia’s first co-choreographed work. I want to highlight the first stages & pre-process of this work as it was one of my MOST favorite things before we headed down to San Diego.

so many amazing artists contributed to the heartbeat of this work that lives on stage. IMMENSELY grateful for our LA artists/friends that got into the studio with us. your questions, stylistic choices & the trust we have with each other allowed us to be confident when we got to the front of the room— also selfishly wanted to hang out with you all as well (‘:

Effie House & Stomping Ground LA were the homes of this pre-process. It was magical.

we look forward to when an opportunity comes about like this next to gather the community & friends in studio again! 2026 WE ARE READY 🫵🏼
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#LADance #ContemporaryDance #dancetheatre #tanz #danza by @kaiamakihara

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9 months ago

**STROBE WARNING**

SGLA sign off is a bit different this 2025 as I had Kaia join me, which I found very important in this year’s reflection ♥️

This 5th year at SGLA has signified SO MANY milestones for me as a creative & producer. As I inch towards 30, I have felt so much more grounded in my development, decisions & dreams. I can’t help but to dream even BIGGER now! In those times of growing pains— SGLA, Kate & Kaia have been a constant. Without this form of support I wouldn’t have been able to believe in my voices & art.

Kaia and I have been creating in this space since 2021 in peak pandemic where all we could do was dance just because & clean these studios. Doing this felt so full circle creating for the absolute fun of it but now with some fierce ass clothes. IT WAS MEANT TO BE THAT @solitarydancer_ & @y3 (one of our FAVORITES) dropped the music from the SS26 runway. This little moment was a full expression of our creative practice, current obsessions & our relationship as a whole 🖤

Kate, thank you for always giving me agency to dive into my curiosities & being a boss/friend/mentor/sister/mom all in one. I am so LUCKY to have you in my corner! I am the choreographer/dancer/producer I am today because of the opportunities you & SGLA have brought me 🫂

I love you @stompinggroundla, I love you @lacdckate & I love you @kaiamakihara ⭕️

C U IN 2026 SGLA, BOY DO I HAVE PLANS 4 YOU 😉
DANCE HOME: @stompinggroundla
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#y3 #ContemporaryDance #dancetheatre #tanz #danza by @kaiamakihara

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10 months ago

“remain” (2025)
choreographic commission by @litvakdance for “THIS” Fall 2025 Concert
choreography: chelsea roquero & kaia makihara (in no particular order but alphabetical lol)

“remain” cast:
Briele Melahn
Emily Hreha
Mya Dixon
Nicole Kim
Nick McGhee
Jordan Daley

costuming: chelsea roquero & kaia makihara + sadie weinberg
photography: @snapped.by.james

“remain” is in the details, in strength, in emotions, in the past & in presence ♥️

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“remain” has completed it’s premiere & how special that it was so close to thanksgiving! A lot of reflection and a lot of gratitude. It was surreal to experience this completely new feeling together of watching people experience a work that we are not in & outside of our home base dance community. We got nervous right before the piece went on but so rewarding to experience the audience’s reaction after the piece ended— WOW!

it takes a team to make something very special:
Thank you to our LA dance community for helping us research & lending your talents to this pre-process.

THANK YOU TO OUR VERY TALENTED CAST! This world would not exist without your investment & commitment. We are SO proud! A very special thank you to Sadie Weinberg // LITVAKdance for bringing us on. We have grown so much because of this experience!

we hope this is just the start 🖤

until next collaboration,
chelsea & kaia taken in San Dieguito Academy Performing Arts Center by @kaiamakihara

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a year ago

“remain”(2025) PREMIERES THIS WEEKEND 🖤

LITVAK DANCE’S “THIS”
NOV 22 + 23
3PM & 6PM
ENCINITAS, CA

“Watching ‘remain’ in rehearsal I was reminded of the rapid-fire processing of human emotions expected in modern day living through a series of movement ‘blips’ that jump cut through various emotional and physical landscapes. Kaia and Chelsea’s work has a physicality that is exciting and unexpected.”

— Sadie Weinberg, Artistic Director

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AS MANY OF YOU KNOW, we have been casted together & stepped into each other’s work for years. In those years of collaborating, we have spent so much time exploring our movement vocabulary & artistic dreams. We are happy to share that we have finally created our first collaborative work together not on ourselves (haha)! @litvakdance thank you for bringing us on & allowing us to share our world with you all 🖤

THANK YOU @hope.a.spears for capturing this full MOMENT that inspired some of creation of this piece!

DANCE HOME: @stompinggroundla

MUSIC: @soundformovement
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#LADance #ContemporaryDance #Choreography #DanceinLA #Musicality #hairography #dancetheatre #tanz #danse #danza #StompingGroundLA #SGLA #moderndance #partnering #contemporarypartnering by @kaiamakihara

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a year ago

In these last weeks leading up to THIS, we’re introducing the choreographers behind each of the works featured in the show—this week, featuring Kaia Makihara and Chelsea Roquero.

Kaia Makihara is a Los Angeles–based dance artist whose contemporary work carries deep influence from his roots in hip hop styles such as breaking, popping, and choreography. A graduate of California State University, Long Beach (BFA, Dance 2019), Kaia has performed and collaborated with artists including Micaela Taylor, Robert Moses, and Jessie Lee Thorne.

Chelsea Roquero, born in Escondido, CA, is a second-generation Filipina-American dance artist and choreographer based in Los Angeles. She holds a BA in Dance from CSU Long Beach and has performed with Whyteberg, Invertigo Dance Theatre, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, and Rosanna Gamson World Wide Dance.

This performance marks Makihara and Roquero’s premiere as a choreographic duo. Having worked closely together for years, they share a distinct approach rooted in abstracted dance theatre and a rigorous, highly specific movement vocabulary.

“Watching ‘remain’ in rehearsal I was reminded of the rapid-fire processing of human emotions expected in modern day living through a series of movement ‘blips’ that jump cut through various emotional and physical landscapes. Kaia and Chelsea’s work has a physicality that is exciting and unexpected.” - Sadie Weinberg, Artistic Director

We can’t wait to share Kaia and Chelsea’s debut collaboration with you next month! Tickets at litvakdance.org/performs by @kaiamakihara

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a year ago

happy halloween from ethel & cain 🥀🖤

a little Halloween throwback to this little mini concept project from January. fun fact, the visuals for this concept was HEAVILY influenced by Twin Peaks’ red room scene (I mean, of course) + coming out of doing some heavy theatrical research for “Bounded by Intervals” (2024).

truly cheers to the legend David Lynch for Twin Peaks & Blue Velvet. I’ve learned so much about uncomfortable beauty, artistic excellence & dramatic visuals 🎭

OUR RED ROOM: @stompinggroundla
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#LADance #ContemporaryDance #Choreography #DanceinLA #Musicality #hairography #dancetheatre #tanz #danse #danza #StompingGroundLA #SGLA #moderndance #twinpeaks #redroon #davidlynch taken in Los Angeles, California by @kaiamakihara

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a year ago